Chapter 151 – The Heretic Plan That Lasted for a Thousand Years, The Truth of Gods and Calamity!
At the walls of Orario. With the disappearance of the sea monster, the entire city finally regained peace.
All chaos had come to an end. Both gods and mortals, having been freed from fear and despair, showed genuine relief, grateful that they had survived such a catastrophe.
Standing on the wall, Hermes, having witnessed the nearly all-piercing beam of Excalibur, could not help but reveal a bitter smile. He had not expected that the final act of the stage would end in such an absurd manner. Even he found it hard to believe that the beam which tore through the night was a power created by mortals.
For the moment, he had to admit defeat wholeheartedly. When it came to the theater of fate, he was indeed far inferior to that man, Shirou Emiya.
Because of this, he even felt like ending everything here and returning to Tenkai.
However, before his thoughts could be realized, troublesome visitors came for him.
Led by Hestia, Loki and Freya approached to confront the one responsible for tonight's chaos.
Especially Loki—who had been confined by Ouranos and thus knew nothing about the disturbances in Orario—never imagined that Hermes would turn out to be the mastermind behind it all.
"You, the one pulling strings behind the scenes—do you have anything to say?" Loki narrowed her eyes at Hermes. "You'd better confess honestly. Leniency for admission, severity for resistance."
"I've got nothing to say." Hermes waved his hand with a smile, completely unconcerned with Loki's threat. "And what could you even do to me? Planning to forcefully send me back to Tenkai? You know you can't do that, don't you?"
"..."
Hermes' words left Loki with a helpless expression. After all, Hermes was a god. As a god, he could hardly be constrained by human laws or morality, nor could violence be used against him.
For if a god were truly cornered, they could choose to self-destruct, unleashing all their divine power in a desperate last stand. This was equally true for the evil gods.
Every time an evil god was slain and returned to Tenkai, the cost was unbearably high, sometimes threatening the destruction of the city itself.
However, in the past, Orario once had a method to avoid this risk.
Because in Orario's past, there had existed a goddess who could display power equal to a god releasing their divinity without actually releasing it: the Goddess of Justice—Astraea.
When the Astraea Familia still existed, Orario had launched a massive assault against the Evilus, sending several evil gods back to Tenkai in one sweep, clearing away the city's darkness in one decisive stroke.
In that battle, Astraea's role was undeniably enormous. With her power alone, she suppressed all the evil gods, preventing them from counterattacking, eliminating Evilus without causing significant destruction to the city.
It was easy to see how exaggerated Astraea's authority was.
Yet years ago, in a certain incident, the Astraea Familia was completely annihilated, and the goddess herself, disheartened, left the Labyrinth City.
As a result, now, when faced with a god like Hermes who had committed mistakes, the other gods had no way to judge him, let alone punish him. Such was the case with Hermes.
"Don't worry, Loki, I won't abuse my power anymore."
Yet before the gathered gods, Hermes spoke seriously: "This incident has made me realize many things. Rather than being the director of the stage play, I now wish to be nothing more than a pure audience, to appreciate the unprecedented performance about to unfold in Orario."
"Performance? What do you mean?"
Loki stared at Hermes in confusion, not understanding what he meant.
Hermes, however, cast a vague glance toward the Tower of Babel.
Clearly, although other gods knew nothing yet of Shirou and Evilus's movements, Hermes had already perceived something through his authority.
But not only did he refrain from warning others, he had no intention of taking any action at all.
As he said himself, rather than directing the stage, he now wanted to be a pure spectator—to watch the unprecedented drama that Shirou Emiya was about to create.
"Ah, if Ouranos were to know my thoughts, he would surely see me as a traitor. But Ouranos—I never once swore loyalty to you. As for your actions, your games, I have no interest. What I seek is simply the joy of being a god."
Hermes murmured softly to himself, releasing his emotions and feelings where no one could hear.
Seeing Hermes' madness, Loki, Freya, and the other gods had no idea how to deal with him. After all, not only was there no way to punish a god for wrongdoing, but it was also hard to say what "wrongdoing" Hermes had even committed.
After all, the sea monster had not been summoned by Hermes. He had merely incited conflict between humans and the Xenos.
And since that conflict had vanished due to the sea monster's appearance, and since the Xenos had now reconciled with both the Loki Familia and the Freya Familia, in many ways they were no longer being targeted by humans.
In other words, factually speaking, Hermes might not have caused any real harm at all. At most, his actions amounted to an attempted crime—hardly a grave offense.
"Speaking of which... just who summoned that sea monster?"
Unknowingly, one of the gods asked that question.
At that moment, Hestia's body immediately tensed up.
Because only she and Hermes knew that the summoner of the sea monster was Shirou.
If such news were revealed, not only Shirou himself, but the entire Hestia Familia could become the target of Orario's wrath.
"Ah, um... ah, um, um..."
Hestia panicked, desperately wishing to prevent the gods from investigating the truth, but unable to think of any method.
Yet unexpectedly, at the edge of the sea, the sea monster—supposedly dead—suddenly began undergoing a shocking change.
Under the influence of some power, its body once again began to move. The dead monster was being revived.
"Heavens!" "What is happening!?" "Who did this?!"
Both gods and mortals were stunned. The monster they had finally defeated was crawling back once again.
The scene was like a nightmare, filling everyone with suffocating dread.
"A nightmare... wait, could it be Ikelos' doing?"
Loki sensed the strange aura emanating from the revived sea monster, and immediately realized it was Ikelos who had used his authority—reviving the sea monster with the power of nightmares.
"Ikelos!!!" "That bastard really is an evil god!" "That sea monster must have been his creation too!"
In an instant, Ikelos' actions perfectly shouldered the blame for Shirou.
The gods, without hesitation, laid all responsibility on Ikelos.
Seeing this, Hestia could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. Though the sea monster's threat had returned, Shirou's involvement as its creator had been completely covered up.
Though she knew Ikelos had revived the sea monster for evil purposes, his actions had indeed relieved the Hestia Familia of danger.
In her heart, Hestia quietly whispered: "Thank you, Ikelos!"
.
.
.
Meanwhile, as the surface was once again thrown into turmoil by the revived sea monster, deep beneath the Tower of Babel...
A vast divine power engulfed the entire underground space.
Every inch of the Xenos laboratory was covered by divine power, filled with inhuman distortion and chaos.
"!!!"
Unlike any opponent faced before, the divine power released by the god Miach was unmistakably at the level of a true god.
His power quickly covered the entire underground lab, pressing so hard that even ordinary Evilus members could not breathe.
Even Thanatos, himself a god, had to rely on his divine authority just to barely maintain his own consciousness.
At this moment, the only one able to move freely within the field of divine power, even standing against Miach, was Shirou alone.
Ordinarily, Shirou would never have been able to withstand divine suppression.
Divine power so dense and aggressive would overwhelm a mortal's consciousness, plunging it into chaos, dissolving it into pure nothingness.
But perhaps because he had defeated the artificial angel and absorbed a great deal of divine power from it, Shirou now carried a resistance to divinity.
Or rather, after absorbing so much divine power, his very essence of life had undergone a fundamental change.
Just like how Spirits infused with divine power became beings closest to gods in Genkai— Shirou, after absorbing vast divine power, had also transformed, becoming closer to a divine being.
Yet he was not truly a god. The realm he had reached was, at best, the level of a demigod.
Even so, even as a mere demigod, the change was so great that he could resist the oppression of a true god like Miach!
"Incredible… just how much divine power have you absorbed into your body?"
Seeing Shirou resisting his divine power, Miach's expression was filled with astonishment. He could see that Shirou had absorbed a vast amount of divine power into his body—just like the Spirits or artificial angels—allowing him to withstand the field of divinity.
But ordinary Spirits or artificial angels would never be able to withstand the full power of a true god. This meant Shirou's divine power had already surpassed the Spirits created by the gods.
On the other hand, Shirou paid no mind to Miach's astonishment. He simply felt the pressure of divine power and slowly moved his body within the field of divinity.
He realized that under the influence of the divine power, his body felt as slow as a snail, the heavy might of the gods almost crushing his entire being.
Though Shirou, having reached the level of a demigod, could just barely avoid being crushed, his situation was still far from allowing him free movement within the divine field.
Thus, Shirou slowly asked Miach, seeking a mental breakthrough: "God Miach, don't you think everything you've done is wrong? Using mortals and monsters as test subjects for such prolonged experiments—how is such sinful conduct any different from Evilus?"
"Sinful?"
At Shirou's words, Miach's attitude did not change in the slightest.
He simply spoke calmly: "No, I feel no guilt whatsoever. Because gods, by their very nature, are selfish beings. We devour everything around us in order to survive. For our own evolution, we mercilessly strip away all surrounding matter."
"..."
"Emiya, perhaps you've never been to Tenkai. If you had, you would know why gods yearn so much for Genkai. Tenkai is nothing but a wasteland—there is nothing there, nothing at all. An
empty, hollow world, as if every inch of land had been stripped bare, leaving only worthless remnants."
Miach's expression grew complicated as he continued: "Tenkai once was as vibrant as the mortal world. At the edges of my memory, I can still recall a time when Tenkai bloomed with myriad flowers, full of color and splendor.
But as the greed of the gods grew stronger, as selfish desires spread further, everything in Tenkai was stolen by the gods themselves.
From the stars above to the flowers below, the gods greedily seized all that was precious, reshaping the world at will with their boundless divine power.
Can you imagine what that looked like? The madness of a single god could already plunge the world into chaos. With the unchecked desires of countless gods, the collapse of Tenkai was inevitable. Soon enough, Tenkai was plundered into nothingness, uglier than hell itself."
"In contrast, Genkai—where gods cannot use their divine power—became the paradise every god longed for. Because gods, like humans, desire only what they do not possess. Once they truly acquire something, they immediately lose interest and cast it aside. It is the forever unattainable that ignites the true desire and greed of the gods."
"..."
Miach's words revealed the essence of the gods and the true nature of Tenkai, as well as why the gods so desperately longed for everything in Genkai.
From Thanatos' expression, it was clear Miach's account was the truth.
Shirou himself could easily imagine—if countless gods existed who freely abused their divine power—what kind of apocalyptic wasteland a planet would become.
"Precisely because of that, shouldn't you gods protect Genkai, safeguard everything in it?" Shirou pressed Miach. "If you want to ensure Genkai's existence as a paradise, then the gods should learn from history, abandon their greedy ways, and restrain their actions."
"Restrain ourselves? Abandon greed?" Miach could not help but let out a bitter laugh at Shirou's words. "Emiya, what a ridiculous thing you've just said. Do you really think the gods—who turned Tenkai into such desolation, who are unrestrained to the bone, lawless in their every action—could ever learn self-restraint?
No. It's impossible.
When gods come to Genkai and behold its beauty and grandeur, their first instinct is the same as always—to seize everything.
Yet the restriction that gods cannot use their divine power in Genkai prevents them from plundering as they once did. Bound by these laws, gods cannot seize everything here as they
did in Tenkai. In such circumstances, what do you think they would do? Restrain themselves? Abandon their greed? No. They would seek every means possible to find a way to wield divine power, so they could take everything in Genkai!
That is why, a thousand years ago, the first gods to secretly descend created the Spirits. They attempted to use the Spirits' power to satisfy their desires. Yet the Spirits were still creatures of Genkai, not puppets of the gods.
When given divine power, instead of fulfilling the gods' greed, the Spirits used their strength to aid humans, to fight against monsters. This greatly disappointed the gods, who eventually abandoned the Spirits. Thus, from then on, no new Spirits were ever born in the world again."
Miach spoke word by word, recounting the gods' past and history after descending to Genkai.
His account matched exactly the fragments Shirou had gathered, explaining why for the last thousand years, almost no rumors of Spirits had surfaced.
"Even after abandoning the Spirits, the gods did not stop their research into divine power. They desperately sought beings capable of bearing divinity, hoping to create existences that would perfectly obey their commands and act as they willed." Miach's tone turned strange. "In the end, the beings they found were the monsters. The gods discovered that monsters in the Dungeon were better suited than mortals to bear divine power—because the essence of monsters is energy. If the conversion laws and principles could be discovered, monsters could become vessels for divine power."
"Making monsters bear divine power? You don't mean…"
Hearing this, Thanatos' eyes widened in shock.
Miach silently nodded. "That's right. It was your research into monsters' souls, Death God. Originally, even if monsters bore divine power, as beings born only to destroy, they could never become the tools of the gods. But your research solved that problem of monsters lacking reason. As long as monsters were created with thought—better yet, only shallow thought—they could become the perfect tools the gods desired."
"So that's how the Xenos were born?"
"Exactly."
Miach continued narrating that dark history: "After obtaining Thanatos' research, Ouranos ordered the gods to continue their studies. After many eras, the first Xenos were created. Unfortunately, ordinary Xenos, even with intellect, could not withstand immense divine power—when infused with even a trace of it, they inevitably died."
"The gods then pursued even stronger Xenos, seeking more terrifying monsters, fusing them with human souls. Yet at the time, they never considered what consequences such actions
would bring. They never considered what kind of existence would be born when vast divine power was granted to creations of Genkai."
"You mean…" Shirou instantly made the connection. "The Three Great Calamities, including the One-Eyed Black Dragon—were all your creations!?"
"Precisely." Miach revealed the truth without hesitation. "The gods' experiments reached a point from which even they could not turn back. The result was those three world-ending monsters. Infused with overwhelming divine power, they became uncontrollable, unstoppable, impossible to destroy. The Three Great Calamities brought immense disaster to Genkai, nearly annihilating it. In truth, if not for the self-sacrifice of the Spirits, the entire world would already have been destroyed."
The revelation that the Three Great Calamities were creations of the gods' experiments shocked Shirou and Thanatos beyond words.
Most shocking of all, even after creating those monstrous beings, the gods still did not abandon their madness. They continued their experiments beneath the Tower of Babel.
It was clear that the gods cared nothing for Genkai, nor for the lives of mortals.
"Were you the one leading the Xenos experiments?"
Shirou looked at Miach, finding it hard to reconcile this cold god before him with the gentle one who ran the Blue Pharmacy.
Miach calmly answered: "Of course not. Unlike Ouranos and Thanatos, I was not among the first gods to descend. I did not know of these things much earlier than you did. In fact, it was only a few years ago."
"A few years ago?"
"Yes. At that time, Ouranos came to me, revealed everything, and invited me to join this plan. That was when I learned of the gods' thousand-year madness beneath the city. And in the end, I chose to join of my own will, becoming one of the Xenos researchers."
"Of your own will? Why would you join Ouranos' experiments?"
Shirou looked at Miach in confusion, unable to understand his reasoning.
"Does that matter to you, Shirou Emiya?" Miach asked back. "To you, I am nothing but a sinful god who, knowing the darkness of the gods, still went along with it. Even if you knew my reasons, what could that change? Do you think you could persuade me with words, make me betray Ouranos, and become your ally?"
"I'm not that naïve…"
"Exactly. So there's no need to waste words any further. Tonight, the only thing left between us is to fight—to see whether I kill you and bury all this darkness beneath Orario once more, or
whether you succeed in defeating me and challenge the supreme 'Heaven' that brought all this forth."
As Miach spoke, the pressure of his divine power intensified further, causing everyone present except Shirou to faint on the spot.
Thanatos had to focus his full divine authority just to avoid collapsing instantly.
Feeling the unmistakable hostility and malice, Shirou took a deep breath. After the conversation, there was no longer any confusion in his heart—only a single resolve.
To fight Miach with all his strength. To defeat this first true godly enemy who now stood before him!
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