176

Scales, the one used to weigh things, are a wonderful tool. Even the archaic ones – made up of a pair of bowls with levers connected through ropes, cunning, spit and hope, were an important tool for mankind.

Unfortunately, if you put too heavy an object on it, they could not perform their function, simply breaking under the weight of the object.

This principle was true even for divine scales, even for metaphysical ones.

Pashupata, for example, as metaphysically divine as it is, is a scale of sorts in the end.

What could a scale do in the event that the mother of monsters, Angrboda, put her foot on one of the scales – even if without malice?

Of course, Arjuna's Noble Phantasm could not in any way 'judge' Angrboda. Not because she had a sort of resistance or some sort of special skills that shield her from the effect of Pashupata. Or rather, Angrboda had such powers, but it was not so powerful as to be able to defend against Arjuna's Noble Phantasm – having a defense against instant-death is just common sense after all.

No, the scales simply could not weigh her.

And no, not because she actually weighs too much physically that even a divinely made scale broke. If Angrboda had thought it was a joke about her weight – the joker's life would have been very short and very sad indeed.

But even when Pashupata's metaphysical 'judgement' failed, it was supposed to be followed by another very concrete, very explosive judgement. All in order to ensure that, even if the opponent rejects the paradise of 'nothingness', would still go – if not beyond the circle of rebirth – then at least further down the cycle of Samsara.

Such an explosion could be described as nothing else as the purest form of destruction, as powerful as nuclear weapons, incomparable to even the Noble Phantasms of other mighty Servants. When backed up by the might of Arjuna's legend? It would be enough to put even Hercules to rest a dozen times over.

And yet, when compared to Vasavi Shakti, at least on a destructive scale, it wasn't even close. The spear wielded by Karna is the perfect Noble Phantasm of destruction, its purest expression.

To compare, if in YGGDRASIL, players had found such an object – they would certainly have declared it a World-Class Item.

But then how would such a Noble Phantasm interact with Angrboda?

For the Servants, their legends literally became the basis of their powers, but how would these interact with the characteristics of YGGDRASIL? The answer is both simple and yet very complex at once.

The aforementioned item would simply use both systems at once. Whether it is a Servant's stats or the abilities of their Noble Phantasm, each would be judged according to their lore or mystery. For example, a Servant having an E rank in parameter must therefore must be five times weaker than a Servant that has an A Rank parameter. How this translates to YGGDRASIL's own stats or item rankings however is a bit more nebulous.

Therefore, it was possible to compare Vasavi Shakti to a World Class Item – but it was still impossible to draw an equal line between them.

If a World Class Item containing the absolute power of destruction were indeed used – then the likes of Angrboda would have no chance of resisting it.

However, since the only known source of World Class Items would never deign to open his collection, Angrboda did not need to worry about the weapons created in no less than a fit of madness by the World Creators. No, instead, she only needed to contend with two of the strongest Noble Phantasms of mankind.

But even the strongest child in the world is still but a child.

And so when the two Noble Phantasms of the two brothers struck Angrboda, she felt…

Some kind of damage.

The glow of light and the cavalcade of explosions, the colorful halo as if heralding the coming of the age of gods, looked mighty and majestic to other Servants. But mere moments later, when ruthless inertia forced the two brothers to land on the ground, they would look at an Angrboda that is neither shaken – nor even close to being dead in any way.

On the right side, where Pashupata had struck her, only a slight redness of skin could be seen, one that was already disappearing, the light of god doing no more damage than from being in the sun without a hat. And on her left side, where Vasavi Shakti had struck, Angrboda's body was missing several fingers and charred in several places.

While quite the mockery for the might of Karna for the unknowing, the amount of damage on Angrboda was actually quite the feat.

However, as if in mockery of Karna's actions, the damage on Angrboda's body began regenerating – the damaged flesh regrowing at a visible rate. Charred flesh turned pristine once again, and once missing fingers, replaced – one could see how moment by moment the wounds on the Mother of Monsters' body continued to heal.

Angrboda was not invulnerable in the literal sense of the word – there indeed exists attacks that were capable of wounding her. And it was indeed possible to inflict a multitude of such attacks, momentarily or not, as to make her die. That is, if various conditions were met.

And in this respect, Karna came closest to everyone in this Singularity – one blow of his, had done enough damage to Angrboda to manifest on her body more than just a mild annoyance.

Vasavi Shakti is indeed a Noble Phantasm with unmatched destructive capabilities in the 'world', needing a defensive capability matching its destructive scale to survive it. But then, what to do in a case where some virtual number such as 'hit-points', that needed to be depleted to defeat an opponent is simply too big to be contained within a single 'world'?

Simple. Do damage that could fit into the scope of a 'world'.

Karna was indeed monstrously strong – most likely he could have killed Cainabel with a precise hit of his Noble Phantasm if she were to be without the three of her Noble Phantasm. And Baal? Baal would probably be nothing more than an afterthought, his honeyed words finding no purchase with the Hero of Charity.

But Cainabel, being an extremely weak boss, was very different from Angrboda.

If Karna had used maybe a hundred or two hundred or a thousand of Vasavi Shakti at once, just to be sure, he could have destroyed Angrboda.

But he had only the one, and sadly not even the great hero Karna could use his greatest Noble Phantasm one after the other.

So now unscathed, Angrboda only looked around, ignoring the two very deadly attacks that had struck her at once and its effects, she simply shook her head. "Children…"

Looking so much like a tired mother with unruly children, she sighed. "I don't know what you've been fighting about – but you two make up right now!"

"And!" she added menacingly, glaring at each of the Servants who suddenly wanted to take a step back,-"You just raised your hand against your mother…"

"And naughty children," Angrboda shook her head, "Must be punished."

Bunyan was a big child – in a multitude of senses, not just her existence as a Servant.

Bunyan was also a surprisingly rare type of Servant.

Servants from antiquity were usually 'living legends' in and of themselves – gods and heroes whose existence could rarely even be confirmed, or personalities so wrapped in legend that there was no point in separating those from the facts.

Gradually, however, the further the Servants progressed from ancient times to more 'modern' times, the more concrete the personalities of the Servants became. Transforming from mystified legends to concrete historical characters whose biographies could be read on the internet by bored users.

Bunyan was born in the same time that Billy the Kid was born – but Bunyan was unique in that she was the rarest example of a 'modern legend'.

From the beginning there was no doubt that she was a 'legend' – or, more accurately, a tale invented out of boredom by the early settlers of the new continent – the unreality of which everyone knew.

But she was still one of the rare modern 'legends', a legend everyone knows as false, but a legend nonetheless.

A servant born as a paradox, the truest child as one of humanity's youngest legends.

This may have been the reason why Bunyan was born with such an irrepressible thirst for action that the Throne of Heroes had to define this trait, as a Berserker class madness. It was either that, or the Throne of Heroes classed a child's curiosity as nothing less than madness.

A second possible reason was that Bunyan was born from the stories of the settlers, as the embodiment of their aspirations – as a brave lumberjack, forging his way forward, subduing nature itself for the advancement of humanity.

In any case, why Bunyan was the way she is, was not so important – what was important was that Bunyan was a child and a Berserker.

Both were not really known for their prudence.

And so, as was appropriate, after first receiving a slap from the huge wooden construct, and then falling to the ground and hitting her head painfully, Bunyan was clearly convinced of the need to act.

And so she did.

"Marvelous Exploits!", Bunyan clearly lacked the prudence to properly imagine the consequences of her actions.

Why was Bunyan held in solitude by Edison as a special strategic weapon, kept away from all the other Servants?

Though she is indeed a huge and powerful Servant – her strength wasn't even worth mentioning against the backdrop of Karna's power. No, Bunyan was isolated by Edison except for the most extreme of all extremes circumstance precisely because of her Noble Phantasm.

Bunyan was born as a legend of settlers – but a deeper reading of the essence of her legend revolved around a different concept.

Her legend was of Civilization. And the settlers in this case were just one of the possible masks of that concept.

An all-consuming mighty force of humanity, stretching far and wide its raking hands, moving forward at all costs, crushing all who stand in its way like a colossal machine of progress.

And in Bunyan's case, the most important essence was 'colossal'.

Bunyan has always maintained her growth relative to its surroundings – rising above other reference points 'so that its head can penetrate the clouds'. In other words, Bunyan still had a 'maximum' size.

Civilization did not.

The pressure exerted on an object follows the cube-square law, when an object doubles in size, its mass increases eight-fold. And since force equals mass times acceleration, the pressure an object can exert also increases eight-fold.

So, what happens if an object increases its size a hundred thousand-fold?

Nothing good for the planet's lithosphere, for sure.

It was impossible to see Bunyan – not that she had become invisible, no, it was the exact opposite. She had become so colossal that it now required not just the characteristics of a Servant, but a spell of observation of objects beyond the atmosphere to see her full size in her entirety.

With one foot standing at the bottom of the ocean, Bunyan swung the other to deliver a single devastating blow, more like a natural disaster than anything human.

Thinking of her potential for destruction in terms such as 'cities' was now wrong for her, as her size cast a shadow that instantly obscured, like an eclipse, a prominent part of North America itself.

Bunyan was planned by Edison not as a weapon of attack – but as a weapon of 'retaliation' a form of Mutually Assured Destruction. She is absolutely a weapon that would, if Edison lost, accomplish the most important thing of all – bury the entire Singularity.

Of course Bunyan, the spawn of modern legend, did not possess the kind of power to destroy the world – it did not even have the strength to hold its shape after just one hit – but that was not required.

There was no need for Bunyan to survive the aftermath, with Bunyan's current form, she could easily cripple a continent simply by trying to stand on it.

Medea, Cu Chulainn, Mashu?

None of them had any idea what they were supposed to do now.

No, ancient legendary tales sometimes mentioned deities and monsters that obscured the sun and stood 'with one foot on the mountain and the other in the sea' – but the storyteller totally undersold the level of terror meeting such a being.

Yes, Bunyan would only survive for this one strike – but it was enough to not just destroy all the enemies on the field, but to simply bury the Singularity with no chances of Proper Human History surviving.

Not that the atomic bombing of North America were any easier – but explaining the rift that changed the shape of the continents themselves and the movement of the lithospheric plates, and all that would follow, were nothing less than impossible.

Even the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs caused less of an impact.

And at precisely that moment, Mashu's gaze collided with the sight of several rockets flying so quietly against the backdrop of Bunyan's enormity.

If Bunyan could miss by a couple of hundred kilometers and still kill all of them – Sita was definitely planning to end the battle once and for all without missing.

In YGGDRASIL, Ainz had seen monsters of all kinds of sizes, the technology of his day could create many a digital wonders – but even they had a limitation. Technology could create a forty-meter dragon and simulate its movements, its animations, and a measure of free movement, but game creators could not create a multi-kilometer monster capable of covering entire continents with its shadow. They were not without recourse, however, for instance – the creators of YGGDRASIL used various tricks to signify scales.

For example, with the World Eater.

He had nine phases of confrontation, and in his first form he was supposed to be something like Bunyan in scale – a multi-kilometer sized monster, capable of obscuring the Sun. But the model was not actually that large, its gigantic size created using an illusion of distance, placing his real model at a significant distance and using a projection for the players to fight. And then the second phase afterwards he was not even a full model, but rather a location or only appearing in parts, a state of affairs that lasted only to the sixth phase…

But then that was neither here nor there, Ainz doubted that trivia about a video game's end boss would matter right now… but then again.

Ahem, never mind. Anyway, even inside the game, Ainz had never seen monsters a hundred kilometers tall up close to him. And so, seeing the almost comically sized girl in the lumberjack costume, who had just instantly appeared in front of him, Ainz was confused for a second.

But only for a second.

He would admire and marvel at such a sight later, when the battle was over, and when he wasn't about to be crushed by a mountain. Until then, he had to do everything he could to make this battle end in his favor.

Ainz's mind rushed to find answers to the situation and questions arose in his mind – purely practical questions that is – that arose in his mind.

How much damage could such a blow do if it hits?

Ainz had never encountered such a thing, so he doesn't really have a reference point – and so a moment later he did what any self-respecting YGGDRASIL player would do in the first place.

He instantly discarded his human body, revealing his skeletal body, of course.

Fighting an unknown danger, one that while not perhaps posing any danger to him personally is definitely a danger to his mission, while carrying a handicap is quite foolish indeed. While quite the common occurrence in YGGDRASIL for him to have a routine – it still wasn't something he liked.

"Magic Appraisal – All." Ainz's arsenal of spells that might only cause a chuckle from the more specialized hundredth level players, demonstrated the effectiveness of its breadth of effects. "Data Collection," "Analysis," "Property Analysis – All," "Eye of God."

As might be expected – in the new world, the spells that were once so familiar to Ainz had their effects changed – but not so much that Ainz could not use them with efficiency. So, a moment later, his mind was filled with a myriad of information.

And so, Bunyan's Servant Parameters were laid bare to Ainz.

And while her Legend or information about Bunyan's equipment were of little interest to Ainz – dismissing those easily, he glanced at the information that had caught his attention.

"Noble Phantasm." Ainz frowned slightly – inwardly that is, as his bare skull could not display his emotions.

"Not good." While knowing that he could analyze an enemy Servant's information even if it took his tenth level spells was a pleasant surprise, the information that he had uncovered dampened his mood.

A Servant's Noble Phantasm was a new, but also not the newest of phenomenons to Ainz, he had seen quite a few after all. It was like YGGDRASIL's 'special abilities' achievable only for those with a very specialized build, each one a trump card that could turn the tide of battle easily.

Ainz had plenty of spells and abilities possessing anti-magic effects in his arsenal, but fewer of those that blocked special abilities.

"Two hundred percent of the parameters of a normal attack according to the modified user size," Ainz gritted his teeth a little.

An attack with a strength of two hundred percent of a normal attack. For a special ability, it was garbage that only a first-level player who hadn't yet killed his first slime could be proud of – but the accompanying increase in size was much more dangerous.

Ainz's mind snagged on a formula for recalculating damage and damage changes depending on mana saturation, and he sighed. At least he could be glad that Bunyan was not tapped into his mana reserves? Otherwise, the Noble Phantasm's class of 'anti-army' would have easily really gone to 'anti-world'.

Images of a planet-sized Bunyan aside, Ainz began picking on what Spells capable of killing Bunyan, with her increased health pool… Well there were actually quite a lot of them, he was quite specialized on instant-death spells, after all.

He could simply use the eight-tier 'Death' – but in the event that her body simply went limp after she died, falling to the ground, it was quickly discarded. Her body falling in and of itself would cause a massive earthquake, changing the world's landscape.

Besides, he didn't want, when he returned to Chaldea, to read about how they'd found crevices in the ocean somewhere, shaped like a giant lumberjack girl.

If he had more time, he might be able to use his own 'special ability' as the Eclipse, but sadly there was not enough time.

Block the damage? Ainz had spells that allowed a user to block any amount of damage of a certain type – but they were spells that only worked on individual users, not on the ground. Even the crazy developers of YGGDRASIL wouldn't think of such a useless spell.

But then, after reading Bunyan's Servant Parameters there was no need for complex solutions, in fact there was one that would solve this problem in one fell swoop.

Under these circumstances, Ainz saw only one option for resolving the problem.

"Greater Teleportation."

Bunyan's consciousness did not change in any way when her Noble Phantasm activated. And so, when she was suddenly dropped, causing her to hit her head, she wanted nothing more than to crush whoever had done it.

True, she was now towering over any mountain on Earth and could barely see where her opponent was at all – but even if she missed a few kilometers to the side, it wouldn't matter. A hit roughly in the same state would have finished off most of the Servants, destroyed human history, and changed the shape of the continents – and anyone looking at the Servant knew that.

Bunyan was not the strongest Servant – in a Holy Grail War, she would hardly have been the winner, even when discounting the powerful Servants from the Age of the Gods.

But, rightfully so, Bunyan occupied her place as one of the most destructive of Servants.

Yes, she could only deliver one blow – but it was enough to bury most of the Throne of Heroes. The other Servants could only watch in impotence, realizing that they simply did not have any tricks in their arsenal that could hold back Bunyan's blow.

Perhaps Mashu could protect some area around her with her Noble Phantasm, but that was it.

Besides, Bunyan acted unexpectedly fast for someone of her enormous stature.

So all Medea could think, looking at the approaching blow, was wonder how human legends were determined not to lose their scope even as they approached modernity.

But a moment before Bunyan's kick would smash into the ground, revealing that one of humanity's most powerful Noble Phantasms was still rightfully an angry, loud stomping of the foot – Bunyan's foot struck an obstacle.

An impenetrable obstacle.

And Bunyan, even when she was a relatively small Servant, was not accustomed to encountering impenetrable obstacles. Now, after becoming a kilometer-long monster for a few seconds, she was even more surprised.

And the surprise was enough to spell her doom.

Bunyan's Noble Phantasm, as strong as it was, or perhaps because of it, acted with two limitations. One, it lasts only for a few seconds and, second, only until the first step or first strike. Perhaps the reason for this was its incredible consumption of mana, or perhaps it was because of the roots of her legend, created by settlers – people who were making the 'first step' in the development of civilization.

So Bunyan didn't even have time to fully grasp the idea that she had suddenly managed to fly into an impenetrable obstacle – before realizing that she was already standing on the ground, shrunken many times over.

Of course, even in this form, she was still huge, still towering above the rooftops, at least a few dozen meters tall – but that was nothing compared to her many kilometers of height just a few seconds ago.

A moment later, Ainz's spell instantly took Bunyan's life, preventing her from even finishing her thought.

Ainz hated to kill, much less, a child. But there was no room for sentimentality in battle – the most fearsome of enemies in YGGDRASIL liked to disguise themselves as the most harmless. Ainz could recall at least three World Enemies with the appearance of a child.

As for how he had blocked the effects of perhaps the most destructive Noble Phantasm of all, excluding Vasavi Shakti, there was only one thing Ainz could say in this case.

If the tactic works, it's not stupid.

No, perhaps he should say something else, though. Something more charismatic?

Abuse of game mechanics remained a viable strategy, despite the anger and opinion of certain other players. There, that should be good enough, right? Though, maybe he shouldn't say that out loud.

Ainz could have blocked Bunyan's Noble Phantasm using his Noble Phantasm – either one of them, or he could have tried to use any of his Super-tier magic. In theory, he could also try to use some of the one-use items available to him – but none of these guaranteed a clear result and could easily not work the way Ainz needed, so he discarded the options easily.

The things he needed to do were to block the blow – and do it in such a way as to prevent Bunyan from striking the ground. A tall order even for the greatest of Heroes.

However, it was not for nothing that Ainz used information-gathering spells first.

So, instantly he knew several important things. Things like the fact that the ability Bunyan used was definitely a late-game ability, that is, belonging to the seventieth level and above. But alas, the plight of a character having an ultra powerful skill, but simply not having the required stat parameter to take full advantage of it.

In YGGDRASIL, while very rare, it was a very real possibility. Since the most powerful special skills were almost random to the player character, it was very possible to specialize into a very powerful ultimate skill only to find that the skill uses a dump stat as its source of power.

Yes, Ainz could not simply take the hit of a level seventy or higher ability – but if the player's characteristic itself was lower? Then Ainz's defense would win in this confrontation.

Bunyan's Noble Phantasm rank was A – but her Noble Phantasm parameter rank was C.

Ainz simply took advantage of this discrepancy – that one of the characteristics needed to deal him damage with an ability did not meet the requirement to actually do it – and simply blocked Bunyan's attack with his body.

All things considered, in game, that would be considered a bug to be fixed by devs – and done without informing the players. All for the perverse enjoyment of seeing the first dozen players being surprised to find that the previous guides don't work anymore, and probably just die instantly.

But since the 'bug' isn't closed yet, Ainz would take full advantage of it.

However, the other Servants below didn't see it as a 'bug'. All they saw was Ainz emerging from the flicker of teleportation, then, without even moving a finger, stopped the monstrous Bunyan's strike, his body floating in the air without even moving an inch.

Mashu, however, was distracted from her contemplation of Ainz's feat a moment later, switching her gaze to Sita's attack – if it could be called that.

The nuclear weapons were comparable to a Servants' powerful Noble Phantasm – but unlike them, they could not be interrupted by Medea's powers.

And of course, Mashu's shield made no difference whether to protect its owner from blows of magical nature or technological ones, all would fail against the walls of Camelot. But if the problem with the destruction of the city could hardly get any worse due to a few nuclear explosions – then the radiation contamination definitely is…

Mashu clenched her shield tighter, looking at the approaching missiles, getting ready to use her Noble Phantasm again.

But, before she could utter a single syllable of her Noble Phantasm, a white-blue blurry shadow suddenly flashed through the air, knocking several missiles out of the way. Although the shadow didn't move intelligently, it arced through the air to the ground, it was some kind of projectile?

Then after that, a black, white, and then red shadow traced the same exact trajectory, shooting down countless more missiles.

After that, a black and gold shadow did the same thing.

Mashu only had time to form a question in her head before she suddenly heard the answer from Galahad. 'Angrboda disciplines her children well.'

"Wait, that means that the red and blue shadow were… " Mashu shifted her gaze in the direction where the flickering shadows had gone, not even bothering to look at the falling rocket debris.

'As far as I remember – Arjuna and Karna both like to compete in sports…' Galahad mused while humming slightly, his sight unbothered by things like motion blur, seeing clearly what had just passed through the sky.

Mashu noted that Galahad had surrendered such petty things like common sense, ignoring the utter surrealism of everything that had happened in the last minute.

'I wonder what it would be like for them to compete again – now as projectiles?'