The first thing to go was the ground.
It didn't crack or split like before. It simply… gave up. Stone turned soft underfoot, sagging like wet clay as the pressure from Xyrrath kept building. Every step felt wrong, like walking on something that didn't want to be stepped on.
One of the Grand Servants planted their spear into the earth to steady themselves.
It sank halfway in.
"Hold the line!" someone shouted from behind, voice hoarse but steady.
Another massive limb came down from above — not fast, not slow, just unstoppable. It carried the weight of a collapsing mountain, dragging distorted air in its wake.
This time, three Servants met it.
Steel, light, and raw force collided with the descending mass. The impact flattened the surrounding area into a wide, smooth crater, blasting dust outward in a rolling wall.
For a second, it looked like they had stopped it.
Then the limb kept pushing.
Boots slid. Armor groaned. One of them dropped to a knee as the pressure climbed.
A fourth figure rushed in from the side and struck upward with a roar, adding just enough force to halt the descent completely.
"Don't let it through!" he barked.
Veins stood out on his neck. The weapon in his hands vibrated violently, cracks spreading along its surface from the strain.
Behind them, support units unleashed everything they had — beams of light, burning projectiles, waves of authority that shimmered like heat haze. The attacks tore into the limb, blasting chunks free, exposing layers beneath that looked less like flesh and more like compacted night.
Black fragments rained down, dissolving into smoke before they hit the ground.
Slowly, painfully, the massive arm began to lift back.
Not pushed away.
Pulled back by Xyrrath itself.
None of them cheered. They were too busy breathing.
"Next one won't be the same," someone muttered.
They all knew it was true.
Across the battlefield, Musashi came in low this time.
No flashy charge. No shouting. Just a fast, clean dash across the warped terrain, feet barely touching the ground.
Kiara watched her approach with mild interest, head tilted slightly, as if observing an animal instead of an opponent.
Musashi didn't aim for the neck again.
She went for the wrist.
Both swords struck at once, crossing in a scissor motion meant to sever the arm completely.
The blades hit.
For a split second, they actually bit in.
Then the air around Kiara hardened like invisible glass. The swords stopped, grinding forward millimeter by millimeter while Musashi leaned into them with everything she had.
"Yeah," Musashi growled through clenched teeth, "figured you'd do that."
A flash of white streaked past her shoulder.
Okita.
Her strike landed in the exact same spot a heartbeat later, adding force instead of replacing it. The barrier cracked with a sharp, ringing sound.
Kiara's expression flickered — not pain, just surprise.
Gunfire thundered from the flank as Nobunaga opened up at full output. Each shot carried enough anti-divine weight to warp the air behind it, slamming into the weakened barrier from a different angle.
Tesla didn't fire anything.
He slammed both hands onto a hovering device, and the machine screamed to life. Lightning gathered overhead, compressing into a tight sphere before dropping like a hammer.
The combined assault shattered the defense.
Musashi's blades punched through the last layer and carved deep across Kiara's forearm. Not a clean cut — more like tearing through dense fabric — but enough to draw blood.
Real blood.
Kiara looked down at it, almost curious.
"Oh," she said softly.
Musashi kicked off her arm and flipped back, landing beside Okita as both of them slid across the ground.
"Did we—" Okita started.
Kiara moved.
Not toward them.
Past them.
She appeared behind Nobunaga in the blink of an eye and placed a hand lightly on her shoulder.
Nobunaga's eyes widened. "Oh, come on—"
The shockwave that followed didn't explode outward. It collapsed inward first, crushing the air around her before releasing it all at once.
Nobunaga was launched across the battlefield, skipping along the ground like a stone before smashing through a ruined structure and disappearing.
Tesla swore under his breath and fired a point-blank burst of electricity. Kiara raised her uninjured hand, and the lightning bent around her fingers, flowing harmlessly into the sky.
"You are persistent," she said, almost kindly.
Musashi didn't give her time to continue.
She attacked again — faster, sharper, aiming for joints, tendons, weak angles instead of clean killing blows. Okita matched her rhythm perfectly, the demonstrated coordination of warriors who had fought side by side enough times to stop thinking and just move.
Kiara stepped back for the first time.
One step.
Then another.
Not forced — choosing to.
Her smile returned, a little wider now.
"Yes," she murmured. "Like that."
Merlin hit the ground hard, rolling across the dirt before coming to a stop on his back.
Above him, Fou's shadow swallowed the gray sky.
"Ah," Merlin said faintly, staring upward. "That didn't go as planned."
A massive paw slammed down where his head had been a fraction of a second earlier as he teleported sideways in a burst of petals.
He reappeared kneeling, staff shaking slightly in his grip.
Blood ran down one side of his face.
Fou lunged again, faster than before, movements losing what little hesitation they had shown earlier. Claws tore through illusions, barriers, projections — shredding layer after layer of magecraft like paper.
Merlin planted his staff and forced more power through it.
A dome of golden light formed just as Fou crashed into it.
The shield held.
Barely.
Cracks spider-webbed across its surface, light leaking through like water through a dam.
Merlin's teeth clenched. "You're really not pulling your punches, are you?"
Fou snarled, pressing harder. The ground beneath the dome cratered deeper and deeper, dirt liquefying from the pressure alone.
Inside the barrier, Merlin's knees sank into the soil.
He wasn't trying to push back.
He was just trying to keep it from collapsing.
"Listen to me," he said quietly, voice steady despite the strain. "You don't want this. None of this is you."
For a moment — just one — the beast's eyes flickered.
The pressure eased.
Merlin's breath caught.
"Good," he whispered. "Stay with me."
Then something dark pulsed across Fou's body like a wave.
The hesitation vanished.
The next strike shattered the barrier completely.
Merlin was thrown backward, skidding across the ground until he slammed into a broken slab of stone. The impact knocked the air from his lungs.
Fou advanced, each step shaking the earth.
Merlin pushed himself up on shaking arms, coughing.
"Well," he rasped, "if persuasion doesn't work…"
He lifted his staff again, eyes dim but determined.
"…then stalling will have to do."
A new magic circle formed — larger, denser, showing none of the elegance of his earlier spells. This one looked heavy. Brutal. Built to endure, not to impress.
Chains erupted again, thicker this time, anchoring into the ground in dozens of places before wrapping around Fou's limbs and torso.
The beast fought immediately, muscles bunching as it tried to tear free.
The chains stretched.
Groaned.
Held.
Merlin exhaled shakily. "There we go."
Blood dripped from his sleeve onto the glowing runes below.
"Just… stay like that for a bit."
At the center, Xyrrath opened wider.
The exposed core pulsed, each beat sending waves of distortion across the battlefield. Pieces of debris lifted into the air and hovered, caught in warped gravity.
Solomon's chanting grew louder, each word precise, controlled, heavy with meaning.
Tiamat stood beside him, power gathering around her in slow, rising tides. The air smelled faintly of salt and rain, completely out of place in the dead landscape.
The light being descended lower, radiance intensifying until shadows vanished entirely near the center.
Below them, the Grand Servants regrouped for another push.
No speeches.
No rallying cries.
Just nods, tightened grips, small adjustments of stance.
One of them stepped forward first.
Then another.
Then all of them.
They charged straight toward the open core.
Xyrrath reacted violently, multiple limbs forming at once, slamming down in overlapping arcs meant to crush the advance completely.
The Servants didn't stop.
Some dodged. Some deflected. Some simply powered through the impacts, armor cracking, bodies thrown off balance but never fully halted.
One stumbled, nearly falling.
Another caught them by the arm and dragged them forward without breaking stride.
They reached striking distance.
Weapons rose.
Power gathered.
And then, all at once, they unleashed everything they had left directly into the heart of the Beast.
The blast that followed swallowed them completely.
For a moment, there was only light.
Blinding, absolute light.
And beneath it, something in Xyrrath finally screamed.
---
Support me on P @t r e o n
join my patreon for more frequent upload.
P @t r e o n.com/Darking099
For 30+ Advance Chapters
Or
You can buy me a Coffee
ko-fi.com/darking099
For my motivation
---
For every 50 power stones= 1 extra chapter
And Support my Other Storie