Chapter 145 - Shirou: "I shall abandon justice and deliver judgment to all! Textbook of the Sunken Spiral Castle, release!"
The battle was over.
Shirou had destroyed the artificial angel summoned by Hermes and forged from divine power born of the gods.
However, the battle had inflicted immense damage on him as well, leaving wounds that could not heal in a short time.
He collapsed on the spot.
"Shirou!" Seeing this scene, Hestia ran over in fright.
She held Shirou in her arms, panicked and flustered as she checked his body.
Discovering that although Shirou was weak, his breathing was still steady, she finally relaxed. With tears in her eyes, the goddess wailed loudly, "Shirou... Shirou... Shirou! You're still alive... thank goodness... thank goodness..."
In response to Hestia's sobs, Shirou slowly let out a breath.
Even though his body was still exhausted, even though his will was already shattered, he still forced himself to stand up.
Because he knew very well that even if the artificial angel had been defeated, the chaos engulfing all of Orario had not ended—not at all!
For that reason, he had to continue fighting! Even if it meant burning this body to the very end!
"Shirou... you idiot!"
Hestia saw the determination in Shirou's eyes and couldn't help but curse him painfully. But even though she was scolding him, she didn't try to stop him.
Because she knew she couldn't stop Shirou. And at the same time, she didn't want to stop him.
She could only silently watch over him as he burned everything away to reach the end he sought. Thus, Hestia let go of the hand she was holding.
Shirou took a deep breath, turned to look at Hermes beside him, and said, "The artificial angel has disappeared. Hermes, your stage play should come to an end now."
"Indeed. With my divine authority, I probably can't resist you anymore, Emiya Shirou." Hermes sighed and showed a helpless expression. But his expression didn't seem panicked—there wasn't a trace of despair.
Instead, he smiled and said, "However, it's unfortunate, Shirou. You've made one mistake."
"Made a mistake?"
"While you were being held up by the artificial angel and forced to fight here, I was constantly revising the script I had written.
Now, the polished script has begun to become reality little by little, and the final performance is about to begin."
"What!?"
Hearing Hermes' words, Shirou suddenly realized something.
He quickly activated his Hawk's Eye and looked into the distance. He saw that the battle between Asterios and Ottar near the shelter was nearing its conclusion.
Although Asterios had relied on the Noble Phantasm of the Twelve Labors to continue fighting Ottar to the very last moment, the vast power gap between them meant that even after resurrecting eleven times, Asterios still had no real chance of contending with Ottar.
Ottar's weapon struck Asterios down without hesitation and was about to eliminate him in a single blow—erasing the Xenos standing before him.
However, at that moment, more Xenos suddenly rushed in from not far away. It seemed they had learned of Asterios and Ottar's battle and came to support him immediately—among them were Xenos like Ray and others.
Upon seeing Asterios on the verge of being slain by Ottar, the Xenos were instantly overcome with agitation and rage. They lost control, filled with fury, determined to unleash that anger upon the humans.
All of this, without a doubt, was the result of Hermes' script. With Hermes constantly revising the script throughout, the variables brought by Shirou and Asterios had been fully corrected.
Originally, in Hermes' plan, Bell was supposed to defeat the Xenos attacking the shelter camp and ascend to herohood by showing courage in the face of crisis.
But with Shirou and Asterios stepping onto the stage and becoming part of the script, Hermes could now fully control both of them and make them part of the new narrative.
This was undoubtedly the terrifying aspect of Hermes' divine power.
Anyone who steps onto the stage is subject to the influence of the script—even their thoughts can be manipulated, their obsessions implanted.
The reason Shirou had been tangled up with the artificial angel for so long just now might well have been due to the influence of Hermes' power.
Now, after long preparation, Hermes had fully completed the performance of his script.
He had accounted for the two major X-factors—Shirou and Asterios—and through them, finished the true final act of his narrative: the stage for creating a hero.
Boom!
With a large number of Xenos launching an attack, Ottar alone clearly couldn't stop them all. He hadn't even yet finished off Asterios before the next wave arrived.
At the same time, the people in the shelter camp began showing expressions of terror. They were filled with fear at the sight of the furious Xenos—and some even felt anger in response.
Anger begets more anger. Rage leads to more rage.
The two sides, who were never meant to fall into war, now unknowingly developed a chain of hatred and sank into the quagmire of war.
Faced with this sight, Bell, who had been confused by the intense fight between Ottar and Asterios, had no choice but to step forward again. To protect the people, he resolved to fight against the Xenos.
But Bell alone could not stop all the Xenos.
He could fight them—but defeating them all? Impossible. And protecting everyone at the scene? Also impossible.
"What are you trying to do, Hermes?" Hestia questioned Hermes after witnessing everything, "Wasn't this all just to shape Bell into a hero? But now you've incited so many Xenos into a riot—how do you plan to end this? How many people will die like this!!"
"Dead people? Everything I've done has been to pave the way for those deaths!"
Hermes no longer pretended, speaking with a beaming smile.
"Heroes must be forged in blood.
Merely being a protector of the people can't make someone a true hero!
Only by creating a true desperate situation—where life is devastated and the masses cry out—can a hero's figure truly shine and radiate brilliance!"
"You actually went this far... You're insane, Hermes!"
Hestia could no longer comprehend Hermes' thinking, looking at him with hatred and anguish. But Hermes laughed to himself:
"Me, insane? Not at all, Hestia.
You've never seen a truly insane god.
You don't understand the essence of what a god truly is!
Every god is merely wearing a human disguise—inside, we are things far removed from humanity!"
"..."
"Besides, you can't change any of this now, can you?"
With the demeanor of a victor, Hermes turned to look at Shirou:
"I admit, Emiya is powerful.
If not a true god, there probably isn't anyone in Genkai who could defeat him—even the artificial angel fell to him.
But unfortunately, even if he's that strong, his battle with the angel has pushed him to the limit.
He can't interfere anymore—and certainly can't affect the script I've created! That Minotaur Xenos is the same—he can't defeat Ottar, and he can't shake the performance either!"
Hermes' words were brimming with confidence, and he certainly had reason to be. Because everything was unfolding exactly as he had planned. The conflict between the Xenos and Orario had reached an irreconcilable state.
A life-and-death war was inevitably going to break out. And once war began, regardless of the process or outcome, the hero narrative Hermes envisioned would definitely appear.
For although Hermes said many outrageous things, there was one line that was undeniably true: Heroes only appear in times of devastation, when the masses cry out in suffering.
The more desperate, the more tragic, the more sorrowful the stage—the more the hero who saves everything will truly shine with dazzling brilliance.
Though the price is countless corpses of nameless people—sacrifices of supporting characters whose names won't even be recorded in the story...
But all of this was exactly what the god Hermes wished to see!
"Bell, just as I wrote... become the hero!"
Hermes spoke with burning passion, like someone celebrating the fulfillment of a divine prophecy, or a magpie delivering the message of spring. He stared fixedly at the explosion of chaos, his expectations for what was to come reaching their peak.
"Enough is enough."
At the moment when Hermes was utterly elated, excited beyond all measure, Shirou merely sighed, showing the coldest indifference to Hermes' behavior.
"What are you saying?" Hermes tilted his head, staring at Shirou with a detached gaze. "Emiya Shirou, at this point, what more do you have to say?
You can no longer stop the war from breaking out, nor can you halt the continuation of the stage performance.
At this point, the only thing left for you to do is to become a spectator of this stage and enjoy the magnificent show with me.
After all, this is a VIP seat I personally arranged—Shirou, you ought to thank me."
"Thank you? Yeah, I should thank you—because you've helped me fully understand the true face of you gods." Shirou exhaled slowly.
"Because of that, I no longer have any hesitation.
I won't feel sorrow for what is about to happen. I've made up my mind—if it's to seek out the truth, to achieve true justice, then even if I must become evil incarnate in this moment, I will not hesitate!"
"Become evil incarnate?"
"That's right.
I realized long ago that true justice cannot be achieved through purely just means.
That's why I gave it up—I gave up on being a champion of justice, gave up on the dream of saving the world.
But even so, I still want to reach true justice.
I must reach the very end of justice! And for that... I'm willing to pay any price!"
As Shirou's words fell, his expression suddenly became calm—eerily calm.
Facing the stunned reactions of both Hermes and Hestia, Shirou slowly drew out a strange book from within his robes.
The book appeared simple and unadorned, yet carried with it a tremendously ominous aura. Most notably, its cover was made from human skin—and just its mere existence radiated overwhelming misfortune!
"That thing is... What are you planning to do, Emiya Shirou!?" Hermes' eyes widened, staring at Shirou. Even Hestia looked at him with disbelief and confusion.
But Shirou, holding the human-skin-bound book in hand, began slowly flipping through it.
In that instant—before any incantation even began—an ominous magical energy erupted from Shirou's body.
Thick fog poured from him, and within the massive magical vortex surrounding him, tentacles of some unknown being could be seen, distorting the very space around him.
"It's almost time. Ikaros and Thanatos should have finished their preparations as well."
"Ikaros? Thanatos!?" Neither Hermes nor Hestia had expected such names to come from Shirou's mouth. Both gods looked at him in shock, caught in utter confusion.
Shirou, however, silently turned his gaze toward the east of Orario—the direction of the port city Meren, a location relatively close by.
Beyond the port lay the vast sea—an ocean exuding mystery, akin to the abyss of the world itself.
And around the sea, the two gods Ikaros and Thanatos, along with their respective followers, had etched numerous ritual circles into the surface of the water.
These spells were all related to dark, heretical forces, and more importantly, they were created to form a connection with the very book Shirou now held in his hands.
Long before tonight's events began, Shirou had already predicted this possible outcome. He knew very well how unstoppable a god's madness could be.
To the will of a god, the determination of a mortal is as insignificant as a praying mantis trying to block a chariot.
If he wanted to stop the folly of the gods—if he wanted to change the tragic ending—then he had to shatter their delusions and surpass their imagination.
Only by committing acts of madness even the gods could not conceive could one truly defeat them.
And so, Shirou would abandon justice and step into the realm of world-destruction!
"Let it begin. Let this stage be built!" With the same madness as Hermes earlier, Shirou shouted his declaration:
"If this world is nothing but a playground for the gods, then what I shall do is spread death and madness throughout everything here—splattering the ugliest blood across the very beds on which the gods slumber!
Come now—embrace death and insanity! Face the madness that no human should ever reach!"
As Shirou's voice fell, the book in his hand began flipping its pages on its own—beyond his control.
The human-skin-bound book turned its pages violently, triggering a turbulence upon the sea.
Humans and gods gathered at the coastline suddenly realized that countless tentacles had emerged from the ocean depths, rising from the seafloor and revealing a horrifying shape that defied description!
At the shoreline, even the gods Ikaros and Thanatos were shaken by the madness that not even gods could have foreseen.
Though they had already been informed by Shirou and understood the massive changes that would occur upon the release of his Noble Phantasm, when they actually witnessed this scene—something akin to the end of the world—even these evil gods could not help but feel overwhelmed by chaos and madness.
"So this is that brat Emiya's trump card?" Ikaros couldn't suppress the grin twisting his lips. "This is far too thrilling, far too interesting!
This brat is ten thousand times more amusing than I imagined—turns out I was right about him after all! Hahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!!"
Compared to Ikaros' ecstasy, Thanatos merely sighed quietly.
He wasn't as wicked as Ikaros—he stood on the opposite side of Orario out of necessity, not desire.
And so, staring at the terrifying presence forming in the sea, countless thoughts swirled in his mind.
He murmured softly: "Even Ouranos probably couldn't have predicted that Emiya Shirou would go this far...
But at least in one regard, I believe he's right.
To achieve true justice, merely using just means is not enough.
Unless one can be darker than evil, more chaotic than wickedness itself... one will never reach the end of justice..."
"Heh, so to achieve justice, he created this kind of grotesque monstrosity?" Ikaros laughed uncontrollably.
"This is more bizarre than any stage play in the world! I really want to see Hermes' expression after this—how entertaining it must be! If only I could witness it in person!"
"There will be time for that later. For now, let's carry out the task Shirou entrusted to us."
Thanatos interrupted Ikaros' ramblings and quickly ordered his followers to further inscribe magic circles—to release the monster slumbering in the ocean depths and let it consume everything!
.
.
.
At the same time, in Orario, Shirou began chanting the True Name of his Noble Phantasm:
"Let the abandoned gather by my side!" "Let the scorned gather by my side!" "I shall command you! Lead you!" "Now, I once again raise the banner of salvation!" "Let those high above feel our wrath!" "Arrogant gods! Cruel gods! We shall drag you down from your thrones! Let the lambs loved by the gods—the humans with god-like bodies—be torn apart by us without mercy!"
"Our mocking laughter as rebels shall ring through the heavens alongside the cries of the children of gods!" "The resentment of the oppressed shall reach the gods—shall reach the Lord above!" "If justice cannot be realized—then let pure evil devour everything, bringing death to all, and thus grant absolute equality to all living things!" "Release! Release! Prelati's Spellbook: Textbook of the Sunken Spiral Castle.!"
As Shirou's final words fell, the sea erupted in a massive wave, crashing and destroying all in its path. From within the violent spray emerged a form that could not be comprehended with words.
Even the sovereigns of the deep—whales and giant squid—were nothing in comparison.
This monstrous aquatic figure, a nightmare reigning over all the seas of the world, was worthy of only one title:
The Great Sea Demon—has descended!
Read ahead (60 chapters) by supporting me on buymeacoffee com/varietl or ko-fi edwriting