Chapter 61: Hanging Gardens of Vanity
"Unfair... this is just too unfair..."
Scathach looked at Shirou with a hint of lingering disappointment.
While she had hoped for someone capable of killing her to appear, someone this completely overpowering was simply beyond reason!
"For our strength to be so utterly crushed by you... this kind of power... even those Gods I knew did not possess it..."
Thinking back on the past she knew, Scathach couldn't find a single thing related to the red-haired youth before her, and she couldn't help but reveal a look of confusion.
"You... just who are you?"
Shirou, however, was somewhat caught between laughter and tears.
"Who else could I be?"
"..."
Scathach fell into silence. The past few days of interaction had indeed given her some understanding of Shirou. She realized that in daily life, this Shirou was a gentle-natured youth; however, when it came time to fight, he could display unparalleled power. This massive contrast left Scathach feeling somewhat dazed.
Scathach patted the dust off her bodysuit and returned to the living room carrying her demonic spear.
Ignoring the Queen of the Land of Shadows who had begun to contemplate the meaning of life, Shirou looked at the sky as it deepened into night, called Saber and Medea, and headed out of the house.
.
.
.
Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the night, scattering stars across the streets. Walking through the city at such a time gave one the pleasant sensation of wandering through a galaxy.
However, this feeling didn't last long, because the moonlight falling from the horizon was being obscured by a massive shadow.
"That is..."
Saber knit her brows as she looked toward the sky.
A gargantuan shadow situated in the heavens cast a shroud over a vast area of the city.
Fortunately, it was nearly night and Fuyuki City had a curfew, so few people could see the spectacle in the sky right now.
"Could this be the Noble Phantasm of some Servant..." Medea voiced her suspicion.
"For such an anomaly to occur at a critical moment in the Holy Grail War, it is highly likely related to another Servant. It seems it is undoubtedly a Noble Phantasm."
Saber immediately followed up: "But the only remaining classes are Rider, Lancer, and Assassin. We have already seen Nero and Scathach; the only one who hasn't appeared yet is Assassin."
Shirou was also staring at the massive aerial structure in the sky above Fuyuki, a flash of lightning crossing his pale gold eyes.
"Hanging Gardens of Vanity... Is it the legendary Queen of the Assyrian Empire, Semiramis, this time..."
Within Shirou's "Unlimited Blade Works," there were a few such Noble Phantasms placed quietly, but it was truly inconvenient to deploy them within Fuyuki City, so he had never brought them out.
"The last one who hasn't revealed themselves is indeed only the Assassin class..."
But why would Semiramis appear in the Fifth Holy Grail War?
No, wait—aside from Caster and Saber, the Servants of the other classes in this Holy Grail War had all undergone changes. It was perfectly normal for the Assassin class to no longer be like the one in the animation.
Shirou knew of Semiramis because in Fate/Apocrypha, she was summoned as an Assassin by Amakusa Shirou Tokisada.
Semiramis was a figure from the 9th century BC, also known as Shammuramat, a legendary Queen in Assyrian history.
Legend says she was the Empress of the ancient kingdom. After her husband Ninus died, she ruled the country (some say she murdered her husband). Her civil and military achievements were illustrious; she built many cities, and many legends about her circulated widely in Europe at the time.
The sky fortress floating in the night sky now was, without a doubt, Semiramis's strongest EX-Rank Noble Phantasm, "Hanging Gardens of Vanity."
As the name implies, it is capable of floating and moving, possessing powerful defensive capabilities while also being able to launch attacks.
Although it is known as the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon," in reality, Semiramis has no connection to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. However, by utilizing the faith of a vast number of people under that misunderstanding, it can be established as a Noble Phantasm.
Since the one who built the Hanging Gardens in history was not Semiramis, it was named "Vanity."
Consequently, the activation conditions for this Noble Phantasm are extremely strict. It cannot be manifested through magical energy alone; one must first collect a certain amount of wood, stone, minerals, plants, and water from Semiramis's birthplace and combine them. Then, Semiramis must perform a long ritual to turn fantasy into reality to complete the Noble Phantasm. (The minimum necessary time from preparation to activation is about three days.)
"No wonder Assassin only made a move at this time."
Shirou murmured with understanding.
Literally appearing as a "Great Fortress Floating in the Sky," it is composed of orderly arranged island-like floating islands lush with greenery, marble floors, and pillars, with various plants entwined everywhere.
The reason the garden floats is due to the concept of "inversion"—within it, plants grow downward, and water flows from downstream to upstream.
As long as she remains inside the Garden (fortress), all of Semiramis's attributes are strengthened.
She can even perform magecraft in the realm of Magic. For instance, if she gets serious within the gardens, she can forcibly cancel an enemy's spiritualization or generate chains from space to bind an opponent. There are also defensive formulas against Command Spells and mental communication that can nullify Command Spells within a certain range. However, during the process of performing Great Magecraft or even summoning, the defensive and displacement formulas cannot be activated.
Using this, she created 3,000 Dragon Tooth Warriors and deployed 12 magic circles surrounding the enemy to fire EX-Rank magical energy cannons. She can also summon monstrously ferocious Divine Fish within the garden. The price is that once Semiramis leaves the garden, she becomes almost powerless.
Capable of hovering thousands of meters in the air, the garden is also equipped with 11 interception formulas (pitch-black plates over 20 meters long) called "Tiamtum Umu: The Black Coffin of the Ten and One."
It can fire extraordinary light bullets from the plates in succession, each equivalent to a falling meteorite, with a destructive power on an "Anti-Army" scale.
"If it was truly Amakusa Shirou Tokisada who summoned her... that makes it even more impossible. If Amakusa Shirou Tokisada exists, then the current Holy Grail should not be 'tainted'."
Because of the precedents with Arjuna, Jeanne, and Morgan, Shirou wasn't particularly surprised by this situation anymore.
"In any case, let's go up and take a look first."
As Shirou said this, he looked at Saber and Medea beside him
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