Fate: How About a New Savior?

What's different?

Shiomi glanced at the fading silhouettes of the repelled Demon Gods, then turned his eyes to the King of Magecraft standing alone at the far end of the wasteland.

A strange feeling stirred within him.

Unlike their first clash days ago, Caster's movements now carried something that hadn't been there before.

Shiomi couldn't quite put his finger on it, and the uncertainty left him momentarily unsettled.

He shook the thought away and focused on the King of Magecraft.

The man wasn't summoning more Demon Gods.

Was he low on Mana? Or perhaps there were restrictions on even his top-tier summoning abilities within the Holy Grail War?

Or maybe he simply realized that summoning more Demon Gods wouldn't shift the balance—and had chosen to abandon that approach for now?

Four. That was the number.

Shiomi remembered exactly how many Demon Gods he had taken down.

Back in the forest, the number of enemies that had intercepted him and Morgan had been the same.

None of the possibilities could be ignored, but none of them had solid proof.

He reached out and crushed a Rune character in the air. It dissolved into a gust of wind that fused with the massive blue flame dragon Morgan had summoned. The creature's blazing form flared even brighter, its heat and radiance intensifying.

The fire dragon roared, surging through the sky and tearing apart the net of predatory birds swooping in from above. Their burning wings scattered in the wind, vanishing completely along with the Reality Marble that was beginning to collapse.

Caster slowly opened his arms, palms facing the sky, as if offering a prayer to the heavens.

The surrounding world had already shifted into a vast open sea. Thunder rolled, waves crashed, and colossal surges of water rose to strike again at Shiomi and Morgan.

With no Demon Gods in the way, Shiomi attuned his Mana with Morgan's, ready to break the Reality Marble together.

By now, Shiomi had mostly figured out what the King of Magecraft was doing.

These Reality Marbles were nested, layered like matryoshka dolls—one world nested within another, each encasing the next.

Though none of them were particularly sturdy—powerful enough to handle most Servants, yet still fragile enough to be torn apart without a Noble Phantasm—they served their purpose.

Only mages like Shiomi and Morgan had the strength to keep shattering them one after another.

He had no idea how many layers remained, nor could he predict the form the next one would take.

Multiple Reality Marbles, cast in rapid succession—independent yet subtly linked.

It was as if the world itself had been twisted into a vast prison, trying to ensnare them completely.

Shiomi extended his index finger. A glimmering Rune fell from his fingertip, sinking into the sea below. The light vanished instantly, swallowed whole.

And then—the world shifted.

The roiling sea froze in an instant, transforming into a solid mass of ice hundreds of meters deep.

Even the massive waves towering above, poised like beasts with jaws agape, stopped dead. Just inches from their targets, they could advance no further.

Clang—

A low, dull sound echoed from behind.

Morgan had lightly tapped the solid ice with the butt of her spear. It looked like nothing, barely enough to disturb the surface.

Yet a sharp crack snaked outward.

Then, the crack spread with explosive force, racing toward the King of Magecraft beyond the frozen waves.

Now Shiomi only had to walk forward, tap the base of the wave with the tip of his spear—and in a flash of thunder and lightning, the entire iceberg came crashing down.

The fourth Reality Marble shattered.

...

Amid wind and rain, Shiomi spotted the King of Magecraft suspended above the ruined sea of ice.

Rain lashed his body. The storm tossed his white hair in wild arcs.

But from start to finish, that man wore nothing but a calm, gentle smile.

As if the collapse of his Reality Marble was no more than expected—something like, "Yes, this outcome was likely."

Yet again, Shiomi saw warmth in those golden eyes.

Perhaps it was just the lingering cold of the Reality Marble's magic, making that flicker of heat all the more visible.

Emotion.

Something like passion burned in those eyes—on the face of the King of Magecraft whom Shiomi, even after two encounters, had believed incapable of expressing any feeling.

Passion—for what?

There was no need to ask.

This was the battlefield. Caster stood before them as an enemy. And he, along with Morgan, would exhaust every ounce of Magecraft to bring him down.

"Surprising, isn't it? The King of Magecraft... actually showing passion in battle," Shiomi murmured as he returned to Morgan's side.

"A man who always saw battle as nothing more than a necessity, now stirred by the fight itself, hm..." Morgan smiled knowingly. "But it's only natural. After all, his opponent is my husband. Even a moment's carelessness would mean death for the King of Magecraft."

"Always flattering me." Shiomi shook his head. "You stand beside me in this battle, yet talk as if you have no part to play."

He closed his eyes for a breath, then reopened them—his face now brimming with fierce, surging battle spirit.

If the King of Magecraft was showing genuine fervor for this fight, then Shiomi wanted to test it—to see whether it was real, and how powerful it truly was.

Shiomi stepped onto a fragment of ice just as it was about to vanish and launched himself forward in a flash, thrusting his magic spear directly at Caster.

Caster didn't dodge. The spear struck true—but there was no resistance, no sensation of piercing flesh. It felt like hitting a statue.

That statue-like form fractured, shattering like a mirror into thousands of pieces scattering through the darkness. And within each shard was an image of the King of Magecraft.

From each mirror, countless Caster figures began to emerge, their presence distorting Shiomi's senses with chaotic magical energy.

Each one felt real. And yet none of them were. They raised their palms, and spells powerful enough to raze a city began to form.

Real and illusion. Truth and falsehood. Indistinguishable from one another.

A mirage made manifest.

"You're underestimating me, King of Magecraft!"

Shiomi hurled his spear aside and spread his arms wide, hovering midair.

Above him, the pitch-black sky was spinning with countless stars, and in an instant, those stars stretched into luminous threads.

"Morning Star!"

From that whirling starfield, white light rained down—and among it, one radiant golden beam shone brightest of all.

Morgan, who had inherited Magecraft through the Holy Spear, had never once revealed the true nature of that spell.

Even if she combined all of Shiomi's Mana with the power of his Command Seals, it would only just match Ea. Besides, it was a spell she had reserved for another purpose. In most cases, she would've simply used her Noble Phantasm.

But if the target was strictly limited—if it was just for destroying the current world egg—then this was the perfect weapon.

"So this is all the Holy Spear amounts to. Rhongomyniad!"

The fourth Reality Marble vanished into mist.