104 Phantom Demon Appears
"Ugh… I didn't expect… I would be defeated so easily…" Moriarty's eyes widened in disbelief. At this moment, his body had already been sliced from shoulder to ribs by the scythe.
"Even though I always found you suspicious, we've been fighting side by side with Uncle for several days. Your fighting style is exactly the same as his; I saw right through it long ago!" Shirou closed his seven-colored magical eyes, rested the scythe on his shoulder, and said calmly.
"No matter how precise your calculations, if your process and objective are already known to your opponent from the start, everything becomes meaningless, Moriarty! This is your complete defeat!"
Holmes declared.
"Defeated…? In that case, your appearance disrupted my plans from the very beginning… The Chaldea Master is truly detestable, but Emiya Shirou is also detestable… ugh." Moriarty disappeared from the scene.
"Defeated… He's a frightening boy in every sense," said the bearded uncle standing next to Gudako, sighing.
Mash looked at the monitoring data, her face lighting up in surprise. She unzipped her mouth and cheerfully reported, "Evil Moriarty confirmed eliminated! Amazing! We did it! Gudako-senpai! Shirou-senpai!"
"Thank you, everyone! This victory is the result of our combined efforts!" Gudako shouted happily.
"No… it's not over yet!" Holmes's face showed alertness.
He had sensed something unusual all along, and indeed, his reasoning seemed to have a certain oversight.
"That's right! The Holy Grail…!" Shirou looked at the spot beneath the scythe where Moriarty had disappeared—no Holy Grail remained there.
"No Holy Grail? Then what is this power…?" Holmes could not speculate.
"Confirmed: Spirit Origin detected! This pattern… how can it be!" Mash shouted in shock.
At that moment, the entire space darkened. A twisted black hole appeared, and from it emerged a humanoid demon.
Behind him floated rows of diamond-shaped blood-red vertical eyes.
"Hahahahaha! Hahahahaha! I remember! I remember! Finally, I've waited for you! Cursed Chaldea Master! Gudako!"
The orange-haired girl asked in surprise upon seeing the demon, "Could it be Goetia?"
Da Vinci analyzed the data and said, "No, it's not! This is a Demon Pillar! It's humanoid, but this Spirit Origin pattern is correct!"
"Aren't all the Demon Pillars dead?" Gudako asked.
The demon looked at Gudako with rage: "Dead?! Our clan had already lost hope long ago! We cannot be resurrected, cannot return. From the moment my plan 3000 years ago was destroyed by you, everything ended! Even so, I endured humiliation and survived until now, all for this moment! All for the purpose of taking your life!!"
"That won't do. Even if you come again, I will deal with you the same way," Shirou said, standing in front of Gudako.
Artoria stood beside the boy, side by side, and said coldly, "Hmph! So you're a remnant trying to escape. To still come here at this point, claiming you want to take Gudako's life, that's shameless indeed!"
Jeanne said angrily: "After giving me so much trouble before, to think it's you—a loser who still remembers revenge despite being defeated—is infuriating!"
"I know! It's humiliating, ugly! But there's a fire in my chest that has tormented me, not because of my 3000-year plan being destroyed, not because I, the Demon Pillar, was slaughtered by countless heroic spirits, and not because of the detestable Solomon. T
he plan was complete, the progress perfect, yet it was doomed from the start. That's right! It's you! Gudako!" the demon roared.
"Me?" Gudako pointed to herself in confusion.
"Yes, Chaldea Master, only you cannot erase the hatred in my heart!
Why was it you who reached that place? This planet, this era! Why you! If it was a hero beyond humanity, I would understand; if a monster worse than a demon, I would accept it.
But why must it be you, such a completely ordinary and mediocre human, to ruin everything? I fled in disgrace and survived until now for only one purpose: to kill you, even if it means destroying this world!" the demon shouted hysterically.
"I'm just trying to survive!" Gudako said, locking eyes with the demon.
"Yes, Gudako did nothing wrong! Demon Pillar or black sludge spirits, all bizarrely seeking revenge. What a headache. Let me deal with him for you!" Shirou said, turning to the girl behind him with a smile.
"Alright! I'll assist you, Shirou-senpai!" Gudako clenched her fist and said with determination.
"Escaping from the Temple of Time, nurturing revenge for 3000 years until now?" Holmes said.
"Indeed, Detective! Over 3000 years, I acquired the technique to combine heroic spirits with phantasms. The historically shallow, unbelieved, abandoned remnants of humanity also possess great value: paranormal legends, fairy tales, extinct beasts, the desire for retribution, obsession with revenge. I am Baal, the Demon God! These are the elements that compose me even today!"
"Then I have a question: what is your connection to Moriarty?" Holmes asked.
"As much as you want, my lifelong rival, Holmes," Moriarty said coldly from behind the detective.
A blade pierced the vital spot behind Holmes.
"Moriarty… you… so that's it. You betrayed us from the start. What a miscalculation. I didn't expect you would go to such lengths for victory. Gudako, I'm sorry, my reasoning failed. Shirou! Kill me! There's still time!"
"What's going on?!" Shirou and the girls asked in surprise.
"I won't let you pass," the demon blocked the boy.
"Unfortunately, your companions cannot match your speed of thought or decisiveness. I've won! Farewell! My kin, the world's greatest detective, let me borrow your power to achieve victory!" Moriarty said, absorbing Holmes into his body.
"Spirit Origin… Holmes has been fused into Moriarty!" Da Vinci exclaimed.
"Exactly. Every duel between Holmes and me always ended in my defeat, as if restrained by fate or some other force. So this time, I decided to absorb Holmes and make him my partner. In other words, the only one who could defeat me is now my partner, and now I am invincible!" Moriarty said with a smile.
"When did you decide to betray us?" Mash asked.
"If I had to say, it was just now," Moriarty said, smiling.
"What is happening?" Jeanne asked.
Moriarty continued:
"New Shinjuku is a fragment cut from countless worlds, unrelated to human history.
This place became a city of fantasy. Phantasms and heroic spirits, phantasms and phantasms, normally cannot fuse outside this world. But here, Baal and I formed an alliance for our respective goals. Baal seeks to kill you, Gudako; I aim to surpass Holmes. As humans and demons, we formed the 'Phantom Demon Alliance.'"
"So you planned this from the beginning? And we didn't notice? How foolish!" Artoria exclaimed in anger.
"No, at first, his Spirit Origin was indeed damaged. That's true," Shirou said, confirming with his magic eyes.
"Yes. The reason we were deceived was not because I'm a great actor. I reset myself, removing memories, evil traits, generating goodness. Baal also erased his memory, becoming the previous me—Evil Moriarty. I fought alongside you all, giving everything. So, Master, do not lament for not seeing through it," Moriarty said to Gudako.
"I'm just sad!" Gudako shook her head.
Moriarty looked at her with complexity, sighing: "Sorry… you are not sad for my betrayal, but for me returning to evil…"
Baal spoke: "Moriarty, shall we begin the battle?"
"Though it may be futile, it's not entirely futile. Consider this a farewell! For your revenge to end, for my loyalty to end! Fight!" Moriarty prepared the mechanized coffin.
"I'll take the Demon Pillar! That black sludge spirit last time said it was my responsibility… didn't expect this…" Shirou raised the scythe.
"I'll help too! Let's roast this guy like takoyaki!" Jeanne shouted angrily.
"Hmph, don't hold me back!" Artoria raised her holy sword.
"Gudako! Support is up to you!" Shirou said.
"Yes! Leave it to me, Senpai!" Gudako shouted, raising her fist.
"Ahh!!!"
After fusing with Holmes, Moriarty became extremely powerful. Behind him, the demon transformed into a massive Demon Pillar, emanating a violent aura, a cylindrical form like tentacles with countless red eyes.
Moriarty unleashed a massive attack, continuously firing with a machine gun, launching cannons, while the Demon Pillar emitted magical beams.
Shirou and the girls quickly dodged. The narrow tower space made dealing with such heavy firepower difficult.
"Damn! —Excalibur Morgan!!"
"Roar! My wrath!"
Artoria and Jeanne counterattacked with their Noble Phantasms.
Black light and roaring flames surged at Moriarty and the Demon Pillar.
"Hmph!" The Demon Pillar blocked all damage for Moriarty, shouting with a deep, loud voice: "Hatred! Humiliation! Anger! Such attacks cannot compare to my 3000 years of resentment!"
The Demon Pillar prepared a destructive 'incineration' attack, gathering 3000 years of anger, hatred, and humiliation, absorbing the tower's magical energy. Everyone knew it would be catastrophic.
"Shirou-senpai, danger! This is an unprecedentedly strong magical reaction!" Mash warned.
"I can feel it too. This is destructive energy. To defeat such a monster, we must use that move! Add!" Shirou said.
"But the world situation is delicate… will the meeting proceed smoothly?" Add asked.
"No worries. I'll open the passage with my Mystic Eyes!" Shirou said.
"Oh! Even as an alternate world Shirou, you're reliable! Let's go!" Add shouted.
"Oh! Although you're Shirou from another world, you really are just as reliable after all! Go for it!" shouted Add.
The form of the Grim Reaper's scythe underwent a new change. The Holy Spear Noble Phantasm that had been activated during the battle with the Black Slime Servant had only been the second stage.
This time, Shirou was about to demonstrate the third stage, the true power of the released Holy Spear.
The spear's body emitted a dazzling light.
At this moment, the Demon Pillar's process of absorbing magical energy was interrupted.
The magical energy of the entire space, the entire Shinjuku, converged toward this side. At this moment, the boy's Mystic Eyes flashed with rainbow colors.
The light in his eyes seemed to break through the bounds of this world, connecting to another world, forcibly opening a channel and contacting beings from a different world that this world—which only accepts evil—would not normally acknowledge, and allowing their will to be transmitted here.
Before these eyes, nothing could become an obstacle. The Holy Spear communicated with the will of the other world.
In the hall with the enormous Round Table, besides Kay, who had always resided within the Holy Spear, four knights in armor also appeared:
A young man with a silver braid and one arm;A young man who looked very similar to Gawain but more youthful;A Round Table secretary with black hair and black armor, expression stern;A chief knight with purple eyes and short purple hair.
[Seal Thirteen — Round Table Decision Start!]
[This battle is a battle for survival] — Acknowledged, Kay.
[This battle is a struggle against one stronger than oneself] — Acknowledged, Bedivere.
[This battle is not a war against humanity] — Acknowledged, Galahad.
[This battle is a pursuit of truth] — Acknowledged, Agravain.
[This battle is not a war against elementals] — Acknowledged, Lancelot.
And then there was…
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