1073. The Black Flames on Ais / 1074. A Giant Palm Strikes Down at Shirou

At that moment, Leifya moved; she waved her staff and cast True Magic.

"--Extreme Cold: Fimbulll Winter!!"

Three streams of icy air rushed towards Gorgon, freezing all the snake heads that were about to fire lasers.

"Well done, Leifya!" Ais spun around, wielding her sword in a dance, and slashed the frozen snake head away.

Gorgon flew into a rage, his powerful magic creating a gale that blew Ais away. A red light appeared before her, forming strange patterns—the infamous Magic Eye from mythology. The Petrifying Magic Eye could turn everything it saw into stone.

Ais and Leifya were unaware of this as the red beam of light was about to touch them.

"Shield, come!"

With a wave of Shirou hand, Shirou's shields instantly flew up and floated in the air. A white light began to transform them, turning each shield surface into a mirror. Together, they formed a giant mirror that stood in front of the two girls!

The mirror reflected white light, which converged into a beam of light and shone on Gorgon's Magic Eye.

"Gahhhhhh!!!" Gorgon's eyes were stung by the light reflected from the mirror, and he stopped petrifying.

Seeing Gorgon's pained expression, Shirou clenched his fists and walked up to the monster.

"Her previous incarnation was Medusa, one of the three sisters of the island's native goddess. Because of her beauty, she aroused the jealousy of the goddess and was cursed."

The goddess incited the warriors to go to the island to fight them. Medusa fought against the warriors who came to fight her, gradually losing her original heart, and finally becoming a pitiful monster that devoured the two sisters she wanted to protect.

"She is immortal. The left half of her body contains a panacea for resurrection, while the right half contains the most potent poison in the world. Her strength rivals that of a giant, and she flies as fast as Pegasus when she flaps her wings. Every drop of her blood can give birth to a venomous snake."

Shirou summoned the Demon HARPE, a scythe that nullifies immortality! He then summoned the space-reversing magic bag Kibisis.

The magic bag flew out and immediately enveloped Gorgon. Gorgon had met its nemesis and let out a wail. Its body shrank instantly as it was about to be sucked into the magic bag.

Taking advantage of the situation, Shirou leaped high into the air, rushed forward, and severed her head with his scythe.

Rough laughter echoed from inside the lava cave.

"Instead of coming in to seek revenge, you killed an acquaintance who had turned into a monster first? Heh heh heh heh!!!"

It sounded like both a lament and a cheer.

The fire giant's body trembled with excitement, a smile spreading across its lips.

"This is bad! This is bad! What a terrible man!"

Half trembling, half joyful.

Chapter 1073 The Black Flame on Ais's Body

Gorgon's head was severed and stored in the magic bag. Its golden wings unfolded, and feathers fell. Because it was a magic sword that rendered immortality ineffective, the cut on its neck showed no writhing as it would have during regeneration, nor did it bleed. It was as smooth as cut marble.

The enormous body, now devoid of its head, hurtled towards the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Everyone stared at Shirou in shock, watching incredulously what had just happened. Even a level 7 monster that was struggling had been dealt with so easily and decisively by Shirou.

"Sorry, I killed you in the way you hate the most. If you have the chance, kill me the way you like," Shirou said to the magic bag he was carrying.

Particles of light appeared on Gorgon's body and then floated onto Shirou, causing Shirou's cloak to flutter.

The cloak's hood slipped down, revealing Shirou's full head of white hair, each strand absorbing particles of light and shimmering with a faint silver glow. He appeared ethereal and divine, like a celestial being descended to earth.

"Shirou... Mr. Shirou! Are you alright? Your hair has all turned white!" Leifya asked Shirou with concern.

"Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry, hair color doesn't affect my health," Shirou said to the girl.

"Is that so? That's good." Leifya finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"How did you manage to get stronger so quickly?" Ais walked up to Shirou and asked earnestly. She desperately wanted to become stronger, but her daily training was slowing down.

Now, facing a monster she couldn't defeat, she felt extremely unwilling.

"Miss Ais?" Leifya looked at the girl who seemed somewhat unfamiliar. She admired the powerful Miss Ais, but the girl now seemed a little scary.

"It's stretched too tight," Shirou said calmly.

"Huh?" Ais asked, puzzled.

"Ais, you're pushing yourself too hard. Relax a little, and your body will be able to unleash its full potential in battle," Shirou said, looking at the girl whose eyes were blazing with black flames.

"I've trained for years and I won't let my emotions affect my fighting," Ais said, shaking her head.

"No, wanting to be strong isn't true strength." Shirou saw his own reflection in Ais. A figure that was forcing itself to fight, but whose body was actually on the verge of breaking apart.

It was like a seemingly sharp but ultimately broken, deadly sword.

Shirou sensed this when he first met the girl, which is why he gave her a scabbard, hoping she would cherish herself more.

However, the girl's hatred ran so deep that when facing a powerful enemy, her inability to kill him was extremely evident, as if she wanted to set herself on fire as well.

"Then what exactly does the power you know look like? Tell me, Shirou!" Ais said seriously, looking at Shirou.

"At least don't let the people around you worry about you, although it's not very convincing for me to say that," Shirou said with a light laugh.

Shirou beckoned with his hand, drawing the particles of light emanating from Gorgon's body into his palm. He then gathered them into two spheres of light, which floated out and circled around Ais and Leifya several times before finally merging into the girl's heart.

"I don't understand what you're saying has to do with the battle!" Ais shook her head.

"Then pay more attention to the expressions on the faces of those around you," Shirou said calmly.

"Alright, we should go find everyone else." Shirou stopped talking to the girl and walked towards the center of the four exits of the maze. He spread his hands Projection a new Noble Phantasm.

A flash of white light appeared, and then a pink sphere appeared in Shirou's hand.

"Hey? What's this ball of yarn for, meow?" Ans's eyes widened, his hands involuntarily forming cat paw shapes, his heart itching to squeeze it.

"No, this is a tool used to gather people who have gotten separated." What appeared in Shirou's palm was a ball of pink yarn.

"What kind of prop is this?" Ans asked.

"This is Ariadne's thread ball!" Shirou explained.

Noble Phantasm for dungeons.

Legend has it that Theseus, the Greek prince, came to Crete in order to kill the Minotaur, a monster that devoured seven couples every nine years and to stop this human tragedy.

Here, King Minos's daughter Ariadne fell in love with the young prince. She secretly confessed her love to Theseus and gave him a ball of thread, instructing him to tie one end of the thread to the entrance of the labyrinth and then follow the rolling thread until he reached the dwelling place of the ugly Minotaur.

Shirou threw out the ball of thread, which glowed and rolled automatically towards the ground, connecting to every place and leading the people there out of the maze.

"That's a line?"

"Keep up! We might have found the way!"

Guided by the online group, all the adventurers emerged from the maze. As more and more people gathered together, the monster maze gradually lost its effectiveness. Except for a few powerful individuals like Ota and Allen, who were trapped inside the sealed walls, everyone else came out.

Guided by the pink yarn, Shirou and the others found the culprit.

A huge white yak monster also came into view, its two axes and large horns stained with blood.

He was confronting werewolves from Loki Familia and Amazon twins, both of whom were wounded.

The white yak monster Minotaur was becoming less and less human-like; its features were ferocious, and its face had transformed into a horned beast with sharp teeth.

"Tione! Tiona! Everyone! Are you alright?" Leifya asked when she saw her companions.

"Oh! Dear Leifya, dear Ais, you've finally arrived!"

"Hmph! At least I didn't die!" The werewolf Bert gritted his teeth, pouring a top-grade healing potion onto his abdomen, which had been pierced by the giant horn, and said fiercely.

"That's the monster! His muscles are so tough! My fingernails broke, and I still couldn't tear off a piece of his flesh!"

"Wait! Miss Ais!"

Before the question could be answered, the blonde girl had already drawn the Sword of Despair and charged towards the Minotaur.

The burst of magical power concentrated at a single point, unleashing ominous Black Flame behind it, and a sudden gust of wind struck! It pierced towards the Minotaur!

"Idiot!! Come back here!"

"Roar!!!" The Minotaur looked at Ais, who had just arrived, and roared. His arms, as thick as thighs, swelled up instantly and slammed towards the girl.

Chapter 1074 The Giant Hand That Shirou Slapped Down

Black flames erupted from the blonde girl's body as she thrust her sword into the Minotaur's fist, shattering the bones.

"Roar!!!" the minotaur roared.

But the Minotaur's fists didn't stop. As a berserker in a rage, he had long since become numb to pain. He slammed his bone-spiked fists into the blonde girl.

The sword was stuck in the monster's fist bone. The girl's all-out thrust was now too late to dodge. The Minotaur's fierce fist were about to pierce the girl's slender body.

At that moment, Shirou moved. He rushed in front of the Minotaur and stabbed it in the chest.

Minotaur shuddered, his fist losing much of its power, but even so, the girl was still sent flying.

In addition to providing the thread to solve the labyrinth, Ariadne also gave Theseus a sharp blade specifically designed to slay the Minotaur.

The dagger in Shirou's hand pierced the Minotaur's heart, cutting through the solid, steel-like muscles as easily as slicing through tofu. The blade entered the monster's heart without any resistance.

This is a demonic sword that a girl abandoned her monster-like younger brother in pursuit of love.

For the Minotaur, who longed for family affection and wanted to be understood, he would not be wary of his relatives.

"Goodbye, Asterius! I hope we'll have a good talk next time we meet," Shirou said in a deep voice.

"Roar!!!" The white giant revealed a slight smile as it disappeared.

"Miss Ais!" Leifya ran to Ais's side as she collapsed.

"I'm fine..." Ais said. Because Shirou intervened in time, although she was knocked away, the subsequent force was not great, so she only suffered minor injuries.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Ais's reply.

With the disappearance of the Minotaur, the power of the white god returned to Shirou, and the labyrinth that had transformed into Noble Phantasm crumbled, turning the brick labyrinth back into a fifty-story rock wall.

Just then, a huge crack suddenly appeared in the ground, spewing out a reddish-gold molten lava that formed a giant fiery hand, which crashed down towards Ais and Leifya.

At this moment, the injured Ais and Leifya, who had knelt down to take care of Ais, were too late to dodge.

"Watch out!" Shirou rushed forward, Projection a rope that wrapped around the two girls and threw them outwards.

"Hahahaha!!! Shirou!!! I've been waiting for you for a long time!" The being beneath the magma laughed loudly, covering Shirou and slamming him and the ground into the earth.

"Mr. Shirou!!!"

People on the shore screamed, but where the man had stood, only molten lava remained, and there was no one left.

Freya, who lived atop the tower, gazed in the direction of the underground city. Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat, and her expression changed, as if she sensed something bad was about to happen.

Inside the dungeon, the members of Freya Familia all wore expressions of resentment, hating themselves for failing to keep their promise to the goddess and protect Shirou.

"How could this be... Mr. Shirou." The rescued elf girl stared wide-eyed at the spot where Shirou had been held captive in the molten lava, had disappeared.

She slumped to the floor like a broken puppet, letting the tears flow freely.

With a rumble, the ground of the fiftieth floor began to crack little by little. Soil fell into the cracks and was then swallowed up by the molten lava. In the end, half of the fiftieth floor became a world of molten lava.

The attack by the fire giants destroyed the land in the lava world, leaving adventurers with nowhere to stand. The expeditionary force was forced to retreat.

For safety reasons, the adventurers chose to set up camp at the entrance to the forty-ninth floor, making it their resting place in the dungeon. Time had passed too suddenly, and everyone was exhausted after the series of battles.

The Elf Race girl whom Shirou rescued simply huddled alone in her tent, weeping quietly.

Leifya was too pure and kind, so much so that she couldn't accept this shocking fact.

His appearance could only be described as pitiful; his expression was blank, and a few tears streamed down his face. His dry lips parted slightly, occasionally uttering sounds like a broken music box.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry, Mr. Shirou..."

She looked like a soul contained within an alabaster sculpture, radiating sorrow and shedding tears that wouldn't normally fall.

Nothing Tiona and Tione said could make a difference; even the voice of their master, Riviera, couldn't reach her.

Ais, who was also rescued, had different thoughts.

She had long since closed off her heart; her sole purpose in life was revenge. Black flames of rage burned in her golden eyes. This time, she would avenge even Shirou's death! Until all monsters were wiped out!

Although she wanted to tell the girl, "Stand up! Kill the monster and take revenge!" Ais couldn't bring herself to say it. She knew better than anyone how oppressive and hopeless a life filled with hatred was.

A good child like Leifya shouldn't have to enter such a hopeless world.

On the other hand, Ais became even more determined to take revenge. She would kill all the monsters in the world, including Shirou, even if it cost her her own life.

Only Ais and Leifya are in the room now.

The current situation doesn't allow them to stay with Lefia all the time. Although they try to visit her whenever they can, everyone's voice sounds very weak.

No one knew what to say to Lefia now.

Some people were engulfed by the lava and burned to nothing in an attempt to protect her.