novelhk Page 198
Page 198
From that moment on, Shirou realized that forging itself could also improve his projection level.
Once a weapon has been forged, the energy consumption during projection can be greatly reduced, and the projection speed can be increased significantly.
Shirou suspects that this might be related to sword magic and Unlimited Blade Works. After all, when he first came to this world a long time ago, he couldn't even do ordinary projection, but since learning sword magic, he has gradually been able to project some familiar weapons.
As he forged more weapons in the guise of Muramasa and even spread them throughout the world, his projection skills became increasingly proficient.
Therefore, everything is likely connected.
Both sword magic and weapon forging subtly enhanced Shirou's projection abilities.
In short, the spear that Shirou couldn't project before, became projectable after he forged a Noble Phantasm-level spear.
In addition, Shirou had previously learned the Spelud clan's spear techniques from Rigelud, so he now unhesitatingly chose to project the strongest spear in his memory, the Causal Killing Spear, Gaeberg!
The battle with the Dragon God taught Shirou a lot, the most important of which was that skills should not be confined to a single concept!
A true strong person is one who masters all the power they can control!
"Snapped!"
Shirou grasped the crimson spear in his hand. Without the slightest hesitation, he directly released the true name of this Noble Phantasm and activated its strongest effect.
"True Name Liberation, Piercing Death Thorn Gun!"
As Shirou released his spear, the spear in his hand suddenly emitted an astonishing aura, and like a giant dragon soaring into the sky, it transformed into a straight line without Shirou needing to use it, charging straight towards the Sword God!
"oh?!"
The Sword God didn't take Shirou's actions seriously, because he didn't think a young man like Shirou could use any powerful spear techniques.
Because a person's energy is always limited, while learning one skill, one often cannot reach the peak of another skill.
The Sword God is like that. Although he possesses swordsmanship that can be described as god-like, he is completely ignorant of all other skills.
This can be considered the limit of human capability.
The only things in this world that can break this limit are those that are truly exceptional.
There was only one among them who was so great that even the Sword God looked up to him.
That is the Dragon God, Orsteed.
Only that Dragon God possessed almost all martial arts skills, all techniques, and even his swordsmanship in the Sword God style had reached an extraordinary level.
No one knows how the Dragon God did it; the fact is that only the Dragon God possesses the ultimate level of almost all martial arts that exist in this world!
So the Sword God never expected that Shirou, a human, could possess different ultimate martial arts skills at the same time as the Dragon God!
It wasn't until the crimson spear tip was about to reach him that the Sword God suddenly realized just how exaggerated the power of this spear was!
Chapter 266 After defeating the Sword God to a draw, participate in the Sword Saint Trial?
"Boom!"
Shirou's all-out thrust, after unleashing the true name of his Noble Phantasm, revealed the full power of the Piercing Death Thorn Spear!
The Piercing Death Spear is the Noble Phantasm of the Heroic Spirit Cú Chulainn, and it is also a terrifying demonic spear with the ability to reverse cause and effect.
Its only effect is to reverse cause and effect, with the "effect" of hitting the heart determining the "cause" of wielding the spear to attack.
Because the outcome is already determined before the gun is even swung, all conventional defense and evasion are meaningless.
The spear tip will inevitably reach the heart, and only after piercing the heart will the spear fall, reaching its predetermined end.
Such a terrifying effect has even reached the level of interfering with fate, a level that only a curse possesses.
If wielded by Cú Chulainn himself, this "Spear of Cause and Effect," capable of reversing cause and effect, could even pierce through gods. Unless a god possesses the attribute of changing fate, it would be impossible for them to escape the spear's lock and would undoubtedly be pierced through the heart.
Unfortunately, Shirou himself does not possess the same level of strength as Cú Chulainn, and the projected Noble Phantasm is also a level less effective than the original Noble Phantasm.
Therefore, although the Piercing Death Thorn Spear wielded by Shirou has the potential to "pierce the opponent's heart" when it is released, the trajectory of the spear itself is not unchangeable.
Of course, because the attribute of reversing cause and effect was so overpowered, even though Shirou himself was not good at spear fighting, this terrifying attack still carried an extraordinary momentum and rushed straight toward the sword god!
"!!!"
Faced with the Piercing Death Thorn Spear, and feeling the pressure of the spear tip reaching straight to his heart, even the Sword God couldn't help but show a serious expression.
He struck a pose.
He stood with his feet apart, knees slightly bent, and hands resting on the hilt of his sword, as if to cover the sword, assuming a fighting stance.
This is the stance of Iaido.
These are moves that anyone who has studied the Sword God Style will be familiar with.
The Sword God Style is a swordsmanship that emphasizes wielding the fastest and heaviest sword no matter what.
Its ultimate technique is the Blade of Light. As long as the target is locked, it can ensure that the fastest and strongest sword is swung, with extreme speed as the main means of attack.
However, although most swordsmen of the Sword God style use the Light Katana, the attack methods that different swordsmen are good at are still quite different.
The main distinction is that there are three different stances.
The first type is a sword technique called "Central Stage," which can handle any rhythm and is the basic form of the Sword God Style.
The second type is the upper stance, which is suitable for those who are good at disrupting the opponent's rhythm and launching deep attacks; it is an aggressive stance.
The last type is called Iaido, which is suitable for people who are good at reading their opponent's rhythm and using their sense of smell to find the best opportunity. It is a defensive stance.
In other words, those who can see through the rhythm use iaido, those who can disrupt the rhythm use upper stance, and those who don't particularly emphasize either side use middle stance.
After learning the Sword God Style, Shirou's main way of wielding the sword has always been the middle stance. He did not specifically learn any other sword techniques, but simply used the sword itself, using the most essential form of the Light Blade to unleash slashes, and using the most reasonable way to swing his sword.
Of course, this is not a brilliant approach, or rather, it is quite mediocre.
The Sword God gave him such a bad evaluation because he saw that he did not have outstanding talent.
In contrast, Alice's sword style is always high-level because she has a natural sense of rhythm and can actively disrupt her opponent's rhythm, constantly attacking and attacking. This is a sword style that has no so-called technique and is purely based on intuition.
In a sense, this is the strongest swordsmanship of the Sword God style, a style that is purely offensive and without any defense.
The Sword God's high regard for Alice stemmed from this.
As for the Sword God himself, the sword technique he used was Iaijutsu.
This is a super-fast slash that is closer to the Water God Style, which reverses the situation at a critical moment through a counterattack. It is somewhat similar to the Twenty Slashes of the Northern God Style, but it is many times faster than the Twenty Slashes.
Previously, the Sword God had simply struck any pose he pleased and swung his weapon with the most composed movements. But now, he was taking a serious stance and making the sword-swinging motion with the utmost seriousness.
Therefore, his aura changed almost instantly, and he seemed to transform into a sharp sword, standing there waiting for Shirou to get closer to him, exhaling softly while patiently waiting for him to close the distance little by little.
"..."
When it reached a certain limit, the sword god suddenly moved.
His sword flashed out at an extremely fast speed, pulling at all the threads around him. Those threads, which were already like invisible sword energy, were now all entangled and attacked Shirou's Piercing Death Thorn Spear, wrapping around the tip of the spear.
Although it was only a brief moment, in the Sword God Style's offensive, even a single instant could determine the outcome.
"Kacha!"
Before Shirou could react, he felt an impact from behind.
That's the feeling of being slashed by a sword.
The swordsman, wielding a katana of light with the full power of a sword king-level fighting spirit, sliced through the air as easily as butter and reached Shirou.
Shirou's body was almost instantly severed by a single strike...
That didn't happen.
The sword of the Sword God was deflected the moment it collided with Shirou's body. Because the piercing spear was only blocked and did not stop completely, it continued to advance towards the heart. As a result, the Sword God could only swing his sword once before he had to retreat and try his best to defend himself.
Since Shirou's spear skills are not as good as Cú Chulainn's, and his Projection Noble Phantasm is one level lower, his Piercing Death Thorn Spear is not unstoppable.
The Sword God barely managed to block the attack by using his Sword King-level battle aura and his full-force Light Katana.
However, a clear bloody hole still appeared in his chest, although the wound only slightly pierced the skin and did not completely reach his heart.
In a sense, this clash was a victory for Shirou.
But Shirou was not happy.
He simply took off his outer garment, letting the clothes, which were already shattered from the sword strike, fall to the ground, revealing his dragon-scale armor.
Evil Dragon Blood Armor.
This armor, which was not used when facing the Dragon God Orsteed, now plays a crucial role in the battle against the Sword God.
Because the Sword God claimed he would fight him with the strength of a Sword King, he did not unleash his sword energy at the level of a Sword God.
This means that no matter how fast the Sword God's sword is, its power is only that of the Sword King, and it is not enough to completely defeat the Evil Dragon Blood Armor.
Of course, the Sword God also seems to possess a skill similar to the ability to see into one's mind.
Otherwise, the opponent wouldn't have swung their sword at Shirou's back; they would have swung it directly at his front.
The Sword God probably judged by intuition that the weakness of the Evil Dragon Blood Armor was in its back, which is why he subconsciously swung his sword at Shirou's back.
However, the swordsman's judgment was still somewhat off; he missed the dragon's blood armor's weak point, and the sword tip deflected slightly, causing the damage to be completely blocked by the armor.
Even so, it is enough to prove the terror of the Sword God. This strongest human swordsman in the world indeed possesses unparalleled skills and strength.
"..."
After this clash, neither Shirou nor the Sword God continued their offensive for a short period of time.
The Sword God stared intently at Shirou's figure and spoke first: "I misjudged you. You might really be a genius."
"No, I'm not a genius."
"There's no need to be modest. Even if it's a counterfeit skill or a false profound technique, as long as it's genuine and reaches the place it's meant to reach, it can still become the strongest."
The Sword God spoke with a complex expression, and continued, "Magic, swordsmanship, spearmanship, archery, weapons, armor... it doesn't matter how you obtained them, as long as you make all the techniques the strongest, you can become the strongest. But you are not good enough yet. Your skills are still too shallow. Even if you have a lot, it's useless because none of them are top-notch."
"..."
Shirou himself felt something similar about the words of the Sword God.
Or rather, it was precisely because he discovered that he could not break through Angelica's use of Gilgamesh's cards no matter what, and that everything was completely shattered by Ea, that he realized the greatest weakness of the Heroic Spirit Palace: the lack of ultimate and singular means of mastery.
To overcome this weakness, he did his best to learn the Sword God Style after arriving in this world, attempting to master it to its fullest extent.
However, he himself did not possess extraordinary talent and lacked that crucial ability.
His sword could never reach the summit, no matter what.
This is precisely the limit of the Heroic Spirit Emiya, and it's what Shirou has always wanted to surpass.
But the reason why a limit is a limit is precisely because it cannot be surpassed; it is an indelible concept that locks in the essence and upper limit of life...
While Shirou fell silent, the Sword God, after a long period of contemplation, suddenly released his sword and said quietly, "I've got it. I understand what you need. Kid, your name is Shirou, right?"
"Yes."
Shirou was puzzled when the Sword God suddenly asked him a question.
The Sword God calmly said, "You can stay in the Holy Land of Swords for now. The Sword Saint assessment in the Holy Land of Swords will begin soon, so you can just go and participate."
"This...why?"
Shirou didn't understand why the Sword God wanted him to take the Sword Saint test, since he had already mastered the Blade of Light and could have been given the title of Sword Saint directly.
Moreover, Shirou's main goal in coming to the Holy Land of Swords was to learn swordsmanship beyond that of a Sword Saint, and to learn a skill that was even higher than the Blade of Light.
Otherwise, he would have gone straight to find his family members.
Therefore, he couldn't understand why the Sword God wanted him to participate in the Sword Saint's test.
The Sword God didn't explain Shirou's confusion. He simply said, "I'm too lazy to explain the reasons, but I can only tell you that if you want to become stronger and bring your talents to their fullest potential, you'd better do as I say. Also, take off that monstrous armor you're wearing and put on the one I'm giving you."
"This……"
Shirou received a set of armor from the Sword God, but after getting his hands on it, he found that the weight of the armor was beyond his imagination.
If the Evil Dragon Blood Armor is a light armor, then this armor is an extremely heavy armor that he could barely lift.
If someone were to wear such armor, let alone fight, even wielding a sword would probably become a problem!
Chapter 267 Armor that restricts battle qi, the holy land swordsman's taunt!
The Sword God's attitude was very firm. He directly set a condition: Shirou should wear this heavy armor to participate in the Sword Saint Examination of the Sword Sanctuary. In return, he would give Shirou the opportunity to learn swordsmanship in the Sword Sanctuary and even be taught the Sword God Style's profound secrets at the level of a Sword King.
Although Shirou couldn't understand the sword god's request, he ultimately chose to comply.
After all, his current Sword God Style technique has indeed reached a bottleneck, and even Kyrie Irvine has no way to guide him to become stronger.