"Crack…"
Golden lightning tore across the sky, immediately followed by a blazing blue streak. As the two fists collided, a diagonal surge of golden light crashed through a distant mountain and slammed into the earth, carving out a jagged, smoking trench in its wake.
The air detonated violently.
Li Chong descended like a falling blue meteor, his expression twisted with violence and madness.
The ground within a hundred meters overturned as if flipped by an invisible hand. Lucien supported himself with one palm against the shattered earth and sprang upward with explosive force. A tragic and thunderous war theme echoed across the battlefield as an overwhelming pressure surged outward like a storm. He landed heavily, frost clinging to his expression as his eyes locked onto Li Chong.
Blue steam burned fiercely around Li Chong's body. He wrenched his right leg free from the ground, a bloodthirsty grin stretching across his lips as he fired forward like a beam of light.
At that same instant, golden lightning surged violently around Lucien like an unleashed flood. His golden armor gleamed as his body entered a fully hardened state.
Like two meteors colliding in mid-air, their knees slammed together.
For a single silent heartbeat, the world lost all sound.
Then a mushroom cloud erupted. A devastating shockwave rolled outward, lifting the surrounding terrain into the sky as a hundred-meter-wide crater formed at the impact point.
Blue flames and golden lightning rose and fell in relentless cycles, each collision unleashing deafening thunder.
Violent wind formed circular shock halos around the two as the air itself was shredded apart. Even the dark storm clouds above were scattered.
Fists and forearms collided. The air beneath Lucien's feet exploded, and he shot forward like a bolt of golden lightning.
Li Chong appeared in mid-air above him, veins bulging across his clenched right fist. After a sudden expansion of power, he smashed downward, an invisible shock blast roaring through the air.
Lucien crossed his hardened arms over his chest. His face went pale as he spat out blood under the crushing force and was driven downward like a falling meteor.
"Day Tiger."
A savage aura howled as Li Chong floated in the sky, hammering his fists downward again and again from a distance. Shockwaves rippled through space, forming a continuous meteor storm.
Lucien slammed his hands to the ground, flipped backward, and burst into a high-speed sprint, skimming close to the surface as he dodged left and right with terrifying speed.
Behind him, explosions bloomed like artillery fire, each impact shaking the region as if the world itself were being bombarded.
In the next instant, Lucien's feet sank deep into the earth. He compressed his strength and launched upward once more.
Li Chong shifted his gaze and punched at empty air.
In the very next second, Lucien appeared and threw his own punch.
A massive pressure wave exploded outward, centered on where their fists met.
Eight crystal thorns burst from Lucien's tailbone like living vipers, snapping toward Li Chong. Alarm flashed across Li Chong's face.
"Whoosh…"
A sonic roar erupted as Li Chong vanished first.
Immediately after, Lucien transformed into golden lightning and disappeared as well.
Flashes of gold and blue streaked across the battlefield, each crossing thirty to forty meters in an instant, like violent teleportation.
On a distant road, Shirou Emiya and Nameless both raised their heads, staring at the rapidly shifting battle. Rin had already awakened, her entire body still covered in cracked, bloodstained lines. Her eyes had turned into shimmering purple diamond-amber.
She had become a ghost.
And she could clearly feel that her life and death now rested entirely in that man's hands.
At the same time, the violent clash between Li Chong and Lucien had already shaken Fuyuki City to its core. Officials and civilians alike were thrown into chaos, the battle's brilliance and terror impossible to ignore.
More alarming than anything else was the fact that the battlefield was steadily moving closer to the city itself.
Especially with the war theme echoing through the sky, the clash felt like the destruction of gods, making blood boil and souls tremble.
"Boom…"
Golden lightning slashed down from the sky, piercing straight through multiple high-rise buildings before crashing onto Kangchang Avenue. Lucien landed on all fours, the surrounding ground rolling outward like a collapsing landslide.
Screams erupted in every direction. Cars, debris, and fleeing civilians were hurled into the air as a hundred-meter radius was violently cleared in a single instant.
"Crack…"
Golden lightning slammed into the ground again and again. Lucien rose slowly and looked up at Li Chong in the sky. The man was laughing wildly, his excitement bordering on madness. Lucien spat out the blood in his mouth as veins bulged across his forehead. He crouched slightly, then launched upward.
A terrifying storm instantly erupted.
Lucien appeared directly before Li Chong and threw a punch that unleashed a monstrous wave of force.
"Pfft…"
Li Chong spat out a mouthful of blood as he was blasted backward with a sonic boom.
Lucien pursued without pause, appearing beneath him in an instant. He drove his knee violently into Li Chong's waist. A sickening crack echoed as Li Chong's eyes rolled back.
In the same flash of lightning, Li Chong countered with his own punch.
Lucien raised his right arm to guard his face. The impact detonated with brutal force. He spat out fresh blood as he crashed through the side of a massive building, sending endless debris raining down.
Roaring in fury, Li Chong charged after him like a raging storm.
As the building collapsed behind them, the two tore through endless rubble, colliding again and again like unstoppable killing machines.
Li Chong grabbed Lucien by the head and slammed him into the ground, pushing him forward horizontally as they plowed through steel-reinforced structures. Wherever they tore through, terrified screams followed, and countless lives were snuffed out in an instant.
Lucien growled and drove his foot into Li Chong's stomach. The overwhelming force finally forced Li Chong to break away.
"Hoo… Hoo…"
They separated and faced one another once more. Li Chong's eyes burned with savage light as blood ran from his lips. His posture was unsteady, his body trembling with exhaustion. Lucien's face was equally dark, his chest rising and falling with rapid, heavy breaths.
The back of Lucien's head had been torn open, but colorful regenerative threads were already stitching the wound back together at terrifying speed.
A massive chunk of falling stone plummeted between them.
They charged again.
"Crack… Crack…"
Li Chong's entire chest caved inward under the impact as he was blasted backward. Blood erupted from his mouth and nose like a crimson fountain.
"Eight-Span Mirror."
Golden lightning wrapped violently around Li Chong. Lucien's fists, feet, and entire body descended like a storm of lethal weapons, each strike crashing down like thunder.
At this moment, Li Chong was reduced to a living sandbag, able only to endure the merciless lightning assault.
The entire battlefield collapsed inward as another mushroom cloud rose, birthing a monstrous hurricane. Blood poured from all seven of Li Chong's openings as his body transformed into a streak of blue light and vanished from his original position.
The shattered land around them churned into a raging sandstorm, swallowing everything in its path.
Chunks of uplifted crust fell like meteors, screaming through the air before detonating on impact.
A sky-covering curtain of dust swallowed the world.
"Help me…"
"Ah…"
The peace of Fuyuki City was utterly destroyed.
Amidst the endless screams, military helicopters swarmed in from the sky. Armored vehicles and tanks flooded the streets as the official forces were fully mobilized, surrounding both Lucien and Li Chong.
"Cease immediately, or we will open fire."
A lieutenant colonel shouted through a megaphone, his voice shaking as he tried to halt beings far beyond human control.
Tank barrels, sniper rifles, Gatlings, machine guns, and rocket launchers all locked onto Lucien and Li Chong.
Yet their battle was far too fast, the weapons only able to aim at vague afterimages.
These two were monsters.
Many soldiers swallowed hard, cold sweat soaking their uniforms.
Golden lightning and blue flames finally separated. Lucien slid sideways before his feet sank deep into the broken earth. His left arm had been completely torn off by Li Chong. Colorful threads wriggled rapidly as the limb regenerated in just over ten breaths.
Opposite him, Li Chong spat out blood. A deep gash split open his chest, flesh turned outward, bone faintly visible beneath. His expression darkened as he watched Lucien's arm regrow.
The war theme had already reached its midpoint.
Lucien knew the battle had to finish soon.
A thunderous dragon's roar echoed across the heavens.
An eighty-meter-long divine dragon rose behind Lucien, its presence shaking heaven and earth.
Li Chong answered with power of his own. A colossal white tiger manifested behind him, roaring skyward with its blood-filled jaws wide open.
"Great Might Heavenly Dragon."
"Day Tiger."
Light vanished from the world.
Dragon and tiger collided with cataclysmic force.
Extreme colors flashed. A towering mushroom cloud rose as a circular shock halo spread outward like a horizontal tsunami. The surrounding high-rise buildings disintegrated in an instant. Whether in the sky or underground, the approaching army was completely erased.
When the chaos finally settled, a three-hundred-meter-deep crater remained at the center.
The devastation extended far beyond even that.