BCloud
patreon
IBHJ Chapter 668
🕑 Added 2024-01-12 02:19:58 +0000 UTCShirou turned, looking up at the Black Ring in the sky - the only spot of color in this colorless land.
Just then, a surge of [Evil] arose within him.
He raised his brows slightly. [Evil] wouldn't disturb him, so having it suddenly manifest like this... Clearly it was Adam using his main body to try contacting him. He moved to the side and glanced at Gelda, who was still diligently pruning the tree. Only after confirming she was focused on her task did he finally use [Evil] to reply to Adam.
And as he guessed, the reason [Evil] stirred was because Adam was using the [Evil] within Shirou's main body to contact him.
"Adam, have you reached my location yet?"
He had instructed Adam earlier to bring his main body and head here. Though he still didn't fully understand the time differential between dimensional rifts and worlds, if Adam was contacting him now, that likely meant he had arrived.
"No, not yet, Mr. Assassin. I'm still some ways off from the coordinates you sent," Adam replied. "But it seems there's some kind of problem at that location."
Shirou's heart tightened. "What problem?"
"I'm not sure. The magical knowledge Mr. Avicebron passed to me doesn't allow me to identify specifics," Adam answered hesitantly. "But...this is probably a summoning ritual, right?"
"What?" Shirou frowned.
"It looks like someone at your location is trying to connect to the Throne of Heroes to perform another summoning!"
Someone performing another summoning at this connection point... No, Shirou realized the problem wasn't with Adam's statement, but his own line of thinking.
As Adam had said before, when transferred by the Council, his coordinates remained the same. So Fuyuki and this snowy world must exist within the same dimensional plane.
Apart from Fuyuki and this place, could there be other connection points? And was the summoning ritual Adam sensed actually occurring at one of those connection points?
He thought for a moment then contacted Adam, "Adam, go into that summoning passage and see if you can manifest yourself as a Heroic Spirit in this world."
"Um, that won't work, will it Mr. Assassin?" Adam sounded hesitant. "I mean, that passage connects to the Throne of Heroes. It's meant to summon actual Heroic Spirits, which I'm not."
"No harm in trying," Shirou encouraged. "I squeezed my way out of the dimensional rift and took over a spot meant for a Heroic Spirit. If I could do it, there is no reason you can't. Give it a try."
"...I guess you have a point, Mr. Assassin," Adam nodded. "I'll give it a try."
He added, "I'll keep your main body safe, then give it a try."
Shirou nodded. "Oh right - before you go, take a piece of mud from my body. If you do get summoned, we'll be able to stay in contact."
"I understand."
After ending the conversation, Shirou walked out from behind the hut. Suddenly, a bone-chilling mana fluctuation ripped through the sky, accompanied by furious dragon roars that exploded like muffled thunder.
"Raaawwrrr! Skreeeonk!"
Hearing the furious dragon's roar, Shirou's expression changed drastically. The mana fluctuation was enormous - like that of the white dragon Vortigern!
He whipped his head towards the sky in the direction of the ferocious fluctuations. With Merlin’s [Clairvoyance EX], he faintly distinguished a cluster of armored female warriors soaring in the sky. Beside them swirled a colossal, pitch-black mass of pulsing mana.
Hearing the commotion, Salter came bursting from the hut. “What’s happening?”
"A fearsome black dragon," His eyes flashed as Clairvoyance EX took effect. His brows furrowed tightly as he pondered what he saw.
"A fearsome black dragon?" Salter asked in surprise. "Even you call it fearsome?"
"Of course. Its mana fluctuation is enormous - very close to a formidable enemy I once faced. About ten times your level, already a quarter of my peak."
Salter: "..."
She looked at him with a speechless expression. Of course, she didn't understand what he meant.
So far, Shirou's peak was after devouring Fuyuki Grail - hundreds of years of accumulated mana from the 4th Holy Grail War.
The black dragon's mana fluctuations were a quarter of that immense power. This clearly indicated the severity of the threat.
For context, it rivaled the God Vortigern. Back then, Vortigern was defeated by Shirou, Merlin, Artoria and her Knights of the Round Table, Scáthach, Arcueid, Altrouge and the Dead Apostle Ancestors, Morgan and her mages - after sustaining heavy losses on both sides.
This showed how tremendously powerful the black dragon was.
"Raaawwrrr! Graaauuugh!"
The dragon’s roar shook heaven and earth. Even the vast snowy land rumbled.
The scissors in Gelda’s hand dropped from the vibration. She squatted to pick them up and looked towards the distant sky where the roar came from, sighing, “The black calamity comes again, huh.”
Hearing her murmur, he went to her side and asked, “Black calamity?”
Gelda nodded, “Although I don't know what it is exactly, I sometimes hear this roar. Mother said it's a black calamity that Hel summoned to deal with Lady Skadi."
Shirou stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, “Why don’t you head back inside first, Gelda.”
"Ah...It's fine, honored envoy,” Gelda laughed gently. “It won’t come here. And even if it did, this place would just return to eternal white.”
Shirou stared at her smile for a long time before smiling, "That's good then."
Glancing at Salter, he said, “Saber, let’s go take a closer look.”
“Right!” She nodded eagerly.
As before, he took out the black wings and carried Salter as they flew towards the strong mana fluctuations.
This time, she said nothing. Her face was filled with vigilance and solemnness, clearly affected by the black dragon's terrifying mana waves.
As a being with the dragon trait and a heart comparable to a mana reactor, she had immense magical energy. Among Heroic Spirits besides him and Solomon, her magical energy was exceptionally high.
After all, her Mana parameter was A+.
But before this black dragon, her mana was negligible.
She may have the dragon attribute, but that was a true dragon!
In the pale sky, intense mana fluctuations continuously rumbled like muffled thunder. Although still at a distance from the battle, the danger felt imminent.
Shirou's eyes fixed tightly at the distant horizon. There, black and gold colors filled nearly half the sky. Even the gloomy sky was dyed by the two colors.
Another thunderous boom rang out. Shirou frowned. He had slightly underestimated the black dragon. The terrifying mana fluctuations were probably much stronger than those of the God Vortigern.
"Black dragon..." he murmured. Defeating Vortigern had completely relied on vastly superior numbers.
Unexpectedly, in this world, he had encountered a dragon even more powerful than Vortigern.
Holding his hand, Salter frowned at the distant aerial battle and murmured, "Those women fighting the dragon should be Heroic Spirits, right?"
"No," he shook his head and said seriously, "They're goddesses."
"Goddesses?" Salter craned her head up puzzlingly to look at his face.
He said, "I can sense their Saint Graphs...that scale isn't a Heroic Spirit's Spiritual Core but a Divine Core!"
"That means those people are..."
He nodded, "Goddesses. The gods of this world."
The black dragon battled multiple goddesses in the sky above an iron forest.
Shirou streaked low and fast before finally stopping about a hundred meters outside the aerial battle, using the tall iron trees as cover as he carried Salter up an old, towering ironwood.
From here, he could clearly see the two sides fighting. Seeing it up close, he felt the intensity of their battle. In the gloomy sky, black and gold colors occupied nearly half the horizon in a spectacular display.
He first glanced at the black dragon. It had an enormous physique, easily 60-70 meters in length. Its body was covered by a layer of shiny black crystalline substances that glittered brilliantly under the winter sun.
The black dragon's slender body released a rotten, black miasma from the abyss of death, brimming with ominous energy. Its four thick claws were also wrapped in dark crystals. Each of its gestures made even the space tremble, hinting at its formidable power.
The giant black dragon stood ominously in the sky. A terrifying mana fluctuation slowly descended, making even Salter's mind tremble slightly.
She felt the sheer difference in power between herself and the black beast. If her own dragon heart was a mana reactor with immense magical energy, then the mana this dragon exuded was like multiple massive reactors combined!
"This black dragon..." she muttered.
"Níðhöggr!" Shirou affirmed with certainty, surprising her.
"In these lands, the only dragon with such enormous mana that I know of is Níðhöggr," he explained. "It's a dragon that gnaws at the roots of the world tree, Yggdrasil."
Comments
Azelios Rosemile
Shirou: Dragon Slayer C Dragon Slayer C Dragon Slayer C
