Chapter 79: Loki: Emiya, I think you're more like the God of Trickery!
"Why? Why, why, why!!"
Apollo stared at his failed shot, his face filled with confusion and disbelief.
No matter how he tried, he couldn't understand why his shot had failed.
After all, as the wielder of the Authority of [Extreme Fortune], Apollo's fortune in gambling should have been unmatched—mistakes like this simply shouldn't be possible.
In fact, given his power, failure was something that should never happen.
His extreme luck would correct any of his actions into the most optimal outcome.
Especially in a game like billiards, where uncertainty was high, there should have been zero room for even the slightest mistake.
"What exactly happened!?"
"Apollo's Extreme Fortune failed?"
Loki and Freya—both gods—stared at each other in utter confusion.
They had both assumed Shirou was doomed to lose this match. With Extreme Fortune, Apollo should have been able to sink every ball without a single error and win the game in one clean streak.
But the result was far from their expectations—Apollo not only failed to sink the ball, he even accidentally sank the cue ball, scoring an own goal and handing Shirou a free ball opportunity.
This turn of events was so baffling that even Loki and Freya could only stare blankly at the scene, watching as Shirou gained the right to take a free shot.
"Well then—let's begin."
Shirou had foreseen all of this.
Although getting the free ball was an unexpected stroke of luck, for Shirou, it didn't change the fact that he had already fully mastered this match.
From earlier on, he had been carefully analyzing the position of every ball on the table, mentally constructing the perfect method to sink all the red balls in one continuous streak.
After a long period of calculation and simulation, a flawless formula for victory had taken shape in his mind.
As long as he didn't make any mistakes—and with Apollo's Extreme Fortune no longer interfering—he had already glimpsed the path to victory.
In fact, for Shirou, making a mistake was the less likely scenario. It was practically impossible.
So, with absolute focus, Shirou placed the cue ball at a precise corner of the table and began preparing for his shot. Every gaze in the room fell upon him.
Apollo, Loki, and Freya—three gods—had their eyes locked on Shirou and the white cue ball on the table.
Although Apollo's Authority had unexpectedly failed, none of them believed Shirou could win just yet.
Because Apollo had already decimated the table with his Authority earlier, the situation now was overwhelmingly disadvantageous for Shirou.
None of Shirou's red balls had been pocketed yet, while Apollo had only a single blue ball remaining on the table.
What's more, Apollo's earlier shots had deliberately blocked all of Shirou's red balls into extremely awkward, nearly unreachable positions—every one of them stuck in the dead angles of the table where they couldn't easily be pocketed.
Even a professional billiards player would struggle to sink all of Shirou's balls in one go under these conditions.
And if Shirou failed even once, Apollo—who was just one step away from victory—could easily finish the game.
In short, Shirou was still in a desperate situation.
But unlike earlier, where Shirou was passively enduring a hopeless fate, now he held the initiative. If he could seize this one opportunity, he could defeat the sun god Apollo—and once again achieve a miracle by overcoming a god!
"Huu~"
Standing in front of the pool table, Shirou's gaze appeared to be fixed on the balls—but in reality, his mind was rapidly running through the mental formula he had devised.
Billiards, while a game of luck and probability, was also a sport where pure skill could dominate completely.
Especially in a situation where the opponent's balls were nearly all sunk, and only his own balls remained on the table.
Top-tier billiard players can find a chance to reverse even the direst of circumstances—and Shirou was ready to do just that.
At this moment, Shirou's concentration condensed onto his cue stick with an intensity that was impossible to describe.
He looked like a sniper—or perhaps more accurately, like an archer.
Though the stick in his hand wasn't a bow, Shirou treated it as though he were nocking an arrow.
In fact, the action of shooting a cue ball and firing an arrow were extremely similar in nature—both involved aiming at a target, then releasing with precision.
And for Emiya Shirou, archery was a skill more natural than eating or sleeping—an area where he simply did not make mistakes!
"Crack—!"
Like an arrow loosed from an expert archer, Shirou struck.
With absolute precision, he shot the carefully positioned cue ball at the side of the table. The ball rebounded with stunning accuracy and struck a red ball that had been stuck in the corner, pocketing it cleanly and scoring a point.
And that... was only the beginning.
After the white ball collided with a red ball, its reaction force struck another red ball behind it, causing that red ball to diagonally strike yet another red ball. The two balls crossed paths, and finally, in an almost perfect form, they simultaneously rolled into two different pockets, scoring points at the same time. In an instant, three red balls were pocketed.
Shirou's god-like serving technique left everyone present stunned.
If Apollo's previous serve could be described as a lucky hit brought about by the Authority of [Extreme Fortune], then Shirou's serve was entirely based on calculation and technique, using absolute rational thinking to accomplish a flawless and mistake-free extreme serve within a limited range of possibilities.
It was a feat that went against divine power — created through human wisdom and skill, forged through endless contemplation and countless trials. It was the pinnacle of human potential.
"..."
Seeing a shot so far beyond imagination, neither Apollo, nor Loki, nor Freya could say a word. All the speculation they had about Shirou's serve, all their fantasies about the outcome of this match, were completely shattered by Shirou's absurdly precise skill.
Now, what was laid bare before their eyes was the undeniable truth demonstrated by Shirou's absolute technique — He was no longer bound by divine power. He would use the power of a mere mortal to completely defeat the so-called gods and their Authorities!
"Just who the hell is this guy..." Even Loki, who had known Shirou for quite some time, couldn't help but mutter in awe.
"Ah..........." Beside her, Freya's pupils trembled, her shining gaze like she had discovered some unprecedented treasure she wished to keep all to herself.
It could be said that it was only at this very moment that the two strongest gods of Orario truly understood, in every sense of the word, what kind of man Emiya Shirou was — and what kind of miracles he could create.
On the other side, Shirou didn't waste the opportunity he had finally secured. Unlike Apollo, He would not relax even slightly after catching hold of victory. He would press forward in one go and pursue victory in the match with his own strength.
"Pa!" "Pa!" "Pa!" With each serve from Shirou, the number of red balls on the table began to decrease at an astonishing speed.
Since Shirou treated billiard serving as archery, and because he himself possessed absolute accuracy.
To the point where he was once referred to as a monster in the realm of archery.
Back in high school, members of the archery club thought he was a bow that had turned into a human, or a machine wearing human skin.
His arrows never missed.
The only possibility for failure was if Shirou himself chose not to hit the target.
He could accomplish this because he had discovered the realm of [Void], or perhaps more accurately, the realm of Nothingness.
Once he entered that domain, technique became a pure habit — like the way people eat or drink, not even requiring conscious thought, and utterly incapable of failure.
To Shirou, the act of shooting arrows was the same — it was a complete state of egolessness, a place where failure was impossible.
On top of that, after inheriting the power of a Heroic Spirit, Shirou also gained the ability known as "Hawk's Eye". A vision that could see all the details of a city from high above, able to clearly perceive insect-sized objects from tens of kilometers away. For an archer, this ability was virtually equivalent to perfect accuracy.
As a side note, when Shirou drew his bow, even a target moving at high speed within a range of 4 kilometers could be sniped with precision.
It was precisely because of this level of skill that his billiard technique was also beyond imagination. As long as a shot existed within the range of his imagination, his hands could make it happen.
That was also why Shirou had been studying the pool table beforehand — He had firmly memorized the position of every ball, constructing in his mind the perfect route to cleanly clear all balls on the table and achieve victory.
"Pa!" "Pa!" "Pa!" Before the stunned crowd could even react, Shirou effortlessly pocketed several more red balls. The vast gap that had originally existed between him and Apollo was closing at a visible speed. Soon, all the red balls on the table were cleared, leaving only one black ball and one blue ball.
According to billiards rules, Shirou only needed to sink the final black ball to win the game.
At this point, both Loki and Freya were utterly convinced.
The two goddesses couldn't help but glance at Apollo — only to see sweat pouring down his face like rain, as if he were a hunted animal backed into a cliff, with nothing but fear growing in his heart.
Even if Shirou didn't sink the black ball next, Apollo might very well die from fright, unable to play at all.
This made the two goddesses even more curious: How exactly did Shirou manage to seal off Apollo's Authority?
"Eh?" Just as Shirou was preparing for the final serve, a maid suddenly entered from outside. She looked confused at the overwhelmingly tense atmosphere inside, as if surprised that the match was almost over.
"You are?" One of the casino staff looked at the maid — and realized she was the same maid who had changed Apollo's clothes earlier. But that very same "maid" had been standing by the pool table this whole time.
Which meant there were two identical maids standing side by side.
"W-Wait, what the hell is going on here?!" Loki was the first to cry out in shock.
"Oh no!" The "maid" beside the pool table was startled, her expression showing that she had messed up.
This sudden interruption drew everyone's attention, especially Apollo. He immediately questioned the newly arrived maid: "What's going on?!"
"I-I don't know!" the maid looked like she was about to cry. "Didn't you tell me earlier to go organize the storage room? You said the match wouldn't start for a while..."
"I told you to go? Wait a second!" Apollo hastily looked back at the maid by the pool table — only to find she had already fled the scene in a panic.
At this point, nearly everyone realized that the maid who had changed Apollo's clothes earlier had been impersonated. The imposter had used some kind of transformation magic, silently infiltrated the casino as a maid, and changed Apollo's outfit.
And Apollo's Good Fortune ability had stopped working right after changing clothes—
"Damn it, what did you do?!" Apollo was furious, shouting at Shirou.
"Who knows."
Shirou naturally didn't respond directly. He felt a little regret that everything had been exposed at the final moment, But he wasn't nervous. The other side had no evidence he had cheated — and certainly couldn't threaten him using this method.
"No! No! The match is canceled!" Apollo, faced with the situation, tried to forcibly end the game.
But Loki and Freya just stared at him coldly. Freya even sneered, "You're going to violate the contract? The agreement between you and Emiya Shirou clearly states that if either side breaks the rules of the game, it will be judged as a loss."
"You... Don't tell me... This is why you made me sign that contract?!" Apollo's eyes widened. He never imagined that Shirou had been calculating everything from so long ago.
Since the contract didn't specify how the match had to be played, even if Apollo knew Shirou had somehow tampered with his Authority, he couldn't force a match cancellation.
Seeing this, Loki couldn't help but slap her belly laughing, "Good grief, what a show! Emiya, you brat, you're even more of a trickster god than me!"
"..." Shirou didn't respond to Loki. He simply stated quietly: "According to the terms of the contract, regardless of what happens, the match should
proceed normally. If you want to interfere, Lord Apollo, then just forfeit the match and accept your loss."
"You bastard!!!" Apollo screamed in rage, but there was nothing he could do — He looked completely defeated, as if he were about to collapse.