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

Chapter 425 Norton: You call this Spirit Origin Ascension?
"Hey, hey—this is way too much!"

Anne, the sniper on the highest observation platform, had lowered her rifle at some point, and she felt her knees buckling. But in the next instant, she gripped the railing tightly; otherwise, with the ship tilting so much, Anne feared she would fall into the raging sea.

But even more outrageous than the sea is the sky.

Annie saw the thick, heavy clouds, like the surging sea, being covered by an astonishing divine power. The violent fluctuations slashed at the sky, eventually tearing open the vast cloud curtain of unknown height and distance, forming an abyss. The lowest layer of clouds flowed upwards along this torn abyss.

The scene unfolding before our eyes contrasted sharply with the abyss below the ship, making it difficult to distinguish between the sky and the sea.

It's terrifying; its deterrent power is terrifyingly strong.

"If that blow had landed, he would have undoubtedly died."

Mary was leaning against the ship's railing, her petite body dangling over it, her feet barely touching the deck. Her face, buried in her oversized turtleneck coat, peeked out with wide, astonished eyes.

"How could they reach such a level? Even possessing the 'key' wouldn't be able to do it..."

The three goddess sisters, known for their spoiled and proud nature, also fell silent, or perhaps they were having a quiet but intense discussion inside their own ship, and no more loud noises spread.

The rumbling thunder was followed by flashes of white lightning, which fell one after another. The waves on the sea surface rippled violently. After a while, gravity gradually closed the gaping maw of the abyss. Occasionally, the churning waves extinguished the flames of the shipwrecks and swept away the pieces of the giant snake's corpse and the fragments of the stone statue.

The artillery fire died down, leaving only the white noise of the world.

In this eerily peaceful atmosphere, the instigator, the Red Forth, flying the flag of the "Red-Haired Pirates," slowly sailed into the waters between the two ships that had ceased their firefight.

"Hello."

A man with red hair, wearing a long cloak and a long sword at his waist greeted the people on both sides with a smile as if nothing had happened, as if everything that had just happened had nothing to do with him.

As he spoke, he intentionally or unintentionally revealed the longsword that had been sheathed at some point. Whether it was Drake or the group on the other ship, everyone's attention was drawn to the seemingly unadorned sword.

—The pirates haven't given up on their fantasy that "Red-Haired Shanks'" sword was strengthened to this extent by stealing the "key".

"So, just like we agreed, let's all stop fighting, as a gesture of respect for me." The red-haired man's tone was now unquestionable, as if he would strike down anyone who disobeyed without a word.

"...Tch, first I was overpowered by some empress, and then I suddenly encountered this monster. Has all my luck run out?"

Drake still had the mood to make self-deprecating jokes under these circumstances.

However, Anne and Mary were relieved to hear that Captain Drake's tone indicated he had no intention of continuing the fight.

"—After all, all the brats on my ship are stunned. What's the point of fighting?"

"Huh? When..."

Anne looked down from the lookout and realized that the only people standing on the Golden Hind were Drake, Mary, and herself—the three servants. All the other sailors were unconscious on the ground. No wonder the world had suddenly become quiet at the very beginning.

"Haha, you're talking about the crew members!"

"Red-Haired Shanks" smiled nonchalantly, "Since I came here to mediate between you, I wanted to calm you down a bit to prevent any more unexpected situations. I didn't expect to go too far."

He glanced at the sea snakes floating in the water, seemingly troubled. Was the Gorgon powered by giant snakes? Had he stunned them, rendering them immobile?

“Just because he went too far… What a dangerous man,” Drake said, slinging the gun barrel over his shoulder.

"Alright, I'm not too bad-tempered. Anyway, the treasure on the ship wasn't lost, so accepting the mediation is fine. But the empress on that ship seems to be some kind of goddess, and she's a bit eccentric. You're called Shanks, right? Be careful not to get entangled with that goddess who likes to turn people to stone."

"Oh? Speaking ill of the goddess to her face? I can't let this kind of pirate get away with it as easily as the man who barged in!"

A voice came from the Gorgon. Drake listened and realized it wasn't the girlish voice that had spoken to her before. The tone was more dignified and elegant. "—Let me introduce myself. I am the pirate queen Destheno you've been talking about."

"Even the Pirate Empress has arrived... Pfft."

A suppressed laugh escaped, though it was managed to be held back.

Those present were not people with weak senses of sight and hearing; in fact, they were far beyond ordinary people. So they immediately noticed the source of the laughter... "Red-Haired Shanks." His shoulders and chest seemed to tremble slightly as he tried to suppress his laughter, making a gesture of trying hard to hold back but failing.

"Hehe...what does that mean?"

Stheno, seated on the giant ship's throne, narrowed her purple eyes slightly. She hadn't expected that her enthusiastic choice of a nickname would elicit this reaction. Shanks, after all, already held the title of Emperor of the Sea. So, was her side being underestimated?
She was a little unhappy, but as a goddess, being treated like this was unprecedented since the emergence of the singularity, and she felt a sense of novelty and interest.

This man's imposing aura... seems to be something that cannot be easily swayed...

"Oh, Shanks, you're quite an interesting guy!" Drake had changed her opinion of him. She wasn't interested in titles like Empress or Emperor, but she was very interested in the guy who attacked her Golden Hind getting humiliated. She would be even happier if the delicate goddess on the other ship could get a beating from Shanks.

"No, it's nothing, you've misunderstood. I just suddenly thought of a really funny joke. Hahaha."

"Red-Haired Shanks" - Emiya felt that it wasn't his fault for laughing out loud, mainly because he really didn't expect that he wasn't the only one cosplaying in this singularity.

To be honest, the Stheno sisters did a pretty good job of cosplaying. He remembered that the three sisters of Amazon Lily in One Piece were indeed based on the three Gorgon sisters from Greek mythology. This wasn't even cosplay; it was the original characters playing the roles.

His expression twitched involuntarily, hoping that something like the Four Emperors, Iron Fist Garp, or Buddha Sengoku would suddenly appear, and then there wouldn't be some bizarre development like the Marineford War... Hiss.

Emiya's lips twitched again as he thought of this, but this time it wasn't because he found it funny; it was because of the pain in his body.

Ouch, that hurts so much!

In fact, the reason he couldn't hold back his emotions and his body trembled was because he was in a lot of pain. He just pretended so well that it didn't look like he was in pain but rather that he was trying to suppress his laughter. He only couldn't hold it in when he heard "Pirate Empress"... He absolutely did not mean to mock his fellow cosplayer.

He was now communicating with both sides while enduring the pain of the "Mental Reconstruction." Emiya considered his level of endurance to be at least 80 or 90 out of 100.

Actually, training Armament Haki, which integrates divine power into the physical body, is not too bad, only causing physical pain. But Conqueror Haki, which integrates authority and power into the soul and spirit, is truly deadly. This intense pain can be described as being like ten thousand insects gnawing at the heart or ten thousand arrows piercing the heart.

Just as he was enduring it with a sullen face, a warm touch spread from his palm.

Emiya tilted his head slightly and saw Regille holding his hand beside him. Subtle and faint magic power emanated from her palm, like a small healing spell to soothe the body. When his gaze met hers, the white-haired girl's face flushed slightly, and her eyes quickly looked away from Emiya.

“…When I used to go down into the spirit tombs, I often encountered people in poor health who asked for help. That’s how they kept themselves going. After working for a long time, I’ve learned a few tricks from them…” Regina Leif said softly as she turned her face away. “I’m sorry…it’s my fault for being so weak.”

The girl sighed with embarrassment. She felt that she should have played a great role in this singularity, but she just couldn't tell which ship the "key" was on, and she was almost mentally bewitched by the key that her family had discovered, which made her a little bit of a hindrance.

Emiya shook his head slightly. He believed that the progress made since entering the singularity was largely due to the girl as an indispensable source of information. Emiya whispered a few words of comfort to improve Reggie's mood.

He then cleared his throat again before speaking loudly to the pirate ship, "Let's talk about our purpose—bosses, you should know that there are four 'keys' in this sea world that lead to our final destination?"

Drake exclaimed, "Wow! So there's more than one, four! So, Shanks, you also have a key? Are you planning to sell it? I'm quite interested in making money from it."

Emiya countered, "You think this key can make money?"

"No, I just see this as treasure that I want to collect. That's just the nature of a pirate."

"Heh heh heh, what nonsense are you spouting?" Stheno retorted. "You're clearly just eyeing the power the 'key' brings, aren't you?"

"Ha! What difference does it make? With enough force, we can easily plunder more treasure. And if we collect those four keys and go to the final island, we might be able to dig up an unprecedentedly huge treasure?"

“No,” Emiya ruthlessly shattered Drake’s illusions, “The One Piece may not exist, but a huge trap has definitely been set inside.”

"Huh?" *2
"Captain Drake, I suspect... you've used the power the key grants you... or rather, the elemental authority, many times, haven't you? Does that thing give you some kind of mental suggestion? Have you felt that the environment of this world is being disturbed by an invisible force, causing it to become extremely chaotic?"

"You actually knew I used the key... Yes, but this mental suggestion doesn't seem to have any problems, right? It told me how to use the power and suggested that I seize other keys as soon as possible. Anyway, I already had this idea myself!"

Drake said nonchalantly, "As for the chaotic environment, at most I feel that the weather in the waters here is becoming increasingly unpredictable. A few rascals on the boat even said that the fish in the water are extremely ferocious, and have chewed up the fishing hooks we use many times. They are shouting that the sea fish have sharp teeth that can eat people. Would you call that abnormal?"

"Thank you, this is very unusual..." Emiya raised an eyebrow. Fish with fangs—this was clearly a dragon-blooded creature. Sure enough... this Black King's lair was now teeming with abnormal ecosystems.

"Furthermore, have you noticed that anyone has ever seen a 'key' actively asking people to collect it, opening the final destination and leading the robbers into their own home? The so-called 'key' is clearly broken into four parts, which is an obvious security measure to prevent outsiders from opening it, yet the key itself is urging you to collect them?"

Upon hearing this, Drake finally composed herself. For pirates, plundering treasures and valuables was a routine procedure, so she had genuinely overlooked something amiss due to her preconceived notions.

"I hadn't even noticed that... Speaking of which, pirates also have the habit of burying treasure. Many naive youngsters get their hands on so-called treasure maps and become smug, but nine times out of ten, these are either fakes or traps deliberately set to lure people in. These guys are shrewd; they wouldn't do something as easy as handing over their wealth."

Drake's words startled her; they seemed to be caught in a similar trap, except this "treasure map" was even more outrageous—just getting a quarter of a fragment would grant them a free elemental authority… With such a grand scheme, she couldn't even imagine how big the pitfalls awaited at the final destination.

“You should have realized by now that someone is setting up a grand scheme in this endless sea,” Emiya said, expressing his guess. “Most likely, it’s to lure all parties into collecting the keys and combining them, giving the holders a mental suggestion, and then making them ‘sacrifice’ to that person.”

Emiya glanced at Regille.

"So, you're telling us to stop fighting, meaning we can't continue collecting the keys?"

"No, we still need to continue." Emiya and even Chaldea's goal is to resolve the singularity, not to let things remain in this stalemate. "But we need to change our approach; we can't let the mastermind do what they want."

At least free Drake and other Servants who are already trapped from the mental manipulation that Yaobikuni might have set up.

Spiritual aspects...

Emiya was still enduring the excruciating pain brought on by the "spiritual reconstruction," but it had eased somewhat, and his thoughts were racing and drifting far away.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck.

In this peculiar singularity, it seems that the invisible spirit emanating from the Black King's body is influencing many things. It's as if the entire world is covered by a powerful spiritual field. According to Norton and his alchemical theories, it is a very suitable environment for spiritual reconstruction. The environment that the White King painstakingly cultivated and pursued for godhood during the Holy Grail War was no more than this.

Therefore, theoretically, his "spiritual reconstruction" should have a very high success rate.

If it succeeds, could the Servant also create a similar mechanism?
That technique could be considered what's called "spiritual origin ascension"?
Spirit Origin Ascension is enough to refresh the Spirit Origin state, theoretically it can get rid of any mental abnormality state without risk, and can also make the Servant break through the limit and become more powerful...

However, this is a bit complicated, and it seems necessary to consult with relevant experts to see if Norton can help.

(End of this chapter)