Chapter 110: Shirou Instantly Kills Lv.6 – The Loki Familia in Shock!
Shirou raised the holy sword in his hand high. The radiant light of the Caliburn - Golden Sword of the Victorious suddenly burst forth, illuminating the previously dim underground space.
"...?"
Seeing Shirou's movements, not only Sword Princess Ais, but also the other members of the Loki Familia—and even Valletta of the Thanatos Familia—couldn't help but widen their eyes.
Everyone was captivated by the brilliance of the holy sword. None had imagined such dazzling light could erupt from this pitch-black dungeon!
In contrast, Shirou himself wore a very serious expression.
In order not to reveal his identity as the "Sword Demon" Shirou tried to avoid using projection in front of the Loki Familia.
Without using projection, his combat capabilities would be severely restricted—he wouldn't be able to defeat his enemies as easily.
Valletta was, after all, a Level 6 adventurer, and who knew what special tricks she might still have up her sleeve.
Therefore, Shirou had to end the fight quickly.
He needed to destroy the magical barrier behind her, which was emitting some kind of energy field, as fast as possible!
Boom!
Shirou immediately raised his holy sword and burst forward at astonishing speed, charging straight toward the gate behind Valletta!
Seeing Shirou's action, Valletta indeed showed a panicked expression.
Although she might not understand the mechanism behind the Eye of Death God, she clearly knew that the gate and magic circle behind her must not be destroyed.
Thus, for the first time, Valletta took the initiative to attack, trying to block Shirou!
"Wind Spirit Acceleration!"
Responding to Valletta's move, Ais acted immediately.
She didn't know why Shirou was heading for the gate, but she was willing to follow his command and cover him.
To that end, Ais promptly activated her magic and rushed to intercept, placing herself between Shirou and Valletta to block the attack.
As a Level 6, Valletta's main offensive method involved unleashing special dark magic, with powerful corrosive abilities that could decay all materials.
This kind of ability was extremely troublesome for ordinary swordsmen.
It was likely that Finn had been ambushed by Valletta's magic at close range, causing his spear to rot and leading to his defeat and serious injuries.
Fortunately, Ais was not just a swordsman—she was also a magic user.
After discovering Valletta's unique attacks, Ais gave up the idea of close combat.
Instead, she used her wind magic to maintain distance and occasionally launched surprise attacks with condensed windstorms.
She was able to do this largely thanks to Shirou's teachings.
Previously, Ais had repeatedly dueled with Shirou in his "Sword Demon" persona on the city wall.
Through those battles, Ais gradually learned how to fight opponents far stronger than herself: hit-and-run tactics, never getting caught up in drawn-out battles, using her speed and ranged attacks to conduct ambushes while ensuring her own safety.
By using these "phantom" tactics, Ais once managed to survive a full minute against the Sword Demon—the longest anyone had lasted—an achievement that made her very happy.
Now, in the fight against Valletta, Ais applied this experience, using hit-and-run and long-range tactics to gradually wear down the corrosion-powered Valletta, who couldn't retaliate at all and was forced into a disadvantage.
"How is this possible?! Damn you, Sword Princess—how are you this strong?!"
Valletta's eyes were wide in disbelief.
She clearly never expected to be driven to such a desperate state by this girl who was supposed to be her equal in level.
She couldn't even counterattack, and Ais was adapting to her fighting style with increasing skill and precision.
Faced with Valletta's disbelief, Ais remained calm and murmured coldly:
"Because your strength is far beneath my mas... ahem, far beneath the Sword Demon."
Due to her natural innocence, Ais almost let slip her connection to the Sword Demon, but quickly corrected herself in time.
"Sword Demon?" Valletta sneered coldly. "Whether it's the Sword Princess or the Sword Demon, this damn Orario is full of your kind—monsters! But it's all coming to an end soon.
Everything will end. The great Lord Thanatos will bring true fairness and justice to this twisted world!"
Valletta's words were so shocking that everyone turned their heads.
Immediately after, she suddenly raised her right hand.
In her hand was a strange purple eyeball. Unlike the other Eyes of the Death God around them, this one seemed to be an inanimate object.
Valletta simply raised the eye, and suddenly the dungeon's environment drastically changed. A massive hole opened in the central wall!
"What the hell is that?!"
Bete and the others, still engaged in battle with the endless eyeballs, were caught off guard by Valletta's backup plan.
From that hole, an overwhelming number of man-eating flowers descended like a flood, quickly spreading across the floor as though to swallow it whole.
Worse still, among the flowers were Labyrinth Tyrant-class monsters—the same kind Shirou had fought before.
BOOM!
A massive mutated plant crashed to the ground, instantly taking root and extending its tendrils in all directions.
With so many man-eating plants as cover, Valletta was able to break free from Ais's attacks and rushed toward Shirou, trying to stop him from destroying the gate.
She hadn't seen the power of the Golden Sword of Certain Victory before, but her instincts told her it was a terrifying magic sword.
If she didn't stop it now, she'd be cornered!
"Bete, Tiona, Tione—help me!"
Seeing Valletta's charge, Ais panicked.
She immediately called out to her companions and began clearing the plants and monsters as fast as possible.
However, although Ais's "Wind Spirit Acceleration" was powerful, it wasn't fire-elemental, making it ineffective against the plants.
Meanwhile, Bete and the others were still entangled with the eyeball monsters and couldn't assist!
Thus, the Loki Familia could only watch as the Level 6 Valletta rapidly approached Shirou.
Their distance closed at terrifying speed!
"Heh... hehehehe!" Valletta laughed wildly as she looked at Shirou. "I don't know how you figured out the truth of the Eyes of the Death God, but it doesn't matter.
You're just a mere Level 3. If I take you down, and then finish off the rest of the Loki Familia, my revenge will be complete!"
Her voice was loud and full of contempt.
And this contempt was not unreasonable.
To any rational observer, Shirou was just an ordinary Level 3.
No matter how famous he was as the "Godslayer," against a Level 6 enemy, the overwhelming power gap should make him helpless.
Once Valletta got close, she would easily crush him.
The Loki Familia thought the same.
Even though they still resented Shirou, they knew the threat of the dark faction. If he died here, their chances of surviving this crisis would drop sharply. They were truly bound together in this fight.
"Haaaah!!"
Under everyone's gaze, Valletta launched her attack at Shirou.
So confident in her superiority, she didn't even use her corrosive magic—just relied on her Level 6 physical prowess to crush him.
But Shirou met her with a cold expression.
He didn't even look at her.
With a sudden movement, he swung Caliburn—swift and merciless!
What appeared before everyone was not the scene of Shirou being killed.
On the contrary—at the moment the dazzling golden sword slashed down, Valletta's body was cleanly cut in two, pierced completely by a single strike!
"It... it can't be..."
Valletta's eyes widened in disbelief.
Despite being Level 6, her speed and strength couldn't match Shirou's at that moment. She hadn't even had time to defend herself—she was slain instantly.
This outrageous reality was something she couldn't accept even in death. Her dazed eyes stared at the man before her, as if trying to see through his true identity.
On the other side, Shirou ignored her gaze.
He coldly kicked aside the corpse of the Death God's follower and turned toward the distant gate with a stern expression.
Even after Valletta's death, the eyeball monsters hadn't stopped moving—indicating that they weren't being controlled by her.
They were acting independently.
Therefore, Shirou still had to destroy the gate, the root of this interference, to end the battle!
"Caliburn!"
Now, with no one left to stop him, Shirou could finally unleash the sword's full power.
BOOM!
As dazzling light surged along the golden blade, a searing energy vortex tore through the artificial dungeon's interior, erupting with violent force.
The Loki Familia hadn't even had time to react before they felt an overwhelming shockwave rip through everything.
The blinding light looked like it would devour the entire material world!
Clatter!
When the light finally faded and everything returned to normal, an enormous rift had split the dungeon.
The fissure extended from Shirou's feet and tore through the gate glowing with magic, shattering it completely!
Rip—
At the moment the gate disappeared, all the eyeball monsters on the field abruptly vanished—as if they had never existed, like false creations wiped from reality.
"..."
Witnessing that fleeting moment just now, the members of the Loki Familia were left momentarily stunned.
Although long ago, when Shirou stepped in for Bell at the tavern and suppressed Bete, the Loki Familia had already suspected that this man, Emiya Shirou, possessed extraordinary strength, actually seeing Shirou kill Valletta—an adventurer of Level 6—in a single strike and at the same time unleash Caliburn to destroy such a massive gate left them with looks of disbelief.
Especially Ais.
In her mind, the image of Shirou's sword slaying Valletta replayed again and again.
Even though Shirou had deliberately avoided using his original weapons and swordsmanship to conceal his identity—instead employing the sword techniques of King Arthur, Artoria—Ais still felt a familiar sensation in that fleeting instant.
Her intuition made her suspicious of Shirou's true identity.
However, Ais didn't voice her doubts at this moment.
Right now, rather than questioning Shirou's identity, the more pressing matter was to quickly clear out the underground labyrinth of the dark faction's headquarters and rescue Riveria, Lefiya, and the others whose fates were still uncertain.
Therefore, without Shirou needing to issue commands, Ais and the rest of the Loki Familia swiftly began clearing the area of man-eating plants and mutated flora.
With the interference of those endlessly splitting eyeballs gone, the Loki Familia was finally able to exert their true power.
Relying on their astonishing teamwork, they swiftly eradicated the numerous man-eating plants, even going so far as to completely destroy the massive mutated plant that rivaled the strength of a dungeon floor boss.
.
.
.
With all the monsters eradicated, the battlefield finally calmed down.
Though only a little, the members of the Loki Familia began to change their opinions about Shirou.
They still found him an unpleasant presence, but at the very least they acknowledged his ability.
After all, if Shirou hadn't stepped in, they would never have discovered the true nature of the Eye of Death, nor could they have broken through Valletta's and the mutated plants' blockade to destroy that magically constructed gate.
Whether it was Shirou's strength, which was clearly far beyond Level 3, or his extremely sharp judgment, both made the Loki Familia realize that he was indeed an extraordinary existence—and affirmed that the goddess Loki's insight had been correct.
"..."
While the Loki Familia members had mixed feelings about having to acknowledge Shirou, Shirou himself scanned the battlefield filled with monster remains.
Suddenly, he frowned and asked, "Where is Valletta's corpse? Wasn't it right here just a moment ago?"
"Eh?"
Hearing Shirou's question, the Loki Familia members were all taken aback.
Because everyone's attention had just been focused on eliminating the man-eating plants and mutated flora, they had completely ignored Valletta, who had already been slain and had no life force left.
By the time they came to their senses, her body had vanished without a trace!
Faced with this unexpected and abnormal situation, Shirou furrowed his brow deeply.
He didn't believe Valletta had somehow survived.
That last sword strike had given him a very clear sensation—it was definitely a killing blow. No normal person could have survived an attack like that.
Therefore, Valletta's corpse should've either been destroyed during the battle, or more likely, devoured by the man-eating plants.
That would be the most reasonable explanation.
But Shirou's instincts told him that things might not be that simple.
Especially since he had just uncovered that the Eye of Death was in fact a projection of a soul—and like quantum particles, souls possess two properties: observed and unobserved states.
Then, is it possible that the Valletta he just killed wasn't even a real human to begin with, but merely a soul?
If thought of that way, everything starts to make sense.
According to Shirou's theory that souls have quantum properties, if no one was paying attention to Valletta because they were all focused on fighting the mutated flora, then Valletta—who existed as a soul—would revert to a null or unobservable state, possibly vanishing entirely!
"Death God Thanatos…"
Shirou attributed everything to the death god lurking behind the scenes.
There was no doubt that this being was the mastermind behind all these events, and as a god, his divine authority most likely involved the manipulation of souls.
Even so, Shirou wasn't particularly shaken.
After multiple encounters with deities, he had already come to understand: divine powers are not limitless.
As long as one can unravel the true nature of the god's power within its limited scope—find its rules and weaknesses—it is entirely possible to defeat a god head-on!
With that resolve, Shirou carefully wrapped the golden sword of certain victory in cloth, swept his gaze across the members of the Loki Familia, and issued a new command:
"Advance. Our objective: Destroy the Thanatos Familia!"
At this point, none of the Loki Familia members objected to Shirou's orders.
They had even begun to place a certain degree of trust in him—trusting in his strength, and believing that he could lead them to rescue Riveria's party!
.
.
.
Shirou and the Loki Familia members soon resumed their advance.
After passing through the gate previously guarded by Valletta, the group quickly broke through the tenth floor and arrived at the eleventh floor of the man-made dungeon.
"By the way, Emiya, how do you plan to rescue Riveria and the others?" Ais couldn't help but ask during their march. "We're not even on the same route as them—we might not ever meet!"
"Normally, what you're saying is correct, Ais," Shirou glanced at the blonde girl. "But you're overlooking the fact that this labyrinth is designed to mimic the true Dungeon. Therefore, in essence, there is only one path that goes deeper and only one that leads to the deepest area. The reason why the Loki Familia split into three groups and never ran into each other was simply due to different speeds in progression, which led to arriving at different floors."
"Then… you mean that I, Finn, and Riveria all walked the same path back then, and we just encountered different enemies on different floors?"
Ais pondered this for a long moment and finally understood what Shirou meant.
"Exactly." Shirou nodded. "I confirmed this after passing through the tenth floor. Because this labyrinth is not the true Dungeon, it lacks its overwhelming self-repair capabilities. Instead, it leaves clear traces after certain events occur.
So as I walked, I kept observing the environment and noticed not only the traces of our own battles, but also other battle marks that hadn't been cleaned up—many of them caused by magic.
In other words, Riveria's group had already gone ahead and descended even deeper before us."
"I see…"
Ais nodded in realization, now understanding why Shirou had been so focused on observing the surrounding terrain the whole way.
At first, she thought he was simply curious about the scenery of the underground, but now she understood his real intention.
"I have to admit… this guy's really incredible. He thinks just like Captain Finn…"
Not far away, Tione couldn't help but look impressed after hearing Shirou's explanation.
Her sister, Tiona, grinned and teased, "Hey hey, Tione, are you falling out of love with Captain Finn and into someone new?"
"W-What are you talking about?!"
Tione was instantly flustered by Tiona's words.
The two sisters began bickering and shoving each other.
Surprisingly, it was Bete who remained the most serious, constantly checking the surroundings for danger.
Though Bete had a rather short temper, his care for his companions was genuine.
During all this, Shirou continued observing the behavior of the Loki Familia members.
Though the hidden spy among them had yet to reveal any suspicious actions and was hiding very well, that only made Shirou even more certain that the Loki Familia definitely harbored a mole from the dark faction.
Unmasking that person would be the key to uncovering the dark faction's full plan behind this labyrinth!
.
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.
The group continued onward and soon reached the area around the fifteenth floor.
Because the man-made dungeon wasn't a true Dungeon but an artificial underground structure, the deeper they went, the more apparent its rough, unfinished construction became.
It was obvious that the craftsmen who built this labyrinth had only completed around twenty floors at most, and the lower they went, the more incomplete it appeared.
"Huh? That over there… is that… Elfie?"
During their march, the Loki Familia members spotted a human girl collapsed on the ground.
She was Elfie, a Level 2 mage from the Loki Familia.
She had been accompanying Riveria during the labyrinth raid and had gone missing along with her.
Now that Elfie had appeared here, it meant Riveria and the others had to be nearby as well.
Everyone immediately rushed to Elfie's side, and one of the accompanying mages used healing magic to treat her injuries and awaken her.
"Lady Ais… and everyone else…"
Seeing Sword Princess Ais and the other members of the Loki Familia, Elfie first looked dazed, then immediately sighed in relief and said:
"Please hurry… save Lady Riveria and Gareth-sama… they're trapped inside a moving labyrinth and could be in danger at any moment!"
"A moving labyrinth?"
Upon hearing Elfie's words, the group noticed a strange-looking entrance not far away—it seemed to be the only path that led deeper underground.
The fact that both Riveria and Gareth, two Level 6 adventurers, were trapped inside was proof of how dangerous that place was.
It was certain that the dark faction had set up traps inside, awaiting their intrusion!
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