"Color me impressed! To think you could repel my magecraft." Semiramis praised Astolfo.
"Sorry but I've come prepared! Your head is mine!" Astolfo declared.
"Hmph! These Hanging Gardens of Babylon seem to have been underestimated!" Semiramis exclaimed with anger as she used more powerful magecraft.
"Fall!" She said with a sadistic smile and fried astolfo making him fall to the ground as she had professed.
Satisfied with her fun, she went back inside but, much to her annoyance, Jun chose to remain in order to see the battle with his own eyes.
"Don't make that face." Jun said and gave her a bottle of wine.
"Try it, you'll feel great like never before." He added.
"Hmph!" Semiramis snorter but still took the bottle.
On her throne, she popped it open thinking, "How good can it be?" while pouring it onto a cup.
All that changed after a single sip though.
'This is most certainly divine wine!' She thought.
'How did he get his hands on something like this?' She asked herself in her mind.
'Whatever the case, there is no wine worthier of me, I shall take this into consideration for your future, Jun . . .' Semiramis thought to herself.
Meanwhile, Jeanne, who sensed Caster of Red, immediately remembered Jun's words that the master of red she sought would be either by Assassin of Red or Caster of Red's side, and she certainly felt another presence besides Caster of Red and Berserker of Black so she charged in their direction.
Semiramis, noticed this however, and tried to stop her with her chains and dragon tooth warriors. Alas, Jeaned swiftly broke the chains and the warriors were too weak to even delay her much.
Seeing this, Semiramis "tched" and made up her mind to use one or her pre prepared EX rank spells to take her out of the equation.
"Fall, Saintess or what was it." She declared with a bit of a maniacal grin as she fired.
"Jeanne immediately noticed the massive magical energy building up on the Hanging Gardens as its master prepared to fire the devastating beam.
Semiramis fired but Jeanne held strong as the beam fell on her body, devastating the surroundings but the saintess held on strongly until the bam stopped, her Magic Resistance (EX) stopping her from taking any damage.
Noticing the completely fine Jeanned, Semiramis got angry but immediately told Shriou to hurry as Ruler was heading his way and there was not way to stop her, not even a convenient Spartacus like in the original series.
Shirou was doing pretty well against Berserker of Black, with his sword, Miike Tenta Mitsuyo, having been boosted to the realm of a C rank noble phantasm by Shakespeare, he had even managed to land a few blows but with Jeanne heading his way, he swiftly elected to retreat.
Berserker of Black, Frankenstein, however even against her master's direction, stubbornly pursued him and even Shirou threw obstacles of her attack her way to cover his retreat, she was no discouraged in the slightest and so, Shirou had Caster of Red take the stage.
Using his Skill, The King's Men, which was a small scaled application of his noble phantasm, First Folio, he summoned a shadow actor without any sort of ability and controlled it to stop Frankenstein.
It worked because the image was that of Dr. Victor Frankenstein who created her and, as she cryingly beat the shadow to death, Shirou and Caster escaped.
Berserker's master was forced to use a Command Spell to calm her down and have her rejoin Rider of Black who was still injured and help him out.
After Shirou and Shakespeare returned, the Hanging Gardens began moving towards Millenia Castle for what Jun knew to be the theft of the Greater Holy Grail.
On Mordred's side, she was getting frustrated as the battle did not progress but then, Jun's heavenly voice descended upon her to better her night.
'The battle is finally moving, you can release Secret of Pedigree and move in for the kill with your full power, including your noble phantasm.'
'It's about time master!" She grinned with delight.
In the battle of Lancers, Karna sent Atalanta awai to take care of the weakened Astolfo and Frankenstein who arrived to reinforce them as he fought Vlad III it what seemed to be a battle of equals but not really since Karna used no noble phantasm other than his armor while Vlad was fighting with his full power.
Finally, the battle between Achilles and Penthesilea was approaching its end. Inside the Reality Marble, both she and Achilles were covered in wounds from the violent battle.
At first, Achilles did not want to fight but the effects of the reality marble and his own survival instinct quickly overpowered his reason.
His chariot was unusable and his spear's special ability could not be used against Penthesilea who in turn could not use her Trojan Reinforce Noble Phantasm.
As they both paused for a slight bit, the amazon queen went for the killing blow by using one of the two still useable noble phantasms.
"Outrage Amazon!"
It was the crystallization of the desire of vengeance against Achilles sleeping within Penthesilea. Her soul as a warrior that seeks strength, the blood of the War God, Ares; all of these are momentarily excited.
In terms of consciousness, she is now a beast who had thrown away all reason, transforming into a true mad warrior.
Charging ahead while shouting "ACHILLEEEESSS" , she attacked with every single weapon and body part she had, and finally went for a finishing blow by biting him, just like a beast. The ultimate Anti-Achilles killing technique.
But being overwhelmed by such an attack, before Penthesilea could deal the finishing blow, Achilles finally accepted the battle from the bottom of his heart and used his final and strongest trump card.
"Akhilleus Kosmos!"
The shield of Achilles, a Divine Construct forged by the Greek smithing god Hephaestus. It is a defensive type, Bounded Field Noble Phantasm comparable to Rho Aias, said to be able to stand against nearly any attack by deploying a miniature world.
It is the world Achilles lived in that was reproduced by Hephaestus into a miniature form in the shield, featuring swirling ocean currents on the outer circumference due to the sea god.
It is said that "to oppose this shield is the same as making the world your opponent", allowing it to protect against Anti-Unit, Anti-Army, Anti-Divine, Anti-Fortress and Anti-Country Noble Phantasms.
Something that Hephaestus likely never devised, the shield can be used to "attack"Blocking Penthesilea's puny Anti Unit attack, Achilles, aiming to crush the opponent with the miniature world continuously pushed it forward after its deployment.
What he didn't expect, was Penthesilea had a trump card of her own, ome she did not use neither in life neither in the Fate series, the very same sash her older sister Hippolyta once wore on her shoulder that was tied to Penthesilea's waist.
"Goddess of War!"
Activating, it greatly increased Penthesilea's Divinity, Strength, Endurance, Agility, and Mana parameters but strength could not exceed a certain point due to Mystery in modern society being weak. Still the current amazon was nearly as powerful as a Divine Spirit!
And so, a most macabre irony took place, as Penthesilea pushed back with near limitless strength and crushed Achilles with his own noble phantasm.
Having finally avenged her humiliation and fulfilled her great wish, Penthesilea fell powerless onto the ground but with a bright smile and tears running down her face. At this moments, she hear Jun's voice in her head.
"Well done Silea! Now rest without worry, you have earned it!" He praised and Penthesilea's smile imperceptibly grew a bit wider and softer.
Back to Mordred, after releasing Secret of Pedigree, her Mana Burst immediately got more powerful but she could now exhibit Clarent's full power. Mordred's physical parameters: Str: B+; End: A and Agi: B instantly became: Str: A+; End: EX (Quite a weak EX though) and Agi: A.
With this great of a boost in her abilities Mordred swiftly caught up to Chiron, even with his agility being greater, her enhanced Mana Burst easily tilted the balance her way and so Chiron stopped running and the real fight began.
Meanwhile, Atalanta was bullying Astolfo and Frankenstein, using her overwhelming speed that and injured Astolfo and a full power Frankenstein could not keep up with, she ran circles around them while preparing them with her arrows.
Frankenstein could counter her Phoebus Catastrophe pretty well so rather than wasting her magical energy, she opted for a such a battle of attrition, not letting the enemy escape while constantly piling on their injuries with each slight mistake on their part.
As for the battle of Lancers, with Karna not using any of his offensive Noble Phantasms, it turned into a stalemate. Even with Vladd managing to injure Karna on a couple of occasions, he still could not finish him off before the wounds were healed. Karna's armor and Mana Burst (Flame) made sure of that.
But as these battles raged on, the Hanging Gardens had reached the Millenia castle, putting a stop to all hostilities instantly a the Grail had just been stolen.
The Servants of Red were commanded to retreat, even Mordred returned at Jun's command despite her displeasure, not with Jun though, but with herself for not finishing off the enemy in the alloted time period.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!
The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.
You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.
There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!
I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.