Shirou smugly narrowed one eye, and everyone suddenly felt that today's Saber was especially punchable.
"Let me give you a little hint. The answer is right here."
The red-haired boy pointed toward the angel's head.
Above its massive chest and shoulders, beneath the enormous halo, there was no head. Instead, there was an oval depression resembling a Chinese wok.
"It clearly imitates the structure of a human, yet it's missing a head. In other words..."
Fiore's eyes widened. "These angels can't think!"
Shirou nodded in agreement. "Exactly. These mechanical life-forms possess no capacity for thought. Perhaps the vessels of divine power don't need self-awareness—
"They're connected through a neural network and carry out patrol and combat missions.
"The oval depression on their shoulders is a signal receiver. Doesn't it look a lot like a television signal receiver?
"And the halo above this individual's head amplifies the signal and relays it to its companions."
Amid everyone's dumbfounded expressions, Shirou revealed the truth behind the Heavenly Host—
"The headquarters transmitting orders to a million angels is none other than Metatron's throne.
"But even the angels' throne can't coordinate a million individuals perfectly. The angels relay signals through their halos.
"The nine angelic tiers aren't a division based on the strength of their authorities. They represent the angels' network hierarchy.
"And what we have to do is hack into their network and make the angel army slaughter itself."
Laeticia blinked. "So that's why Lady Metatron gave us a final deadline of seven days. It wasn't mercy..."
The archangel Metatron had fully manifested, and her power had reached its limit. If she wanted to summon a million angels all at once, she was capable of doing so.
However, angels summoned so abruptly would only be vessels storing divine power. She first needed to construct