The fight with the Water God made Shirou fully realize just how scary the top experts of this world really are.
At the top of the Water God Style, one of the three major schools, the current Water God is practically the direct embodiment of the concept of water flow. Her swordsmanship is unpredictable and hard to find, but once she builds up momentum, the power she unleashes is like a surging wave, able to instantly break through rocks.
At least, even in Servant Emiya's form, Shirou couldn't even grasp the surface of the Water God's skill, and was easily suppressed by her ordinary techniques.
Therefore, under such desperate circumstances, Shirou knew he only had one choice, and that was to use all his strength, even power that didn't belong to him, to try to defeat the opponent in front of him.
"Trace, On!"
Facing the mighty Water God, Shirou didn't think twice and immediately began to project the strongest swordsmanship he remembered.
In the Holy Grail War that Servant Emiya participated in, the strongest individual in swordsmanship was not King Arthur Artoria, who possessed the Saber class.
Although Artoria's own strength was top-notch, her power mostly came from her own strength and the accumulated power of her vast magic, as well as the terrible power of the divine weapon, the Sword of Promised Victory (Excalibur), which allowed her to defeat most Servant opponents.
In fact, even Artoria, as powerful as she was, almost lost to a Servant who shouldn't have existed.
That Servant was the fake Assassin of the Fifth Holy Grail War, known as Sasaki Kojiro, but not the Sasaki Kojiro from history, a swordsman who left no trace of existence.
He was forcibly summoned by the Servant Caster (Medea) through the mountain gate as a medium, and temporarily joined the Holy Grail War.
Since he wasn't an actual existing Servant, Sasaki Kojiro wasn't really a legendary Servant swordsman.
He was just an anonymous swordsman buried in the old era, who just happened to master the secret sword Swallow Return, a characteristic that overlapped with the legendary Sasaki Kojiro, so he became the summoned Servant under a special fate.
As an Assassin, Sasaki Kojiro's strength was completely mismatched to the class. He not only disliked hiding and acting in secret, but he also especially liked to fight head-on.
And his strength was so great that he could not only defeat Saber Artoria head-on without releasing her treasure, but also repel the top-level Servant Berserker Heracles, preventing him from taking a single step forward.
The reason why an unknown Servant could do this was because of his swordsmanship that surpassed divine skill, a technique that could be called a miracle – the secret sword Swallow Return.
As a human, Kojiro's swordsmanship almost reached its peak. He could even use his sword to shoot down birds in the sky.
It was to this extreme.
If Servant Emiya's swordsmanship was the sword of a hard worker, reaching the limit of mortals through the hammer blows of an ordinary person in countless repetitions, then Sasaki Kojiro's swordsmanship was the sword of a genius. His talent allowed him to break away from the mortal realm from the very beginning, moving straight towards a place far beyond the limits of mortals.
And this was undoubtedly the best weapon to use against the Water God, who was also a genius.
Only the sword of a genius can touch another genius.
"Snap!"
As the magic energy slowly gathered in Shirou's hands, the hot power began to erupt with a surging force, suddenly happening and constantly developing towards the known place.
"Oh?"
Water God Reida saw Shirou's movements and revealed a slightly interested expression.
She originally thought that she had seen through Shirou's sword. He was indeed a North God Style swordsman with considerable strength, but at most he was at the level of the North King or North Emperor.
But she was the dignified Water God. Although it seemed like only a one-word difference, the gap between them was almost as wide as a ravine.
Even without using the Water God Style's ultimate techniques, the Water God had the confidence to easily capture Shirou.
The only thing that could be said to be a hidden danger for her was Shirou's strange magic that she couldn't see the details of. This kind of magic that created weapons out of thin air was too special, and it made the Water God's intuition feel a little uneasy.
However, even though she felt uneasy, Water God Reida didn't have any fear. Instead, she looked at Shirou with great anticipation, wanting to see what the man in front of her could do.
After all, the Water God was still a swordsman. Her instinct as a swordsman naturally wanted to fight against more interesting experts. This kind of swordsman's instinct couldn't be stopped even by age. No matter how old the body was, the swordsman's instinct would always be engraved in the heart of every swordsman.
"..."
In the distance, Shirou's hands were already covered with swelling magic power. The hot energy was like flames, forming the shape of a weapon in the air.
It was a weapon like a long pole. The overall shape was that of a samurai sword, but compared to ordinary samurai swords, the overly slender blade was too long, its length approaching two meters.
Even with Servant Emiya's physique, Shirou still found this weapon too long and difficult to wield freely.
Under normal circumstances, Shirou would definitely be very unfamiliar with such a weapon. At least, without long-term training, it would be impossible to wield it freely.
But the current situation was different, because while projecting the weapon, Shirou also absorbed the techniques contained within the Servant's weapon –
"Trace, On!"
As the projection technique was formally completed, Shirou seemed to merge with the long sword in his hand.
His aura suddenly became clear and empty, and every movement of his body became seamless and perfect.
This was undoubtedly not Shirou's own ability.
Even Servant Emiya had never possessed such exaggerated skill.
This ability, close to perfect stillness of mind, came from Sasaki Kojiro himself. Through the effect of projection installation, it was imitated by Shirou.
And entering this state, the entire world in Shirou's eyes appeared in a unique form. The long sword in his hand seemed to separate the boundaries between reality and illusion, allowing him to see the movement of aura and air, and to see through all falsehoods and flaws.
In the past, Sasaki Kojiro was able to defeat other powerful Servants with his unique swordsmanship, even when his overall stats were weak.
Now that Shirou had completed the projection, he also obtained Kojiro's swordsmanship. Even facing the Water God, he was no longer as helpless as before.
"This aura..."
When the Water God saw the change in Shirou, she suddenly showed a surprised expression.
She obviously didn't expect that Shirou, whom she thought was a North God Style swordsman, would now exude a perfect stillness of mind almost comparable to that of a Water God Style King or Emperor level.
Yes, perfect stillness of mind was also one of the ultimate techniques of the Water God Style.
By expanding one's state of mind and perception to the limit, one's spirit could break through the boundaries of thought and reach a realm that ordinary people could not reach.
With the blessing of this ultimate technique, the Water God Style swordsman's perception would reach an unimaginable level. Even with their eyes closed, they could cut down a passing mosquito.
Because at that realm, the Water God Style sword was no longer a sword wielded with the eyes, but a sword wielded through the six senses, and even through almost metaphysical feelings.
At the same time, even though the actions were completely without any basis, the sword under perfect stillness of mind could often achieve faster movements than a normal person's sword!
As the current Water God, Reida Reia naturally mastered the ultimate technique of perfect stillness of mind.
Therefore, she was not flustered by Shirou's use of perfect stillness of mind, but was rather curious about how the other party learned the Water God Style's ultimate technique.
Could it be that the other party was not actually a North God Style swordsman, but a Water God Style expert?
Did the Water God Style have such an inheritance outside?
While various thoughts were running through the Water God's mind, Shirou was already holding the nameless long sword, adopting Sasaki Kojiro's Iai stance.
As a treasure, Sasaki Kojiro's weapon was not a famous sword, it might even just be an unsigned one. Its existence was just for Sasaki Kojiro to cut down the birds in the sky and achieve the legendary secret sword Swallow Return, a weapon specially made for that purpose.
Therefore, the weapon itself was not the source of power. Sasaki Kojiro's swordsmanship was the true power of that treasure!
"Whoosh!"
The moment Shirou took his stance, even though he didn't make any extra movements, the surrounding air flow suddenly stopped.
"!!!"
The Water God Reida, who was originally quite calm, even without any pressure, and relaxed, finally showed a bit of seriousness.
She already felt that some kind of pressure that couldn't be easily ignored was emanating from Shirou's blade.
As the Water God, she even felt some kind of indescribable death threat.
And she hadn't felt this kind of threat for a long, long time, except from the current Sword God…
"Incredible."
Water God Reida took the initiative to grip her sword.
Only then did Shirou notice that the Water God was actually holding a golden long sword. Her sword movements were so fast before that Shirou had only seen sword energy appearing, but never actually saw the Water God swinging his sword, and even the appearance of the weapon was hard to see.
The fact that she was now showing her sword-swinging motion showed how seriously she took Shirou's existence.
Because of this, Shirou himself felt a bit of joy.
Fighting against a true expert, this feeling was a pleasure that any swordsman could not avoid.
Shirou was no exception.
At this moment, he even forgot his purpose, forgot the current situation where he needed to escape in time, and also forgot that he was facing the Water God, a top expert among humans.
At this moment, he only wanted to show his full strength, and use his sword to try to touch that unreachable cloud!
"Tsubame Gaeshi!"
Shirou suddenly took a step forward.
The long sword in his hand was swung in an instant, but it seemed to tear open three layers of space in the blink of an eye, transforming into three different weapons!
If ordinary people saw this, they would probably think it was magic, or some special technique.
But only true swordsmen could be sure that it was not magic, nor was it acrobatics, but pure swordsmanship!
When the sword-swinging motion was fast enough, an unavoidable phenomenon would appear!
A flash from the real world, and then two flashes that completely overlapped simultaneously, ignoring the concept of time and space, resulting in slashes from three directions.
It could be called the peak of pure skill.
This was the Tsubame Gaeshi!
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