The one floor that should have been filled with laughter—known as the Dungeon's only oasis—was now smothered by a suffocating stench of blood.
The forest was burning. Crystal light was choked behind rolling smoke, as if the Dungeon itself were mourning the tragedy about to unfold.
Ryuu Lion slumped against a charred giant tree, breathing in ragged, broken gasps. Her green cloak had been stained a deep, dried crimson. The edges of her twin short blades were chipped and ruined. Her left leg had been blown open—every step felt like dancing on knife points.
Her Mind was empty. Worse, her spirit was splintering at the seams.
She was no longer the feared "Gale."
She was a lone wolf—ripped open, driven into a corner, and surrounded by hunters.
"…Three," she whispered, her voice scraped raw. "Three left."
The sky-blue clarity in her eyes was gone, drowned beneath bloodshot veins.
The eyes of a revenant.
As long as even one of them still lived, even if her body turned to ash, her soul would crawl out of hell to swing a blade.
"Pathetic, 'Gale.'"
A voice crawled out of the smoke—cold and sticky, like a reptile dragging its belly over stone.
"So this is what's left of the once-arrogant Astraea Familia. The sole surviving pup, reduced to this."
"Where's your justice? Your purity? Look at you—how are you any different from rats like us in the gutter?"
A one-armed catman stepped forward, wrapped in a ragged robe. In his hand was a beast-tamer's whip that radiated misfortune like a curse. His smile twisted into something sick.
Jura.
A remnant of the Dark Faction—and one of the architects behind Astraea Familia's downfall.
The arm Ryuu had taken from him was long gone, but the hatred had only rotted into something deeper.
Behind him prowled two massive monsters:
Enhanced Hellhounds.
Each one was near Level 4 in combat ability—reinforced, bewitched, and driven mad by berserk enchantments.
"Jura…" Ryuu ground the name between her teeth, killing intent spilling out like a blade unsheathed.
"Only you… I have to kill."
"For Alise. For everyone."
"Kill me?" Jura laughed, as if she'd told the funniest joke in the world. "With that body?"
"Do you know why I brought you here?"
"This is Floor 18. The perfect stage."
"My carefully prepared execution ground."
He snapped the whip.
"Go! Tear her apart! Bite off her limbs—leave her alive long enough to scream!"
The hellhounds roared and launched themselves forward, fast enough to rip the air. The stink of sulfur and rot rushed in with them.
In her prime, Ryuu would have cut them down in a single breath.
Now—
"Move…!"
Her arms felt full of lead. Blood loss spun the world into a tilted blur. Her vision swam; her balance vanished.
Was it finally over?
As the gaping jaws descended, she felt something she hadn't expected:
Relief.
If she died here… maybe she could finally see them again.
Alise… Kaguya… Lyra…
I'm sorry. I couldn't keep the last promise.
The hellhound's teeth were a heartbeat from her throat.
And then—
A sharp, silver scream ripped through the forest.
A beam of moonlit light shot in from the far side of the burning trees—without warning, without a hint of presence.
It didn't travel in a straight line.
It curved.
It threaded through gaps between trunks, bent around obstacles, even ricocheted off stone at impossible angles.
Like it had a map.
Like it had a target-lock.
Like it was running an aimbot.
Thk—!
The first hellhound's skull was pierced clean through—hot knife through butter.
The beam didn't stop.
It turned, as if alive, reflected again—
Thk—!
—and punched into the second hellhound's heart.
Two kills. One shot.
The monsters didn't even manage a scream before their bodies collapsed into black ash. Two magic stones clinked softly as they fell, absurdly mundane sounds in a burning hell.
"W-What?!" Jura yelped and stumbled back, ducking behind a boulder like a startled groundhog. "Who the hell is shooting?! Show yourself! Get out here!"
No answer.
Only wind.
"Tracking: ON."
Five hundred meters away, atop a towering tree, Emiya Shirou stood on a branch like he belonged there. In his hands, a silver longbow radiated cold moonlight:
Failnaught–Sirius, the Annihilation Bow.
His eyes had shifted—metallic silver, pupils reflecting the battlefield like a holographic tactical map.
Clairvoyance — Hawk: Beyond-visual-range lock.
"Wind correction… mana guidance… causality setting," Shirou murmured as he drew.
There was no physical arrow.
Only a "light-bolt" condensed from high-purity mana.
"If you love dirty tricks…"
Shirou's lips curled into a thin, merciless smile—part justice, part personal vendetta.
"Then let me show you what real suppression looks like."
"Fire."
Three shots released at once.
Three streaks of silver scattered, then dove from three different blind angles like guided missiles.
"Damn it—defense! DEFENSE!" Jura shrieked, throwing down a pile of protective magic tools.
The forest flashed white-hot.
Explosions swallowed the boulder.
Jura rolled out of the smoke, barely alive—his prized beast-tamer robe shredded into beggar rags, his skin striped with scorched wounds like he'd crawled out of a coal pit.
"Bastard!" he screamed, shaking with rage. "Come out and fight me one-on-one! Hiding in the dark and shooting—what kind of hero is that?!"
"As you wish."
A red blur dropped from above.
No wind spell. No slowfall.
Shirou simply hardened his body with reinforcement and took the impact—an arrogant move only someone with monstrous physical ability could pull off.
Boom.
The ground fractured. Dust and embers burst outward.
Emiya Shirou stood up slowly, planting himself in front of Ryuu like it was the most natural thing in the world. The silver bow sat in his hand, gleaming through the smoke.
He didn't even sound dramatic.
"Can you still move, Ryuu?"
"…Emiya…"
Ryuu stared at his back—narrow, not especially broad, and yet impossibly reliable. Her eyes flooded red.
"Idiot… why… why did you come…?"
"This is my revenge… it has nothing to do with you…"
"How does it have nothing to do with me?" Shirou glanced back with that familiar, soft smile—so gentle it almost looked like it came with its own halo.
"I'm a blacksmith."
"You're my customer."
"If a customer dies before she can even use what I made… that's a disgrace to my after-sales service."
"I'm serious about my reputation."
Ryuu froze.
That excuse was… unbelievably bad. Almost offensively bad.
Like something a light-novel protagonist would say while trying to avoid admitting he cared.
And yet—
somehow—
the stone crushing her heart loosened, just a little.
"Be careful!" Ryuu forced herself upright, voice shaking. "That man… he's Jura! A beast-tamer! There could be more traps!"
"I know."
Shirou's gaze turned cold as he looked at Jura.
His Mind's Eye (True) had already swept the area. Every branch, every rock—he could probably tell you how many ants lived under the nearest root.
"Hey, one-armed creep," Shirou raised the bow toward him. "Bullying an injured girl—this the Dark Faction's traditional art form?"
"Disgusting taste."
Jura narrowed his eyes, recognition sparking. "Red hair… bow… don't tell me…"
"You're that 'Senji Muramasa'! The brat who blew up our second-floor base!"
"Oh?" Shirou shrugged. "I'm famous already? Nice."
"Then this is easy."
"Give up."
His voice sharpened into a blade.
"Spit out every filthy scheme you've swallowed. Maybe I'll consider leaving you a corpse that's still recognizable."
"Hahahaha!" Jura laughed until tears ran. "Arrogant little punk!"
"You think you're Orario's hero?"
"This is the Dungeon—my home field!"
"You pampered greenhouse flower don't understand real despair!"
He yanked out a black magic stone that pulsed with a nauseating, warped aura—heart-shaped, as if it were still beating. Even the air around it trembled.
"This was supposed to be a surprise for 'Gale,' but since you're here…"
"Enjoy it together!"
He slammed the stone into the ground and began chanting a forbidden spell, voice shaking with fevered excitement.
"Awaken… destroyer of despair…"
"Devour all… erase all…"
"Juggernaut—mimic summon!"
Ryuu's face drained white.
Her whole body began to tremble.
That name wasn't a monster.
It was a nightmare—an absolute despair that had stolen every life she cherished.
Something so vicious that even in dreams it could rip her awake screaming.
"Stop him!" Ryuu cried, the sound tearing out of her throat. "Emiya—stop him!"
"That thing… must never come out!"
"It's a monster among monsters!"
"Understood!"
Shirou didn't know what it was, but Ryuu's reaction was enough.
Instinct screamed: This is worse than a floor boss.
He drew fully.
"Failnaught—maximum output!"
A thick beam of annihilating light roared toward Jura.
At the last instant—
The ground split open.
A massive claw plated in black armor thrust up from below and caught the beam head-on.
The light sizzled across the surface, leaving a charred scar—
and then it was deflected.
Not blocked.
Not absorbed.
Reflected.
A low, metallic hiss vibrated through the smoke.
Something climbed out of the earth.
A creature with reverse-jointed legs, a streamlined armored body, and a long tail studded with bone spines.
No eyes.
Only organs made to sense sound and mana.
Its entire existence radiated a single pure intention:
Kill.
It was smaller than the legendary "full form"—
because this was a mimic summon, not the true Juggernaut from deeper floors—
but the pressure it exuded still turned the air to ice.
"…So that's Juggernaut," Shirou muttered, a bead of sweat sliding down his temple.
Mind's Eye flashed one verdict across his nerves:
Extremely dangerous.
Speed: Extreme (beyond Level 4)
Attack: Armor-breaking at Level 4
Special: Magic Reflection
"Hahahaha!" Jura cackled from behind the creature. "See it?! My greatest masterpiece!"
"Go! Cut them into pieces!"
"Make these self-righteous adventurers learn what real hell is!"
The Juggernaut moved.
No—it vanished.
A blink later, it was in front of Shirou.
The claw swept horizontally, the wind pressure tearing at the trees like paper.
"Trace!"
Shirou reflexively projected a layered defensive barrier—
Rho Aias: Sevenfold Defensive Shield.
Crack.
The purple shield shattered like glass the moment it met the claw.
The physical power was obscene.
And the claw carried something worse—a property that tore through magecraft itself.
Shirou was forced backward, bracing with reinforced arms to take the shock.
He flew a dozen meters and slammed into a tree, organs twisting with the impact.
"Emiya!" Ryuu tried to move toward him.
"Don't!" Shirou barked, pushing himself up. He shook out a numb arm and stared at the monster, eyes narrowing.
"This thing's interesting."
"Magic defense doesn't work. Magic attacks get reflected. Physical damage is insane."
"It's a caster-killer built like a guillotine."
More terrifying than the raw strength was its armor—special plating designed to reflect spells. If he tried to bombard it with magecraft, he'd blow himself up.
That earlier shot—if the angle had been different—might have ended with Shirou scattered across the forest.
Shirou's mouth curved upward.
Not fear.
Excitement.
"Physical specialization. Magecraft invalidation…"
He lifted his gaze, grin sharp as a drawn knife.
"This is practically a target made for me."
"Ryuu," he called without looking back. "Can you still fight?"
"…Barely."
Ryuu gripped her damaged blades, shaking but standing. The fog in her eyes had thinned—she was no longer lost.
"Then work with me."
Shirou reached back and tossed something toward her.
A silver-white longbow—unfinished gift, delivered without ceremony.
"This is for you."
"I planned to wrap it nicely, but we'll have to settle."
"Use it—cover me."
Ryuu caught it.
The instant her fingers touched the bow, warmth surged into her body. The flow of wind became clear. The motion of air sharpened into a language she could read.
Moonlight responded to her.
As if the bow had always been meant to sit in her hands.
"…Fairy Wood? And… divine presence?" Ryuu whispered, stunned.
Shirou's voice snapped her back.
"Don't zone out—here it comes!"
The Juggernaut lunged again, still prioritizing Shirou—its instincts had marked him as the greater threat.
"We're going!" Shirou shouted. "Ryuu!"
He clenched both hands.
Twin black-and-white blades formed:
Kanshou and Bakuya.
"If magic won't work…"
"Then we'll use swordplay—"
"—and dismantle it piece by piece!"
Red shadow and green wind.
Justice's partner and the vengeance-wounded elf.
Two people who should never have crossed paths—
now charging together into the maw of absolute despair, not for glory, but to survive.
To sever the nightmare of the past.
Shirou's voice cut like steel.
"Jura—your nightmare's over."
"Wake up."
....
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