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IBHJ Chapter 648
🕑 Added 2023-12-31 05:00:34 +0000 UTC"Another Holy Grail War?" Adam asked. "Is it summoning you again, Mr. Assassin?"
"I don't know," Shirou replied. "But if so, it would at least give us a foothold - better than wandering aimlessly without knowing where we are, or what we're doing."
He leapt down from Adam's shoulder, landing in his palm. "I'm going to nap now. Protect my body and keep looking for any breaches we can access."
"Yes, Mr. Assassin."
Shirou slowly closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep. His consciousness connected to his Eternal King record in the Throne of Heroes.
He frowned, discovering that someone was forcing a targeted summoning of Eternal King.
It wasn't a willing summoning, but a coercive one. Normally, Eternal King couldn't be summoned from the Throne of Heroes without his consent. However, this summoner used an unknown method from a higher dimension - one above even the Throne of Heroes - as if from the origin point of everything, to forcibly pull him out.
If a comparison was needed, the Throne of Heroes resembled a prestigious company, and Eternal King an outstanding employee with special privileges to come and go as he pleased.
And now...a sudden recruitment call from above!
"Who is summoning me?" Shirou furrowed his brows, full of doubt. "Who can summon me using this method?"
Someone or something was actually using this coercive summoning to forcefully drag down both his record and consciousness from the Throne.
Gradually, his Saint Graph slowly took shape based on that record, then got channeled into the passageway to the real world.
However...
Shirou frowned. He felt negative emotions endlessly surging towards his emerging form - hatred, fury, jealousy, greed, bloodlust.
Endless malice and negativity flooded into his mind.
"Interesting," he raised a brow. "So you want to reverse my Saint Graph and make me descend as an Alter. While I admire the attempt, if this level of negativity is all you've got, you'd still be underestimating me!"
He smiled wryly. "But since you wish to alter my Saint Graph, allow me to oblige and see what exactly you have planned."
Shirou felt that as the summoned Servant, he should at least help the Master who called him achieve their goal. His Master wanted him to turn dark, become an Alter. But with just this degree of evil...they were really underestimating him too much.
So he decided to lend a hand and somewhat satisfy the wish of the one who had forcefully summoned him.
Using [All the World's Evil], he contaminated his own Saint Graph. This conceptual root of evil simply treated the negativity and malice applied to him as fuel - consuming it and converting it into magical energy through [Evil Flowers] to fill his mana reserves.
However, he realized the summoner didn't just want to alter him - they wanted to deprive him of rationality until he became a brutally violent monster.
And they weren't only using evil to contaminate his body. Numerous wicked Heroic Spirit records were also overlapping his own to influence his sanity.
But when those sinister records attempted to merge with his, they were pulverized instead by the invisible vortex of [Mortal Awakening]. Their mashed records simply flowed to fill the empty skill bars of [Mortal Awakening - Emperor] instead.
However, the feats of these evil servants were far inferior to the supreme prowess of the Crimson Moon. As such, they were insufficient to fill the skill bars and only served to enhance his sinister aura.
His consciousness spun as his body descended like a meteor. Then Shirou sensed himself materializing into the real world.
As Shirou slowly opened his eyes, the scene made him raise a brow. He stood in empty space with not a soul around, only a black chalice floating before him.
The black grail!
He laughed mockingly. "I see how it is now. I've been summoned by those fellows."
The moment he saw that grail, understanding dawned. His summoner was clearly no righteous Master - possibly not even from a Holy Grail War at all.
No, this black grail and those behind its creation... It had to be the work of the COUNCIL!
Shirou pondered briefly before touching the black grail hovering before him.
Massive mana instantly poured into his Servant body. After all, whether black or holy, these grails contained immense reserves of highly condensed magical energy.
However, this black grail's quality was likely far inferior to the one at the previous connection point. Its energy supply seemed limited as well.
"They summoned me just to protect this place?" He chuckled. "Bold plan! Though they clearly underestimate their control over me. Yes - deprive me of reason, and perhaps they could dominate my will. But such methods are hopeless against me."
Holding the black grail, his eyes narrowed.
The second he felt the summons from the COUNCIL, his first instinct was to smash the black grail in his hands and destroy this connection point.
But after some careful deliberation, he managed to endure the impulse.
His main body was still drifting through the dimensional rift with Adam. If he used this opportunity, he might be able to contact and pull his main body out of the rift.
Most importantly, he was curious what the COUNCIL was trying to pull by summoning him here!
Shirou kept the black grail and checked his current status.
Class: Berserker
Strength: D-
Endurance: A++
Agility: E++
Mana: A
Luck: E
Class Skill:
Mad Enhancement A -> Invalidated by [Indomitable Will], which nullified sanity loss. Slightly elevated stats.
Personal Skills:
Evil Flowers A+: Embrace darkness and steer your heart toward the light, for even sadness can bloom beautifully. Unconsciously absorbs negative emotions and transforms them into magical energy.
Imperial Privilege EX: Manifestation of the Eternal King who built an unmatched empire from nothing. Evolved and combined form of leadership and group-oriented skills like "Wisdom of Mortals," "Heroic Mortals," "Leader of Mortals," that amplifies group efficiency and territorial control.
Indomitable Will A+++: Manifestation of the Eternal King's unyielding determination. Significantly boosts endurance, evades fatal strikes, and nullifies abnormalities.
Holy King A -> Invalidated due to Alter summoning.
Noble Phantasms:
(1) The Hour of Decisive Confrontation Has Come: I Am the Vanguard of the Century
Rank: A++
Type: Anti-Army
Unleashes unified force of all souls under the Eternal King's command, materializing and empowering them to deliver a devastating blow against gods.
(2) The Hour of Coronation Has Come: I Am the Eternal King
Rank: ??
Type: ??
Assimilates and dominates all who acknowledge the Eternal King. Can utilize their Noble Phantasms and skills. Also possesses All-Seeing Eyes. (Disabled)
(3) This is My Evil
Rank: E
Type: Anti-Human
An evil deeply rooted within its host, unable to be severed, yet significantly diminished. Its significance lies in the accompanying innate skill, Evil Flower.
(4) Mortal Awakening - Emperor (EX)
Fills the records and reaches the supreme imperial feats.
(5) Frieren Scharfrichter (C)
......]
Shirou raised an eyebrow. Even though he'd been forcefully summoned and given a lot of mana through the Alter summoning ritual, some of his skills and Noble Phantasms had been disabled instead.
That made sense though. For instance, his All-Seeing Eyes that could see through any mystery were an embellishment granted to him later on by future generations, so even the normal Eternal King would have it. Being summoned as an Alter was basically like stripping off those glitters that had been embellished into his legend.
As a result, his Holy King and All-Seeing Eyes had both been disabled, along with the Berserker class's Mad Enhancement.
Funnily enough, in trying to corrupt him with evil records, his Mortal Awakening had devoured them instead. Granting him access to those Heroic Spirits' Noble Phantasms.
For example, this [Frieren Scharfrichter: Beheading the Distant One] clearly came from an Avenger. No doubt - one record he'd consumed belonged to Hessian Lobo.
Shirou was quite curious about the Fuyuki City within this connection point, so he took a stroll to explore it. Perhaps because he had lived there in 1993 and 1994, he felt a sense of familiar unfamiliarity and unfamiliar familiarity towards this version of the city.
This Fuyuki City was not like the disaster-scarred one from his world. Instead, it seemed peaceful and harmonious, with distinct residential areas and intact buildings. However, likely due to the connection point's influence, the city was empty of people at the moment.
Additionally, he discovered this Fuyuki had more constructed hospitals compared to his memory. There were also many eCommerce and cross-border eCommerce companies present.
From this, he could roughly judge that the era of this connection point's Fuyuki City was likely around 2012, in the burgeoning age of cross-border eCommerce.
Comments
Random Stranger
Conspiracy theory time; what if the council is made by him from alternate timeline after he realize the place he live in is lostbelt?
JeanMartin Freites
Now this is quite the fascinating development.
Moe
Ok that good to hear and happy new year 🥳
Claude
don't worry he'll escape
Moe
Will Shirou ever be rescue or escape from the Rift/between world or he be forever traped in there?
