Chapter Ninety-Seven: The King’s Sword, Emblem of Victory

“Projection: Excalibur.”

As Zhuang Xiaoyuan brought her palms together, a blaze of red light burst forth between them, many times more dazzling than before. Within that crimson radiance, like red lightning made manifest, appeared a sacred sword wreathed in a faint golden glow.

There was no doubt it was the legendary Noble Phantasm of the noble King of Knights, King Arthur. A conceptual weapon embodying humanity’s faith in victory: the Sword of Promised Victory.

The kingly blade, shining with gold, descended into this world, destined to blaze for the first time upon this earth. With the projection complete, Zhuang Xiaoyuan raised the Sword of Promised Victory high and cried, “Come to me, heroic spirits who fell here, warriors still fighting. Lend me your longing for victory, your faith in victory, your pursuit of victory.”

Little by little, gold light began to gather from the earth, from the sky, from the houses, from the city walls, from the warriors still battling, from the wounded groaning in the hospital, from the fallen heroic spirits whose breath had already faded. Countless golden sparks converged into the kingly sword held aloft by Zhuang Xiaoyuan.

“I will absolutely not let you run wild any longer, fiend. Ex-calibur.”

Gathering countless golden lights and the faith of countless victories, Zhuang Xiaoyuan swung the Sword of Promised Victory toward the rapidly closing burrowing fiend.

As the blade, heavy with the light of innumerable triumphs, was brought down, a torrent of gold erupted from the kingly sword and surged at the burrowing fiend, swallowing its enormous body in an instant.

“That move should have been... ngh.” Having unleashed such a blinding strike, Zhuang Xiaoyuan had paid dearly for it as well. The energy she released in that instant sent sharp waves of pain through her body. But just as she was still lost in the splendor of what she had unleashed, a slender hook-blade, hidden beneath the gold torrent, slipped silently through and pierced her heart in an instant.

“Cough...”

Pain throbbed through her chest. With blood draining away, her vision darkened, and even her body heat seemed to vanish at once. Watching the golden torrent fade into the distance and reveal the burrowing fiend’s massive form, Zhuang Xiaoyuan could only manage a bitter smile.

“So it really was... just a copy made by projection... If it had been Artoria...”

With a sharp sweep, the burrowing fiend drew its slender yet unbreakably sharp tail from Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s chest, flinging her entire body far away until she slammed into the wall by the roadside. With a thunderous crash, the wall collapsed, and bricks buried her beneath the rubble.

The burrowing fiend flicked its thin tail, shaking blood from the tip, then stopped moving as well. Though it had pierced Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s heart in one blow, it had not come away unscathed. The price of taking the Sword of Promised Victory head-on was both of its forelimbs being broken, its carapace split with numerous cracks, and many wounds opened along its four powerful legs.

Although the wounds on its body were healing rapidly, the cracks on its back and the two forelimbs were recovering slowly. This was the burrowing fiend’s weakest moment. Yet even in a weakened state, limited to attacking with its tail and mouth, it was still a burrowing fiend. Far beyond what an ordinary human could resist, even if encased in the most advanced powered armor.

Once the wounds on its legs had fully closed, the burrowing fiend did not wait for its forelimbs and carapace to recover. Instead, it began to stride southward.

Under the pile of broken bricks by the roadside, Zhuang Xiaoyuan had already returned to her original form. The wound in her chest was still bleeding, but the heart that had been pierced through was now beating soundly within her chest.

Struggling, she pressed her right hand against the wound to slow the bleeding as much as possible, and with unyielding willpower, she drew on her mental strength to look toward the nebula vortex inside her.

At this moment, most of the vortex had already turned gold. But that gold was somewhat dim, a result of the heavy drain on divine power. The state of the nebula vortex was not what Zhuang Xiaoyuan focused on most. Her attention was fixed on the few cards at its center.

Huang Xiaoyan’s card remained dim and unusable, and even Chloe’s card had now lost its color and fallen into an unusable state. Worse still, its cooldown was shown as unknown. It seemed that although Chloe’s transformation card had saved Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s life and lessened her fatal injury, it had also sustained damage itself. For the moment, it could not be used.

Erina Nakiri’s card was usable, but it was no help in combat. There was still one blank card that could generate a new character, but with Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s current ability, even if she created a formidable character, her own limitations would prevent that character from displaying its true power. She had already experienced that with Huang Xiaoyan before, and now with Chloe’s transformation card.

So there was only one choice left: the card that had been generated before the Guardian God trial and had never once been used. This card did not possess overwhelming offensive power, and the character within it was not strongly aggressive at all; in fact, her temperament was extremely gentle. If she used this card, she would not be able to defeat the wounded yet still terrifying burrowing fiend.

And yet, because of that fatal blow, because of the brush with death, Zhuang Xiaoyuan had finally become completely calm.

Even so, calmness only made one thing clearer: her nature would not allow her to turn away from this burrowing fiend.

However, facing it did not mean she had to defeat it outright. Preventing it from interfering with the battle at the south gate did not require killing it. All Zhuang Xiaoyuan needed was to buy time until Wen Hui and the others returned.

The guardians would not fail to come back. That possibility did not exist.

“Ha... ha...” She panted weakly beneath the broken bricks. With her right hand pressing against the wound in her chest, Zhuang Xiaoyuan raised the card in her left hand, the one painted with a green-clad girl.

“Divine Descent Transformation.”

Golden light shone through the rubble, drawing the burrowing fiend’s attention and causing its advancing pace to slow involuntarily.

“W-wahhh... it hurts... it hurts so much... it’s scary...”

A miserable sob rang out. The burst of energy at the instant of the divine descent transformation blasted the bricks off Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s body. Now transformed into a figure clad in green, she sat on the ground and cried bitterly.

As Zhuang Xiaoyuan wept in anguish, the clear sky above suddenly turned overcast. Then, little by little, dense raindrops began to fall from above, as though even the heavens had started to cry.

And it was not only the sudden rain. White mist also began to drift into being, faint at first, then spreading slowly outward, with Zhuang Xiaoyuan at its center.