146: Chapter 146 Good luck, let's eat chicken tonight!

"Art comes from life, but being a 'sneaky player' is on a level above life."

PD swallowed hard, trembling as he grabbed a rusty kitchen knife and hacked through the gas pipes of those natural gas tanks.

"Sss—" The pungent gas instantly spewed out.

Suppressing his nausea, PD rolled the tanks spewing gas down the kitchen slope, all the way toward the center of the battlefield in the front courtyard, which was filled with magical sparks!

Having done all this, PD decisively chose [Spiritron Synchronization], and his consciousness instantly returned to Angra Mainyu's body at the foot of the mountain.

Then, he controlled Angra Mainyu's skeletal body and stared intently at the meat-grinder-like battlefield on the stone steps.

Three seconds later.

Tower Defense Brother, who was observing the battlefield from the main hall, suddenly saw several round metal canisters rolling down in front of the mountain gate through his crystal ball, and a pungent odor began to permeate the air.

"What is... this?"

"Boom—!!!!!"

The moment the high-concentration gas came into contact with the magical sparks, it triggered an extremely violent physical explosion!

This intense vibration was the final straw that broke the camel's back, completely disrupting the flow of mana Medea had arranged at the mountain gate.

Immediately after, the massive mana foundation beneath Ryudou Temple underwent a terrifying chain collapse! The rampaging mana transformed into a literal pillar of light shooting into the sky, mixed with physical explosive flames, triggering a cataclysmic explosion at the summit of Mount Enzou!

"Aaaaaah—!!!"

In this indiscriminate AOE explosion, the defensive arrays guarding Tower Defense Brother were instantly torn apart. The main hall collapsed with a bang, and Tower Defense Brother, hiding behind the Buddha statue, was blown bloody, letting out a scream like a slaughtered pig.

And Berserker, who bore the brunt of it, was sent flying by the rampaging mana. His originally indestructible body became charred and tattered, and his furious roar was deafening.

But none of them were dead yet!

Heracles relied on his Twelve Labors to withstand the explosion, while Tower Defense Brother barely hung onto his last breath thanks to Caster's emergency shield.

At this moment, the battlefield fell into extreme chaos and loss of control!

"Now's the time!"

At this very moment, when the "gods" had both suffered losses and were at their weakest yet most violent!

PD, who had been lurking for a long time, controlled Angra Mainyu—the weakest unit on the field—and like a hyena scenting blood, he didn't retreat but instead dove straight into the center of the battlefield filled with destructive aftershocks!

"Roar!!!" The frenzied Berserker sensed an intruder and instinctively swung the nameless axe-sword in his hand, which was burning with karmic fire. Wrapped in the aftershocks of the explosion, it descended upon Angra Mainyu like a blood-colored storm!

Facing this terrifying blow that could grind him into powder, Angra Mainyu did not dodge.

His body was frantically torn apart by the gale kicked up by the axe blade, and blood sprayed like a fountain. His already fragile health bar instantly emptied, and he looked like he was about to die on the spot!

"Come on! Hit me! The harder the better!!!"

PD let out a crazed roar in the livestream room!

At the very instant Angra Mainyu's health was about to hit zero, PD unhesitatingly raised the back of his hand, and a blood-red mark lit up!

In this mode that highly restored the Fate setting, besides acting as a massive health potion to instantly restore health, the Command Spell had one core use—issuing an 'Absolute Order' that could twist causality!

"By the power of this Command Spell! Endure this strike!!!"

PD shouted, yelling out the command.

That precious Command Spell transformed into surging mana at that moment, forcibly keeping Angra Mainyu's last breath alive and locking his health bar firmly at [1] in a near-death state!

At the same time, a twisted, malicious grin curled on Angra Mainyu's blood-stained lips.

"You think this is painful?"

"Then next, I'll let you taste... what true 'pain' is."

[Declaration—]

[Recording complete.]

[False Transcription... Compendium of All Creation (Verg Avesta)!!!]

Along with Angra Mainyu's curse-like whisper, the terrifying wounds on his body that reached the bone, the cataclysmic heavy blow from Berserker he had endured, and all the damage from the mana explosions that had swept into his body...

At this moment, they all turned into a thick, ink-like black mire! The threads of causality snapped shut in the void!

Avenger Angra Mainyu's unique conceptual counter-attack Noble Phantasm, activated!

In the original setting, Verg Avesta was meant to return the pain one suffered intact to the "attacker" (Servant).

But in this Deathmatch Mode where the Master and Servant's mana and souls were deeply linked (Spiritron Synchronization), this originally useless third-rate Noble Phantasm triggered a terrifying chemical reaction!

After activating the Noble Phantasm, the damage Angra Mainyu received would not only be returned to the Servant, but the malice representing "All the World's Evil" would also follow the invisible mana supply line between the Servant and Master, like a lethal computer virus, directly backlashing against the Master's extremely fragile physical body!

This was PD's ultimate sneaky scheme—willingly driving himself to the brink just to take the full brunt of both Berserker's slash and Caster's array explosion!

"This pain... I'm giving it back to you—!!!"

Shua! Shua!

Two black beams of curse erupted from Angra Mainyu's riddled body!

They completely ignored the thick-skinned Heroic Spirits in front of them, instead turning into invisible threads of causality that followed the residual mana links in the air, piercing through the chests of Tower Defense Brother hidden deep in the ruins and Berserker's Master in the shadows of the forest!

"What... what is this?!"

Tower Defense Brother, who was struggling for breath in the ruins, didn't even have time to scream before his soul was instantly torn apart by this "True Damage"—a mix of Berserker's monstrous strength and the mana explosions—turning into white light!

And Berserker's Master, who had been laughing cruelly in the shadows, also spat out a large mouthful of blood and fell into a pool of blood with a face full of disbelief.

With the sudden death of the two Masters' physical bodies, Berserker—who looked like a demon god and was still holding his axe ready to deliver the final blow to Angra Mainyu—suddenly stiffened his massive frame.

Crack... crack...

Having lost the Master's mana supply and anchor to the physical world, even though the red light of resurrection from the Twelve Labors still flickered on him, he could not defy the system's absolute laws.

Finally, amidst an unwilling roar, Heracles, along with the helplessly sighing Medea nearby, completely turned into drifting ash.

When the smoke cleared, the entire Ryudou Temple had been leveled to the ground.

On the entire field, only that dark-skinned Servant remained, standing with just one point of health left and covered in blood.

The next second, the entire smoke-filled battlefield instantly entered a slow-motion settlement screen.

Time seemed to be infinitely stretched at this moment. The toxic mana clouds rolling in the sky were torn apart by an invisible force, and an ancient, majestic phantom of the Holy Grail, emitting a glow of interwoven dark gold and crimson, slowly descended from the sky accompanied by a distant and ethereal bell toll.

Beneath that sacred yet cruel reflection of the Holy Grail, lines of Rune characters, looking as if they were scorched by fire, slowly branded themselves into the eyes of all players and the livestream audience:

[Survival confirmed. The Holy Grail Trial has reached its conclusion.]

[Final Winner of this match—PD!]

[Thy wish has reached the Root.]

"Holy crap... this settlement screen is so freaking cool!"

PD looked at the Rune characters and the Holy Grail phantom on the screen that seemed capable of scorching the soul, and he got goosebumps all over from the overwhelming sense of epicness.

But this shock lasted only two seconds before the ecstasy and pride of being a top-tier gamer completely overwhelmed him.

"Hahahaha! Did you see that, brothers? That's what you call quality!"

PD slapped his thigh in the livestream room and jumped up in excitement, "First time playing! A debut win! Even with the weakest Servant in the game, I can still use my brain to crush all these 'gods'! Who else is the number one genius of Fuyuki City?!"

Meanwhile, the livestream chat had long been completely flooded with "Holy crap" and "Absurd."

The worldviews of all the players who witnessed this live broadcast were ground into the dirt a hundred times over!

They suddenly realized that this Deathmatch Mode Gu Yi created wasn't some game of comparing stats at all, but an ultimate gamble of wits, utilizing the environment, looting spoils, and various bizarre Noble Phantasm effects!

That night, as PD's "sneaky player teaching video" quickly spread across the internet,

the Holy Grail War mode of FGO exploded in popularity on Blue Star, and a tactical craze called "Who is the Number One Sneaky Player of Fuyuki" officially swept the globe!