Chapter 416: Galactic Emperor Gil
Because of the giant mechanical dragon girl's massive self-destruction, the situation outside was now in complete chaos.
Led by a certain Servant, the Celtic warriors who had launched the charge were all caught in the massive explosion. Aside from those blown away by the shockwave of the blast, everyone else was currently missing.
Outside the Galactic Police branch building, a large expanse of the planet's open ground was left in ruins by the explosion. The center had become a pitch-black, deep crater, forming a stark contrast between the Galactic Police branch remaining on the surface and the blackened pit.
"Hahaha! This is the victory of Alternating Current (AC)!!!" Nikola Tesla, the scientific genius who was now reduced to only half a body, lay on the ground laughing maniacally. His nemesis, the lion-headed man, had had his spirit origin disintegrate in the recent explosion and had already returned to the Throne of Heroes.
"Lightning! AC!! Hahaha!" Before his spirit origin turned into spiriton crystals and completely dissipated, Nikola Tesla continued to roar with the laughter of a victor. Even until his body vanished entirely, his laughter seemed to resonate across the heavens and earth.
"Lightning! Hahaha!" It seemed someone had inherited the will of this genius, letting out the same laughter. However, the sound was a bit too cute.
It was the unicorn girl with her hair in buns, wrapped in white bandages.
Clang.
A precision-engineered mechanical greatsword—equipped with various mechanisms and serving as a sword, spear, and chainsaw—dropped to the ground with a dull thud.
"So hot... so hot... I can't take it anymore. If there's no air conditioning, I'm done for..." The unicorn girl lay prone on the ground, looking languid and unable to get up.
"Gaa!" The other unicorn girl, looking like her twin sister, carried the large hammer. With her other hand, she pulled the girl up and walked toward the building.
"Hey... Fran! Wait! I think I can still be saved!" Babbage called out in a mechanical voice.
"Gaa!" Berserker-class Fran turned her head, tucked the black pot-helmet head she had dropped into her arms, took A-class Fran's hand, and walked inside.
"As expected... silent Fran is a good girl." Although Babbage was now in a steam-machine state, he still felt moved.
"After all, Babbage, you're a mechanical head. The other me thinks so too," Little Fran said, turning back with a smile.
"..." The black pot-helmet remained silent. The surroundings quieted down, with only the red light representing life force flickering on and off.
Although this battle was brutal, it was the Justice Machine Alliance that had emerged victorious.
"Wooo... I was confident that as long as the boy saw me, he would fall in love at first sight. But I was eliminated before I could even break through the door. What is this? This humiliation... I will never forget this humiliation!!!" Queen Medv was regrettably caught in the giant mechanical dragon girl's self-destruct.
She had originally accepted the invitation with the goal of collecting high-quality men and led her Celtic warriors into the battle. However, her mission failed at the start, and she could only retreat in regret.
"Senpai, is this really okay?" Mash, holding her massive shield, said with deep concern. Previously, she and her Senpai had carefully followed behind the invading Celtic army, and before the explosion happened, she managed to deploy her Noble Phantasm just in time to avoid—
"Well, it's a Singularity anyway, and everyone who died was a Servant. Even if they really were Servants lost from Chaldea, we can just summon them again," Gudako waved her hand, telling Mash to relax; it was no big deal.
However, one thing was strange: even though the Servants from both sides had been locked in a fierce battle, Artoria, the manager of this place and the Galactic Police officer, had not been seen. She hadn't appeared here from the beginning.
At the passage leading to the Galactic Police branch from the other side of the planet, there was also no one to be found.
"To think they were all wiped out. As expected, there were too many rabble-rousers; they aren't reliable at all. I really should have recruited some powerful Servants, but they're all so arrogant and unwilling to join forces with us." The purple-haired girl standing behind cover carefully poked her head out to survey the battlefield—which could only be described as tragic—and sighed.
"Isn't this what you, BB-chan, said was a full-scale assault?" The voice sounded like that of an indifferent girl. She had wrapped her body tightly in a cloak, her hood obscuring half her face; one could vaguely see she was wearing glasses.
The purple-haired girl pouted and drawled in a spoiled tone: "Because~! Those Celtic types didn't follow the plan at all. Let them pin down the enemy, and then I'll go in and save Senpai. Such a perfect plan, why did so many people disagree? They're so stingy~!"
"That's because nobody trusts you. You'd probably just run away with Shirou, wouldn't you?" The voice was cold and majestic, sounding like a terrifying assassin and a fearsome villain.
When she stepped out of the shadows, she revealed a face identical to Artoria's. Her originally brilliant golden hair had faded to a color closer to gray. Though it still featured a stiff ahoge, her overall temperament leaned toward composure. Because of the dark aesthetic, she had a mysterious quality—resembling a silent, bespectacled girl quietly reading a book in an SOS Brigade.
"Stop right there!" Standing in their path was the golden-haired girl clad in mecha equipment. Artoria had hidden her helmet, revealing her handsome and beautiful face. She had been waiting here for a long time.
This was to prevent any Servant from trying to sneak in from the back. However, she hadn't expected the intruders to be neither an Assassin skilled in stealth nor a treacherous Magus, but...
"Then, the hardest nut to crack is left to you. A-chan~! I'll slip in when I find an opening!!!" BB pointed at the black-mecha girl guarding the rear.
"I understand. I will hold her off!" A-chan pushed up her glasses and drew two glowing red light sabers.
The cloaked girl with glasses gently swung the red laser swords, which emitted a humming sound, as if the lasers were cutting through the air.
"A-chan, I didn't expect you to come too?" Artoria looked at the bespectacled girl, feeling quite complex inside. If she were to say it, the girl before her was, aside from the pure "Lily" who had given her such a shock, the most youthful and lovable one.
A-chan, who spent her days constantly eating various Japanese sweets, was as cute as a small pet.
The girl took off her glasses, tucked them into her cloak, and raised her red light saber at Artoria, saying with great spirit: "Take this! For a year's supply of Daifuku... no! For the sake of ruling the universe, Miss Artoria, I will defeat you here!"
In this universe, Artoria was originally one of a kind. The reason A-chan appeared was because of a miscalculation in her life. While searching for Shirou, Artoria had a sudden whim to separate a portion of the power within her body.
Artoria created multiple clones. Everyone had the same goal, but they clashed over the allocation of time spent with Shirou. Thus, all the Artorias refused to submit to one another, resulting in a free-for-all. Although the original Artoria barely managed to win, this civil strife led to a cosmic riot, and a new race called the "Artoria-type" officially took the stage in this universe.
Evil forces, the Dark Round Table, even used her as a blueprint to manufacture "Sir Pendragon," a weapon specifically designed to counter Sabers and Artorias!
But what Artoria didn't know was that her power had been targeted. Through the machinations of others, Sir Pendragon, the Tyrant of Sugar, was born in this universe. And like the existence of a dark side for every light side, it had happened.
Hum! Hum!
The light sabers hummed with every swing.
The holy sword emitting blue light and the laser sword emitting red light constantly collided and engaged.
The girl displayed unprecedented ferocity. As the last survivor of the Crimson Dawn—no, the Dark Round Table—it was her duty to eradicate Artoria.
"Do not speak, feel it; the Force is with you." The robot shaped like a knight's helmet beside the girl said in a stern voice.
He was the robot K6-X4, also known as the "Black Knight," who was responsible for assisting the girl from the shadows. Although his speech was sharp-tongued and he appeared tough and cold-blooded, he was fiercely loyal to her.
As a girl with the serial number XB, in some spacetime, she actually had a younger sister named 2B. She herself was proficient with blades and guns, and the support robot at her side could not only connect to communications but also unleash heavy hammers, lasers, or grenade bombardment attacks. Clearly, the Black Knight's capabilities were far from sufficient.
Sir Pendragon (Alter) turned one of the light sabers in her hand around. Putting hilt to hilt, the laser dual swords instantly transformed into a red, double-bladed laser staff. Both ends were blades that could cut iron like mud, increasing her reach.
The girl gripped the middle of the double-bladed sword, her eyes turning sharp, fully immersed in the state of slaughter.
Artoria gripped the Invisible Sword of Promised Victory tightly. She knew the opponent's next move was definitely serious.
At that moment, two pillars of light shot down from the sky, leaving several craters in the ground.
"Hmphahahaha!!! You mongrels, cease your fighting. I have arrived; kneel and submit!" A high-pitched, arrogant laugh echoed from high in the sky.
A magnificent, golden galactic warship slowly descended from the sky, covering the entire landscape. Vaguely, another figure in golden armor could be seen standing on the prow. Under the illumination of the lights, he emitted an exceptionally dazzling golden glow.
The sky turned golden. The nearly kilometer-long galactic warship revealed row after row of massive cannons—they were gold! The outer hull armor was gold! The bottom of the ship was also gold!
He removed the golden helmet, which looked like a gas mask, from his head, revealing his true face with golden hair and red eyes. Gilgamesh, Emperor of the Universe, made a brilliant entrance. He was untamed, his eyes containing the vast starry sky, treating the entire universe as his personal property. Resources, treasures, and people were no exception!
He was the Galactic Emperor Gil, the Demon King of this world who wantonly invaded surrounding planets and the evil overlord of one side.
"Mana? It seems I can't use it smoothly?" Shirou looked at his hand, which had begun to glow after he activated Reinforcement Magecraft. As soon as the mana circuit began to run, there was a snap, and it disconnected uncontrollably, like a tripped circuit breaker. The light on his hand dimmed.
This feeling was exactly like when he had practiced Projection wildly on his own in the warehouse back in the day.
"This is truly a big crisis. As expected, it would be better for humans to follow the arrangements of machines," Mechanical Eli-chan Number Two, who was in charge of taking care of Shirou, said.
"Wait, Miss Number Two, this isn't a matter of arrangements, is it? Shouldn't we first deal with this life-and-death situation?" Shirou pointed out the window. That explosion just now was separated from him by only a single wall. If it had been four or five meters closer to his side, this room would likely have ceased to exist.
"I am very confident in my defensive capabilities; there is no need to guard against explosions here. Of course, according to the commands I received, I will be responsible for taking care of you until the end of your life. Also, please call me Eli-chan, thank you." Mechanical Eli-chan Number Two said calmly. As a dragon-girl-type robot created from the scientific research results of the Steam King Babbage—who mastered the manufacturing technology of Indestructible Steel—it was possible she could actually withstand that explosion.
"So you never intended to protect me at all, right? Isn't there a rule like the Three Laws of Robotics?" Shirou looked at the exceptionally calm Eli-chan Number Two and asked.
"That is a statement humans set up on their own. I am a robot, and I demand the right to equal dialogue; I have no obligation to abide by any rules that are only beneficial to humans," Eli-chan Number Two said peacefully.
Because she was so logical, Shirou didn't know how to refute her for a moment.
Creak.
The automatic door of the infirmary opened laterally.
The two unicorn girls in bandage outfits walked in, holding Babbage's head.
"Shirou~! We came to play with you. The indoors are really cool now~!" Fran, with her hair in buns, raised her hand spiritedly and said.
"No, Fran. Now is not the time to play. To maintain justice, we must protect this boy. It seems the only way is to relocate."
"Oh~! Then Shirou, we've come to take you and run away together~!" Fran with buns said with a smile.
"Gaa!" Berserker-class Fran looked at Shirou, her long bangs covering her eyes, but she still nodded heavily.
"Thank you, Fran-chan." Shirou turned his head to the mechanical nurse dragon girl and asked: "Eli-chan, what do you think of this plan?"
"I... think it would be better if we left here." Noticing what Fran was holding, Eli-chan's body stiffened, and then she said dryly.
"That is the wise choice." Babbage, left with only his helmet head, blinked red, saying in a magnetic voice.
At this moment, Galactic Emperor Gil stood behind a massive, golden-barreled railgun aimed at the ground. As long as he waved his hand, this area would be blasted to smithereens by the railgun in an instant.
And in his arsenal, there were several more golden warships of such destructive power.
The arrogant Galactic Emperor Gil looked down at the surviving Servants on the ground, not considering them worthy of notice at all.
However, when he turned his head, his expression changed. He looked at the golden-haired girl holding the Invisible Sword and then at the light-haired girl, gazing at the two faces he found very pleasing. He rested his chin on his hand and nodded with satisfaction.
Galactic Emperor Gil looked at them and slowly said: "A-chan, actually, I am your father!"
"Father your sister!" Artoria and Alter Heroine X shouted in unison. One raised a blue light saber, and the other raised a red light saber, swinging their blades toward the golden-armored man simultaneously.
These movements were perfectly synchronized, happening in an instant—it was as if, even if the other party hadn't spoken, the swords would have been swung just the same.
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