Feeling the slight tremors from the ground, Touko stopped and leaped up, standing atop the canopy of a ten-meter-tall tree to gaze at the distant battlefield where the Black Princess and White Princess were fighting.
After observing for a moment, Touko jumped down to the ground. She sliced her wrist and then used the tip of her foot to catch the flowing blood, directly drawing a magic circle on the ground with her foot.
Simultaneously, Touko pulled a bottle containing a transparent liquid from her bosom and threw it into the magic circle.
Then, a pale red mist began to pour out from the magic circle, drifting toward the battlefield.
On the battlefield, facing Altrouge who had been fully empowered by the Holy Grail, Arcueid, who had lost gaia's blessing, found it increasingly difficult to deal with her older sister.
Suspended in the sky, Altrouge looked down at the battered Arcueid under her assault. Her hair moved without wind as the magical energy in her body rose again. The bright moon floating behind Altrouge seemed to be tainted by her magical energy, appearing pale red in the eyes of others.
On the ground, Arcueid gasped for breath. Relying on her innate instincts, she continuously squeezed the land of Tokyo—which had already been ravaged several times—hoping to extract magical energy to recover.
It seemed that Rin's decision to have Zelretch move the greater grail to Tokyo was a mistake. Now, the magical energy in this repeatedly squeezed land was almost nonexistent. As a result, Arcueid, deprived of gaia's blessing, couldn't even manage to actively request 'help' from 'gaia'.
Mordred had a hearty smile on her face. Looking at the situation on the battlefield, she felt victory was in her grasp. She stared firmly at Lily, seemingly planning what to make Lily—this young Father King—do after winning the bet.
The King of Conquerors still had a relaxed expression. By now, his gaze had caught sight of the drifting red mist. 'Is that Miss Touko?'
At the same time, the Black Princess also noticed the drifting red mist and felt that her control over blood within the mist's coverage was becoming strained.
"Arcueid's helper?"
Altrouge suddenly flickered, instantly rushing into the red mist to appear before Touko. In a flash, she ripped out Touko's heart before the latter could even react.
Looking at Touko's 'corpse' lying at her feet, Altrouge casually crushed the heart. Having some impression of this newly born Ancestor, Altrouge complained.
"This is that person from Rin Tohsaka's world, right? Turns out she's a rookie."
For Touko to have her heart ripped out so easily by Altrouge, one couldn't really say she was 'bad'; she was simply using an Ancestor's body for the first time and was completely unfamiliar with this kind of high-speed combat characteristic of Ancestors.
After all, the physical fitness of an ordinary Dead Apostle was only at the level of 'Captain America'. Although they also liked high-speed combat, they were still far too slow compared to beings like the Ancestors.
Furthermore, Touko had never had contact with an Ancestor before other than Akuta Hina. Touko, who understood Ancestors through Akuta Hina, had been invisibly misled by her. As the 'weakest' Ancestor, Akuta Hina was theoretically the same species as other Ancestors, but in terms of the gap in their levels, they were completely worlds apart.
However, Akuta Hina had her own specialty, which was an immortality that could be called the strongest even among the Ancestors.
Using a body created with Akuta Hina's blood, Touko also inherited this immortality. By the time Altrouge finished her complaint, most of Touko's heart had already regenerated.
By the time Altrouge sensed something was wrong, it was too late to react. She could only watch helplessly as the 'rookie' in her eyes hit her in the back with a Magic Bullet.
Ambushed by Touko, Altrouge was sent stumbling by the Magic Bullet. Simultaneously, she felt the blood she had condensed beginning to slip out of her control.
"What did you do!"
Facing Altrouge's interrogation, Touko slowly sat up from the ground. She tore off one of her sleeves to wrap around the large hole in her chest.
"Sigh! I'm exposed, tsk!"
Altrouge angrily grabbed Touko, violently pinning her to the ground by the neck.
"What the hell did you do!"
The reason Altrouge was so furious was that at least half of her combat power relied on her ability to manipulate blood.
At the same time, the Dead Apostles and Ghouls on the battlefield who had survived the previous fight between Altrouge and Arcueid felt the pressure that had kept them immobile suddenly vanish as the red mist enveloped them. They immediately began to flee the battlefield desperately.
Seeing her 'ammunition' left on the battlefield starting to escape, Altrouge gritted her silver teeth and, with a 'crack', snapped Touko's neck.
Then Altrouge stood up and spread her hands toward Arcueid, who was rushing toward her.
"I admit defeat!"
Arcueid's eyes widened. She stared at Altrouge in disbelief and cried out.
"Eh, eh, eh! You're surrendering?"
"I'm admitting defeat! It's not surrendering!"
Arcueid looked cunningly at the huffing Altrouge and teased her.
"Doesn't it mean the same thing!"
Altrouge looked at Arcueid in front of her and weakly massaged her forehead.
"Forget it, as long as you're happy! Hey, you on the ground! What kind of trick did you use!"
Touko, who had just climbed up from the ground, rubbed her neck.
"Give me the Holy Grail, and I'll tell you."
"You..."
Altrouge tried hard to calm her emotions. She pulled the Holy Grail from her body, tossed it to Touko's feet, and said angrily.
"Now you can talk, right!"
Touko first picked up the Holy Grail from the ground. After transferring it back to Chaldea via Spiritron transmission, she took a bottle of transparent medicine from her bosom and threw it to Altrouge.
"It's this, a coagulant that humans learned from certain organisms. After I enhanced it with alchemy, it became the medicine you're holding."
Altrouge opened the stopper of the medicine bottle and looked at the transparent liquid inside in disbelief, a trace of conflicted emotion appearing on her face.
"Just this kind of thing can neutralize my blood control ability?"
Arcueid, hearing that this medicine could deal with Altrouge's blood control, instantly accelerated and snatched the medicine from Altrouge's hand. She looked at Altrouge with a smile, seemingly waiting for Altrouge to resist so she could use the medicine to give her a good beating.
Altrouge glared at Arcueid. She wasn't stupid; of course she wouldn't make a move against Arcueid at this time, unless she found a way to crack Touko's medicine.
Touko shrugged and said to Altrouge.
"Of course not. How could this thing alone break your ability? This medicine only causes sudden blood coagulation to make you momentarily unaccustomed to controlling it, just like how I'm not accustomed to this body."
As she spoke, Touko snapped her fingers. On Altrouge's back where she had been hit, a mass of dark green liquid and magical energy was suddenly pulled from her body and fell to the ground, making a corroding sound.
"But is an Ancestor's body really this resistant? 100 units of Alchemical Aqua Regia could corrode a blue whale down to its skeleton, yet you didn't have any reaction at all..."
Looking at the fanatical gaze Touko directed at her, Altrouge couldn't help but shiver.
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