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

Chapter 373 Please welcome the next one... Human evil, Beast Nero!

In the final moments before Emperor Karl turned into particles and dissipated, Emiya and the other man asked him a few simple questions, but did not engage in further conversation with him.

Moreover, all the paladins who fought alongside Emperor Karl, except for Afro, have vanished without a trace. Emperor Karl claimed that, in order to fulfill humanity's grand ambition of love, all his paladins had already 'voluntarily' followed him, sacrificing their spirit origins.

Emiya hesitated at the time, unsure to judge how much of this "voluntary" act under the influence of "Heavenly Voice Assimilation" was genuine. Now, everything was over, and Emperor Karl was left a lonely figure, having lost his subjects and knights.

It can only be said that although he fulfilled his grand ambition, he also paid a corresponding price.

Even in his final moments, Karl the Great uttered no new words. He remained fixated on his idealistic pronouncements, clearly still haunted by the question: "Is creating a heaven or a dream paradise indistinguishable from the real world truly inferior to reality?"

Emiya didn't want to say much about it. If they really wanted to debate it, it would probably take a whole day and night. If Emperor Karl could really do it, then for his subjects who were immersed in it, the dream would be the same as reality.

Because human memory, sensory stimuli, and other elements constitute the world we perceive, from this perspective, there is no fundamental difference between reality and illusion. For those living in reality, it might be nothing more than a "brain in a vat" or an interactive process formed by a mass of data or a story, perhaps even to beings at a higher level. Internally, this thing is invincible and unfalsifiable.

However, once people realize the illusion of the world, they will try to break free. Charlemagne realized this and thus easily and logically shattered the spiritual beliefs of the people controlled by Karl the Great.

Astolfo's reply was much simpler: "Dreams are nothing compared to reality! I don't want to spend my whole life lying in bed dreaming! Your Majesty, look how wonderful the Chaldea travel route is!"

Emiya thought to himself, "Look, this is what they mean by 'fools have good fortune.' One second he was grieving the king's departure, and the next he was laughing and joking about defecting and running away with him. He had no idea that Chaldea was embarking on such a bizarre journey of salvation."

However, it's always good to go out and broaden one's horizons.

There's one point that Emiya agrees with:

"The world is far more vast than you can even dream of."

To dream means to be forever stagnant; dreams contain only a limited set of things, inevitably confined by the cognitive boundaries of the dominant figure, Karl the Great. Even seemingly constant happiness and joy will ultimately fall into catastrophic nothingness.

……

"Holy Grail, recovery complete."

After flying back to Shadow Border, Emiya handed the items over to Mash, who had previously been in charge of this matter.

"Oh, thank you for your hard work, senior."

After Mashu finished speaking, she looked expectantly at Emiya and Astolfo beside him, and breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that they were not injured. "...It seems that you and Sir Astolfo are alright?"

"Hahaha, of course! Emiya is incredibly powerful. This is the first time I've ever seen someone fight so fiercely. Even Roland looks pathetic in front of him!"

Astolfo chuckled carefree and patted Emiya on the shoulder, "And also, thanks to Chaldea, His Majesty the King came up with a brilliant idea that defeated another King!"

"His Majesty the King... defeated His Majesty the King." Mashu's mind went blank for a moment before she realized that it was Charlemagne, summoned by Chaldea, who defeated Emperor Karl, the source of the singularity.

"Ah, is that so? In that case, Charlemagne..."

Mashu looked around but didn't see a third person. Her heart skipped a beat as she had a strange guess.

Emiya patted Mash's head. "Charlemagne's own Spirit Origin was in very poor condition. He was a Servant who could not be summoned under normal circumstances. He would self-destruct once he used his power. So he lent his power to me and helped me defeat my opponent... Mash, you did a great job. This support was fantastic."

"Mmm!" Mash's expression quickly brightened. "Congratulations on the successful completion of this singularity repair work, senior!"

"A complete success!" Astolfo stretched out his arms and shouted, seemingly even happier than Emiya, the person involved. Of course, perhaps Astolfo felt that he had not only transported Charlemagne but also received a lance as a bonus, so he could also bask in some credit.

As they walked across the bridge to the forward compartment, Constantine smiled shyly. "Thank you all for your hard work. Chaldea headquarters has also sent their congratulations. According to observations, the distortion of history has been completely restored... Ah, Mash, put the Holy Grail in your hand into the sealing device for safekeeping."

"Roger, Captain!"

“Oh, right, there’s one more thing,” Constantine nodded, carefully choosing his words before speaking, “Emiya, when you were retrieving the Holy Grail, did you get any extra loot?”

"You mean that thing that uses 'Assimilation of Heavenly Voices'?"

Emiya pulled a human skin book, a Noble Phantasm, from his robes. The corrupting, twisted magic emanating from it projected terrifying illusions of dense eyeballs, shrill screams, and blood mists from afar. The material on the cover possessed an independent and vigorous vitality, as if it were alive. At a glance, one could vaguely see wriggling human hair and fleshy tendrils.

So when Constantine asked for it, Emiya tossed it over with a look of disgust.

"As expected, it's a product of mental chaos. Emperor Karl actually dared to use this as the core of the Heavenly Voice Assimilation!" Constantine took it, his slightly immature face showing vigilance. "Fortunately, we stopped his plan. If Emperor Karl had created a vast dream kingdom, it's hard to say whether this thing would have consciously turned into a 'virus,' secretly harming the minds of the dream's inhabitants."

"Hehe, to be honest, there's no need to worry. After all, it uses that thing as its core, just like how some rogue software in your time can also function as antivirus and security software—it relies on this virus to maintain the system, so there's naturally no need for antivirus!"

The speaker was a petite figure with long, silver-white hair who had just emerged from outside the hatch. She was Francesca Plerati, the original owner of the human skin book.

Emiya looked at Prieratie in surprise, dressed in a gothic dress and wearing silky stockings. "I thought you would stay in this era and continue to study magic with that Marshal Gilles according to the original history... No, you are a Servant now?"

"Of course! Chaldea is so much fun, so I came too! Besides, I'm a figure who has made a name for myself in history, so it's only natural that I could come here as a Servant! As for Gilles, he can't get over the framing and the burning at the stake that your saintess went through. No matter how much we try to persuade him, it's no use. He can't be saved."

Upon hearing this, Emiya saw Prellati helplessly point to her head, and after a moment's thought, he understood. This singularity also contained the living Gilles de Rais, who was supposed to be leading French soldiers against the "Dragon Plague" brought by Jeanne d'Arc (Alter), but now the Frankish forces were causing chaos, and Jeanne d'Arc had nothing to do with it…

Once the singularity returns to normal, Jill will likely harbor resentment and follow in history's footsteps.

Plerati glanced at the human skin book kept by Constantine, who returned a wary look, but she had no interest in taking it. Instead, she approached Emiya with a grin, raised one of her slender legs, and then jumped up and stood on the table next to Emiya, bending down to look him in the eye.

"Hehehe, actually, I'm quite interested in modern times, especially curious about how an existence like you came into being? Hey, if you don't mind, could you come to my room... and play some interesting experiments with me?" This Caster, whose physical gender was female, seemed to deliberately speak in a suggestive tone. Her stockinged feet dangled in the air, like a naughty child on a bus tentatively probing before taking a dangerous step.

Emiya caught a whiff of lavender from the tips of a silver-white hair, and suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu about Prieratie's reckless and dangerous nature.

This style is kind of like that of some lousy AI.

Thinking of this, Emiya pulled BB out of his phone, who was fiddling with something.

"Regarding this, I think it would be better if you contacted her first."

Plerati's eyes widened. "You're BB... that woman who can move freely between reality and electronic devices... no... a freely defined, materialized alchemical artificial life form?"

The uneducated medieval Caster expressed his surprise.

【……senior?】

BB's nose twitched slightly; she seemed to smell a scent of her own kind that she subconsciously repelled.

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.

Meanwhile, at the Temple of Time.

"Andusias, has the singularity been repaired by Chaldea?"

The Demon King, who had been sitting quietly on his throne, suddenly spoke.

A demonic pillar appeared in the open space in front of him. This demon, named Andusias, spoke with regret:
"Yes, my king, although we inscribed an advanced grand magic system onto that man's leather book and threw it, along with the Holy Grail, to Emperor Karl, the emperor still inevitably failed."

"Forgive my bluntness, Your Majesty, but this emperor, whose name will be remembered for thousands of years, did not display the talents he should have. He was completely defeated by Chaldea despite our generous gifts. This proves that humans, even the heroic spirits formed from the dead, are completely untrustworthy. They will ultimately be trapped by their own prejudices and positions."

The demon pillar named Andusias harshly criticized Emperor Karl's performance.

Indeed, replacing Gilles de Rais, the Servant in the original plan, with the potentially more suitable Emperor Karl was part of the Demon Gods' plan.

They desperately hope that after modifying the plan, they can rely on creating more powerful distortions and changes, not for any other reason than to hinder Chaldea and reduce the opponent's combat power.

However, despite the wonderful plan, it all fell through in the end.

"In that case, the plan itself is a huge fallacy!" Andusias protested. "We cannot trust the humans of this timeline so much. Rather than that, let us personally take charge and make the arrangements..."

Baal, the demon god pillar who often stood beside the throne, spoke up, "Actually, that's not the case. According to the assessment of Emperor Karl reported by the observatory, the enormous distortion created by the other side has far exceeded our expectations. If Chaldea hadn't turned the tide from an unbelievable angle, this emperor would have already annihilated our enemy."

"But he still failed! Chaldea has not lost any fighting strength, and we cannot guarantee that they will continue to absorb experience and expand their combat level in the future! In other words, if our plan continues to fail, it will only make Chaldea an increasingly troublesome enemy!"

"My king, we must never allow a tiger to become a threat!"

As soon as Andusias finished speaking, other demonic pillars jumped out from inside the temple to refute him:
"Are we just supposed to stand by and watch Chaldea continue its advance until it destroys all the singularities, and wait to be killed? Wrong, terribly wrong! We should concentrate our forces in the early stages, gather all our and the singularity's combat power and deploy them to the battlefield to wipe out the enemy in one fell swoop!"

"Fool! How can we ensure command consistency and the 'loyalty' of the singularities by concentrating so many forces? What if they defect to Chaldea before the battle?"

"You are the most foolish of all! How can you throw the baby out with the bathwater..."

Inside the main hall, a quarrel quickly broke out because the demon pillars disagreed.

More than seventy demon gods were arguing with each other. Because they were all extraordinary high-level intelligence life forms, they managed to create the atmosphere of thousands of people arguing with just a few dozen demon gods. In an instant, the interior of the temple became a noisy environment that surpassed that of a human market.

All of this is because Emiya and his companions have performed so surprisingly well that the Demon Pillars' supposedly perfect plan is now at risk of failure, and they are now hesitant about what to do next.

"quiet!"

The moment the demon Baal opened his mouth, he forcibly silenced all the demons.

To be precise, it was not he who took effect, but the Demon King who rose from his throne.

The Demon King in the Temple of Time was the only one in the hall who retained his human form. Beneath his long white hair was dark skin, and he wore a plain-colored ring on his hand. He tapped the armrest of his jade throne and said, "Silence. Regardless of the outcome of this operation, it is now over. As for the future, I have already made my judgment."

The Demon Pillars fell silent.

"The plan will continue for now. In the future, we will conduct new research on Emperor Karl's 'human love' in this singularity. Human love is too weak and the reversal is not strong enough. It is not what we seek. 'Human evil' is the cornerstone that we bring calamity to mankind and burn down the great cause of human reason."

"This research will tentatively begin with the 'Roman Singularity'."

The Demon King waved his hand, reflecting a scene from a certain day in the year 68 AD.

A figure lying in a pool of blood.

“Nero Claudius, the fifth Roman emperor in human history and the last emperor of the Julius Claudius dynasty, is the core of our next step—the plan of ‘human evil’.”

(End of this chapter)