They've already fought their way through the Holy Grail War, and you still call them dragons?

However, he thought too much. Such an approach had little effect on the divine-level armor. Its resistance was just like a child trying to poke a giant steel structure with an embroidery needle. It was ridiculous and overestimating one's own capabilities.

Emiya looked at Herzog's almost self-destructive behavior coldly, then casually swung the sword Ame Murakumo, and the golden light shone like the scorching sun.

"Ah!!" Herzog howled miserably, attempting to dodge the moment the golden light fell. But the sword light launched by Emiya suddenly exploded violently in the air! It was like a blazing sun erupting in the sky!

In a panic, he blocked with his sword, and even used defensive words, but he was still blown to pieces with blood and flesh flying everywhere. Half of his body, including his right arm and right leg, were melted in that brief moment, and he instantly became a third-level cripple.

Good struggle, I'll reward you with the same treatment as Odin.

"Ah ah ah..."

Herzog was flying weakly. The White King's super self-recovery ability began to automatically repair his body, but the rationality in his mind had become drowsy, and the boiling dragon blood made his brutal bestiality rise. He soon began to recite the dragon text again, and the fire elements between heaven and earth gathered madly.

"Do you want to continue dancing?"

Emiya grasped the divine sword and watched as Herzog mobilized the already extremely active fire element in this burning world, dyeing the bisected clouds a brilliant crimson, forming a magnificent crimson glow. The pure violence of fire began to exert its remarkable effect.

The exclusive word spirit of the King of Bronze and Fire, Zhulong!

The might of Zhulong exerted miraculous effects in this special singularity that was burned. The super word spirit that was enough to burn cities, evaporate rivers, and detonate underground magma was transformed into a divine fire that judged all things at this moment!

Seriously wounded, Herzog fell into complete madness. He exhausted all his strength, drained his blood, and controlled countless fire elements, even at the risk of exacerbating his own injuries! The result was that the elemental storm reached a new level. A mighty torrent of flames swept across the sea of ​​clouds, forming an endless celestial fire that rained down from the sky!

"...it's all fancy."

Emiya loosened his grip, and the sword dissipated into particles in mid-air. Simultaneously, the armor, pulsing with purple lightning, shifted color, revealing a new, jet-black and orange shell.

"Godhead unfolds Surut!"

Want to fight me at the middle gate? I'm the Fire Giant King!

Shine in the sun, Levatin!

The sea of ​​fire elements exploded instantly, torn apart and shattered by the brighter flames of the sun, and the skyfire storm created by the Ultimate Word Spirit collapsed head-on!

“No… Impossible…!”

After continuously performing mental simulations and releasing the two ultimate word spirits, Herzog finally woke up from his bloodthirsty state and regained his consciousness with reason.

As he opened his eyes, Herzog saw Emiya transform into a flaming giant, fiercely tearing apart the Candle Dragon Sky Palace with Levatin... Damn it! His eyes widened, his heart and liver trembling at the horrifying sight. He whimpered and cried out in surprise. His own injuries worsened, and he was so frightened that he forgot to control the wind element and fell from the air!

The sea of ​​fire boiled and the sun set.

In his final moments before regaining consciousness, Herzog witnessed a blazing, world-destroying flame descending from the sky. He felt the flames gradually licking and melting the dragon's tough, yet vibrant, body. The blazing giant rapidly grew larger in his field of vision...

The throne of the White King, carefully planned for decades, was as fragile as a dream bubble, and the battle against the enemy before him was like a real and long nightmare...

----

An unknown amount of time later, the unlucky and unreputable White King Herzog regained consciousness and discovered that his body was in pain. He was actually still alive.

There was an old temple all around, far away from the burning city. The temperature was not high, and the shimenawa ropes symbolizing the giant snake were enshrined in the temple. An unstoppable hot wind was blowing in the air, making his wounds more painful.

He could hear someone talking outside, and he was tied to a pillar inside the temple gate. The strange and complex flow of elements (magic) blocked his ability to move, and even his Dragon King-level recovery ability was suppressed to a very low level.

A woman with long purple hair and a vicious expression was waving a blackboard brush, forming an air blade, cutting slices of dragon flesh from Herzog's dragon body, just like the "Lingchi" punishment in ancient legends!

So that's how severe pain comes from.

...He was captured alive by the enemy!

"Hey, hey, are you awake? I'm asking you, are you still in pain?" The concerned voice of the purple-haired woman sounded like a devil's voice coming from hell.

"It hurts, my butt hurts!" Herzog, who was sober, was afraid of death and started shouting for mercy.

The purple-haired woman cut off another large piece of meat and threw it outside. "Hehe, my butt is on the tree! It doesn't hurt anymore."

Herzog: “…”

Chapter 313: The Stage of a Deadly Battle

While BB was "treating" the prisoner Herzog well, Emiya and Mashu had already found the leyline node near the shrine.

This shrine, dedicated to the Yamata no Orochi, is covered in a crimson earth known as the "True Crimson Earth," said to be soaked in the creature's blood. Nearby lies the mighty Tama River, flowing above ground. Its confluence with the underground Akagi River, known as the Red Well, forms a leyline node.

"...was that Emiya-senpai's combat prowess just now? Amazing! Oh, what a shame I didn't record the battle footage in time. With such prowess, I'm sure more and more people will recognize us in the years ahead—"

"...Yeah, yeah, that's right. Chaldea has a bright future! But, Mashu, you've been talking for quite some time now, and isn't it awkward to keep praising me? We have nothing to do here either, so why don't we change the subject?"

"Okay, by the way, have you ever done any research on cold brew coffee?"

Mashu then turned to the common topic of coffee in Chaldea. As an institution mainly composed of researchers, Chaldea's consumption of coffee beans is also quite astonishing. Due to different tastes, different types of beans have different preferences.

"I personally prefer the cold brew method, where I refrigerate the milk and filter it directly with a French press..."

"Oh, cold brew! I prefer pour-over brewing. With cold brew, grinding too coarsely or not brewing for long enough can be a problem..."

Emiya hadn't expected that the innocent junior schoolmate Mashu could be so articulate. Or perhaps it was because of her unique innocence, kindness, and wealth of knowledge that she was so popular in Chaldea? ...

While the two were talking, Mashu saw that the time was almost up, so when she touched her shield to the ground again, she moved the connection point with the earth vein slightly in another direction, and the pattern similar to the Heroic Spirit Summoning Array underwent subtle changes.

According to BB, they used Mashu's shield as a catalyst to set up a summoning circle and try to establish contact with Chaldea. This summoning/counter-summoning based on spirit particle transfer can also be used to transport supplies.

The only problem is that the transfer of the spirit particles was too hasty this time. This was the first time we tried this kind of thing, so it needed constant debugging.

...It's called debugging, but from Mashu's perception, it seems that only the wavelength or frequency of the magic power in the array has changed.

It felt like the two of them were creating a crude hacking program (summoning circle) to try to bypass the obstacles (the abnormal space-time of the singularity) as a remote proxy to access a target server far away (Chaldea Main Building).

However, because the obstruction was too strong, they kept changing the disguised signal source and "pinging" back and forth, but with little success.

"Senior, is the method Miss BB taught me really okay? Can we really successfully contact the headquarters?"

Mashu wasn't an expert in this area, and even though Team A had similar training, she wasn't entirely confident. Singularities... only after experiencing them did she realize how complex the situation was.

Emiya wasn't much better either. His specialty was cutting-edge material manufacturing and strategic applications, essentially, the art of rubbing Noble Phantasms. This kind of trans-dimensional communication was essentially an application of spirit summoning formations, something Chu Zihang was probably better at.

When Chu Zihang first enrolled in the Spiral Hall, he decisively chose the "Possession Building". In other words, it is a building that specializes in the study of spirit possession technology, similar to the "Spiritual Conjuring" in the West. Although Emiya is his master, most of what he teaches is practical application.

When asked why he chose the Pingyi Tower, Chu Zihang replied as expected that it was to find his biological father Chu Tianjiao.

The image of this student's stern yet stubborn face flashed through Emiya's mind, and he shook his head secretly. Then he thought, replacing Chu Zihang wouldn't necessarily be any better. BB's level was already beyond the Chaldean gang...

Unfortunately, she's not very honest and loves to make trouble. Things that could be solved quickly always get tangled up because of her personal mischief...

Whoosh!

There was a sound of wind explosion. Emiya turned his head and saw a bloody piece of meat flying out from the palace door. It happened to be caught on a dead branch of a crooked tree in the courtyard.

"BB is making trouble again?" Emiya subconsciously felt that something was wrong.

"Hey, didn't Senior ask Miss BB to interrogate the enemy?" Mashu was startled when she saw the "flying flesh", but after calming down a little, she said, "Do you want me to help?"

"Don't go! This kind of thing is not suitable for children!" Emiya thought that BB was always good at torturing people, and the little marshmallow might not be able to withstand such a heavy-tasting scene.

"How is Abbas's injury? Is there any sign of him waking up?"

Mashu looked at the nearby area and saw Abbas, who was bandaged and lying flat on a simple bed made of a futon and wooden boards, breathing steadily.

"It's nothing serious for now. Mr. Abbas's complexion seems to be getting better. Maybe he will recover quickly!"

"Really? It seems he's in good health. Since he's alright, I'll go inside and take a look."

After saying this, Emiya walked into the palace.

As soon as he came in, he smelled a pungent fishy smell. He saw BB slowly and calmly torturing Herzog. The cut pieces of meat seemed to be stored as magic materials and no one knew what they were used for.

"What are you doing? How's the interrogation going?"

"Don't worry, senior. Hehe, the results are almost all out," BB glanced at the blood-stained figure on the pillar.

Herzog's eyes were glassy, ​​as if he had been tortured to the point of losing all his strength. However, BB swung the cane in his hand, and for some unknown reason, the whipping caused Herzog immense pain. He screamed and suddenly regained consciousness.

The first person he saw was Emiya who came in.

"Ah!! Don't come over here!!"

Herzog's severely crippled body trembled wildly. He felt as if he were witnessing some lingering nightmare, as if as long as he fixed his gaze on Emiya, the catastrophic scene of the giant easily defeating the Dragon King's Ultimate Word Spirit would replay itself in his mind over and over again.

Then BB slapped him again, and this made the noisy guy shut up successfully.

"What did you do to him?"

When Emiya fought Herzog before, he did intend to create a psychological shadow of invincibility for him, but he shouldn't be so scared to this extent, right?

"Hehe, Senior, you don't understand what schemers and ambitious people fear most." BB wanted to keep it a secret, but seeing Emiya's impatience, he had to speak frankly, "--It's simple. This kind of person's biggest fear is that everything they work for will be in vain no matter what~!"

Emiya thought for a moment, "Oh? You told this guy that the spacetime he's in is a singularity?"

"Hehe, that's it! The ultimate outcome of this abnormal, distorted space-time is annihilation. In other words, this is a cruel reminder to Herzog that his very existence has been denied by the world itself, and that his dream, which he successfully realized, is 'incorrect'!"

"So what about the intelligence he spilled? Was there any useful information?"

BB looked at Herzog with disdain:

"This person claims to be the victor of the Holy Grail War, but he's never actually faced off against any of the other contenders. After witnessing the Heroic Spirits' fighting prowess, he only dared to fan the flames behind the scenes, indirectly leading everyone to slaughter each other..."

After listening to BB's story, Emiya roughly understood the differences in the development of this Holy Grail War.

What is certain is that I do not seem to appear in this time and space, nor do I see Norton or Xia Mi.

Despite the Holy Grail War, Herzog still sat back and used his position as the leader of the Eight Snake Clans and the Demon Kings to manipulate the war situation and ultimately profit from it.

According to Herzog's conclusion that he is essentially a pawn of Odin, we can deduce that the direction of this Holy Grail War is basically the "script" planned by Odin?

The original operators, including Norton and Shami, are missing, so the actual controller of the Holy Grail is Odin?

No wonder Odin disappeared as soon as they landed. It seems his existence was integrated with the isotope in the singularity!

Emiya gathered his thoughts. "What's going on with the fire burning all over Tokyo? And we ran all the way here and didn't see a single person. What's going on?"

BB swung his teaching stick, and Herzog felt the excruciating pain of slow slicing again. He couldn't help but beg for mercy, "I... I don't know either!"

"The Holy Grail War started inexplicably, and I have no idea what happened. The city was engulfed in flames overnight, and all humans disappeared. By then, I had already seized the throne of the White King, transformed into a dragon, and soared into the sky, so I don't know the details—"

Emiya's face was expressionless. "Are you feeling lucky to have escaped such a disaster? So is there really nothing left in the city? Have all the Servants of the Holy Grail War left?"

"Well... maybe there are still some remaining servants..." Herzog trembled.

Emiya frowned as he looked at the white dragon that was covered in wounds. He didn't have the majesty of the White King at all. Instead, he looked like a frightened old human.

"Aren't you the victor of the Holy Grail War? How come you don't even know this? After the Servants leave, the Holy Grail will appear. Only the one who seizes the Holy Grail at this time will be called the victor... You don't even understand this?"

"I haven't even seen the Holy Grail! Besides, who would believe that nonsense about wish-granting?" Herzog cried out in frustration, "Those so-called Servants were indeed defeated in battle after battle, but they didn't disappear. Instead, they underwent a horrible transformation - they turned into Shura demons!"

"Those evil spirits have changed their temperaments drastically. They kill people indiscriminately, and those who are killed mysteriously disappear... I don't know why the fire suddenly broke out, but many people actually disappeared after being killed..."

Herzog shuddered, finally revealing crucial information. The ghost he described was definitely not the out-of-control hybrid "Deadpool" the secret party had described, but a hellish ghost many times more terrifying than that!

"Since you call yourself the 'new White King' and your 'majesty forbids provocation,' why didn't you kill them? What are you afraid of?"

Herzog felt a little guilty after hearing this:

"I once bombarded those servants who turned into demons with high-powered words, but they quickly revived! I tried to find isolated individuals and chop off their heads and crush their limbs, but demons can still be reborn infinitely!"

"...In short, they were just unkillable corpses. I had no way of dealing with them, but then—they suddenly vanished! Maybe they hid their whereabouts, or maybe they just stayed put. Over time, I stopped trying to avoid the bad luck of getting into trouble."

"..."

Emiya thought speechlessly, "It hasn't been that long, and you're still deceiving yourself, brazenly claiming to be the MVP, the victor of the Holy Grail War! But when you look at your actual record, it's a complete zero."

Then after a while, when they saw that we were new faces, they presumptuously thought that victory had come to them and that we were easy to bully?

After realizing the idiotic nature of Herzog, the fake white king, he finally understood where BB's disgust came from.

If he had the level of a true White King, he wouldn't be forced into a corner by a few evil servants... No, if he were the real White King, he would at least have started the mythological ceremony to ascend the throne and be crowned as the Supreme God!

After understanding the situation, Emiya and BB began to discuss how to deal with Herzog. While eliminating him would be straightforward and easy, the White King's power within him couldn't be wasted. It would be best to have the best of both worlds—

"Ding ding ding! This is when we need BB-kun's professional anti-dragon technique, the spirit particle fictitious trap software! CCC!"

BB pointed to the slices of meat next to him that were cut off as a result of Herzog's slow slicing.

"Just now, the material composition of the individual Herzog has been analyzed. Hehe, do you think torture is just my bad taste? Of course not!"

"BB-kun will use his best technology to complete the computerization and convert this prisoner into a spirit particle crystal. This way, there will be no worries about waste!"

BB transformed the bloody meat into shimmering blue spirit particles. "Hmm, it's worthy of the spirit particle trap that took me half a day to create. The loss from the transformation is almost negligible."

Herzog's face was filled with fear, but unfortunately, he was too weak to struggle due to his severe injuries and losses. He could only shout with all his might:

"Wait! I've revealed information to you, I've shed blood, I've performed meritorious deeds! I'm the elite scientist who usurped the White King's throne! Now, this great mind of mine cannot disappear from this world!"

However, BB was always very efficient. "Yes, the CCC program has finished loading! It says, 'You can go online!'"

"No!" Herzog screamed, but the scream gradually faded away and turned into pure lepton matter in a blue light.