Grand Foreigner (Chapters 1- 200)

Chapter 176

Scales, the one used to weigh things, are a wonderful tool. Even the archaic ones – made up of a pair of bowls with levers connected through ropes, cunning, spit and hope, were an important tool for mankind.

Unfortunately, if you put too heavy an object on it, they could not perform their function, simply breaking under the weight of the object.

This principle was true even for divine scales, even for metaphysical ones.

Pashupata, for example, as metaphysically divine as it is, is a scale of sorts in the end.

What could a scale do in the event that the mother of monsters, Angrboda, put her foot on one of the scales – even if without malice?

Of course, Arjuna's Noble Phantasm could not in any way 'judge' Angrboda. Not because she had a sort of resistance or some sort of special skills that shield her from the effect of Pashupata. Or rather, Angrboda had such powers, but it was not so powerful as to be able to defend against Arjuna's Noble Phantasm – having a defense against instant-death is just common sense after all.

No, the scales simply could not weigh her.

And no, not because she actually weighs too much physically that even a divinely made scale broke. If Angrboda had thought it was a joke about her weight – the joker's life would have been very short and very sad indeed.

But even when Pashupata's metaphysical 'judgement' failed, it was supposed to be followed by another very concrete, very explosive judgement. All in order to ensure that, even if the opponent rejects the paradise of 'nothingness', would still go – if not beyond the circle of rebirth – then at least further down the cycle of Samsara.

Such an explosion could be described as nothing else as the purest form of destruction, as powerful as nuclear weapons, incomparable to even the Noble Phantasms of other mighty Servants. When backed up by the might of Arjuna's legend? It would be enough to put even Hercules to rest a dozen times over.

And yet, when compared to Vasavi Shakti, at least on a destructive scale, it wasn't even close. The spear wielded by Karna is the perfect Noble Phantasm of destruction, its purest expression.

To compare, if in YGGDRASIL, players had found such an object – they would certainly have declared it a World-Class Item.

But then how would such a Noble Phantasm interact with Angrboda?

For the Servants, their legends literally became the basis of their powers, but how would these interact with the characteristics of YGGDRASIL? The answer is both simple and yet very complex at once.

The aforementioned item would simply use both systems at once. Whether it is a Servant's stats or the abilities of their Noble Phantasm, each would be judged according to their lore or mystery. For example, a Servant having an E rank in parameter must therefore must be five times weaker than a Servant that has an A Rank parameter. How this translates to YGGDRASIL's own stats or item rankings however is a bit more nebulous.

Therefore, it was possible to compare Vasavi Shakti to a World Class Item – but it was still impossible to draw an equal line between them.

If a World Class Item containing the absolute power of destruction were indeed used – then the likes of Angrboda would have no chance of resisting it.

However, since the only known source of World Class Items would never deign to open his collection, Angrboda did not need to worry about the weapons created in no less than a fit of madness by the World Creators. No, instead, she only needed to contend with two of the strongest Noble Phantasms of mankind.