Chapter 24

"When I despaired of reality, yet Joy treated me as its plaything."

"The Stellaron accepted me. Although it only wanted to use me, I no longer cared."

"Gepard, can your eyes see the scenes I can see? The death throes of Jarilo-VI are now becoming concrete in my eyes."

"You have nowhere to run, neither you nor Cocolia. I will completely erase everything on this planet from this universe."

"The Stellaron promised me everything. When the inferior stones of you City Builders turn to dust, I will become the new era's 'Jarilo'."

Gepard watched the Illusionary Annihilator who was spewing nonsense. After a moment of silence, he once again charged towards the target like a tireless bull, making a meaningless rush.

His mind wasn't particularly sharp, but the Landau family's education had taught him what he ought to uphold. When his own thoughts couldn't yield conclusions or solutions, he would entrust the answers to his body, to... instinct.

"Never fall!!!!"

CLANG——————!

The moment the sword case landed on the ground again, a gust of air suddenly swept across the ground. Whether it was an auditory hallucination or not, in the Illusionary Annihilator's ears, the sound of a hammer crashing down seemed to overlap with the sound of the sword case.

"Preservation, here!!!"

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Chapter 050: Bastard, why do you have such a good imagination?! (Seeking first order, 2/10)

"A boring trick—!"

The Illusionary Annihilator was likely enraged. The lead clouds in the sky were torn apart in one go. This land covered in ice and snow finally welcomed the sun's rays, but in the very next moment, the sunlight was instantly swallowed by the materialized Imaginary energy.

"Here, I declare your end—!"

Gathering, compressing, as if holding a ball of the sun in one's hand. Just by witnessing the aggregated flame, Gepard felt a stinging pain as if his eyes were being burned.

"World-Ending Requiem!!!"

As that strike fell with a roar, Gepard laughed fearlessly. His body stood straight, showing no sign of yielding to this attack that could destroy a city. He poured all the Imaginary energy he could control into the skill he had honed over decades, preparing to meet this most terrifying of attacks.

The storm capable of tearing through the sky roared wantonly in the narrow space.

And at a certain moment, The storm suddenly subsided.

In the space Gepard was observing, it was as if he could faintly perceive some subtle cracks.

Perhaps it wasn't an illusion, but a phenomenon he couldn't understand that had actually occurred.

The other party's power had likely reached a limit he couldn't imagine.

But even so, He did not fear, nor did he retreat. He simply moved forward silently, heading towards the center of the storm's eye, directly in front of where the flame was focused.

The silver-white power of Preservation blocked his subordinates behind him. The Warden named Gepard Landau gazed at perhaps his final enemy and roared, "Come and get it if you dare!!!"

"As you wish!!!"

The flame, as if squeezing space to the point of collapse, roared out in an instant towards the Warden on the ground. It was plasma condensed from a storm capable of lifting an entire city, possessing a super-high temperature exceeding that of the sun's surface, easily capable of dissolving all creations on the planet Jarilo-VI.

The moment he was hit head-on by the flame, the surface of the sword case began to transmit an unbearable burning sensation, as if he were holding a red-hot iron with his bare hands... No, perhaps there was no need for "as if," because the surface of the sword case had already begun to melt.

The shield supported by the power of Preservation also began to crack. Squeezed by the terrifying impact, Gepard's body was continuously forced down to his knees. A blinding white light covered everything in his sight.

...Am I still going to lose?

As this thought surfaced in his mind, in a daze, he seemed to hear many people shouting as if it were an auditory hallucination...

"Captain! Captain!"

"I can't stand it! I'll punch that bastard even if I die!"

"Get up! Gepard! Get up! Don't lose!"

"That bastard knocked my younger brother to his knees, he must be going to..."

"Take him back as a Star Rage power?!"

"Bastard, why are you being so imaginative!"

...She's still so energetic.

Hm? Wait...

Sister?!

Gepard's eyes suddenly widened. He wanted to turn around to check on his sister's condition, but the pressure he was enduring head-on prevented him from diverting his attention for even a moment.

However, suddenly, in the very next moment, he felt the pressure he was bearing head-on suddenly lighten considerably. His vision was no longer pure white, but he could perceive a sturdy figure in red standing in front of him. The man raised his left hand, giving a thumbs-up.

"Well done. Now, I'll take over!"

"Who are you?"

"Shirou Emiya, or you can call me... Miracle God?"

Accompanied by a somewhat teasing laugh, layers upon layers of petal-shaped defensive armor spread out rapidly, like cherry blossoms in full bloom. In the blink of an eye, thousands of shield-like petals took over the plasma impact he had been resisting, even pushing the beam of light back.

"Seven Rings of Heavenly Domination… No, should I call it the Myriad Rings now? Or just Aegis?"

Close by, a man's low whisper reached his ears. Gepard looked at the layers of cherry blossoms and suddenly let out a laugh.

"Jarilo."

"What?"

"Jarilo, the War God of Spring, a god of victory who brings a glorious blooming season."

Upon hearing this, Shirou Emiya blinked in surprise, then couldn't help but laugh as well.

"If the localization doesn't get a bonus from local legends, I'm going to charge you for copyright, you know."

With that, Shirou turned to face the true enemy that needed to be dealt with. After his petal shield deflected that beam of flame, Shirou projected another weapon into his hand. The Red Dog of the Plains and the Spiral Sword, a pair with excellent compatibility, materialized in Mr. Emiya's grasp. Without hesitation, he began to draw his bow right before the eyes of the Illusionary Annihilator.

"In the future promised by the Stellaron, there is no place for you!"

The Annihilator was indeed enraged by this action, letting out a sharp roar and unhesitatingly beginning to overdraw its ultimate energy convergence. Multiple plasma flames began to gather around her, with six converging simultaneously, and their power… surpassed the attack that was previously aimed at Gepard.

Its caliber was…

Comparable to an anti-world Noble Phantasm!

"This is getting a bit big, but, brother can still handle it."

A smile of delight spread across Mr. Emiya's face. He loved these simple, brute-force slugfests more than anything. He abandoned his beloved Red Dog of the Plains and Spiral Sword, and instead began to project a rather unfamiliar Noble Phantasm. It was a bizarre object that looked nothing like a sword, Grasping its hilt, the disordered circular objects atop it began to spin at high speeds in an irregular fashion. As these circular objects rotated, a storm symbolizing primordial hell suddenly surged forth.

"Speak of the primordial, the separation of heaven and earth—!"

"By the unholy genesis, the world-cleaving is my Excalibur—!"

A storm capable of cleaving the primordial universe began to sweep across the ruins. All the building debris was blown away, and a massive void was literally plowed into the sky and earth. The recovered citizens of Belobog gazed in disbelief at the sky that had suddenly cleared.

"What is that?!"

"The sky… the real sky, and… the sun?!"

"Jarilo… is the War God of Spring finally arriving?"

The people hesitated, then cheered, then rejoiced at the beam of light that shone into Belobog. The sky, which had not truly been liberated for hundreds or thousands of years, seemed to be proclaiming something to everyone.

Seven hundred years.

For the vast majority of people, this number might seem unfamiliar.

Only those who had truly read the history of Jarilo and Belobog would understand its weight.

It was the past of dozens of generations, humiliatingly holed up in this fortress, barely surviving.

It was the thorny path of retreating underground when unable to resist the Great Cold, seeking hope.

It was the time when generations gradually forgot the name Jarilo.

But…

That time might be coming to an end.

Some old scholars, who knew many of the inside stories, couldn't help but shed tears. They watched the storm tearing open the sky and roared with all their might.

"End it all! Whoever you are!!!"

"Circle the Molar of All Stars—!"

"The primordial land of heaven is the end of the eve of creation—!"

The space-cutting storm gathered to its apex, converging with plasma-like flames formed by a large amount of Imaginary energy at the tip of that strange weapon. Everyone who had been blown out of the field by the storm watched that flame, concentrated to its limit.

It was a flame whose brilliance was so terrifying that one could clearly know the immense terror it would bring just by looking at it.

It was the final farewell gift to primordial hell before creation.

Everyone involuntarily held their breath. The Illusionary Annihilator in the sky also let out a sharp shriek of fear.

"Jarilo shouldn't have anomalies like you! Monsters! Monsters! This planet should belong to me. The Stellaron promised me this planet's future, and no one can take it from me!"

"No one will take it. It has always been here. This planet belongs neither to me nor to the Stellaron, but only to you Jarilo people. I can give you a chance. Give up the Stellaron, and I can give you and the other Jarilo people another chance to compete on the same stage."

"Are you playing with me? This power is already mine."

"Since that is the case, then it is only natural for me to destroy you along with it."

The power had accumulated to its peak. Shirou unhesitatingly swung the "sword" in his hand.

"Let your destruction and its destruction quell all of this."

"Enuma Elish—!" Seven. Chapter 705: Sigh, can we make peace? (Seeking first order, 3/10)

Excalibur.

This name originates from the Mesopotamian and Babylonian myths of Eä and Enki. Of course, the person who named this sword was our friendly old neighbor from Fuyuki, a regular at the game store, and a helpful citizen who often had his arms and elbows chopped off – Mr. Gilgamesh.

It actually just possesses the immense power from creation myths, which is why Gilgamesh named it the Sword of Separation. In fact, it's not even really a sword.

But none of that is important.

What's important is that this thing is a genuine artifact, not something born from the sublimation of great deeds. Our helpful citizen Mr. Gilgamesh has no world-creating past experiences.

So, to sum it up, this thing originally had unique destructive power within your world. Even if it were to clash with the Old Man of the Forest's Star Sacred Relic "Nine-Three-Three," it likely wouldn't be at a disadvantage. Furthermore, its most crucial function lies in its immense destructive and disintegrating capability against the concept of "world."

However, for that local who is one with the Stellaron, this superfluous performance serves no extra purpose. As the power of the Sword of Separation unleashed, blowing away everything in sight, the earth seemed to be pierced, as if a canyon was ripped open by a massive earthquake, extending to the distant horizon. The very space seemed to be filled with dense 'wounds.'

If Shirou Emiya hadn't deliberately redirected the direction of the sword's impact, the entire Kliperburg, and indeed all of Belobog, would have been reduced to a primordial wasteland devoid of any life.

And the Illusionary Annihilator, directly hit by the power of the Sword of Separation, was now lying within that pierced earth canyon. Most of its body had been torn into dust, leaving only a half-torso clinging to a thread of life through the residual power of the Stellaron.

As Shirou Emiya leaped from the ground, descending into the deep canyon and standing before this unknown villain possessed by the Stellaron, he projected his beloved Red Dog of the Plains and Spiral Sword once more, slowly pointing them at the Illusionary Annihilator's head.

Seemingly sensing Shirou Emiya's actions, the Illusionary Annihilator's already heavy breathing grew more labored. It struggled to raise its remaining single hand, and a hoarse, broken voice came from its vocal cords.

"Wait, wait..."

"Any last words?"

"Hmph, can we make peace?"

"Peace? At this moment? You must be joking..."

Before the words could even finish, a buzzing sound of new information filled his mind. Mr. Emiya immediately slapped his forehead.

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