Chapter 28

Her individual consciousness had long since been driven insane by this dark world. Even though a tiny fraction of residual rationality still tried to control her body and answer back, what a pity...

That microscopic sliver of rationality was quickly overwhelmed by the negative emotions accumulated by the darkness.

Kill!

Kill!

Kill!

The pain born from the persecution of her clansmen, the pain born from being targeted by her enemies, the pain born from losing all warmth—all of it continuously piled up in this endless darkness, transforming into a frenzied rage and killing intent directed at everything.

"Senju!"

"Uchiha!!"

"Ninja!!"

Only these three terms swirled repeatedly within her consciousness, until at a certain moment, the pitch-black void before her was abruptly breached by a streak of white light. The next instant, a dazzling sheet of white light completely swallowed the dark and gloomy world.

Yet at the same time, the manic killing intent dormant in this dark wasteland also found an outlet for release.

The moment she opened her eyes, those crimson pupils, as though fished out from a basin of blood, held a chilling killing intent like an evil ghost or Asura.

Deep within her pupils, a three-bladed pinwheel pattern manifested without warning, then rapidly spun and merged together.

"Amaterasu----!"

Her body instinctively unleashed this terrifying dōjutsu capable of destroying everything, and pitch-black flames rapidly spread along the line of sight.

"As a greeting, that's a bit overly enthusiastic."

At the limit of what her blood-red pupils could reach, a strange figure stood there. She could not recognize the person's identity, but... such a thing held no meaning for her at present.

Since her sanity had been destroyed by centuries of darkness, she simply did not care who that figure might be.

Controlled by this overflowing madness, at this moment, she only wanted to slaughter every living creature in sight.

"That is our homeland, capable of healing all scars and all grudges."

"Manifest----!"

This was the Noble Phantasm belonging to Galahad, the strongest knight seated among the calamities.

This was the Noble Phantasm symbolizing the Knights of the Round Table... No, to be precise, representing the ultimate defensive stance of the entire Camelot.

"Lord Camelot----!"

A silvery-white city wall rose abruptly from thin air, and the ideal city symbolizing an unfallable stronghold intercepted the surging pitch-black flames. One symbolized the fire that incinerated everything and destroyed all, while the other symbolized the ultimate bastion guarded by the Knights of the Round Table—the city that shall never fall.

As the black flames continuously attempted to breach deeper into the castle, the silvery-white city wall flashed with a dazzling divine light, repelling all harm outside.

"Uchiha Hikari."

Standing at the very frontline facing the dark flames, Shirou's expression appeared quite calm. In fact, he had already made several guesses regarding this individual who possessed the beacon.

An individual harboring equal hatred toward the Senju and the Uchiha could basically be ruled out as someone from the post-Shinobi Village era. As for before the Shinobi Village era, the number of possibilities was simply too vast. Without considering minor characters, the only person Mr. Emiya could think of seemed to be the Uchiha family's ancestral grandmother, Uchiha Hikari.

After all, he only knew such a famous and named character.

And now, after directly cleaving open the mountain to resolve the issue and seeing this young girl unhesitatingly unleash a dōjutsu that was most likely Amaterasu, Mr. Emiya was basically able to confirm her identity.

"Uchiha... Uchiha!!!"

Seeming to hear the surname spoken by Shirou, the delicate girl's face suddenly twisted into an infuriated grimace. From her hoarse vocal cords came a ferocious whisper like a fiend from hell.

"As expected of an unlistening, crazy Uchiha bitch. I'll just have to beat her down first."

As his words fell, Shirou's figure abruptly vanished from the spot. Yet the Mangekyō Sharingan's dynamic tracking capability was far from ordinary; the exact microsecond Shirou's figure disappeared, that ultimate weapon of the Uchiha locked onto his position again within a thousandth of a second.

No... To be exact, he had never even left the capture of her line of sight.

"Trace, on----!"

The Red Dog of the Plains and the Spiral Sword, which he wielded most smoothly, were swiftly projected and landed in his hands. Then, thousands of projected Noble Phantasms manifested from behind him, aiming like a torrential rain toward Uchiha Hikari's location.

"Fantasy Collapse----!"

Under a special technique mastered by Shirou Emiya, the falling projected Noble Phantasms transformed into terrifying high-explosive charges. Just as that torrential rain of Noble Phantasms covered every possible escape route of the Uchiha ultimate weapon and was about to detonate simultaneously,

the ultimate weapon from the Sengoku period keenly perceived this sense of crisis.

Thus, without any hesitation, within Uchiha Hikari's pupils, that pair of pinwheel-like Mangekyō Sharingan abruptly began to spin rapidly.

In merely a thousandth of a second, a deep red chakra skeleton enveloped her entire body. Then, within several breaths, "flesh and blood" began to pile upon that skeleton, and finally, the deep red chakra constructed a ferocious giant god crouching upon the earth.

Third divine power—Susanoo!

The Uchiha Clan, the manifestation of ultimate power!

"Cool!"

The moment Serval and Asta, watching the battle from the sidelines, saw Susanoo, they were instantly and unhesitatingly conquered by this mighty giant image composed of energy. Mei's pupils, meanwhile, flashed with a pleasantly surprised brilliance.

"Such power truly exists only within manifested genes, and it possesses ultra-strong universality?"

Not long ago, she had successfully performed her first hypermutation surgery, fusing Honkai Beast genes with human genes to create the first Flame Chaser. Moreover, this Flame Chaser had achieved dazzling battle results in his first battle—successfully subduing the Herrscher of Flames.

Yet Honkai Beast genes were fraught with extreme instability. In truth, before Kevin, the first Flame Chaser, lay down on the laboratory operating table, hundreds of people had fallen during this very surgery. If thousands of volunteers were not utilized as sacrifices to handle the different rejection reactions generated between different Honkai Beasts and different human bodies, it was practically impossible to summarize any valuable laws.

Kevin's success was a matter of coincidence, yet it also allowed Mei to catch a glimpse of the realization of hypermutation surgery. She instinctively pursued genes with greater universality and evolutionary potential...

And now,

such genes had appeared before her without any warning.

"Chakra, no matter what, I must obtain it!"

Chapter 58: Do you dare defy me, who possesses four Creation Engines? (10/10)

"As expected of the Susanoo my brother loves best. Awesome."

Although all attacks had been intercepted by Susanoo, Mr. Emiya was so excited he was about to pop a tent. His youth was a youth spent alongside Naruto Shippuden. Susanoo, this signature skill of the Uchiha Clan, could be called the ability with the highest aesthetic value in the entire work, boasting dual-wielded excellence in both strength and looks.

When the complete-body Karasu Tengu image manifested on Madara Uchiha's hands, a single strike could sever mountains and even split new continental plates—especially when the work entered the Third Great Ninja War period. On the main battlefield, if you did not have a damned beast like a tailed beast or a high-end ride like Susanoo under your seat, you simply did not deserve to stand on the battlefield.

"Fighting against Susanoo—ordinary things won't quite cut it."

Seeing Uchiha Hikari haul out her own mecha, Mr. Emiya felt that if he didn't solo her head-on, he would be acting a bit too uncomprehending of the mood.

"Then let's bring out something interesting! Rise from here, Creation Engine!!!"

Shirou had naturally found the time to thoroughly analyze the Creation Engine slumbering beneath Everwinter Peak. Hand-crafting a few Creation Engines on the spot right now wasn't much of a big problem for him.

Accompanied by rumbling explosions, ultra-large automatic automata—which had originally served for planetary environmental modification and were later refitted with various armaments by the City Builders to become war machines—manifested right here.

"...So many Creation Engines?!"

There were a total of four ultra-large automatic automata simultaneously manifesting around Susanoo, surrounding the mountain peak where Uchiha Hikari was sealed. Susanoo, standing merely thirty to fifty meters tall, looked tiny before the hundreds-meter-tall Creation Engines, unable to catch even a sliver of sunlight even when lifting its head.

"Have fun with her."

Issuing commands to all the Creation Engines, the four Creation Engines raised their heavy mechanical arms simultaneously and smashed fiercely toward Susanoo within the encirclement.

Boom------!

Every falling heavy punch could whip up terrifying pressure waves akin to churning seas.

Centered on the four Creation Engines, a terrifying hurricane capable of triggering a massive tsunami swept forth abruptly.

The earth trembled for it, and the mountain peak sealing Uchiha Hikari had long since turned into a pile of rubble.

Huddled within the encirclement and continuously attacked by the four Creation Engines, Susanoo possessed almost no power to resist.

The absolute defense that could formerly even withstand a Tailed Beast Bomb rapidly sprouted a massive network of cracks under the joint beating of the four ultra-giant mecha.

until at a certain moment, the divine technique symbolizing absolute defense completely shattered. The ultimate weapon of the Uchiha Clan didn't even have time to release any further defensive spell before facing the approaching quadruple iron fists for yet another suppression.

"Am I going to die?"

Perhaps due to the desperate plight teetering on the edge of death, unexpectedly, this ultimate weapon regained a trace of rationality. Her gaze fell upon the relentlessly approaching giant mechanical fists, revealing a relieved smile. She gave up all resistance, closed her eyes, and prepared to submit to her own destined death just like this.

"Awoken yet?"

Abruptly,

a voice sounded beside her ear.

She slowly opened her eyes. Greeting her vision was a strange orange-haired young man who gently embraced her and then landed upon the ground.

"I am Shirou Emiya. If you still retain some impression, you probably remember me. Prior to this, I called out to you unilaterally more than ten times."

"That... voice."

Dawning realization hit Uchiha Hikari as she understood something, letting out a hoarse voice from her parched vocal cords. Then, as if giving up resistance, the chakra within her body stopped churning, and she closed her eyes, turning off her Mangekyō Sharingan. Two lines of blood slowly seeped from the corners of her eyes.

"Her physical exhaustion is outrageous."

This girl's weight probably didn't exceed forty kilograms. Given Shirou's current arm strength, while an adult's weight wouldn't feel particularly heavy, thinness to this degree was genuinely rare. He even suspected that if this girl's body was handled with the slightest bit of force, it would snap and consequently lead to death.

"Is it over?"

When Shirou carried Uchiha Hikari and transferred via the Aurora Curtain to the location where Elysia and the others were gathered, that pink-haired elf maiden hurriedly rushed over, gazing at the little girl in Shirou's embrace.

It was well-known that the Uchiha Clan produced handsome men and beautiful beauties. Although her looks were heavily suppressed by rather plain, thin clothing and disheveled, unadorned hair, Elysia, a devout admirer of beauty, saw at a glance that this Uchiha weapon merely needed a slight makeover to become a cute girl not inferior to Asta and Lynx.

"This child... has had a very bitter life before, hasn't she?"

Pale facial features, semi-transparent skin where blood vessels were almost visible, coupled with an emaciated physique caused by extreme malnutrition—just looking at it, Elysia could understand what kind of life this child had been experiencing.

"Her aptitude was too exceptional, arousing jealousy and ostracization from her entire clan. After her parents died, the clansmen forcibly stripped away her name, using her as a 'nameless' weapon."

"Uchiha Nameless; her given name is Uchiha Hikari."

Upon hearing this name, Miss Elysia felt her heart get stabbed fiercely once again. The blessings her parents bestowed upon this child had been so wonderful, yet after being cruelly stripped away by others, her ending was to be sealed within pitch-dark mountains...

"Dammit! This girl hates hearing about this kind of stuff the most! Shirou, let's go pull out all her clansmen and beat them up!"

"That won't be necessary. Who knows how long she's been sealed; we'd have to head to the major powers of this world to find out whether her clansmen are even still alive."

If it were the Naruto Shippuden era, the Uchiha Clan had basically suffered extinction, leaving only Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, and that sub-human, purebred bastard Obito Uchiha.

Among those three things, only Sasuke Uchiha could barely be counted as a normal person. As for the other two, they were quintessential purebred bastards: one killed his own parents and still wasn't satisfied, indiscriminately slaughtering his blood-related kin regardless of gender or age; the other was even more heavyweight—just because his first love was gone, he wanted to destroy the entire world, opening his first move ashore by killing his teacher and teacher's wife.

"Shirou Emiya."

Once everyone finished examining Uchiha Hikari's condition, Mei seized the moment when the others weren't paying attention to Shirou, walking rapidly to his side and gazing at him with burning eyes.

"Just now, you used the Herrscher of Reason's authority, didn't you?"

"Quite a sharp eye you've got, Doctor."

"That is to say, you can..."

Mei's eyes were filled with scorching heat, her gaze practically wanting to swallow him whole. Mr. Emiya couldn't help taking two steps back and warning her:

"Doctor, you surely don't want to treat me like an experimental white mouse."

"That doesn't matter! Shirou! If you can use the Herrscher of Reason's authority, you can replicate all high-precision experimental equipment at any time, right?! In that case, come back to the laboratory with me right now. We must race against time to replicate all the equipment from the laboratory side over here. I can't wait to study that thing called "Chakra"!"

Chapter 59: Mei: I must immediately jump ship! (1/5)

"With your authority plus Vill-V's mechanical talent, you guys can also create even better 'laboratory equipment.' M-Continent has always choked my research progress on high-precision equipment. Those idiots, I've tolerated them for a long time!"

"Clearly, Honkai phenomena have already been placed right in front of everyone, yet those idiots in the Flame-Chasers are still obsessed with fighting for power and profit, constantly suppressing, co-opting, and dividing those with talent for the sake of those petty gains."

"Various countries plant their own people within this coalition organization, with all kinds of factions standing in steep numbers and emerging endlessly... How can anyone conduct research with peace of mind alongside these vermin?!"

As if venting her long-held dissatisfaction, Mei's expression appeared extremely gloomy. She was never someone with a particularly generous personality; she had merely been forced to put on pleasant facades with those people in the Flame-Chasers because her research projects required funding and authorization support.

But now...

Shirou's appearance could directly and easily crush all "resources" on the Flame-Chasers' side. The Herrscher of Reason's "creation" function was enough to overwhelm M-Continent's industry.

She was among the first batch of scholars who participated in the core research of the Herrscher of Reason. Back then, combining the various test results of the Core of Reason with the Herrscher of Reason's reaction methods against human civilization's weapons during the First Honkai Event, she had roughly deduced the Herrscher of Reason's abilities.

To put it bluntly, if that ability fell into the hands of someone like Vill-V, humanity would probably face total annihilation during the First Honkai.

Yet, if she could master the Herrscher of Reason's authority...