When Excalibur fell completely, but failed to defeat Servant Emiya, Shirou realized how difficult this fight would be.
He had almost no chance of defeating his opponent because he couldn't break through Servant Emiya at one point, and he couldn't deal with the countless sword rains inside Unlimited Blade Works.
Shirou naturally couldn't accept this result.
The civil war in the Asura Kingdom is now erupting fiercely, and Ariel and the Boreas family could face devastating blows at any time.
Every second he delays coming out of the mountains could lead to a sacrifice he doesn't want to see.
Therefore, Shirou's heart almost involuntarily became anxious and impatient. Even though he knew that the magic power in his body was being consumed too much and his condition had not been fully adjusted, he still swung Excalibur in his hand desperately toward Servant Emiya's direction.
"Haaaaaa!"
Servant Emiya looked calmly at Shirou's movements. He casually picked up a sword from the ground and collided head-on with Shirou without the slightest fear.
Servant Emiya's weapon was incomparable to Excalibur and was broken almost instantly.
But he didn't hesitate. He quickly projected a new weapon and easily parried the attack.
Shirou became even more anxious when he saw this. He recklessly unleashed his full strength, as if he wanted to defeat the man in front of him as quickly as possible and completely master Unlimited Blade Works.
But the more anxious he became, the more the situation developed in a direction unfavorable to him.
In the end, because Shirou himself abused his magic power, he even completely lost the power to maintain Excalibur. The Holy Sword in his hand completely dissipated and turned into nothingness.
"It's over."
Servant Emiya looked at Shirou coldly, as if he were looking at a fool whose eyes had been blinded. "It seems you are very worried about the situation of that princess. What, do you like her that much?"
"Not really."
"Then why are you so anxious?"
"I..."
Shirou couldn't respond to Servant Emiya's words.
Because he also really realized that he was a little too flustered and uneasy.
In this level of battle, it is difficult to win if you can't stay calm and maintain absolute rationality during the battle.
That kind of situation where you rely purely on will and shouts, as if you can unleash powerful power by shouting loudly, only happens in the plots of novels and anime.
In real battles, once you lack a trace of calmness, you will completely fall into defeat because of unintentional mistakes.
But even though Shirou knew all this, he still found it difficult to maintain rationality. The anxiety in his heart became more and more intense, making him even feel a stabbing pain in his heart.
When Servant Emiya saw Shirou's appearance, he seemed to have seen through everything. He smiled and said, "You've used up all your trump cards and can't see any hope of winning the battle. I can understand your current anxiety and despair, but the more you are in this kind of situation, the more you must maintain rationality and never act impulsively. Otherwise, you are not qualified to be a partner of justice. After all, maintaining justice is always more difficult than sinking into evil. A partner of justice must be ten thousand times stronger than the leader of evil to completely realize justice."
"...I have abandoned justice."
Shirou responded silently to Servant Emiya's words.
After making a series of choices that denied justice, he no longer had any qualifications to call himself a partner of justice.
Hearing Shirou's words, Servant Emiya showed an honest expression and said in a mocking tone, "Are you sure you've abandoned it? If you really abandoned justice, why are you risking your life here to fight me?"
"Of course it's to save Ariel and the others..."
"But why are you going to save people?"
"Because..."
Shirou's words suddenly stuck. He really couldn't give a perfect response and didn't know how to make the right answer.
Because it was different from the previous situation, this time he was not fighting for his family.
In the past, when facing any enemy, Shirou had firmly stated that he could give everything to save his family. He saved Miyu for this, and he also saved Zenith in this world...
But now, he actually doesn't have such a good reason for the civil war in the Asura Kingdom, and there's no need to participate.
Servant Emiya's doubt made it difficult for Shirou to respond, and the confusion in his heart deepened again.
At the same time, the battle never stopped during the conversation between the two sides.
Servant Emiya and Shirou both consumed a lot of magic power in the confrontation just now. Neither side has much magic power to make projections, and instead they both began to rely on physical strength and use the most ordinary weapons to fight hand-to-hand.
"Clang,"
Swords clash against swords.
Because of the confusion in his heart, Shirou moved a step slower than Servant Emiya and was almost cut off his arm, barely dodging by rolling around embarrassingly.
Servant Emiya also decisively seized the opportunity, opened his right hand towards Shirou, and several long swords flew from the sand dunes of Unlimited Blade Works, rushing towards the latter.
"Clang,"
"Clang, " "Clang,"
Shirou went all out and managed to block the opponent's attack, but he had a lot more injuries on his body.
"Confusion is a sign of weakness. You are no different from the weak now."
Servant Emiya looked at Shirou's appearance and calmly commented, "What if you abandon justice? Have you been holding on to that idea of justice all along? In fact, haven't you already been firm in your path?"
"..."
Servant Emiya's words made Shirou fall silent.
He had indeed been firm on his path, but that didn't mean he had lost his confusion. In fact, he had doubted more than once whether his current path and his current choice were correct.
In the past, he chose to give up justice in order to protect his family. Even if he took a path contrary to justice, he had to protect his family to the end.
However, the current Shirou once again violated his beliefs.
He clearly knew that the Greyrats' important task was his true family, but he still risked his life to participate in the civil war in the Asura Kingdom, and might not even be able to come back alive. Shirou was making a completely different choice again, giving up his belief in protecting his family.
Faced with such a treacherous self, Shirou couldn't help but question himself from the bottom of his heart.
What exactly does he want?
Shirou's heart couldn't answer this question, so his confusion continued to exist one after another, and even affected the outcome of this battle.
Servant Emiya saw Shirou's confusion. He didn't say anything about it, but without the slightest hesitation, he urged the countless blades on the Swords' Hill again.
"Bang!"
"Bang!" "Bang!"
This time, after exhausting his magic power, Shirou had nowhere to dodge and was directly hit by a large number of swords and blades. His figure immediately disappeared into a large amount of smoke.
"Shirou!"
"Brother Shirou!"
Paul and Rudeus showed panicked expressions when they saw this scene in the distance, and even wanted to forcibly interrupt the battle.
But all of this was stopped by the Armor Dragon King.
As the starter of this trial, the Armor Dragon King obviously couldn't interrupt the trial midway. Even if Shirou himself was about to die in the battle, there would be no mercy.
Rudeus and Paul were undoubtedly unable to accept this result.
The two are now even starting to regret why they let Shirou participate in such a crazy trial. Perhaps they should have forcibly stopped Shirou from participating in the civil war in the Asura Kingdom from the beginning, stopping the other party from doing such meaningless things!
...
The royal capital, Ars.
"Miss Isolte!"
In the chaotic banquet hall, Ariel watched Isolte, who was surrounded by three Northern Kings and whose figure disappeared into the smoke, and couldn't help but call out worriedly.
She breathed a sigh of relief until Isolte's figure reappeared and looked unscathed.
Due to Darius's conspiracy, the Northern Emperor Aubel and the three Northern Kings, who had been ambushed in advance, suddenly appeared, turning the original banquet directly into a battlefield for Swordsmen.
Sword Kings Eris and Ghislaine are fiercely fighting Northern Emperor [Peacock Sword] Aubel.
The Northern Emperor's strength absolutely did not disappoint the name of an Emperor-level powerhouse. Even with the combined strength of the two Sword Kings, they couldn't defeat their opponent.
Relatively speaking, Ariel would have been completely defeated directly if it hadn't been for Isolte's sudden appearance.
But even with Isolte's help, the battle situation was still not good.
The three Northern King-level powerhouses each have their own methods. If Isolte's talent wasn't outstanding enough, and she had mastered two Water God Style mysteries at a young age, it would have been impossible to maintain the balance of the battle.
But even so, Isolte can only resist and has no way to counterattack at all. As time goes by, Isolte's defense line even begins to collapse little by little.
At the critical moment, Sylphy's shot relieved Isolte's pressure.
Sylphy is, after all, a Saint-level magician and can use magic without chanting. Her extremely fast spellcasting interrupted the Northern King's attack and gave Isolte a chance to catch her breath.
Isolte then no longer held back and directly activated the Water God Style's mystery, directly blocking the attacks of several Northern Kings by temporarily cutting off the space.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, she decisively took Doristina and Princess Ariel away from the scene.
When Eris and Ghislaine saw Ariel safely leaving, they no longer fought Aubel and chose to avoid their edge and retreat.
A chaotic banquet thus came to an end.
After the banquet ended, Ariel's faction temporarily gained the upper hand.
Because Ariel's public opinion attack on Darius was very effective, many people who were originally Darius's partners chose to cut ties with him after hearing about Darius's bad deeds.
Although they didn't directly switch to Ariel's side, they mostly took a neutral attitude.
Philip then decisively seized this opportunity, contacted many nobles who might be won over, and launched all attacks. He really won over a lot of people, greatly increasing the strength of Ariel's faction.
The only problem is that although the number of politicians at the noble level has increased, the number of experts with good strength has not increased.
Isolte only came to help to protect Doristina this time. In fact, the Water God Style dojo has always chosen a neutral judgment in this battle for the throne due to the attitude of the current Water God.
And the largest number of powerhouses in the Asura Kingdom can be said to be concentrated in the Water God Style dojo. If the Water God Style remains neutral, it is impossible to win over real experts.
In contrast, Darius has already exposed a powerhouse of the Northern Emperor Aubel's level under his command.
Even if the Water God Reida doesn't take action, relying on this Northern Emperor alone is enough to make Ariel's faction suffer.
Faced with such a disadvantage, Ariel didn't have any good solutions. After all, she had been trying to win over a real powerhouse at the Magic University for a long time, but failed.
Not to mention Shirou, even Rudeus refused Ariel's win over. Not to mention senior magician seniors like Principal Jinas, it is impossible to get involved in another country's civil war.
Helpless, Ariel can only think about how to gain political advantage without powerful experts on his side.
Ariel is not completely desperate. Relying on this attack on Darius, as long as he operates steadily and further strengthens his own strength and expands his influence in the royal capital, he may be able to win the throne competition without bloodshed in the end.
After all, the throne competition is not purely about killing and competition. As long as the final influence is large enough and the approval of the Knights is obtained, it is enough to secure the victory.
In the end, in this era, the army is always more important than individual force.
Not to mention God-level experts, in general, even Sword Emperors, Northern Emperors, and Water Emperors cannot win head-on against an army of ten thousand people.
Ariel has already prepared for a long-term war.
But she never expected that Darius would not give her time to slowly operate at all.
After this incident, Darius seemed to realize Ariel's advantage in political reputation. After realizing that delaying would be unfavorable to him, he decisively used a despicable means.
Taking advantage of the king's serious illness, he forcibly issued a decree on behalf of the king, stating that Sauros in prison would be executed in three days!
As soon as this news came out, Eris and Ghislaine couldn't sit still.
No matter what, the two could not watch Sauros being executed. Even if they broke into the prison, they would have to rescue Sauros.
This situation undoubtedly made Ariel embarrassed.
Because this is obviously a trap set by Darius, the other party must be heavily guarded, waiting for Eris and Ghislaine to jump in, and then take down these two Sword Kings in one fell swoop.
Once the two strongest Sword Kings are killed, then Ariel will immediately become meat on a chopping block and can be dealt with as Darius pleases.
However, Ariel also understands Eris and Ghislaine's thoughts and cannot let them watch Sauros being executed.
Undoubtedly, Darius's move from under the cauldron directly made Ariel unable to cope. The chess game has entered a checkmate situation and there is no possibility of a comeback at all.
Ariel in the royal capital and Shirou on the airborne fortress, although in different situations, are almost in complete despair!
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