Chapter 218: Now, I Shall Take Your Heart!
What did it say it wanted to compare... the quality of cursed energy?
When he first saw Dagon vomit out human bones belonging to at least dozens of people from its abdomen, Emiya was quite furious. Cursed spirits, as beings that only need to absorb cursed energy to maintain their physical activities indefinitely, clearly do not need to eat to satisfy themselves—much less include humans in their diet.
Even in nature, most carnivorous creatures capable of preying on humans do not actually like the taste of them. Simultaneously, the fear generated by the deaths of these humans would not be absorbed by Dagon, who was born from the concept of the "Ocean." In every sense, it provided the spirit with no benefit.
In other words, the reason this creature chose to consume humans was purely the same as Mahito's mindset when wantonly murdering people: it was entirely for entertainment.
In their eyes, humans weren't even necessarily complete lifeforms, just experimental subjects or snacks.
Based on this point alone, the degree of Dagon's depravity in Emiya's judgment immediately surpassed that of Hanami and even Jogo. It was the kind of creature that, from any angle, deserved to die.
Thus, upon seeing the opponent produce a cursed object he didn't recognize, Emiya immediately raised his caution to the maximum.
Unlike Cursed Tools, which can be destroyed by external force, Special Grade Cursed Objects are almost all "relics" left behind by powerful jujutsu sorcerers after death.
While possessing the characteristic of being indestructible, some also perfectly preserve the technique of the original sorcerer.
Special Grade Cursed Objects like Ryomen Sukuna's fingers, which have almost no utility beyond being massive "curses," are the minority.
While these Special Grade Cursed Objects lose all mobility due to the power of a [Binding Vow], they also lose the risk of "dying" or molting into a cursed spirit. Their techniques even carry a certain conceptual quality that is difficult to resist.
For example, if the effect of a Special Grade Cursed Object were to cause anyone who sees it to lose their sight for three hours, then once the condition of "seeing it" is met, the curse of "losing sight" can no longer be dodged. No matter how powerful an ability or technique, it cannot break through this rule-based shackle—unless another rule-based Cursed Tool or object is used to offset the curse.
Of course, Emiya's Rule Breaker could also achieve the effect of dispelling all curses, provided the curse applied to others still possessed a physical form. Alternatively, using Rule
Breaker to directly destroy the cursed object's physical body could achieve the same result, but that would be a bit too wasteful. Unless it was an emergency, there was no need.
After all, once Emiya dealt with the enemy, wouldn't this Special Grade Cursed Tool become his own?
But just as Emiya was bracing himself for a "curse" that could arrive at any moment, Dagon actually said... the effect of this Special Grade Cursed Tool was a comparison of their cursed energy quality?
"Quality" here likely referred not just to the total volume, but also a comprehensive "quality assessment" incorporating purity, grade, and various other aspects of the cursed energy.
Under normal circumstances, a human's individual cursed energy volume truly cannot compare to a Special Grade cursed spirit, and cursed energy refined from various negative emotions is rarely purer than a spirit that represents a single "curse."
Thus, once this Special Grade Cursed Tool was successfully activated, a human sorcerer could essentially be declared dead. Whether it was the heart or something else, those were vital organs for humans. Losing any of them would directly threaten life, yet cursed spirits had no such concern. It wasn't even certain if they had hearts; besides, didn't Jogo continue to "fight" using its rock-hard mouth when it was just a head?
Emiya's own [Reverse Cursed Technique] had not reached the point where he could remain completely unaffected by the loss of his heart; even Ieiri Shoko might fall slightly short of that.
Only Gojo Satoru could achieve such a feat, but even then, it required the [Six Eyes] as a precision support device and would cause a visible drain on cursed energy. The [Limitless Technique] can save energy through its infinite amplification characteristics, but pure [Reverse Cursed Technique] cannot.
But the strange thing about this was that the subject Dagon chose for comparison was... Emiya himself.
Even if it had used special means to obtain Gojo Satoru's cursed energy information and used this Cursed Tool to "curse" him, there was a high probability it would weaken his combat power to some extent.
But if the target was Emiya...
To be honest, up until now, Emiya himself didn't know where the upper limit of his cursed energy was. Even though he used [Reverse Cursed Technique] every day to convert cursed energy into magical energy, he had never been troubled by a lack of energy reserves.
It was as if there were a truly inexhaustible fountain of cursed energy within his body, available for him to take as he pleased without ever bringing about side effects.
Emiya had naturally tried to explore its true source more than once.
After all, no one would be comfortable with an entirely incomprehensible power existing in their body, even if it were beneficial. Unfortunately, these investigations ended in failure every time. Emiya's consciousness, probing into his own body, could only move forward in a boundless darkness until it reached a certain limit and was forced to retreat, never having found the end of that darkness.
In a sense, this could be interpreted as: his total cursed energy volume was completely infinite within the scope of his own cognition.
As for purity... hadn't Gojo Satoru exclaimed at the first sight of Emiya's energy that it was the purest and densest cursed energy he had ever seen?
Never mind other sorcerers; even cursed energy condensed directly from "curses" couldn't compare to Emiya's.
Because those energies are more or less directional—just as Dagon's cursed energy was entirely related to the "Ocean"—whereas Emiya's energy was the purest form of negativity itself. Even if Dagon's cursed energy was as vast as the sea, when compared to Emiya's...
This was why Emiya showed a look of slight surprise and disbelief upon hearing Dagon explain the usage of [The Unfair Scales].
First, Hanami had proactively provided the conditions for Emiya to unleash his Noble Phantasm via the mist, leading to its easy defeat. Now, was Dagon going to use a similar method to hand the advantage over to him personally?
This was a bit too...
"It is too late to try and stop it now. Once I placed your cursed energy information on one end of the scales, the curse was inevitably activated. No one can interrupt this process."
Dagon naturally mistook Emiya's expression for the despair and fear of facing the inevitable. Consequently, its movements didn't slow down; instead, they became even faster.
As Dagon gently held up the gold and silver scales, a deep black orb of light inexplicably emerged on the silver tray—the cursed energy information captured from Emiya.
After waiting for the lever of the scale to gradually tip toward the silver side, Dagon opened its mouth again and vomited a dim blue light orb, letting it fall, still stained with a bit of mucus, onto the gold tray on the other side.
CLICK!
When the dark blue orb landed, the scales that had been leaning toward the silver side immediately crashed down toward the gold side. It was as if the things being compared weren't similar substances at all, but rather wood and iron—objects whose densities weren't even on the same level.
Seeing its tactic finally succeed, Dagon—who had been receiving nothing but negative feedback since the start of the battle—finally flashed an ugly smile.
"Do you see it, Human? This is the weight of the Ocean. Never mind one human; even if all humans were stacked together, they would be nothing but insignificant mayflies compared to the sea."
In terms of cursed energy, this statement was clearly an exaggeration, given that Dagon was only a small portion born from the massive cursed energy produced by humans. But if talking strictly about total mass, it was true that all humans together couldn't match a ten-thousandth of the ocean.
"Now is my victory, Emiya Shirou!"
SHIK!
Having finished its final victory declaration, Dagon's severed right arm suddenly regrew from the wound in a short time, which it then used to point at Emiya. The finger hovered around Emiya for a few seconds before finally pointing at his chest.
"Following the rules of the curse, the organ I shall take now is—your heart."
Yes, this is victory!!
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