The sound of Alaric's laughter echoed, drawing the attention of both Merlin and the girl who called herself Anna. They raised their heads, staring at the pitch-black aurora converging on the Heavenly Vessel in the sky.
"This is going to be a headache—" Merlin glanced at Medusa beside him, spreading his hands helplessly.
At this point, they were already separated from Alaric by a vast distance of over a hundred meters. With Alaric ascending further into the sky, he had become completely out of reach.
Facing the impending attack from Alaric, Merlin had only one suggestion:
"Can you take me farther away?"
Meanwhile, Kingu completely ignored the presence of Merlin and Medusa. His gaze was fixed on the sky, where Alaric and the Heavenly Vessel loomed.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "It's nothing more than a futile struggle."
Before his words had fully fallen, the ground beneath Kingu began to ripple with waves of magical energy. From those golden ripples, countless weapons—swords, spears, and staffs—emerged, stretching upward.
It was the same overwhelming ability he had shown once before, a power comparable to the Gate of Babylon:
Age of Babylon!
To counteract Alaric's strongest strike, charged with half of his magical energy, Kingu deployed the Age of Babylon, unleashing its full might to neutralize Alaric's attack.
High above in the heavens, Alaric extended his right arm, forming a firing gesture with his thumb and index finger.
Not only had he manipulated the magical energy within the Heavenly Vessel's ammunition bay, but he also spared no effort in utilizing the inner workings of the sacred lance he had transformed into an arrow. He meticulously recreated the steps of a divine judgment's loading process.
Two powers combined, forming the strongest possible attack.
Its destructive power far surpassed the Holy Judgment he had unleashed at the Northern Wall!
As magical energy overflowed, the holy lance Rhongomyniad was enveloped in a pitch-black aurora, appearing like a dark star descending from beyond the heavens.
It was both a symbol of the stars and a manifestation of humanity.
And in that fleeting breath, the arrow was fired.
Boom!
The black star descended at godspeed, moving several times faster than the speed of sound.
As before, the black star rapidly expanded in scale upon descent. It resembled a light of destruction falling upon the earth, silently evaporating the hundreds of weapons Kingu had summoned for his counterattack.
"What?!"
Kingu's expression shifted slightly as he finally sensed the danger. Staring at the descending star, he realized there was no longer time to mount a counterattack.
He could only flee!
But the speed of the star's descent, combined with its rapid expansion, was far too overwhelming.
Before it even touched Kingu, the star's range had already expanded to encompass a radius of 100 meters, making escape impossible—even for him.
Boom!
In the next instant, when the black star made contact with the ground, the once-blue sky dimmed into darkness, as though the world had plunged into eternal night.
The only light left was the black star, which seemed like a wedge of the world itself, deeply embedded into the earth.
Though the landscape was shrouded in pitch-black, this single moment outshone even the sun in radiance and brilliance.
Under the watchful eyes of Merlin and Medusa, a prismatic black light wall slowly rose, obliterating everything it touched—earth, air, water, and light itself.
All the elements essential for life vanished in an instant, leaving only silent destruction in its wake.
In front of the black light wall surged a near-tangible white shockwave, a condensation of everything that had perished. The dead earth rose into the sky, merging with the omnipresent atmosphere. At this moment, the heavens and the earth became indistinguishable, united as lifeless entities, propelled outward by the wall of light.
In the distance, two figures could be seen fleeing at high speed.
"Don't you have any other ideas?"
The petite Medusa, no, Ana holding Merlin in her arms, dashed away from the approaching black light wall. She opened her mouth to speak, but the sheer speed of their movement left her words lost in the wind, making them incomprehensible.
Fortunately, Merlin, the Grand Caster, possessed excellent lip-reading skills. He easily understood what she was saying.
He awkwardly freed a hand from holding his staff, shaking his head and gesturing helplessly against the pressure of their high-speed flight.
Even Merlin had no solution for Alaric's reckless and devastating attack.
The mere act of using the sacred lance Rhongomyniad as a projectile was astonishing enough for Merlin. But to unleash such overwhelming destructive power?
This level of force was simply impossible under normal circumstances. Even Artoria wielding the fully-powered sacred lance could produce similar effects only under ideal conditions.
The sacred lance Rhongomyniad, capable of wielding numerous mysteries and divine powers, was an A++-rank Noble Phantasm. Simply being able to use it was enough to surpass the majority of Heroic Spirits in terms of firepower.
Yet the version of the lance Alaric wielded was merely an empty shell, its mysteries and divine powers inaccessible. And still, he had managed to unleash such terrifying power.
Even the Sword of the End, blessed by the Lion King, could not compare to the sheer might of this attack.
The raw magical energy alone rivaled that of anti-fortress Noble Phantasms—and Merlin had observed the phenomenon twice now.
He also noticed that the Holy Judgment's power expanded significantly after firing.
This wasn't merely an expansion of range; the core magical energy and mysteries were growing at an astonishing rate, far exceeding the magical energy Alaric had initially infused.
Even with the environmental amplification of the Age of Gods, such growth was inexplicable.
Merlin couldn't quite comprehend it.
Had the sacred lance undergone some unknown transformation beyond observation?
It wasn't just the abnormal power of the lance that baffled Merlin. Alaric's thirst for battle also left him deeply unsettled.
Even Artoria and Mordred, who shared the same red dragon's blood, had never displayed such a fervent desire for combat or this level of insatiable craving.
Merlin could only conclude that Alaric's battlelust—comparable to that of a Berserker—was enough to crush his rationality. This drive was not something the red dragon's blood alone could explain.
The complexity of Alaric's nature made even Merlin shake his head in disbelief.
While Merlin's inner thoughts were unknowable, Ana continued to sprint with all her might, leaving the black light wall far behind them.
Several seconds later, after covering a distance of 300–400 meters, Ana finally stopped and dropped Merlin to the ground.
The black light wall, now several dozen meters behind them, began to collapse.
Rolling waves of white energy surged outward, forcing Merlin and Ana to shield their eyes, but it caused them no harm.
When they finally turned their gazes back to the sky and the desolate crater of death below—
A green figure entered their sight.
Having escaped the range of the attack, Kingu now stood before Merlin and Ana, his expression unreadable as he silently stared at the two.
Surrounded by countless Chains of Heaven, Kingu had repelled all the heat threatening to harm him, emerging largely unscathed.
Merlin got up from the ground, lightly tapping his staff against the earth, and greeted him with a smile:
"Hello there!"