Fate in Bleach: Unlimited Blade Works!-Chapter 460: Analyzing Avalon
Although Artoria resisted with all her might, the torrent of magical energy from her opponent slowly closed in. She knew that if she failed to hold it back, she would face the full brunt of her opponent's Excalibur.
Although Avalon now protected her, anchoring her to a specific point in time and keeping her constantly at her peak condition, if her opponent's attack was powerful enough to kill her instantly, even being anchored wouldn't allow her to return from death. Artoria had no desire to test whether his Excalibur could indeed kill her instantly.
Immediately, Artoria took a deep breath and let out a fierce cry! "Haaaaah!"
BOOM!
Just as the torrent of magical energy reached a third of the distance to her, Artoria resolutely detonated her own Excalibur. The raging magical energy intercepted Ailin's torrent of spiritual pressure, diminishing much of the power of his Sword of Promised Victory. Subsequently, the weakened spiritual pressure enveloped Artoria, and the remaining torrent of light swept her away…
BOOM!
As the blackish-red torrent of spiritual pressure dissipated, Artoria fell from the sky. Her magical armor was shattered in several places, and her body bore the marks of the spiritual pressure attack.
However, this state didn't last long. In less than a second, as if time itself had rewound, Artoria's armor rapidly repaired itself, and her injuries vanished as if they had never been.
BOOM!
After performing a flip in mid-air, Artoria landed, cracking the ground beneath her feet, and looked up at Ailin. The injuries she had sustained were real. The power of the Sword of Promised Victory he had created truly surpassed that of the fairy sword in her own hands.
Thankfully, Kiritsugu Emiya had given her Avalon in the end. Otherwise, facing Berserker, she truly wouldn't have stood a chance.
While Artoria reeled in shock, a smile spread across Ailin's face. As expected, drawing Artoria into Unlimited Blade Works was indeed helping him complete the analysis of Avalon. In just these few seconds of fighting, the analysis of Avalon had already surpassed 0.2 percent.
Especially when Artoria suffered heavy damage and Avalon's power restored her to her peak condition, the analysis progress within Unlimited Blade Works jumped by a direct 0.1 percent. At this rate, Ailin estimated he could complete the analysis of Avalon in less than half an hour.
"Sword of Promised—Victory!"
Without giving Artoria a moment to recover, Ailin erupted with spiritual pressure. The Sword of Promised Victory in his hand unleashed a powerful blast towards Artoria once more.
"Ex—calibur!"
Facing the incoming torrent of spiritual pressure, the Sword of Promised Victory in Artoria's hand erupted with golden light as she slashed towards it.
BOOM! RUMBLE—
In the moments that followed, within the space of Ailin's Unlimited Blade Works, the blackish-red spiritual pressure and the golden torrent of light clashed and exploded repeatedly. With each collision, Artoria suffered considerable damage due to the disparity in power between their Swords of Promised Victory. However, thanks to Avalon's ability, she recovered swiftly. Thus, while Artoria was clearly forced onto the defensive, determining a victor in a short time seemed impossible.
The advantage is mine!
The advantage is mine!
This was the thought echoing in both Ailin's and Artoria's minds.
With Ailin's current strength, defeating Artoria, though difficult, was not impossible. But his primary purpose in coming to the Einzbern estate this time was Avalon. Now, simply injuring Artoria increased Unlimited Blade Works' analysis progress on Avalon.
In less than half an hour, Ailin could fully analyze Avalon and replicate it within his Reality Marble. He could even adjust the "Avalon" he had previously created, allowing his version to become a Zanpakutō that surpassed the genuine Avalon Artoria possessed.
As for why Artoria felt the advantage was hers, it stemmed from her understanding of Reality Marbles. Although she hadn't encountered enemies wielding Reality Marbles during her lifetime, after making a pact with Alaya and becoming a Heroic Spirit in the Throne of Heroes, much knowledge had been imparted to her mind, including information about Reality Marbles.
According to Artoria's understanding, a Reality Marble was an incredibly powerful ability. It could transpose the relationship between the "self" and the "world," enveloping the current reality within one's own inner world.
However, the more powerful the ability, the greater the magical energy required. Furthermore, maintaining a Reality Marble continuously consumed vast amounts of magical energy. Even the strongest individual could only maintain a Reality Marble for five or six minutes at most. Even if Berserker's strength exceeded her expectations, even if she doubled her estimate of his endurance, Artoria believed that if she could hold out for ten minutes, Berserker would inevitably run out of magical energy to continue the fight.
However, Artoria didn't know that while Ailin's Unlimited Blade Works was indeed similar to the Reality Marbles of the Type-Moon world, it was merely the Bankai of his Zanpakutō. Considering the captain-level powerhouses in the Shinigami world, which one had low endurance after releasing Bankai?
Soi Fon's case didn't count; although her Bankai was a single shot, its destructive power ranked highly even among captain-level Zanpakutō. And with Ailin's spiritual pressure, merely using Bankai during battle was trivial; even maintaining the Bankai state indefinitely was no burden for him.
After integrating the Royal Seal, Unlimited Blade Works had become a real space. Within it resided infinite "sword elements." Besides serving as materials for forging swords, Ailin could also use these elements as spiritual pressure. In other words, within Ailin's Unlimited Blade Works, his spiritual pressure was effectively infinite!
As long as Ailin wished, he could keep Unlimited Blade Works active indefinitely. This was the foundation of Ailin's confidence in surviving outside his own world after leaving the Shinigami world. Without "infinite" spiritual pressure to support him, leaving the Shinigami world would have been fundamentally impossible.
With both Ailin and Artoria thinking The advantage is mine!, they both tacitly continued to bombard each other with their respective Swords of Promised Victory.
One percent… Two percent… Five percent… Ten percent…
Amidst the roaring explosions, Ailin felt the analysis progress of Avalon within Unlimited Blade Works slowly climbing. After five minutes, the analysis of Avalon reached thirty percent. Ten minutes later, it had surpassed the halfway mark, reaching sixty percent. By the twelve-minute mark, Ailin's analysis of Avalon had reached seventy-two percent.
But at this point, Artoria sensed something was wrong. How is this possible? Why does this Reality Marble still exist? she thought, shocked.
Although the high-intensity combat had skewed her perception of time slightly, Artoria was certain that more than ten minutes had passed since the battle began. Yet, the Reality Marble showed no sign of instability whatsoever, as if it could persist indefinitely.
As Artoria was sent flying by Ailin's blast, she looked up at the countless star-like "swords" filling the sky and suddenly understood. Artoria recalled Berserker mentioning earlier that this Reality Marble could forge any "sword" he had fully analyzed. The Sword of Promised Victory Berserker now wielded had been created within this Reality Marble only after he had completely analyzed her own during their battle by the Mion River. So, his current method of fighting her was likely aimed at analyzing Avalon, so he could forge it as well! Realizing this, Artoria couldn't help but feel a pang of annoyance.
Under normal circumstances, Artoria wouldn't have minded Berserker analyzing Avalon. If he possessed such an ability, that was his strength, something one couldn't simply envy. But now, she and Berserker were enemies. She had to do everything in her power to thwart her enemy's plans! Her only consolation now was that Berserker hadn't yet completed the analysis of Avalon. So that's his goal in fighting me this way! she realized.
BOOM!
Having grasped Ailin's intention, Artoria suddenly erupted. Facing Ailin's incoming attack, for the first time, she didn't counter with Excalibur. Instead, she extended her left hand towards the approaching torrent of spiritual pressure.
"Avalon—The Everdistant Utopia!"
HUMMM!
As Artoria unleashed Avalon, a transparent barrier suddenly materialized before her, enveloping her completely. In that instant, Ailin could clearly sense that although his eyes could still see Artoria's figure, her true self had completely vanished from his Reality Marble. Streaks of blue patterns spread across Ailin's eyes. In the very instant Avalon was released, Ailin's analysis progress surged by two percentage points.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM…
The blackish-red torrent of spiritual pressure struck towards Artoria, but upon hitting the space before her, it failed to cause her even the slightest harm. A few seconds later, Ailin's torrent of spiritual pressure dissipated. Artoria, protected within Avalon, raised her Sword of Promised Victory. Golden light erupted from the blade, but layered over this golden light was an aura of blackish-red.
This sight made Ailin's pupils contract. He already knew that Avalon's released state, "The Everdistant Utopia," possessed the ability to absorb and return attacks. But looking at Artoria's current state, could this attack reflection actually fuse with the released power of the Sword of Promised Victory?
"Ex—calibur!"
BOOM!
Fusing the power of Artoria's Excalibur and Ailin's own Sword of Promised Victory, the combined attack instantly tore through space, surging towards Ailin like a tidal wave.
WHOOSH!
Ailin beckoned, and a Zanpakutō from the Sword Hill flew instantly into his hand, which he then released.
"Bankai—Rho Aias!"
HUMMM!
As Ailin recited the Zanpakutō's true name, it transformed before him into a blooming flower with seven pink petals. Layer upon layer of transparent barriers materialized in front of these petals.
Rho Aias was one of the few Zanpakutō in Ailin's possession solely dedicated to defense. Its released form consisted of seven layers of defense, each stronger than the one before it. The third layer's defense was comparable to a fully chanted Bakudō #81, Dankū. The subsequent three layers surpassed even that.
Ailin was confident the final barrier could completely withstand two or three attacks from Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni's Bankai, Zanka no Tachi, East: Kyokujitsujin.
BOOM… BOOM… BOOM…
The tri-colored torrent of black, red, and gold magical energy slammed into the seven-layered barrier before Ailin, easily shattering the first two layers. The third layer, comparable to Dankū, held for a breath before shattering into fragments. These fragments then merged into the subsequent layer, reinforcing its defensive strength.
BOOM! PING!
The fourth barrier held for only two seconds before being shattered by the torrent.
PING! PING!
The fifth barrier lasted four seconds. The sixth barrier held for seven seconds.
RUMBLE…
The seventh barrier, having absorbed the fragments of the previous six, had its defensive power raised to an extraordinary level. Artoria's torrent of spiritual pressure, having expended considerable energy shattering the first six layers, ultimately failed to break through the final defense of Ailin's Rho Aias.
"Damn it!" Seeing this, Artoria gritted her teeth.
Using Avalon to absorb Ailin's previous attack, fuse it with her own, and reflect it back amplified was the strongest attack she could currently muster. Yet, even such an attack had been defended by Berserker…
Now that he had seen through Avalon's ability, would Berserker continue attacking as before? Even her amplified Excalibur hadn't injured Berserker. If Berserker didn't launch stronger attacks against her, Artoria would have even less chance of victory.
"Excellent!"
Sensing another two percent increase in the analysis progress, Ailin rejoiced inwardly. It seemed that whether Avalon absorbed attacks or reflected them, Unlimited Blade Works gained significant progress in its analysis.
Immediately, Ailin waved his hand to dismiss Rho Aias. The Sword of Promised Victory in his hand once again flared with blackish-red light.
