บท 56: Grand Longinus
"Servant Lancer. Lucius Longinus. A voice called out to me and I listened."
Longinus…?
Lucius Longinus, the soldier who pierced the side of Christ? The same soldier who possessed what is seen as one of the four holy relics of the most popular faith in the modern world?
The Holy Lance. The Spear of Destiny. Longinus.
I felt a chill run down my spine. If I remember correctly, a Servant's power scales directly with how well they're known. Compared to King Arthur, the Bible is far more well-known. In fact, the Bible is both the first book ever printed by the printing press (which led to the Protestant Reformation) and the most printed book in the history of the world. Billions are estimated to be in circulation.
Arguably, Lucius' spear is far more well-known than King Arthur's Excalibur. And Excalibur, with the planet's help was able to defeat the White Titan. How powerful then, is his spear?
For the first time, I stopped taking the enemy in front of me casually as if they were a fly. There is a non-zero chance that his spear would actually harm me. He would be the strongest enemy I've fought here in the Grand Order.
"Longinus? Well, that's an unexpected Servant—"
*Swish*
The speed at which Longinus moved was faster than any Servant I've ever met. So fast that I think even Archer would struggle to follow.
The Spear of Destiny was a centimeter away from actually touching the Demon God Pillar.
I was mesmerized by the spear. It was a thing of beauty, its potential for destruction only accentuates its beauty.
"Do not presume that I fight because I desire to see human history burned. I answered the summon because of a voice. Not your voice, but someone far superior to you, Daemonium." Longinus spat out that last word with such intensity that it felt out of place on the kind-looking man.
Then, the spear distanced itself from Flauros.
"But, I will listen to you in the meantime. You wished for her death, yes?" Lucius turned to me. "Altera, was it? Though you would normally be my natural enemy, I think we can have a truce in the face of such an enemy, non est iustum?"
Altera didn't reply. Instead, she opted to stare at me with an analyzing gaze.
Longinus took this silence as agreement.
A look of determination appeared as I recognized how this wouldn't be a cakewalk like in Orleans.
I moved first. I threw a casual punch to test the water.
"Hrm."
Lucius raised up his shield and actually managed to block my attack. The collision between my fist and his shield created a massive explosion of wind that pushed him back by a few centimeters.
Seeing a window of opportunity present, Longinus thrust his spear at my chest fast enough to create a sonic boom.
While a spear may have an extensive range, its downside is the relatively tiny lethal tip.
"Connecting with Mars. Firing in two seconds."
I only had to step to the side to avoid Longinus' thrust.
There, with the man in range, I moved to grab him—
*VEEEEEEM*
A massive barrage of destructive magical energy, larger than the previous one, came from Flauros and sent me backward. Enveloped by a collection of smoke, I was blinded across most of the electromagnetic spectrum.
However, by feeling the flow of wind in the air, I could 'see' how Lucius used this apparent opportunity to try and get in another stab.
Just like last time I sidestepped out of the way. There, with the spear tip behind me, I went and grabbed its length— "Ow!"
The Holy Lance rejected me. Phantasmal spikes emerged from the lance like a whale surfacing in the ocean and pricked my hand, easily piercing through my skin like nothing before it.
That actually hurt! Well, it didn't hurt hurt, just a bit of pain comparable to a needle piercing a human's skin, or perhaps the same as those magnetic monoples shot out by Captain Sarah Hughes.
There weren't any distortions in space. That means this spear wasn't like a Topological Defect that disrupts matter. The Holy Lance was sharp enough to get through my skin by its own merit and the force Lucius inputted behind his strikes.
"<Tear Drop Photon Ray: Star of Tears, Sword of the War God>"
I could sense the rapid approaching of a massive deluge of divine power upon my position above me. It was like a smite from god, a laser from the heavens, the manifestation of war itself.
I would rather not be in the range of that.
Just as I flew to get out of the way, a second barrage from Flauros threw me back by a meter. Lucius finally leaped away from me as the sky fell.
The dome of the Hagia Sophia gave way. Through Quetzalcoatl's Authority of Knowledge, I knew that this wasn't a simple magical attack like Excalibur Morgan's flames, but rather, it was the manifestation of Mars' Authority redirected at me. A virtual summoning of the Roman God of War himself.
Altera's Noble Phantasm easily destroyed the Hagia Sophia.
____
Meanwhile
Ritsuka looked on at the sight before him. A beam from the sky that screamed 'power'. That ray of divine might passed through a series of what looked almost like a lens to the teen and redirected it at another part of the Hagia Sophia.
With the tree gone, vanishing in a shower of gold particles, and revealing the famous structure underneath, Nero was about to celebrate the death of Romulus before a loud explosion broke through the revelry.
Several more loud explosions signaled that the fight wasn't over. Everyone present sensed the new arrival of two very powerful Servants. Then came forth that beam of light from above.
Ritsuka wanted to rush in, yet Archer put a stop to that.
"We should leave. Now." He said as the pillar of light thinned before finally ceasing to exist.
"We can't do that!" Ritsuka protested, "Kukulkan is in there!"
"Do you have so little faith in the Goddess? It's better to let her cut loose without worrying about your and the Emperor's safety."
Ritsuka noted how Archer didn't bother including himself, Mash, or anyone else.
Before the Last Master of Mankind could retort, everyone that's present's head snapped towards the crater that was once the Hagia Sophia. He was hit face-first with a wall of hot air.
Despite being over a hundred meters away, Ritsuka felt like he was in the middle of an oven, and it was hot.
In the distance, peaking just above the rim of the crater that used to be the Hagia Sophia, Ritsuka could just about see Kukulkan. A second later, the Goddess began to glow—
Time appeared to almost slow down to a crawl. The Goddess began to glow with a thousand times greater brilliance than the pillar of light that came before. The world darkened as all other light fled like animals in a wildfire when Kukulkan became a second sun in the world.
At the same time, Mash could feel a sense of incredible danger in what was about to happen next.
It was like a premonition of catastrophe. That gut feeling a person might have if they stand on top of the stairs descending into a dark and ominous basement. The precipice of a choice that determines life or death.
Mash recalled how Cu Chulainn back in Singularity F once said that Noble Phantasms was all about instincts, and should something call upon that instinct, it would awaken naturally.
"GET BEHIND ME!" She screamed as the girl ran in front of Ritsuka, placing her shield in between the Master and the Goddess that was—
The scintillating luminosity that came next drowned out all sounds.
____
Seconds earlier
"Argh…" I had to put up my shield as I faced the full brunt of Altera's Noble Phantasm.
Well, at least now I have a general gist of their powers. Flauros is the least of my worries. Altera is a nuisance. But Longinus… Longinus is the real threat.
After five seconds, the pillar of light passed, and I remained untouched. The green shield surrounded me like a bubble was smoking akin to a bonfire that had just gone out.
I looked around me. The Hagia Sophia is completely wiped off the map. The Church built by Constantius II was razed so thoroughly that only a crater remained of the once magnificent building.
Whether intentional or negligent, Altera's Noble Phantasm roasted the others as well, with both Flauros and Longinus appearing singed.
"My turn."
Borrowing Quetzalcoatl's Authority over the wind, I casually swung my hand and sent forth multiple blades of wind so sharp they cleaved right through Flauros like a knife through freshly baked cake. Altera was barely able to dodge the ones I sent her way, barely being the keyword here as I took several of her fingers. Lucius was the most untouched, as befitting of the greatest threat out of the three. His shield could take the full force of those blades with only light scars appearing upon its surface.
"AAARRGH!" Flauros cried out in pain. His wounds were slowly regenerating.
I then sent forth a rope of divine fire from Tohil's Authority at Lucius as if it were a flamethrower.
The man raised his shield and began running towards me.
What is that shield? It ate the wind blades I sent forth, and now it's eating the divine fire that turned Herakles into ash. Is it his second Noble Phantasm?
The divine flame's heat was such that the ground underneath my feet began to steam as rocks vaporized.
About ten meters away, Lucius sidestepped and threw his shield ahead of himself. Using this brief moment of opportunity where the shield was in the process of falling, the Servant gripped the spear with two hands and threw it at me with all of his might and strength.
The speed surprised even me. As it was coated in a sheath of plasma, I instantly knew even without Quetzalcoatl's Divine Authority of Knowledge that it was moving above hypersonic. It would be an almost unavoidable object if it had been any other Servant.
I could still dodge it without any issues.
*VEEEEEM*
Son of a—
Flauros sent forth another blast that pushed me towards the spear. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Altera speeding to my location, now four meters in and coming closer.. Her sword was in the middle of a slash.
All of this happened in the span of less than a millisecond.
If I could sigh in this short of a time, I would. I wanted to regulate how much power I was using. Especially considering how close Ritsuka and Emperor Nero were to the Hagia Sophia.
I'll just direct it upwards. The plasma's appearance would be too short for any destructive atmospheric interference.
With but a single thought, I let loose a tremendous explosion of plasma from my body as if to push everything away. Stellar plasma radiated from my body across all directions like light from the sun.
However, the spear wasn't diverted. It continued its travel unabated as if it wasn't being hit by a plasma that was several times hotter than lightning.
I didn't want to know the potential damage that a spear that killed the Messiah could cause. So I increased the temperature and power from my plasma until I noticed how the air molecules around me started to fuse— Shit!
Oh crap, that's nuclear fusion! I don't want to cause a runaway thermonuclear explosion!
I immediately halted the growth of that plasma explosion and directed it upward toward space.
A great pillar of starfire, thinner than the one before yet over a hundred thousand times brighter appeared in Constantinople. That beacon reached such a height that only those on the other side of the planet were unable to see the glorious sight.
With Quetzalcoatl's Wind Authority, I blew any fused atoms up into space as well.
By the time the plasma subsided, I let out a sigh. Damn, that was too close. I almost wiped out all of Constantinople if I didn't force those fusing atoms upwards into space.
I looked around at the destruction wrought around me. However, my heart almost stopped when I realized the edge of the destruction I brought about was further than where Nero's tent was supposed to be. Huge curtains of smoke arose out of the districts and streets near the Hagia Sophia.
The light… it's the light! The light coming from the plasma I generated must've been powerful enough to scorch things on their own. It was like an omnidirectional, high-powered laser that set aflame anything that can burn. A nuclear laser.
"FUCK!"
I did not just kill the Emperor, did I? Even if logically it didn't make sense, at the moment, the sheer potential…
Oh my god please no!
I promptly flew right up to where the spent should be and spotted a strange wall-like construct. The ground around the shining white wall was a field of molten rocks each a different shade of red and orange, yet the area behind the wall was untouched.
"Huh?"
As I closed in, I heard heavy breathing. "Mash?"
Indeed, it was Mash. She finally discovered her Noble Phantasm?
The shining white wall dissolved, and the Shielder staggered a bit before leaning on her shield for support.
Ritsuka rushed forward to support the girl.
I wanted to come over and check up on everyone who was behind Mash's Noble Phantasm. Perhaps healing anyone who requires it. However, some coughing caught my attention.
"What power. Deus."
Out from the steadily settling cloud of vaporized rocks and dirt Lancer walked out.
Lucius Longinus looked extremely beaten up. Most of his body had third-degree burns as the skin was all gone, revealing the red and black flesh underneath. It gave him an almost demonic appearance. If Lucius were anything other than a top-tier Servant easily on par with the likes of Heracles and Artoria, he'd be most certainly dead.
Ironically, Longinus shouldn't be feeling much pain since third-degree burns meant all the nerve endings were destroyed. All he'll feel is numbness as if he was doused with anesthesia and a weight on his body coming from what remains of the armor.
The Lancer was forced to use his spear as a crutch.
"Aaaaaaargh…"
Out from the field of molten rocks, the pillar of flesh who called himself Flauros jut out of the ground like tree roots that are overgrown.
The Demon God looked rather burnt.
Altera, who was the closest to me when I unleashed that plasma burst, was nowhere to be seen. She was vaporized without even the gold particles remaining.
"..." Lucius then hung his head like a parent who just received devastating news, "Ah. So be it then."
Pushing off the Holy Spear, the man looked at me. He clenched his spear as I prepared to finish this.
"O' Lord…"
Ah, he's praying. Longinus was celebrated as a Saint, so it makes sense he wants to pray before I kill him. I'll allow it, it's only fair for the Servant to make peace with his God.
"—bridge the gap between God (Impossible) and Man (Me) once more."
That's not a prayer.
Realizing that, I sent forth half a dozen pencil-thin beams of plasma.
Those lances of plasma stabbed into Longinus, burning half a dozen holes into the Servant… and yet he didn't fall. Even for a Servant as powerful as Longinus, the wounds he sustained should be fatal. So why isn't he vanishing into a cloud of gold particles?
I then recalled a particular Skill from F/GO that gave a Servant a one-time resurrection ability. Battle Continuation, does Longinus have it?
I sent forth more blades of wind as a mercy kill—
"<Lance of Longinus: The Spear of Destined Miracles That Pierce His Sides>"
In an instant, I felt weaker.
Huh?
I felt like a human waking up after their alarm bells started ringing in the morning. I felt like a candle sitting underneath a thunderstorm about to go out. I felt like a rusted iron cage dwelling in a pond for decades and was just about to collapse in on itself.
"Wh…at…?"
I called out to the Knowledge Authority acquired through We Are The Winged Serpent. I asked for an explanation of what had happened to me, only to receive nothing. The dreadful silence from that Authority terrified me to my core, and I felt as if I were a human naked in Antarctica.
"What?" I repeated myself. I stared down at my hands… my weak, weak hands. It felt like I couldn't form a fist with how weak it was as if I was down with a fever. Suddenly, at the edge of my peripherals, I spotted a light.
Longinus' red spear glowed with divine might. Holy Light wrapped around the Spear that pierced the sides of the Savior.
Longinus was now fully healed up. His armor returned to how it once was the moment he was summoned. His large shield now returned to his hands as the Servant stood tall and puffed out his chest.
It was as though the battle I fought with him never happened with how clean the Lancer looked.
"The Spear of Destiny is a weapon that pierced the side of the Messiah and bathed in his blood, killing him," Longinus said, "And thus, did the insurmountable distance between Man and God closed. However, you're not a real divine being, are you? A false entity taking the name of a Pagan God."
What? What does he mean by that?! I was so rattled by the sudden decrease in power that I felt as if I couldn't think a fully coherent thought.
Longinus moved.
His opening thrust that would've taken my head only nicked my face. It had such speed that I was barely able to dodge it.
"Ow!" I hissed as I moved to cover the cut with my hands. Since when was he this fast?
Longinus pulled back his spear before going for a second thrust at my chest.
I clasped my hands around the lengths just underneath the speartip, which was a centimeter away from touching my chest.
I felt anxiety as the spear slowly closed in.
"Ah…" Numerous phantasmal spikes pierced through my hands as if I were death-gripping a hedgehog. The Holy Lance continued to close in millimeter by millimeter. I couldn't help but think of how I did something similar to Artoria back in Fuyuki. And now I'm on the other end of it.
Bracing against the pain, I tried to throw Longinus like he was a baseball in an attempt to create distance between the two of us.
I needed some peace to collect my thoughts.
However, instead of being thrown like before, Longinus planted his feet and stayed in place.
"The Lance of Longinus bridges the gap between Man and God. It creates a miracle that closes the distance between the Possible and the Impossible!" From somewhere behind me, Da Vinci called out.
Quickly glancing at it, I found the bracelet that was always wrapped around Ritsuka's wrist on the ground behind me. Da Vinci must've wanted to say something to me, but since my earpiece got vaporized during that plasma burst, Ritsuka threw his communicator at me.
Using this moment of distraction, Longinus let go of his spear and charged at me with his shield, intending for a shield bash.
I crossed my arms and braced for the hit. "Uff!"
I was pushed back. Good, I thought as I rode upon this momentum and quickly flew out of the range of the enemy Servant.
As I was doing this, Da Vinci further explained, quickly saying, "Most Pagan Gods before Christianity often embody natural forces or abstract concepts, unlike the Abrahamic God, who is the most popular 'human' God. He's often described as having emotions like 'love', 'compassion', and 'empathy'. Christianity also elevated the status of all humans as being made in the image of the Lord. This egalitarianism allowed it to easily spread throughout the downtrodden of the Roman Empire in its earlier days."
As Da Vinci explained this, I called upon Quetzalcoatl's Divine Authority over the Wind and moved my right arm as if it were a sword to let out more blades of wind—
Nothing happened.
Huh?
I glanced down at my hand, confused as to where the wind blades I wanted to send out went.
Wait, where are my Divine Authorities? I can't feel any of it, from Tohil to the Pan-Human History Kukulkan's, and others.
Longinus didn't wait for me to finish pondering and instead teleported right behind me.
What the fuck?! Since when can he teleport?
I immediately turned my head around to face him, finding the Servant and his weapon falling down on me from above.
That's actually perfect. He can't fly like I can so his trajectory is very predictable.
Without a second thought, I unleashed a burst of plasma that was much weaker than what I intended. Instead of plasma thrice as hot as lighting, the scorching wave was just warm enough to near-instantly carbonize bones and flesh.
Rushing forth from all around me, the plasma—
The Servant teleported away once again.
"With man being made in the image of the Lord and Him allowing His Son to die for our sins, this creates an unbreakable connection between God and His Creation. A humanization that either didn't exist or wasn't prominent in Pagan Pantheons. The Spear of Destiny represents that idea. It embodies the concept of humanization. The Incarnation when the Son of God was made flesh and was then killed. It is an incarnator. The Ultimate Incarnator."
I felt a fear that was foreign to me as what Da Vinci said fully sunk in.
Christianity was the first mainstream faith to really place humanity at the center of the religion, unlike in the days of Antiquity when Gods were monolithic and implacable. Instead of using Gods to explain away the World such as how a tsunami was churned into being by Neptune or how if the Aztecs didn't sacrifice more people then the sun would literally stop rising the next day, the role of Jesus was an aspirational figure who best exemplified Christian values. Christianity made the divine relatable.
And now I've realized Longinus' Noble Phantasm is making me relatable. So much so that I can't even feel those Divine Authorities I've borrowed, they've all been sealed away.
And that terrified me in a way I've never known before.
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
unit_201
unit_201 I really wanted to play a BGM for when Longinus uses his NP, but I can't find a good one.
I thought long and hard about Longinus' NP. I didn't want it to be just one that causes perma death or anything involving a 'sure-hit' like so many other depictions of Longinus in media. Then I thought more deeply about Christianity, its concept of Incarnation, and its role in human history and noticed some trends. Granted, some cultures have Gods that were human once, a prominent one is how Romulus was deified or how Guan Yu was so overpowered he was deified into a war god by the Chinese, none of them were as popular as the Christian God in terms of elevating the role of humans in religious narratives. Islam takes this humanization a step further by believing that humans are the pinnacle of Allah's creation.
So I imagined it fitting then, that Longinus' NP is effectively 'incarnating' gods.
Also, the next chapter is the finality of Septem.
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