That protagonist is trash; I could do better!

Less than a second of silence followed, then the earth shook violently, and Cu Chulainn's vine barrier exploded with a deafening roar, like a small volcanic eruption, as churning lava spewed out and touched the still walls of space.

The earth trembled without ceasing, and the fixed space was filled with magma and the smell of burning.

With a loud, explosive sound, a giant serpent woven from flames and vines emerged from another location, its tendrils spreading out to reveal the unharmed Cú Chulainn inside.

"Your magic won't work; fire is the Willow People's food!"

He laughed excitedly, waving his wooden staff horizontally with his right hand, drawing runes. The spreading vines rushed towards Hall like giant snakes hunting their prey. Each vine was at least as thick as a human body, and their growth rate was astonishing, tearing the earth apart along with the sky.

Chapter 176 The Trial of the Spear

Rumble!

The vines intertwined and surged forth, covering the sky and the earth.

Hall didn't know much about the Druids' power. The "Knights Don't Die Bare" spell couldn't affect the Druids' power. Since that was the case, it was best to capture the leader first and kill the spellcaster.

Boom!

The earth rose under the influence of alchemy, and a stone platform emerged, lifting Hall's body and propelling him toward Cú Chulainn. The next second, Hall was smashed into countless fragments by the swirling vines.

Hall nimbly leaped from the shattered platform onto the vines, his magic eye analyzing their movement to easily dodge them.

“Foolish! Although I don’t have Gáe Bolg, these vines I control are my guns!” Cú Chulainn sneered, swinging his wooden staff, and dozens of thick vines danced around him, as if they had been given life, wrapping around Hall from different angles at the same time.

Hall remained unfazed, his demonic eyes gleaming faintly as he rapidly calculated. First, second, third, fourth—a total of four vines would strike his abdomen, thigh, right shoulder, and head respectively in 0.6 seconds.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh vines blocked the escape routes in the left, right, and top directions.

The eighth and ninth vines blocked the way back.

Hall inwardly admired the marksmanship.

Each vine represents an attack launched by Cú Chulainn wielding his spear. Simultaneously manipulating tens of vines to attack in unison, his melee offensive capabilities far surpass those of the Lancer class.

Unfortunately, Hall possesses a powerful eye similar to that of President King Bradley, complete with super-calculation capabilities. By analyzing the magic of the vines, he can predict their movements and pave the way for the best path.

"projection!"

Hall conjured rapiers in both hands, slashing across the thickest vine at the front. He tore through the vine, his legs glowing with light, and his speed exploded a second time. He used another vine as leverage, leaping several times to dodge all the vines. The moment he saw Cú Chulainn, he fled into the distance, his sword cleanly severing Cú Chulainn's head.

There was no blood.

The headless corpse turned into withered wood, and Cú Chulainn's spirit emerged from another vine, commanding the vine to attack.

"Your escape skills are not bad, but the same magic trick won't work on me a second time."

Hall chuckled, gripped the rapier, and inserted it into the vine base. A transmutation array unfolded, and the vine forest rooted in the earth writhed violently as if enduring immense pain. The next second, blue lightning pierced through all the vines from the rapier.

呲味~

The writhing vines were disintegrated by alchemy, their magical properties collapsing along with them, losing their mobility, and crumbling into ashes.

Standing dozens of meters apart, facing each other across a distance, in a tacitly solemn atmosphere, they both understood that continuing this battle was pointless and that Hall would inevitably emerge victorious in the end.

Since that's the case, the only way to decide the outcome is with a single strike.

Hall, gripping the projected rapier, stared at Cú Chulainn, approaching step by step: "Any other tricks you haven't used yet?"

Cú Chulainn replied dejectedly, "I wish I could, but runes can't harm you. Druid abilities are just tricks in your eyes. I've exhausted all my strategies now. I admit you're a match for my teacher. Among all Caster-class Servants, your abilities are definitely in the top ten."

He paused, a strange smile appearing on his lips: "However, the teacher's training is very strict. In the Land of Death, the so-called training is to fight to the death, until you die. Isn't that excessive? It's impossible to die in a place like that. The rule of the Land of Death is the survival of the fittest. Now that you have become the teacher's disciple, we will inevitably have a battle to the death."

Hall's eyes flickered slightly: "It sounds like you're still hiding some kind of treasure."

Cú Chulainn shook his head: "No, I only have two Noble Phantasms, as you just saw. If I had to say, the only difference is how I use them. I have imitated my teacher's spear technique, and I have imitated the interdimensional gate that my teacher created. Of course, I have also imitated the technique that slaughtered countless gods and reached the realm of the gods."

"Runic runes and Celtic druids are the two abilities I am most proud of when I was summoned as a Caster. However, in my previous life, I was a warrior who was good with guns, so it is a bit of a pity that I was not summoned as a Lancer."

Cú Chulainn's body slowly floated into the air, his burning staff drawing primordial runes in the air.

Hall raised an eyebrow. Was this some kind of old trick, using the Noble Phantasm Ochd Deug Odin? Cú Chulainn wouldn't do something so pointless.

Hall had no intention of sitting idly by and waiting to die. He poured his remaining magic into the Demon Eye, wanting to retaliate once again, using the primordial runes to destroy the conceptual foundation of the primordial runes and seal Ochd Deug Odin [Great God's Mark].

When the Demon Eye saw the primordial runes, it paused slightly, sensing that something was amiss.

really.

The base of Cú Chulainn's Noble Phantasm is not the original rune base, but more like... Gáe Bolg [Spear Piercing Death Thorns], a Noble Phantasm born from the sublimation of martial arts.

The flames from Cú Chulainn's staff burned even more fiercely, consuming the clothes on his arm.

To unleash the power of the [Primordial Rune], one must possess at least an A-rank or higher level of divinity; otherwise, forcibly using the [Great God Imprint] will damage one's own spiritual foundation.

Cú Chulainn's Noble Phantasm is essentially a downgraded version of the [Primordial Rune], so using it won't have a significant impact.

Now, Cú Chulainn's spirit origin is continuously collapsing, and even without Hall's intervention, he won't live much longer.

The result of paying such a heavy price was a single shot that touched the realm of the gods.

The realm that the Queen of the Land of Shadows calls "annihilation".

"Consider this shot my biggest test for you."

Cú Chulainn grinned, looking down at Hall on the ground, all the runes forming a ring around the flaming spear, compressing the flames and converging the concept.

The violent magical fluctuations and the nature of magic made the runes that sealed this space unstable. Cú Chulainn, standing in the sky, holding his spear, was like a god about to punish a criminal, majestic and awe-inspiring.

Hall's eyes were serious as he considered a countermeasure: "This shot far surpasses Lancer's Cu Chulainn."

"Although it is not yet mature, it does have the prototype of the Annihilation Strike. No wonder Scáthach values ​​it so much."

Hall gazed at the divine spear in Cú Chulainn's hand in the sky. Using spearmanship as a foundation, he infused it with the power of the Druids and gathered the concept of the original runes. The result was a spear strike that surpassed Cú Chulainn's strongest spear strike in his lifetime, with power no less than an A+ rank anti-city Noble Phantasm.

Theoretically, Hall has no way to block this attack except by activating his Noble Phantasm.

However, as a disciple of Queen Scáthach of the Land of Shadows, if Hall could withstand this attack, it would mean that Hall had completely surpassed the Child of Light of Ireland.

Chapter 177 The Eternal Spear

"Child of Light of Ireland, I accept your trial." Hall declared excitedly, crouching down and reaching out to touch the ground, whereupon a massive magic circle unfolded beneath his feet.

Half of the magic power is poured into the Mystic Eye, and the other half is used to activate the Noble Phantasm [Knights Don't Die Bare Hands].

Close your eyes, and the light patterns on your skin ripple with a faint glow. Magic forms wisps of blue electricity that overflow and flow. Your consciousness returns to calm, and you feel the power called Origin from the depths of your soul.

Falling into the depths of a peaceful world, unable to see, unable to hear, unable to feel, unable to think.

This is a lake constructed by the collective unconscious of humanity. A protective device called Alaya-vijnana guards human consciousness, attempting to prevent Hall from peering into the depths of the soul and exploring the predetermined direction that was established at birth in this world.

The origin, for most humans, is a self-destruct device.

The senses of consciousness gradually become blurred, and in the depths of the subconscious, the clamor of the soul can no longer be heard, until all things return to nothingness, and consciousness arrives in a realm detached from the world.

Here, Hall saw countless strange insects, plants, deep-sea fish, and animals, their bodies semi-transparent, swimming freely in the area.

Hall understood that these were all souls that had vanished, lives that had once continued this line of origin.

They surrounded a huge sphere of light that emitted a faint glow, with countless dense patterns faintly visible inside.

Consciousness formed a physical body, and Hall floated over, seeing another figure appear inside the huge sphere of light, looking exactly like Hall now, like a reflection in a mirror.

The reflection smiled calmly: "Have you made up your mind? Once you activate the power of the Origin, there will be no turning back. You will transcend this world and be rejected by it."

The transcendent are those who rise above the world, unbound by any restraint.

The only Grand Marshal of the Magic Path in the multiverse, the Queen of the Shadow Kingdom who was ostracized by the world for killing gods, and the Fifth Magician Aozaki Aoko are all among them.

Hall gazed at the reflection, and an indescribable feeling made him realize the presence of the other. He replied, "Origins have always been a field I wanted to study. I wasn't mature enough as a magician before, but now I can control this power."

"understood."

The reflection smiles, reaching out to touch the inner wall of the sphere of light.

Hall raised his right hand and touched it. In an instant, countless living beings in the domain stopped moving, their bodies decomposed into particles of light, and surged toward the direction of the light sphere, turning the entire world upside down.

His soul was engulfed by light, and the sphere of light exploded with a deafening roar, as if he had personally experienced the Big Bang. Hall's vision was infinitely elevated, and he saw countless memories that did not belong to him.

Worse!

Hall's soul was startled. The amount of information in his memories was so vast that it was comparable to the total memories of seven billion people in the world. These were memories that had been passed down from ancient times along a predetermined path.

It concerns the origin of life, the evolution of its existence, and the leaps in consciousness.

Understanding origins, awakening to origins, exploring origins.

During the awakening of the origin, humans' memories, less than a hundred years old, are easily erased by the origin, thus turning them into monsters dominated by the origin.

However, at this stage, what human consciousness passively accepts is only the tip of the iceberg after being filtered by the safety mechanism of Alaya consciousness.

Exploring the origins is a higher level, allowing us to witness in its entirety the concepts, consciousness, and life that existed from the very beginning of the planet's birth.

Not to mention human consciousness, even followers or gods would be overwhelmed by this directional force containing a vast amount of information.

Even the evils of this world are nothing more than superficial manifestations of consciousness in the face of this surging ancient echo.

"Who can withstand this? How did Red A do it?"

Shirou Emiya, a champion of justice and a scavenger who made a pact with the Alaya-vijnana, was able to create his own Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works, by utilizing the power of Origin.

Hall managed to remain calm, using self-suggestion to divide his thoughts into hundreds of parts, all to accommodate the ancient echoes.

It may have taken less than a second, or it may have taken thousands of years.

Hall's consciousness received ancient memories containing directionality. After barely piecing them together, his consciousness was subjected to another burst of memories, like an atomic bomb being inserted into his head and detonated. Countless memories collided, intertwined, and eventually disappeared.

Hall's soul struggled against the storm of consciousness, not in pain or discomfort, but only in an instinctive fear of death, or rather, nothingness.

This is a grand pilgrimage of life.

After an unknown amount of time, Hall felt his consciousness enter a completely new state, slowly rising and returning to the subconscious lake called Alaya-vijnana.

Unlike the warm sense of acceptance he felt before arriving, Hall now only felt a cold rejection from the collective unconscious world.

Alaya consciousness inhibits humanity's exploration of origins.

In fact, Hall is not the only magician who has explored the origins of magic and achieved results.

Hall himself knew of a magician named Araya Sōren, who even created a magical barrier that could shield against Gaia's suppressive force interference, but he failed because he ignored the suppressive force interference from Alaya consciousness.

No, his biggest failure was that he needed to rely on other humans to complete the exploration of the origins, which indirectly increased the risk of being interfered with by the suppressor force.

Once the path of exploring origins is embarked upon, the existence of humanity will be completely altered, from the definition of life to the direction of the soul. This act itself is seen as a violation of the rules of humanity or the world.