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IBHJ Chapter 671
🕑 Added 2024-01-15 04:38:26 +0000 UTC"What is that?" one villager asked, shielding their eyes from the bright snow to peer into the distance.
"I'm not sure...it looks strange though," another responded.
In the far shore, a towering pillar of black light shot up from the earth, spearing the clouds. Faint shadows swirled around the tower, orbiting it like a black tornado.
Where the black tower met the clouds, it formed a dark vortex that spilled black flakes down to the monochromatic, snow-cloaked land below. This brought ominous new colors to the bleak, white, snowy world of Midgard Village 23 and the neighboring villages.
The villagers paused their daily tasks, transfixed by the ominous sight. "Do you think it could be another evil creature summoned by Hel?" one villager wondered aloud. Murmurs of unease rippled through the crowd as they stared, faces etched with apprehension over what this strange tower and its unnatural darkness might mean for their villages.
Others stared wordlessly at the ominous black tower, murmuring under their breaths, "A different...color."
A furious roar echoed around the black tower, full of anger and loud as thunder! The black dragon Nidhogg lowered its head slightly, its huge beastly eyes blazing, glaring at Shirou in front of the tower.
As he returned the dragon's gaze, the Valkyries hovering overhead watched him curiously. "This Saint Graph feels off, but it looks like a Heroic Spirit... Could it be from Chaldea? If so, why would it show up here?" The blonde Valkyrie frowned, puzzled by the situation.
"Raaaargh!"
The dragon's enraged roar blasted from the black tower, thick with fury and deafeningly loud. Its huge, beastly eyes blazed with rage, fixed on Shirou - it knew this human had wounded it before.
Unforgivable!
The dragon unfurled its wings, generating an enormous black storm that carried the sound of violent gales sweeping in all directions.
Wherever the storm passed, the Iron Forest below was ravaged - steel trees snapped off, thick snow layers torn apart, leaving cracked earth from which all manner of creatures crawled out, clamoring over one another.
The storm was ferocious, stronger than a level 10 typhoon. Salter and the Valkyries released their mana to steady themselves against the gale.
This is bad - the black dragon noticed us and seems provoked by Eternal King!
Salter's heart skipped a beat. Facing Nidhogg's power head-on, with her mana ten times weaker and suppressed by the higher dragon, she stood no chance. But now, provoked by Shirou, the dragon's rage was directed on them!
She turned, golden eyes glancing at Shirou's profile. She couldn't help but be startled.
His handsome face showed not a trace of panic, but rather a faint, composed smile at the corner of his mouth.
She knew of his prowess - he was a top-tier Heroic Spirit. But Nidhogg was no weakling either. With ten times her mana and the body of an elite Phantasmal Species...it was an unparalleled magical beast of disaster.
Yet Shirou was still smiling?
He paid the raging storm no mind as it swept toward him. Instead, he stood atop the old towering tree, eyeing with interest the creatures escaping the exposed land as the gale flipped the earth below. "So there are still living creatures under all this heavy snow. I thought everything here was gone."
Seeing Shirou ignore the dragon's impending fury, Salter urgently shouted, "Eternal King, watch out for the black dragon's attack!"
He turned to her with a smile. "Don't worry, Saber. This is nothing."
With a wave of his hand, he pulled Excalibur from Artoria's record. The wind barrier around the sword faded as he flicked it. The shining blade was even more brilliant in this bleak white world.
He raised the sword and with a "Boom", Excalibur's starlight shattered Nidhogg's storm. The starlight didn't weaken at all after breaking through the storm, instead rushing right toward Nidhogg!
Seeing Excalibur in his hand, Salter tightened her grip on her own Excalibur Morgan.
She knew he could wield her power.
No, to be precise, he could wield the power from Artoria's Record on the Throne of Heroes.
But...why was his might so much greater than hers? Salter felt frustrated.
She understood him taking out Excalibur, but this power...it was about three times greater than when she did the same thing!
For instance, the storm Nidhogg unleashed now - she knew her own Excalibur couldn't dispel it. Yet he had accomplished it easily!
What was going on? How could the user of the Record be stronger than the original wielder? This joke was going too far!
Salter felt frustrated, and it wasn't just from being an Alter...it was genuine this time!
Just then, the blonde Valkyrie shouted, "Watch out! Don't let your guard down!"
"Raaawwrrr!!!"
Nidhogg unfurled its wings, charging forcibly through the starlight from Shirou's Excalibur with its powerful body. Like a prehistoric meteor crashing down, it dove toward him. Its enormous mouth gaped open, the sword-like sharp teeth glinting with terrifying coldness in the winter sun.
"This is bad!"
The blonde Valkyrie frowned, gripping her spear of light tightly. "Get ready to help that nameless Heroic Spirit!"
"Yes, Sister!"
The other Valkyries nodded, clutching their spears.
The blonde Valkyrie's feet left the ground as she prepared to lead her team to his aid.
Thanks to Shirou's previous help, she had already categorized him as one of Chaldea's Heroic Spirits. Since Chaldea was an ally of Lady Skadi's, their Servants were naturally allies as well.
As Valkyries, they would never abandon an ally to flee, no matter how terrifying the enemy. Because the word "retreat" didn't exist in the Valkyries' dictionary.
The blonde Valkyrie judged that Shirou couldn't withstand Nidhogg's attack.
Wasn't that obvious? This was the legendary Black Dragon!
In the Valkyrie's mind, if they didn't help, he'd be killed by the enraged Nidhogg any second.
Yet what happened next startled her.
Seeing the diving dragon, Shirou's expression remained calm without the slightest worry. With just a stir of his mind, he connected with the black tower.
In the next moment, faint black light radiated from the tower's body. True Ether drawn from the Inner Sea gathered and amassed at the tower's peak, brewing into a terrifying black thunderstorm accompanied by an endless gale. It struck down like a meteorite toward Nidhogg.
"Raaaargh!"
Sensing the attack from the tower, Nidhogg let out a deafening roar from its giant mouth. With a flap of its wings, the black crystal scales on its body glinted with black light. Those specks converged like raindrops to form a giant pillar of darkness, over 30-40 meters tall, that shot out from its body and smashed into the roiling black thunderstorm.
The two gigantic impacts met with flashing lightning in midair. At the moment of collision, time itself stopped.
"Boom!" A deafening thunderclap exploded across the bleak sky.
The thunderstorm and pillar of darkness collided violently, madly releasing terrifying energy. At their intersection, space itself seemed to ripple.
"Bang!" After deadlocking for a few seconds, Nidhogg's darkness pushed up the thunderstorm, blowing it into the sky. When the energy exploded, the dazzling light lit up the barren white landscape.
Nidhogg spread its wings and roared in victory. But before the sound could fade, the Black Tower struck again with a thunderous blackstorm that caught Nidhogg off guard. The blast hammered the dragon down, blasting it to the ground with a boom that shook the earth.
As the storm settled, Nidhogg struggled to get up when another deafening boom sounded. The Black Tower unleashed another devastating black storm, smashing Nidhogg's enormous body deeper into the ground.
"Boom, Boom, Boom...!!!"
One blow after another, the unceasing thunderous blackstorm pummeled the dragon without mercy!
"It can seriously keep attacking like that?" The blonde Valkyrie stared at the tower in disbelief. "Is that even possible?"
Nidhogg's dragon breath already required their entire group of fifteen Valkyries just to counter it. And that was before the pillar of darkness Nidhogg unleashed by gathering all its energy.
And the fact that the blackstorm could deadlock with the dragon's darkness for dozens of seconds meant its power far exceeded their group's [Declaration of the Great God]!
After using [Declaration] once, they'd need to rest for over ten minutes before being able to use it again, without even considering mana reserve.
Yet the Black Tower could fire continuously!
How was that possible?
The blonde Valkyrie's mind raced. She pointed at Shirou, saying to the others, "B-224, check his mana levels, now!"
"Yes, Sister!" The red-haired Valkyrie's bright eyes fixed on Shirou as she spoke mechanically, "Detecting target's mana per Sister Thrúd’s request... Accessing the Valkyrie Network to analyze the target's mana... Detection complete. His mana level is reading at 2.7 million."
The blonde Valkyrie raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Only 2.7 million? That's less than Nidhogg's level of 3 million. How can he overpower Nidhogg like this? We need more data. Scan his Spiritual Level too."
"Received Sister Thrúd’s request. Scanning the target's fluctuations in Spiritual Level using the Valkyrie Network... Beep! Scan complete. This Heroic Spirit's Spiritual Level is...is... How can this be?" B-224 looked as if she had seen the impossible. Her previously stiff, hollow eyes suddenly showed astonishment.
"What is it, Valkyrie B-224?" the blonde pressed. "Fairy rank? Dragon? It can't be God rank - I don't sense any divinity from him."
"His spiritual level..." B-224 shook her head in disbelief. "It matches Lady Skadi's!"
Hearing this, the blonde Valkyrie was dumbfounded, disbelief written across her face.
"No...how can that be?"
And those previously calm, stiff Valkyries who seemed to have no interest in anything in the world, also turned their heads to look at the red haired Valkyrie, faces full of confusion: "?????"
"Are you sure your detection was accurate?" Thrúd asked doubtfully. "This can't be... No other god could have descended to this land!"
"I've tested seven times. The results are the same... His spiritual strength matches Lady Skadi's!"
"You mean his rank is on par with Lady Skadi herself? That man over there possesses spiritual strength equivalent to our lady?"
Thrúd looked over at him in shock. A thought struck her. "Could he be...one of those Heroic Spirits from the panhuman history Lady Skadi mentioned before?"
Shirou raised an eyebrow, noticing the Valkyries hovering in the sky gazing at him intently. He wondered, "What's going on? Why do they keep staring at me?"
The Tower of Black Light continued dropping thunderous black storms, pounding Nidhogg into the ground and forming an enormous crater.
Muffled yet furious roars from the dragon occasionally echoed from the depths. Though the Tower’s relentless assaults couldn't completely destroy Nidhogg, its blackstorms could keep the formidable dragon pinned down.
In fact, Nidhogg had gathered its energy to counterattack, pushing open the suppressing thunderous black storm. But as soon as it crawled out from the depths of the enormous crater, another storm blasted down from the Tower, forcing it back inside.
Nidhogg’s pillar of darkness relied on its own mana, needing time to gather power for each shot. However, Shirou’s Tower of Light, now the Tower of Black Light, was anchored to the world itself. Once activated, it drew mana and True Ether directly from Inner Sea of the Planet.
In other words, the supplier behind the Black Tower’s endless cannon fire was not Shirou, but Gaia. All he had expended was the mana to activate the tower. This was why the Black Tower could spawn unlimited attacks.
After thirty minutes of continuous bombardment, even Nidhogg's formidable defenses couldn't hold out anymore. It was on its last legs.
Seeing this, Shirou decided not to drag things out. He first recalled the Tower, then threw Rhongomyniad into the crater, blasting the pitiful dragon before transforming the Lance back into the Tower.
A weak roar came from the bottomless pit, accompanied by a flash of black light. Then, a piercing beam shot out, forming a Tower that speared through the skies and thoroughly impaled the dragon at the deepest part of the crater.
The searing heat radiating from the obsidian tower should slowly burn away what remained of the dragon's body.
"That's it?" Salter asked, pointing at the emerging tower. "It's over just like that?"
Shirou smiled and nodded. "What did you expect?"
"I just figured a famous dragon like that would put up more of a fight," she said, still processing what had just happened.
"Not for me." He shrugged.
Well, he had a point. This wasn't the regular Shirou anymore but Eternal King Alter, empowered by considerable mana provided by the Council. Taking down a dragon somewhat stronger than Vortigern was child's play.
"Its power surpassed ours and it's the most well-known dragon in Norse myths...but seriously, that was way too easy," she complained again. Her worldview was shaken.
"You've become quite talkative since becoming an Alter, Saber," Shirou said with a smile, patting her shoulder instead of answering her question.
There was no point - Nidhogg was clearly very powerful, even stronger than Vortigern who had nearly defeated Shirou in the past. But he wasn't the same person he used to be. Taking down Nidhogg now came naturally to him.
Admittedly, as Eternal King, he couldn't defeat the Outer Gods who disturbed dimensional boundaries or kill the Beasts, much less overcome the Ultimate Ones.
But defeating Nidhogg, who was comparable to Vortigern? What was strange about that? He even had extra moves up his sleeve, like the Spear of Endless Light or an attack strong enough to overwhelm a Beast if necessary. Neither had been needed this time.
The blonde goddess led the Valkyrie toward him.
"Greetings, Heroic Spirit," the blonde Valkyrie said solemnly. "I am from Lady Skadi's Valkyrie legions, Commander of the Third Legion - Valkyrie Thrúd. If I may ask, what is your name?"
Looking closely at the blonde Valkyrie's face, he didn't immediately reply, staring blankly instead.
A female mongrel?
Gilgamesh... what are you doing here?
Comments
Melegant
Bro just read the last line. That was savage
Melegant
This pummeling in the ground kind of reminded me of tien vs semiperfect cell
JeanMartin Freites
Nidhogg but certainly a resilient one, that's for sure.
Azelios Rosemile
Bro is brutal 😂
