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IBHJ Chapter 612
🕑 Added 2023-12-08 04:48:21 +0000 UTCShirou's brows rose slightly. His propulsion devices flared again to widen the distance between them. From his Unlimited Blade Works, he summoned the Death Scythe, slashing directly at the vulnerable spot on her lower abdomen.
As when first facing Achilles and Atalanta, the scythe's cruel curve tore through the very fabric of space, stabbing at her abdomen.
With her Instinct skill inherited from Artoria, Mordred twisted her waist by sheer instinct, barely dodging the scythe's deadly tip.
She retaliated with a mana blast at him. He banked the ten propulsion device on his back, smoothly evading her attack.
Her frown deepened. "Is running away all you can do, oh great Eternal King?"
"As I've said before, abandoning one's advantages to satisfy one's ego by using useless handicaps would be foolish," he said with a smile, not angry but amused. "Taunting won't work on me, Mordred."
After a thoughtful pause, he glanced towards her abdomen, "Is everything alright with your side there?"
She charged again without answering, rushing straight at him once more.
He sighed, using his propulsion to widen the gap between them. He unleashed attacks through various means, but to no avail.
In her current state, she resembled a video game character with an invincibility hack cheat - he found it impossible to effectively counterattack.
Her Noble Phantasm had to be called broken. She phased through his energy blasts and physical strikes with ease, negating them entirely even as she remained free to damage him at will.
However, the area around her lower right abdomen seemed to be an exception.
Whenever he targeted that specific spot, she would dodge. Yet when he used the black hands and aerial bombardment, she would simply use her NP to phase through them.
Clearly, there was some problem with her abdomen. But with Mordred shrugging off his attacks regardless, it posed little threat to her and had no tangible impact on their battle.
As he kited his daughter, he glanced down at the earth below, searching for her weakness. If he could just discover it, all of his counter attacks and defenses might finally mean something against her.
She frowned heavily. Her noble phantasm might allow her to cheat, but Shirou's black mud wasn't too shabby either. Using the black mud to form propulsion devices, he could match the latest fighter jets in speed, making it impossible for Mordred to catch up, keeping himself frustratingly out of reach.
Seeing Shirou about to leave the area, she thought, I can't let him escape!
"Is running away all you can do, Assassin?" she yelled. "If you know you're outmatched, why not let Eternal King descend?"
"Taunts won't work on me," he replied calmly.
As he neared the boundary, Mordred halted. She channeled mana into her sword and blasted it toward him.
He dodged before swinging back around, circling around her again.
Huh?
This guy...
What is he doing?
Could he be surveying the land?
Has he discovered my weakness?
Alarm rose in Mordred's heart as she told herself over and over that it was impossible!
Shirou tried every tactic to penetrate Mordred's defenses, but all his attacks phased harmlessly through her body. She carefully dodged only the strikes aimed at one specific area - a three-finger radius around her lower right abdomen.
Clearly, there seemed to be a critical weakness there!
Or so Mordred wanted Shirou to think. She had deliberately created a trap, anticipating that Eternal King would attempt to discover and exploit any flaw in her Noble Phantasm.
As the wielder, she understood her power's actual weaknesses. The odds were negligible that Shirou could find them, since her Noble Phantasm blocked even perception-based skills. Still, she had to be wary.
To misdirect him from the real weakness, she fabricated a fake one - that vulnerable-looking spot on her lower abdomen. It was a lethal trap, devised the moment after she had been tricked into admitting her NP had a weakness.
As long as she maintained the deception that her lower abdomen was her weakness, her Noble Phantasm's actual weakness would remain undiscovered.
So far, her ruse seemed to be working flawlessly. Under her careful manipulation, he focused an increasing number of probing strikes at that precise area. His actions clearly showed that he suspected a critical weakness existed there.
She knew that nothing was ever absolute, however. Though Shirou might not have confirmed his hunch, by entertaining the mere idea of that spot being a weakness, he had already wandered into the intricate web of death she had woven.
Licking her lips, she fixed her intense gaze upon her opponent. Her true desire wasn't to defeat Fujimaru Shirou, but Eternal King himself. The father whose visage had long since faded from her memories.
She had only met her father on one occasion, nothing more than a hurried glimpse in passing. His appearance had long blurred in the depths of her memories, leaving only a rough outline.
Mordred's impression of her father was cobbled together only from his storied exploits and the fragments of wisdom he had left in his wake.
Dignity, ruthlessness, wisdom, cunning, cruelty...
These were her understandings and impressions of her father, or rather the Eternal King.
Yet just what kind of person he was, she had no way of knowing.
She couldn't understand what had captivated her innocent mother so completely, leading to her illicit indiscretion. Nor could she fathom how a monarch capable of such cold cruelty could earn the unflinching loyalty and faith of knights and citizens alike.
She simply couldn't reconcile these paradoxical aspects.
To her, Eternal King was a mosaic of contradictions - the sage figure immortalized in books, the ruthless legend who sacrificed even his people for a place among the gods, and... that cold, silent stone statue in Camelot.
During her days in Camelot, whenever she grew tired and wanted to give up, she would gaze upon the king's statue, drawing strength from its indomitable dignity.
Her mother often said her father was always watching over them, protecting them. At first, she didn't understand what she was talking about - only later did she realize her mother was talking about that lifeless statue.
Yet it was cold and lifeless. The true Eternal King had long abandoned his country to fall into slumber in the distant Avalon.
And so Mordred's impression of her father ended there.
Why fight Shirou? Why must she fight Eternal King?
Perhaps...beyond her long-held goal of surpassing everyone to become the king who shoulders everything...there might be a little ulterior motive as well...
Perhaps deep down, she simply wanted to see her father's true face.
To see the one she had always admired, resented, respected and hated...as well as the one she had always been curious about.
She charged straight at him.
She didn't understand why Eternal King had manifested this aspect called Fujimaru Shirou. But undoubtedly, if her enemy was only Shirou... she would win for sure!
The traps she had laid were ready. The preparations she had made were complete. Now that he had entered her web, it was...time to hunt!
She charged at him again. Just as he was about pull away, the Caliburn in his hand - the one she had carved a map on - started glowing.
The messy map etched onto the blade transformed into glowing mystical symbols that extended onto his body.
A baffled look appeared on his face as he found himself unable to move!
It turned out Mordred had schemed against him from the very start. The markings carved into that Caliburn were not just a map of the Hanging Garden. They were also a means to control him.
Indeed, she had foreseen from the very beginning that he might try to avoid her and use a kiting tactic. This trap had been prepared specifically for this very moment!
The black mud erupting on his skin shattered her control quickly. But she had already dashed within striking distance.
"I have you now!" She slashed her crimson blade at his neck. "Call on Eternal King to face me, or fall where you stand!"
He met her glare with a smile. "The only one falling is you."
Suddenly, a black arm burst from his shoulder and wrenched the sword from his paralyzed hand. In the same motion, it angled the blade back toward her abdomen.
Rather than alarmed, she had to restrain a grin. Just as predicted, the blow came straight for her abdomen!
Without a doubt... in this dangerous situation he would surely summon him, right?
Summon Eternal King!
"Clang!"
In answer, Caliburn swept down in a broad arc, steel ringing as it met Mordred's crimson blade. The unexpected force of the blow sent her weapon spinning from her numb fingers.
How could this be...
How was this possible? She froze in shock.
This wasn't right.
She hadn't... she hadn't chosen to make contact with Shirou!
"As I said...checkmate." Shirou's tone was gentle with finality. "Hiding two kilometers underground isn't bad. But I already knew both your weakness and the location of your main body."
A black hand burst out from the underground. Grasped within its clutch was a golden cup, glinting dully in the gloom.
Comments
JeanMartin Freites
Looks like the father is way ahead of the daughter still.
