BOOM!
Medusa's Noble Phantasm successfully struck Zuke — the Phantasmal Species from the Age of Gods, enhanced by "Bellerophon," crashed into Zuke's chest with absolute force.
This was the power of an A+ rank Noble Phantasm. In the original story, the Phantasmal Species charge of "Bellerophon" could even briefly block the release of the A++ rank "Excalibur."
If a normal Heroic Spirit took this hit while completely defenseless, they would definitely be sent back to the Throne of Heroes immediately... but Zuke was clearly not among them.
"How is this possible...?!"
When her white horse beneath her crashed into Zuke, the one who cried out in pain was not Zuke, but rather the Pegasus beneath her.
It couldn't even be called a cry of pain, because it hit Zuke head-first, so the Pegasus only let out a shrill muffled groan before its entire body disintegrated. It felt like it had been counter-attacked by some force. The Phantasmal Species Pegasus was instantly destroyed by the terrifying counter-force and dissolved into scattered points of light.
The stunned Medusa lost her footing as the Pegasus beneath her disappeared, and due to the momentum from her previous charge, she crashed directly into Zuke's embrace.
And Zuke clearly had no intention of showing mercy. The moment Medusa crashed into him, a terrifying force erupted from Zuke's body.
BANG!
Medusa's body was instantly repelled by that force, sent flying backward, and finally landed at the edge of the rooftop, nearly falling directly off.
That was the counter-force brought by the "ki" that covered Zuke's entire body — a defensive ability that Zuke had developed by habitually covering his whole body with "ki" to prevent himself from following in Goku's footsteps from Dragon Ball Super.
When the Pegasus crashed into Zuke earlier, it was annihilated by the "ki" covering Zuke's body, leaving not even ashes behind.
Medusa was luckier — because the Pegasus disappeared, the force of her impact against Zuke was greatly reduced, and Zuke's "ki" no longer considered her collision threatening.
So when Medusa crashed into Zuke, she was merely bounced back by his "ki" and fell hard to the ground, without sustaining too much damage.
At least compared to the Pegasus that had completely vanished without a trace, Medusa's condition was much better.
"Cough cough!"
Medusa, counter-injured by the "ki," lay on the ground coughing violently, blood flowing from the corner of her mouth — while not serious, the "ki" had still left her with some injuries.
What made Medusa feel even more humiliated was... the reason she hadn't been bounced directly off the rooftop was actually thanks to the chain binding Zuke's wrist.
That's right, the chain connected to the spike she had initially thrown was now tied around Zuke's wrist on one end and connected to her hand on the other.
When she was about to be bounced off the rooftop earlier, it was this chain with limited length that caught her, causing her to only fall at the edge of the rooftop instead of falling down.
Because Zuke was standing while she was lying on the ground, this chain looked like a dog leash — Zuke was the standing master, while she was the prostrate pet dog.
"Attacking without permission upon first meeting — this is the consequence. Learn to behave yourself next time."
Zuke walked forward and looked down at Medusa lying on the ground, saying with a smile.
He had no intention of fighting Medusa from the beginning. It was entirely this woman who had attacked him on her own initiative and ended up being counter-injured by the "ki" covering Zuke's body.
From start to finish, the only action Zuke took that could be called "combat" was probably just flicking his right hand to pull Medusa over.
Soon, Zuke had Medusa completely bound — using Medusa's own chains.
Since one chain wasn't enough to bind Medusa's entire body, Zuke had to personally search Medusa's body for more chains to completely tie her up.
"Insolent wretch!"
Medusa, bound tightly, lay on the rooftop floor with an expression of shame and anger, cursing at Zuke.
On one hand, it was because when Zuke had searched her body for more chains, his hands had touched many places they shouldn't have — calling him "insolent" was certainly appropriate.
On the other hand, it was because the way Medusa was bound by the chains was rather abnormal — while it did restrict her movement, these chains were wrapped in rather strange places.
Simply put, while these chains restricted Medusa's limb movement, they also accentuated her figure, making her already tall and slender form even more prominent.
"Oh my, I didn't expect I had talent in this area... though I really didn't do it on purpose."
Zuke looked at the bound Medusa with a smile — he certainly hadn't intentionally used this figure-accentuating binding method; it just happened to achieve this effect by accident.
However, he wasn't concerned about Medusa's opinion, since Medusa was now just his prisoner.
"You should be grateful that the current situation is rather special, otherwise I would have already eliminated you."
Since no new Lesser Grail had been created yet, Zuke naturally couldn't just kill Medusa directly — that would mean losing a Heroic Spirit's soul.
Originally, because Illya had been taken away by him, this Holy Grail War would already be missing one Heroic Spirit's soul. But even with one missing soul, it would still be enough for the Lesser Grail to manifest.
If another one was lost, the Lesser Grail probably couldn't even manifest, which naturally wouldn't work.
However, if things continued this way, Zuke might end up capturing all the Heroic Spirits of this Holy Grail War alive, then eliminate them one by one like a queue after the Lesser Grail was created.
And now that Zuke had already captured Medusa... it seemed necessary to meet with Matou Sakura.
After all, no matter how you looked at it, Medusa was Matou Sakura's Heroic Spirit, just like in the original story — it seemed Matou Sakura and Medusa had good compatibility, summoning her even without a catalyst.
However, if he was going to meet Matou Sakura, he needed someone to help bring Medusa back to Reines or watch her to prevent her from running away.
"Let's have Illya do it."
Thinking of this, Zuke thought of Illya — she had wanted to come to this world to help, so Zuke could call her back.
So Zuke canceled the effect of "Ionioi Hetairoi" on Illya, and the next moment, Illya appeared beside Zuke.
However, Illya appeared in the same state she had been in bed, currently wearing pajamas and sleeping soundly.
To be continued..