Nobody knows how to be a villain better than me.

The mere aftershock of the leaked aura caused Reiryuu-kan Misaya, who rushed forward to try and stop it, to freeze in place, her body stiff and unable to control herself.

Immediately afterwards, a chilling question echoed in the guide's ears.

"This is the hiding place you were talking about?"

The owner of Linglong Pavilion gasped for breath, his face turned pale, and he inwardly groaned in despair.

At this moment, the place is completely deserted.

Moreover, after searching the entire vicinity, no trace of the target person could be found.

They have lost their bargaining chips.

Seeing the increasingly hostile expression on the other side, the owner of Linglong Pavilion, feeling the pressure mounting, suddenly had a flash of inspiration and hurriedly raised his hand.

"They have somewhere else to go!"

Instantly, the suffocating atmosphere in the cave dissipated, and Samael picked up the owner of the exquisite pavilion, his serpentine vertical pupils opening and closing as he stared at him intently.

"Say!"

"..."

However, faced with the chill that seemed to seep into his bones, the middle-aged man, whose body was trembling uncontrollably, managed to suppress his fear with an indescribable willpower after his gaze swept over a certain spot. He gritted his teeth and stared directly into those deep, vertical pupils.

"Promise me one thing first."

"boom!"

A dull thud echoed through the cave, and the girl with long, straight black hair, who had just swayed to her feet, collapsed to the ground.

"Don't worry, she's fine, she just fainted."

Samael spoke calmly, his gaze sharp.

"Afterwards, I will send someone to safely deliver your daughter to Fuyuki City and hand her over to the church for protection. She will be very safe."

For a moment, the old father, whose eyes were bloodshot and who wished he could fight the person in front of him to the death, froze.

Immediately, the owner of Linglong Pavilion, regaining her senses, looked at the man before her with a gaze filled with complexity and gratitude.

Yes, that's exactly what he was thinking as a father.

He used everything he knew to protect his daughter.

Furthermore, he did not want his daughter to continue to be involved in the Holy Grail War, which seemed to have already begun to turn into a turbulent conflict.

If it's an adventure, one person is enough.

"Can we talk now?"

As a somewhat impatient murmur reached his ears, the owner of Linglong Pavilion, who had been pacing for a moment, seemed to awaken from a dream, his expression solemn, and he slowly spoke.

"Star Palace!"

After several twists and turns, the group, who had embarked on their journey again, finally arrived at their destination after several hours of trekking, following the owner of the Linglong Pavilion.

However, the numerous craters of varying sizes and the devastated ruins before him enraged Samael. He immediately grabbed the middle-aged man by the neck, pinned him against a tree, and stared at him menacingly.

"You fool me?"

This is the ruins of Ainsworth; as far as the eye can see, it is desolate and shows no sign of human habitation.

"Ahem, listen to me..."

Like a chick being brought up to the Linglong Pavilion, the owner dared not hide the truth and explained in a hoarse voice.

“Ainsworth’s large-scale spatial displacement magic barrier is not so simple. It is actually divided into two layers, an upper and a lower one. You have only discovered the castle on the ground. There is also a magic workshop in the sky!”

Upon hearing this, Samael's eyes flashed thoughtfully. He then slightly loosened his grip, setting down the guide, and cast a scrutinizing gaze upon the panting owner of the Linglong Pavilion, pressing for more information.

"Then how do we find the entrance?"

"I do not know either……"

The middle-aged man sitting under the withered tree had a hoarse voice and a fearful look in his eyes.

"I only went there once under the guidance of the head of the Ainsworth family, but I have completely forgotten how I got in. I only remember that I was surrounded by starlight, as if it were a palace built on a cloud."

Seeing Samael's gaze gradually turn cold, the owner of Linglong Pavilion, in a moment of desperation, racked his brains to add as many details as possible to enhance his persuasiveness.

"A black cube! Yes, in the center of that palace made up of twelve pillars, there is a constantly rotating and deforming black cube! I don't know why, but it gives me a creepy feeling!"

A black cube that keeps rotating and deforming?

Instantly, the ancient serpent felt a chill run down its spine; the answer was obvious.

Pandora's Box!

"Samael, come quick! Alice, she..."

At the same time, just as Samael's mind was in turmoil, he heard anxious shouts from behind.

In an instant, without a second thought, the ancient serpent swept aside the dead trees in its path and rushed to the gentle slope a hundred meters away. Looking at Alice Feinstein in Artoria's arms, her skin covered in silver threads, her muscles convulsing, and her expression one of agony, her face changed drastically.

Wasn't the Heavenly Garment supposed to last for a while longer? How did it suddenly reach its limit?

"Buzz!"

Just as Samael was frantically trying to suppress the surging magic within Irisviel's body, a majestic tremor reverberated outwards.

Immediately afterwards, an increasingly irrepressible, dazzling golden light rose from Irisviel's chest, revealing a cup-shaped outline.

The Lesser Grail has reached its critical point and is about to manifest!

However, facing the precarious situation of Irisviel, Samael suddenly withdrew his hand, stood up, turned around, grasped the air with his right palm, and the materialized Holy Lance Rungomminia suddenly struck forward in mid-air.

laugh!

Instantly, a surging stream of silvery-white light shot into the sky, piercing through the clouds.

Strangely, the large hole torn in the clouds has not healed for a long time.

"Click..."

Immediately afterwards, a series of crisp cracking sounds echoed, and spiderweb-like cracks rapidly spread outwards from the large hole, covering the sky in the blink of an eye, eventually causing the entire sky to collapse and sink.

"Boom!"

In an instant, the world darkened. The once clear sky was now covered with dark clouds, and crimson lightning bolts moved about, like ferocious, angry dragons circling and roaring in the sky.

At the center of countless intersecting arcs of lightning and swirling dark clouds, a colossal black cube, tens of miles in diameter and utterly dark, rotated and distorted with a peculiar rhythm and trajectory, like a dark and profound universe encompassing endless radiance.

The owner of Linglong Pavilion, who had collapsed to the ground, looked up and his pupils contracted sharply.

This is... the Star Palace?!

At this moment, Samael glanced back at Irisviel, whose face had regained some color after the Lesser Grail within her body was suppressed again, and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Then, the ancient serpent turned its head again to look at the sky, which was as dark as ink, and the deep, black, beautiful and dangerous cube above its head. Its lips moved, and it murmured silently.

Found it, the magic box...!

Buzz…!

Seemingly sensing the intrusion of outsiders, the dark cube in the sky hummed and trembled, as if it were slowly opening the Rubik's Cube of its internal space after aligning the facets, and thick streams of black mud poured down from the facets.

"Zizzizizi!"

In an instant, the red and black mud droplets, which were fluttering and falling, rubbed violently against the air and immediately turned into a rain of fire, which fell to the ground.

As the mud splattered on the ground, the pitch-black filth splashed in all directions, and everything nearby quickly decomposed and decayed, turning into a puddle of bubbling black mud.

Immediately afterwards, black mud flowed and surged across the uneven ground, merging and intertwining with each other.

In a short while, the ruins of Ainsworth ahead were completely covered by black mud, turning into a pitch-black swamp.

As the mud surged, clumps of filth coalesced, outlining distorted human figures wielding swords, bows, and staffs, clad in robes and armor.

"Hoo hoo hoo hoo!"

In an instant, these mortal monsters, emerging from the black mud pools that had gathered on the ground, let out eerie growls, charging towards the vibrant life within their sight like wild beasts that had lost their minds.

Shadow Followers!

The crowd immediately recognized the remnants of the heroes who had caused them so much trouble. Their gazes froze, and their faces gradually darkened.

Because the number of these things in front of us is hundreds or thousands of times greater than before!

Looking out, the former battlefield resembled a muddy riverbed, with a surging black tide carrying thousands of shadow followers, overflowing the embankment and heading straight for the few people in the withered forest.

Chapter 232 The Holy Grail, the Light of Salvation! (4.4k)

"All units, suppressive fire!"

Wearing a navy cap and a pink and white uniform, Koyanskaya stood on the embankment, watching the rolling black tide. Her golden eyes gleamed, she put one hand on her hip, swung her right arm, and coldly shouted.

Immediately, the two escorting squads of assassins each occupied high ground, and as the thousands of Shadow Servants charged forward, they entered the firing range and decisively took turns pulling the triggers.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

The bullets flew horizontally, whistling sharply, drawing bright orange-red arcs in the air, forming a sparse yet effective crossfire network that forcefully halted the advancing shadow followers.

"Puff puff!"

Amidst the dull tearing sound, the dozens of shadow followers in the front row shuddered. Their eyes, which flickered like two flames beneath the black mist, stared stiffly downwards. They were shocked to find that the bullet holes in their chests, limbs, and abdomens, which should have been insignificant, were actually expanding like magma flowing into their bodies, melting their insides and forming horrifying holes.

In no time, dozens of shadow followers who had been shot burst open with boiling black mist, turning into scattered blue smoke and splattered mud.

"The smell of slaughter, the smell of gunpowder, very good! All of you, send these empty shells back to hell to reflect on their actions!"

Goyanskaya's lips curled into a grotesque smile, her golden eyes gleaming with an excited light, like a beast awakened from the night, its ferocity awakened by its hunting instincts.

At the same time, Samael noticed that behind the fox spirit, light and shadow flickered, and several towering pillars rose from the ground, forming the shape of a torii gate, radiating scarlet light across the entire dam.

Therefore, the killing hunters, wearing Russian military caps, black military coats, and bird-beak masks, attacked with precision and efficiency, as if born for killing. A trace of divine power was attached to the bullets as they shot through the air, using the flames of the gods to scorch evil spirits and burn away filth.

The precise and efficient killing before his eyes, and the control that did not waste a single bit of energy, reminded Samael of Archimedes, the micro-management master known as the "human artillery turret" in the Battle of Greco-Persian Seas.

[Killing Techniques]

One of the originators of data, Archimedes was a subspecies possessing skills.

Unlike Archimedes, who created "killing weapons and killing experiences that surpassed the technological level of his time" against his will, Koyanskaya acquired the skill out of interest after collecting, analyzing, and learning information about everything.

What's even more commendable is that, as a fox spirit who is very good at reading the atmosphere, Koyanskaya understands that the decline of the Age of Gods is a foregone conclusion. She stopped clinging to the past glory early on and perfectly integrated into this era, able to use the weapons of the humans of this era with ease.

Furthermore, with the blessing of its power and divine will, the power that modern weapons can exert is "several times that of human use", and they can instantly execute the natural cycle of cause and effect (which originally took hundreds of years to carry out).

Moreover, compared to Archimedes' self-management and self-awareness, Koyanskaya's [killing skills] can not only be used on herself, but also distributed to her teammates through the radiation of ley lines and divine will, so that they can slaughter their opponents more efficiently and systematically.

Therefore, the Slaughter Hunter, who was blessed, instantly possessed the power of a low-level Servant.

While it might be a stretch to deal with real heroic spirits and monsters, it's more than enough and perfectly suited for cleaning up these empty shells of heroes.

"laugh!"

However, just as the two teams of killing hunters were methodically suppressing the surging mudflow below with crossfire, a streak of crimson light swept across the sky, carrying with it a terrifying distortion and tremor of the air, rushing toward the commander.

"boom!"

The earth roared, and dust billowed everywhere.

Amidst a sky thick with dark clouds and swirling thunder, a ship covered in red and black streaks of light emerged from behind a mudslide cascading down to the ground.

On the broad deck, the Pharaoh, holding a gold and blue scepter and with his skin etched with black and red marks, looked down at the black tide and the dense shadow followers that had broken through the dikes and were spreading into the dense forest. His eyes were red and cold, like a blood-red sun that brought death and omens.

"Buzz!"

However, the moment the black tide surged into the dense forest, a faint tremor came, and a scarlet light shot into the sky, dissipating all the surrounding smoke and dust.

A magnificent golden shield, with the emblem of the Gorgon goddess engraved in the center, stood imposingly before Koyanskaya, as solid as a mountain.

At the same time, the person wielding the divine shield slightly raised his head, his opening and closing vertical pupils meeting the shadow followers sweeping across the mountains and fields, his lips moving as he whispered softly.

"Medusa's Gaze!"

In an instant, the Gorgon Goddess in the center of the shield, who had been keeping her eyes closed, slowly opened them. As her gaze fell upon them, the ashes of death instantly covered the bodies of the shadow followers, solidifying them into eternal stone statues, and the battlefield fell into a deathly silence.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

But then, the surging black mud surged forth, and under the crashing waves, the petrified sculptures instantly turned into fragments and sank back into the muddy swamp. More twisted figures were summoned, rising to the surface of the mud and forming an army.

Looking around, the expanse stretched to the horizon, numbering in the tens of thousands!

As time flows on, countless heroic spirits, epic tales, and human conquests have been buried on this planet, along with the remnants of their deeds and their lingering resentment.