Explosions, shrieks, screams, spell chanting—all these noises mixed together and became one upon the battlefield, jumping into Ruler's ears. Those who wished for it, those who didn't, and even those who didn't even know the word 'wish' took no notice of it, while Ruler ran even faster across the battlefield.
"...!"
Within the huge floating fortress—there was one Servant. The reason she could tell that even from down here was due to the beams of light being shot down from the fortress along with overwhelming killing intent. The Servant there concentrated all that destructive power sufficient to destroy a castle onto Ruler alone.
But Ruler hoisted her flag without panicking. Her Magic Resistance was EX rank. As such, she who was a saint couldn't be wounded even by magecraft from the Age of Gods. However, this resistance only turned spells away from her. In other words, it didn't receive and negate it.
"Sieg-kun, get away!"
Sieg immediately reacted to those words. After getting away from that spot with a roll across the ground, he saw Ruler disappear in an instant under a beam of light that fell from the sky.
"Ruler!"
He reflexively shouted—but his voice stopped midway. He was speechless. Being magus right from birth, he understood. The pillar of light that had fallen from the sky just now was a lightning strike filled with malice. With power equal to that of a dropped bomb, even the Saber class which tended to have the highest Magic Resistance wouldn't be able to just shrug it off.
But she—avoided it. Though 'avoided' was not the right way to describe it. That spell attack, which totally suppressed, not a single spot, but an entire area, had been diverted away without injuring her.
The lightning strike, which should have had a will of its own, had lost its malice. Instead, the lightning attacked the surrounding area.
If she hadn't called out to him just now, Sieg also would have probably been caught up in the attack. Surrounding her had been the wreckage of golems along with Dragon Tooth Warriors that had been trying to attack her, but now... every last one of them had completely vanished.
Not a single piece of rubbish remained... If she hadn't called out to him, he might have been reduced to dust that as well.
"This is... the Servant of the eighth class."
While murmuring that, he looked to the sky. Though Ruler's abnormal Magic Resistance was surprising, what was even more shocking was the feat of magecraft just now. Such a spell that was equal to a bomber attack could only be magecraft from the Age of Gods.
It was probably Caster of Red. That floating fortress was likely the Noble Phantasm or something of a Red Servant. At the very least, such a feat was impossible for a modern magus.
Either way, it still hadn't managed to kill Ruler. Both Sieg and Ruler though that the Servant casting the spells from the floating fortress would therefore give up.
But—
"!?"
They were both shocked at the same time. Without caring at all about the fact that their attacks had been diverted, the Servant above continued firing more spell blasts one after another. They were doing a meaningless act... No, there was meaning to it. This was simply an attempt to buy time. And the means that accompanied it were just too overwhelming.
"Kuh...!"
Ruler looked at Sieg. Yes, Ruler could still move, but Sieg would always have to get away from her. Sieg spoke without wavering.
"...Go on ahead. Either way, I have to meet the people I must meet."
"I understand."
She didn't wish him luck in battle. The battlefield was not something that could be survived just by having luck. If she had to say anything, it should be a prayer that he would not encounter a Servant.
But that was impossible. Because he said he would meet with the people he must meet. The first ones he had to meet were the homunculi. Saving them was one of Sieg's objectives.
And there was one more person he had to meet. A Servant—Rider of Black, Astolfo. His wish to meet with this Servant wasn't out of a clear sense of purpose. Perhaps he would just meet him because he wanted to meet him. Ruler thought that was a little charming.
However, going to meet Rider meant encountering other Servants. He held a sword in his hand, and his body was clearly filled with fighting spirit.
Therefore, he would probably be viewed as an enemy by the Red camp. By all rights, she should stop him, but he would probably never stop. Even though he knew that meeting Rider was a futile and meaningless act and that he would be betraying Rider's prayer for him, Sieg would still go meet him.
Ruler began running. She sensed that the 'someone' she was after was getting further away, so she increased her speed more and more. She abandoned even dealing with the slashes from the Dragon Tooth Warriors and simply ran.
It wasn't that she wanted to stop this war. As long as the war between the two camps was tuned correctly, Ruler had no objections to it at all.
But a strong sense of uneasiness that made her teeth clench and grate urged her to cut across this battlefield. She had to meet them, she had to meet the 'someone' who was getting further away.
And a Red Servant was intentionally obstructing her. They piled up Dragon Tooth Warriors like a mountain and simply created a wall to block her.
"—You're in my way!"
Of course, even the delay of having to deal with a minor obstruction like this was precious time to Ruler. She aimed the tip of her flag at a single point and broke through the wall without pausing.
And then, she waved the holy water she carried and displayed the location of each Servant just as she did before. She knew that the Black Servants were not a problem right now, and so she focused her attention on only the locations of the Red Servants.
Mere Dragon Tooth Warriors were far from effective at stalling for time against her. But Servants were another matter. First, she definitely had to avoid being chased after by any of them.
Ruler swiftly came up with a route that did not come into contact with any Red Servants, and ran to follow that path. She felt a chill swell up inside her increasingly as time passed.
And then, the worst possible match-up barged onto her route as if to block her.
