kailol: What I plan to do should be obvious. I've given enough clues for an attentive reader to guess what will happen to Shirou.

Reaper200851: An imaginative explanation except that Kinoko Nasu has already explained this apparent contradiction in the LN. Although there may be other reasons explaining the difference in Tracing speed between two weapons (for example, the more frequently Shirou Trace a blade, the faster he Trace it) fundamentally the speed of the process simply depends on the amount of Prana needed. Obliviously, a B-Rank Noble Phantasm needs more Prana to be Traced than a C-Rank Noble Phantasm. Let's quickly recall the process. Magic Circuits transform the Od (to simplify, vital energy) into Prana (refined magical energy). But the number of Magic Circuits and their capacity are determined at birth and do not vary (at worst, they can degrade if misused). Except that it is possible to overload these Magic Circuits to produce more Prana... at the risk of damaging them.

And that's exactly what Shirou does. In a hurry to get a weapon, he overloads his Magic Circuits. In Anime, it is shown by the electric arcs going from one Circuit to another (short-circuits) which, evidently, it's not a normal operating process.

As always, I thank my readers for their constant support.

Second Round

"Goudou Kusanagi, wake up."

In his narrow bed, in the Mobile Home, the Japanese Devil King growled and moved. The voice without intonation still resounded.

"Goudou Kusanagi, wake up."

The young man opened his eyelids and turned his head, looking still foggy. It took him three long seconds to recognize the little girl with silver hair, knitcap, and school uniform standing by the bed.

"Athena?!"

He stood up and sat down on his bed and... the female arm on his chest slipped.

"Godou?"

Recognizing the sensual and sunny voice, he swallowed painfully and then turned his head to discover the voluptuous silhouette of Erica Blandelli, nestled against him. The Diavollo Rosso, of course, was completely naked and, as he stood up, Goudou had drawn the sheet to him, revealing... He looked away, blushing... facing Athena, who was looking at the scene without showing any reaction. He panicked.

"Wait, wait, wait! That's not what you think. It's all Erica's doing... I didn't know she was here..."

"I know, Goudou Kusanagi," answered Athena with her usual cold voice.

The King of the Harem sighed with relief... forgetting to wonder how Athena could know the truth. He had not yet realized that the main entertainment of the Queen of Night during her stays in Japan was to... spy on him.

Uncomfortable, Godou lowered his voice, afraid to wake up the other people sleeping in the Mobil Home. He looked at the room, no light filtered through the windows.

"Why do you wake me in the middle of the night?"

"The last remnants of the Keeper of the Horses ritual have faded. The Great Sage Equaling Heaven is now free. He used his first moments of freedom to invoke his sworn brothers Zhu Ganglie and Vaisravanna."

Godou took a moment to understand what this meant.

"You mean two other Heretic Gods joined him?

"Right, but they were summoned as Subordinate Gods, so their powers are reduced in comparison to the power they would have shown as full fledge Heretic Gods manifested by their own will."

Godou remained thoughtful for a few moments.

"Three Heretics Gods."

Part of him was excited by the idea of a fight against three very powerful opponents. Enough time had passed for him to recover the authorities he had used in the fight of the day before... except for Youth, which he could only reuse tonight. Nevertheless, he was perfectly aware that his chances of winning were very low.

He watched the Queen of Night.

"You are going to fight with me?"

Athena thinks for a moment.

"I'd rather not, King Goudou. I have good reason to want to converse my strength."

Next to him, Erica Blandelli sat down rubbing her eyes.

"Goudou, there are two other goddesses here. And Ereshkigal has as much desire as you to fight Sun Wukong."

The Campione turned around... blushed and swallowed when the sheet fell back on the bed revealing... uh... everything. Quickly looking away, he tried to think of something else.

"Okay... but I don't see why Ishtar would fight with us."

Erica smiled.

"You should have understood that Ishtar will not stand idly by if innocent people are in danger. Yes, she wants to be coaxed, she is a tsundere after all. Just say something like: 'Sun Wukong dares to attack the territory where you have settled, Great Goddess Ishtar. He has shown that he has no respect for you and he tramples on your privileges without fearing your wrath.' This should be enough as an excuse for her tsun side and you can trust her dere side to convince her easily."

"What?! Does this moth-eaten yellow fur monkey dare to taunt me in the territory where I settled and endanger the population of my future worshippers? The Great Goddess Ishtar cannot tolerate such arrogance. It is time to teach this circus clown a little humility. Buddha was too kind to him. He should have been left a few thousand more years in his prison. Sun Wukon might have learned to respect his elders!"

The Goddess of Venus was the living portrait of indignation, with her face wrinkled with anger and a threatening fist. Sitting in front of her, on the other side of the Mobile Home table, Godou tried to keep an appearance of seriousness; in fact, he struggled not to laugh. He looked at his neighbor.

Erica Blandelli replied with a mischievous smile that meant "You see, I told you so."

After a series of acrimonious comments about monkeys, young gods too arrogant and young (in general) who should listen to their wiser and more experienced elders (So Ishtar of course... there was no god wiser and more experienced than she, everyone knew it) the Mistress of Heaven stopped, perhaps short of ideas... more probably out of breath.

Taking advantage of her sister taking a break, Ereshkigal shyly cleared her throat.

As everyone turned in her direction, she blushed and appeared for a moment about to flee. Then she remembered she was a great goddess and straightened, gloating with pride.

"I don't care about the living. But Sun Wukong kidnapped Hakuno. And the Sovereign of the Moon is under my protection. I, Ereshkigal the great lady of Irkalla, share the opinion of the Queen of Heaven. It is discourteous to encroach on the domain of another deity. Worse, attacking humans marked by a god is a slap in the face. And if Sun Wukong throws downs the gauntlet I welcome the challenge. I am a great and powerful goddess and it's time to remind the Monkey King."

Shirou smiled, three Heretics Gods against a Campione and two avatars, everyone would have a partner for the ball. Unfortunately, he could not participate in the fight. As Athena recalled at the beginning of the war council, the only way to avoid a battle was to provoke Sun Wukong into a duel... more exactly than Godou Kusanagi make this proposal to the Monkey King and settle their accounts in this way.

Which excluded the monkey army from any participation but also Godou's harem... and Shirou.

There were three of them, up a hill.

It was easy to recognize Sun Wukong. Under his true appearance, the Monkey King was a large humanoid with fur-covered skin, with a monkey head and tail. He was dressed in Chinese armor, with a tiger-skin loincloth, riding boots, and a gold headband.

To his right was a humanoid dressed in a Hanfu (traditional Chinese garment) that did not completely hide the black fur on his limbs and chest. He had a pig's head, also covered with black fur. It was Zhu Ganglie. To his left was a creature of demonic appearance, with blue skin and red hair. His eyes were black with red irises. Vaisravanna was dressed in a monk's dress with a necklace made of skulls.

The Great Sage Equaling Heaven looked at Godou with contempt.

"Kusanagi brat, I'm surprised you didn't run away."

The Campione did not retreat, his eyes burning with anger.

"And I'm surprised you didn't hide behind a wall of innocent victims!"

Refusing to respond to the insinuation, Sun Wukong caressed the beard hanging from his simian chin.

"You were very lucky in our last encounter. I was in a child's body..."

"Yes, the body of my little sister."

"... and I was still in the grip of the Keeper of the Horses ritual. But don't hope to escape this time."

Goudou had remained calm until then. But he could not hide any longer the disgust inspired by his opponent.

"If you want to play that, Great Sage Equaling Heaven, you're the lucky one... Because I didn't want to hurt the hostages, I held back and fled."

Now, the face of the King of Monkeys was furious.

"I am a god, you are a mortal, Kusanagi brat. You must speak to me with respect."

"In that case, maybe you should start by apologizing to the Chinese gods. Your speech would have more effect if it were not delivered by someone who is not universally known for his disrespect for the celestial hierarchy."

Vaisravanna spoke in a soothing tone.

"Big Bro' there's no point in exchanging these kinds of comments. And King Kusanagi is right about that." The demonic-looking monk spread his hands as if to incite the Campione and the Heretic God to move away from each other. "He provokes you as you provoked the Jade Emperor. Do not let anger dominate you."

Sun Wukong gnashed his teeth.

"Wise advice, little brother."

However, when Vaisravanna wanted to speak again, Ishtar interrupted him.

"Enough, God of the Deep Sands, if you want to talk to someone, talk to me because I'm your opponent."

"And who decided that?"

"I, Ishtar the Mistress of Heaven."

Ereshkigal had a grimace of disgust when she saw the libidinous expression on Zhu Ganglie's pig face. The Marshal of the Canopy passed his tongue on his lips while looking extensively at his opponent's figure.

"Hey hey hey... I think I'm going to enjoy this fight. Or rather after the fight... the winner has everything right on the loser, right?"

The face of the Goddess of the Netherworld hardens like stone.

"Know that you have just offended Ereshkigal, the Queen of Kur, the land of darkness and dust where rivers of blood and tears flow."

But Zhu Ganglie was as dumb as his appearance suggested. With an expression of confusion, he looked at Ere.

"What?"

"I'm the queen of the underworld in the Sumerian pantheon, moron."

"Oh... I think I messed up!"

A clear underestimation of the truth...

Of all the opponents, the first to react was Sun Wukong. He took what appeared to be a gold needle hidden behind his ear. The next moment the weapon grew in his hand... Godou had watched the scene with amazement before remembering the legends about the Monkey King.

'As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgel' or 'Ruyi Jingu Bang'(in Chinese) was a stick... in fact a pillar created by the gods to measure the depth of the oceans at the time of the flood. Its weight was staggering, but it could also change size at will.

Goudou jumped to the side. And the ground exploded where he had stood while the gold-rimmed stick smashed the ground like a meteorite. The campione smiled, more excited by the challenge than terrified. He began to recite an incantation:

"As the one who holds all victory in my hands, I am the strongest. Man and devil—all enemies, all who harbor enmity will be vanquished. Hence I shall smash through all enemies in my way!"

In the spiritual universe where existed the medallions that symbolize Verethragna's Ten Incarnations, the Bull took the dominant position.

When Sun Wukong returned to the attack, he blocked the pillar of gold that lay towards him with a blow of his sword... normally a mortal would have been incapable of such a feat. One might as well try to stop a landslide with one hand. But, the Bull Authority gave him strength equal to the Monkey King's one.

"See, I don't have to hold back anymore," said the Japanese Devil King.

They exchanged several attacks and counter-attacks, quickly changing places. With each exchange of blows, the ground exploded under their feet, and trees were thrown to the ground as huge cracks spread in the hills.

Sun Wukong frowned. The black sword held by the 'Kusanagi brat' had resisted the impact of Ruyi Jingu Bang. It was certainly not an ordinary weapon.

Guessing the thoughts of the Monkey King, Godou smiled.

"Intrigued by my sword? It's Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi, Susanoo's sword."

Sun Wukong grumbled with rage, recognizing the name of the god who had created the Keeper of the Horses ritual, the god who had imprisoned him for centuries.

The movements of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven accelerated. He attacked more and more fiercely. The stick twirled in his hands. Sometimes he used the left hand, sometimes the right. He did not hesitate to step back by a huge jump to stay out of reach and then counter-attack by lengthening Ruyi Jingu Bang until it was 20 or 30 meters.

Of course, Godou was struggling against such an adversary but... he drew on Grasscutter's martial knowledge. Susanoo's sword was endowed with a conscience... not friendly anyway. But the weapon had memorized all the fighting techniques of its previous users. Normally, to use this knowledge, one would have to let the black sword transform him into a simple puppet. Besides being very unpleasant, Godou could no longer resort to his other authorities. Nevertheless, Shirou Emiya had noticed that it looked like an inverted version of his Tracing Magecraft.

Indeed, the sword imposed the memory of its previous users to Goudou, while Tracing recreated a sword from its blueprints - including its users' techniques- stored into Unlimited Bladework.

Thanks to Luo Hao, Shirou now understood that he would use the Noble Phantasms of his Reality Marble much more effectively by adapting them to his fighting style. Also, the Faker wondered if it was possible for Godou to do the same thing. He had then explained the Tracing's techniques to help him better understand how he imbued the weapon he Projected with the memory of the original.

And the redhead was right.

The Japanese Devil King jumped aside, dodged an attack, and began to run toward Sun Wukong. The monkey did not have time to leap at a distance, nor to shrink his stick to a size adapted to close combat. The King of Monkeys cried with pain when the sword opened a long bloody scar on his arm.

The first blood of the fight...

Godou smiled; of course, he needed a conscious effort to soak up the knowledge contained in Susanoo's sword. It was exhausting. But now he could combine the techniques of a Sword's master with the supernatural strength of the Bull's Incarnation.

Sun Wukong staggered and retreated four steps. He had to use his magic to stop the blood from flowing from his shoulder.

An expression of fury distorted his monkey's face.

"You will pay for this, Kusanagi brat!"

About to respond with a mocking repartee, Godou lost his smile... receding... looking up... as his opponent grew.

"Oh... oh..."

Transformed into a monkey as big as a twelve-story building, Sun Wukong leaned towards the Campione, his rage echoed for miles around.

"You will pay!Dearly!"

Agile and fast, Ishtar veered in flight, dodging the breath of ice from a Chinese dragon, a Shen-long. The creature was magnificent. Its scales were white-blue, as were its long whiskers and goatee. The eyes were the same color as the winter sky

The monster was chasing her waving in the air. He spits again a breath of ice that the Mistress of Heaven dodged gracefully before returning fire in the form of a burst of Gandrs. Struck with full force by the golden projectiles, the monster fragmented into pieces of ice that fell to the ground.

"One down" smiled Ishtar.

Unfortunately, two other ice dragons were converging on her. The goddess had to change direction several times to prevent them from attacking her simultaneously. She turned in the sky, reaching out.

A rain of golden Gandrs struck the first dragon, then the second. The two legendary monsters exploded, fragmenting into pieces of ice

"And three!"

Except there were still six other dragons that were now converging on the Goddess of Venus's position.

"Well, if you want to play hardball, no problem with me."

Indeed, Ishtar was not the type to use a small spoon if she had a ladle at hand.

Several rubies appeared between her fingers, she threw them at her opponents. The result was several violent explosions that generated as many mini-suns. The dragons were instantly vaporized.

On the ground, Vaisravana nodded and tossed nine yellow papers decorated with a red ideogram. At the end of his incantation, each paper had turned into an ice dragon.

Seeing the new batch of dragons heading towards her, Ishtar lost her smile.

"Well, this may be a little more difficult than expected."

From the beginning of the fight, Zhu Ganglie had turned into a colossus about ten meters high. He also won two extra arms. He was now armed with a sword, a mace, and two axes.

Ereshkigal was strong, agile, and fast enough to survive facing this kind of monster. She avoided some attacks, blocked others with her spear, and counterattacked by throwing stone stalagmites.

Nevertheless, despite his proverbial stupidity, Zhu Ganglie was able to use the Daoist arts. The Queen of Netherworld had to constantly resort to her Magecraft to counter the pig's magic.

While temporarily sheltering behind a large rock, Ereshkigal created an illusion of herself and sent her in one direction. The giant pig immediately pursued the decoy. Then, the Goddess of the Underworld came out from behind the rock, materializing several replicas of her spears which she projected into the pig's back.

She had the pleasure of hearing him squeal in pain... but that is not enough to kill Sun Wukong's sworn brother. To the complete amazement of the goddess, he again used his polymorphic abilities to make a face appear on the back of his head and two additional arms armed with halberds!

Ere struck the ground with her little foot.

"This is clearly cheating!"

High in the sky, Gigamesh's Vinama flew over the battlefield.

Standing on the edge of emptiness, Atera watched the fight without saying a word, motionless and with an inexpressive face.

Sitting on his throne, the Golden King murmured looking thoughtful.

"I don't understand why you don't use the situation to take over the Regalia."

"Because Athena stayed close to the Sovereign of the Moon."

"Oh, don't tell me you're afraid to face the Greek goddess of wisdom? I wouldn't believe you. "

The female version of Attila remained silent for a few seconds.

"I gave my word. Until she has defeated the King of the End I cannot fight against her."

Gilgamesh was smiling.

"The One and Only King praise you for keeping your word."

Athena glanced away from the Regalia's virtual screen to look up at the sky.

The Vinama was still standing far above their heads. Altera and Gilgamesh had missed their chance to intervene.

The Queen of Night nodded. Not participating in the fight was the right decision.

Godou was a particularly talented instinctive tactician.

He was able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of his enemies after only a few strokes. After a brief confrontation with the giant Sun Wukong version, Godou understood that his opponent had gained strength, endurance, and resistance. In compensation, the Monkey King had lost speed and agility.

The result was a stalemate. Godou could no longer hurt the Heretic God with the Sword of Susanoo, making only scratches. But for the monkey god, the Campion was as elusive as a mosquito.

The final result was easy to guess because Sun Wukong would end up crushing him like a simple mosquito. It was just a matter of time... unless Godou drastically change the rules of engagement, of course.

Leaping quickly to the top of a rocky heap born of the convulsions of combat, he reached out to Sun Wukong while whispering an incantation.

"Glorious lord of the sun, Mithra be praised! To conquer all enemies, pray to bestow upon my strongest self thousands of light and thousands of swords!"

Emerging from the solar orb appeared a stallion with a fiery mane and fiery eyes. The White Stallion was the incarnation of the power of the sun. It was the most powerful attack of the Japanese Campione, capable even of destroying things as impalpable as fate and shaking the entire universe.

The heat of the pseudo-sun reflected the sins of the targeted one, the greater the crimes, the more powerful the attack (1).

And Sun Wukong had accumulated sins with his continual mischief against a whole pantheon and committed countless sins against men, turning them into monkeys, destroying cities, and ravaging entire countries. In a whinny of anger, the White Stallion rushed towards Sun Wukong, its burning clogs forming a blazing trail in the sky.

The hills were drowned under a violent white light as the trees exploded in a blast of fire.

You don't have to be a genius to understand that you have to avoid attrition battles. Even the winner came out of the battle exhausted.

Invoking her bow-boat, Ishtar opened a stargate which brought her several hundred kilometers away. Loading Maanna's barrel with two arrows, she fired them one after the other. The projectiles crossed a stargate and disappeared.

An identical portal opened in front of Vaisravana. The demon monk had only a moment to react, but that was enough for him. He took out of his sleeve a yellow paper covered with a red ideogram and said a single word. A very violent wind swirled around him, forming a twister. This wind took hold of the two arrows fired by Maanna and deflected them.

"Impressive..." whispered Ishtar, recognizing the talent of her opponent. "... but insufficient against the Mistress of Heaven."

She made a simple finger gesture and the two projectiles corrected their trajectories.

There was an explosion of blue flames that shook the surrounding hills.

Zhu Ganglie was frustrated.

Ereshkigal had chosen to harass him. She disappeared between the hills, hid in the woods where his height handicapped the Subordinate God, then reappeared to attack him before fleeing again.

He had followed her here between two hills and...

"Thank you for coming."

The Sumerian Goddess of Death had just popped up, hands on her hips as if posing for an invisible photographer. She even took care that her red cloak would flag her with the desired magnificence.

"I've got you," said the giant pig-man.

His answer made Ereshkigal laugh.

"Oh well? Isn't it the other way around?"

The goddess with blond pigtailed hair pointed to the ground.

Zhu Ganglie looked down and saw that he was in a vast magic circle that had begun to glow with orange light. Before he could decide what to do the ground opened up like a mouth armed with stone teeth and he fell into darkness.

The sworn middle brother of the Monkey King crashed quite violently into the bottom of a kind of cylindrical well. When he raised his head the stone 'mouth' had closed, imprisoning him underground. He stood up, looking around.

The pig then saw a blue light, then another, a third... they were oblong cages coming out of the walls, in which blue spheres of light shone!

A moment later, powerful electric arcs were unlashed, uniting one cage to another. Zhu Ganglie was in the middle of a sort of electric spider web. He screamed in pain, electrocuted.

On the surface, Ereskhkigal nodded in satisfaction.

"That's the cost of insulting the powerful Ereshkigal, Lady of the Mountain."

One rarely wins the affection of women by embarrassing them, undressing them with the eyes, or with libidinous 'compliments'. Women can react very badly.

Especially if the target of this unneeded 'affection' is the Queen of the Underworld

Godou approached the huge smoking crater born from the explosion of the mini sun. In the smoke, he saw an immense form rise up and turn towards him.

"Sun Wukong" whispered the Campione in disbelief.

A huge laugh shook the sky.

"Not bad, Kusanagi brat! You stole the Authority of a powerful god. No doubt he would have been a worthy enemy for the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. But did you really think that would be enough to kill me? The Chinese gods subjected me to all possible forms of execution and I survived. Laozi even locked me in his Eight Tetragram Oven. After 49 days I escaped! Since then, I have been immune to heat, fire, and smoke. Suffice it to say that this gentle spring breeze has done me a lot of good. It's a little cold in these mountains. Don't you agree?"

He laughed again, and then the expression on his monkey face changed to reflect anger.

"Zhu Ganglie, Vaisravana, come to me."

Two silhouettes of energy joined the King of the Monkeys, one of which took the form of a huge pig covered with black fur that Sun Wukong rode as if it were a horse. On the shoulders of the giant monkey, Vaisravana landed in the form of a dragon as carved in the ice.

"Now, Kusanagi brat, I will keep my promise. It's time to die."

Author's note: Athena's situation is very particular. Officially, the Greek goddess is Godou's enemy. If she has stopped all hostile action against him it is because she is in debt.

Nevertheless, Athena made an alliance with Ereshkigal and Ishtar. That's why she stayed out of the fight against Son Wukong (to protect Hakuno and Shirou).

But she's also an objective ally of Altera since they both want to wake up the King of the End.

Finally, she was also an ally of Leviathan... who was killed by Gilgamesh. Athena's position is very complex. She tries not to betray any of her covenants while seeking to fulfill her true purpose... to protect Godou. This explains her somewhat erratic behavior.

By the way, Altera has no reason to blame Athena for not siding with them... after all, Gilgamesh is at fault. He's the one who freed Sun Wukong.

(1) Imagine what would happen if Godou used this attack on Angra Mainyu, the incarnation of more than 5 billion sins. Also, called All the World Evils? It is likely that the planet would be destroyed!