The Appearance of Black Shirou

'They just left the Holy Grail here like that? It's something everyone would fight for, even at the cost of their lives,' Shirou thought to himself, puzzled. But there was no time to hesitate. Tohsaka and Gudako were still in danger of being besieged outside, and the problem had to be solved as soon as possible.

Shirou Projection the Demon Blade Muramasa, a treasured blade he had forged and given to the Miyamoto Musashi. Its sharpness was such that it could sever karma, making it perfect for shattering the corrupted Holy Grail.

With a flash of light, the Holy Grail was shattered to pieces.

However, this Holy Grail is merely a conduit between the Greater Holy Grail in the inner world and the outside world. Now, with the cracking of its exterior, its true form is revealed, appearing as a small, circular opening resembling a vortex.

If the magical energy accumulated Holy Grail War has filled the space, then the Black Mud known as the Evil of the World will gush forth from within, polluting and burning everything it touches.

In an instant, a white light flashed in Shirou's eyes.

In an instant, the opening was filled in and sealed back in.

"Tohsaka! Gudako, I'm back!" Shirou rushed back to the church and saw a scene of utter chaos.

"Roar!!!" The four Servant on this side were sluggish due to the black aura surrounding them. Only Darius, who looked more like a Berserker than a Rider, let out a restless roar.

Rin Tohsaka bowed and face grim, silently pulled Gudako behind her, and together they boarded the Sky Maanna and ascended into the sky.

"Huh? Tohsaka? Why are you flying up there? I've already destroyed the Holy Grail and cut off their magical energy source, so it's fine now." Shirou looked at the black-haired girl in the sky with a puzzled expression, feeling a sense of unease.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!!! Who gave you guys permission to run wild on the Tohsaka household's territory?!" Rin Tohsaka was in a state of agitation and rage. She summoned the Sky Ship, and the ten gems shattered at that moment. Her Jewel Magecraft was fully activated, and her magical power increased to an unprecedented level.

"Wait a minute? Calm down, Tohsaka?" Shirou sensed something was wrong and quickly retreated outside.

The black-haired girl, soaring high into the sky, was gathering the radiance of celestial bodies from the universe and focusing it onto a bow and arrow made from a celestial vessel. This could no longer be called a bow; it resembled a cannon turret salvaged from a warship.

"---Mountains Shock the Stars (An Gal Tā Kigal Shē)!!!"

A massive beam of light descended from the sky, leaving all the Servant on the ground with nowhere to escape.

After the intense light dissipated, the entire grounds of the Church of the Holy See became a large, sunken circular pit. The collapsed church and surrounding buildings were gone, all razed to the ground.

Shirou and Gudako remained silent.

On this day, the greatest destroyer of Fuyuki City was born.

Clap clap clap

Applause came from outside, and there stood a priest in his clergy uniform, a tall, middle-aged man with black hair. He had a smile on his lips, but his eyes looked lifeless.

Pat pat.

The priest's leather shoes made irregular sounds on the tattered ground as he walked in, and began to speak:

"Hehe, what a wonderful battle! It's been a long time, you've grown a lot, Rin. And Shirou Emiya too!"

"So you're still alive, Kirei," Rin Tohsaka said, making no attempt to hide her disgust.

Kirei Kotomine denied it, saying, "No, Rin, as you all know, Kirei Kotomine as a human is indeed dead. I am merely a spirit summoned from the Black Mud by the Holy Grail."

Normally I shouldn't be here, but because of the mutations in this world, I've returned. It's so nice to see you all. So, to celebrate our reunion, let me give you a gift."

A new Holy Grail was created and fell into Kirei Kotomine's hands. He smiled with pleasure and snapped his fingers.

"This is never going to end... Shirou-senpai! Think of something quick!" Gudako said, covering her face.

"Hehehehehe!!!" A ferocious roar came from afar. It turned out that Cú Chulainn in the basement had his Spirit Origin forcibly changed. Black dragon spikes and claws grew on his body, and a long tail covered with thorns and spikes dragged behind him.

The black dragon monster was covered in scales, then opened its huge mouth full of sharp teeth, with flames flickering in its throat.

The Tohsaka house on the mountainside in Tohsaka was instantly engulfed by a pillar of flame.

The Holy Grail? It's reappeared?

"Is there a second Holy Grail?"

Shirou and Gudako looked puzzled, but a desperate scream erupted behind them, interrupting their thoughts.

"Waaaaaah!!! That's my home!!!" Tohsaka screamed in despair, clutching her head with both hands.

"Hehehehe." Seeing the girl's despairing expression, Kirei Kotomine revealed a very pleased smile.

"Uh..." Rin Tohsaka was overwhelmed with shock; her entire body had turned ashen white, and she muttered to herself, seemingly listing the names of those she had lost as a result...

"Senpai... Rin-senpai, now is not the time to be down. Servant black aura! They're coming to kill us!!!" Gudako patted the black-haired girl on the back as she watched the approaching groups of Assassins wearing skull masks.

However, the dejected black-haired girl remained listless and unable to stand up.

"Don't worry, Tohsaka, I'll use my ability to help you recover later," Shirou said helplessly to the black-haired girl.

"Really?" the black-haired girl asked softly.

"Really?" Shirou nodded and assured him that as long as the Creative Power was used, there would be no problem with any matter that had ever existed.

"It's a date," the black-haired girl said.

"Yes, it's a date," Shirou replied.

"Bastards! Bastards! You bastards, I'll beat you to a pulp!" Rin Tohsaka, with tears in her eyes, charged into the Assassins, determined to kill them to vent her anger and then settle scores with Kirei Kotomine.

"Kirei Kotomine! Since you dare to show your face here, where is the King of Heroes?" Shirou asked, glaring at the man who was pure evil.

The priest laughed and said in his deep voice, "Hahaha, Shirou Emiya, what a pity. Although that was indeed the strongest trump card, that proud king was destined not to obey the Holy Grail's command, and might even turn to your side, so we didn't summon him in the first place."

The Servant here are beings summoned from past Holy Grail War, brought to this world to exact their revenge. This place is shrouded in the darkness of All the World's Evil; any Servant tainted by 'evil' will become a berserker, unable to disobey the Holy Grail's commands."

"What exactly is your purpose?" Shirou asked, frowning.

Kirei Kotomine opened his arms wide and declared, "Everything is for the Holy Grail. This world needs the Holy Grail. Only in the Holy Grail War, in the battle between good and evil, can I experience the greatest joy. But the god who created this world has denied all of this."

However, some Magecraft and members of the Church of the Holy See in this world don't think so. I myself deeply regret the disappearance of the Holy Grail, so the Greater Holy Grail transported me to this abnormal world."

"I approached them and decided to help them... So the Holy Grail responded to everyone's expectations and was reconstructed. This time, with all the humans of Fuyuki as nourishment for magic, the Holy Grail will never disappear again, and the Holy Grail War will never end, continuing endlessly, one after another." Kirei Kotomine's eyes revealed a mad, crazed rage.

Chapter 401 The Appearance of Black Shirou

At the entrance to the ley line where the Greater Holy Grail is hidden, six bodies lie motionless, maintaining their contracts with their Servant on the stone platform.

They were all Magecraft invited by Kirei Kotomine to participate in the Holy Grail War. A faction within the Mage's Association wanted to restart the Holy Grail War, so they quietly came to the cave where the sealed Greater Holy Grail was located.

These people are not asleep. Anyone who reaches out will find that they are not breathing and cannot move. This is because the Magecraft have been turned into the living dead, existing only as tools to summon Servant.

At this moment, their vitality weakened once again, and new Servant were summoned on the battlefield.

"Enough, I understand now. You really shouldn't be living in this world." Shirou raised his hand, and dozens of swords appeared in the void behind him, flying towards the priest.

A Western knight dressed entirely in black and covered in armor lunged forward and caught the sword that Shirou had thrown at him.

"What!?" Shirou was startled. He tried to cancel the magic on the sword and make it disappear. But when the sword was grasped by the Servant opposite him, it suddenly lost its connection with him.

"Gah ho ho ho!!" The knight in black armor swung his sword, slashing away all the other flying swords Projection Shirou.

Kirei Kotomine reached out and drew the Holy Grail, which had fallen from the sky, into his hand.

"Let the final battle begin, and may the Hero of Justice perish in despair."

Sizzle!

The four Servant's swords and daggers plunged into each other's bodies without wavering. They pulled out their blades and thrust at each other again. As wounds appeared on their opponents' bodies, they were also stabbed and wounded all over. Blood dripped continuously onto the ground, like a rain of blood, staining the ground outside the church red.

Sizzle!

Two more Servant, with axes and cleavers, cleaved each other's necks, sending their massive heads flying into the air, tumbling and splattering blood before finally crashing to the ground with a thud.

Click!

The summoned Berserker gripped his own neck with both hands and snapped his head off. As his bones spun in a surreal way, a chilling sound was heard. When his body finally fell to the ground, his hands were still raised, as if in a gesture of 'Hooray!'

The Servant shrouded in black energy died, and then Kirei Kotomine used the Holy Grail to summon new Servant, who were then made to kill each other or commit suicide...

The Church of the Holy See grounds, in an instant, became a killing field Servant committed suicide, a scene resembling the end of the world.

As the Black Mud expanded and expanded, far more than in the previous life, Black Mud surged and churned in the sky, like a black sea above the Heavenly Lake, threatening to overturn at any moment.

"This... it's practically like... an evil god descending? A follower of an alien overlord?" Gudako was also dumbfounded by the sight.

"This is truly insane..." Tohsaka frowned, looking helplessly at the hellish scene before him.

If the world of Shimousa is a hell built from the bones of millions of mortals, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood created by a group of killing demons, then this place is like the scene of martyrdom for a group of fanatical believers whose minds have been controlled.

"No! It's not me who's gone mad, it's the world!" At that moment, a figure emerged from the Black Mud ocean above the sky.

In the Zoroastrian dualistic world of good and evil, he was regarded as the only evil being.

His name is Angra Mainyu, who is all the evil in the world, the mortal enemy of the creator in Persian mythology, and the chief of many evil gods in the dark world.

In reality, he was just an ordinary young man from a village, but the villagers used him as a living sacrifice to prove themselves, falsely accused him of being the incarnation of an evil god, and ultimately killed him. He became the ghost of the avengers, and thus was regarded by humans as the incarnation of an evil god.

At this moment, he had a red scarf wrapped around his head, short black hair, and his body was covered in tattoos. What was even more special was... his appearance. He was neither a fierce ghost nor a handsome, otherworldly deity, but an ordinary young man, somewhat handsome, and that was all.

"Senior?"

"Shirou..."

Gudako and Tohsaka looked at Angra Mainyu in surprise and exclaimed.

A man wrapped in Red Faction, looking exactly like Shirou, said, "I am Angra Mainyu, and I was also the one who once possessed Shirou Emiya and lived as him. I am both the evil of the world and Shirou Emiya. I possess all his past memories, and I make choices and act according to his will under his guidance. Yes, it's very similar to your current state, little girl."

Shirou frowned as he looked at the guy who looked exactly like him except for his skin color and clothing, and said, "Shut up, you heretic! If you were me, why would you allow Kirei Kotomine to persecute the people living in Fuyuki City? He's a villain who wants to destroy the entire city!"

"Because it's necessary. Between a few million people and a few million worlds, what choice would you make? If the white god is allowed to continue like this, he will collapse sooner or later. When that happens, all the worlds he created will disappear with him. The people he saved and brought to new worlds, who finally settled down and started living again, will once again face the desperate situation of death."

"Therefore, I have made a judgment: yes, humanity needs the Holy Grail. A great many Holy Grails, at least seven for one world! These Holy Grails will be exchanged for the souls of the people of Fuyuki City. As long as they summon multiple Servant, and then repeat this process continuously, the mana can be infinitely replenished, and I can create new Holy Grails as well." Angra Mainyu demonstrated, Black Mud forming in his palm, which he squeezed and kneaded into a ball, finally transforming into...

"Even if the Holy Grail is needed, it shouldn't be a corrupted and distorted Black Holy Grail like yours!" Rin Tohsaka retorted.

Angra Mainyu scoffed, "Black and white, evil and justice, brutality and kindness, Tohsaka? You don't believe in black-and-white good-and-evil binary thinking, do you? Even a pure white Holy Grail, if it falls into the hands of a bad person, will still cause bad results. And even a black Holy Grail, if used properly, can still bring people salvation."

"..." Gudako didn't speak, but she recalled her past experiences, the Servant she encountered at the Singularity who possessed the Holy Grail, and Edison who wanted to cut the American continent off by himself.

The Lion King abandoned human emotions, forsaken the majority of people, and chose to protect the few who could survive.

These beings do not use the Holy Grail for their own benefit, yet they are criminals who cause Singularity and must be stopped.

"Ultimately, the Holy Grail is nothing more than a vast amount of magical power. The outcome depends on the choices its wielder makes. As long as Fuyuki City is sacrificed, I can continuously create the Holy Grail, sustaining its energy for the worlds after the fall of the White God. Even if I can't save everyone, I can at least ensure the survival of a large portion of the population in each world," Angra Mainyu said.

"Because of the White God's mischief, an anomaly occurred, and I awakened in this world, and I can even freely use the power of the Third Magic within the Heavenly Chalice."

"So I made a decision. Since this world considers me evil, then I'll bear the evil of this world. What's wrong with that? I don't like that god, so I took action and decided to save this world. What's wrong with sacrificing the people of just one city to save so many worlds? Compared to a world war, this level of loss is nothing."

Angra Mainyu Manuel raised his hands, and the Black Mud ocean in the sky rose higher and higher, forming a waterfall flowing backward. When this Black Mud ocean descended, it would transform into the largest tsunami in history, knocking down Fuyuki City.

"So! Don't get in my way! Women! Take the Chaldea Master and leave! There are still three days until the ritual is complete. As long as you don't show up again to interfere with my plans, I'll allow you to escape Fuyuki with your families and friends." Angra Mainyu said, looking at Tohsaka.

"Yes, Rin, put aside your pride and forget about being the head of household of the Tohsaka household. You're all alone now anyway. To prevent the Magic Crest from dying out, how about you escape from here?" Kirei Kotomine looked at the girl and said with a malicious smile.

"Shut up! I don't need your nagging! This fake priest!" the black-haired girl said, glaring at the man with displeasure.

Shirou and the girl exchanged a glance, then smiled simultaneously.

Rin Tohsaka, rousing herself and shaking off her previous dejection, said, "This is Fuyuki City, territory administered by Tohsaka! Unidentified and suspicious individuals are not permitted to cause trouble here! Even if we disregard the worst-case scenario, now that I know your purpose, I will not allow you to indiscriminately kill innocent people!"

"Rin-senpai!" Gudako looked at the girl with great emotion.

"Ah, that's how it is. I'll handle the white god; you don't need to meddle. If peace requires the sacrifice of millions, it's not something a few individuals can decide," Shirou said with a smile.

Rin Tohsaka pointed at the culprit and said viciously, "That's right!!! The grudge for destroying my house! Don't think you can just let it go like this!"

"Senior..." Gudako was speechless.

Never underestimate a woman's Vengeful Heart.

Angra Mainyu looked at the boy and said, "Shirou Emiya, I'm no different from you, although we have different origins. But I did have a time when I thought of myself as you, and I even lived a part of your life. So what are the chances of winning a battle against a god? You can't fool me at all. Are you really going to act impulsively for a moment and then have millions of worlds perish with you? Don't be ridiculous, you idiot!"

"That was just who I was back then. If you had my current memories, you'd probably think differently," Shirou said, looking at the Avenger standing beneath the sea of Black Mud.

"You bastard, I have all your memories from when you were Kiritsugu to when you participated in the Holy Grail War. I also witnessed the end of Shirou Emiya, who became a Guardian, in the Fifth Holy Grail War. I don't think anything else can make you change your mind so much," Angra Mainyu said cursingly.

Shirou shook his head. He had changed a lot, just as he was different from the White God, and he was no longer the same as Angra Mainyu before him. Having no relatives by his side in his previous life, he had a peculiar indifference to everything. Although he would not refuse to help others, he placed himself out of consideration.

But in this new life, he has his parents and sister by his side and feels the connection and care that comes from blood relatives. He understands some emotions he never had in his previous life, even though these emotions and experiences are actually just everyday trifles, each one insignificant in itself.

The two closest people to me are like my own children. My younger sister, whom I gave birth to, shares the existence of kinship with me, and at the same time, I receive a new kind of kinship from her.

Your parents worry about you when you go out.

Sometimes verbose, sometimes troublesome.

If helping others is a voluntary choice or a way to elevate one's spirit, then helping family members is an obligation, a matter of course, and something to be taken for granted. In fact, failing to do so might lead to criticism and censure from outsiders.

However, this obligation and this trouble are something you can only hope for, because it is a burden called family, which you must bear. And when you have problems, the consequences will be borne by the whole family.

Fatherly love, motherly love, and the love of grandparents—once lost, they can never be regained. If you haven't experienced them, you can't possess those emotions that can only be obtained through experience.

Yes, neither the white god nor Angra Mainyu possessed this sentiment, and therefore they held humanity in lower regard. That's why, despite starting from the same point, they took completely different paths.

"No... the difference here is truly vast. Perhaps I am indeed a fickle man, but my desire for the happiness of those around me will never change. What you are about to do will destroy all of this, so I must stop you."