Without sparing a thought for the resurfacing multitude of evil entities, the black flames continued to surround Brunhilda, allowing her to temporarily burn away the approaching monsters. She lifted her head, glaring at Caster, and witnessed his deteriorating body and the visage of a clown, with some creature about to burst forth.
"Are you out of your mind, Caster's Servant?"
"This is... the most splendid performance that befits a demonic jester!"
His voice grew increasingly crazed and distorted. Unable to withstand the torment of his madness, the Servant, who willingly connected his spiritual core to the Grimoire, finally reached his breaking point. His spiritual core shattered, and massive tentacles erupted from within him. The "demon" once known as Mephistopheles was consumed by madness and self-annihilation. In its place, a creature absorbed a portion of Mephistopheles' magical energy. Although its appearance was similar to the previously summoned beast, the unrestrained cruelty and madness it exuded surpassed the tentacles in terms of sheer oppressive force.
Before Caster self-destructed, Brunhilda heard the voice of someone chanting an incantation. Following the direction of the voice, she discovered Aetius, the hidden Master of Caster. The 50-year-old magus is hidden about a hundred meters away. At this moment, he not only succumbed to madness but transformed into something inhuman, far beyond the reach of an ordinary person.
The Master willingly sacrifices their Servant and repeatedly performs actions that are impossible for humans to do, all for the sake of their "performance." If Brunhilda hadn't experienced it firsthand, she would never have believed that such a master-servant combination, defying common sense, could exist. Though Brunhilda believed she had devised a relatively cautious plan, the gradually materializing creature before her instilled fear and sparked an unusual dread that pierced her sensitive soul.
Continuing to engage with this master-servant pair would result in her defeat. Brunhilda watched as a cluster of dark tentacles struggled to penetrate the black flames, realizing that the evil entities summoned by Caster's self-sacrifice could withstand her black flames.
Once again, she activated her Noble Phantasm, sweeping the surrounding area with a wider range of black flames. Enduring the sense of fear that came with confrontation, Brunhilda swiftly evaded, unwilling to yield in this situation. However, immediate escape seemed to be the best choice.
The black flames continued to burn, and the remaining evil entities struggled for a moment before being ignited and consumed. Only the grotesque monster with a mocking grin on its face stood amidst Brunhilda's black flames, waving its twisted wrists, seemingly ready to extend them at any moment to capture the witch hovering in mid-air.
"A command spell?"
Regaining some composure, Brunhilda recalled the sound of Aetius secretly chanting an incantation and his action of revealing his position to save time. She roughly guessed that Aetius had used a command spell before Caster self-destructed, issuing commands such as forbidding attacks against himself.
It was a rational and logical deduction, but Aetius was not that kind of person. He used the command spell to issue two commands to the Servant on the verge of annihilation, depleting the remaining command spells. One was to further amplify the mana in a reckless rampage, regardless of the cost, to unleash its full potential. The other was to increase the desire for "hunting" with high priority.
Compared to Brunhilda, whose Servant identity carried immense magical power, Aetius as a human held no attraction whatsoever. Furthermore, Aetius had a way to make himself appear "unappetizing." As for his Servant's suicidal method, Aetius would not refuse. If his own Servant desired such an outcome, as the Master, he should support it. If he still had three command spells remaining, he would have no qualms about allowing the creature born within his Servant to grow even larger. Sacrificing others was something Aetius never minded. He was a magus, but he presented himself more like a general or commander.
Rationality could be discarded when necessary, and humanity never existed from the beginning. Those of the orthodox magus were all such creatures cloaked in human guise.
A distance of a hundred meters was within reach for a ravenous newborn evil entity. But to satiate its hunger immediately, this creature couldn't take its gaze off the witch Brunhilda. It's like an old man who appeared "unappetizing," and a young girl was placed in the same position, the creature still wouldn't shift its gaze from the young girl. It couldn't resist the "deliciousness" of a Servant-level existence.
"Human magus, aren't you afraid that the creature born within your Servant will devour you?" Brunhilda continued to gather magical energy, releasing black flames from the sky to suppress the evil entity that filled her with fear.
Aetius, aware that his invisibility was useless to both sides, revealed himself and answered Brunhilda. "Compared to you, I can only be considered a tiny bean, a dried-up bean that crunches when you bite it. How can I compare to you? Your magical power is abundant, and the flames of magic you unleash can burn all physical matter. To it, you are like a succulent lamb placed on an altar." Aetius shook the gemstone emblem hanging from his chest as he spoke. At this moment, he exhibited no reaction befitting a magus, almost making Brunhilda believe that he had switched bodies.
Aetius is not only proving the heights that humans can reach through the practice of magecraft but also demonstrating that he can outshine even high-level familiars (Servants) in terms of despicability, cunningness, and cruelty.
Brunhilda wished to burn Aetius to ashes immediately. Both the master and servant were mocking her despite having powers far inferior to hers. One had already become a sacrificial offering, and the other was about to become one, all to prove that they, not she, ruled over the witch of Austrasia. The true Brunhilda could not be provoked! She admitted that if she hadn't descended as a Servant, she would never have been a match for Aetius. But now she was a Servant while Aetius was just a human. This difference in their identities was the only remaining source of pride for her in front of Aetius, the commander of the Western Roman Empire.
Aetius' mockery of Brunhilda was a direct hit to the core: Brunhilda needed to rely on future generations to merge herself with Norse mythology to qualify for a seat among the Heroic Spirits. But a human, through talent alone, was able to toy with a local warrior incarnation, leaving her humiliated. Even if Brunhilda were to devise a flawless plan, it would be easily unraveled by Aetius. She dared not imagine what level of existence this seemingly aging human magus would achieve as a Heroic Spirit.
While fiercely resisting the evil creatures on the ground, Brunhilda decided to withdraw from the battlefield. She was concerned about unexpected variables. Although she could temporarily suppress the unburnable evil entities on the ground, if the cunning Aetius had any tricks up his sleeve, she would lose the opportunity to retreat unscathed.
Both sides lost a Servant and left behind a highly destructive monster, but overall, Brunhilda still had the advantage. However, just as she was about to use witchcraft to teleport herself, a peculiar gaze made her quickly attempt to halt her incantation.
Seemingly waiting for Brunhilda to employ her escape magic, Aetius deliberately followed suit using a similar method to escape, but a step slower. Due to her proficiency in incantations, Brunhilda's chanting speed surpassed her reflexes. Under normal circumstances, a faster chanting speed would be an advantage, but things are different now.
Countless tentacles emerged from the magic circle behind her, and the evil beings that had been crawling on the ground maintained their state of being burned by the black flames. The cracked mouthparts continued to mock the self-proclaimed righteous witch. Brunhilda had never delved into why the evil creatures on the ground did not attack her in any other way; their height was not beyond reach even after the tentacles emerged. And why didn't Aetius use teleportation to escape?
After witnessing herself being engulfed by the black, twisted wrists, Brunhilda understood the reason. The demonic creatures that seemed to only capture creatures on the ground were waiting for her to initiate mobile magic, just like a hunter waiting for its prey to walk into its trap. Aetius knew the reason and took the risk of attracting the attention of the creatures to stay in place.
The crawling evil beings finally revealed their madness and bloodlust. While capturing Brunhilda, continuous screams echoed throughout the forest, and the tentacles appeared in the forest without any pattern, whether in the sky or underground. Whenever a magical reaction flashed, the subsequent twisted wrists would extend out of thin air, capturing any living creature.
Aetius returned directly to the camp, immediately erasing the fading magic circle behind him, and quickly found Suzuki Yuki and Saber Gilles de Rais.
"Did you summon those creatures from another world?" Aetius's tone was serious. If it weren't for dealing with Brunhilda, who had changed her class, he would have regarded the two as dangerous individuals.
Suzuki was still feeling dizzy from directly looking at Caster while chanting the summoning spell. After seeing Aetius, he relied on the latter's healing magecraft to recover from his mental abnormality.
"I originally intended to use it myself. That forbidden book is my Noble Phantasm. I knew the consequences of continuously chanting the summoning incantations." Gilles de Rais did not hide the truth and admitted his share of responsibility for causing the disaster.
"Without that Noble Phantasm, we wouldn't have been able to harm Brunhilda, who transformed into the Caster class." Aetius did not delve into the cost of sacrificing one of his Servants. He was not interested in winning the Holy Grail.
Just when Aetius thought things were coming to an end, the chaotic forest in the distance triggered another "explosion." Like the most terrifying roar of a dragon driven into a corner, black flames enveloped everything, forming a whirlwind.
Suzuki keenly noticed that there was a Servant at the center of the whirlwind formed by the black flames. Brunhilda had not left the stage yet.
