Shinji Matou at Your Service

Zepia earned the alias Night of Wallachia because of his first manifestation after embodying Tatari and becoming Disaster.

The manifestation occurred in Wallachia, Romania. This is the place where the faith of Romania's greatest hero, Vlad III, converges and the origin of the vampire Count Dracula legend. The vampire legend has been passed down locally for generations.

Zepia exploited this deeply entrenched, centuries-old rumor to manifest Count Dracula, completely consuming a local village. By the time the Church's knights arrived, only scattered human skins remained on the roads.

But that was ultimately a manifestation based on a rumor, a false product. What Shinji was using now was the crystallization of faith, the essence of Vlad III's life, a real Noble Phantasm.

Although not within Romania, where the Noble Phantasm would have its greatest power, it still possessed the strength to annihilate Servants. How many more so unprepared knights?

After annihilating the knights in one strike, Shinji continued to extend the stakes, encompassing all remaining phantoms.

However, having learned from the previous example, Zepia, with computing power comparable to a supercomputer, quickly made adjustments. The remaining phantom either jumped into the air or cut off the tips of the stakes to avoid the attacks from below.

The most formidable among them was the phantom of Akiha Tohno. Her red hair flicked, her body radiated high heat, and the stakes melted as soon as they approached—this was the stakes' only weakness. Single stakes were too fragile and not difficult to destroy.

"Regrettably, this isn't Romania, so I can't use the King of Execution. Otherwise, I wouldn't need to use any other Noble Phantasms."

Seeing this, Shinji regretfully withdrew his hand.

"But this is fine too. You have more people, and I have more Noble Phantasms. Let's see if your numbers are stronger or if my Noble Phantasms are superior!"

As he spoke, the phantom of Akiha Tohno charged ahead, enveloped in thousands of degrees of heat, evaporating the stakes she passed, including the giant iron pillar under Shinji's feet.

"Good timing!"

Shinji laughed, a flash of white light under his feet. Winged shoes condensed, lifting his body higher.

A shadow silently glided through the air, appearing behind Shinji in an almost impossibly contorted position for a human, and a dagger in hand stabbed down like lightning.

Shinji seemed to have anticipated this. He pointed a finger, and a golden rod floated in the air. Fine golden electric light instantly filled the ten-meter space centered on him. The phantom's movements were momentarily halted by the divine thunder.

Seizing the opportunity, the stakes once again unleashed its power, piercing through all phantoms within the Divine Thunder Barrier.

"Go!"

With a soft command, the concentrated thunder of the Divine Thunder Barrier converged.

The next second, a golden serpent tore through the air, striking directly at the core of the phantom army—Zepia. Simultaneously attacking with the thunder serpent were the ever-extending stakes.

"Rotate, sever!"

Sensing the terrifying power and mystery within the thunder and stakes, Zepia dared not be careless. He gritted his teeth, and the EtherLight Weave formed from the Fifth Element was unleashed madly, forming just in time. The defeated phantoms reappeared, using their bodies as shields to block the lightning and stakes.

The EtherLight Weave continued ceaselessly, and the destroyed phantoms resurrected again as shields.

"Cheater," Shinji scoffed coldly.

The two key elements of the phantom army were the Etherlight Weave and Zepia's computational power. The former, due to being within Tatari, could continuously replenish.

The latter was even more exaggerated. Although the exact data was unknown, Sion, who had lesser computational power than Zepia, could divide her thoughts into seven parts for high-speed calculations. One could only imagine Zepia's prowess. Moreover, after becoming a Dead Apostle, his recovery rate greatly increased, and he wouldn't feel fatigued even if he kept his thought circuits running all night.

With these two assurances, Zepia was not afraid of the phantoms being destroyed. He could just create more. He was least afraid of attrition battles—this was also the advantage of the vampire race. Most historical defeats by vampires were due to being dragged into attrition battles.

To defeat these vampires, the best way was to find a method to limit their recovery abilities, either by using a Noble Phantasm that could restrain recovery, sealing them directly, or overwhelming them with higher output.

Shinji didn't know how to seal, and Zepia, having suffered in close combat before, didn't engage in melee again, leaving only the last option.

"This is my favorite thing."

As Shinji spoke, he slapped the end of the golden rod, throwing the Buddhist artifact like a baseball.

Zepia tried the same trick again, having the phantom form layer upon layer of barriers. However, the golden rod didn't hit any of them. Instead, it burst into dazzling light just before impact.

"Indra's Thunder: Broken Phantasm!"—Art is an explosion!

Using spiritual particles to create a container, and using mana and faith as ammunition to unleash the power of the Noble Phantasm all at once—simple and crude, yet extremely effective.

The lightning blinded their sight, and the thunder deafened their hearing. At this moment, the only theme on the top floor of the Temple was—Explosion.

No, the top floor of the Temple was already a thing of the past. Under the destructive force of Indra's Thunder, the highest building in the city lost another layer.

Of course, neither Shinji, who was in mid-air, nor Arcueid standing on the building's exterior wall, were harmed. Before using Broken Phantasm, he had calculated everything. Since returning from the parallel world, he had never slackened, researching diligently every day. To this day, he was fully aware of the explosion range and effects of all his bombs.

As soon as the explosion neared its end, he swung the Harpe and charged toward the center of the blast—Zepia's spiritual particles were still intact in his mental scan. The regenerative ability of a Dead Apostle at the level of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors rivaled that of phantasmal species, almost reaching the level of a True Ancestor.

A cold gleam sliced through the smoke and dust kicked up by the explosion. Visual obstructions could not stop Shinji's advance. At this moment, only one last barrier stood before Zepia. If he broke through this barrier and struck Zepia with the scythe blade, the battle would be over.

The scythe blade fell.

With B-rank strength, the thrust from the winged shoes, gravitational acceleration, and quadruple reinforcement from body enhancement magic, Shinji's power was amplified to a terrifying height in an instant. Such a strike was far beyond what that phantom could withstand.

However—this strike was indeed blocked.

Blocked by a hand, a hand that felt somewhat familiar to Shinji.

The smoke and dust scattered.