Chapter 43: I'm Sorry I Couldn't Make You Fight at Full Power, Emiya-kun
Bang—!
As the slash concluded, the spherical object from the back of Emiya's hand dropped to the ground... along with Gojo Satoru.
"This is the war god's shortsword, held by the Sun God Lugh in Celtic mythology, and is known as one of Lugh's three divine artifacts, alongside the divine spear Brionac and the magic bullet Tathlum.
Its formal name is the Sword of the War God That Precedes the Attack.
It reverses time and strikes first after being launched last, hence it's called the Sword of Reversed Light."
Just as Gojo did earlier, Emiya introduced the Noble Phantasm he used. On one hand, a finishing move like this loses its stealth after a single use; on the other, the Sword of Reversed Light doesn't need to completely hide its information.
That's because its effect hangs over the enemy like the Sword of Damocles—
"Reversing time? That's a truly unfair ability... So a Noble Phantasm like this must have a prerequisite for activation, just like some Cursed Techniques, right?" Even with a pillar of light piercing his chest, Gojo insisted on asking this question.
"That's right." Emiya nodded.
"The Sword of Reversed Light requires the opponent to deploy their 'Trump Card' as a condition to activate its special effect, thereby reversing time to before the 'Trump Card' was launched and delivering a fatal blow first... That's why it's called the Sword of the War God That Precedes the Attack."
The so-called 'Trump Card' is not limited to the enemy's Noble Phantasm, but any attack the opponent believes can cause a decisive reversal. If not, how could it be called a conceptual Noble Phantasm? Even to oppose it, the counter must be a rule-based 'Trump Card' of similar power.
For example, the Gáe Bolg, which can also reverse cause and effect, making the result of piercing the enemy's heart precede the action of stabbing. The Sword of Reversed Light can indeed strike first when this Noble Phantasm is launched, but it cannot correct the causation established by the magic spear, the 'heart being pierced.'
Emiya was able to acquire this Noble Phantasm-related knowledge and project them because after arriving in this world, that information gradually seeped into him as if it naturally belonged to the body of Heroic Spirit EMIYA.
Perhaps it's not just Heroic Spirit EMIYA, but also the 'Emiya Shirou' he once dreamt of... Emiya himself doesn't know why this happened.
What's strange is that although Noble Phantasms based on the concept of a Sword are the usual scope of Projection MAgecraft, Emiya also empathically received the experience of projecting the Gáe Bolg. Emiya can project quite a few causal Noble Phantasms like this, but after some deliberation, he chose to use the Sword of Reversed Light.
Besides its ability to neutralize the effect of Domain Expansion, the final slash also has a degree of controllability. Because its concept is 'preceding the attack,' not the magic spear's 'piercing the heart.' Emiya, the user of the Noble Phantasm, can control the target and angle of the slash to a certain extent.
Even though Gojo himself claimed his recovery ability was formidable, Emiya didn't aim directly for his heart.
"These conceptual Noble Phantasms that completely defy logic are really unfair..." Gojo spoke, fresh blood even spilling from the corner of his mouth. "But since we're talking about it, I still need to teach Emiya-kun something... Look."
Gojo held his hand to his chest, in a rather gruesome manner, making Emiya look at the circular hole that showed right through to the other side.
"Unlike non-Sorcerers or low-grade Cursed Spirits, truly powerful Cursed Spirits and enemies do not have many conventional weaknesses in their bodies.
Even if their heart is pierced, or most of their body tissue is severed, they can still survive." As Gojo spoke, the wound on his chest began to heal at an extremely exaggerated rate, returning to its original state in a matter of seconds.
"For enemies of that power level, the body is no longer a weakness. You must find and sever their source of Cursed Energy to decide the battle with a single strike.
Of course, there is also the possibility of trying to make them lose their ability to think, which can also win the fight... but the vital spot of most Special Grade Cursed Spirits isn't that simple either." Gojo pointed to his head and said so.
Was he criticizing Emiya for not being ruthless enough? In fact, Emiya's Sword of Reversed Light could have aimed for the head if he hadn't been worried.
However, even so, Emiya had to admit that Gojo Satoru truly deserved the title of the Strongest in the Jujutsu world.
Whether it was mobility, defense, or powerful destructive capabilities, he alone was equivalent to a collection of multiple Heroic Spirits, each specializing in different aspects—but this cumulative strength was far greater than the sum of its parts.
If the outcome were decided purely by output, Emiya might struggle to breach the wall of 'Infinity' even at full power.
And in truth, if Gojo had been willing, he could have easily won this spar by creating distance and fighting with abilities other than Domain Expansion.
Even if a conceptual Noble Phantasm could land a fatal blow based on an information advantage, based on that same information advantage, Emiya wouldn't have known that a conventional fatal injury to a human was ineffective against the Strongest, would he?
In short, if Gojo were to discard all playful emotions and focus only on victory, the pressure he would exert would be terrifying. Emiya truly didn't want to face that kind of person head-on.
"If this battle made you happy, Gojo-san, then..."
"You win." Before Emiya could finish his sentence, Gojo already provided the answer.
"Given your rigorous nature, Emiya-kun, you might think I was fighting playfully, but I had actually raised my spiritual focus to the maximum for a Noble Phantasm from mythology... Who would have thought there was such an unfair technique as this?
Even if I insisted on continuing the fight, you still have more rule-based Noble Phantasms that I don't know about, right? It's just that under the premise of sparring, you can't properly use them.
At least for now, I can't think of any way to defend against that kind of rule-bending absurdity, so give me a break... I still have a lot of missions to do later."
It was strange, truly strange.
Gojo, who had insisted on the spar, was now displaying a posture of refusing to fight.
He spread his hand and walked up to Emiya, gently patting his shoulder and sighing, "I'm sorry, I couldn't make you fight at full power in this state.
But... you still have a lot of room for growth.
At the very least, I'm really looking forward to seeing what kind of sight Emiya-kun's Domain Expansion will be!"
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