Chapter 530: Absorbing Saber
Between heaven and earth, pure white light swallowed everything, and sound completely disappeared, only slowly recovering after a long time.
Pant~
Pant~
Emiya Shirou panted, looking at this scene before him. Half a corpse still stood in place.
The upper body seemed to have been diagonally sliced off from the waist by a giant sword.
Mercenary Tao's handsome and sinister face had long disappeared without a trace.
In the sky, the thunderclouds had completely dispersed. Above the ruins of Fuyuki City, a huge gully tens of thousands of meters long fractured from the middle.
Because the city's foundation had already been shattered previously, the destruction caused by this sword slash far exceeded imagination.
But Emiya Shirou had no mind to think about more at this moment. He only clutched his heart, and only then felt fresh air violently pour into his lungs. The world seemed to turn colorful again.
Ever since that Mercenary Tao erupted with terrifying aura, directly knocking everyone out, and then started a cruel hunt, he felt as if the world he was familiar with was about to be completely destroyed by this monster.
This wasn't the Holy Grail War he had imagined.
Whether it was Tohsaka Rin or Saber, they both told him that the Holy Grail War was merely a war between magi, a special battle hidden behind the real world.
But Mercenary Tao turned the Holy Grail War into a cruel slaughterhouse.
Thinking of the scene where Tohsaka Rin and Matou Sakura were struck by lightning, he became tense again.
"Saber, let's quickly go check on Tohsaka and..."
Emiya Shirou was suddenly stunned, his heart instantly plummeting to the bottom of the valley, as if he saw the most terrifying scene, even forgetting to breathe.
He looked at Saber, who stood motionless in front of him, having made no sound since slashing that sword.
A stabbing pain suddenly came from his heart.
He abruptly felt an intense panic. Even though they hadn't spent much time together, Saber's integrity and strength had left a deep impression on him.
And she had saved him from danger multiple times.
Emiya Shirou almost didn't dare to step forward.
"Saber?"
"Hey, Saber, are you okay!"
Emiya Shirou tremblingly arrived in front of the girl knight. In the next moment, his eyes reddened, and tears had already blurred his vision.
The blonde female knight's hair had come undone, draped in front of her face. That dazzling blonde long hair now seemed to have lost the luster of life, becoming somewhat dim.
The blue battle skirt was soaked with fresh blood. The silver armor was intact, but it seemed the inside had long been shattered.
"Sa...ber..."
The girl's emerald eyes trembled twice. Her eyelids were so heavy it was almost impossible to lift them, but she still barely opened her eyes.
Her eyeballs no longer had the strength to turn, and her head was too heavy to lift.
"Shirou..."
Her voice was faint, like the chirping of a cicada.
Emiya Shirou immediately crouched down, arriving beside Saber, only to hear the other party say softly:
"Run..."
Emiya Shirou was momentarily stunned, not understanding what she meant, but in the next moment.
Sizzle!
The sound of thunder tearing the sky rang out again.
Frantic wind accompanied by a bone-chilling aura permeated from in front of him.
That terrifying energy field, that chilling sense of existence...
Emiya Shirou looked up in disbelief, only to see that on the mutilated corpse leaving only the lower half, disgusting granulations were rapidly bouncing, intertwining with each other like maggots.
Soon, there were more and more granulations. That mutilated corpse leaving only half became complete once again.
Muscles began to remodel, blood vessels began to regenerate, and then the epidermis; fair skin appeared bit by bit from the flesh and blood.
"What exactly... is going on?!"
Emiya Shirou was somewhat despairing. Saber's powerful and resolute strike, that strike that almost cost her life, actually didn't kill this guy?!
Heaven and earth suddenly darkened. Thunderclouds had completely covered the sky of Fuyuki City.
Thud.
Footsteps that couldn't be more normal, yet in Emiya Shirou's ears, they vibrated violently like thunder.
In the next moment, a fair hand grabbed his head.
"Heh, a powerful King let you escape. Why would a weak guy like you stay here?"
"Is it because of the so-called dream of an ally of justice, or... stupidity?!"
The signature mocking tone made Emiya Shirou feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
Mercenary Tao... sure enough resurrected!
Kaito Shirogane looked at the panel before his eyes.
[Trait · God Hand, resurrection attempts depleted (0/11). Please replenish in the Space, or wait for magical energy to naturally recover]
With just one sword strike, nine of his resurrection attempts were slashed away.
No, it should be said that this sword strike completely slashed away all the resurrection attempts of his God Hand. The reason he didn't die was purely because of his own immortality...
In this world, his immortality was quite outstanding!
Even after being chopped to half a body, he could still resurrect.
Even, because he was Assassin at this moment, even if his physical body was truly completely blasted to death, he still wouldn't be considered completely dead.
Of course, at that time, whether he could resurrect would no longer be up to him to decide.
Perhaps he would become a product similar to God's Hand · Roland in the One Piece world.
Emiya Shirou subconsciously struggled, but the large hand on his head completely didn't sway at all. Kaito Shirogane looked at the blonde knight who still maintained a standing posture, his face revealing a look of admiration.
Kaito Shirogane casually tossed Emiya Shirou aside, then began to lightly clap his hands. [Ghost TM · Destiny Bond] is an ability similar to mutual destruction that can lock onto a target within the field of vision and transmit the suffered damage equally and completely to the target.
He had obtained it very early on, but never had a suitable opportunity to use it. In this world, relying on his powerful immortality to target Saber who had lost [The Everdistant Utopia · Avalon], it was equivalent to Saber's powerful sword strike not only slaying Kaito Shirogane but also similarly slaying herself.
He clapped continuously. For Saber, for Artoria, this King of Knights had indeed given him a huge surprise.
Power of this level could no longer be explained merely by the Holy Sword of the Planet being sufficiently powerful, nor could it be explained by Saber's Mana Burst rank being sufficiently high.
This abnormal power amplification, from the perspective of Kaito Shirogane's Swirl of the Heart, only had one explanation.
Or rather, that so-called Sword of Promised Victory inherently contained the [Hearts] of this King of Knights and the countless people who died following her.
That sword slash came like the brilliant might of Heaven.
Clap clap clap!
Kaito Shirogane clapped and approached, then placed a hand on Artoria's head.
Pitch-black power subsequently erupted.
[Yin Spirit Body Possession]!
Kaito Shirogane radiated an intense suction force. That most powerful force acting on spiritual creatures instantly caused Saber, whose consciousness had fallen into chaos, to begin to dissipate.
Emiya Shirou tried to step forward again. A pitch-black hand blade thrust straight towards his neck.
Emiya Shirou subconsciously dodged, but he found that no matter how he dodged, that hand blade completely couldn't be shaken off.
"Stop, Assassin!"
Kaito Shirogane's hand blade stopped in front of the boy's neck, the sharp force cutting a tiny wound on the boy's neck.
Illya stopped Kaito Shirogane.
At this time, the Servant body of the King of Knights finally crumbled, turning into a blue-white spirit body and plunging into Kaito Shirogane's body.
At this moment, Kaito Shirogane felt immense satisfaction.
Not only because he obtained a bit more soul energy, but more because of the exhilaration of achieving his goal.
[You contained a new spirit body, Heroic Spirit · Artoria]
[Soul Energy +6, Current: ?]
[Special Property · Lesser Grail begins to activate...]
[Activating...]
Before Illya and Emiya Shirou could speak, Kaito Shirogane suddenly felt an intense power appear within his body.
The grandness of that power far exceeded any individual Heroic Spirit.
Almost instantly, it tore open the already somewhat fragmented boundary of Kaito Shirogane's sea of consciousness.
Pfft!
Kaito Shirogane sprayed fresh blood from his mouth and nose, but he completely felt no pain. His face showed fanaticism, looking towards the ruins of Ryuudou Temple in the distance. Accurately speaking, looking towards the location of the Greater Grail there.
Faster than he expected, perhaps because White Mask had already fused with Gilgamesh, so containing White Mask also contained the existence of Gilgamesh. Or perhaps the shattering of the leylines had a certain impact on the ritual of the Greater Grail.
But in short, Kaito Shirogane saw the ending where he completely won the Holy Grail War had already appeared...
He spread his arms, letting the Heroic Spirits begin to punch holes in the outer wall of his sea of consciousness.
"It's coming, it's coming. As the Lesser Grail, I call forth the Greater Grail... Ha~"
(End of Chapter)
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