"BOOOOOM—!!"
A chain of violent explosions tore through the Hidden Village entrance. The paradise-like Hidden Village was instantly swallowed by firelight and black smoke—proof that the "peaceful daily life must be shattered" law is undefeated, and the scriptwriter never hesitates to hand out knives.
"Unlimited Blade Works—Fire!"
Shirou Emiya stood in the center of the plaza and swung one hand down.
Dozens of projected blades, hanging in midair, dropped with the precision of cruise missiles.
Whoosh-whoosh—THUNK!
The front-line hunters of the Ikelos Familia didn't even have time to scream before they were pinned to the ground.
Their "invisibility cloaks" were a complete joke in front of Mind's Eye (True)—a literal official wallhack.
"Tch! Why's this kid's firepower worse than a mage's?!"
The hunters behind them panicked and scrambled for cover.
"Don't freak out! He's alone!"
From atop a rock outcrop, Dix Perdix brandished his spear, grinning with the warped joy of a professional sadist.
"If physical attacks get blocked—then we use mental contamination!"
"Throw every remaining curse crystal! Now!"
"Yes!"
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Several pitch-black crystal orbs were hurled across the battlefield.
A thick black fog spread like a living thing, swallowing the cavern.
Its effect was brutally simple:
Forced Berserk.
And it doesn't distinguish friend from foe.
"AAAAAAGH—!!"
Xenos who were still fighting the hunters began convulsing.
Their eyes turned blood-red as reason drowned under raw instinct.
"Kill… kill…"
An orc roared and swung a stone axe into a goblin ally.
A gargoyle tore at its own face, then lunged at the nearest human.
The situation collapsed in an instant.
What had been "tower defense" turned into a no-rules battle royale.
"Damn it…"
Shirou gritted his teeth. Kanshou and Bakuya trembled in his grip.
Just minutes ago, that orc had been asking him to fix an axe.
That gargoyle had been handing him fruit.
Now they were just beasts, driven by slaughter.
A blood-eyed lizardman (not Lyd) came screaming in—claws straight for Shirou's throat.
"Wake up!"
Shirou slipped aside and smashed the lizardman's neck with the flat of his blade.
Thud!
It wobbled—
but didn't go down.
Instead, it snapped and bit even harder.
"Hahaha! It's useless, Shirou Emiya!"
Dix's mocking voice echoed over the chaos.
"My curse cuts off their pain nerves. Unless you take their heads, they'll keep biting until you're dead!"
"How does it feel—killing your 'friends' with your own hands?"
Classic villain behavior: kill the body, then stab the heart.
"…Shut up."
Shirou's eyes turned glacial.
If stunning didn't work, then he had only one option:
remove their ability to move.
"Trace—On."
The twin blades vanished.
In their place appeared a peculiar hooked chain dagger—
a modified version of Rider (Medusa)'s weapon: Nameless Dagger.
"If I can't kill you—then I'll tie you up!"
Shirou became a blur, weaving through the berserk Xenos.
The chain snapped and coiled like a serpent—not piercing, but binding.
One by one, he wrapped limbs, trussed them up like dumplings, and threw them aside.
"Naive. Pathetically naive."
Dix sneered.
"You think you can save many? There are hundreds of monsters here. How long will your mana last?"
He was right.
More Xenos fell into the curse and joined the swarm.
Worse, hunters hid among them, firing cold arrows when Shirou's guard opened.
Pfft!
A poisoned arrow grazed Shirou's arm.
Structural Reinforcement absorbed most of it, but the sluggish numbness still slowed him for a heartbeat.
A berserk troll seized that heartbeat—
BOOM!
One punch slammed into Shirou's back.
"Guh!"
He stumbled, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
Level 2 stats were strong, but this was hell-mode:
a mass battle, under a no-kill restriction, against enemies who didn't feel pain.
"Emiya-sama!"
From within Fels' barrier, Lili screamed, tears threatening to spill.
"Stop worrying about them—use your big move! You'll die!"
"…No."
Shirou wiped the blood from his mouth and steadied himself.
He looked over the berserk Xenos.
Through those blood-red eyes, it felt like he could hear their souls screaming.
"If I don't save them…"
"…then they really will be nothing but 'monsters.'"
That was Shirou Emiya's incurable disease.
Even in hell, he still tried to grab every thread of spider silk.
"Disgusting hypocrisy."
Dix seemed bored of the melodrama.
He flickered forward, dropping from above.
His spear blazed with sinister red light and shot for Shirou's back—clean, vicious, perfectly timed.
"Die, hero!"
Shirou had just finished binding two orcs—
old force spent, new motion not yet formed.
Mind's Eye screamed danger at maximum volume…
…but his body couldn't respond in time.
He couldn't dodge.
Then—
"MOOOOOOOO—!!"
A thunderous bull roar crushed every other sound.
A massive black shadow slammed in from the side like a meteor.
"What—?!"
Dix's face warped. He was forced to abort the thrust and swing his spear sideways.
CLAAANG—!!
A metal collision so violent it made ears ring.
Dix was launched like a ball, rolling across the ground a dozen times before stopping.
As the dust cleared—
A towering minotaur, over three meters tall, pitch-black, holding a giant double-bladed battle axe (a backup weapon hidden in the Village) stood before Shirou.
Asterios.
The strongest Xenos.
"You…"
Shirou stared at the broad back, stunned.
"Don't… misunderstand."
Asterios glanced back.
His eyes—normally golden—were threaded with red, and his breathing was ragged. He was resisting the curse by sheer will, steam blasting from his nostrils.
"I just… don't want my prey…"
"…to die by trash like that."
Textbook tsundere line—if you ignored the fact that it came from an enormous murder-bull.
"And…"
He tightened his grip on the axe, looking at their berserk comrades, a flash of grief cutting through his expression.
"That thing… (the curse)…"
"…pisses me off too."
He threw his head back and roared again.
A "king's pressure" rolled across the battlefield.
For a brief moment, the berserk Xenos actually stopped—hesitating, cowed by the strongest one's fury.
"Now!"
Fels shouted from the far side.
"Emiya Shirou! The curse source is Dix's staff—his control core! Destroy it!"
"Understood!"
Shirou's gaze sharpened.
This was their only opening.
"Big guy—can you carve me a path?"
"Hmph."
Asterios didn't answer—
but his actions did.
BOOM!
He charged like a heavy bulldozer.
Anything in front of him—hunter or berserk monster—was thrown aside by the sweep of that enormous axe.
"Follow!"
Shirou moved with him, slipping through the storm Asterios created.
His twin blades became escort ships, clearing whatever leaked from the flanks.
A man and a bull—
a cross-species combination—
fighting with shocking, almost instinctive coordination.
"Damn it!"
Dix crawled up from the ground, eyes wide with something he hadn't felt before—
panic.
The curse barely affected Asterios (level gap + willpower), and Dix's men were paper in front of that axe.
"If that's how it is…"
Dix's eyes went cold.
He raised the staff—
and aimed toward the edge of the battlefield.
Toward the barrier where Wiene was hiding.
"Change targets! Kill the dragon girl!"
A filthy tactic—classic hostage pivot.
Dozens of hunters immediately turned, abandoning the fight with Shirou and charging the barrier like rabid dogs.
"Damn!"
Fels' mana was already near empty.
Maintaining the barrier was the limit—he couldn't stop a mass assault.
"Wiene…!"
Shirou's steps halted.
Save Wiene?
Or rush Dix and break the staff?
If he saved Wiene, Dix could escape and the curse wouldn't fully end.
If he broke the staff, Wiene might die.
A classic trolley problem.
But Shirou Emiya doesn't do multiple choice.
"ASTERIOS!"
Shirou shouted.
"I'll save them—Dix is yours!"
"…Got it."
Asterios didn't turn around. His axe swings only grew faster.
"Don't die… weak human."
Shirou pivoted.
The ground cracked under his feet.
Structural Reinforcement slammed fully open, agility exploding.
"Trace—On!"
While sprinting, he raised his left hand.
Mana circuits burned as a beautiful, sacred-shaped scabbard formed in his mind—
Avalon, "The Ever-Distant Utopia."
Not the real Avalon.
But even projecting its shell would be enough.
"Projecting—Shield!"
BOOOOM!
At the exact instant blades were about to reach Lili and Wiene—
A golden radiance dropped from above.
It wasn't a shield.
It was a massive golden scabbard, slamming into the earth like a fortress wall between them.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Every strike bounced off.
"Emiya-sama!"
Lili burst into tears of relief.
"Sorry. I'm late."
Shirou landed atop the scabbard, looking down at the hunters.
The rage in his eyes had reached ignition point.
"You lay hands on my family…"
"…are you prepared for what comes next?"
"Tch! So close!"
The hunters gritted their teeth.
"He's alone! Kill him!"
"Alone?"
Shirou smiled—cold, sharp.
He raised his right hand toward the sky.
Mana poured out like floodwater.
If they loved ganging up on the few—
then he would show them what a real "numbers advantage" looked like.
"I am the bone of my sword."
The air twisted.
Heat and dryness spread like an approaching furnace.
"Unknown to Death. Nor known to Life."
Countless points of light ignited in the void—
swords.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
"Unlimited Blade Works—!!"
He couldn't fully deploy the Reality Marble—
not with his mana—
but he could still dump the "inventory" of his inner landscape into reality.
"Sword rain."
His hand came down.
Gold. Silver. Black. Red.
Projected Noble Phantasms fell like a storm.
THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
This wasn't combat.
This was extermination.
The hunters surrounding Wiene were erased in a heartbeat—turned into porcupines beneath the bladefall.
"How… is that possible…?"
Far away, Dix stared, his staff nearly slipping from his hand.
That scale of "magic"—from a human?
He looked like a humanoid mobile artillery platform.
"ROOOAAAR—!!"
In Dix's moment of shock—
Asterios seized the opening.
He smashed through the last guards and charged straight into Dix's face like a loaded train.
"You…"
"…are finished."
The battle axe came down, carrying all of Asterios' fury.
"No—!!"
Dix screamed and raised his staff to block.
CRACK—!!
The control staff—
and one of Dix's arms (prosthetic included)—
were split clean in half.
The crystal at the staff's head shattered.
The black fog lost its magical support and began dissolving into the air.
The curse—
was broken.
"My hand! My staff!"
Dix howled on the ground.
Without the staff, he was a tiger without teeth.
"We won!"
Lili cheered.
But it wasn't over.
Even with the curse broken, the Xenos already driven berserk didn't instantly recover.
Worse—
without control, they became more chaotic, attacking everything in reach—
and surging toward the exit, toward the path leading upward.
"No…"
Fels' voice shook with despair.
"The curse aftereffects… they're out of control! If they reach Floor 18—if they reach the surface…"
That wouldn't be the Hidden Village's destruction.
That would be the beginning of an all-out war between humans and Xenos.
"We have to stop them!"
Lyd shouted, clutching a wound—but his voice drowned under the roaring stampede.
"I'll go—"
Asterios tried to move, then dropped to one knee.
His charge had burned too much stamina, and the curse residue was still gnawing at his nerves.
"…Damn it."
The berserk wave was about to pour through the only exit—
"Trace—On."
A red figure stepped into the tunnel mouth—
blocking the path alone.
Shirou Emiya.
His mana was gone.
His face was paper-white.
That sword rain had emptied every reserve.
Yet he still stood there.
In his hand, Kanshou (Alter/Otherworld variant) was cracked and splintered—
but still aimed forward.
"Emiya-sama! You can't—!"
Lili tried to run to him.
"Don't come."
Shirou didn't turn.
He stared at the friends who had laughed and eaten with him—
now reduced to beasts.
"This is my responsibility."
"I accepted Fels' request…"
"…so I'll hold the final line."
He inhaled—
and began crushing his own life force (Od) into mana.
Even if it shortened his life.
Even if his circuits burned out.
"Come."
He raised a defensive stance, eyes firm and sorrowful.
"If I don't knock you awake…"
"…it's going to be a real problem for me."
And then—
At the last possible moment—
"Fimbulvetr!"
A freezing blizzard roared in from beyond the tunnel.
The Xenos at the front were instantly frozen into ice statues—
not killed, just bound.
Shirou looked up, stunned.
In the backlit tunnel entrance stood a group of fully armed adventurers.
At their front—
a noble elf with long emerald hair holding a staff…
and a blonde swordswoman with a silver rapier drawn.
"Pretty miserable, Emiya."
Riveria looked at the blood-soaked Shirou, smiling with helpless amusement.
"Didn't I tell you not to wander off?"
"If you got lost…"
Ais drew her "Despair Sword," golden eyes sharpening like frost.
"…then we'll bring you home."
The Loki Familia has entered the battle.
....
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