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Suddenly, before Olivia stood a towering figure: a muscular old man with long flowing hair and beard, clear brown skin, and a chiseled, hairy physique.
He grinned proudly, arms crossed over his chest, clad in ornate sopotamian kingly robes.
The colossal monster crashed into him, scattering shards of tal and rubble in every direction.
BOOOM!
"GAHAHAHAHAHA! HOW WEAK!"
The Ancient King roared with laughter. Raising one hand, he summoned divinity that wove into radiant threads of pure light, coalescing into a magnificent golden spear.
"Co to , my Spear of Blinding Sunlight! Shamash Uruk!"
FLAAASH!
A blinding divine spear materialized in his grip. With a single, forceful thrust, he drove it forward.
And...
BOOOMMM!!!
The entire gigantic, train-shaped insectoid monster was impaled by searing light and detonated into countless fragnts.
The residual brilliance struck an abandoned building behind it, reducing the structure to rubble in seconds.
"W-Wha...!" Olivia’s brows twitched in disbelief. "Rider, you absolute idiot! What are you doing?! I told you we needed to stay stealthy! And do you think I have infinite mana for you to throw around a weapon that powerful?!"
"GAHAHAHAH! A King does not trouble himself with such trifles, Master!" the ancient king bellowed, laughing heartily. "Our Dual Core has its own perk—it generates Mana through the constant interplay between our Spirits!"
"Yeah, but is it regenerating fast enough to match the drain from your skills?" Olivia facepald hard. "Ah, whatever. Let’s get out of here now—hurry, before—"
"Fufufu, how impressive. So this is the Rider you summoned? I was certain you would call forth Archer... Did the ritual fail? Hahaha!"
"...?!"
Olivia’s eyes snapped upward at the mischievous feminine voice. Two crimson eyes glead down at her.
A slender figure hovered there, enormous butterfly wings of deep purple and red unfurled behind her, adorned with eerie eye-like patterns. Long black horns curved from her head, long dark-purple hair cascaded down, and a third eye stared from the center of her forehead.
She wore a flowing black dress and stood barefoot.
"A woman? No—a fairy... but those horns... that’s no ordinary fairy—what is she?! Wait—is she a Heroic Spirit?! No, she doesn’t feel like one— Ah! Her Mana Levels...! They’re overwhelming!"
TRUUUM!
As Olivia’s mind raced to identify the stranger, the woman extended a graceful hand toward her.
"Go have so fun, Foreigner."
"Foreigner? Are you calling that because I’m not from this country? I—"
"MASTER!"
Her Heroic Spirits’ voices rang out in unison. They materialized in front of her, shielding her body and yanking her backward just as a massive black tentacle slamd into the ground where she had stood.
BOOOM!
"Eh?!"
Olivia stared at the writhing black appendage protruding from a floating book that had appeared from nowhere. Then the shadow concealing its wielder finally dissipated.
A very tall, unnaturally slender, almost skeletal man erged—long limbs, dressed in an immaculate black suit. His face remained shrouded in darkness; only his bright red eyes shone through.
He wore a black fedora, which he calmly readjusted as he t her gaze.
Opening his other palm, he summoned a second book.
"Wha...! Who is...?! "
"That’s a Heroic Spirit, Master! How did you not sense him?!"
"Eh?!"
Olivia couldn’t explain why she had missed it, but the entity had completely erased his presence—as though he had not existed until this very mont.
The fairy laughed delightedly.
"Hahahaha! Co now, you can do better than that, right?"
"Huh... You’re always pushing , Master... I wish you would let have so quiet ti to write my books. It’s a once-in-a-lifeti chance to live again, and you’re making work around the clock..."
The man sighed, shaking his head in resignation, yet he obeyed without hesitation. Both books snapped open, revealing swirling black voids filled with chaotic madness.
From within poured an endless tide of monstrous horrors—giant tentacles, gaping jaws lined with razor fangs, crimson and yellow eyes, black goat legs, and the composite, soul-rending screams of countless tornted beings.
"GYAAAAAHHHHH!"
"U-Uugh?! W-What...! What is this?!"
Olivia’s body convulsed as the horrors beyond the void assaulted her senses. She vomited blood, tears of blood stread from her eyes, and crimson trickled from her ears.
"Don’t look at them, Master!"
Rider swiftly raised his hand. Divine light flared as he summoned his mount—magnificent green and golden feathers unfurling to reveal a massive bird the size of a car.
His Divine Mount: the Anzu Bird.
A colossal lion-headed eagle from sopotamian legend.
"CRYAAAAAAH!"
The chiric beast unleashed a thunderous cry. Olivia was swiftly placed atop its back while Rider transford his weapon once more.
The spear dissolved into threads of golden sunlight and reford as a bow. Blinding arrows of light materialized, aid at the writhing mass of tentacles, hands, legs, eyes, and jaws surging toward them.
"Begone from this world, you wretched abomination! Blinding Light of the Sun! Shamash Uruk!"
TRUUUM!
A colossal, radiant arrow struck the horde of aberrations, detonating in a wide arc and erupting into a blinding explosion of sunlight that lit the night for several seconds.
BOOOMMM!!!
"Gyyaaaeerrggghhh!"
The monstrous forms shrieked in agony. A massive hole tore through their grotesque bodies, black miasma pouring out like an ocean into the abandoned district.
Yet even after taking a fully charged divine arrow from Rider...
It still lived.
"Hmm... So this is the power of Shamash Uruk, is it?" the summoner mused, a rare summoner-type Heroic Spirit. "How strange that the creations of a madman prove stronger. This truly makes no sense, does it?"
"Tch! How could they have summoned a creature like this?!"
Rider never paused, unleashing arrow after arrow in a relentless barrage. Each explosion of blinding light reduced more of the monstrosity to ash.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
But would it truly be enough?
"Fufufu, co now, Foreigner—get serious."
His master’s voice remained playful, yet those last two words carried a razor-sharp gravity that froze the air itself.
"Yes, Master."
The "Foreigner" waved his hand and snapped his fingers. The two books vanished. Behind him, a black gate ripped open—a fissure into the abyssal void beyond this universe.
From his palm erged a pitch-black to. He began to write within its pages.
"Kadath Unbound — The Drear’s Black Throne."
TRUUUM!
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