A deep-dungeon expedition, to ordinary adventurers, was a long march hand-in-hand with death.
To the Loki Familia—this "max-level sightseeing party"—the early stretch was basically a demo of Dynasty Warriors: Deep Dungeon Edition.
Floor 30 — "This Is Boring!"
"Ugh—so lame! There's not enough to chop!"
Tiona swung her massive twin blades Urga, whining like a kid who'd just been told the arcade was closing. At her feet, several unlucky Deep-Floor Wyverns had already been turned into sashimi.
"Stop complaining, idiot Tiona," Tione muttered, wiping blood from her curved blade. "We're in energy-saving mode. The real hell is further down."
"Correct." Finn walked mid-column with the map in hand, calm and surgical. "We push through the mid and lower layers at maximum speed, establish a forward base at the safe zone on Floor 39. Until then, minimize unnecessary attrition."
"Roger~"
Backline — Logistics Monster
In the support group, Emiya Shirou walked with a huge pack on his back—magically reduced in weight, but still loaded with emergency rations and repair tools for the whole expedition.
Perfectly relaxed.
"Um… Lord Shirou, are you tired?" Haruhime, in a specially-made miko outfit, jogged beside him, handkerchief ready to wipe sweat on command.
"This load is nothing," Shirou smiled. With a Level 3 body built on SSS-stat accumulation, plus passive reinforcement from Structural Enhancement, it felt like carrying an empty schoolbag on a picnic.
"And besides…"
He glanced at the front.
Ais Wallenstein, the Sword Princess, was moving like a precision killing machine. Any monster that came within a hundred meters was erased by invisible sword pressure before it could even breathe wrong.
Two Days Later — Floor 37
Time blurred in the dungeon.
Thanks to Loki Familia's absurd pace, they broke through the 18th Floor "Labyrinth Paradise", the 19–24 Great Tree Labyrinth, the 25–27 Water City, and reached—
Floor 37: White Palace.
The vibe changed violently.
No damp caves.
No forests.
Instead: a huge palace-maze made of oppressive white rock. Walls, floors, ceilings—everything pale, sterile, suffocating.
Worse: the terrain had instant regeneration.
Get lost here and you don't "run out of food"—
you get sealed into the walls and become a fossil.
"All units, alert!" Finn's voice boomed via amplification magic. "This is the deep-floor entrance—monster strength crosses a threshold here. If you don't want to die, wake up!"
"Yes!"
The air felt heavier.
Monsters here—Spartoi (bone goat-men), Peruda (black beasts), Lizardmen elites—each one packing Level 3 to Level 4 combat power.
And they weren't just strong.
They coordinated.
Shirou's Instinct Screams
Something was off.
Shirou stopped.
Mind's Eye (True) wasn't catching a visible enemy—
but the malice soaking the floor was so thick it felt like choking.
Like something in the dark was watching them.
No—watching him.
"Emiya, what is it?" Ais sensed it instantly and slipped back to his side, her Desperate Sword barely leaving the scabbard.
"Nothing… just that 'yandere stalker locked on to me' kind of chill," Shirou muttered, rubbing his arm against goosebumps.
He didn't know it wasn't paranoia.
It was divine "love" from a goddess at the top of Babel.
Wall Collapse
Then—
RUMBLE—!!
A violent tremor from the corridor ahead.
Not footsteps.
The sound of walls breaking.
"Enemy?!" Bete shot forward. "Which blind bastard is blocking the road?!"
Dust cleared.
It wasn't a monster wave.
It was one figure.
A white skeletal body with dark-red vein-like patterns pulsing across bone.
Arms shaped into twin bone blades.
A back bristling with jagged spikes.
And it wasn't roaring.
It stood quietly—
and assumed an opening stance.
A posture only a trained martial veteran could hold: balanced, aggressive, defensive, complete.
"What the hell is that?" Tiona blinked. "A Spartoi variant? Why does it feel… kinda cool?"
"Don't get careless!" Finn's face changed instantly.
His thumb began to twitch like crazy—danger sense screaming.
"That's an Irregular! All units—battle formation!"
As if it understood him, the red-boned monster raised its head.
Blue ghostfire burned inside its empty eye sockets.
It scanned the room—
then locked onto Shirou.
"Lock… target… Senji… Muramasa…"
Not a voice.
Bone grinding into a vibration that made teeth ache.
"It can talk?!" Everyone froze.
Another Xenos?
"No." Shirou's pupils tightened. Mind's Eye told him: this thing had no heart. Not life like Wiene—
It was a manufactured killing tool.
First Clash — It Ignores Everyone But Him
The monster moved.
No warning.
No charge-up.
A red meteor crossing dozens of meters in an instant—
target: Shirou.
"Not happening!" Ais flashed in front of him, sword dropping with the wind barrier.
CLANG—!!
Sparks erupted.
The monster parried her sword with its left bone blade—perfect angle, clean deflection, most force neutralized.
Ais' eyes widened.
That technique…
that "unload the impact" angle…
…why did it look like Ottarl?
It didn't linger.
Using rebound force, it twisted midair, right bone blade snapping around Ais' guard like a viper—
straight for Shirou.
"Fast."
Shirou was ready.
"Trace—On!"
Black-and-white twin blades Kanshou & Bakuya appeared.
He didn't retreat.
He took it head-on.
KANG!
The impact slammed through his arms like a speeding truck.
His boots carved twin trenches in the floor as he slid five or six meters before stopping.
"This power… doesn't belong on this floor."
"And these techniques…"
"This thing's stats are absurd—and its skill is textbook-perfect."
Then it did something obscene.
It pointed at Shirou.
Pointed at everyone else.
Then made a throat-slitting gesture.
Meaning:
Either all of you come—
or you come die alone.
It "Trains" Them
"Too arrogant!" Bete exploded. "You pile of bones—eat dirt!"
He ignited his magic Hati, flames wrapping his boots, and launched a kick at its head—
The monster didn't even turn.
Spikes extended from its back like a shield—blocking the kick—
then it punched back with the flat of its bone blade, like a hammer—
straight into Bete's gut.
PFF—!
Bete flew like a cannonball, smashing through a wall.
"Bete!" The Amazon twins surged in.
Their combined attack was airtight—
but the monster walked through it like it was out for a stroll.
Minimal movement dodges.
Every counter aimed at a flaw.
Finn's face darkened.
"It's… teaching us?"
No.
It was demonstrating superiority.
Like a master correcting children with violence.
Shirou Steps Forward
"Everyone—back."
Shirou's voice was calm.
Kanshou & Bakuya dissolved.
He drew the black greatsword from his back—
Pseudo–Magic Sword: Zanzan (Igalima – Prototype).
"It came for me," Shirou said, staring at the Irregular. "If we don't deal with it, we can't move."
"Emiya!" Riveria shouted. "That's a human-killer specialized for humanoids!"
"I know." Shirou inhaled. His circuits began to glow. "But if I can't cross this wall…"
"…I have no right to go to Floor 59."
He could feel it.
This monster carried the "taste" of a trial.
A goddess' love letter—
delivered with blood as the signature.
"Come on, bone rack."
Shirou raised the greatsword into mid-guard.
"Let me see how many tricks you stole."
The monster's ghostfire eyes tightened with something like—
pleasure.
1v1 — Power vs "Infinite"
They collided.
Bone blades and black greatsword met—
pure force.
The ground collapsed beneath them.
Shirou gritted his teeth.
In raw strength, he was losing.
Even with Level 3 SSS accumulation and reinforcement, this thing was too optimized—too "trained."
"But if it's skill…"
Shirou's eyes sharpened.
"I'm infinite."
He released one hand.
"Trace—On!"
A short sword formed in his left.
Not dual-wielding—
long sword + short sword.
He pinned its bone blade with the greatsword and stabbed the joint—
CRACK!
The short sword left only a white mark—
and snapped.
"Hard as diamond?!"
The monster countered.
Its right bone blade extended like a whip, snapping toward Shirou's head—
"I am the bone of my sword."
A violet, petal-like shield unfolded:
Rho Aias — three layers.
BOOM!
The strike shattered two layers.
Stopped at the third.
"Got you."
Shirou dropped the shield.
His greatsword ignited with red light.
"Reinforcement—Overload!"
Mana flooded Zanzan, doubling hardness and edge.
"CUT!"
A black arc flashed—
The monster's right arm was severed at the root.
It howled and leapt back.
"Did we win?!" Lili shouted.
"No." Shirou's expression tightened further.
The stump writhed—
and within seconds, a new arm grew back.
Darker.
Denser.
Metallic sheen.
"Regeneration…"
Shirou grimaced.
"Who taught you to heal like Majin Buu?!"
And it didn't stop there.
It learned.
It remembered his mana flow.
Its bone blades began to glow with dark-red reinforcement—
imitating Shirou's Enhancement magic.
"Okay. That's crossing the line."
Broken Phantasm: Saturation Bombardment
"If normal methods won't kill you…"
Shirou drove his sword into the ground and raised both hands to the sky.
His magic circuits screamed like an engine in redline.
The air warped.
Tiny blades shimmered into existence.
"Then I'll blast you into dust."
Not one broken phantasm.
A graveyard of them.
"System Call—"
"Generate—"
Reality began to be eaten by a red wasteland.
"Unlimited Blade Works—Bombardment Mode!"
Dozens of Noble Phantasms—Rank C to Rank B—formed in midair.
Each held at a dangerously unstable threshold—
primed to detonate.
This was—
Broken Phantasm: Saturation Bombardment.
"DIE!!"
Shirou's arm dropped.
Meteors ripped across the White Palace.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM—!!
Explosions swallowed the monster—
and half the corridor.
Fire roared.
Smoke drowned the world.
This wasn't adventuring.
This was modern warfare carpet bombing.
The Loki Familia stared, speechless.
Even Riveria's large-scale magic didn't feel this unreasonable.
It Survives—And Evolves
Smoke cleared.
The red figure still stood.
Charred.
Half a skull missing.
Body torn apart.
But standing.
And—
it was smiling.
Its body began to swell.
Dark-red bone erupted outward, growing into full-body armor.
Its bone blades fused into one—
a mountain-cleaving bone greatsword.
"It… can still evolve?!"
Shirou's mana was gone.
That bombardment was his ceiling.
The monster raised the greatsword—
and slammed down.
Not a normal slash.
A shockwave loaded with the absorbed explosive energy—
a strike meant to erase everything.
"Can't dodge."
Mind's Eye delivered a death forecast.
"Emiya!" Ais tried to reach him—
too far.
Absolute dead end.
Final Gamble — Kill It From the Inside
"If physics doesn't work…"
Shirou stared up at the falling blade.
No despair.
Only madness born from certainty.
He released his weapon.
Spread his arms—
and welcomed the killing blow.
"Then I'll collapse you from the inside."
"Trace—On… (Synchronization—Erosion)!"
He poured everything he had left—
mana, life force, will—
into an invisible conceptual sword.
He wouldn't cut flesh.
He would cut structure.
SPLASH!
The bone greatsword tore into Shirou's shoulder—blood detonating outward.
At the same moment—
Shirou's hand punched into the monster's chest.
Green circuit light surged like a virus into its body.
Reality Marble: Internal Deployment.
If you won't die outside…
I'll fill you with swords from the inside.
"Burst."
The monster locked up.
Metal piercing sounds exploded from within.
Swords grew through veins, muscle, bone—
rupturing the armor outward.
It became a hedgehog—
a hedgehog torn apart by blades erupting from its core.
Its ghostfire dimmed.
It looked at Shirou—bleeding, barely standing—
still gripping its core magic stone.
For a moment—
it seemed to "see" something—
the satisfied smile of the goddess watching from Babel's summit.
CRACK.
Shirou crushed the core.
The giant skeleton collapsed into ash.
Aftermath
Shirou fell to his knees in the ashes.
His left shoulder was nearly carved to the bone.
His mind was breaking apart.
"…Did we win?"
"Emiya!" Ais caught him, arms wrapping tight.
"Yeah…"
Shirou leaned into her, breathing in that faint lavender scent—
and smiled like a man who survived a car crash.
"…That goddess' 'love letter'…"
"…was heavy."
Then he blacked out.
Babel — Top Floor
Freya watched the scene in her crystal.
Her flush deepened—almost feverish.
"Ah… beautiful."
"That's the color I wanted to see."
She raised her wine glass and clinked it against the air.
"Congratulations."
"You passed the trial."
"My… Muramasa."
....
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