BCloud
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IBHJ 1242
🕑 Added 2025-03-25 22:10:32 +0000 UTCAs the Emperor slowly pulled Mordred's sword from her own abdomen, she casually extended two fingers. With a metallic "clang," Gungnir, which had suddenly appeared behind her, was caught perfectly between her fingers. The powerful weapon couldn't move forward even an inch, as if it had been stopped by fate itself.
"Sneak attacks aren't really your style, Lady Scathach."
Scathach stared at the Emperor in shock. The weapon in her hand was Gungnir, which she'd specially borrowed from Skadi, and she'd used all her stacked power buffs. With her current strength and skill level, especially in a surprise attack, even someone as powerful as Galahad would've had trouble blocking it.
But the Emperor? She stopped it with just two fingers.
And she made it look completely effortless!
The Emperor applied just a bit of pressure, and with several sharp "crack" sounds, both Mordred's sword and Scathach's Gungnir shattered like glass.
With their attack failed, Mordred and Scathach quickly jumped back.
The Emperor ignored Scathach's retreat and instead reached out toward Mordred.
Though their hands were identical, Mordred found herself completely unable to escape no matter how hard she tried. Just then, with a thunderous "boom," a beam of starlight shot toward the Emperor, giving Mordred the chance to break free from the Emperor's grasp.
When the smoke finally cleared, the Emperor was standing there without a scratch. Her blue eyes locked onto Shirou, who was gripping Caliburn tightly in his hands.
"I never thought our greatest enemy would be right beside me this whole time," Shirou said with a frown. "But why? As the ruler of the empire, with all your incredible power, why did you need to use Mordred's body to trick me? It makes no sense."
"Actually, it does make sense," a voice called out from among the Heroic Spirits. Shirou spun around to see Guinevere stepping forward from the crowd. Her face showed new determination, her eyes clear and bright—all traces of her former weakness gone.
"Vivian?" he asked, unable to hide his surprise.
"Yes, my King," Guinevere confirmed with a nod as she moved away from the others and faced the Emperor with a complicated look in her eyes.
The Emperor's usually impassive face showed a flicker of emotion when she saw Guinevere. "So you've come back to your senses, Lady Vivian. Was Mordred responsible for this?"
"Yes," Guinevere replied.
"I'm truly happy for you," the Emperor said, "but I have to wonder—by coming forward at a moment like this... are you planning to betray me just as Eternal King did?"
Guinevere hesitated before turning her face away. "I... can't stand with you anymore."
"Then I hope you can forgive me," the Emperor replied coldly. "I cannot bring myself to smile at you under these circumstances."
"Wait," Shirou interrupted with a confused frown. "You said Eternal King betrayed you? But I've never even met you before—how could I have betrayed you?"
"Oh my King..." Guinevere bit her lip. "She's... she's..." She couldn't finish, the truth too painful to put into words.
"There's nothing to hide." The Emperor turned to him, her eyes suddenly becoming gentle. "I'm not human, nor am I any kind of creature you know. I am the will of the Eternal Kingdom itself. I am the imperial legacy that you personally built up and then abandoned—the same Eternal Kingdom that was ultimately destroyed by your daughter, Mordred."
"What?" Shirou stood there completely stunned. Beside him, Mordred's eyes grew wide with shock.
Everyone, even Gaia stared at the Emperor in complete disbelief.
The truth was more unexpected than anyone could have imagined.
The Emperor—the absolute ruler of the Empire—wasn't some holy spirit or magical being, but the actual embodied will of an ancient dynasty, the great empire known as the Eternal Kingdom that had long since fallen!
It was beyond shocking. It was completely unthinkable.
"How? How is this even possible?" Mordred gasped, her hands shaking as she stared at the Emperor.
"Nothing is impossible," the Emperor replied with unsettling calmness. "After all, you killed me with your own hands, didn't you? One million, three hundred forty-seven thousand, six hundred and seventy-two people. And of those, four hundred sixty-three thousand and forty-two died because of your schemes. Their anger and hatred push me forward every day, every hour, every minute—constantly urging me to come for your life, Mordred."
Mordred instinctively backed away. Shirou moved quickly, extending his arm to shield her behind him while giving the Emperor a stern gaze.
The Emperor looked at him silently for a moment before continuing. "You should understand that if I truly wanted to take Mordred's life right now, there's nothing you could do to stop me."
"I'm already dead," Mordred countered from behind Shirou. "Even if you kill me again, I'd just return to the Throne of Heroes."
"That's not necessarily true," the Emperor said. "When Heroic Spirits die, they typically return to the Throne of Heroes—but what happens when the body's record in the Throne completely disappears? When a wandering ghost is erased, it's gone forever."
Shirou's eyes widened with sudden understanding. "Are you saying you're currently using..."
"Yes," the Emperor confirmed. "I'm using your daughter's body—a body I specifically took from the throne. All to avenge the hatred of those four hundred sixty-three thousand and forty-two people!"
No one saw this coming. After Agravain and the Apostles failed one after another, and even Galahad—the so-called Empire's Wall with his UO rank was defeated, the Emperor finally decided to handle things personally and came down from the highest imperial palace.
But nobody could have guessed the Emperor's true identity would be so mind-blowing.
If the Emperor had just been Mordred from some parallel world, that would have been surprising but at least somewhat logical—after all, the Empire was created because of Mordred's weakness. But instead, the Emperor turned out to be the actual embodiment of the long-extinct Eternal Kingdom itself—the empire that formed the foundation of Western European history and culture!
The very dynasty that Shirou, Artoria, Arcueid, Scathach, and the others had personally built!
What in the world was going on here?
"Everything started with what happened after Camelot fell..." Vivian said, closing her eyes as she began to explain.
In ancient times, after the fall of the original civilization and those who came after them, the world entered its darkest period. Then, after countless ages passed, the vessels carrying the seeds of new civilization returned to Earth. Some were guided by voices from the stars, and they spread these seeds of civilization across the world, beginning what Tiamat called the Next Generation.
Since then, this Next Generation has evolved through several phases—starting with the primitive Mythological Era, continuing through the Age of Gods (which ended when the White Titan appeared and brought doom), and finally reaching its conclusion when Gilgamesh, Solomon, and Shirou put an end to that age. After that came Charlemagne's reforms, which moved the world into what we now call the Medieval period.
After Vortigern was killed, the world's natural laws completely shifted to favor humans. The substance known as "True Ether" completely disapperead, which meant phantasmal species and fairies could no longer survive on the surface. At the same time, people who had existed through True Ether would slowly die from what was essentially Ether poisoning.
To save the people of the Eternal Kingdom, who were predominantly Phantasmal Species, Shirou tried everything—implementing various policies, organizing gradual migrations, and even using the human body's natural resistance to help them adapt. He was hoping that over time, through a process of natural selection and transformation, they could survive in this new world.
Despite his efforts, the Eternal Kingdom was eventually infiltrated by enemy plots and ultimately destroyed by Mordred's hand.
What they never realized was that these people were already destined to go extinct. Even though the Eternal Kingdom existed during the Age of Men, it had been essentially cut off from humanity's main path—sacrificed for what the world deemed the greater good of mankind.
Yet ironically, because of all the work Shirou and his generation put in to keep it alive, the Eternal Kingdom didn't completely disappear. Instead, this fragment that had been cut off from the Age of Men gave birth to something unexpected—a hazy, independent Counter Force with a will of its own.
