Chapter 111: The Puzzle of the Moving Labyrinth — Shirou vs. LV.7!
From Elfie's mouth, Shirou and his group finally obtained information about Riveria's team.
Currently, Riveria's team is trapped inside the moving labyrinth on the 15th floor of the artificial dungeon, and the chances are high that they are in an extremely dangerous situation.
The moment they heard this, the members of the Loki Familia showed anxious expressions, wanting to rush off immediately for a rescue.
However, Shirou stopped them and questioned Elfie, who had brought the news:
"Miss Elfie, how were you able to escape the labyrinth alone?
Even if you somehow managed to make it out safely, as a Level 2 adventurer, how did you even survive in a monster-infested artificial dungeon?"
"..."
Elfie was stunned by Shirou's sudden question.
She hadn't considered that herself.
A look of obvious confusion appeared on her face as she grew deeply uncertain about how she had managed to survive the moving labyrinth.
Seeing her lost in thought, Shirou tried to dig deeper and clarify her situation.
But before he could speak further, members of the Loki Familia expressed their dissatisfaction.
They didn't want to doubt their comrade.
The Amazon warrior named Tione directly snapped:
"What are you trying to say, Emiya? Are you accusing Elfie of lying to us?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying," Shirou replied solemnly. "Quite the opposite. I believe this Miss Elfie is telling the truth. That's precisely why I asked."
It's often said: a person's expression doesn't lie.
No matter how skilled an actor may be, it's nearly impossible to perfectly fake their facial expressions and body language.
Especially someone like Elfie—who looks like a weak Level 2 adventurer—couldn't possibly have that level of acting skill.
So Shirou wasn't doubting her — he was trying to understand what had happened to her.
He was trying to identify the inconsistencies.
After Shirou explained himself, the others also calmed down.
In fact, Shirou's reasoning started to influence the others, and they began to question Elfie's condition as well.
Elfie herself looked bewildered and stiffly responded:
"I don't know. I don't know what happened. From the time I entered the labyrinth with Lady Riveria to the moment I met you all—I can't remember anything.
The only things I do remember are that Lady Riveria and the others were in danger, and the name of the labyrinth — the Moving Labyrinth."
"You don't remember? So you've lost your memory?" asked Tiona suspiciously.
"No, it's not memory loss. It's memory erasure," Shirou shook his head. "Elfie shows no cognitive or perceptual abnormalities.
She remembers everything from before entering the labyrinth.
It's only after entering that her memories are completely gone. This clearly suggests someone deliberately erased them."
"Could it have been the Evilus (Dark Faction)?" asked Bete instinctively.
Shirou had thought the same — that maybe Evilus erased Elfie's memories to prevent information about the labyrinth from leaking.
But thinking further, it didn't make sense.
If Evilus had the means to erase Elfie's memories, they could have just killed her, or used her as a hostage to threaten the Loki Familia.
Erasing her memory served no purpose. In fact, it allowed Elfie to return safely.
Moreover, the fact that only her memories after entering the labyrinth were erased was also suspicious.
Why didn't Evilus erase all her memories, making her a complete burden? Selectively erasing only certain parts of her memory seemed like an unnecessary complication.
Unless — the person who erased Elfie's memories wasn't from Evilus, but rather someone within Riveria's own team.
Maybe that person, for some unknown reason, had to erase Elfie's memories of the labyrinth and specifically sent her out.
With that theory, things start to make a little more sense.
But Shirou couldn't figure out the motivation — why go to the trouble of erasing her memories?
He couldn't find the answer, so he kept his thoughts to himself to avoid causing unnecessary concern.
Then, he gave a quiet command:
"Since we've confirmed that Riveria's team entered the moving labyrinth, there's only one thing left to do — we'll conquer the labyrinth and rescue them!"
"Right!"
The Loki Familia members nodded in agreement to Shirou's declaration.
Thus, without hesitation, Shirou led the group into the moving labyrinth.
Although it was called the "moving" labyrinth, its interior environment didn't differ much from the normal dungeon. The only difference was the presence of numerous doors — each room had four exits, each seemingly leading to a different area.
"How do we proceed?"
Ais and the others were confused.
All the paths looked the same, and there were no visible clues — no one had any idea which direction to explore.
Shirou wasn't familiar with this kind of terrain either, so he turned to Elfie:
"Do you remember which direction Riveria's team took?"
"..."
Elfie shook her head.
As expected — since her memories from after entering the labyrinth were erased, there was no way she'd remember which path they took.
To find Riveria's team, they'd have to rely on their own abilities.
"So the current problem is how to identify the correct route," Shirou analyzed. "There must be a way to figure it out. Riveria and her group wouldn't have entered blindly — they must have had some kind of assurance before going in."
"Some kind of assurance? What could that be?"
The others looked puzzled. All the doors looked the same — how were they supposed to know which one was correct?
Shirou didn't know the answer either.
But he was certain that an answer existed, and so he began examining every detail in the room.
Soon enough, he found something that caught his attention.
"This artificial dungeon — it was designed to imitate the real dungeon, right?" Shirou murmured, looking around. "If this really is a replica, then there must be some equivalent
structure in the real dungeon. Your Loki Familia reached the 59th floor before, right? Were there any similar areas?"
"..."
Hearing this, the Loki Familia members began to ponder.
Eventually, Ais raised her hand:
"There were similar environments.
In the real dungeon, there were occasionally hidden rooms.
Because they often contained rare treasures, the paths to them were extremely complex.
You had to solve puzzles to reach them."
"Puzzles? How did you solve them?"
"The puzzles were usually written in riddle form at the room entrance. If you deciphered the hidden meaning, you could reach the end."
"Riddles, huh…"
Shirou had never encountered hidden rooms before, so this was all new to him.
Ais, picking up on Shirou's insight, began searching the room and soon found an old inscription written in ancient language:
"Proceed three times toward the rising sun, then five times in the opposite direction, then seven times in the reverse of that direction. In front of fire, open the path, and you shall reach the true destination."
"What a straightforward riddle," Shirou couldn't help but mutter.
"The dungeon's riddles are randomly generated. The purpose isn't to trick adventurers — it's just to ensure that hidden rooms can't be found by accident," Ais replied. "If this riddle is real, then this artificial dungeon was designed exactly like the real one."
"Exactly the same, huh…"
That phrase triggered something in Shirou.
He recalled the underground Daedalus Street — the "Other Orario."
The layout of the underground Orario mirrored the surface Orario so closely, one could wonder if the underground was the real city.
And now, here was another man-made labyrinth, eerily close to the real dungeon.
It was hard not to draw a connection between the two.
At the very least, the one who built both the artificial dungeon and underground Orario might be the same person.
The only issue was — both structures were so massive that it seemed impossible for even a group, let alone a single person, to build them in one lifetime.
Unless the project spanned hundreds or even thousands of years, it couldn't have been done by the same person.
"So many mysteries…" Shirou muttered to himself.
Shirou sighed, no longer thinking about who created the artificial dungeon or what kind of purpose had led them to build such an exaggerated structure.
What mattered now was finding the missing Riveria squad and also uncovering the traces of one of the dark factions — the Thanatos Familia.
.
.
.
After obtaining the solution to the riddle, Shirou and the others began exploring the labyrinth based on the puzzle's clues.
Although this place was underground and ordinary people couldn't distinguish directions like east, south, west, and north, the Loki Familia had rich experience in dungeon exploration. They quickly used the fluctuations of the geomagnetic field to determine a general direction.
And the method they used to detect geomagnetic fluctuations was, of course, magic.
All that could be said was that the power of magic was truly too versatile.
Once they had a basic sense of direction, the group officially began to move through the labyrinth.
They pressed forward along the intricate paths, passing through rooms that looked nearly identical, until they arrived at the final room by following the puzzle's solution.
"This is…"
"..."
It was a room even larger than all the previous ones.
There was only one passage leading forward, and on both sides of the path, fires burned as if they would never go out, illuminating the existence of the corridor.
Realizing that it might be the exit of the labyrinth, Shirou and the others immediately stepped forward.
But before they could exit the corridor, a man slowly emerged from within it.
"Welcome, adventurers of the Loki Familia."
The man spoke in a gloomy tone.
In fact, his appearance was even gloomier than his voice. He looked like someone who hadn't seen the sun for a long time — his skin was deathly pale like a vampire's, his hair was withered yellow, his bangs covered one eye, and dark circles were clearly visible around his sunken eyes.
Faced with this man who had suddenly appeared, the members of the Loki Familia instantly became alert.
However, Shirou quietly stepped forward and asked, "You're also a member of the Thanatos Familia, aren't you?"
"That's right." The pale man nodded calmly to Shirou's question. "Although my connection with that god is shallow, he did indeed bestow me a Falna, allowing me to gain more power and focus on constructing this labyrinth."
"You built this labyrinth? You're the one who made this dungeon?"
Shirou was surprised. He hadn't expected the labyrinth's creator to just appear so directly.
"No, not me." The pale man replied slowly, "My name is Barca. The one who created this labyrinth wasn't me — or rather, not just me.
From the time of my ancestor, Daedalus I, our family has been immersed in the creation of this artificial dungeon.
It has continued for a thousand years, and by my generation, we have completed less than one-fourth of the original blueprint."
"A thousand years? The Daedalus family?"
The reason behind the artificial dungeon surprised Shirou, and he widened his eyes in disbelief.
On the other side, Barca seemed very eager to talk about the artificial dungeon.
He began to speak excitedly: "Just as you thought, all of this was designed by the original ancestor, Daedalus.
His wish was vast and magnificent.
We descendants inherited his will and resolved to accumulate our efforts across generations to finally complete the true finished product!
However, even if the dungeon is ever completed, I'll already be long dead by then... I truly hate my mortal body. If only I had the blood of a long-lived race — how wonderful that would be. It's such a pity."
As Barca went on with his endless monologue, the members of the Loki Familia all grew visibly irritated.
They had no interest in this meaningless conversation — they preferred settling things through battle.
Shirou, though still very curious about Barca and the Daedalus family, knew this wasn't the time to dwell on it.
So he changed the subject: "In that case, aren't you, in a way, also the designer and controller of this artificial labyrinth? You're the one who trapped Riveria and the others here, aren't you?"
"Riveria? Oh, that royal elf, right." It took Barca a moment to recall Riveria and the others. "That wasn't my doing — or at least, not something I actively did.
Though I received a mission from the god to trap the Loki Familia here, I won't violate my own principles.
I absolutely won't alter the environment of a dungeon once it's been formed.
So the reason they can't leave this labyrinth isn't because I changed the rules.
It's because they failed to see through the true nature of this dungeon — blinded by a false truth."
"False truth? Blinded?"
"That's right. And soon, you'll be the same as them. As long as you fail to see the labyrinth's true essence, you'll be trapped here forever, unable to escape!"
Barca declared the outcome in a calm tone.
Ais couldn't help but speak up: "We already solved the riddle. Why are we still being trapped? If you're really trying to make this artificial dungeon identical to the real one, you shouldn't just go changing the puzzle's rules!"
"You're right. That's why I didn't change the puzzle." Barca shook his head. "The problem is that you didn't perceive the truth behind it."
"The truth behind the puzzle..."
"When you follow a false clue to reach this place, you're essentially already trapped in the labyrinth. As long as you can't see through the truth, you'll never be able to leave.
You'll wander endlessly in this dark abyss, becoming sacrifices in the fight against the Thanatos Familia."
After finishing, Barca calmly turned around to leave.
Naturally, the Loki Familia wouldn't let him walk away.
Led by Bete, the adventurers charged at him, attempting to capture Barca.
But Barca didn't show the slightest panic.
Despite the complete absence of any high-level adventurer's aura from him — at best, he was level 2, or more likely just level 1 — the Loki Familia had members who could crush someone like that without even trying.
That's what they thought — until they realized how naive they were.
Just as Bete and the others' attacks were about to land, Barca suddenly lifted his bangs, revealing a strange red eye beneath them.
Squelch!
A strange energy radiated from Barca's eye, warping the environment around them.
The entire labyrinth seemed to be torn apart and reshaped.
Most importantly, the ground of the labyrinth began to shake violently, and a large pit suddenly opened up.
The pit wasn't wide — just big enough for one person — and it was directly under Shirou.
It was clear that the dark faction had designed this in advance to isolate Shirou.
The ground beneath him was forcefully removed, and his entire body fell into the pit.
"EMIYA!!"
"Shirou!"
The voices of Ais and the others rang out at the same time.
But there was nothing they could do to reach him.
Shirou, lacking any ability to fly, fell freely the moment the trap opened. His body plummeted downward at high speed and vanished.
"You bastard! Didn't you say you wouldn't alter the dungeon's form?!" Bete roared at Barca in fury.
"That was indeed my will. But my will can also be changed." Barca sighed. "Blame the fact that this man is too great a threat.
The god Thanatos issued a kill order — he must be trapped, preferably eliminated.
For that, I had no choice but to betray my principles and forcibly modify the dungeon's layout using my power."
"You bastard!!"
The members of the Loki Familia all showed expressions of rage.
Unknowingly, they had already begun to see Shirou as one of their own.
Now, seeing him fall into the depths, his fate unknown, they felt instinctual fury — a burning desire to tear Barca limb from limb.
But Barca didn't care at all. He said quietly, "I've done what I had to do — trapped the Loki Familia and lured Emiya Shirou into the trap.
From now on, I want nothing more to do with any of this. I will devote the rest of my life solely to constructing this dungeon."
After speaking, he opened his right eye again, conjuring a wall in front of him.
The wall completely cut off the space between him and the Loki Familia, preventing any further pursuit — they were now completely trapped in the labyrinth.
.
.
.
Shirou felt his body falling endlessly.
Although he didn't have the ability to fly, by kicking back and forth against the walls, he gradually reduced his falling momentum and stabilized himself.
Eventually, he landed safely and found himself in a circular room.
Pipes were scattered messily across the floor, all of them connected to large test tubes lined up neatly against the walls.
The place looked just like a mage's workshop — or rather, a laboratory.
But clearly, the room had long been abandoned. Dust covered everything, and even the magic stone lamps had gone dark, plunging the area into pitch black.
As Shirou adjusted to the darkness, he discovered seven giant containers in the room. They were all empty now, but it was clear they once held something inside.
Moreover, though faint, he saw golden liquid still flowing at the bottoms of the containers.
It was undoubtedly residual Spirit Essence!
"So this is where those mutant plants were born? No — it's the birthplace of the creator of the mutant plants..."
Shirou made this quiet deduction — and suddenly heard footsteps behind him.
He quickly turned around and saw a red-haired woman approaching, radiating the most overwhelming pressure he had felt since arriving in this city of labyrinths.
If he wasn't mistaken — she was a Level 7!
The strongest opponent Shirou had encountered in this entire labyrinth city.
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