And after so many years of writing, I finally found myself a beta reader. Thank you, Darklord331, for agreeing to proofread this story.


Chapter 32: The Third Wave, Part 2

"So that is the boss monster…"

EMIYA muttered upon seeing the monstrous ship descend from the crack in the sky. It looked like a very old two-decker with three masts, and Running next to him, Motoyasu confirmed.

"Yes, that should be the boss monster of the Wave! But the ship is just its camouflage; we need to board the ship and attack the Kraken which is on the back! When we defeat it, the real boss will emerge, and the Wave only stops after we kill it!"

Now that was troublesome. The ship was flying in the air, and it's not like EMIYA himself knew how to fly to come up there.

The army was near the clearing where the ship was in. EMIYA could see Itsuki now; the Bow Hero was planning to attack the ship with some sort of skill.

And then everything went pear-shaped in the blink of an eye.

The ship suddenly opened fire at Itsuki's party below it. And EMIYA's stomach churned when he saw Itsuki being flung into the air in a loud deafening explosion and falling to the ground like a rock. A normal human being would go "splat" when their body hit the ground from that height. He didn't know how durable Itsuki's body might have become after the earlier month of training, but surely the brat wasn't feeling good right now.

Not to mention, getting flung into the sky that high by an explosion meant that the boy had been standing very close to the center of the explosion itself. The force of the shockwave alone would be enough to burst his heart already, no need for anything else.

"Farrie!"

The priestess blinked when she heard her name called. "Yes, sense—Kyaa!?"

That scream of surprise was because she suddenly felt her body swept up into a bridal carry by her teacher. The Sword Hero looked at her with a serious face.

"Brace yourself; we're going to move quickly."

She nodded weakly; her face was bright red. Even though he was just like her second father, she's still a teenage girl, sensei!

"Good. Then, Flash Step!"

And she felt her stomach lurching forward when they leaped across the air and landed in the middle of the battlefield. The Sword Hero gently put her down, and she stood up, a little bit dizzy from the sudden movement.

And she nearly jumped upon realizing that the Bow Hero was lying unconscious on the ground right next to her feet. The boy looked like every bone in his body had been shattered, and he was barely breathing. If he wasn't healed immediately, he's surely going to die.

Farrie immediately knew what she needed to do. She glanced at her teacher. "Sensei, please cover me when I'm healing him!"

Of course EMIYA didn't need her to ask. Noticing the newcomers, the ghost ship had now directed its attention towards the Sword Hero and the priestess. The cannons that had just delivered the rain of cannonballs on Itsuki were now all pointing at the ex-Counter Guardian.

The gears inside EMIYA's head spun furiously. Those cannonballs shot by the ship had explosives inside them, just like those missile warheads he had seen in his world. He didn't know how the hell it could happen, but he knew for a fact that he could not let them hit the ground.

"Housenka!" he yelled and swung the Legendary Sword in a wide arc. A wave of fireballs shot out and intercepted the cannonballs in midair, just like what he did against Larsazusa's bamboo spears in his battle against her. The balls of fire collided with the balls of steel, and the air pressure coming from the explosions was so terrible it pushed the Sword Hero down on his knee.

But he knew this could only be used as a temporary counter. He could not do this all day, and it seemed the boss, just like every boss monster he had faced before, had an infinite number of those cannonballs to rain down on their heads. And there, just as he was thinking, the ship sent another volley on the battlefield. The goddamned thing didn't even care about what it would hit; what it cared about was to cause as much destruction as possible!

"Farrie! Are you okay?" he glanced back at his disciple, but she didn't answer him. All her attention was on the boy on the ground in front of her.

"Dritte Heal!" she chanted, and a bright green light covered Itsuki's body, healing all his wounds and broken bones. But he had lost consciousness; even with his body healed, he was not going to wake up immediately. Even though she was a genius in magic, Farrie was still not good enough to cast the revival spell, the one that the King had cast the other day at the court.

"Fueeeeeeeh! Is-is Itsuki-sama okay?!"

EMIYA and Farrie turned their heads toward the direction of the new voice. The girl wearing the kigurumi they met earlier was stumbling toward them. The suit looked tattered now after the bombardment, but the girl didn't seem to be injured too badly. She took off the animal head hood of the outfit, revealing her rather pretty face with long, braided green hair.

"He's okay for now," Farrie told the girl as she cast another healing spell on her. "But he's in no condition to fight now! You need to take him and bring him to safety; we cannot leave him here in the middle of the battlefield like this!"

The green-haired girl nodded furiously. "Fueeeeehh…! I'll take Itsuki-sama! Please heal the others, too; I think Mald-sama also got hit!"

"Down!"

The two girls were startled when EMIYA yelled out and jumped on them, pressing them to the ground and throwing the cloak of the Champion's Garb over all of them as the ghost ship unleashed another volley on the battlefield. The four people were once again thrown into the air, but this time, the incredible defensive capability of EMIYA's armor protected them from the worst consequences. They bounced and rolled on the ground, a little bit disoriented, but were otherwise unharmed.

EMIYA jumped back up on his feet almost immediately. He pulled Itsuki's body up by the collar and threw it unceremoniously at the two girls while yelling. "Get Itsuki to safety now!" The Legendary Sword turned into its Ascalon form, and he yelled at the ghost ship while running in the opposite direction of the two girls. "Hey, ugly! I'm your opponent! Come at me!"

Hate Reaction seemed effective; the monstrous pirate ship slowly turned toward the Sword Hero's direction, ignoring the two girls. The cannons on it opened fire again, but EMIYA had anticipated it. He deflected another volley with Housenka again while cursing in his breath.

Damn it… We need to disable those cannons as quickly as possible, or else we're all going to die here!

He didn't expect to find this kind of enemy. Doing something like this was no different from trying to fight a strategic bomber with a hunting shotgun. But he still needed to do it, at least until Farrie and the green-haired girl finished evacuating Itsuki's party from the battlefield!

"Leave it to me! Aiming Javelin!"

Motoyasu's voice rose from the other side of the clearing. He had arrived together with the other members of the army, and he seemed to know what he needed to do. He dashed toward the ship like a whirlwind and hefted his Spear over his head. And with a roar, he arched his back and launched the attack. The Legendary Spear flew across the air like a bullet, and from the tip, sixteen beams of energy shot out and destroyed the cannons on the starboard of the ship with utmost precision, before the Spear itself hit the ship with a loud "boom", making it swerve dangerously in the air.

"Good job, Motoyasu!" EMIYA yelled at the Spear Hero. Turned out the blonde wasn't half bad; the ex-Counter Guardian had expected him to do something stupid again.

Taking the chance, the army immediately scattered and took cover behind rocks, trees, and anything that might protect them from the worst impact of the bombardments. It's not like there were a lot of things like that, though; the battlefield was an underdeveloped plain with almost nothing that could be used as an obstacle, just like Naofumi had said.

But this wasn't the time to stand there and think about that.

Each part of the ghost ship had its own bar of HP, from what EMIYA could see. The last attack from Motoyasu had already depleted the HP of the cannons, but somehow, they seemed to be growing back as he watched. Very quickly.

And it seemed the ship had gotten bored of trying to hurt the Heroes below. It veered away from the battlefield, and turned its target toward… the village.

Goddamn it…

"We need to board the ship!" Motoyasu yelled while shooting more Aiming Lancer shots into the air in an attempt to attract the attention of the boss monster. The beams of light struck the cannonballs raining down his head and detonated them in midair, making another symphony of explosions. "The only way to stop this ship is to defeat the boss monster hiding inside it!"

Easier said than done, EMIYA thought. If they wanted to go up there, flying was the best way. Among them, only Wyndia could do that; with her special staff, she could generate wings made of energy to fly, as she had done during the Wave in Zeltoble. There were other ways such as grappling hooks, but there's no way those cannons would let them climb up easily.

He did a quick calculation, then yelled out commands to the army. "Wyndia! Fly up there and draw the attention of the boss with your magic! Try to damage it as much as possible if you can! Welt, you and the archers and mages, support us with your range attacks from below! DO NOT LET THE BOSS LEAVE THIS BATTLEFIELD!"

The two youngsters of Team EMIYA nodded in confirmation. A large pair of wings made of pure magical energy appeared on Wyndia's back, and the girl soared into the sky toward the ghost ship with her staff brandished. Behind her, seven balls of light hovered in the air, which started bombarding the ship with beams of magical energy on the starboard.

"Hey, ugly! Over here!" she taunted, and the cannons on the starboard all turned toward the flying dog girl. They started shooting at her, but the girl was too nimble and quick for any of the cannonballs to hit. She had taken the lessons from EMIYA very seriously: the duty of a mage was trying their best not to be hit while hitting back at the enemy with the fastest magic that they had. Some of the rare cannonballs that managed to catch her were stopped dead on their track very effectively by the magical shield she raised around her.

From below, the archer of the team was also ready. "Fire at will!" he yelled, and drawing an arrow from the new quiver given to him by Erhard, he fired it at the ship with his Focus Shot technique. The arrow flew a straight line in the air and stabbed itself into the hull of the ship, then promptly exploded with a deafening "bang". The boss monster might not be able to feel a tiny arrow stabbing it at the hull, but even a huge warship will notice it if someone detonates a grenade on its side. Indeed, the explosion wasn't enough to deal significant damage to the hull, but it seemed to work on drawing the attention of the ship… or anything that was haunting it. On cue, the other archers and mages of the battalion also unleashed their own arrows and spells at the boss. Being bombarded from two sides, it seemed that the ship didn't know which target it should focus on anymore.

Knowing this was his only chance, EMIYA turned toward his two last companions.

"Tersia, Fohl, get ready! We're going to board the ship!"

The Legendary Sword in his hand changed into the form of a curved blade which looked like a kukri. This was the sword he acquired at Erhard's when he let the Legendary Sword absorb a roll of rope, and one of the swords he had maximized the potential by upgrading.

[Name: Rope Sword – Quality: Rare – Base Power: 25]

[Agility +10. Endurance +10. Strength +10.]

[Skill unlocked: Erste Bash (MASTERED), Chain Skill: Zweite Bash (MASTERED) (Prerequisite: Erste Bash), Chain Skill: Dritte Bash (MASTERED) (Prerequisite: Zweite Bash)]

[Unique Skill: Hook - UNLOCKED.]

[Proficiency: MAX]

[Unlocked at Level 5 – UNLOCKED]

He reinforced his right arm to the maximum possible, and arching his back as if drawing a bow, he threw the sword into the air, toward the ghost ship. The sword flew a brilliant arc in the air and tied the rope on its hilt around the bow. Tersia and Fohl grabbed onto him, and the rope started retracting, pulling the Sword Hero and his companions towards the ship like an elevator.

EMIYA would appreciate it if his companions were a little less heavy, though. When they finally reached the board, his arms were starting to get numb.

And he grimaced when he found out what was waiting for him on board.

"Well I'll be damned."

The whole deck was infested by the undead. Hordes of skeletons wielding machetes, spears and bows stumbled sluggishly around the floor, and they all turned their heads at the same time upon the arrival of Team EMIYA on board.

This wasn't the first time EMIYA fought those skeleton warriors, of course. Alone, those wicked undead creatures, no, creations, were weak and easy to kill; he had faced - and destroyed without much effort, of course - a lot of these things during the countless magical wars he was pulled to in the past. But if they were allowed to gather into a big army, there's no telling what would happen.

Motoyasu said that they needed to kill the Kraken at the back of the ship. And indeed, there was a giant squid-like monster hanging at the bridge right now. And it meant they would have to get past this army of skeletons in order to reach it.

The three fighters immediately sprang into action. Fohl's fists embedded themselves in the skulls of three skeleton warriors with spears and swords, shattering them as if they were made of crackers. Tersia's giant sword swept apart five soldiers sluggishly charging at her, turning them into a bunch of broken bones. And EMIYA swung Daitsuuren in a horizontal slash in front of him, sending a wave of water at the skeleton soldiers in front of him, which promptly collapsed. The frontline of the skeleton army was cleared so easily and quickly.

But then, to the team's horror…

The skeleton monsters started building themselves back up. The bone fragments on the floor started moving on your own and reassembled themselves back into their original forms, and the destroyed skeletons stood back up as if nothing happened.

Oh, great…

EMIYA immediately realized what was going on. He smashed apart a skeleton in front of him and backtracked to the ship's front end. He yelled. "Fohl, Tersia, back down and hold your position! Smashing them up is useless, we need another plan!"

Hearing their teacher, the two warriors immediately compelled and retreated to where he was standing. Tersia gritted her teeth.

"It's just like the Hydra in Zeltoble, isn't it?"

EMIYA shook his head. "The regeneration thing, yes, but there's no way these things could compare to that Hydra in terms of power. But unless we can find a way to destroy them once and for all completely, we're just going to waste our strength."

A noise rose behind them. Motoyasu had also found a way to get on board. The only person with him was the short-haired brunette who fought the monsters with her sword earlier. There was no sign of Malty or the other girl.

"Motoyasu!" EMIYA yelled. "You know things about this, don't you? How can we kill these things?"

"The Kraken!" Motoyasu yelled back. "What we need to kill is the Kraken in the back for the real boss to appear! If we destroy the real boss, they're going to stop functioning by themselves!"

EMIYA grimaced. Could he trust Motoyasu this time?

He switched the Legendary Sword to his right hand. "Then we need to open a way. All of you, get ready! I will open a path for all of us, but we need to be fast! There's only one chance before they recover!"

Then he brought the sword down in a downward slash. "Thousand Blades!"

The storm of blades tore apart the skeleton army in front of them as if they were made of paper in the blink of an eye. Just like before, the skeletons started regenerating, but the swords raining down at them didn't let any of them finish their recovery. The more they tried to recover, the faster the swords tore them apart. After all, without the regeneration ability, these skeletons were just cannon fodders, no more, no less. Soon enough, a trail littered with skeleton bits opened up in front of the group of five.

"Move!" EMIYA roared, and the three members of Team EMIYA, Motoyasu and his lone companion rushed forward at full speed. The storm of blades stopped and the skeleton army started building themselves back up again, but the group had already managed to cross the distance before they could finish regenerating.

EMIYA turned back to face the skeleton army behind them. "Motoyasu! You take care of that Kraken; we'll hold this back for you! Use whatever skill you have; just finish it quickly!"

Motoyasu didn't need EMIYA to tell him. With a roar, he leaped at the Kraken, which was veering its eyes to glare at the newcomers. One of its tentacles lashed out, aiming at Motoyasu, but the Spear Hero deflected it with his spear and retaliated with his own skill.

"Lightning Spear!" he yelled, and an arc of electricity shot out from the tip of the Legendary Spear and struck the attacking tentacle. It recoiled from the impact and shriveled away, but to Motoyasu's shock, more tentacles appeared to replace the destroyed one. The Spear Hero had to duck to the side as the slimy appendages pierced through the wooden floor he had been standing on.

"Tsk…! Then how about this! Piercing Thrust!" Motoyasu snarled and thrust the spear forward. A burst of energy shot out from the spear's tip toward the Kraken's body, and the monster had to raise its tentacles in front of itself to block. But the burst of energy pierced clean through the appendages and struck the body at full force; the skill had defense-piercing power. Not even stopping there, the attack drilled through the body vengefully, leaving a big hole on the monster's body. No matter what kind of regenerative ability it has, no monster can live with such a wound on its body! And its HP bar has already depleted to 0!

But…

"No way…!"

To Motoyasu's horror, the gaping hole in the monster's body was closing up. Very quickly. In a mere moment, there was no sign that there had ever been a wound on the monster anymore. Worse, the HP bar, which had just completely depleted a second ago, shot back to full in the blink of an eye. And more tentacles lashed out and threatened to strangle Motoyasu.

Luckily for him, his companion was there to save the day. She dashed in, and with a quick swing of her rapier, which was now covered in wind energy, she cut off the tentacle aiming for the Spear Hero, and spinning on her heels, she threw herself backward, but not before slicing off two more tentacles, which was impressive, considering that a rapier isn't usually a weapon used for slashing. Taking the chance, Motoyasu took a few steps back, making a distance between himself and the monster's tentacles. He breathed out.

"Thank you, Elena-chan…"

"What the hell are you doing, Motoyasu?!" From behind them, EMIYA shouted when slashing down another skeleton, which almost immediately recovered. "You said you knew what you were doing! Why haven't you finished it?! We can't hold on for much longer!"

Sure, EMIYA and his party were indeed strong, but their stamina was not limitless; Tersia and Fohl were starting to wear out from fighting the skeleton army without any result. Motoyasu yelled back at him in frustration.

"I'm trying! I did kill it, but it keeps reviving itself for some reason! I swear that I saw its HP become zero! Meteor Thrust!"

He stabbed the Legendary Spear into the deck, and the wave of star coming from his skill went through the Kraken's body again. Its dying screech was cut off abruptly as its HP bar hit zero again. But then, it refilled once more, and even more tentacles sprouted out from the sides of the ship as the giant monster came back to life, once again. "Oh come on! Just stay dead already!"

EMIYA cursed in his breath. Now that he saw what Motoyasu was doing, he knew that the dude was not lying; he had tried his best, but the problem was that the monster just refused to die. Is this thing a fucking Dead Apostle or something?! Hell, considering how the Hydra appeared in Zeltoble as a boss, this motherfucker might as well be a real Dead Apostle, for all he knew!

If he knew exactly what the hell the enemy was, there might be something in Unlimited Blade Works that could help. But that's the thing; he needed to know exactly what the enemy was. He only had one shot, and he still didn't know whether that "true boss" Motoyasu said even existed or not.

"Motoyasu! Is there any other way to lure that "true boss" of yours out?"

The Spear Hero looked clearly flustered. "I-I don't know! I mean, from what I know, it wasn't supposed to be like this! Killing the Kraken should have been enough to lure it out!"

"But what the hell is that true boss?! Like, what does it look like? How do we fight it if it appears?"

Motoyasu's eyebrow scrunched as he deflected another strike from the tentacles while trying to find the words to describe the supposedly true boss. "It is the Interdimensional Soul Eater! Physical attacks cannot harm it, so the only way to defeat it is with magic! It should look like, eh, a blob of black smoke with a big mouth and shaped like a fish… a ghost fish… right?"

"Now you're asking me?!"

But that gave EMIYA an idea. If what Motoyasu said was true…

He took a deep breath and started organizing the ideas in his head.

If it is something like what Motoyasu has just said, it must be a Spirit-type monster. The type that is immune to physical attacks, and only magic could harm them… a ghost. And a ghost doesn't have a physical body. It is very difficult for a spiritual body to affect a material body, and in order to do that, a ghost must find a way to acquire a material body, maybe with the same materializing method as Servants… or by possessing another physical body, to control it and make it fight instead.

This meant that this ship, the Kraken, the skeleton army… they might all be just parts of that physical body, what it possesses and controls in order to move freely around.

And if that was the case… the real body, the spiritual body of the monster, must be hiding somewhere nearby… somewhere close enough for it to watch over the movements of the ones fighting it, while still covert enough no one could find it or force it to emerge easily…

He swept his eyes around the battlefield once more. Where could that be…?

And then he saw it. Within the shadows of the skeleton army, there were eyes. Very small and easy to miss, but he clearly saw blood-red, sparkling eyesmingling within the shadows of the skeletons.

Everything clicked into place at that very moment. Of course, that's how it was; the boss, according to Motoyasu, was a ghost, and hiding in the shadows of something and controlling it is something EMIYA had seen from a lot of ghost spirits he had fought in the past. And by hiding in the shadows of the army that was fighting the Heroes, it would be able to conceal itself in plain sight very effectively while still observing the battlefield from every shadow it was hiding in!

And that was also why it chose this ship to be its body. With all these masts, sails and everything, there would be plenty of shadows for it to hide in, even when the sun was high over their heads.

Therefore… if he wants to pull that thing out of its hiding place, destroying parts of it isn't enough. He must destroy it so thoroughly that it doesn't have any shadow left to hide in.

And if he wants to do that…

He pulled something out of the Legendary Sword's inventory. It was a pouch made of leather full of something that looked like colorful stones. He glanced at Wyndia, who was hovering nearby shooting beams of energy at the ship. "Wyndia! I need your help!"

The girl dashed through the army of skeletons, knocking some of them off board before landing next to EMIYA. "Yes?"

"I'm going to try something. This is something only I can do, so—"

What the Sword Hero didn't expect was that the dog girl suddenly grabbed his collar and pulled it so hard her face was now right in front of his.

"Oh no you don't," she snarled. "I'm not going to let you pull something like last time. No way in hell you're going to throw yourself into the hands of Death in front of me again!"

If this were some other times, EMIYA wouldn't hesitate to throw a quip at the dog girl. But this was a serious moment and there was no time for snarking. He calmly pried the girl's hands off his collar and looked straight into her eyes.

"I know. That is why I need you to get back here to cover me after you finish bringing everyone off the ship. Here," he put the pouch in his hand in Wyndia's hand. "I need you to fly around the ship and stick these on the ship's body. Anywhere you can reach, as quickly as possible. Can you do that?"

Wyndia opened the pouch. And her eyes widened when she saw what was inside it. She understood immediately what he was planning; she was the one who prepared this with him the other day, after all. "So you're going to…"

"Yeah," the Sword Hero nodded. "You know what to do."

Those words were enough for her. Her eyes hardened, and she said.

"Then you'd better hold on until I return, do you hear me?"

Then she turned towards Tersia, Fohl, Motoyasu and his companion. "You all brace yourself! We're going to fly out of here now!"

She pointed her staff at them and chanted a single word, "Float". Immediately, the four felt their bodies being lifted up from the floor; Tersia and Fohl, having gotten used to this magic when they were in Zeltoble, didn't find it to be any problem, but Motoyasu and his companion hadn't experienced something like this before, so they kept flailing around in midair in a funny way. Spreading her energy wings, Wyndia lifted herself up and grabbed the two flopping people by their collars, and the two other members of Team EMIYA grabbed them by their ankles.

"Wow…" Motoyasu looked at the dog girl in awe and admiration. "You're… an angel…"

Wyndia snapped at him in disgust. "Stop it with those eyes, you creep!"

And with that, the five flew away. EMIYA turned back to the skeleton army in front of him. He pulled out another similar pouch from his inventory, also full of something that looked like colorful pebbles… no, gemstones, just like the pouch he had just given to Wyndia. He switched the Legendary Sword to his right hand and grabbed a handful of gemstones in the pouch.

"Let's turn you into a big firework."

Then with those words, he dashed into the middle of the army of skeletons. The blade of the Legendary Sword drew curves after curves in the air, tearing apart the skeletons like hot iron cutting into butter. With each of his steps, a stone fell out of his hand onto the wooden board below. But that's not the end. Reinforcing his legs with magical energy, he dashed up the ship's masts, and with each step, a gemstone was pinned on the wood with his magical energy. And the sail. And the ropes tying everything together. He dashed across the ship's rigging like a spider, throwing gems after gems at any place he could reach. Soon, the whole ship looked like it was lit up with glittering gemstones of all colors.

Below, Wyndia was also working. After safely landing the other four on the ground, she took off again, this time with the duty the Sword Hero had just given her. She flew around the ship and stuck the gemstones in her own pouch on the hull of the construct. The ship tried to shoot her down with its cannons again, but she was so close to it the cannonballs just soared over her head harmlessly. The wooden oars, the body, the cannons, even the body of the Kraken… all were soon covered in gems.

She yelled up. "I'm done!"

And EMIYA took it as his cue. He jumped off the rigging, into the open arms of Wyndia below him. She deftly caught him with a smirk.

"Boom?"

He smirked back. "Yeah, boom."

And the whole ship was lit up like a giant firework in the air.

EMIYA's ex-Master, Rin, was adept in Jewel Magecraft. She could store mana in tiny gemstones to perform magic with enough power to match that of ancient magi from the Age of Gods. Having acted as her Servant, and having spent time around the goddesses possessing her body, Ishtar and Ereshkigal, in Chaldea, it was obvious that EMIYA also knew some things about this type of Magecraft. Learning something like that to use properly in battle was still something he never managed to do, though.

However, even though he couldn't use it, there was still something he managed to learn. A gemstone packed with mana, even if not being used for magic, could still be a very powerful and effective grenade. And thankfully, thanks to the mining activity he had done to gather materials to upgrade his swords… he now possessed a HUGE storage of them.

A giant fireball engulfed the monstrous vessel as every gemstone detonated simultaneously with a gigantic "BOOM". The force of the explosion was so great it blew Wyndia and EMIYA, who were hanging onto each other in midair, all the way to the ground, and would have injured them badly if they hadn't thought of reinforcing their bodies and clothes before that. The whole ship was blown to kingdom come; the only remains of what used to be a two-decker were just some bits of burning wood and cloth. Everything was exposed to the harsh sunlight above their heads; it was reaching noon, and there wouldn't be any shadow left to cover the boss!

The air was suddenly filled with an orchestra of loud screeches, as if thousands of bells were ringing up at the same time. And from tiny bits of shadows from the ship's remains, blobs of ghostly smoke with red eyes leaped out and gathered up into a much bigger fish-like creature made of black smoke in midair. It writhed in the air in what was seemingly pain; it seemed that being exposed to harsh sunlight at noon like this hurt it.

"There it is!" Motoyasu yelled excitedly. "The Interdimensional Soul Eater! If we kill this, the Wave is going to end!"

The gigantic monster snarled in rage. Its gaping mouth full of smoky teeth snapped open, and something formed between the two rows of teeth—a big sphere… made of pure shadow.

EMIYA's eyes widened.

"Dawn Lion!" he yelled, and swung the Legendary Sword forward as the ball of darkness left the mouth of the Soul Eater and flew at the army with the speed of a cannonball. The lion head made of fire shot out and intercepted the ghostly cannonball in midair, causing a deafening explosion and sending embers everywhere. The force of the explosion was so immense everyone, even though they were all standing more than fifty meters away from the monster, was knocked down onto their butts by the shockwave alone.

The interdimensional Soul Eater seemed to notice how effective its attack had been, as it was already producing another ball of black magic. If someone got hit by that shadow cannonball, chances that there wouldn't even be a corpse for them to gather.

"Scatter!" EMIYA yelled, but no one needed his command anyway. They had all scrambled away before the deadly projectile shot out of the monster's mouth again and left a smoking crater on the ground behind where the army had been standing just a few seconds ago.

Everyone started throwing attacks at the humongous Soul Eater. Magic, arrows, poison, skills, physical attacks, whatever they could throw at the boss monster. However, the regenerative power of the monster was simply too powerful. No matter how much they damaged it, it always managed to reverse them in a split second. It felt just like time just turned itself backward whenever there was any damage appearing on the monster's body.

This couldn't go on. Even though the monster was severely weakened by the sun above, it was still immensely powerful. They couldn't afford to prolong this battle anymore. If they didn't do something now, noon would pass, and shadows would appear again… and if that was the case, he wasn't sure if they could drag this thing out again.

With that incredible recovery power, there's no way they could wear it out and then kill it after exhausting it, like they usually did to other strong monsters. The only way to kill it was to overwhelm its recovery with a strike that would completely destroy it in one single hit.

With a deafening roar, the monster made a grandeur spin in midair. The sudden movement threw everyone around it off their feet and flung them away. Then, it turned its target to Motoyasu, who was standing closest to it.

EMIYA's stomach went cold. There's no way Motoyasu would be able to withstand something like that shadow cannonball at point blank.

Even Motoyasu realized that he was in danger. His eyes widened, and he tried to scramble away, but there was no way he would be able to escape in time. The ball of darkness was launched at the Spear Hero with full vengeance; he's going to be blown to smithereens…!

"Air Strike Shield! Zweite Shield! Dritte Shield!"

Three layers of energy shield suddenly appeared in front of Motoyasu right before the ball of darkness could land on the Spear Hero. It exploded violently and threw the blonde away, but the shields had protected him from the worst consequences. He stood up groggily, his ears were ringing, but at least he wasn't dead yet. Taking that opportunity, his companion Elena immediately pulled him away from danger.

Naofumi's team landed next to EMIYA on the backs of his three filolial daughters. The Shield Hero and his party had just arrived in time to save Motoyasu from his certain demise.

"Wow, that looks dangerous," the Shield Hero noted looking at the boss monster, who was snarling in anger upon getting its kill stolen. "If it can cause Shirou-san of all people problems, surely it isn't something easy to beat."

The gears inside EMIYA's head spun furiously.

"Naofumi!" he yelled. "Can you hold that thing in place for a few minutes? I'm going to finish it in one hit, but I need some time to prepare!"

The Shield Hero nodded. "I don't know, but I'll try!"

He dashed forward with the Chimera Viper Shield in his hand and launched a Shield Bash at the monster. Suddenly getting a shield in the face, the monster was thrown back a few steps in daze and confusion. But Naofumi didn't stop there.

"Chain Shield! Shield Prison! Shield Prison!"

Immediately, the monster was locked inside the ball of shields, which was then chained to the ground by numerous chains appearing out of thin air. The shield ball rattled furiously as the monster tried to get away, but there was no way it could escape from a skill of the Legendary Shield that easily. Naofumi glanced back at EMIYA.

"Do it, Shirou-san!"

EMIYA closed his eyes. He reached deep inside Unlimited Blade Works and grabbed the blueprint of one of the strongest swords he had in his arsenal.

I am the bone of my sword.

This monster was a ghost-type spirit, so the best way to eradicate it was to use a holy attack… a holy sword. Excalibur was out of the question, of course, but there were other holy swords in the history of humankind… ones that EMIYA had managed to record in Unlimited Blade Works, and could pull out without killing himself in the process.

He glanced at the sky. It was high noon right now. It is the perfect time for that sword to bring out its full potential.

The shape of a sword started forming in between his fingers. The holy sword of unparallel sharpness wreathed in fire, containing inside it a piece of the sun itself. The sister sword of Excalibur, hidden in the shadow of the mythical fairy blade. Just by holding it in his hands, EMIYA could already feel victory coming.

"Everyone! Get out of the way!" he yelled, but no one even needed him to tell them. Just by looking at the sword in the Sword Hero's hand, no one wanted to stay in the way to know what it would do to them if the incoming attack hit. Even the Interdimensional Soul Eater could feel what was coming. It struggled furiously inside the shield ball, terrified of what was coming, but there was no way it could escape.

"Holy sword of the stars, swing once again!" EMIYA bellowed, and brought the sword down in a vertical slash. "EXCALIBUR GALATINE!"

The holy flame of the sun shot out and engulfed the captured monster with a deafening explosion. Even though the Projected sword was just a very, very inferior version of the holy sword of the sun, the power and the heat coming from it were still so intense everyone standing in the clearing could feel their skin getting scorched when the attack landed. The Soul Eater was completely erased from existence together with the prison of shields locking it up, and the radius of ten meters around it soon turned into a smoking glassy crater.

"Holy shit…" Naofumi exclaimed in awe.

EMIYA allowed his body to fall to the ground as the Projected Excalibur Galatine disappeared into grains of aether. Even though the holy sword of Sir Gawain couldn't compare to Excalibur in terms of power and depth of Mystery, it was still a holy sword owned by the Lady of the Lake, a sword containing enough power to destroy armies. Projecting it had drained him of most of his magical energy; his body was screaming in pain from overusing mana. But it was more than worth it; there was no way that monster could recover from something like that.

Everyone gathered around him. Naofumi offered him a bottle of healing potion, and he gladly took it with a gulp. Immediately, he felt his body somewhat rejuvenated. He looked at Naofumi. "Thanks, Naofumi."

The Shield Hero shook his head. "It's nothing. There's no way something like this could compare to what you have just done, right? Can't believe you even have something like that in your arsenal."

"It's not something I can throw around haphazardly, though," EMIYA reminded him. "One single swing of that cost me everything in my body. I don't think I can afford to fight anything else in this state for now."

The Shield Hero winced. "So it's like a cursed sword, huh."

"More like holy sword to be honest, but yeah, potato, potahtoh," the Sword Hero answered him and allowed himself to fall back to the ground to relax. Now that the boss was destroyed, the Wave was going to end…

…wasn't it?

"Wait a minute. Why hasn't the Wave ended?"

It seemed that Naofumi was sharing that question with him. The two looked at Motoyasu, who also looked confused by the unexpected situation.

"D-don't look at me!" he exclaimed with a flustered voice. "I don't know anything about this, either! The Wave was supposed to end after the boss was destroyed!"

"Most impressive. I didn't think that you would have the power to destroy that Soul Eater without my intervention. It was a merge of two normal Interdimensional Soul Eaters, so it was supposed to be at least twice as strong as a normal one. And yet you destroyed it in one blow. You must be a true Hero, indeed."

That gentle, but cold, voice pierced the air like a knife. EMIYA immediately leaped back on his feet, the Legendary Sword in his hands turned into the twin blades of Gaelion's Wrath.

This sudden chill he was feeling… was not normal. He swept his eyes around the clearing, and found the source.

A lone woman was standing in the middle of the battlefield. No one even knew when she arrived there; she just… appeared, like a ghost in the wind. She was wearing a deep black kimono embroided with silver, similar to the type people usually wear to funerals. In a world similar to the European Middle Ages, she stuck out like a sore thumb. And if EMIYA's eyes didn't deceive him… that kimono, no, her whole body seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, as if they were somehow… transparent. Her hair was long and jet-black, as if it were part of the night sky. If anything, he would say that she looked like a ghost.

But what drew EMIYA's attention the most was the weapon she was holding. It was a hand fan made of metal, similar to the type samurai in Japan used to practice tessenjutsu. A weapon like that could be very dangerous in the hands of a skilled fighter. And this particular fan…

EMIYA's stomach felt like it had just been dropped into an ice box. No… could it be…?

He pointed the right blade of Gaelion's Wrath at the woman. "Who the hell are you?"

The woman nodded without smiling. "Ah, pardon me. From what you're holding, you must be the Legendary Sword Hero. How impolite of me."

She raised her weapon and hid her mouth behind the blade. "My name is Glass. Now, time to die."


And the second part of the Third Melromarc Wave.

Some people might wonder how EMIYA could Trace Excalibur Galatine while it was impossible for him to do that with Excalibur and Avalon. And my answer is, in the Extra continuity, Nameless was able to do that, quite casually actually, within UBW. It wasn't even considered a listed skill; it was just him Projecting it to slash at the enemies. And my opinion about this is, the deeper the Mystery level of the weapon is, the harder it is for him to Trace. Excalibur is something too famous and has too big of a role in the history of humankind in Nasuverse, therefore no one could recreate it without losing their life, or under very specific conditions, such as whatever special conditions for wrought iron in the Moon Cell, or that advanced exploit Kuro did in Kaleid. Excalibur Galatine though is much less well-known as a holy sword and has its legend hidden in the shadow of Excalibur, so it might be possible for EMIYA to Trace it, possibly even outside of UBW. Not to mention, unlike Excalibur, Excalibur Galatine is actually CONFIRMED to have a prototype. What is it? Caladbolg. And EMIYA can Project Caladbolg pretty easily, so it's natural if he was able to Project its newer version. However, because of its nature as a holy sword, EMIYA would still have to exhaust himself trying to Project it.

Glass appeared. After exhausting himself against the Wave boss, how is EMIYA going to deal with her?

Find out about it in the next chapter.