Invasion

Hours up above...Ruler set her Ouija Board.

Everyone who's a long-range, its time to come out with Rin's Invisibility Cloaks. she said. We're getting closer.

Alrighty! Astolfo chirped.

Very well. Karna said.

Make it or break it! Rin said excitedly.

Don't let your guard down even with with our many precautions. Chiron warned.

Hey, don't forget to destroy the Cloaks when we take it off alright? I don't want the magi back on the ground picking my work and claiming it for themselves! Rin reminded with a grunt.

Alright.

And they came out appearing by materialization and in Rin's case, teleporting herself and Joan out, but...

'COLD!' the two women shrieked at the first taste of biting cold.

Unlike the Servants, Joan has a human host and Rin was human...for now.

Being up here is super-duper cold.

They're more than 10000 feet above the ground, and air is somewhat scarce up here.

In war, you don't choose the battlefield. War chooses for you.

The difficulty level is par for the course of course.

xxx

Meanwhile...

At almost exactly the same time, Semiramis opened her eyes as she sat upon her throne.

'—Hmm, so they've come.'

She'd anticipated the enemies to come eventually, but they were slightly later than she'd predicted. Did their preparations take more time than expected, or was there another reason for their late arrival?

Either way, it didn't change what had to be done.

'Archer, Rider..they've arrived. Intercept them. I don't know what means of flight they used to get here, but there's nothing that can withstand your attacks. Rider, crush them with your flying chariot.' she instructed.

'Ah, I plan to, but it'll probably take some time to take them all down.' came the excited, cheerful reply.

'...What? Did they use such a large-scale spell?' Semiramis frowned. For Achilles of all people to say that, she really wondered what they came up with.

'You'll understand if you see.'

Semiramis projected an image of the outside world onto the throne room's ceiling—and was dumbfounded by what she saw.

'What is this—?'

From the knowledge she'd been given by the Holy Grail, she knew what an airplane was. A mechanical bird that petty humans had put together somehow or other to fly through the sky.

They were heading towards the gardens using that. That much was fine. It was a far more rational choice than using an enchanted tool that could go malfunction. But—there were far, far too many of them.

There were a total of ten large jumbo jets, approaching the Hanging Gardens like a flock of ravens. The prana signatures coming from them were vague and ambiguous, making it impossible to precisely detect who and what was on each plane.

And furthermore—

'Those damn Black Servants...!' she fumed.

Chiron was standing on the roof of one of the planes. His preparations for battle were already complete and he was searching through the surrounding skies with eyes that overlooked nothing. His plane was to the right of Joan's who was in the middle of the formation.

Astolfo was riding on top of the plane next to Chiron's. He was atop his hippogriff, with the homunculus who was his new Master sitting behind him.

And standing atop the center plane was the arbitrator of the Great Holy Grail War and the absolute enemy of the Red camp. The young woman who was acknowledged as a true saint and who opposed the young man who never managed to become a saint.

Class Ruler—Joan d'Arc.

To her left was Karna and beside him, was Rin. A Master fighting with her Servant eh? This time she was not in her warrior form back when she battled Spartacus but a form befitting of a sorceress specializing in black magic by how...witch-like she was looking. Her skin is corpse-white, her hair gray and eyes glowing ghostly. She wore a revealing black, armored dress but the armor was so ornate that its mostly just for show with the ripped skirt ending mid-thigh. She also has long strips of cloth on her back not a cape. She has however, monstrous arms with clawed hands and her lower legs just as monstrous in appearance. This girl has bizarre taste in...costume mystic codes!

'Relying on pure numbers...hmph, what a foolish plan. But that's precisely what makes it hard to deal with.'

The ten planes were approaching fast, so close they were almost on the verge of colliding with the Hanging Gardens. But conversely, felling one plane wouldn't be enough to destroy their foothold. With their physical abilities and other means, they could jump to the next plane before the one they stood on fell.

'However...even that's not enough to approach my Hanging Gardens.'

It was true that Semiramis would have some difficulty dealing with this. But that was all. She could destroy all those lumps of iron merely by activating the garden's defense functions.

However—that wouldn't be tasteful. Proudly displaying her great power was soothing in its own way, but the other heroes of the Red camp wouldn't agree to just slaughtering the enemy like that.

'Rider. I don't intend to attack until the enemy reaches a certain distance near the gardens. However—'

'Hey, Miss Empress, is that supposed to mean that I'll also get caught in the crossfire if I get close too?'

'Precisely. Does that dissatisfy you?" Semiramis replied calmly. But while calm, was a provocative warning undertone...

Achilles happily accepted that provocation.

'No, no problem at all...I'll kill Archer of Black, and while I'm at it, I'll take apart those flying pieces of scrap iron too.'

Achilles' voice, like that of a ferocious beast, caused a chill to run down her back.

A demi-god born from a hero and a goddess, the great hero of the Trojan War—but if you peeled those titles away, he was actually a monster who devoted everything to battle.

'Very well, I'll leave it to you.'

However, that was an indispensable component for a hero. Cruelty, arrogance and a sense of pride that asserted that one's strength was absolute were what made heroes truly heroes.

'Archer. I'll leave the rear support to you. Make sure to shoot down each one of those planes.'

'No. I'm going to kill that annoying girl first.'

Atlanta's voice sounded as if it rang out from the very depths of the earth. Achilles' voice had been that of a beast excited in a blazing frenzy, filled with only joy—the pure delight at fighting someone strong.

But Atlanta's voice was different. It was clearly filled with hatred, decisively different from the cruel cheerfulness that most heroes possessed.

'—What?'

It was only natural that Semiramis furrowed her brow suspiciously. From her point of view, Atlanta was the type of hero who was easy to understand.

She enjoyed fighting the strong, had no dislike for battle in and of itself, and had no interest in good and evil or government. She treasured invisible things like honor and pride—

If she hated someone, it would only be the killer of her loved ones. However Ruler—the holy maiden of Orleans, Joan d'Arc—was far from being a person who would do such a thing. In the first place, Atlanta shouldn't have had anyone she cared about enough to love in this world.

'I'll kill that woman! I have to kill that filthy murderer who pretends to be a saint. Don't get in my way, Assassin...'

And yet—Atlanta's voice was filled with rage.

Semiramis understood. This kind of hatred couldn't be controlled. It was the kind that took precedence over anything, most likely making Atlanta deem not only the Red camp but even her own life meaningless in comparison.

Such hatred always caused chaos on the battlefield. Of course, if she could successfully defeat Ruler, then it wasn't a problem.

However—

'Let her be, Miss Empress. Either way, my own opponent remains Archer of Black.'

Achilles interjected into the telepathic conversation. Just as he said, his pride made him desire to fight his former teacher.

'...Very well. Rider of Black likely intends to try and invade the gardens with that meager monster of his. I'll take care of him.'

In her eyes, Astolfo was no more a threat than a fly.

However, she's busy controlling the gardens and relying on Caster was out of the question so incase the fortress was invaded, she would have to work on that too.

'In that case—slaughter them. The Greater Grail is ours!'

'Aye!' Rider and Archer replied affirmatively.

The Black camp would win this battle if they reached the gardens.

And the Red camp would win if they prevented them from reaching the gardens.

The final battle between the two sides began in a magnificent manner at the dead of night, seven thousand and five hundred meters above the Black Sea.

xxx

In the sky at high altitudes that surpassed human reach, the Black camp at last caught sight of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

'—I see it!' Chiron called out.

'Yes, me too.' Joan agreed.

'I can see it too! Wow, it's an amazing sight no matter how many times I see it!'

'I frankly don't care since its not the original.' Rin griped her complaint out. 'History always gets distorted! The real deal is probably beautifully grand.'

'Huh?'

'King Nebuchadnezzar II, anyone?'

'Ah...'

Inwardly, Joan agreed with Rin and Astolfo.

Semiramis' Hanging Gardens could be best described as a huge, gold-shining birdcage. Seeing it fly through the sky was a wondrous sight straight out of fantasy. But its true legend was that Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens for his Median wife, Queen Amytis, because she missed the green hills and valleys of her homeland. So how the true Hanging Gardens looked was anyone's guess.

And that birdcage was protected by not only the Red Servants, but also eleven pure black plates over twenty meters in length floating around the gardens, the Tiamutomu Umu: Eleven Black Coffins which had shot Astolfo down to the ground before.

In contrast, she and the others were riding giant birds of steel flying straight towards the Hanging Gardens at full speed. Fortunately, the trajectory of the planes was extremely stable. Strangely enough, despite having been so nervous inside the plane, Ruler was now the height of calm as she stood on its roof.

It appeared that her basis of fear lay with whether or not she could see the outside scenery.

Ah, how truly like a bumpkin country girl—She even had the composure to think such foolish jokes.

But it was about time for the laughter and smiles to end. What waited ahead was every form of despair that none could laugh at. And that was precisely why she was smiling now while she could.

She smiled humorously as she thought of Astolfo, she smiled pleasantly at the charming relationship between Chiron and his Master, she smiled in admiration at the courage of Fiore's younger brother—and lastly, she wore a different smile as she thought of him.

Then, she suddenly stopped smiling.

Her gazes narrowed and turned grim. With her holy flag raised in one hand, she shouted out boldly and loudly.

'Amakusa Shiro Tokisada—!'

She yelled out his name—but the one to respond was not him, but his Servant.

'What an unsightly howl. My Master is busy accomplishing the 'salvation of humanity' with the Greater Grail. Come, you might still make it in time if you hurry, you know?'

The telepathic communication forcefully rang through her mind, annoyingly loud.

But there was more important information there to be concerned with.

'...He seriously intends to save humanity?'

In response to her question, Semiramis snickered.

'Who knows? Whatever the results of his actions are, it is no concern of mine. If you want to stop my Master, you'll have to reach him. Though...only if you manage to get past the Red Servants first!'

Suddenly, an intense light flashed through the sky from the Hanging Gardens. That incredible torrent of prana—it was the three-horse chariot ridden by Achilles, the steeds neighing as they soared through the sky.

'Chiron, your call!' Rin cried.

'Yes. Hermes' Soles, activate!' Chiron activated the command phrase of the tattoos he wore as on the sides of his ankles were wings that enabled him to fly.

He never thought that he, a four-legged centaur could fly with the help of another. Truly, a once in a lifetime experience!

He felt childish excitement because now, he can fight evenly with Achilles.

'Come, Archer of Black! It's the promised time. Let's enjoy ourselves!' Achilles called out in a glee only a warrior can have in the face of a powerful adversary.

Soaring through the dark sky in a zigzagging pattern like a huge snake, he charged at Chiron—!

xxx

Chiron's eyesight possessed clairvoyance that could accurately grasp everything even in the midst of a pitch black night, but it was next to impossible even for his eyes to follow Achilles' chariot. Whether it be strength, technique or speed, when one of these abilities in battle reached a level that far surpassed common sense, they became more than mere stat numbers—they were pure 'weapons' in their own right.

In that regard, the speed of Achilles' chariot truly was a weapon.

It was impossible to avoid and impossible to defend against, and its charging power was tremendous. It was virtually perfect in both attack and defense—one of the pinnacles of what heroes could accomplish.

Moreover, the steeds weren't ordinary horses. Two were the immortal divine hoses Xanthus and Balius, given to him by the sea god Poseidon, and the third was Pedasos, the famous horse he obtained when capturing the city of Eetion.

The chariot's name was Troias Tragoidia: Tempestuous Immortal Chariot. It was a Noble Phantasm possessing divine speed that could overtake everything in this world.

Who could possibly stop this comet that soared across the sky at light speed? Any living being that touched it would be instantly turned into crimson paste. And the same applied even to giant whale-sized precision machines created by humans.

The chariot soared up and then dropped down towards one of the airplanes like a shooting star. Naturally, he was aiming for the plane Chiron was standing on.

'I've got you!'

Achilles' yell was filled with confidence. Just as he'd said earlier, airplanes were mere scrap iron before him.

The unpleasant sound of metal tearing apart rang through the air. Its fuselage was pierced during impact and the two torn halves of the planes lost control and immediately fell toward the sea below.

He didn't even have to watch to know that it would crash against the sea and shatter into thousands of small pieces. But there was no sign of Chiron on the felled plane. Figuring he had moved to one of the other planes next to it, he temporarily stopped his chariot and looked around around—but at that instant, one of his steeds neighed.

'What...!?'

Achilles reflexively turned around—and he saw Chiron holding his bow ready and aiming straight at him. No, wrong. He had already fired an arrow!

It was virtually impossible to catch sight of an arrow shot on a night without moonlight and only the faint lights from the Hanging Gardens for illumination.

But Achilles detected the swirl of prana and slight disturbance in the air, and he swiftly turned his head to the side.

Suddenly, the sound of grating teeth rang out—Achilles smiled fearlessly. Even Chiron was left speechless by what he'd done.

Achilles had caught and crushed the arrow between his teeth. He had predicted that it was aimed for his forehead and, instead of avoiding it, stopped it head on.

'So there you are!'

He whipped at his steeds and resumed charging his 'chariot' that was more like a jackhammer.

His acceleration pierced the sound barrier in a mere instant. He flew in a spiral and ascended—and then did a sudden descent. The second plane Chiron was standing on was crushed as if by a giant fist from the heavens.

Chiron ran and jumped off the crushed plane—and simultaneously fired mores arrows as he did so. He shot three arrows in quick succession, all aimed straight at the nape Achilles' neck as he halted midair for an instant. But that wasn't enough to stop the chariot. There was no way it could be stopped.

—Just try and stop me, Archer of Black. Right now, I'm the indisputable fastest in the world!

The chariot charged as it cleaved through the darkness.

However...where is he?!

Arrows began firing at him in many directions!

'Wha?!'

He dodged the arrows in impossible directions as last he checked, Chiron's lost two footholds now! How is he doing it?!

Its impossible to tell in this pitch-black darkness!

Achilles wouldn't kill him. He would beat him. It was merely unavoidable that his opponent would die in the process. If he fought with all his strength and the result was the death of his enemy, then it couldn't be helped. His opponent was also surely excited at the prospect of beating him in return. They were fighting each other with everything they had. There was no room for sorrow there.

They ran, chased, shot and smashed. The great sage Chiron—Archer of Black—and the great hero Achilles—Rider of Red. The two Servants 'used up' yet another two jumbo jets with no hesitation at all.

In just a few short minutes, five planes had already been destroyed. There were five left. At this rate, all the planes would be felled within several minutes, and the Black camp would be forced to retire from the Great Holy Grail War as a result.

Of course, Achilles was at full strength, and even if he was reluctant for their battle to end in such a boring manner, he would still accept it as something that couldn't be helped if it decided the battle.

Chiron didn't wish for such an ending. And he knew that Achilles was using all his strength and taking advantage of the situation as well.

And then—at last, Atlanta's adjustments were completed.