Chapter 121: Direct Confrontation with the Grim Reaper! Shirou Awakens the Mystic Eyes of Death?!
"Boom!!!"
The radiant glow of the Golden Sword lit up the board of the Divine Game.
The dazzling brilliance made almost everyone on the scene involuntarily close their eyes — including Lefiya herself, who unleashed the strike. She had never expected to release an attack with such overwhelming power.
The light released from the Holy Sword had completely exceeded Lefiya's own understanding — it was more powerful than any magic she knew!
The reason for this was not only the immense power of the Unbeatable Golden Sword itself, but also because Lefiya had earned the sword's recognition and was able to fully unleash its true form.
Coupled with the effect of Avalon within Lefiya's body, the resonance between the sword and its sheath made this Holy Sword strike almost reach the true power of a genuine Holy Sword.
"Bang!" As Lefiya's attack landed, an overwhelming flood of light directly smashed through the Heavenly Bull, completely annihilating this monster constructed from divine energy.
According to the rules of the Divine Game, once an opponent's piece is defeated, the player's own piece upgrades. This upgrade isn't simply a level increase; it absorbs the defeated piece's soul, adding the power of that soul to the player's piece.
"Clatter!" A massive shard of soul energy erupted from within the Heavenly Bull, its power flooding entirely into Lefiya's body, causing her as a piece to surge in performance. But this was far from over.
Compared to the Masked Man, who had started as a high-level piece and thus could not gain much from upgrades, Lefiya—who began as a low-level piece—had only evolved from the [Mouse] to the [Cat] by defeating the Heavenly Bull.
According to the rules of the beast chess, she could defeat more pieces to keep boosting her strength!
"The weakest piece, therefore holding the strongest potential?" Thanatos finally understood Shirou's intention and spoke incredulously, "I never thought something like this would happen. I have truly underestimated you, Emiya Shirou."
"No, you didn't underestimate me, you underestimated the Loki Familia" Shirou shook his head. "The strongest Familia of Oralie, their reputation is not empty words. In this Familia, there is no true weakling — even those who seem small have infinite possibilities."
"I see… Seems I was one step behind in this game." Thanatos candidly admitted his defeat.
But he did not seem ready to give up. He kept holding the board in standoff, as if to witness the game until its very last moment.
Meanwhile, on the board, after killing the Heavenly Bull, Lefiya suddenly absorbed all its energy, gaining unprecedented power. Once only a level 3 piece, she now burst with the combat speed of a first-level adventurer, swinging the Golden Sword at the Loki clan's members one by one, defeating them all.
Each time she defeated an opponent, her piece's performance further upgraded. From [Cat] she evolved into [Dog], then to [Wolf], followed by [Leopard], [Tiger], [Lion]… Finally, when Lefiya defeated Valetta, a Thanatos clan member ranked Iv.6, she had completely evolved from the weakest [Mouse] piece into the strongest [Elephant] piece.
At this moment, combined with the fully unleashed Claiburn, her strength was arguably the strongest existence on the board.
Even though Thanatos still had the Masked Man and Ais controlled by souls, they were no match for Lefiya!
"This really is Lefiya? She actually managed to come this far?" Riveria stared at the board in shock.
She never imagined that the usually weak and hesitant Lefiya would become the key to the comeback, singlehandedly destroying most of the opponent's pieces.
Only defeating the Masked Man remained, which would mean complete victory for Shirou's side.
However, as the saying goes, a journey of a hundred miles is only halfway at ninety. Unless the game reaches the final moment and a checkmate is truly achieved, no one can know the real winner.
Though the board currently seemed infinitely favorable to Shirou's side, it had silently planted a huge hidden danger.
"Just one last step." Lefiya took a deep breath.
She had not expected herself to defeat so many enemies in one go.
Those opponents were normally those she had to look up to and could never defeat by her own strength.
Yet now, on this Divine Game board, boosted by the board's rules and the amplification of the Unbeatable Golden Sword, she had defeated all powerful foes and arrived at the last moment.
Next, she only needed to defeat the final opponent — the Masked Man — to secure victory in this match for Shirou!
If so, then her restless heart, which had been turbulent since reuniting with Shirou, filled with complicated emotions, could finally be released. If she won this last battle, she vowed to completely convey her feelings to him!
Lefiya made this firm decision but also raised a heavy death flag. And as the saying goes, once a flag is raised, it must take effect.
Just as Lefiya swung the Holy Sword with all her might to defeat the Masked Man, a figure suddenly intervened between them!
"What!?" Lefiya did not expect anyone to interfere. Looking carefully, it was the Sword Princess Ais.
Ais, whose soul was controlled by Thanatos, had unknowingly arrived between Lefiya and the Masked Man, blocking Lefiya's advance.
"To win, even if it's you, Ais-sempai... I won't hold back!"
At this point, Lefiya could not hesitate. As long as she defeated the Masked Man and won the Divine Game for Shirou, Ais's soul body would naturally be restored.
Thanatos himself understood this very well. But he still let Ais block Lefiya, even seeming to want Ais to sacrifice herself.
"This feeling... Wait, Lefiya!"
Shirou's intuition suddenly sounded the alarm, and he immediately shouted to stop Lefiya, but it was already too late. Overwhelmed by her thirst for victory, Lefiya had already struck Ais with the sword, tearing open her chest!
Click!
Ais's chest was torn open, her soul fragments drifting away in the wind. Because she was killed by an allied piece, Lefiya could not absorb her soul.
Just as Ais's soul fragments should have dispersed, a twisted mark suddenly fell from her soul body. Like crimson blood, yet like deep darkness.
The mark of the Grim Reaper flowed out of Ais's body and suddenly entered Lefiya.
"..." Lefiya felt the mark's appearance in confusion. At first, she didn't notice any change, but suddenly a sharp, intense pain struck her brain, making her lose control of her body.
"Soul control?" Shirou immediately realized, "Your soul control isn't a one-time trap, but automatically searches for the next host after the current one dies?"
"That's right!" Thanatos laughed, "This is the real terrifying aspect of my power. With this ability, I could have unknowingly killed all of your Loki clan members inside the maze. Unfortunately, your strange sacred flame burned away my soul avatar, preventing it from continuing."
"I see..." Shirou took a deep breath.
He had previously burned the Grim Reaper's soul inside Ais with the sacred flame, saving Ais, but he had overlooked that the Grim Reaper's soul control was not a one-time spell but a terrifying power that could be reused repeatedly, parasitically.
Thanatos had planned to control Lefiya from the start, deliberately letting her kill most of his pieces. His goal was to wait until Lefiya evolved into the strongest [Elephant] piece and then possess her in one go.
In this way, he could obtain an invincible piece and stand undefeated.
"Uwaaah..."
Lefiya held her head. Although she could resist the Grim Reaper's soul control for now, she obviously could not do so forever.
This was because Avalon inside her was not in its truly strongest state. Without the paired Excalibur, she could not open a true absolute defense, leaving her mentally vulnerable.
This caused Lefiya to be unable to resist the Grim Reaper's soul control, her consciousness gradually separating from her body and being taken over by the Grim Reaper's awareness.
"This is over!" Riveria showed a worried expression.
She could not imagine such an unreasonable reversal happening when victory was so close and instinctively looked at Shirou.
She thought Shirou would show a similarly agonized and regretful face.
However, she found that Shirou's expression was not shaken at all. The man silently stared in Lefiya's direction, as if having made a firm decision.
"Lefiya, remember what we promised before!" Shirou said towards her, "Now is the time to use that spell!"
"..."
Lefiya's expression was difficult, showing pain. But she still instinctively acted, activating the skill [Elf's Ring], and at the moment her consciousness was about to fade to the limit, she cast the magic.
"What means do you have?" Thanatos looked surprised, "According to the rules, you as the player cannot interfere with the board's battles, and your special flames can't be used here either!"
"That's right, so I won't interfere with this battle or use my flames."
Shirou glanced back at the Grim Reaper. Then he slowly raised his right hand and accepted the magic from Lefiya.
It wasn't a special magic, not even one beyond basic magic most mages know — [Sympathy Magic].
Its effect was simple: it connected the senses, consciousness, and even thoughts of two different individuals together.
Though it sounds meaningful, sympathy also spreads negative feelings and even pain along with the positives. Therefore, it naturally cannot be used effectively in combat.
Lefiya's current use of this skill wasn't for fighting.
She and Shirou had previously agreed that if Thanatos used soul control on Lefiya, she would immediately activate this sympathy magic.
Why?
Because Shirou had seen the Mystic Eyes of Death before.
During his fight with the Grim Reaper's Eyes, Shirou realized that souls are essentially a form of quantum existence — possessing both a real physical form and a phantom wave form.
When observed, the soul becomes solid; when not observed, the soul exists as a wave. This is the wave-particle duality.
If souls have wave-particle duality, then soul manipulation must also utilize this concept!
Thanatos's soul control essentially turns the soul into a wave, invading the opponent's soul through this phantom wave.
Souls only become waves when no observer exists. Once there is an observer, the soul collapses into its solid form.
This means when Thanatos manipulates a soul, he must ensure there is no observer present. Otherwise, just by observing the process — causing the observer effect and collapsing the wave — soul manipulation is stopped immediately!
Of course, this is all Shirou's theoretical speculation. He wasn't 100% sure his "soul wave-particle duality" concept was correct.
But at this critical moment, he had no other choice but to gamble on this possibility!
For this, he was about to directly confront the Grim Reaper!
"Boom!!"
As the sympathy magic activated, Shirou's consciousness, thoughts, and senses perfectly synchronized with Lefiya's. He clearly felt every emotion, every fluctuation, and every ripple of awareness within her.
In this process, Shirou seemed to glimpse the essence of the soul, the origin of life, and the source of consciousness.
And as the saying goes, seeing the "beginning" of something means seeing its "end."
At this moment, his complete understanding of the soul's concept gave Shirou a vague glimpse of the ultimate end every living being will reach, even feeling that with a slight push, he could drive things to that end.
He didn't know what was happening to him or how to understand it.
But Thanatos clearly saw the change in Shirou. Therefore, he knew better than anyone what miracle was happening — Emiya Shirou was directly witnessing "death" itself.
Moreover, to see "death" means essentially to control death.
This rare occurrence had only happened in very few cases before Shirou's world.
In that other world, people called this special power — the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception!
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