Meanwhile, elsewhere.
Kukulkan had been fighting Rama and Arjuna with a half-playful attitude from the start, but once Morgan began fighting Rama, she gradually withdrew from the battlefield in accordance with Morgan's request.
She left the task of facing Rama and Arjuna to Morgan.
Kukulkan found that a little regrettable, but she could tell these Servants had come here specifically to wait for Chaldea.
Not to oppose them, but to test them.
"Though this is our first meeting, such power..."
Rama stared at the sword that could not advance even an inch, blocked by Morgan with a single hand. His expression was unusually grave.
In life, he had been the seventh incarnation of Vishnu. After death, he had been engraved upon the Throne as a Heroic Spirit, and at the same time served as a shadow of Vishnu projected onto Human Order.
Even when manifested as a Saber-class Servant, he could not bring out his full strength.
But this time, Rama was not merely a Servant from Proper Human History. He was also an envoy of Vishnu.
Because of that, he could wield a portion of the authority granted to him by Vishnu, giving him power that surpassed even the highest-ranking Servants.
And yet, even with divine authority, he could not exert any pressure on Morgan at all.
The blade that could not move forward, that could not strike effectively, told the whole story.
"This is not my own power. It is the authority my husband entrusted to me."
Morgan's tone remained calm, without the slightest arrogance.
"And so, I am not fighting alone."
"To entrust such important authority to his wife..."
Rama nodded in approval.
"It seems your husband loves you deeply, and you love your husband just as deeply."
"Of course."
Morgan did not try to hide it.
"That is enough idle talk."
Rama suddenly exerted force and used Morgan's defense as a fulcrum to spring swiftly backward.
At the exact moment Rama retreated, a rain of arrows fell over Morgan from above.
Those were Arjuna's arrows.
The flaming bow granted to Arjuna by the fire god Agni, [Agni Gandiva].
Every arrow fired from that bow turned into a missile wreathed in flame.
Combined with Arjuna's own prodigious skill with the bow, none of his shots ever missed.
More than that, because Arjuna drew the bow so quickly, Agni had also granted him two quivers of infinite arrows, allowing him to fire as many as he pleased.
They covered the sky.
Dense as countless meteors, all aimed at a single target on the ground.
Morgan.
The arrows fell at incredible speed. In the space of a single breath, they could reach the target area and set off uninterrupted explosions.
No matter how exceptional a Heroic Spirit might be, if they did not devote themselves fully to defense, such an attack would be enough to kill them.
And on top of that, every one of those innumerable arrows carried Shiva's blessing, each possessing destructive power on par with an anti-city Noble Phantasm.
It was a manifestation of the Destroyer's power.
But all of that depended on the arrows being able to fall and explode.
As those arrows approached Morgan, they grew slower and slower until they finally came to a complete stop.
Morgan rose slowly into the air like a feather so light it barely had weight.
With elegant ease, she raised her left hand and covered the two distant specks in her sight.
Rama and Arjuna.
The arrows frozen in place began to tremble restlessly, then in an instant turned around.
"Arrows that have already been fired can still change direction?!"
Arjuna let out a genuine cry of astonishment.
That was no longer something Magecraft could explain.
What lay before them was a god's work.
"No... it is not that their direction was changed. The phenomenon itself has been rewritten!"
A drop of cold sweat slid down Rama's cheek.
With a single motion, Morgan had altered the arrows' target.
At that moment, Rama and Arjuna themselves had become the arrows' mark.
"This is bad!"
Arjuna realized the situation had changed in an instant. He hurriedly drew his bow and, at a speed even greater than before, fired even more arrows to intercept the ones he himself had launched moments earlier.
For the first time, Arjuna found his own genius with the bow to be a headache.
After all, the heaven-bestowed hero had never once imagined that one day his own arrows would come flying back at him.
Unfortunately, he was still half a beat too slow. Fast as Arjuna's archery was, he could not completely block the rain of arrows already in flight.
"This strike that slew the demon king Ravana. To endure it is honor, to yield is ruin. Come! [The Rakshasa-Piercing Immortal - Brahmastra]!"
Rama seized the moment Arjuna was intercepting the arrow rain and released the true name of the Noble Phantasm in his hand.
It was the "indestructible blade" he had used to defeat the demon king Ravana.
Originally it had been an arrow, but when Rama became Saber, it had been reforged into the form of a sword, while still retaining its function as a thrown weapon.
Once its true name was released, the sword became a thrown anti-personnel Noble Phantasm effective over a certain range.
If used not for offense but interception, it could also serve as an extremely effective defensive measure.
At the place where Rama and Arjuna stood, explosions erupted so densely that the roar rang throughout the Third Netherworld.
Even Karna, who was in the middle of an aerial battle with Melusine, could not help losing focus for a moment, and Melusine struck him hard, blasting him backward.
"I manifested here to fulfill the mission Brahma entrusted to me, and yet now I must use it in battle against the Last Dragon."
Karna held up the god-slaying spear to block the incoming attack.
"Perhaps this is simply fate's cruel humor."
"Your mission is to test my lord."
Melusine fixed Karna with a resolute, blazing gaze.
"Then if you want to reach him, you will have to get through me first."
"Of course. You too are a warrior worthy of facing ten thousand alone. When a warrior challenges me, I must answer."
Even greater Mana surged from Karna's body as he covered his eyes with one hand.
"A true hero slays with his gaze...!"
This was not Mana overload. He was gathering Mana to release his Noble Phantasm.
[Brahma, Cover the Earth].
It was an exceedingly savage strike, completely at odds with Karna's usual calm and restrained manner. As a warrior, Karna's fighting style was decisive, ruthless, and merciless. He felt no hesitation simply because his opponent was female.
And besides, Melusine was no ordinary female warrior.
She was a dragon.
As expected, Karna's attack was blocked.
He was about to launch another strike and continue this deadlocked battle in the sky when his sharp senses suddenly made his heart tense.
"Is the final piece about to fall into place?"
He turned to look toward the yellow-sand-covered earth below. The explosions had already subsided, and though Rama and Arjuna had barely endured Morgan's counterattack, they still looked far from reaching their limit.
They too noticed a figure rapidly approaching the battlefield.
Tenkei Shiomi.
That man was carrying Olga Marie and moving at tremendous speed across the battlefield, drawing closer to Morgan's side.
"My wife, catch!"
At Shiomi's loud warning, the final portion of authority flew toward Morgan.
She opened her hand and received that final authority into her palm.
"It is time to end this battle."
She closed her hand around it and spoke softly.