As soon as the words fell, the blazing sunlight on Shirou's katana disappeared completely, leaving only the originally bright blade.
For some reason, seeing this katana, stripped of its extraordinary phenomena and returned to its natural state, did not lessen the pressure in Shinji's heart; it instead increased.
"Watch out—"
As he uttered this word, Shirou lifted his left foot.
"—I'm going to attack now."
By the time his foot landed, he was already in front of Shinji, finishing the latter half of his sentence.
That's right, he had only taken one step. The distance between them was over five meters, yet he had crossed it in a single step. This was—
"Flash Step?"
Shinji's pupils suddenly contracted.
A single step covering multiple paces, this footwork he had only seen from Ryougi Shiki and Scáthach, was a technique that required profound mastery of Eastern martial arts. Shinji himself had barely touched the threshold of this technique. How had Amakusa Shirou mastered it? Wasn't he supposed to be a third-rate combatant?
Just as this doubt arose, Shinji immediately pushed it aside. Now was not the time for such thoughts; the enemy's blade was already upon him.
The Spear of Ishtar was held horizontally in front of him, meeting the descending katana.
At the moment of collision, Shinji's grip trembled violently, and he nearly lost hold of his weapon—the force behind this strike was extraordinarily immense.
No, this was not just a single strike. If it were merely one strike, the force transmitted through the blade wouldn't be so layered.
This was a unique technique of layered strength, as difficult as the flash Step, allowing multiple strikes' force to be condensed into one, bursting forth in an instant to catch the enemy off guard.
Caught off guard, Shinji staggered back, the dissonance in his heart reaching an unprecedented high.
"Again? Flash Step combined with layered strength—such techniques are the hallmark of legendary swordmasters. How could Amakusa, who died at seventeen, reach this level? Or has he grown over the past sixty years?"
Heroic Spirits, Servants—these fixed existences generally couldn't grow. However, Amakusa Shirou touched the Great Holy Grail at the end of the Third Holy Grail War, becoming incarnate as a human, allowing him the possibility of continued learning and growth.
During his time as an executor for the Church, he had learned to use the Black Keys, so he could have improved his swordsmanship as well. Though this contradicted the intelligence Shinji remembered, his very presence here, fighting Amakusa Shirou, was already an anomaly.
This explanation was plausible. Amakusa had the talent and determination for such growth, yet, for some reason, Shinji's inner self kept rejecting this answer.
Something was off.
As Shinji stabilized his footing and regrouped, Shirou did not continue his assault but instead sidestepped, bypassing Shinji directly to attack the vampire.
The vampire, whose injuries from the sunlight had not yet fully healed, dared not face the sun-imbued katana directly. While summoning stakes to obstruct Shirou, he retreated.
The onslaught of stakes could not hinder Shirou's advance. He moved left and right, and though his steps were not rapid, he managed to dodge most stakes while closing the distance to the vampire.
With a flick of his wrist, the blade gleamed, striking at the vampire's chest like a bolt of lightning.
In the nick of time, a muffled sound came from beneath the cloak. The previously supported cloak suddenly collapsed, falling softly, but just before it touched the ground, something propped it up again. It reformed into a humanoid shape, simultaneously releasing several hideous beasts.
Looking at the lingering mist at the tail end of the monstrous beasts, a flash of understanding appeared in Shirou's eyes.
So the vampire had transformed into mist just a second before being struck by the katana. The mist, having no physical form, naturally couldn't support the cloak, causing his strike to hit nothing but air.
As the blade's light flashed, the mist quickly coalesced back into a solid form. Without a physical body, the vampire couldn't attack, and if it didn't reform soon, the mist would dissipate from under the cloak. If Shirou used Sunshine again, it would be the end.
To avoid direct contact with Shirou, the vampire chose to separate familiars from his body to attack—this was one of the vampire's abilities, derived from the legends of the Dead Apostles. Unlike the Dead Apostles, who needed to gather animal essences in advance to create familiars, Dracula, derived from legend, had no such limitations and could transform into various monsters at will.
Of course, Shirou didn't see these monsters as a threat. Being extensions of the vampire, they shared the vampire's weaknesses and also had the vulnerabilities of beasts.
With a swing of his katana, Shirou conjured a fiery tornado around him, engulfing the monstrous beasts from all directions.
A streak of golden light pierced through the tornado from top to bottom, accompanied by a deafening thunder. Simultaneously, a black-gold spear surged upward, imbued with earth-shaking divine power. Although the fiery tornado from Shirou's katana was powerful, it couldn't withstand the combined attack of two B-rank Noble Phantasms from above and below and was shattered instantly.
Amidst the falling sparks, Indra's Thunder and the Spear of Ishtar crossed paths, creating a dazzling display of divine power.
Wait, isn't something missing?
Where is Amakusa Shirou?
Realizing something was wrong, Shinji heard a gentle voice by his ear.
"Over here~ Secret Sword—"
The blade sliced through the air.
Damn it!
Shinji manifested Athena's Shield as quickly as possible to protect his back.
With a "clang," the katana struck the shield, producing a crisp sound.
However, before Shinji could feel relieved, a sharp pain hit his chest and abdomen. He instinctively looked down to see a flood of red—the color of blood.
How could this be? Didn't I block it? How could I be struck? And twice?
As the doubt arose, the answer came, spoken by Shirou himself.
"—Tsubame Gaeshi."
What? Tsubame Gaeshi? How is that possible?
The ultimate technique of the nameless swordmaster who manifested as Sasaki Kojirou, originally developed to cut down swallows in midair.
From a single flash in the real world, it ignores the concepts of time and space to overlap two flashes simultaneously, creating a triple-directional slash. This is a "multiple-dimension refraction phenomenon (Kischur Zelretch)" that surpasses speed, precision, and the illusion of attack, making it an unavoidable demon sword.
Relying solely on technique, it reaches the realm of the Second Magic and is crowned with the name of a Noble Phantasm, the pinnacle of swordsmanship in the Nasuverse—this is "Tsubame Gaeshi," the highest known sword technique in the Nasuverse.
Flash Step could be achieved through accumulated time, but Tsubame Gaeshi was impossible. It required the fusion of talent, effort, mindset, and luck—none of which could be missing to reach such a realm.
In the entire Nasuverse, only that nameless swordmaster achieved this realm after long years of training. Even the legendary Miyamoto Musashi, who defeated Sasaki Kojirou, fell short, and not even the heroes of myth could reach this level in terms of pure technique.
How could an ordinary Amakusa Shirou possibly achieve it?