IBHJ 1408

“My King!”

Vivian’s eyes sparkled as Shirou emerged from the Eternal Coffin.

“Mm. Thank you for holding out, Vivian.” he smiled.

“Shirou!”

“Shirou!”

“You mongrel… to think you’d pull a trick like this!”

Shirou looked around at the voices calling his name. Then his gaze locked onto the Lord of Salvation. “As you see, my main body is here.”

The Lord of Salvation’s eyes narrowed instantly. “Then… the one who entered the [Past] from the very beginning was—”

Shirou smiled. “Correct. That was my other half. You used countless schemes to build your manifestation circle. You raised a mature First Vortex as a catalyst, opened the Golden Gate, and summoned your true form from the [Past]. It’s impressive. But I used my body as the catalyst—and let my other half open the Azure Gate from the [Past], summoning me.”

The Lord of Salvation froze.

So that’s how he’d done it.

Shirou had never entered the [Past] in the first place. Back when the Eternal Empire still spanned the Earth, the moment he discovered that Marisbury was the Lord of Salvation, he’d begun laying the groundwork.

In secret, he created a substitution.

He had Merlin grant him [Independent Manifestation], then sealed his main body in the Eternal Coffin, entrusted to Vivian and buried deep within Avalon.

Then, using his evolved other half—[Black Mud]—he molded it into a new form and transferred his consciousness, records, and existence into it. That other half moved and fought while the real Shirou slept—becoming something similar to a Heroic Spirit.

He even left a backup. The coffin buried in the Nordic Connection Point held his second other half.

If the main body and the first body were ever destroyed, that one would carry on.

But Origin Gaia’s sudden return forced him to use the backup early.

Still—none of that had been the real Shirou.

Which is why, when Origin Gaia blasted him with super-quantum energy, he felt no fear.

Because the one exposed to it…

Wasn’t him.

And now, at the final moment, just as the Lord of Salvation attempted to summon himself—

Shirou reversed the current.

He used his main body to call back his Black Mud counterpart—the half that had transcended time and space and become the Azure Destroyer during the Origin Era.

The Lord of Salvation twitched.

He understood.

Shirou had used his own method against him.

He evaded notice by using the fact that he was unrecorded by the Root—and struck from within.

“But weren’t you afraid I’d destroy your main body first?” the Lord asked coldly.

Shirou met his gaze without flinching. “I gambled. I staked everything on that bet.” he turned toward the sky. “No—actually, I just knew you were in too much of a hurry, Moromaya! If you’d destroyed the Eternal Coffin first, the Present would’ve lost. But you didn’t. And now—I’ve won.”

The Lord of Salvation’s expression darkened. “I must admit… you are shining brighter than any other right now. You even gained half a step on me—me, the First Cause. But now that I’ve manifested… do you still think you can win?”

“If you were fully summoned, you’d be unstoppable. Even the Transcenders couldn’t face you head-on.” Shirou’s eyes burned. “But you’re incomplete. Two-thirds of your summoning was stolen—one by me, the other by the First Emperor. What’s here is only one-third of you.”

He stepped forward. “And I won’t lose.”

Behind him, the towering Azure Destruction construct loomed like a second shadow—impossibly vast, crackling with raw, unnatural light. It raised one colossal fist, glowing with layers of compressed law and spiraling energy.

The air distorted. Reality buckled.

Then the fist came down.

With a soundless flash that screamed through space, the punch tore through every boundary—space, time, causality—like paper.

BOOOOM——

The Lord of Salvation didn’t even get a final word in. He was obliterated from view in an instant, his body reduced to a blur of light as he was launched straight out of the solar system like a meteor that had offended a god.

Shirou entered the construct’s brain region, taking full control.

From below, the First Emperor watched with interest. “So this is this Pan-Human History’s chosen one,” he murmured. “This era’s hero.”

“That’s right!” Morrigan declared proudly. “And not just that—he’s our King! My favorite person! So with him here, I'm not afraid of you anymore!"

The Emperor laughed. “So you’re scared of me?”

“Hmph! As if that matters now!”

Hinako’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the First Emperor’s true form.

“I see. So that was your plan. You… sacrificed your world.”

“Correct,” the First Emperor said simply. “I carry the death of an entire civilization. What I sought—was a future.”

He walked to his massive mechanical body.

“I leave the rest to you.”

Click. Click. Click.

The machine activated instantly.

It contained everything. Every human, every animal, every plant. The last memory of a world.

“Preserving the seeds?” Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow.

“Our enemy polluted the Beginning of All. Even with only one-third of his power, even with that hero gaining the upper hand—accidents happen. If everything is destroyed, my body will be first. This is insurance.”

A chorus of screeches echoed as mutated beasts—twisted by the Lord’s influence—charged toward them.

“Summon them,” the Emperor said. “My body holds the energy of a burned-out world. And I even stole a portion of the summoning from that bastard’s circle. Use that mana—summon every Heroic Spirit you can!”

“That won’t work,” Gilgamesh shook his head. “Cosmic Alaya’s almost finished restoring the barrier, but the Counter Force is gone. And we don’t have Saint Graphs to connect to the Throne.”

“If it’s Saint Graphs you need—”

The First Emperor’s true form lit up, stars gleaming across its shell like constellations.

“I have more than enough.”

Gilgamesh blinked. “…These… These are Grand Saint Graphs? Wait—you didn’t just forge seven of them?”

The Emperor shrugged. “Once you figure out the method, you can produce them assembly-line style. But even by burning my entire world and the solar system… I could only make eighteen hundred.”

“In the end, it still wasn’t enough.”

…

Eighteen hundred.

And that… was “too few”?

No one even knew if the Throne of Heroes had that many Grand-rank spirits.

It didn’t matter.

Reality had just been redefined.

And thanks to this absolutely unhinged emperor—

Grand rank…

Had become standard issue.

The call went out.

Across the battlefield, Chaldea survivors regrouped.

Former staff took their positions.

Using the Emperor’s core, and the mass of Grand Saint Graphs—

They began the final summoning.

A storm of legends was about to descend.