Fate: How About a New Savior?

Both of her arms and legs had been pierced. What emerged from the shattered stone gate was no longer Cú Chulainn, but a beast clad in thorn-

Both of her arms and legs had been pierced.

What emerged from the shattered stone gate was no longer Cú Chulainn, but a beast clad in thorn-covered armor forged from red spears. It held the gravely wounded Shiomi in its hand like a lifeless doll.

"Out of my way!" Scáthach, for the first time in ages, felt a surge of fury.

Pure, unrestrained rage.

If she had been the one seriously injured by Cú Chulainn due to her own mistake, she wouldn't have been angry—perhaps only disappointed, or regretful at her own shortcomings.

But this? This was her cherished disciple taking a lethal blow in her stead, from another student who had gone astray.

Fueled by seething rage, she slashed the ground with her spear, sending Arjuna—still not fully freed from the ice—flying along with a section of the earth.

Scáthach charged toward the place hundreds of meters away.

She saw more thorns erupting, impaling both Shiomi and Cú Chulainn. Blood gushed like a fountain, dyeing the snowy ground a vivid red.

"…Hm?"

Cú Chulainn frowned, sensing something off as he looked at Shiomi—who should have been on the verge of death.

"Forgot already? The sixth of the primordial Runes… returns any curse doubled…" Shiomi let out a strained laugh. "Looks like the Holy Grail… stuffed your skull full of muscle, huh…Senpai…"

"Puhah—!"

Blood burst from the seams of the armor made of crimson spears. The helmet snapped open as Cú Chulainn coughed up blood. Rage and disbelief twisted his face into something monstrous. He tried to tear Shiomi apart, only to find his claws welded into Shiomi's body, unable to be withdrawn.

"Too bad… If you want to kill me… you'll need power on par with the King of Magecraft…" Shiomi gripped his staff tightly. "This next spell… take it on Arjuna's behalf—"

Gritting his teeth, he ignored the blades piercing and rending his body, and seized Cú Chulainn's exposed head.

"—'Wild Thunder.'"

Lightning crashed down from the sky in a torrent, forming a vortex that swallowed them both. Even Cú Chulainn, rarely one to show emotion, let out a low, agonized groan.

Scáthach, who had just arrived, came to a halt, unable to press forward.

She raised an arm to block the current brushing against her skin.

The snow-white field, already stained crimson with blood, now blackened under the storm of lightning, revealing the frozen earth beneath.

Cú Chulainn, now charred black, knelt where he was, eyes vacant as he stared at the sky.

Across from the Mad King, Shiomi slowly rose to his feet, pulling the thorns and claws embedded in his body out one by one. Each removal triggered a burst of blood—but the bleeding quickly stopped.

"…Hah… hahahaha… hahahahaha…" Shiomi suddenly broke into laughter.

It sounded like celebration… or perhaps resignation. It was impossible to tell whether he was joyful or grieving.

"What kind of Mad King are you? Compared to the Cú Chulainn who fought the King of Magecraft to the death, you're just a beast who only knows how to bite." He chuckled a few more times before spitting out a mouthful of blood. "Even Master misjudged you."

The Mad King was still alive, but in worse shape than Shiomi. Until he recovered, he couldn't move at all.

Shiomi leaned on his staff, bent down with effort, and picked up the red spear from the ground. "Guess I'll use this… to cut off your head, yeah?"

That said, after taking the brunt of Scáthach's Noble Phantasm by switching places with her, he no longer had the strength to wield a spear well enough to decapitate someone.

And they weren't alone.

Arjuna drew his bow, but hesitated, unable to release the fatal arrow.

Medb leapt out. "How dare you do this to my little Cú!"

Raising her whip, she moved to strike Shiomi down and give him a brutal lesson.

Scáthach's crimson spear shot forward, repelling Medb. She then struck down the few arrows Arjuna had finally managed to release.

"We can't keep fighting. Let's go," Scáthach whispered, holding Shiomi in her arms.

The pseudo-Reality Marble immediately began to collapse. The wind and snow surged violently, nearly blinding Medb, while Arjuna couldn't see a thing through the blizzard.

Moments later, the scenery returned to the White House square. Only the heavily wounded Cú Chulainn, along with Medb and Arjuna, remained.

"His presence… is gone," Arjuna said after a brief moment of sensing, letting out a sigh.

Medb had already pulled out the Holy Grail to treat Cú Chulainn's wounds and didn't even acknowledge what he said.

...

In a forest dozens of kilometers away—

"I'm fine… just need a little time to recover," Shiomi said, raising his hand and staring at the blood-stained palm. "The curse enhanced by the Holy Grail really isn't simple… You wouldn't understand its workings without going through it yourself."

"Don't waste your energy talking."

Scáthach tried to heal him, and another fit of coughing followed.

It looked grim—but only on the surface.

She knew all too well that the curse from the magic spear wasn't enough to kill Shiomi. The curses interfering with the healing were clashing with the divine authority he had just begun to grasp, and little by little, that authority was erasing them.

Without those curses, Shiomi would probably already be back to his usual self.

Despite over eighty percent of his internal organs and body being damaged, he was still alive.

"It's fine… Last time, the King of Magecraft killed me outright, even destroyed the resurrection Rune I had prepared—and I still didn't die," Shiomi said with a smile, reassuring his master.

"Your reaction was too fast. Almost like… you knew this would happen in advance," Scáthach asked seriously. "That spell…"

Swapping positions with a target required the technique to be pre-prepared.

She only understood why he'd engraved that spell on her the previous night when she saw it activate in that instant.

"It wasn't foresight. Before we came here… I had a nightmare," Shiomi replied with a bitter smile, shaking his head. "I dreamed you were seriously injured by the red spear…"

"I see." Scáthach lifted him into her arms. "What will you do next? Wait until you recover and launch another attack?"

"No. First, we regroup with the others," Shiomi said, smiling with full confidence. "If Medb uses the Holy Grail to heal the Mad King, she won't have time to create new soldiers. If she doesn't, then he'll take longer to return to the front lines."

Either way, this ambush hadn't been for nothing.

From beginning to end, Medb and her side never figured out what Shiomi really was. They'd never imagine that he could return to full strength in just a single day—faster even than the King of Magecraft's Holy Grail.

"Understood. Then let's meet up with the others first."

Scáthach rested her chin lightly against Shiomi's forehead, which leaned against her chest, and agreed with a soft smile.

Inside, her heart swelled with joy.

Because he had moved ahead of her now—and this time, as his master, it was her turn to catch up.