For Early/Extra Chapters : patreon.com/scoldeyjodxd
Already 30+ Chapters Updated + Daily Updates
"Achilles. You are truly worthy of the name of a hero."
"Rider!!!"
The Noble Phantasms intertwined at the apex of the arc.
Light diffused outward from the collision point and kept going — past the arena, past the ruins of Ryudou Temple, past the horizon. The kind of light that made everything else briefly irrelevant.
When it faded: half a mountain remained. The other half had been replaced by a deep pit where the earth had simply ceased to be. At the center of the pit, Artoria was down on one knee, Excalibur driven into the ground to hold herself upright. Half her body was covered in blood.
The victor was Artoria.
The arithmetic was straightforward: Achilles's chariot, however magnificent, was Anti-Army class. Excalibur was Anti-City. A direct head-on collision between the two had only one possible outcome by the numbers.
Achilles had known this. He hadn't altered his course. In his final moments he had erupted with the full glory of what a hero was supposed to be, without reservation, without calculating survivability. He hadn't chosen to spare Artoria because he was dying — he had chosen to meet her completely.
The price of victory: Artoria's full knight armor, shattered. The dress beneath it, torn on one side by the shockwave, tattered. Hair loose from the impact. Chest heaving. Half-kneeling in the crater she'd helped create.
[Chat]: ARTORIA
[Chat]: ARTORIA WON
[Devastated_Anyway]: wuwuwu Achilles—
[Noting]: the battle-damaged version is—
[Responding]: DO NOT
[Doing_It_Anyway]: 40k high-definition battle-damaged Artoria images, ten dollars per image, private message—
[Ban_Notice]: [User "Selected_Images_DM" banned: 72 hours.]
[Chat]: PICTURE-SELLING GUY
[Mourning]: moment of silence
[Maverick_Update]: Maverick's camera is flickering. he's taking screenshots while live-streaming.
[Chat]: MAVERICK
[Chat]: MAVERICK YOUR FACE
[Confronting_Him]: thick eyebrows, big eyes, honest face. taking screenshots of your Servant the moment she wins. are you worthy of her trust?
"Everyone, you're allowed to record beautiful moments! Why can't I—"
"...I'm on a live stream. Responding to comments. Everything is fine."
[A-bro_Intervening]: Maverick, what platform are you streaming on? Can I add you as a friend?
[Maverick]: Shark Platform. Username's Maverick.
[A-bro]: Wait — you're that Maverick? The '18 rounds' Maverick?
[Chat]: ...
[Chat]: A-bro knew this whole time
One could only say that people's joys and sorrows did not always synchronize. The girl beside Maverick — A-bro's partner — was still crying freely over Achilles's departure. The chat was simultaneously mourning the hero and cataloging the aesthetics of the victory scene, which was a normal distribution of human responses when you had ten million people watching the same moment.
Maverick, pocketing his screenshots with no particular expression, went down to the pit.
He draped his trench coat over Artoria.
[Chat]: MAVERICK
[Chat]: THAT IS SO UNFAIR
[Response]: young man. do you want some leftovers?
[Also_Response]: he's keeping it all to himself
[Defending_Him_Weakly]: she literally just bled for him—
[Counter]: that's exactly why we should all see it
[Different_Opinion]: unlike the rest of you. I only care about whether Artoria has any hidden injuries. Maverick, look her over carefully, top to bottom, don't miss anything—
[Reading_That]: your abacus beads are practically hitting my face through the screen
[Ban_Notice]: [User "Flirty_Little_Bunny" banned: 24 hours.]
[Chat]: GOOD RIDDANCE
[Anti_Violence_Comment]: to be honest, the blood is a bit much. it's not great for younger viewers. maybe tone it down?
[Response]: I couldn't hold back
[Also_Response]: there's always one of these people
The room admins were, at this point, earning their keep.
Maverick helped Artoria to her feet. The group of four — Maverick, Artoria, A-bro, and his partner — made their way to the edge of the pit and sat down.
Which brought them to the final mechanic Maverick hadn't thought about until now: the detection expansion.
The Holy Grail War's built-in detection system was Max's solution to the "can't find each other" problem. It was elegant in its simplicity: for the first hour after entering Fuyuki, players had no map awareness. After that, every additional hour expanded each player's detection radius by five kilometers outward from their position. Friendly players and Servants showed as green. Enemy players showed as red, Servants as yellow.
The Assassin class had a wrinkle: any Assassin detected would receive an instant notification and enter a five-minute stealth window. During those five minutes, breaking line-of-sight or closing to within one kilometer made them undetectable again. The system also disabled entirely inside the one-kilometer range — once you were close, you were operating on instinct.
This meant the endgame was simple: rest in place, recover, wait for the detection range to expand until the map was fully lit. If the Assassin group didn't appear on the map, Maverick would know something had happened to them. If they did appear, he'd see them coming.
A-bro and his partner, both without Servants now, could exit the game at any time. Neither of them did.
They waited.
The map expanded. Filled out. Lit up.
No red dots appeared. No yellow dots. The map was empty except for their own green markers.
"What do you think?" Maverick said.
"Disconnected," A-bro said. "Or killed by an NPC, or caught in the Columbus army somehow—"
The girl put her face in her hands. "I waited this whole time and there's nobody left. I'm done. I'm going to sleep." She paused. "I voluntarily give up the Holy Grail."
"Same," A-bro said. "Log off, accept my friend request. I voluntarily give up the Holy Grail."
"Done," Maverick said.
A-bro's parting shot, delivered from halfway through logout: "Don't be modest, Maverick. Tell them about your six deaths."
[Chat]: SIX DEATHS
[Chat]: THE MAN WON WITH SIX DEATHS
[Counting]: died at airport, died at airport, died at airport, died at airport, died AGAIN at airport, one more airport death—
[Clarifying]: most of them were sniper deaths in the first five minutes
[Doesn't_Help]: doesn't help
[Spicy_Strip_Person]: I bet 10,000 starry sky lamps on A-bro in the guessing game. I want to cry.
[Response]: do you need a son?
[Maverick_Fan_Response]: hmph. none of you bet on him. I want receipts.
[No_Receipts]: ...
With A-bro and his partner logged out, their figures vanished from the field. A burst of colorful light broke across the sky.
The golden Holy Grail descended slowly through it.
"Is that it?" Maverick said.
"It should be." Artoria looked at it, genuinely surprised, which was something Maverick hadn't expected to see on her face. "I didn't think we'd actually win."
"I didn't either. I was sort of improvising the whole time." He watched the Grail descend. "Do you think it'll work? For your kingdom?"
"I don't know. But we tried, didn't we?" She was quiet for a moment. Then: "Whatever happens — I won't forget this. Thank you, Master."
They both reached up.
[Holy Grail ×1 obtained.]
[The store and Friends List are now available.]
The field faded. The black screen returned. In Maverick's hand — through the haptic feedback, warm and solid and genuinely real-feeling — the golden cup.
He looked at the death replay list on his right hand. Scrolled to the Assassin group. Clicked it.
A third-person perspective opened on a dimly lit room, an Emiya Kiritsugu character standing over a self-drawn summoning circle.
"Are you kidding me? I'm the Emperor of Europe. I don't need your starter items — I'll show you what a proper single-pull gold looks like. Come, Guardian of the Scales!"
The same incantation. Blue light. White mist.
A small figure in black close-fitting clothing materialized. Purple hair. Skull mask. A build that could only be described as slight.
The mask came off.
[Chat]: oh
[Chat]: OH
[Long_Pause]: ...
[Articulate_Response]: the author has preferences and I respect them
[Also_Articulate]: dark-skinned beauty, skull mask, poison-body Assassin Hassan — Serenity
[Recognizing]: SERENITY HASSAN. she's the one who kills you by touch.
[Player_Unaware]: the player does not appear to know this
[Watching]: he is walking TOWARD her
[Horror]: HE OPENED HIS ARMS
[More_Horror]: she looks stunned. she has never had someone walk toward her before.
The embrace lasted approximately three seconds before Alex took a deep breath of her hair, went from slightly flushed to deeply flushed to purple, vomited blood, and collapsed face-first into the floor.
Serenity Hassan stood over him looking at her own hands.
The replay ended.
[Chat]: ...
[Chat]: he died doing what he loved
[Counterpoint]: he died because he didn't read the character description
[Both_True]: both true
[Envy_And_Warning]: this is what happens. and yet. I understand the impulse.
[Final_Word]: moment of silence for Alex. he summoned Serenity Hassan and immediately walked into her arms. he had no regrets. none of us can say the same.
Maverick set down the controller, pulled off the VR helmet, and blinked at his room.
Morning light was coming through the window. The clock on his monitor: 6:45 AM.
He'd pulled an all-nighter.
The viewer counter read: 11,000,000.
He stared at it for long enough that the chat noticed.
[Chat]: what are you looking at. haven't you seen 11 million people before.
[Chat]: be more energetic, you're embarrassing us
[Donation]: ["MaverickLovesLotusRootCrystal" sent 10 rockets!]
[Tired_Chat]: keep playing. you already stayed up all night — sleeping is for people who don't contribute to society.
[Counter]: don't kill him, he's the best streamer I have
Maverick looked at the platform messages queued in his sidebar. Looked at the Holy Grail War menu, still open, asking if he wanted to queue for another round.
He looked back at the chat.
"Alright," he said. "Let's keep playing."
Show Some Supports By Giving Powerstones
Next BONUS CHAPTER at 700 powerstones