His tone shifted as the corners of his mouth curled into an extremely wicked arc, and he pointed toward the fanatical Caster on the altar and the massive cage of children:
"—it's useless, everyone. Your most urgent opponent right now isn't me. It's this Mister Caster, who is about to finish his preparations. Look at this pervasive Black Magic, this converging life energy... Tsk tsk, it's truly spectacular."
His gaze swept over the massive magic cage as if admiring a work of art. Then, as if remembering something, he asked in a tone of academic inquiry:
"If I'm not mistaken, this shouldn't be an ordinary summoning or reinforcement ritual, right? A blood sacrifice of this scale, using the pure life force and fear of children of a specific age as offerings... This familiar recipe, this nauseating yet strangely beautiful flow of mana... Caster, is that tattered book in your hand guiding you to perform... the forbidden ritual recorded in the 'R'lyeh Text', used to call upon a sleeping existence through a massive sacrifice of life?"
After Kanjuro finished speaking, the ecstasy on Caster's face grew even stronger, as if he had found a kindred spirit, and he nodded repeatedly:
"Exactly! Exactly! You are indeed learned, my lord! So you had it all planned out from the beginning! You had me sacrifice the lives of these children just to complete this'Summoning of Rlyeh'! You knew all along! You and I both understand that only by borrowing the power of an ancient existence can we break the shackles of this world and allow Jeanne d'Arc to obtain true freedom!"
Hearing this, Kanjuro only sighed softly, his eyes revealing a glint that seemed regretful but was actually full of calculation.
"I was only guessing." He shrugged slightly, his gaze turning toward the massive lake below Ryudoji Temple that shimmered with a dark light in the night. "After all, such powerful Black Magic requires such a vast amount of life energy as a coordinate and anchor. Where else could its 'place of descent' be, other than this bottomless lake where the ley line moisture converges? This place is an excellent location for connecting to the 'depths'."
His words were like the final key, completely tightening the spring.
Caster no longer had any hesitation. He laughed wildly as he recklessly poured all his mana into the floating codex of rlyeh!
"Listen! Existence sleeping in the city of Rlyeh! With a thousand pure souls as a sacrifice, respond to my call!"
A pillar of pitch-black mana shot into the sky, the entire Mount Enzou shook violently, and the lake below began to boil, releasing countless murky bubbles, as if some gargantuan entity was being forcibly awakened from its eternal slumber by this evil ritual!
Kanjuro stood at the edge of the storm, smiling and waiting.
The great show was finally entering its climax. Meanwhile, Jeanne d'Arc, Saber, and the others faced the double desperation of having to stop this terrifying summoning while also dealing with the mastermind, Kanjuro.
The earth shook and the mountains swayed as the lake water churned like it was boiling. An unnameable, massive monster slowly rose from the deep lake bottom. Its main body, composed of countless writhing, slime-covered tentacles, twisted as it broke through the water's surface. Its massive shadow instantly enveloped the entire mountaintop, radiating an aura of madness and ancientness that could shatter one's sanity. The air was thick with the stench of deep-sea silt mixed with ozone; merely looking at this monster was enough to drive an ordinary person insane.
"Let's deal with this monster first!" Saber suppressed the strange agitation in her body caused by the resonance of Black Magic, as well as her instinctive fear of this indescribable existence. She gripped her holy sword tightly, her voice solemn. The threat before them was real and had to be prioritized.
Iskandar sat atop his restless divine bulls, his face expressionless but his eyes sharp as a hawk's as he evaluated the monster's threat level and possible weaknesses.
Gilgamesh floated in mid-air, golden ripples shimmering behind him, but his crimson snake-like pupils were not fully locked onto the massive monster. Instead, with a complex mixture of disgust and an unspeakable jealousy, he stared intently at the composed Kanjuro. This man not only possessed a bizarre power that surpassed his own but could also so easily manipulate the fates of others, even summoning such a terrifying existence from outside the world, while he himself seemed to transcend all rules and the counter force... This existence itself was the greatest insult to the Pride of the king of heroes.
"Hahahaha! It's a success! Kanjuro!! Now you must fulfill your promise! Quickly release Jeanne d'Arc's command spells!" Caster (Gilles de Rais) ignored the shivering monster and roared at Kanjuro in ecstasy, as if the monster were his ally rather than an uncontrollable disaster he had summoned.
Uryu Ryunosuke, watching Caster's almost naive fanaticism from the side, couldn't help but mutter in a low voice, his tone carrying a hint of pity and cynical clarity: "I say, Old Man, can't you see the situation yet? That monster Kanjuro... he won't do as you say at all. From beginning to end, he's just been using you."
"?" The ecstasy on Caster's face froze instantly, turning into a hint of confusion and a gradually rising horror as he followed Ryunosuke's gaze toward Kanjuro.
He saw Kanjuro intimately embracing Jeanne d'Arc's waist from behind, his chin resting lightly on her shoulder in a posture as close as lovers. Meanwhile, Jeanne d'Arc's face was as calm as a deep well, her ice-blue eyes looking coldly at Caster. There was no gratitude, no joy, only a deep sorrow and resolve.
"Gilles de Rais," Jeanne d'Arc's voice was like ice, "you have committed so many wrongs and stained yourself with the blood of countless innocents, yet you would rather believe a promise casually made by a demon... You are too naive, and too pitiful."
"But... I wanted to save you too! Jeanne d'Arc!!" Caster felt as if he had been struck by lightning. The light in his eyes dimmed rapidly, and murky tears mixed with the filth on his face as they fell. The codex of rlyeh in his hand emitted an even more unstable black light due to its master's extreme emotional fluctuations, and his hatred for Kanjuro reached its peak.
Just then, the Cthulhu monster, which had just awakened and had not yet fully gained consciousness, seemed to sense Caster's intense hatred and directed command. Its massive body, composed of countless tentacles, turned slightly. Numerous slimy tentacles, covered in suckers and eerie eyeballs, suddenly lunged toward Kanjuro and Jeanne d'Arc like a forest of death! Several particularly thick tentacles swept indiscriminately across the surroundings, completely shattering the barrier that had imprisoned the children, which had already become fragile due to the monster's descent!
"Kill Kanjuro for me!!" Caster let out a blood-curdling roar.
Saber and the others were also stunned for a moment, but they immediately realized the monster's attack was indiscriminate. They had to protect those children who had just escaped the cage and were now terrified and lost!
"Protect the children!" Saber was the first to charge, her holy sword swinging to sever several tentacles trying to wrap around the children. Iskandar also drove his chariot into the thick of the tentacles, lightning raging. Although Gilgamesh was displeased, he also released his Noble Phantasm, precisely intercepting the most threatening tentacles.
The scene instantly fell into chaos: the wild dancing of tentacles, the cries of children, the roars of Heroic Spirits, and the sounds of mana explosions intertwined.
Meanwhile, Jeanne d'Arc, who was at one of the eyes of the storm, instinctively tried to break free from Kanjuro's embrace the moment the barrier shattered and the children were exposed to danger, wanting to rush over and protect those innocent lives.
"Let me go!" she barked.
However, Kanjuro's arms were like iron bands, tightly wound around her slender yet powerful waist, unmoving. Even more heart-wrenching was that the dark mana pervading his body seemed to have a life of its own, turning into countless tiny, shadow-like filaments that covered and wound around Jeanne d'Arc's silver armor. Not to harm her, but to form a deeper confinement that made it difficult for her to exert any force to break free.
"Jeanne d'Arc," Kanjuro whispered in her ear, his voice so gentle it was hair-raising, as if he were soothing a throwing-a-tantrum child, "I said, we are spectators. Isn't it nice to quietly enjoy this drama woven from madness, hatred, and despair?"
His gaze swept over the children crying and running among the tentacles, who could be crushed at any moment, and there wasn't a single ripple in his eyes.
"As for whether those children live or die... from the moment they were chosen, their fate was already sealed. Why struggle in vain for a predetermined outcome and ruin this rare 'beautiful scenery'?"
His words were like the final freezing rain, completely extinguishing the last bit of hope and struggle in Jeanne d'Arc's heart. She froze in place, allowing those dark filaments to entwine her, watching the hellish scene before her. In her ice-blue eyes, the last spark of light was completely snuffed out, leaving only an infinite, all-freezing despair and darkness.
Feeling the stiffness of her body and the silence of her spirit, Kanjuro smiled with satisfaction and tightened his embrace, as if holding a beautiful collection piece that finally belonged completely to him. "Kanjuro, what exactly is it that you want?" Jeanne d'Arc's voice was hoarse, carrying a tremor of exhaustion. From her ice-blue eyes, two clear tear tracks finally slid uncontrollably down her cold and desperate cheeks. "Just because of a jest of yours, a sentence like 'perhaps I also have a kind side', it has led to this hellish scene... the cries of countless children, the calamity of the city, the madness of an old friend... All of this, what was it all for?"
Kanjuro's gentle voice rang in her ear, sounding like a lover's whisper, forming a sharp irony against the horrific scene he had created. His gaze did not fall on Joan of Arc; instead, he watched with great interest as Artoria, Iskandar, and the others fought an arduous battle against that massive Cthulhu monster in the distance.
The monster was completely out of control. Its countless waving tentacles were like the manifestation of a natural disaster, indiscriminately striking everything on the mountain peak. The seals that had originally trapped the children had long since shattered, but the children were not safe; instead, they were exposed to an even more dangerous situation. Thick tentacles swept across, sending the terrified, fleeing children flying like toys. Piercing cries intertwined with the roar of collapsing buildings, and all of Fuyuki City seemed to groan under the monster's rampage.
"Joan? Why have you stopped talking?" Kanjuro seemed slightly dissatisfied with her silence. He tilted his head slightly, gazing tenderly at her tense profile as if admiring the subtle cracks in a work of art.
Joan of Arc remained expressionless, as if wearing a mask of ice. However, her slightly trembling fingertips and tightly pursed lips betrayed the intense suppression and storm she was enduring within. She was forcibly suppressing her instinct to rush out and protect those children, as well as her overwhelming hatred and sense of powerlessness toward the man before her.
"Lady Joan! Quick! Hurry and leave this demon!!" Caster (Gilles de Rais) used the last of his strength to issue a hoarse plea. His eyes were filled with remorse and concern for Joan's safety. Even as he neared dissipation, his only obsession remained Joan.
However, the moment his voice fell—
A pitch-black sword light, identical in shape to the sword of promised victory but wreathed in an ominous shadow and an aura of destruction, suddenly erupted from Kanjuro's hand like black lightning tearing through the night sky! That sword light did not originate from a simple condensation of his own magical energy; rather, it manifested instantly from the deep [eternal night treasury] behind him, which seemed to connect to an endless darkness!
"Squelch—!"
The black holy sword, moving at a speed beyond visual tracking, pierced Caster's neck with absolute precision, pinning his final cry and his life together into the void.
Caster's body stiffened abruptly. He stared with wide, glazed eyes at Kanjuro in disbelief. The final image in his eyes was Kanjuro's face, still wearing a gentle smile, and the expressionless Joan of Arc held tightly in his arms. His spirit particleization process suddenly accelerated, and with endless regret, resentment, and final disillusionment, he completely dissipated into the air.
Joan of Arc looked toward where Caster had dissipated. There were no tears in her eyes, nor was there anger; only a bottomless dead silence, as if even her sorrow had frozen. She merely let out a very soft, slow sigh, as if exhaling centuries of weight and helplessness. She was stingy even with a sliver of pity for Caster's absurd and tragic end.
This sudden turn of events also shocked the others who were fighting the monster!
"What?!"
Artoria swung her sword to parry an incoming tentacle. When her gaze caught Caster being killed in one blow—and especially that black holy sword that was so similar to her Excalibur yet fundamentally different—her arm trembled involuntarily. It wasn't out of fear, but out of an instinctive discomfort and horror. Not only could Kanjuro copy her Wind King Barrier, but he could even reproduce the very concept of the holy sword in a dark form?!
"How is this possible?!"
Even the usually heroic and composed Iskandar experienced a moment of stagnation in his handling of the gordius wheel. His thick brows furrowed, and his eyes were filled with disbelief.
As for the most arrogant one, Gilgamesh, it was as if he had been slapped hard across the face. His handsome features contorted instantly, and an unprecedented shock and fury erupted in his crimson snake-like pupils! The golden ripples behind him fluctuated violently due to his intense emotions!
"You mongrel...!! Why?! How can you possess... possess an authority that rivals—no, desecrates—this king's unique 'Gate of Babylon'?! This is impossible!!"
Gilgamesh's roar even temporarily drowned out the monster's bellows and the city's wails. He could not accept that a second ability capable of infinitely manifesting Noble Phantasms existed in the world, especially one held by Kanjuro, whom he loathed the most. This was a fundamental subversion and insult to his philosophy of "collecting all the treasures in the world"!
Facing Gilgamesh's fury, Artoria's shock, and the disaster of the entire city, Kanjuro simply slowly withdrew the black "sword of promised victory," letting it dissipate back into dark magical energy. As if he had done something trivial, he continued to hold Joan of Arc tenderly, whispering in her ear like a demon's final proclamation:
"Look, Joan. The obstacle is gone, and the play has reached its climax. Now, you only need to watch quietly... watch how this world struggles painfully between the 'goodness' you insist upon and the 'truth' I have revealed, and then... moves toward its inevitable end."
His words were like the coldest chains, completely freezing Joan of Arc's last sliver of a thought to struggle. She closed her eyes, as if to sink all the darkness and despair before her, along with herself, into an eternal icy prison.
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