Chapter 712: Arrogant Golden Flash, Kneel Down and Kowtow!
No one underestimated the arrogance of the golden Archer, Gilgamesh.
The casual flick of his wrist that had forced Diarmuid Ua Duibhne—Lancer—back with a barrage of Noble Phantasms was enough to make even the Rider, Iskandar, furrow his brow in seriousness.
Moreover, the keen eyes of the Masters had noticed the movement in the shadows. Assassin—Hassan of the Hundred Faces—had moved into a protective formation around Tohsaka Tokiomi, Gilgamesh's Master. Yet, Archer did not attack Assassin.
The implication made everyone's heart heavy.
Two of the Three Founding Families, the Tohsaka and the Church's overseer, had allied. It was a rigged game from the start.
But even this alliance paled in comparison to the anomaly that had brought them all here. Who exactly was the unknown entity capable of forcefully teleporting multiple Servants and Masters to this specific warehouse district against their will?
Everyone's gaze instinctively fixed on the man standing alone in the center of the containment yard—Kiritsugu Emiya.
He was the only one without a visible Servant beside him.
"Kiritsugu Emiya?"
Tohsaka Tokiomi, standing on a high vantage point, recognized the man immediately. His elegant face twisted with disdain.
"The Magus Killer. His unscrupulous methods of hunting down heretical mages are infamous in the Clock Tower. To think the Einzbern hired a mercenary like him."
"The Magus Killer?"
Kenneth El-Melloi Archibald, Lancer's Master, looked down from his position with gloomy eyes. "So, you are the mongrel who brought us here with some bounded field trickery?"
...
Kiritsugu Emiya's face instantly darkened. He stood silently in his trench coat, cigarette smoke curling from his lips.
Several gazes simultaneously stared directly at him with killing intent. He had become the target of all criticism, the scapegoat for a phenomenon he didn't understand.
Gilgamesh, hovering above on a streetlamp, looked down with utter boredom.
"A mongrel as weak as an ant. No magical energy. You are not even worthy of being called a Master."
"Not a Master???"
Everyone was surprised.
Neither a Master nor a Grand Mage? Then what ability did Kiritsugu Emiya have to forcefully summon Heroic Spirits like pawns on a chessboard?
"Clap, clap, clap, clap!"
Just at this moment of confusion, a slow, mocking round of applause echoed from the sky.
It didn't come from a specific direction; it resonated from the air itself.
Followed by a playful, confident voice.
"Irisviel, look. This is called 'dog-eat-dog'. They are blaming the wrong person."
"Irisviel?!"
Hearing this familiar name, Kiritsugu Emiya suddenly looked up, his dead eyes widening for the first time.
In the distant mid-air, space distorted.
A giant, floating throne made of obsidian and gold materialized out of thin air. It hovered above everyone, looking down on the battlefield like a god observing insects.
A man sat on the throne, exuding an aura of absolute laziness and power.
In his arms sat a small girl with purple hair—Sakura.
Two white-haired maids—Leysritt and Sella—stood loyally by the throne's sides.
And leaning intimately against him were two stunning beauties. One was a blonde woman in silver armor—Artoria. The other was a woman with snow-white hair and crimson eyes, dressed in elegant white robes.
The sight of the white-haired woman leaning her head on Ren's shoulder made Kiritsugu Emiya's pupils contract sharply.
"Irisviel... how are you here?"
It was his wife. The woman he loved, the woman he had sent to Fuyuki as a decoy. Why was she in the arms of another man?
Being called by her full name by her former husband, Irisviel's expression showed a flicker of displeasure. She didn't look at Kiritsugu with love, but with the cold detachment of a stranger.
"Darling," she whispered to Ren, ignoring Kiritsugu. "I am not familiar with this person. I only met him once at the Einzbern castle regarding a contract."
She was afraid Ren would misunderstand something or get jealous, so she explained on her own initiative, rewriting her own history to align with her new loyalty.
Ren chuckled, stroking her hair. "Haha, I know, Iri. That man is Kiritsugu Emiya."
Ren looked down at the Magus Killer. He raised his right hand, the back of it glowing with red light.
"Speaking of which, I should thank him. If it weren't for the Command Spells I took from him, how could I have acquired such a lovely wife?"
He playfully showed the stolen Command Spells etched onto his skin.
"My... Command Spells!!!"
Kiritsugu Emiya reacted instantly. He clutched his right hand. The burning sensation he had felt days ago... the loss of his connection to the Grail...
His disappeared Command Spells. His summoned Servant, Saber. And Irisviel, the vessel of the Grail.
All of them had been taken by the man on the throne before the war even began!
"Hahaha! Interesting!"
Iskandar, the King of Conquerors, laughed heartily, slapping his thigh. "It seems the final Master has appeared! And he brought a whole harem to the battlefield!"
He looked at Ren with interest. "Boy, are you the mastermind behind this teleportation?"
Before Ren could answer.
"Hahahahaha!"
A sharp, piercing laughter cut through the air. It was filled with pure rage.
Gilgamesh laughed in anger. He held his hand to his forehead and leaned back, his golden armor clinking.
His laughter abruptly stopped. He gazed at Ren with eyes colder than absolute zero.
"A pathetic thief who attempts to covet this King's treasures? A pathetic ant? A pathetic mongrel..."
His killing intent flooded the area, making the air heavy.
"One after another, you insects attempt to challenge this King's majesty by standing higher than me."
As he spoke, he floated higher. The space behind him rippled like water.
Hum. Hum. Hum.
Dozens of golden portals opened—the Gate of Babylon. Swords, spears, and axes of legendary quality poked out, aimed directly at the obsidian throne.
"Who allowed a mongrel like you to look down on me?!"
This time, his target was solely Ren.
"Tsk. Gilgamesh's personality is really annoying," Ria (Artoria) muttered. Her emerald eyes turned cold.
She stood up from Ren's side.
Clang!
Her silver armor fully materialized over her dress. Invisible air swirled around her hands as she summoned Excalibur.
"How dare you insult my Master! I will cut you down, Archer!"
"???"
"She is the Servant?!"
Waver Velvet, standing behind Iskandar, gasped. "That mana... she's definitely a Saber! But wait, if she's Saber, how is that man hovering?"
"Ria."
Ren reached out and patted Ria's shoulder, calming her battle aura.
"Sit down. I don't need my wife to dirty her hands with trash."
Ren looked at the golden king. "I'll teach you how to deal with this arrogant brat."
"Brat?!"
Gilgamesh's veins popped. In all of history, who dared call the King of Heroes a brat?
"Mongrel! Die in despair!"
"Kneel."
Before Gilgamesh could fire a single weapon, Ren spat out one icy word.
It wasn't a command spell. It was an Order of the World.
"!!!"
Gilgamesh's insult was forcefully stuck in his throat.
BOOM!
A supreme, crushing pressure descended from the sky. It was as if the weight of an entire star had been placed on his shoulders.
The golden ripples of the Gate of Babylon shattered like glass.
Under Tohsaka Tokiomi's disbelieving gaze, the invincible King of Heroes suddenly dropped from the sky like a kite with a cut string.
CRASH!
He slammed into the concrete ground of the warehouse district.
His knees shattered the pavement, creating a crater. His proud head was forced down until his forehead touched the dirt.
A perfect, humiliating dogeza.
"Guh... Ahhh!"
Everyone felt a phantom pain in their own knees just by watching. The sound of impact was sickening.
But the more critical issue was that Ren, with just one word, had made the strongest Servant kneel without lifting a finger.
"King! King, what happened?!"
The most anxious was undoubtedly Tohsaka Tokiomi. His elegantly planned victory was crumbling.
"Shut up!!!"
Gilgamesh roared, his voice muffled by the ground. His emotions collapsed for the first time.
Rage surged. He tried to stand up. He tried to summon Enuma Elish. He tried to spirit form.
But he couldn't move an inch. It was as if the concept of 'movement' had been erased from his body.
Tohsaka Tokiomi bit his lip until it bled. He revealed his hand.
"By the name of the Command Spell, I order you to rise, King of Heroes!"
Flash.
A red stroke vanished.
Empty!
Nothing happened. A silence like a grave descended.
Gilgamesh remained kneeling there, motionless, like a statue of repentance.
"What... what is going on?"
Tokiomi was dumbfounded. The Command Spell failed? That was impossible. The Absolute Order of the Grail System failed?
"By the name of the Command Spell, rise! Break the binding!"
"By the name of the Command Spell, attack the enemy!"
He urgently used his second and third Command Spells. The red light flared and died.
"King... why..."
Tokiomi fell to his knees in despair. It had no effect.
"Mongrel! What in the world have you done to this King!!!" Gilgamesh screamed, his pride shattering into dust.
Everyone else's gazes were extremely grave.
Command Spell Invalidation.
How was this done? Even Magic Resistance EX shouldn't be able to ignore three Command Spells. This man... he had authority over the Grail System itself.
Ren looked down at the kneeling king with a bored expression. "You're too loud. Stay there and reflect on your manners."
And just then.
A shadow moved in the corner of his eye.
A black figure materialized from the darkness behind the obsidian throne. It was Hassan of the Hundred Faces!
Kotomine Kirei, seeing the opportunity while Ren was focused on Gilgamesh, had ordered Assassin to strike. His target wasn't Ren—it was the maids, or perhaps Irisviel.
Ren's eyes didn't even shift. They narrowed slightly.
"Dare to touch my people? You and your Servant can just die."
These words were like a divine declaration. A rule written into reality.
SQUELCH!
"Bang!"
Down on the ground, hiding in the shadows of the containers, Kotomine Kirei didn't even have time to scream. His body exploded into a mist of blood and bone fragments without warning.
Simultaneously, in the air behind Ren...
All of Hassan's clones were forcefully dragged out of their spirit form.
In a bizarre, horrific posture, they converged in mid-air, screaming silently as they were squeezed by an invisible pair of giant hands.
Crunch.
Dozens of Servants were compressed into a small, dense black ball of flesh and mana.
Dead beyond dead.
Hassan and his Master... just died like that? Instantly?
Iskandar's originally composed smile vanished completely. He gripped the reins of his chariot, his knuckles white.
He stared at Ren on the throne and murmured to his shivering Master, Waver.
"Boy... stay behind me. It seems we are not facing a Magus or a Servant."
"We are facing a Monster."
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