"Naturally, I will certainly do what I promised."
Although Medea's past exceeded Jean's imagination, it didn't affect their previous agreement. In Jean's perception, even though Medea had returned to her true form, the evil god contract remained valid. Moreover, looking at her, she seemed even more eager than before to take the Olympian gods down a notch.
Medea's preparations would take a while longer, so Jean took the opportunity to appraise her status.
[Target Evaluation]
Name: Medea
Race: Heroic Spirit
Rank: Quasi-God
Description: Originally the successor to the title of the Great Goddess Hecate, she eventually became an enemy of the Olympian gods due to a massive clash in values. After being secretly killed, her record in the Pruning Theoretical Foundation was contaminated by the false stories spread by the gods. Ultimately, she used the power of her teacher Hecate's staff to purge the pollution and left the Hall of Heroes.
In Jean's eyes, having a 'massive clash in values' with the Olympian gods should be considered a compliment. However, she hadn't expected the true Heroic Spirit form of Medea to have a Quasi-God rank; it seemed the title of the Age of Gods' greatest witch wasn't just for show.
Although Jean hadn't seen them in person, based on the strength of Gilgamesh and Nyarlathotep over there, the Type-Moon gods were probably around the Quasi-God rank, with the weaker ones perhaps around the Frenzy Rank.
He estimated that only the God Kings and Creator Gods might be higher. However, Tiamat was already at the level of a Beast, and then there were Grand Order Heroic Spirits; those were existences on an entirely different level.
Jean casually slapped an appraisal on herself as well:
[Target Evaluation]
Name: Jean
Race: Original (Evil) God
Rank: Frenzy · Mid-Tier (Quasi-God)
Description: A lecher with a firm will.
It was as concise as ever, but adding the modifier 'firm will' in front of 'lecher' didn't make him happy at all, hey!
However, having fully mastered all the power of the Stardust Dragon, Jean had officially reached Frenzy · Mid-Tier. While Burst Mode consumed a massive amount of energy, it could forcibly pull his strength up to Quasi-God level.
And after maintaining Burst Mode for a period of time, Jean had a feeling that his body might be gradually memorizing this state.
Whether this was a good thing wasn't certain yet. It mainly depended on what the deep-seated physical power called upon by Burst Mode actually was, whether it was renewable, and whether it could be quickly replenished.
But this gave Jean a new line of thinking: the normalization of various explosive states. He felt like he could arrange things like the Eight Inner Gates, Kaio-ken, or Demon Slayer Marks.
Just as Jean was fantasizing about calmly blowing up a planet with a ten-thousand-fold Kaio-ken, Medea finished her ritual and handed a jade plate to Jean.
Seeing Rin's expression of intense heartbreak mixed with the tragic resolve of self-sacrifice, Jean roughly understood that this was also part of the Tohsaka Family's hoard.
"This tool is already partially connected to the greater grail. Activate it in the central area of the Grail to directly extract the greater grail's ritual and transcribe it onto this. Once the greater grail loses its function as a stable hole, the hole will naturally close, and the evil god's goal will be thwarted."
"What about Sakura? What happens to Sakura?" Rin asked anxiously.
"That little girl named Matou Sakura will be very difficult to handle. Even if her soul and body are recovered, it will be hard for her to recover under this degree of pollution."
"It's fine, there are ways to purify the pollution from the evil god's possession. Besides, the BB who is currently the dominant will is still somewhat different from the evil god itself." Jean didn't really mind that point; instead, he was somewhat puzzled by BB's desire to enter the Root.
"Jean, I'm counting on you for Sakura's sake."
Nodding to Rin with a smile, he took the jade plate and walked toward the pitch-black interior of the Barrier ahead.
---
Just as Jean reached the front of the Barrier, it vanished instantly. Countless tentacles accompanied by shadows surged out like a tide from within. The sheer scale of the scene gave Jean quite a shock.
Behind her, Medea waved her staff and shouted, "Hoshi na!" A massive amount of blue light orbs formed, turning into something akin to light cannons. A single volley directly cleared the tentacles in front of Jean.
Only then did Jean see the situation inside the Barrier. Distorted, unknown substances were climbing up along the outer walls of the Barrier, forming a shape like a hollow hemisphere.
Because the Barrier had been dispelled, the distorted creations lost their support and collapsed under gravity, leading to the scene just now.
In mid-air, the giant tower was still striking at the position of the hole. However, because Lia was no longer there, the defensive measure was no longer the 'Protection of the World's End' but another unknown Barrier.
BB was no longer flying about in the air; instead, she had fixed herself to the high tower, constantly harassing XX.
XX, on the other hand, was a bit irritable and somewhat helpless. Given her personality, she would have normally used her Noble Phantasm to destroy the planet long ago, but Ai-chan was here. Fearing another mistake, she was circling in the sky, wanting to remove Ai-chan from the battle first before employing her final combat methods.
As for Ai-chan, who was running and fighting while circling the giant tower, she was clearly slacking off. However, she wasn't without exertion; the evil god's creations were constantly corroding her Reality Marble, making it very difficult to maintain. When she sensed Jean's approach, she immediately dispelled the Barrier.
The result was that those tentacles almost slapped Jean right in the face.
So now Ai-chan was floating in the air, guiltily looking away and pretending it was just an accident and that she hadn't noticed Jean.
But the more she acted like that, the more obvious it became. Originally, Jean hadn't noticed she'd been set up, but seeing her like this and connecting it to the coincidence of the Barrier vanishing just as he arrived, he understood everything.
She condensed wings on her back again. This time, she didn't mimic the Stardust Dragon's wings but used stardust crystals to create a set of hypothetical Crystal Wings. These Crystal Wings had only one function—buoyancy—leaving everything else to the wind spheres floating around him.
After creating his personal version of Burst Mode, Jean's thinking had clearly expanded. Biomimicry, dragon wings—none of it mattered as long as he could fly. Since brute force could make anything fly, there was no point in obsessing over the form; he might as well pursue aesthetics like this.
With her new flight mode, Jean climbed rapidly and arrived in front of Ai-chan in the blink of an eye.
"Yo, dear Ai-chan, don't you have something you should say to me?"
"Ah, this... (＞people＜;) I'm sorry."
"Fine, let's leave it at that. Anyway, I brought back the Lesser Grail."
She was helping him out after all, so Jean was just joking and didn't intend to pursue it.
"Wow, I didn't expect you to actually beat that oversized Saber. You're really something."
"Wait, it wasn't about winning. How did you think I was going to get the Grail?"
"Uh, you two lechers, naturally you would sell out your—"
"Jean-chan Headbutt!!!" Jean interrupted her with a headbutt before she could finish.
"Ah, it hurts..."
"Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about me? Even if I am a lecher, I'm a lecher with principles, you hear me!"
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/SolyuraMT
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"