Chapter 260

Chapter 260: Chapter 260

Kiriya’s Shadow Clone clapped both hands together and roared with tremendous momentum.

Of course, the roar was mostly for effect.

Actually producing the complete version of True Several Thousand Hands was far beyond what this clone could manage.

Kiriya estimated that even his original body would probably need to be in peak condition and combine his full reserves with Sage Mode before he could reproduce anything approaching the true scale of the technique.

Right now, he was operating through a Shadow Clone, and although Sage Mode provided an enormous boost, the chakra cost of the jutsu was simply too absurd.

At best, what he could produce was the bargain-basement version of the bargain-basement version.

Even so—

The wooden Buddha that erupted from the earth still stood nearly fifty meters tall, with a hundred enormous arms spreading behind it in a vast halo.

Compared with the golem that had been towering over everyone only moments earlier, the difference was almost comical.

You’re the one calling yourself a giant?

"Whoa... Master is huge!"

Astolfo craned his neck until it looked as though he might topple backward, staring at Kiriya standing atop the wooden Buddha’s head with his mouth open wide enough to swallow a fist.

"This truly is... an eye-opening sight."

Even Chiron and Jeanne could not help staring in amazement at the colossal construct.

"Hmph!"

Mordred irritably drove Clarent into the ground and folded her arms.

With something that enormous already standing on their side, it seemed there would be nothing left for her to do.

If the consecutive battles had not drained so much of her magical energy, and if Kairi had not already spent so many Command Spells keeping her alive and strengthening her earlier, she could have unleashed something suitably spectacular herself.

"Wh-What...?"

The rapidly fading Avicebron stared upward, his eyes widening until they seemed ready to leave his skull.

For perhaps the first time in his existence, the foundations of his worldview were being violently shaken.

No, seriously—

Which one of them was supposed to have created the giant?

In front of the fifty-meter, hundred-armed wooden Buddha, Golem Keter Malkuth, which had not even reached twenty meters in height, suddenly looked less like a world-saving primordial giant and more like a three-year-old child standing in front of the heavyweight champion of the world.

Creak... creak... creak...

Four enormous wooden arms reached forward simultaneously and seized the distant golem, lifting it off the ground as casually as someone picking up a troublesome chicken.

The instant its feet left the earth, Golem Keter Malkuth began struggling violently. Its arms and legs thrashed with enough force to shake the air, yet against four gigantic wooden hands, its resistance accomplished absolutely nothing.

"Eee—!"

Astolfo blinked.

For a second, he could have sworn he heard the giant squeal.

Then the first fist came down.

BOOM!

One of the Buddha’s enormous hands smashed directly into the golem’s face, obliterating more than half its head in a single strike.

"So you’re the primordial giant, huh?!"

BOOM!

A second fist crashed into it before the damaged head had even begun to regenerate.

"Immortal as long as your feet touch the earth, huh?!"

BOOM!

A third punch folded its torso inward.

"And you’re gonna save all humanity too, huh?!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

At first, Kiriya had been punctuating every sentence with a single punch, but after a few blows he apparently lost patience with the routine.

The hundred arms behind the Buddha moved together.

Then fists the size of houses began raining down upon the suspended golem from every conceivable direction.

"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA—!"

The barrage became so dense that Golem Keter Malkuth did not even have the opportunity to scream.

Its mouth was among the first things to be pulverized, and from that point onward the sound of the beating was reduced to the relentless thunder of enormous wooden fists smashing into an increasingly unrecognizable mass.

Had Avicebron still possessed a proper physical body, the sight might have made him cough up several liters of blood and die from sheer rage.

Unfortunately for him, his Saint Graph was already almost completely dispersed.

All he could do was stand there with eyes wide open and watch his masterpiece—the Noble Phantasm he had sacrificed everything to create, the primordial giant that was supposed to spread Eden across the world—get beaten into paste by a giant wooden Buddha several times its size.

He died with his eyes open!

"Cough, cough..."

Astolfo quietly shuffled closer to Jeanne and lowered his voice.

"Hey, Ruler... have you noticed that we kind of look like the villains?"

Jeanne turned toward him in genuine disbelief.

"Huh? How did you reach that conclusion?"

As far as she could tell, they were very clearly the ones stopping catastrophes.

"Well, think about it."

Astolfo began counting on his fingers.

"That priest said he wanted to save all humanity, and we stopped him. Then Caster said he wanted to save all humanity too, and now we’re smashing his dream into the ground with a giant Buddha. If this were some old legend, wouldn’t that make us the villains?"

"Don’t be ridiculous."

Mordred snorted from nearby.

"Those idiots are just obsessed with themselves."

She glanced toward the golem still being subjected to a hundred-fisted execution.

"Who the hell do they think they are, anyway? Humanity never asked them to come save it."

"Every other sentence out of their mouths is about how filthy people are, how sinful the world is, how corrupt everyone has become... If they hate humans that much, then why bother saving them?"

Mordred had always despised the sort of person who placed themselves above everyone else and sneered at the world from a position of imagined superiority.

Jeanne gave a small shake of her head.

"I can respect the desire to save humanity itself, but I cannot agree with their methods. What they are attempting ultimately amounts to denying humanity’s own possibilities and choosing humanity’s future on its behalf."

"Is now really the time to be having a philosophical discussion?"

Caules could no longer hold back the comment.

The battle unfolding in front of them looked like something torn directly from ancient mythology, with a fifty-meter Buddha holding a giant in midair and beating it senseless with a hundred enormous fists, yet these Heroic Spirits were standing around debating moral philosophy as though they were having a casual conversation over tea.

Perhaps this was simply what it meant to be a Heroic Spirit.

After roughly five full minutes of merciless punishment, Golem Keter Malkuth finally released what sounded almost like a roar of relief.

Then its consciousness vanished completely.

If there was ever another life after this one, it seemed to have reached a firm conclusion:

Someone else could deal with this cursed place.

It was never coming back.

The moment the golem died, the gigantic hundred-armed Buddha also lost the aura of life and magical energy sustaining it.

Its movements ceased, leaving behind an immense wooden statue standing silently across the ruined Yggdmillennia estate.

The surviving magi of the clan could only stare up at it with unconcealed awe.

"Phew."

Kiriya’s Shadow Clone wiped an entirely imaginary layer of sweat from his forehead.

"That thing was surprisingly durable. Wore me out a bit."

Everyone nearby immediately gave him the same flat look.

Even Mordred, who normally said whatever came into her head, almost opened her mouth to curse at him.

Before she could, however, another figure suddenly appeared beside the Shadow Clone and smacked him across the back of the head.

"Enough. Stop screwing around. You’ve finished your job, so disappear already."

The newcomer was Kiriya himself.

After defeating Amakusa Shirou Tokisada and taking possession of the Greater Grail, Kiriya had not immediately begun using its power to strengthen himself.

Instead, he had erected a barrier around the Grail, left a Wood Clone behind to guard it, and only then returned to the ground to clean up the remaining problems.

"Tch. Damn slave driver."

The Shadow Clone muttered resentfully before disappearing in a puff of chakra.

Everyone stared.

Several foreheads practically filled with black lines.

That clone had possessed far too much personality.

Had something gone wrong when Kiriya created it?

Or was Kiriya himself actually this erratic and ridiculous beneath the surface?

The more they thought about it—

The more horrifying the possibility became!

One by one, they carefully looked away from Kiriya, afraid that somehow he might read their thoughts and decide to silence the witnesses.

"Kiriya!"

Jeanne’s face immediately brightened when she saw him.

Astolfo reacted just as quickly and, without learning anything whatsoever from previous experience, instinctively launched himself toward his Master.

Thunk!

Naturally, Kiriya’s hand chop met his head before he got anywhere close.

Astolfo immediately crouched on the ground, clutching his skull and loudly condemning his Master’s tyranny.

"If you’re here," Chiron said, "then that means the Greater Grail is already in your possession, correct?"

The moment those words left his mouth, subtle changes immediately swept through the surrounding Yggdmillennia magi.

The Greater Grail had been the foundation of their clan’s ambitions and the entire reason this Great Holy Grail War had begun.

Hearing that it now belonged to an outsider naturally stirred more than a few thoughts among them.

Caules and Fiore noticed immediately.

A pair of stern looks from the siblings was enough to suppress whatever anyone might have been considering.

Of course, the main reason no one dared say anything was considerably simpler.

They had all just witnessed what Kiriya was capable of.

No one present was eager to test whether the man who had defeated Achilles, Karna, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, and then produced a fifty-meter wooden Buddha through one of his clones might be willing to negotiate ownership rights.

"Yeah, I’ve got it."

Kiriya looked between Chiron, Mordred, and Astolfo.

"Actually, do any of you have wishes you still want fulfilled? If it’s something reasonable, I don’t mind helping."

They had fought beside one another and survived the same battlefield.

If fulfilling a few comparatively minor wishes was within his power once he gained control of the Greater Grail, Kiriya saw no reason to be stingy.

"My turn!"

Astolfo’s hand shot into the air before anyone else could answer.

"I want to travel all over the world and go on adventures!"

"That’s easy."

Kiriya nodded.

"When the time comes, I’ll have the Greater Grail incarnate you. Then you can go wherever you want."

Astolfo’s eyes immediately lit up.

Kiriya then looked toward Mordred.

"I’ll pass."

Mordred answered without hesitation.

"I don’t like being handed things by other people."

Her grin returned.

"Next time there’s a Holy Grail War, I’ll win the damn thing myself."

"Hahaha. Fair enough."

Kiriya nodded without trying to persuade her.

Everyone had their own pride and their own way of doing things, and he had no intention of forcing his generosity onto someone who did not want it.

That left only Chiron.

The great sage remained silent for a moment before smiling faintly.

"As for me... I believe I will decline as well. I have already seen and experienced quite a great deal during this summoning. I cannot say the journey was wasted."

Like Mordred, Chiron possessed pride of his own.

Whatever wish had brought him into the Holy Grail War, he had no desire to receive it as a favor from another victor.

Kiriya understood and did not press him.

"Then make the most of whatever time you have left."

After saying that, his gaze finally settled on Jeanne, who had remained quietly beside the others.

Kiriya smiled and extended one hand toward her, his expression warm enough to seem almost luminous beneath the afternoon light.

"Miss Jeanne."

He inclined his head with exaggerated courtesy.

"May I have the honor of inviting you to visit the Hanging Gardens with me?"

Jeanne looked at the hand offered to her.

A gentle smile slowly appeared on her face.

"Mm."

She placed her slender hand into Kiriya’s palm and nodded firmly.

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