The infinite sword system has been mastered, and you say this is the dragon clan?

Chapter 313: The Stage of a Deadly Battle

While BB was "treating" the prisoner Herzog well, Emiya and Mashu had already found the leyline node near the shrine.

This shrine, dedicated to the Yamata no Orochi, is covered in a crimson earth known as the "True Crimson Earth," said to be soaked in the creature's blood. Nearby lies the mighty Tama River, flowing above ground. Its confluence with the underground Akagi River, known as the Red Well, forms a leyline node.

"...was that Emiya-senpai's combat prowess just now? Amazing! Oh, what a shame I didn't record the battle footage in time. With such prowess, I'm sure more and more people will recognize us in the years ahead—"

"...Yeah, yeah, that's right. Chaldea has a bright future! But, Mashu, you've been talking for quite some time now, and isn't it awkward to keep praising me? We have nothing to do here either, so why don't we change the subject?"

"Okay, by the way, have you ever done any research on cold brew coffee?"

Mashu then turned to the common topic of coffee in Chaldea. As an institution mainly composed of researchers, Chaldea's consumption of coffee beans is also quite astonishing. Due to different tastes, different types of beans have different preferences.

"I personally prefer the cold brew method, where I refrigerate the milk and filter it directly with a French press..."

"Oh, cold brew! I prefer pour-over brewing. With cold brew, grinding too coarsely or not brewing for long enough can be a problem..."

Emiya hadn't expected that the innocent junior schoolmate Mashu could be so articulate. Or perhaps it was because of her unique innocence, kindness, and wealth of knowledge that she was so popular in Chaldea? ...

While the two were talking, Mashu saw that the time was almost up, so when she touched her shield to the ground again, she moved the connection point with the earth vein slightly in another direction, and the pattern similar to the Heroic Spirit Summoning Array underwent subtle changes.

According to BB, they used Mashu's shield as a catalyst to set up a summoning circle and try to establish contact with Chaldea. This summoning/counter-summoning based on spirit particle transfer can also be used to transport supplies.

The only problem is that the transfer of the spirit particles was too hasty this time. This was the first time we tried this kind of thing, so it needed constant debugging.

...It's called debugging, but from Mashu's perception, it seems that only the wavelength or frequency of the magic power in the array has changed.

It felt like the two of them were creating a crude hacking program (summoning circle) to try to bypass the obstacles (the abnormal space-time of the singularity) as a remote proxy to access a target server far away (Chaldea Main Building).

However, because the obstruction was too strong, they kept changing the disguised signal source and "pinging" back and forth, but with little success.

"Senior, is the method Miss BB taught me really okay? Can we really successfully contact the headquarters?"

Mashu wasn't an expert in this area, and even though Team A had similar training, she wasn't entirely confident. Singularities... only after experiencing them did she realize how complex the situation was.

Emiya wasn't much better either. His specialty was cutting-edge material manufacturing and strategic applications, essentially, the art of rubbing Noble Phantasms. This kind of trans-dimensional communication was essentially an application of spirit summoning formations, something Chu Zihang was probably better at.

When Chu Zihang first enrolled in the Spiral Hall, he decisively chose the "Possession Building". In other words, it is a building that specializes in the study of spirit possession technology, similar to the "Spiritual Conjuring" in the West. Although Emiya is his master, most of what he teaches is practical application.

When asked why he chose the Pingyi Tower, Chu Zihang replied as expected that it was to find his biological father Chu Tianjiao.

The image of this student's stern yet stubborn face flashed through Emiya's mind, and he shook his head secretly. Then he thought, replacing Chu Zihang wouldn't necessarily be any better. BB's level was already beyond the Chaldean gang...

Unfortunately, she's not very honest and loves to make trouble. Things that could be solved quickly always get tangled up because of her personal mischief...

Whoosh!
There was a sound of wind explosion. Emiya turned his head and saw a bloody piece of meat flying out from the palace door. It happened to be caught on a dead branch of a crooked tree in the courtyard.

"BB is making trouble again?" Emiya subconsciously felt that something was wrong.

"Hey, didn't Senior ask Miss BB to interrogate the enemy?" Mashu was startled when she saw the "flying flesh", but after calming down a little, she said, "Do you want me to help?"

"Don't go! This kind of thing is not suitable for children!" Emiya thought that BB was always good at torturing people, and the little marshmallow might not be able to withstand such a heavy-tasting scene.

"How is Abbas's injury? Is there any sign of him waking up?"

Mashu looked at the nearby area and saw Abbas, who was bandaged and lying flat on a simple bed made of a futon and wooden boards, breathing steadily.

"It's nothing serious for now. Mr. Abbas's complexion seems to be getting better. Maybe he will recover quickly!"

"Really? It seems he's in good health. Since he's alright, I'll go inside and take a look."

After saying this, Emiya walked into the palace.

As soon as he came in, he smelled a pungent fishy smell. He saw BB slowly and calmly torturing Herzog. The cut pieces of meat seemed to be stored as magic materials and no one knew what they were used for.

"What are you doing? How's the interrogation going?"

"Don't worry, senior. Hehe, the results are almost all out," BB glanced at the blood-stained figure on the pillar.

Herzog's eyes were glassy, ​​as if he had been tortured to the point of losing all his strength. However, BB swung the cane in his hand, and for some unknown reason, the whipping caused Herzog immense pain. He screamed and suddenly regained consciousness.

The first person he saw was Emiya who came in.

"Ah!! Don't come over here!!"

Herzog's severely crippled body trembled wildly. He felt as if he were witnessing some lingering nightmare, as if as long as he fixed his gaze on Emiya, the catastrophic scene of the giant easily defeating the Dragon King's Ultimate Word Spirit would replay itself in his mind over and over again.

Then BB slapped him again, and this made the noisy guy shut up successfully.

"What did you do to him?"

When Emiya fought Herzog before, he did intend to create a psychological shadow of invincibility for him, but he shouldn't be so scared to this extent, right?
"Hehe, Senior, you don't understand what schemers and ambitious people fear most." BB wanted to keep it a secret, but seeing Emiya's impatience, he had to speak frankly, "--It's simple. This kind of person's biggest fear is that everything they work for will be in vain no matter what~!"

Emiya thought for a moment, "Oh? You told this guy that the spacetime he's in is a singularity?"

"Hehe, that's it! The ultimate outcome of this abnormal, distorted space-time is annihilation. In other words, this is a cruel reminder to Herzog that his very existence has been denied by the world itself, and that his dream, which he successfully realized, is 'incorrect'!"

"So what about the intelligence he spilled? Was there any useful information?"

BB looked at Herzog with disdain:
"This person claims to be the victor of the Holy Grail War, but he's never actually faced off against any of the other contenders. After witnessing the Heroic Spirits' fighting prowess, he only dared to fan the flames behind the scenes, indirectly leading everyone to slaughter each other..."

After listening to BB's story, Emiya roughly understood the differences in the development of this Holy Grail War.

What is certain is that I do not seem to appear in this time and space, nor do I see Norton or Xia Mi.

Despite the Holy Grail War, Herzog still sat back and used his position as the leader of the Eight Snake Clans and the Demon Kings to manipulate the war situation and ultimately profit from it.

According to Herzog's conclusion that he is essentially a pawn of Odin, we can deduce that the direction of this Holy Grail War is basically the "script" planned by Odin?

The original operators, including Norton and Shami, are missing, so the actual controller of the Holy Grail is Odin?
No wonder Odin disappeared as soon as they landed. It seems his existence was integrated with the isotope in the singularity!

Emiya gathered his thoughts. "What's going on with the fire burning all over Tokyo? And we ran all the way here and didn't see a single person. What's going on?"

BB swung his teaching stick, and Herzog felt the excruciating pain of slow slicing again. He couldn't help but beg for mercy, "I... I don't know either!"

"The Holy Grail War started inexplicably, and I have no idea what happened. The city was engulfed in flames overnight, and all humans disappeared. By then, I had already seized the throne of the White King, transformed into a dragon, and soared into the sky, so I don't know the details—"

Emiya's face was expressionless. "Are you feeling lucky to have escaped such a disaster? So is there really nothing left in the city? Have all the Servants of the Holy Grail War left?"

"Well... maybe there are still some remaining servants..." Herzog trembled.

Emiya frowned as he looked at the white dragon that was covered in wounds. He didn't have the majesty of the White King at all. Instead, he looked like a frightened old human.

"Aren't you the victor of the Holy Grail War? How come you don't even know this? After the Servants leave, the Holy Grail will appear. Only the one who seizes the Holy Grail at this time will be called the victor... You don't even understand this?"

“The Holy Grail is nowhere to be seen! Besides, who would believe in such a ridiculous wish-granting nonsense…” Herzog sobbed, seemingly in a fit of rage. “Those so-called Servants were indeed defeated in battle, but they didn’t disappear. Instead, they underwent a terrifying transformation—they turned into demonic monsters!” “Those monsters changed drastically, killing indiscriminately in anyone they saw, and those who were killed mysteriously vanished… I don’t know the reason for the sudden fire, but many people actually disappeared after being killed…”

Herzog shuddered, finally revealing crucial information. The ghost he described was definitely not the out-of-control hybrid "Deadpool" the secret party had described, but a hellish ghost many times more terrifying than that!

"Since you call yourself the 'new White King' and your 'majesty forbids provocation,' why didn't you kill them? What are you afraid of?"

Herzog felt a little guilty after hearing this:

"I once bombarded those servants who turned into demons with high-powered words, but they quickly revived! I tried to find isolated individuals and chop off their heads and crush their limbs, but demons can still be reborn infinitely!"

"...In short, they were just unkillable corpses. I had no way of dealing with them, but then—they suddenly vanished! Maybe they hid their whereabouts, or maybe they just stayed put. Over time, I stopped trying to avoid the bad luck of getting into trouble."

"..."

Emiya thought speechlessly, "It hasn't been that long, and you're still deceiving yourself, brazenly claiming to be the MVP, the victor of the Holy Grail War! But when you look at your actual record, it's a complete zero."

Then after a while, when they saw that we were new faces, they presumptuously thought that victory had come to them and that we were easy to bully?
After realizing the idiotic nature of Herzog, the fake white king, he finally understood where BB's disgust came from.

If he had the level of a true White King, he wouldn't be forced into a corner by a few evil servants... No, if he were the real White King, he would at least have started the mythological ceremony to ascend the throne and be crowned as the Supreme God!

After understanding the situation, Emiya and BB began to discuss how to deal with Herzog. While eliminating him would be straightforward and easy, the White King's power within him couldn't be wasted. It would be best to have the best of both worlds—

"Ding ding ding! This is when we need BB-kun's professional anti-dragon technique, the spirit particle fictitious trap software! CCC!"

BB pointed to the slices of meat next to him that were cut off as a result of Herzog's slow slicing.

"Just now, the material composition of the individual Herzog has been analyzed. Hehe, do you think torture is just my bad taste? Of course not!"

"BB-kun will use his best technology to complete the computerization and convert this prisoner into a spirit particle crystal. This way, there will be no worries about waste!"

BB transformed the bloody meat into shimmering blue spirit particles. "Hmm, it's worthy of the spirit particle trap that took me half a day to create. The loss from the transformation is almost negligible."

Herzog's face was filled with fear, but unfortunately, he was too weak to struggle due to his severe injuries and losses. He could only shout with all his might:

"Wait! I've revealed information to you, I've shed blood, I've performed meritorious deeds! I'm the elite scientist who usurped the White King's throne! Now, this great mind of mine cannot disappear from this world!"

However, BB was always very efficient. "Yes, the CCC program has finished loading! It says, 'You can go online!'"

"No!" Herzog screamed, but the scream gradually faded away and turned into pure lepton matter in a blue light.

BB unceremoniously squeezed out the last of this guy's value, then used a pointer as a pen to write and fiddle with it, collecting all the spirit particles transformed by the White King into a cube-like container... Emiya looked at it and inexplicably felt as if he had seen a soul urn.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Senior, are you all right? I think I heard a loud noise."

Mashu in the courtyard looked curiously at BB and Emiya as they walked out of the palace gate. They were fully dressed... except for the urn in their hands.

"Oh, it's okay. The enemy has been defeated. We have gained a lot of intelligence. As expected, the Holy Grail War took place in this burning city, but it got out of control for some reason. There are also out-of-control blackened Servants left in the city. We may have been unlucky and didn't encounter them when we were on the road earlier."

As Emiya spoke, he complained that he was not able to find the blackened Servant in time to find out the truth. He asked Herzog, but Herzog had never studied Servants at all. Instead, he was afraid of those mutated evil servants and wanted to avoid them as much as possible.

Mashu couldn't help but feel ashamed after hearing this. Is this considered "bad luck"?

"Senior, let's put it aside for now. Mr. Abbas looks like he's about to wake up!"

Mashu said as Emiya looked over to him and saw that Abbas' eyelids were fluttering slightly and his fingers were moving. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and tried to get up from the futon. "Are you okay?"

"...Hiss, my head feels a little dizzy, but it's okay." Abbas narrowed his emerald eyes and waved his hand to refuse help. He looked around and realized that this was not the Chaldea medical room. "Captain Emiya is here too - huh? Where is this place?"

Mashu kindly explained the situation to Abbas on Emiya's behalf, and the latter suddenly realized, "I'm sorry, it was my fault. I didn't expect to be attacked while repairing Chaldeas, which led to the accident..."

"This has nothing to do with you," Emiya said. "Unless I'm on guard 24 hours a day, no one else can handle a premeditated attack from the Demon Pillar."

Emiya also didn't expect the Demon Pillar to be so brave.

I think according to the current situation, it is impossible for Flauros to install a bomb like in the original. After all, he knew that Emiya was not easy to deal with, so he could only seize the time to act while Emiya was too late, so this happened.

In the original novel, Chaldea was bombed by Flauros, leaving only a few cats and kittens. The only master, Fujimaru Ritsuka, was still an ordinary person. Even when Fujimaru Ritsuka embarked on a journey to repair the singularity, he was not respected by the Demon Pillars...

However, in this world, with Emiya's extraordinary combat power, the Demon Pillar is forced to use a more radical action plan. Given the Demon Pillar's ability to cause trouble, this singularity F may also become extremely troublesome.

For example, what Herzog mentioned, "blackened servants cannot be killed", is something that does not exist in the original FGO.

In other words, Emiya must be prepared to make all singularity copies, starting from singularity F, "hell difficulty".

"...Let's talk about the current situation. Our top priority, besides investigating the situation, is still to try to establish contact with Chaldea. BB, are you confident?"

BB blinked. "It depends! According to common experience, if the Holy Grail War gets drastically out of control, the ley lines will inevitably be affected."

"Theoretically, Marshmallow's shield could act as a catalyst to contact Chaldea, but if the leylines are disrupted, the operation would be much more difficult, and it might even lead to some unexpected risks—"

"What's the risk?"

"...Of course it's to attract the attention of the mastermind!"

As Emiya and the others talked, Abbas stood up, holding his head. The drowsiness in his mind finally dissipated. He looked out at the magnificent flames of the city burning in the distance, as if a hot wind was blowing towards him. The withered trees in the shrine courtyard cast slightly swaying shadows in the dim firelight...

"No, something's happening! There's someone over there!"

Abbas narrowed his eyes, he felt that there was something hidden in the shadow of the trees outside the courtyard!
The reactions of Emiya and the others were obviously not slow. Even Mashu was so nervous that she raised her shield. "Enemy spotted! It's a Servant!"

A monk in ancient costume came over, holding a long gun in his hand, with a crazy look on his face. "There's a smell! There's a smell! It's the smell of life, the smell of the living! It's awful!"

A monk? He's good at using a spear... No, that spear has forked blades on both sides. Is this a Jumonji Spear?

Emiya looked at the appearance of this person, thinking thoughtfully, could it be the Hozoin Inshun who appeared in the subspecies singularity "Mountains of Corpses and Rivers of Blood" under the stage of the Sogoku - the master of the Hozoin style spearmanship?

"——In this day and age, someone actually knows my name? Even so, it's okay, it's okay, it's absolutely okay!"

Even after his true name was revealed, Hozoin Inshun didn't hesitate at all. He was filled with murderous intent, "Hozoin Inshun is dead! I am neither human nor monk. I am the 'Heroic Swordsman'!"

"Arise, our polar region, ablaze with blood! A stage for a deadly battle, a mountain of corpses and a river of blood, absorbing and devouring the souls of the defeated!"

The young monk, his eyes red, roared, "Come on, let's fight it out!"

The sky and the earth changed color, and the world was replaced.

Mashu and the others around Emiya opened their eyes wide, and in an instant... the inherent barrier was released!?
It was as if the skeletons floating on the sea of ​​blood had piled up to form the ground, and a red moon was floating in the dark sky. This was the stage that devoured all the dead in battle.

(End of this chapter)