IBHJ Chapter 631 (Patreon)

Crack crack crack——

Heracles crawled from the ruins, stone axe in hand, bellowing a deafening roar. His blood-stained, berserk eyes flashed with violent fury. Yet even lost in his rage, he knew Mordred was out of reach.

His crimson gaze darted through the darkness and locked onto Kiara. With a savage roar, he kicked off the rubble and barreled towards her like a maddened beast.

Seeing no time to help, Mordred yelled, "Kiara!"

Heracles loomed before Kiara, his massive body eclipsing the light like a giant's hand blotting out the sun. His enormous frame exuded a terrifying, primal bloodlust and his stone axe glinted maliciously.

Kiara froze, stunned. Even her thoughts stopped. Though she held the Beast's memories, this was her first true encounter with such savage violence!

She was paralyzed, unable to act.

"Rest in peace—" Mordred whispered.

Defense was no longer an option.

With no chance left to save Kiara, she decided to go on offense instead. She deactivated the chalice, releasing herself from the phasing state of [Polar Star] and returning to normal. She then unleashed all the mana in her sword.

"—and face eternal sleep!"

The obsidian blade flashed with spectral light, a requiem hymn.

The sword that had buried her kingdom, the light of destruction, thundered straight toward Heracles.

"Boom——!!!"

Heracles's top half exploded into fragments, yet the blast lost no momentum as she swung it toward the surging demonic worms bursting from underground.

"Boom boom boom boom——!!!"

Utter obliteration!

As the light faded, Mordred breathed a sigh of relief. She casually glanced at the still-paralyzed Kiara. "How much longer are you gonna stand there spacing out?"

Hearing this, Kiara snapped back to her senses and stammered, "S-Sorry!"

Mordred fixed her with a look. "Don't apologize to me. I hate those words. That Beast said you took some of her authorities, right? So what are you so scared of? Just use them already."

"I-I'm sorry..." she could think of nothing else to say.

"I told you to stop saying sorry!" Mordred said sharply. "It pisses me off so much I could hit you! You should be telling me 'There won't be a next time!'"

"Uuu..." Kiara shrank under her glare.

Despite looking so small, she felt that Mordred had quite an imposing presence.

"Let's go. Looks like something's happened. Hmph...what a messy Grail War."

Just then—

Whoosh—!

The whistling sound of something breaking through the air rang by their ears.

Danger!

Mordred's instincts screamed warning. She whipped around, eyes shrinking at the sight of a massive stone axe shooting towards her like a meteor. Reflexively, she raised her sword to block horizontally.

Clang—!

The ringing clash resounded.

Its sheer force blasted Mordred numbly backwards. She smashed heavily into a stone wall, the stonework cratering with a boom.

Pain blazed through her back.

"Ah, um..." Kiara looked at her worriedly, but not knowing Mordred's name, could only call out anxiously, "Miss Unknown!"

"What kind of weird-ass name is that?!" Mordred shot back. Then barked at her, "Hurry up and run!"

Kiara froze.

Crack, crack, crack—

What remained of Heracles' lower body stood back up as steam rose from his body, regenerating back to his original state.

"He actually has a resurrection Noble Phantasm..." Mordred's eyes shrank violently.

"Raaaargh!" Heracles roared.

Mordred tightened her grip, channeling mana into her sword. Blackish-red light glimmered as she unleashed her Noble Phantasm again.

The energy beam lanced forth like a comet—

But this time—

"Raaaargh!"

Heracles charged straight through the blast, barreling right at Mordred.

Passing Kiara without a glance, eyes locked furiously on his target.

He instinctively sensed that this untouchable foe could be reached now!

"He's adapted to my attack...?"

Mordred looked at him in surprise, then decisively blasted the earth. The shockwave kicked up rubble and dust, obscuring Heracles' vision. Seizing the chance, she used her Noble Phantasm to tunnel underground.

"Boom——!"

Heracles plowed into empty space.

Just after burrowing underground, something attacked her down there.

Hissing strangely, their snake-like bodies oozed viscous acid that corroded the surrounding soil into thick mud streams.

"There's some down here too?"

Mordred swung her sword, slaying the burrowing worms drilling her way. More poured endlessly through the churned earth—for her, this was like diving into a bug nest.

Left with no choice, she could only emerge from the underground.

But the moment she poked her head out, Heracles noticed her and charged roaring towards her.

She scowled.

Without a doubt, Heracles's [Twelve Labors] had caught her completely off guard.

[Twelve Labors] granted Heracles twelve chances at resurrection with full restoration of his body. Additionally, every time he revived, the Noble Phantasms that had killed him previously would become ineffective.

At the same time, as long as there was sufficient mana, the number of revivals from [Twelve Labors] could be restored over time. If Heracles's Master was Illya, then one extra life could be restored every three days.

Of course, extremely powerful Noble Phantasms could also wipe out multiple lives from [Twelve Labors] in one go.

Therefore, to deal with Heracles, one either needed endless noble phantasms like Gilgamesh to invalidate the immunity granted by [Twelve Labors’] revivals, or attacks powerful enough to wipe out multiple of Heracles's lives at once!

Hydra and Bashmu's poisons had been extremely terrifying. Plus, Hydra had a hundred heads, each possessing different attack properties. That was what had cost Heracles four lives.

Mordred's previous Noble Phantasm strike, on the other hand, had taken two lives in one blow.

So at this point, Heracles had six lives left.

She didn't know about Heracles's True Name or his Noble Phantasm, Twelve Labors. But judging by his performance so far, she had a rough idea of how it worked.

As Heracles charged at her again, she had no choice but to burrow underground to dodge. But endless demonic worms still poured from the connected crevices.

Kiara watched anxiously, feeling helpless and unable to do anything.

Perhaps Heracles sensed her harmlessness and categorized her as a non-threat like grass and stones, focusing on dealing with Mordred instead.

And Mordred's chalice was still on cooldown after she had gone on the offense earlier to try and save Kiara.

She estimated needing about ten seconds for the chalice to restart.

But whether above ground or below, there were enemies everywhere.

The situation was getting dangerous!

Then, suddenly—

"Whoosh—"

The sound of space being torn.

Blending the sun's raging heat with the moon's gentle glow.

Like a meteoric arrow, the attack repelled Heracles, allowing Mordred to emerge safely from underground.

"Raaaargh!"

Heracles bellowed deafeningly at the sky.

The nimble Archer prowled like a hunting beast, flickering illusory afterimages making it impossible to discern her true location.

Suddenly—

With a “whoosh,” her figure flashed demonically, landing on Heracles’s shoulder. Her fierce claws sank viciously into Heracles’s body with a ringing, metallic “clang”.

Heracles roared, flinging Archer off his body.

Somersaulting gracefully midair like an agile wildcat, Archer stuck fast to the stone wall, clinging tightly as she glared at Heracles with bared fangs.

"Archer..." Mordred eyed the woman in surprise.