Xingyue, is Xiaokai also considered Kai?

Since the Holy Grail has summoned him to this battle, and allowed a fictional narrative to become a part of the heroic spirits connected to mythology and human history—

So, Yuzhu would hope that even if the existence of the Demon King himself is far less mysterious than that of the mythological era, he is at least an incredibly romantic existence in human history and should possess a certain degree of antiquity.

"Erko Nig" is one of the representative works of the Weimar period's golden age of poetry and the Sturm und Drang movement. This narrative ballad holds a lofty position in the European poetry, literature, opera, and symphony world. Several famous musicians, including Beethoven, have composed "Erko Nig," with Schubert's version being widely regarded as the best.

Indeed, so the witch believed in Goethe and people—human beings—who created him and whose fantasies about romance and wrote them down, and she also believed that human beings’ fantasies based on the concept of reason were no less impressive than the legends of heroes.

The first creation of the Demon King was in the Danish folk song "The Daughter of King Ai," which should actually be called King Ai, not Demon King. This misunderstanding is precisely the embodiment of humanity's infinite possibilities in art during that period.

Whether it was a fictional demon king from German mythology or King El from Denmark, both emerged from Goethe's work, a writer who made significant contributions to the natural sciences, based on the concept of 'man's attitude towards nature'.

How could a demon king who kills children, with such a background, possibly be the innocent and pure King Ai'er?

But the witch knew that, just as it wasn't Prometheus who gave fire to humankind, plunging them into endless war, the opposite was true: the great sins that cause conflict always originate from humanity itself.

Nowadays, witches no longer condone crimes like 'taking someone else's Servant without permission,' and therefore are no longer afraid to touch him.

Since he is my servant, if he is willing to fight to the death and persevere, then the witch is willing to move forward with him and one day she also wants to hold that dream in her hands.

But just as Yuzhu was thinking this, the demon king on her body whispered, "I will decide."

To the witch, the Demon King's words were as brilliant as the stars in the sky.

In fact, when Novia felt the magic power bursting out from Ayumi's body and flowing into him, he was a little startled. After all, it really seemed like she would do anything if he just nodded.

Then, watching the green aura rising from the steam around Nasu, she used Yuju's magic to draw an arc in the air, and the silver-haired Yuju kicked the wall, leaping high into the air and transforming into an arrow that rushed towards it.

"I did deal with a fly before."

boom!

With his beaded fist piercing through Nassus's flesh, which was as strong as that of a lower god, and stabbing hard into his eyeball, he then pulled out his magic-filled hand. The subsequent kick shattered the swaying neck upon contact, separating the head and body.

And so, the Persian mythical beast Nassus fell straight down, eventually turning into a tiny dot and disappearing into the area of ​​clock towers filled with buildings.

Meanwhile, communication also appears to have been restored.

Someone used a magic circuit to contact the silver-haired Yuuka. Novia immediately recognized her as Eri, but the situation was a bit strange, and there was no image of her.

"Did you lure the tiger away from the mountain, Eri Se?"

"Is that the Demon King? The image... can't you see it...?"

Eri's voice was very muffled. This was very unusual, because magic circuits are generally unaffected by distance, and the barrier around Mosaic City wouldn't behave this way either.

"I'm stuck on a bridge, unable to get out."

"On the bridge?"

"I don't feel like I've left London. When I was attacking that guy with Fran, I don't know when I suddenly found myself on a bridge."

Did they suddenly find themselves on a bridge during the attack on Nassau? Could it be the Chimwat Bridge in Persia?

"I've also tried contacting Lucius or Chitose, but it seems that if I say anything that's detrimental to the enemy, the conversation is automatically deleted. It's really a headache, so... I'm just having a casual chat with you right now."

"Yeah."

"I think this must be somewhere in London, a place so refreshing and beautiful it's almost sickening. The water here is sparkling and beautiful, even more beautiful than the underworld."

Eri didn't move on the other end of the conversation. Instead, she stayed in one place and talked to the demon king who was possessing Arisu. However, her voice sounded weak and listless, as if she was talking in her sleep.

"Oh right, I remember now... It was about a while ago. To be honest, I'm really happy. It was when you said you would protect me. I never expected that you, who usually seems so smart, could be like a fool sometimes."

"I just hope to see that you, Erise, can become a person with excellent interpersonal skills."

"Hmm...yes. Haha, it's that silent me...I thought to myself, if I could really be that person again, the one who never cried or laughed, always like a blood-soaked doll...Listen to me, don't come looking for me. I couldn't protect Mom back then, not a single one..."

What else is on the bridge?

Even without seeing the images, Novia could guess what was going on.

Rapid breathing and slow reaction.

This state indicates that Eri, as a human being, has fallen into hemorrhagic shock, but is still barely keeping conscious using medication or magic.

"Well, it's nothing... I just got a minor injury, it doesn't hurt much. It's good that you and Kuonji are alright."

Her voice, like a musical instrument out of tune, rose and fell, "You used to say that as long as you're alive, good things will happen to you... Thanks to that... I ended up all alone in a place like this... Now that I think about it, you demon king... you're actually quite good at talking..."

"Erise".

Novia continued in a surprisingly calm tone, which seemed out of place with the atmosphere, "Actually, I also know a bit about the Magic Bullet Shooter."

……

Let's turn back time a little.

"Death, are you sad?"

Before Eri, who had fallen into the trap, was immense cruelty.

The current of life and death, caused by the collision with the power of the underworld in a foreign land, rose to the point where it seemed to engulf the bridge. Erise leaned against the wall, watching quietly.

But the death before him—Astuvidat, the Persian incarnation of death—no longer cared about cooperating with Moriarty.

Because it sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit outside the Chinwat Bridge, it had to arrive before her to take away the death before it; otherwise, if something else happened, it would be disastrous for destroying this world filled with vain prosperity.

In Persian mythology, Astuvidat, who is equivalent to the embodiment of the concept of death, hardly cares about the underworld. He leaves the demon Vesalius or the holy spirit Daena to guide souls. Astuvidat is only responsible for settling accounts with the souls of the wicked in the Last Judgment.

Many Shinigami participated in the global Holy Grail War, but ultimately failed to prevent the birth of a new era. It was at that time that Mott proposed a collaboration to the five Shinigami to destroy this false new era for the sake of humanity itself. Astuvidat, as a concept, eventually agreed.

Human death is the origin of humanity's progress toward the future; if a person dies and disappears, it disrupts the foundation of humanity's existence in the world of the chief god Ahura Mazda.

If left unchecked and humanity continues in this predicament, it will inevitably lead to unimaginable catastrophe.

That's why Astuvidat, as Mott said, came to take away the final death.

As the god that appeared in the Last Judgment in Persian mythology, its violently overflowing magic was enough to completely destroy the detective city of London, thus demonstrating its violent and irreversible nature of death.

However, some people will not let it go on like this.

"Magic Bullet Shooter".

This bullet far surpassed divine bows and weapons, shattering the completely distorted space with a comet-like thrust. Its trajectory negated the irreversibility of Astuvidat's death, twisting wildly and transforming into a divine aura that threatened to overturn the boundary between life and death.

The embodiment of death only then belatedly looked at the person standing before him.

As the embodiment of death and the most powerful servant of the evil god Angra Mainyu, Astuvidat felt it acutely—

The person before me had the aura of the Holy Spirit Daena.

Chapter 496 brings the Old Testament to the end of the New Testament.

white.

It's only white.

In this space where life and death are the junctures, a dazzling light, almost white, enveloped everything.

All was silent; time, as defined by the planet, had ceased to flow.

In the underworld judgment ground centered on himself, Astuvidat noticed that he was staring at a silver-haired human whose aura was similar to that of the Persian Holy Spirit Daena. The human figure, which was much smaller than him, was more dazzling than Daena in his memory.

The presence emanating from that unknown human seemed to declare that he was the center of this place.

Astuvidat naturally understood that without some skill, one could not get close to this place.

So he compressed the remaining Persian divine energy in this place into a storm of extreme force, accompanied by smoke that engulfed everything around him, turning everything that came near into fragments of space and incorporating them into his own underworld, thus demonstrating the warning of the apocalypse.

Even a supreme god, standing in the underworld, would not escape unscathed from such an attack.

Even if a human surpasses Daena's power, he is still just a human, and will likely soon turn into fragments, becoming the walls that wander on the Chinwat Bridge.

however--

The fiery storm that emerged from behind the human also continued to approach relentlessly.

"Come to think of it, I just realized that I've seen you before."

During the Holy Grail War in the Snowfield, Novia, who had healed the Pale Knight Master Tsubaki Kuga, came to a place where many underworld realms coexisted. He naturally caught a glimpse of this Persian Death God by chance, and perhaps even Mott saw him as well.

The pure fire that once permeated the highest Brahma, pierced through a violent gale of divine revelation, and its powerful aura surged toward the dark, formless Astuvidat. Astuvidat tried to dodge, but the overwhelming flow of concepts and powers—piercing, penetrating, crushing—manifested itself within it with a thunderous roar.

Subconscious fear.

Besides Daena, this person also possesses... an ancient divine aura that resonates throughout the Middle East and even the world—

Mithra, the primordial god.

Mithra, originally the god of covenants, gradually evolved into the sun god, the god of light, and eventually the god of war.

In the Persian region, before the Vatican underwent religious reforms to become a religion that worshipped only one God, there were only three gods who were called Ahura: Ahura Mazda and Apam Napat.

Ahura means Lord.

The Persian ancient book Yasht refers to him as 'the most noble and great Yazata,' 'a supreme being equal to Ahura Mazda.'

In the timeline where Novia did not establish a church earlier, the religion centered on Him confronted the Christianity of the Roman Empire in the third century. Although Emperor Constantine the Great, who legalized Christianity by issuing the Edict of Milan, only formally converted to Christianity and was baptized and canonized on his deathbed, he had previously claimed to be the manifestation of the sun on earth, capable of dying and rising from the dead.

Julian, Constantine's nephew and the last polytheistic emperor of the Roman Empire, claimed that all the Roman gods were manifestations of the supreme sun god, essentially a single god of the same origin, and boasted that he was an incarnation of Him.

Christmas was originally the day of His birthday. St. Augustine of Christianity once said that Christmas in the second century had an unpleasant relationship with pagan festivals.

Mithra is the etymological root of the Christian messiah and the Buddhist Maitreya.

There are also doubts.

This person also possesses an aura compatible with that of Yama, the Hindu god of death.

This is... a mixture?

Although Astuvidat is the embodiment of the concept of death, he is not a 'program' without thought.

The atmosphere of India, the symbol of Mithra, the savior of mankind, and Daena, who leads mankind forward, all these elements naturally reminded him of Yama, the most talkative of the six Grim Reapers. Yama praises Him every day like a human, or pulls the Grim Reapers present to tell them His deeds.

The instant Astuvidat thought this—

Like a raging storm of fire, it poured down.

"The Lord of the Himalayas, Gavia...?"

It is an ancient deity from India, which later evolved from Hinduism and became the counterpart of Maitreya in Buddhism.

When they made contact, Astuvidat was powerless to reverse the situation, yet he still uttered his final words to the god who had defeated him.

Because Yama had told Asthuvidath that it was the pride of their Indian divine age—every action it displayed was compassion beyond the world, the sum of all kinds of love, and it freely displayed divine power enough to allow an army of ten thousand men to continue the civilization of the earth in prosperity.

“The filth of the Holy Grail that deceives all beings is about to overflow… We must not let it come out.”

Astuvidat didn't know if the other party could understand.

Despite the difference in their status, that of an ant and a giant, at least his words could reach the ears of the god Yama had described to him as being like Ahura, provided he fully accepted the essence of the other's magic.

"That is also an ancient god of covenants..."

It was only when Astuvidat saw Novia that he suddenly realized who 'He' was.

Perhaps Novia, who was possessing the body of Ayumi, understood these words, which is why such a scene briefly appeared in his vision.

The sky was blood-red, and the wind carried curses and groans.

The black mud was like a pulsating ocean, with mounds of rotting corpses sinking into it.

Amidst the black mud and rain, the pitch-black 'sun' stood tall in the sky.

What appears to be the sun is not the sun, but a 'hole' filled with endless, deep darkness. Its immense mass seems to crush everything, and beneath it everything is boiling—not evaporation in the physical sense, but some kind of more fundamental collapse.

Asphalt-like black mud covered everything, with fragments of bronze artifacts and inscriptions on clay tablets floating in the liquid, as if the entire city were sinking into the seabed of Ugarit in the 14th century BC.

Immediately afterwards, a black liquid resembling asphalt gushed forth from the 'sun,' carrying with it the stench of decaying bronze. The liquid condensed into a towering throne of fire, and the black mud, like flames, unfolded before Him like a trial case.

Daniel chapter 7 (Old Testament):

I (Daniel) looked, and behold, a throne was set forth, and on it sat the Ancient One, whose garments were as white as snow, and whose hair was like pure wool. The throne was a flame, and its wheels were fiery heat.

The Book of Revelation, the most celebrated book in the New Testament, borrows heavily from imagery in Daniel chapter 7 of the Old Testament.

The prophet Daniel dreamt that four winds arose suddenly on the sea, and four strange beasts appeared, until the “Ancient One” appeared as an old man with white hair, sitting and walking to judge the four beasts. The fourth beast was burned at the stake, and the other beasts were stripped of their authority, until—

Novia noticed.

This is clearly just the 'past' that Astuvidat saw; the guy looking at me here should be looking at Astuvidat.

But He still stared straight at Thea, smiling as if he were a very gentle person.

Unsurprisingly, the world went dark.