Chapter 527: Absorbing Saber

Between Heaven and Earth, pure white light submerged everything, and sound vanished completely, only slowly recovering after a long while.

Haa~

Haa~

Emiya Shirou panted, looking at the scene before him; half a corpse was still standing in place.

The upper body looked as if it had been sliced diagonally across the waist by a giant sword.

That handsome, sinister face of Tao Baibai had long since disappeared.

In the sky, the thunderclouds had completely dispersed; above the ruins of Fuyuki City, a massive chasm tens of thousands of meters long lay broken in the middle.

Because the city's foundation had already been shattered beforehand, the destruction caused by this sword strike was far beyond imagination.

But Emiya Shirou had no heart to think about more at this moment; he only clutched his own heart, and only then did he feel fresh air rushing into his lungs, the world seemingly turning into color once again.

From the moment that Tao Baibai erupted with a terrifying aura, knocking everyone unconscious directly, and then began a cruel hunt, he felt as if the world he was familiar with was about to be completely destroyed by this Monster.

This was not the Holy Grail War he had imagined.

Whether it was Tohsaka Rin or Saber, both told him that the Holy Grail War was merely a war of Magicians, a special struggle hidden behind the real world.

But Tao Baibai had turned the Holy Grail War into a cruel slaughterhouse.

Thinking of the scene where Tohsaka Rin and Matou Sakura were struck by lightning, he became tense again.

"Saber, let's hurry and go check on classmate Tohsaka and..."

Emiya Shirou suddenly froze, his heart plummeting to the bottom in an instant, as if he had seen the most terrifying scene, even forgetting how to breathe.

He looked at Saber, who stood motionless before him, having not made a single sound since that sword was swung.

A sharp pain suddenly came from his heart.

He suddenly felt a strong panic; even though they hadn't spent much time together, Saber's integrity and strength had left a deep impression on him.

She had even saved him from danger many times.

Emiya Shirou hardly dared to step forward.

"Saber?"

"Hey, Saber, are you alright!"

Emiya Shirou tremblingly came before the girl knight; the next moment, his eyes turned red, and tears blurred his vision.

The blonde girl knight's hair had come undone, draped over her face; that dazzling long golden hair, at this moment, seemed to have lost its luster of life, becoming somewhat dull.

Her blue battle skirt was soaked in blood; her silver armor was intact, but it seemed to have been shattered from within long ago.

"Sa... ber..."

The girl's jade-like pupils trembled twice, her eyelids so heavy they were difficult to lift, but she still managed to open her eyes.

Her eyeballs had no strength to move, and her head was too heavy to lift.

"Shirou..."

The voice was faint, like the chirping of a cicada.

Emiya Shirou immediately crouched down, coming to Saber's side, only to hear her whisper.

"Run..."

Emiya Shirou froze, not understanding what she meant, but the next moment.

Sshhh-la!

The sound of thunder tearing through the sky rang out again.

Manic wind accompanied by a bone-chilling aura permeated from before him.

That kind of terrifying aura, that kind of presence that made one's hair stand on end...

Emiya Shirou looked up in disbelief, only to see that on the incomplete corpse that only had half a body left, disgusting granulation tissue was twitching rapidly, intertwining like so many maggots.

Soon, the granulation tissue grew more and more, and that incomplete corpse that only had half left became whole once again.

Muscles began to reshape, blood vessels began to regenerate, and then the epidermis; fair skin appeared bit by bit from above the flesh.

"What on earth... is going on?!"

Emiya Shirou felt somewhat desperate; Saber's powerful, decisive strike, that strike which had almost cost her life, had actually not killed this guy?!

The world suddenly turned dark; thunderclouds had completely covered the sky of Fuyuki City.

Thump.

A most ordinary Footwork sound, in Emiya Shirou's ears, vibrated like a thunderclap.

The next moment, a fair hand grabbed his head.

"Heh, you let the powerful king run away; why would a weak guy like you stay here?"

"Is it because of the so-called dream of being an ally of Justice, or... stupidity?!" The signature mocking tone made Emiya Shirou feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

Tao Baibai... had really revived!

Bai Cangshu looked at the panel before him.

【Tese · Twelve Labors, resurrection count consumed (0/11), please replenish in the space, or wait for Magic Power to recover naturally】

Just a single sword strike had wiped out nine of his resurrection counts.

No, it should be said that this sword strike had completely wiped out all twelve of his Twelve Labors resurrection counts; the reason he hadn't died was simply because of his own Immortality...

In this world, his Immortality was quite outstanding!

He had been cut down to half a body and could still revive.

Even, because he was an Assassin at this moment, even if his physical body were completely blasted away, he still wouldn't be considered completely dead.

Of course, in that situation, whether he could revive would no longer be up to him.

Perhaps, he would become a product similar to God's Hand Roland in the Pirate World.

Emiya Shirou struggled subconsciously, but the large hand on his head did not shake in the slightest; Bai Cangshu looked at the blonde knight who still maintained a standing posture, his face revealing a look of admiration.

Bai Cangshu tossed Emiya Shirou aside casually, then began to gently clap his hands; Ghost Disc: Same Fate is a skill similar to mutual destruction that can lock onto a target within one's field of vision and transmit the damage received to the target in its entirety.

He had obtained it long ago but never had a suitable opportunity to use it; in this world, by relying on his powerful Immortality to target Saber, who had lost the Everdistant Utopia: Avalon, it meant that Saber's powerful sword strike not only killed Bai Cangshu but also killed herself.

He clapped continuously for Saber, for Artoria, this Knight King, who had indeed given him a huge surprise.

This level of power could not be explained simply by the Star Holy Sword being powerful enough, nor could it be explained by Saber's Magic Power Burst level being high enough.

From the perspective of Bai Cangshu's Heart Vortex, there was only one explanation for this abnormal amplification of power.

Or rather, that so-called Excalibur itself contained the "hearts" of this Knight King and the countless people who had died following her.

That sword strike came down like the magnificent might of Heaven.

Clap, clap, clap!

Bai Cangshu walked closer while clapping, then pressed one hand onto Artoria's head.

Pitch-black power erupted accordingly.

Yin Spirit Possession!

Bai Cangshu radiated a powerful force of absorption, that most potent force against Spirit Body creatures, and in an instant, Saber, whose consciousness had fallen into chaos, began to dissipate.

Emiya Shirou tried to step forward again, but a pitch-black hand-blade thrust straight toward his neck.

Emiya Shirou dodged instinctively, but he discovered that no matter how he dodged, he could not shake off that hand-blade at all.

"Stop, Assassin!"

Bai Cangshu's hand-blade stopped before the youth's neck, and sharp Force cut a tiny wound into the youth's neck.

Ilya stopped Bai Cangshu.

At this moment, the Knight King's Servant body finally crumbled, turning into a blue-white Spirit Body that merged into Bai Cangshu's body.

At this moment, Bai Cangshu felt immense Man Zhi.

It was not just that he had gained another point of Soul energy; more so, it was the exhilaration of having achieved his goal.

【You have accommodated a new Spirit Body, Heroic Spirit Artoria】

【Soul energy +6, current:?】

【Special property: Lesser Grail starting to activate...】

【Activating...】

Before Ilya and Emiya Shirou could speak, Bai Cangshu suddenly felt a powerful force emerge within his body.

That force was so vast it far exceeded any individual Heroic Spirit.

Almost in an instant, it tore through the boundaries of Bai Cangshu's already somewhat fractured sea of consciousness.

Pfft!

Blood sprayed from Bai Cangshu's mouth and nose, but he felt no pain at all; he wore a fanatical expression as he looked toward the ruins of Ryudou Temple in the distance—or to be precise, toward where the Greater Grail was located.

It was faster than he had anticipated; perhaps it was because Bai Mian had already merged with Gilgamesh, so when he accommodated Bai Mian, he also accommodated the existence of Gilgamesh, or perhaps the fracturing of the Meridian had caused a certain impact on the Greater Grail's ritual.

But in any case, Bai Cangshu saw that the outcome of him completely winning the Holy Grail War had already appeared...

He spread his arms, letting the Heroic Spirits begin to pierce the outer wall of his sea of consciousness.

"It's coming, it's coming; as the Lesser Grail, I summon the Greater Grail to appear... Ha~"

(End of this chapter)