[FGO]: 153

This time, the system provided the relevant information directly.

[World Ruler] is the ultimate form of [Leadership], sublimated based on personal achievements.

It is divided into three effects:

[Enhancing Allies] — Greatly increases allied forces' attack power, boosts morale, and strengthens their resolve, making them immune to certain levels of mental attacks and significantly reducing their sense of pain.

[Weakening Enemies] — When enemies face him, they will be greatly affected by his terrifying, tyrant-like aura. If their willpower isn't strong enough, they will experience negative effects, such as weakened limbs and shortness of breath. This is reflected as a reduction in all basic attributes (except luck) by a certain percentage (the exact reduction is influenced by both parties' willpower).

[Anti-Human Special Attack] — Any opponent with human blood will receive at least 2x and up to 10x damage. This damage is inversely proportional to the opponent's fame: the more famous they are, the less damage they receive.

After a brief thought, Ryou understood.

If this skill were used in battle, it would undoubtedly be a divine ability. Unfortunately, his opponents are rarely minions.

For example, take Heroic Spirits: aside from a few rare exceptions, which Heroic Spirit's will isn't as resolute as iron? As for the demonic aberrations from the void, he hadn't seen any indication that these beings even experience fear.

Thus, the second effect is mostly useful for clearing minions, greatly reducing its value.

However, the first and third effects are extremely practical.

The first effect makes him akin to a Holy Knight with an innate aura, significantly enhancing the contracted Heroic Spirits under his command.

The third effect leans him toward becoming a Primate Murder.

As for the concept of fame in the third effect, he interpreted it as notoriety. If the opponent is a famous Heroic Spirit from history or mythology, the anti-human special attack effect will likely only manifest at its lowest level.

On the other hand, if the enemy is an unknown figure, the effect would be terrifying. And if he stacked it with the [berserk revenge state] of [Reversal War God], he figured he could teach his enemies a lesson instantly.

The only flaw in this EX-rank skill, sublimated from the [Leadership] ability, is the massive consumption of magical energy. With his current B+ magical energy, he could only maintain the skill for 10 seconds.

There is always a trade-off. For him to wield such a powerful skill with his current base attributes, it naturally wouldn't come easily.

For example, with [Reversal War God], to unleash its full potential, he has to put himself in absolute peril.

Then, Ryou opened the [Workshop] and gazed at the dazzling array of Noble Phantasms and skills, lost in thought.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and combined three D-level Abyss Crystals into one C-level Abyss Crystal, paying a price of five million energy points.

As expected, energy points were now plummeting in value.

Then, Ryou used one C-level Abyss Crystal and one B-level Abyss Crystal to upgrade [Mana Burst] to B-level.

Although he was eager to appraise that [Root Gem], the high appraisal cost combined with increasingly powerful enemies and harder instances forced him to strengthen himself as quickly as possible—making the most of every second to grow stronger!

Afterward, he held the [Apocalypse] in his hand, repeatedly observing and testing its capabilities.

Indeed, practice leads to truth.

There's no doubt that [Apocalypse] has immense growth potential, but as a D-level Noble Phantasm in its initial state, its power is still uncertain.

During experimentation, he discovered a hidden major issue:

It takes a full 3 seconds to transform!

This could be fatal in battle.

What, was he supposed to ask the enemy to wait for 3 seconds while he leisurely changed weapon forms?

With Ryou's current strength, 3 seconds was enough for him to kill his opponent ten times over.

If he didn't increase the transformation speed of [Apocalypse], its morphing ability would be a major drawback in combat.

Thankfully, this Noble Phantasm is a growth-type item.

Ryou made up his mind and fed all his current purple equipment and some rare materials to [Apocalypse].

However, he soon discovered that the golden orb in his hand was like a black hole.

After throwing in three pieces of purple equipment, the golden orb representing [Apocalypse] only brightened slightly, and its spin speed increased just a bit.

When he checked the progress bar, it had risen to 7%.

Refusing to give up, he threw all the rare materials he had collected into it.

The progress bar climbed to 16%, but the next level-up was still far away.

At that moment, he realized that perhaps he didn't have as many energy points as he had imagined.

...

Ten minutes later, after converting over a hundred million energy points into gear and feeding it all to the golden orb, the evolution progress bar finally filled up.

The golden orb spun rapidly, like a nebula in the cosmos, emitting a dazzling brilliance.

A blinding flash of golden light passed, and Ryou faintly heard the distant sound of angelic horns and divine hymns.

As the light gradually receded, he brought the orb closer to examine it.

The golden glow remained, but it now carried a hint of sanctity and agility.

Ryou opened the system panel.

As expected, [Apocalypse] had upgraded to C-rank and gained several new effects:

[Reduced transformation time by 1 second.]

[Power increased by 10%.]

[Damage to dark-attribute creatures increased by 50%.]

Ryou's eyes lit up. As its level increased, [Apocalypse] had indeed become significantly stronger.

Though the transformation time was still a major drawback, it gave him hope for improvement.

However, when he tried to feed [Apocalypse] again, it spat out the gear he had offered.

Ryou vaguely saw [Apocalypse] reveal a look of disdain.

[Ding!]

[Feeding ordinary equipment will no longer allow "Apocalypse" to evolve.

Please feed the host Noble Phantasms or materials equivalent to Noble Phantasms.]

"..."

You're not really [Apocalypse], you're probably some Heroic Spirit's King's Stomach, aren't you...

Ryou had a vague premonition that, to satisfy this Noble Phantasm's hunger, he was headed for a life of endless overtime and toil.

Barely managing to shake off this nightmarish thought, he opened his status panel to admire his progress.

...

Aside from him, Jeanne, Ais, Yamato, and Shimakaze also received significant upgrades after completing the instance.

Yamato and Shimakaze, having participated in over a dozen large-scale naval battles, gained enough combat experience to reach five-star technological levels.

The only thing left to upgrade Yamato and Shimakaze was a massive amount of energy points, so he immediately went ahead and upgraded both shipgirls.

After their second modification, their bodies did not change much, but their ship equipment and main systems underwent significant upgrades.

For Yamato, aside from her main guns, all her secondary weapons—including 155mm, 127mm, 25mm, and 13.2mm machine guns—were replaced with the latest modern weapons.

Yamato was now equipped with two 16x16 vertical launch systems, capable of firing up to 512 cruise missiles, each able to carry nuclear warheads. As a result, she gained an S-rank skill called [Axe Earth Cleansing].

Her anti-air systems were replaced with the latest close-in weapon systems and ship-to-air missile defense systems, leading to her three-stage anti-aircraft skill being replaced by an A-rank skill called [Sky Curtain Defense].

The old catapult-launched propeller planes were replaced with the latest anti-submarine helicopters.

Her radar, sonar, and fire control systems were all updated to the equivalent of 2020 levels.

The biggest change was to Yamato's main guns.

The round barrels had disappeared, replaced by rectangular ones.

These were none other than electromagnetic railguns, which Ryou had read about before his transmigration. At that time, they were still in the experimental stage and had not been widely implemented.

Yamato's railguns had an astonishing range of 300 kilometers and a terrifying firing rate of one shot per second.

Moreover, since the electromagnetic railguns imparted over ten times the propulsive force of gunpowder, Yamato's shells now carried a much greater charge and weight, exponentially increasing their destructive power.

If Yamato's previous main guns were equivalent to anti-army-class Noble Phantasms, they had now been sublimated to anti-fortress-class Noble Phantasms.

The newly modified Yamato fully embodied the term nation-destroying weapon!

As for Shimakaze, she also underwent significant changes.

Her weapon systems were updated to the latest models.

However, the biggest change for Shimakaze was her propulsion system and her ultimate weapon—[torpedoes].

Shimakaze's propulsion system was replaced with the latest magnetohydrodynamic propulsion system. Combined with her inherent [Super Speed] skill, she could now race across the sea at a speed of 300 knots.

At that speed, it was almost as if she were flying across the surface of the water.

She could even catch up with the fastest propeller planes and had no fear of the fastest supercavitating torpedoes.

Another major upgrade was Shimakaze's torpedoes, which were all replaced with supercavitating nuclear torpedoes.

These terrifying torpedoes could travel underwater at the same speed as the overpowered Shimakaze — 300 knots.

And with the destructive power of nuclear weapons, just one torpedo would be enough to send a carrier weighing tens of thousands of tons to the depths of the sea.

With the speed of these torpedoes, as long as the target was within range, no warship could escape—except Shimakaze herself, who could dodge them with her extraordinary speed.

Even at just five-star technological levels, the modifications were already terrifying. What would happen if they reached eight or nine stars? Would they become star-destroying ships capable of space travel?

The growth of these two shipgirls was extraordinary, but the growth of Jeanne and Ais could only be described as terrifying.

It wasn't much, really—just that, due to their contributions in helping Ryou unify the world, each of them gained an EX-rank Noble Phantasm.

Ais obtained the Noble Phantasm [Incarnation of Wind], which needs no detailed explanation. Simply put, it's akin to the ability of a certain famous pirate in another world who gained powers from eating a Logia-type Devil Fruit—only this power had no weaknesses such as seawater or Seastone!

Elementalization, summoning storms—anything that could be done with wind, Ais could do.

Jeanne similarly obtained an EX-rank Noble Phantasm called [Holy Maiden of Salvation].

This Noble Phantasm has two states.

In its passive state, it is always active. It allows Jeanne to ignore all Noble Phantasms below A-rank and significantly reduces all damage. Dark-attribute attacks have their damage reduced by 90%, and attacks with holy or Christian attributes are reflected at the attacker with triple the power.

The active effect, [Salvation's Prayer], allows her to resurrect the deceased and fully restore their injuries. The amount of magical energy consumed increases based on the strength of the one being resurrected.

The effects of this Noble Phantasm can only be described as frightening.

With its various built-in defenses, Jeanne had instantly become the most resilient member of the group, without question.

Ryou even suspected that Jeanne might now be able to achieve the feat of tanking an EA [Enuma Elish] attack with her face.

Lady Jeanne, are you trying to solidify your reputation as Jeanne the Iron Fist like Martha?

Moreover, she even came with a group resurrection ability.

Ryou was utterly speechless. He was the one who unified the world, wasn't he?

Oh well, since Jeanne herself belonged to him anyway, there was no point in overthinking it.

Still, the contrast between Jeanne and Jeanne Alter was amusing: one focused on stacking defense, while the other focused on maximizing attack power.

No wonder they were sisters in name only.

If he were to summon Jeanne Alter, what kind of EX-rank Noble Phantasm would she get?

Whatever it was, Ryou was 1000% sure it would be some kind of fire-based, divine skill related to the Hell Fire.

After finishing the upgrades, he began walking toward his room.

As his footsteps echoed, the automatic lights turned on one by one, illuminating the futuristic building.

The silver-white metal walls emitted a cold aura, and the long corridor was empty except for the sound of his footsteps, which reverberated through the quiet, desolate Chaldea.

At this time, Jeanne and the others were exhausted and had already been sent to rest by him.

When Ryou reached the dining hall, he noticed a familiar figure sitting there.

The figure was holding a glass of crimson wine, slowly savoring it.

She was dressed in a purple evening gown, her high collar adorned with black feathers, and her deep purple hair was crowned with a beautifully crafted silver tiara.

Mysterious, intellectual, noble, and elegant—like a night lotus blooming under the starry sky.

Who else could this figure be but Scathach?

This was a side of her that he had never seen before.

If, in the past, she resembled a strong Valkyrie, a warrior of iron and blood, then now she was the ruler presiding over the entire realm of shadows.

"Shisou, you're back."

Ryou suppressed the amazement in his heart and casually waved in greeting.

Scathach turned to look at him, her pale cheeks tinged with a slight blush, and her wine-red eyes shimmered with a captivating allure.

"Isn't this my good-for-nothing disciple?"

Scathach's voice initially carried a hint of lazy drunkenness, but when she carefully sensed the aura around him, her wine-red eyes narrowed slightly.

"Wait, you seem stronger now?"

Ryou froze. He immediately recalled the fear of being relentlessly trained—being mercilessly beaten and disciplined under the guise of training by Scathach.

"Shishou, you just got back. Wouldn't you like to rest for a while...?"

Ryou desperately tried to salvage the situation.