BOOM!
BOOM BOOM!
Deafening explosions erupted continuously within the grounds of Homurahara Academy under the night sky. The terrifying blast waves tore through the interior with destructive force.
Unlike the overwhelming clash between Durandal and Saber, the battle between Rita and Rider—or rather, the contest of capability and composure between her and Matou Shinji—was far more sparse in spectacle. In fact, it couldn't even be called a battle.
It was a slaughter.
Once Rita had cautiously familiarized herself with Rider's strange weapon and unpredictable footwork, the scales of victory tilted drastically in her favor.
Though she held killing intent toward the so-called pseudo-Magus Matou Shinji, Rita didn't let anger cloud her judgment. Instead, she proceeded with calculated precision.
After all, Durandal-sama was watching.
It was a rare chance to fight alongside Durandal again—especially under the Servant system where their strengths were now nearly equal. Rita had to showcase the full extent of her prowess as the almighty maid.
There could be no mistakes against Rider and this pathetic excuse of a magus.
No injuries, no loss of poise, no escapes, and absolutely no unbecoming behavior.
Over the years, as the vice-captain of the Immortal Blades and Durandal's personal maid, Rita had felt the growing gap between them.
As Durandal matured and her natural talents fully blossomed, her explosive growth left Rita in the dust.
Rita understood this difference from the beginning—a gap that could not be bridged through effort or dedication alone.
True, Rita had risen from the daughter of a humble florist to an S-rank Valkyrie of Schicksal. Her talent was nothing to scoff at. But compared to the likes of Durandal, Fu Hua, Kiana, and Raiden Mei...
The divide between them was like a chasm.
To say it didn't affect her at all would be a lie.
That's why opportunities like this—where Servant spirit bodies narrowed the playing field and made them nearly equal—were too rare to waste. (While Servants vary in power, their Saint Graphs have fixed limits.) Rita had to perform flawlessly.
Clang! Clang clang clang!
Frost-covered scythe blades clashed against jet-black needle-like daggers. Their strikes and retreats played a rhythmic symphony of ringing steel.
The hallway cracked inch by inch. Broken glass shards shimmered like crystal under the freezing storm.
Thud!
Now that her attack pattern had been deciphered, the woman across from her was altering the environment. Rider could feel her movements becoming increasingly sluggish.
If her Master weren't here, retreat would be the wise choice.
Clenching her teeth, Rider felt the tremendous force transferred from her daggers back into her arms. Beads of sweat formed beneath the serpentine visor that partially obscured her forehead. She stared at the ice-wreathed Rita looming near, and an unfamiliar sense of helplessness welled up.
That suffocating feeling of powerlessness—even someone as composed as Rider couldn't suppress the frustration.
Mana... she's running out!
"Rider, you're slowing down."
Unleashing her Frost Corrosion field, Rita offered a seductive smile. With magical energy surging in her hands, she slammed the hilt of Skadi of Thrymheim into the ground and shouted coldly, "Awaken, Mistress of Ice!"
Buzz!
The azure [Cold Moon] manifested out of thin air. The massive scythe, brimming with frost, cleaved downward like a wail from the coldest depths of hell.
"Soaring Light: Azure Blade!"
Chains crisscrossing the battlefield shattered one by one as a massive, freezing blade burst from the oversized Skadi scythe, slicing through Rider's layered chain arrays. It howled across the battlefield before crashing into Rider.
Crack!
With a muffled groan, Rider's alluring figure turned into a blur, crashing into the far end of the building and dragging a frozen trench through the ground.
All that remained were two broken daggers, their remnants scattering through the air before slowly dissolving into spirit particles.
Sensing Rider's aura near depletion, Rita turned her head. A fleeting glimmer of killing intent flashed in her wine-red eyes. "Now then, your turn, Matou Shinji... sir."
"Ugh... c-cold..."
From the frost-covered ruins nearby, Matou Shinji shivered in a corner, hugging his knees, snot and tears streaming as he whimpered pathetically under the effects of Rita's Frost Corrosion field.
"Rider! Useless! You can't even handle a b*tch like her?! Worthless! I can't die here! Worthless! I have to escape..."
Clutching a sinister red-bound book, Shinji stumbled to his feet, his school uniform shredded by shards of frozen glass.
"Once I get out of here, I'll—" Suddenly, his voice caught in his throat, and his frostbitten face twisted in terror.
"I was wondering why Rider never used her Noble Phantasm..."
Holding her scythe in one hand and dragging Rider's limp body in the other, Rita continued calmly, "Now I understand. It wasn't that Rider didn't want to use it—her Master was just too useless."
Rider had lost all of her former grace and poise. Her arms hung limp and broken. A bloody wound adorned her chest and abdomen, its edges lined with icy crystal. Her magical energy was faint and flickering.
Even without a curse preventing recovery, her current supply of mana was so low that not only could she not retaliate or use her Noble Phantasm—she likely couldn't even regenerate on her own without significant time.
"Aaaaaah! Stay back! Don't come any closer! If you want Rider's life, her command seals or anything else—take it! Just let me go!"
"Don't come any closer!" Shinji shrieked, dropping onto his rear.
"I... I'm already disqualified! I'm under the protection of the Holy Church! Yes, I'm out of the war! If you hurt me, you'll be hunted by the Church!"
With Rita steadily advancing, Shinji pathetically shouted empty threats as he scooted backwards. His arms flailed wildly, and he even threw the red-bound book that linked him to Rider.
Covered in frost, his pale-blue face continued to drip snot. The sight was both tragic and ridiculous.
Rita couldn't even be bothered to describe how pitiful Shinji was.
"Rider, to end up with a Master like this... what a shame." She picked up the red book emblazoned with command spell patterns.
As a Servant, Rita had absorbed the standard knowledge from the Grail system. It was easy for her to sense the magical link between the book and Rider.
False Attendant's Writings.
A tome crafted to transfer Master authority to another. Creating it requires expending one Command Spell. Matou Shinji was never chosen by the Holy Grail—thus, no Command Spells appeared on the back of his hand. His control over Rider came from the spell-bound False Attendant's Writings.
"So that's it. You're not Rider's true Master. You're just a clown who stole her control."
In other words, Shinji was merely a secondary Master, granted control over Rider by the real summoner for reasons unknown.
"You borrowed a power that was never yours to begin with, and yet you lack even the dignity to wield it properly."
Holding the book, Rita scoffed, "What kind of mage family would entrust the role of Master to someone like you...?"
Shinji said nothing, head lowered. He snuck a glance at Rita's face and murmured, "So... can I go now...?"
"To think I'd feel anger toward someone so pitiful..."
Rita cut him off. Shaking her head, her voice held no emotion.
"Then, Matou Shinji. As a Master, your life ends here."
That calm tone, the sweet smile, and the venomous words spoken so matter-of-factly made Shinji's skin crawl.
"No! You can't—cough, cough..."
Shhk!
With a slight downward flick of her scythe, she slit his throat. Thick, foul-smelling blood burst forth.
The icy-blue shaft of her weapon flickered, freezing the blood and body completely, shattering them into glimmering shards. She didn't even spare the corpse a second glance.
Lifting the weakened Rider with ease, Rita headed toward where Durandal was located.
Come to think of it, Durandal-sama had once mentioned Rider's hidden potential—something Her Majesty had taken an interest in.
...
True Name: Bianka Durandal Ataegina
Class: Foreigner
Height / Weight: 168 cm / 54 kg
Strength: A+
Endurance: A
Agility: A
Mana: A
Luck: B
Noble Phantasm: A++
Class Skills:
Existence Outside the Domain: A
A being summoned from the outer universe or void. One favored by a foreign god, harboring a foretoken of divine power within and wielding it.
Madness Enhancement: E--
Instability and dread. Her nature is incompatible with the world's natural order. The energy she carries, if not redirected or restrained, can cause anomalous distortions in the surrounding world (such as ghoulification or creation of Honkai Beasts).
However, due to Durandal's strict refusal and disdain toward certain properties of divine power, the rank has been drastically reduced.
Personal Skills:
Divinity: A
A forerunner of higher-dimensional life lurking beyond the universe, the child of a god, bearing strong divine essence. If she so wished, she could rewrite the nature of the world itself. The cost: irreversible madness.
Independent Action: C
Most Servants vanish within hours without a Master providing mana. With this rank, she can remain in the world for a full day without replenishment.
Mana Burst (Honkai Energy): A
She can use mana to enhance her weapons and body, or convert it into various elemental attacks.
Undefeated Valkyrie: A
The strongest Valkyrie in Schicksal's history, Durandal was beautiful, gallant, elegant, and overwhelmingly powerful. Her image was eternally perfect and dependable. The undisputed No. 1, undefeated in all her battles. Her name echoed throughout the world like that of a legendary hero.
The Valkyries who followed her passed down her tales, calling her the "Radiant Knight," the "Heir of the Holy Lance," and simply, "That Valkyrie."
Through countless campaigns against Honkai Beasts, she honed her danger sense—a battle intuition, or sixth sense, capable of evading even unseen threats. Her undefeated legend rendered her immune to mental interference such as fear, confusion, or illusion.
Heaven Rewards Diligence: B+
Heaven bestows fair rewards upon those who strive. In any given field, there exists an invisible ceiling that most can never surpass, no matter how hard they try.
But in the realm of battle, Durandal could always grow stronger through effort. Even skills that didn't originally belong to her could be mastered through hard work, enabling her to turn the impossible into reality—even learning and evolving in the heat of combat.
Noble Phantasms:
Bright Knight: Excelsis - A
Hler's Serenity - B+
Sixth Divine Key, Key of Creation: [Black Abyss White Flower] - A++
Military Authority: Tiger Tally of the Axe and Halberd - EX
...
Aside from her Luck stat, her base attributes were all A-rank—on par with, if not stronger than, the previously encountered Berserker. And unlike Berserker, she retained full rationality, and her Noble Phantasms were even more powerful!
Even though he had only recently entered the world of magecraft, Emiya Shirou could already imagine that the strongest Servant in this Holy Grail War might very well be Miss Ataegina.
"Haaah!"
"Too light."
BOOM!
CRASH!
Amid the clash of weapons, the entire school building trembled. With another explosion, several adjacent classrooms collapsed instantly. Hundreds of desks were torn apart by the violent shockwave.
The harsh screech of twisting metal echoed as shards flew like a hurricane. The shockwave erupted outward in a deadly metallic blast.
The ground shook violently.
The force of the impact even pushed the stone monument near Emiya Shirou over ten meters from its original spot.
Shielding the unconscious Ayako Mitsuzuri, Emiya gasped for breath and shouted, "Saber! Watch out—that Servant's base stats are on par with Berserker!"
"Miss Ataegina, please stop! We have no reason to fight you!"
Just then, a gust of wind hit him. Shirou stumbled. As he tried to rush forward—
"Nngh..."
An instant of weakness overtook him as if his strength had been drained. Saber was pulling mana from him.
No good!
The mana provided when using the Command Spell for teleportation was nearly depleted. At this rate, even Saber might not hold out much longer...
Enduring the pain of being drained, Emiya Shirou suddenly heard a voice from the school gate that sounded like salvation itself.
"Shirou!!"
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