Chapter 413: Shirou's Final Victory
"A god must be resolved, otherwise the world will be in danger. If that is the case, then he is my enemy." That is what the golden-haired girl had said at the time.
Indeed, Artoria's previous words held true, even when facing an unprecedentedly powerful enemy. Regardless of the criteria, her opponent was superior to her in every way, yet she could still summon her fighting spirit and face him with a smile.
Shirou looked at the three girls and said firmly and powerfully: "I am at my strongest right now. Whether it was when I completed my training, mastered the Reality Marble, or possessed the power of a god, I never felt a true sense of strength. But now, I can assert: the current me is undoubtedly the strongest!"
"I know!" Artoria nodded, drew her sword, and raised it toward the sky, swearing: "I, Artoria, am here as Shirou's sword! As your shield! Even if I cannot intervene in this battle, my heart is with you. Shirou, may your battle be invincible!"
A dignified female knight, appearing suddenly in a warehouse under the moonlit night, had saved him from the terrible Lancer. Although he was a complete layman at the time, merely an accidental participant, perhaps something had been predestined since the moment he first saw her. Like the girl, Shirou had chosen to protect her with his own life; thus, for the girl's current oath, Shirou chose to accept it gladly.
"Hmph! I'll help figure out a way to deal with this. As soon as I have a lead, I'll tell you immediately, and as long as you follow it, there won't be any problems. Even if the opponent chosen this time is too reckless, as long as we work together, there must be a way." Rin Tohsaka crossed her arms and looked away.
"Mm." Shirou nodded in agreement. He had always felt she was a strong, cool, and particularly charming girl—harsh in words, but very kind at heart. As a companion, she was incomparably reliable and trustworthy. Shirou knew that although the girl was often scatterbrained and faltered at critical moments, when faced with issues of great right and wrong, she was the type who would absolutely never make a mistake—truly upright.
Sakura clasped her hands together and said very gently: "Senpai, no matter what happens, I will be with you."
"Thank you, Sakura," Shirou said with a faint smile.
In his initial impression of this girl back in middle school, she was just a classmate's younger sister. Her body was frail, her face lacked expression, and she was a very dark, introverted child. Keeping her hair at neck length, she always used her bangs to hide her face, afraid to make eye contact with others. When he injured his hand working part-time and couldn't move for a period, the girl had come to take care of him, her personality surprisingly diligent.
After the Holy Grail War ended, there was a time they spoke of the past, and Sakura thanked him for letting her stay at that time. But in truth, it was he who should have been thanking her.
Regardless of what purpose the girl had at the beginning, they were family now. Just as the girl thought, they were both adopted children, so they cherished those around them more than others. They understood how precious it was to be connected by bonds other than blood and to be able to live together in one home.
Although he didn't say it aloud, he was truly happy every morning and after returning from school to have someone call him to wake up, say good morning, and greet him with "welcome home." He could say that the reason he was able to endure that grueling training alone in that mansion—so large it felt empty—was in large part due to her unwavering company by his side.
The desire to protect them—the three girls, and his family and friends at home—was stronger than ever before. This was Emiya Shirou's ideal of the strongest.
"Hey, stop pretending to be asleep; I've arrived," Shirou said, looking at the white god in the sky.
"So, you have finally come," the white god, emitting lightning, slowly stood up.
A moment ago, the god's voice had come from high above, but the next, his figure appeared behind Shirou. The cracks all over the white god's body were more prominent; white light leaked from them, and it seemed they could explode at any moment.
"Then let us merge! When you return, everything can end," the white god said, opening his arms and reaching for Shirou from behind.
"Who agreed to that!!!" Shirou turned quickly and threw a punch.
The white god was the same as before, with no intention of blocking; however, this time, his face was visibly dented by the blow, and his neck tilted.
"You... you hit him!" Artoria, watching from the side, said in surprise.
"This is likely because we are the same person; all of the god's authorities are ineffective against Shirou," Rin pondered, analyzing the situation. "But..."
The white god twisted his neck back to its original position, formed a fist, and instantly struck toward Shirou's face.
BANG!!
Shirou was sent flying backward.
"Ah, as expected... the disparity in physical constitution is too great," Rin said, covering her face in frustration.
"Senpai! Are you okay?" Sakura cried out, worried.
"I'm fine! A punch of this level is just scratching the itch; it's nothing! Again!!" Shirou scrambled up from the ground and charged at the god once more.
The moment their fists crossed, lightning and auroras erupted, stirring up white turbulence. The violent storm blew the hair of the three watching girls back.
BANG!!!
The white god and Shirou traded three punches, then changed their tactics; the god lifted a leg, turning into a blur, and kicked out. Shirou was sent flying again.
"Again!" Shirou clenched his bleeding fist and charged forward.
The two fists collided again. After a few exchanges, Shirou was sent flying again, his entire body covered in wounds. But every time he stood up, he persisted longer.
He was becoming stronger. The light leaking from the cracks in the white god's body was being absorbed by Shirou bit by bit. The energy within him was constantly increasing, narrowing the gap with the god.
"Again!" After a long time, this time—with a swing, Shirou's fist locked against the god's cracked fist, and neither could shake the other.
In the instant their blood touched, something from the white god's mind invaded Shirou's brain. He saw what had happened here earlier: when the white god invaded Chaldea, he had done nothing but return Fou to Gudako and Mash. He had told Da Vinci that he hoped Chaldea would not intervene again.
The seven Beasts of Humanity were released back to distant places. The white god had returned those who could communicate to their own worlds. He then suppressed the rebellious Demon King of Time, the Mara of lust, and others, sending them back to their original Time Temples and shipwrecks to fulfill their corresponding destinies.
The Beasts of Humanity were suppressed and returned to their original places. In the void, the shadows of gargantuan creatures could be seen being pulled into the spaces to which they originally belonged.
"What on earth are you trying to do?" Shirou asked the god in surprise.
"I have just carried out the necessary purges of potential threats to ensure a better battlefield." His silver-white hair and even his pupils were filled with white light; the windows to his soul were completely covered by the god's radiance. The humanity he had displayed during their last meeting could no longer be felt.
The white god said deeply: "If the world ends, then everything you are insisting on now has no meaning."
"No, it will not be meaningless. As long as they can live in the worlds that truly belong to them, everything I have done is worth it," Shirou said in a low voice.
The blue planet, the lush green land, the white snowy mountains, the golden beaches where white waves lapped—the Servants playing by the sea stopped and looked at the sky. In several
residences in Chiba, a girl who loved socializing was lying on a pink bed, tossing and turning, holding her phone and actively replying to every message from her friends. In a luxury apartment, a black-haired girl was sitting on a sofa next to glass that looked out onto a vast night view, reading a book.
They stopped what they were doing in unison and looked at the sky. There were also those in more distant places—China, England, France—those who had built bonds with the boy.
The battle between the god and the human was, in the final analysis, a duel for the purpose of others' happiness. The god's side was not fighting for himself, while the human side had put himself aside to protect his family.
The battle between himself and himself—the god who had become strong to the extreme in reality, and the boy who eternally longed for his ideal—was simply too long. Even in the eyes of the girls present, the battle had only just begun; even if they were injured, they would heal immediately, and the required mana seemed inexhaustible.
In this battle, Shirou bridged the gap!
He and the white god were incredibly similar, but there was one decisive difference between them: there were many, many people who hoped he would win, while the lonely god had only himself left.
"Go for it!!! Shirou!" the girl with black twin-tails shouted loudly.
"Haa!" Rin's Gem Sword appeared in Shirou's hand, carrying the girl's will as it sliced open the barriers of space.
"Senpai! You must win!" The purple-haired girl clasped her hands together, saying with expectation.
"Haaa!!" Shirou opened his other hand, and the energy released by Sakura's Imaginary Number magecraft opened a black hole in the sliced space—a vortex that swallowed everything, drawing in even light.
Finally, it was Artoria's Holy Sword!!!
"Haaaaa!!!" Both the girl and the boy shouted in unison: "Ex—calibur!!!"
The dazzling light slammed the white god into the black hole, instantly submerging half his body.
"Great, we won!" Artoria said, surprised.
"Hmph! It's not over yet!" The white god's entire body burst into white light; just before entering the black hole, he emitted an massive amount of light, attempting to rush out from within.
Seeing that he had defeated the white god, Shirou did not absorb him as the Counter Force had planned. Instead, Shirou chose to dive in with the white god to perish together in the black hole.
The boy collided with the god, taking him down into the black hole. The increasingly intense suction pulled them both inside.
"Don't you dare die; faced with that impending terrible crisis, your power will still be needed." In the instant before falling into the black hole, the white god regained his strength, gave Shirou a push, and sent him out. He offered a carefree smile and vanished inside the black hole.
Shirou understood now: he was actually an insurance mechanism designed by the white god. After the three worlds were resolved, the white god had released the ring of light at the end to provide a hint. That was how Artoria was able to find this place and locate Shirou, and how Rin was able to reunite with everyone. Before collapsing, the white god had guided Shirou and the girls here so that they could defeat him.
In this moment, the white god completed his final mission of protecting humanity.
Some things even gods cannot stop, so they leave it to humanity itself. It was not like Goetia, who chose to incinerate human order and reformat existence to rewrite destiny because the Earth was invaded by a virus. Nor was it like the Lion King, who used the power of the Holy Spear to establish a sanctuary, allowing a small number of humans to hide in an inner world to escape the crisis. Even the god who created everything had found no way, only constantly creating and saving to delay that day.
But the Counter Force was not invincible. Even as a massive planetary consciousness, the blue planet—which nurtured countless lives—had its own predicaments, whether from internal destruction or outer enemies that could devour stars. When this kind of true catastrophe arrived, neither the Counter Force, nor the Demon King of Time, nor the white god had any way to stop it.
[Shirou, hurry up and absorb the god's power; inherit the power of the Creator God!] Alaya shouted as a reminder.
"Please absorb it as quickly as possible and conclude a contract with me; you will then be the Earth's strongest guardian. Otherwise, you will disappear along with the white god." Gaia said.
"Ah, that is indeed the case, but..." Shirou answered slowly. His entire body began to erupt with the same white light cracks as the white god; the massive energy was concentrating in his core, appearing ready to explode at any moment.
"Alaya! Gaia!... Don't underestimate humanity! The resolve to want to live, and the infinite possibilities born from struggling!" Shirou spoke to the two Counter Forces.
[Shirou! Are you breaking the contract?!]
"No! I am merely returning the future that belongs to humanity!" Shirou said firmly.
[Shirou! Stop! If you do this, without the divine power, you will disappear. Even if you do this, humanity cannot be truly saved, and in the end, everything will just repeat its past mistakes.] Alaya persuaded.
"No, this is the best way," Shirou said with a faint smile.
"Stupid... the plan to cultivate the strongest fighting force has failed again. But humanity... this is humanity. As expected, they are unfathomable and dangerous..." Gaia spoke these words softly, then disconnected from this world and vanished.
Regardless of what the absolute rationality of the Counter Force deemed the best choice, he would now make his choice as a human. Then, he would entrust the world to the living humans.
Shirou turned to look at the three girls, smiled faintly, and said softly: "Goodbye."
Feeling Shirou's gaze, the girls who realized what was happening rushed over, their mouths wide, seemingly shouting something.
In the next moment, white light surged, filling the space of the entire world. For a time, the sky, the earth, and the sea were all white. Shirou voluntarily released the divine power, restored all worlds to their original states, preserved all the created worlds, and entrusted them to humanity—the most ordinary of humans, the ugly yet sacred humans.
As for the existence known as Emiya Shirou, wherever the traces of their existence remained in the world, he would appear there. Dead souls would leave this world as the deceased or ascend to the Throne of Heroes to become Heroic Spirits.
As for the boy who had completed all of this, he was sucked into the black hole, drifting quietly in a void that contained nothing, falling into a deep slumber... until someone found him and could awaken him.
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