Sensing the unpleasant aura emanating from the sword, Yoru finally understood what it truly was.
A holy sword deadly to devils—Excalibur!
And yet now, that very weapon—a bane to demons—was unbelievably being wielded by a devil.
"So that's how it is... You gave up the Sacred Gear in your body in exchange for that sword, huh?" Yoru muttered with a frown.
Shirou Shigen had originally possessed the Sacred Gear known as Black Dragon's Veins. But now, its presence had vanished completely.
"Hahaha! Stop pretending to be calm—you're trembling in fear, aren't you?! This is the holy sword—Excalibur! A weapon like poison to devils! Just the aura alone is already too much for you to bear, isn't it?!" Shirou cackled like a madman. As his face twisted with his laughter, the right half of his body churned like bubbling magma. Disgusting boils rose, pulsed, and burst open, their sticky pus quickly washed away by the rain.
"You're scared, aren't you?! Why aren't you afraid?! What is that look on your face?! I've obtained overwhelming power! I'm going to kill you! I'll tear you to pieces!"
But the expression Shirou longed to see never appeared. Yoru's face remained as calm and emotionless as ever, those cold eyes showing no reaction.
"Why did you betray Sona?"
Yoru didn't rise to his provocation. He simply asked that one quiet question.
At those words, pain twisted across Shirou's face—like a wounded beast, he glared at Yoru with both fury and despair.
"I… I didn't! I never betrayed the President! I love her! I love her deeply! What the hell do you know?! You—some guy who came out of nowhere—you think you understand how I feel about her?!"
Yoru responded with the lightest of acknowledgments, barely lifting his eyelids as he muttered:
"Oh?"
That casual reaction struck Shirou like a slap in the face. His already-twisted features became even more grotesque.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this... It wasn't! She was supposed to be mine... It's your fault! If you hadn't shown up—if it weren't for you—she and I could have gone back to how we were before!"
"Yes... that's right. If you just disappear, everything will go back. Once I return to Sona with this newfound strength, we'll go back to how we were. Then slowly, she'll start to love me, and we'll have a child together, and then we'll get married..."
Listening to Shirou's deranged murmuring, Yoru's face didn't change in the slightest. Maybe it was true—he didn't understand the history between Shirou and Sona. He didn't understand Shirou's feelings. But so what?
None of that had anything to do with him. He had no reason to understand. In fact, even Sona herself probably didn't know how Shirou felt.
It was just a one-sided crush. He didn't have the courage to confess, never dared to express it, and now here he was babbling about how deep his love ran. Wasn't that laughable?
Yoru's lips curled into a mocking smile. He didn't bother lecturing Shirou with moral platitudes—at this point, such words were meaningless. Yoru didn't know exactly what Shirou had become... but one thing was certain: there was no coming back from this.
All Yoru could do now was kill him—to grant him release from this miserable state.
"Oh... right. I forgot to tell you something. While you were gone—Sona became my woman."
Yoru said it with a light, almost casual smile—but his words were cruel and deliberately vicious.
That single sentence shattered whatever shred of sanity Shirou had left. With a furious howl, he raised Excalibur into the rain, its blade flashing with a blinding white light. Like a wild beast, Shirou charged straight at the unmoving Yoru.
The rain seemed to fall even harder.
As the monster came barreling toward him, Yoru narrowed his eyes slightly.
In that instant, the pounding rain transformed into countless ice blades, piercing into Shirou's already grotesque, mutated body.
Blood exploded from the rotting flesh, blending into the rain and instantly washed away—leaving no trace.
But even the barrage of icy blades wasn't enough to slow Shirou's charge. In the blink of an eye, his monstrous frame had closed the distance, and Excalibur came crashing down toward Yoru.
To a devil, the holy sword Excalibur was like venom. But for Yoru, it only caused discomfort and disgust. As the sword swung toward him, a frigid power condensed in his palm.
A massive black greatsword manifested from thin air, blocking the devastating blow.
The two swords clashed amidst the pouring rain—sending up a storm of water, which instantly crystallized into razor-sharp ice shards. They flew straight toward Shirou's eyes.
"GAAAHHHHHHH!!"
With almost no resistance, Shirou's human face was turned into a bloodied hive of punctures. Though the monstrous half of his body healed rapidly from the attack, his still-human face was far more fragile.
Even as his deformed arm continued to grip Excalibur, his remaining human arm clutched at his ravaged face. Screaming in agony, he stumbled backward, step after step.
Yoru, in contrast, strolled forward like he was taking a walk in a garden.
"How foolish... Did you not realize...?"
He smiled faintly. "In this kind of weather, it's my domain. Even I don't know how much power I can unleash here."
Raising his hand slowly, the torrential rain froze in place.
Then—all of it turned to ice.
A dreamlike shimmer spread behind Yoru like a wave of pure frost. The rain had vanished entirely. Now, descending from behind him, aimed at Shirou—were ice spears.
Each one over a meter long.
Their sheer number... easily in the thousands.
---
Access more chapters at patreon.com/dzeref887