radicalducati Page 138
Page 138
The demon adventurers were so frightened that they fled on the spot. Alice was only spared injury thanks to Rijrud's protection, which shows how powerful it was.
"boom!"
The amazing firestorm ended.
The entire Adventurers' Guild was reduced to scorched earth.
The Demon King's personal guards, however, did not make any unnecessary moves. They remained standing in place, letting the flames rush towards them without taking any action.
It was as if this was not a raging storm of fire, but merely a gentle breeze.
"Wow."
After releasing his fire power, Muya silently stared in the direction in front of him.
Amidst the flames-ravaged ruins, Shirou's figure gradually emerges, and in the most difficult moment, he directly cleaves the flames with his sword.
However, this action cannot perfectly reach the vortex of flames.
As a result, Shirou had obvious burns and charred marks on his body.
However, the boy's eyes remained sharp, his bright gaze unaffected by the astonishing power he had just witnessed, and he did not retreat an inch.
"interesting."
Muya couldn't help but admire Shirou's attitude, "Even seeing such power, you remained unmoved. If Lord Atofi saw you like this, he would surely admire you and want to recruit you into his ranks."
"I have no intention of becoming a demon."
"That's not something you can decide for yourself."
"..."
Muya's voice faded away silently.
Shirou could not respond to this.
Because he had indeed felt the terror of the Undying Demon King.
After all, Muya had just demonstrated swordsmanship at the level of a Northern Saint, as well as magic at least at the level of a Fire King, or even above that.
Shiro had studied some Kitakami-ryu style under Paul.
Therefore, he knew very well that the students of the Hokushin-ryu school were generally a group of people who were not attached to the sword itself, but rather used all their abilities as much as possible. As long as they pursued victory, they did not care about the form of the sword.
That's why Muya used both swordsmanship and magic in the battle.
Moreover, the opponent's swordsmanship and magic are beyond the reach of ordinary people.
The sum of them is not just one plus one equals two, but a far greater than two.
With just the swordsmanship of the Sword God Style, Shirou would undoubtedly have no chance of defeating Muya.
"..."
The moment his thoughts reached this point, Shirou immediately made a judgment.
Since victory cannot be achieved solely through swordsmanship, the only option is to maximize all available abilities and pursue that one and only chance of winning.
"Projection, start."
There was no unnecessary hesitation, nor much preparation.
Shirou had already prepared to use all his trump cards long before the battle even began.
Facing the Demon King's personal guards, he could not afford to be careless. Only by pushing his own power to the limit could he have a chance to pursue that one and only opportunity for victory.
"Snapped!"
As Shirou activated the magic circuit in his right hand once again after a long absence, a bright blue light shone on his arm.
No one can understand this strange phenomenon.
Although Muya sensed something was amiss, she didn't react much. Instead, she silently gathered even more powerful magic than before and unleashed her spell.
"The fire spirits that fill the heavens and earth!"
Muya's chanting was much slower this time than before.
This also means that the magic power he gathered and the spell he condensed were far superior to the attack he had just launched.
Shirou knew he couldn't avoid it, and he really had no intention of running away, so he simply stood there and began to prepare to gather magical power.
"IAmTheBoneOfMySword!"
Shirou raised his right hand.
As he gripped his sword and moved forward, he began projecting his own image in front of him.
Muya noticed his actions but couldn't understand what kind of magic Shirou was using. In other words, he never expected that a swordsman of the Sword God style would also use magic.
Unlike the Kitakami-ryu, who are willing to learn any move and even are enthusiastic about learning various skills, the Kenshin-ryu have a strong obsession with swords and often do not accept any skills other than swordsmanship.
After a brief hesitation, Muya did not stop her actions, and a clearer chanting sound came from within her black armor.
"O spirit of fire, grant me power! [Blazing Star]"
Muya released a fireball that was almost as hot as the sun from his hand.
The fireball's mass and energy were unimaginably exaggerated; just looking at it caused a stinging sensation in the eyes, as if looking directly at the sun.
Facing such an attack head-on, unless one's physical body is as hard as a rock, no one, regardless of their background, could withstand it.
Shirou also has a clear understanding of Fire King-level spells.
The human body could not withstand that level of power.
Even though he is now a sword saint, he cannot possibly cut through the flames with force using only swordsmanship.
In this way, the only thing he could rely on was his own projection.
Moreover, he did indeed have complete confidence in his projection.
Even a fire-level spell might not be able to withstand it.
"Projector, unfold!"
"The blazing sky covers seven rings!"
Suddenly, astonishing magical power appeared in Shirou's hand, and a petal-shaped shield composed of seven sides appeared in front of him, overlapping layer upon layer until it finally formed a complete seven-piece round shield.
This is one of the few defensive Noble Phantasms among Emiya's abilities.
It originates from the bronze shield covered with seven layers of cowhide created by Ajax during the Trojan War in Greek mythology to block Hector's javelins.
Its defensive capabilities are strong enough to withstand city-defense techniques, and each of its seven petals is comparable to a city wall in the form of a concept.
Shirou could only project a single petal in the past; only beings of the level of the Heroic Spirit Emiya could project all of them.
But now, Shirou has even created three petals at a time, forming an amazing defensive line that has withstood all attacks.
Chapter 195 The Magic of Swords Returns! Blade Storm!
"What's this?!"
Everyone present was astonished to see the Sevenfold Blazing Heaven Ring released from Shirou's hand. They never expected such a peculiar power to be released from his hand.
Especially Muya, the captain of the guard who unleashed fire magic, believed that his long-prepared ultimate move was a super-tier spell of the Fire King level, enough to shatter the dragon's body.
To everyone's surprise, such an amazing attack was actually blocked by this human who was at most a sword saint!
"What kind of magic is that?"
In Muya's view, Shirou used some kind of incomprehensible magic to create that purple petal-shaped barrier, which was a branch of barrier magic.
But only Shirou himself knew that the ability he used was not magic, but pure projection magic.
Ever since he projected the power of projection into Buena Village when he was a child, killing a hundred heads and slaying the red dragon, Shirou has hardly ever used the power of projection again.
Firstly, he didn't want the Heroic Spirit Emiya to further erode him, causing his soul to be increasingly affected by the Heroic Spirit Emiya. Secondly, Shirou hadn't encountered many crises that truly required him to go all out, or even force him to use his projection techniques.
Even at Bereas Castle, when facing the captured Princess Ariel and an opponent of the Northern Saint level, Shirou never fully used the projection. He simply relied on the forged Golden Sword of Invincibility to load the projection and defeat the powerful enemy.
But the situation is completely different now.
Facing a captain of the Demon King's personal guard, a terrifyingly powerful figure who at least possessed the strength of a King, Shirou had no choice but to use all his power to defeat him!
Even if it's a projection power that might erode his soul, he still uses it without any hesitation!
"Boom!"
The firestorm unleashed by Muya was completely blocked by the Sevenfold Ring of Blazing Sky projected by Shirou.
After blocking the enemy's attack, Shirou's movements did not stop at all. He did not even waver in the slightest. Taking advantage of his opponent's momentary daze, he rushed forward at an extremely fast speed!
Seeing Shirou's actions, Muya realized that the other party intended to seize the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on her.
"Wind spirit—"
He immediately raised his right hand, creating a strong wind to affect Shirou's movements.
Unexpectedly, Shirou seemed to have anticipated this, dodging the moment Muya released her magic, or rather, reacting the instant Muya raised her hand.
This surprised Muya and everyone else.
It's hard to imagine why Shirou's reaction speed is so fast!
In fact, Shirou was able to react so quickly for two reasons. First, he inherited a skill called Mind's Eye from the Heroic Spirit Emiya, which allows him to predict the enemy's actions and react accordingly. Second, he had been sparring with his younger brother Rudeus since childhood, and his opponent was a Water Saint-level mage with no chanting ability.
In terms of actual combat ability, Rudeus may be more powerful than most mages in this world.
So during that time, Shirou developed a wealth of experience in dealing with various kinds of magic, and often he could even predict Rudeus's movements and what kind of magic the other party wanted to use just by feeling.
Because of this experience, Shirou was not flustered at all when facing Muya, a fire-king level mage.
Even Shirou believed that, due to his lack of incantation ability, Muya's actual combat ability might not be as overwhelming as the pressure Rudeus exerted on him.
The only problem is that Muya is not only a Fire King-level mage, but also a Northern Saint-level being at least a Northern Saint.
Shirou didn't dare to get close as casually as he had when he fought Rudeus, but he tried his best to shorten the distance.
Only in this way can one truly seize the opportunity.
"Your experience in dealing with magic is so extensive; it seems I really underestimated you."
Muya has now completely abandoned any complacency.
Shirou's display of sword saint-level strength, his unique magic capable of withstanding fire saint-level magic, and his exaggerated ability to adapt to changing circumstances in battle all made him realize that the boy before him was an unimaginably powerful enemy.
He then abandoned all his underestimation and unleashed his strongest power—
"Elves of the land of death! Answer my call and punish the target—the rain of death!"
As Muya's voice faded, the surrounding environment was suddenly enveloped in a strange gray fog.
Wherever the gray fog reached, everything became chaotic, as if it had turned into a swamp of death covered with countless deaths and despair, a place where no human could survive.
At the same time, he further unleashed new magic.
"O God of the Uncertain! Answer my call, and shoot from the earth to the heavens—the musket!"
In an instant, the entire environment of the Adventurers' Guild changed drastically.
The earth trembled, and countless rocks transformed into spears, rising from the ground and suddenly sweeping in all directions, turning into a vortex of death.
Environmental damage of a certain scale, and area damage large enough to cover everything.
As the captain of the Demon King's personal guard, Muya's strength is extremely rare, even among king-level powerhouses.
Even if his spellcasting speed is not as fast as Rudeus's without chanting, it is almost the same as instantaneous, which is combined with his powerful melee ability and the Northern God Style swordsmanship.
For Shirou, this was the first time he had truly experienced the gap between them and despair.
He was acutely aware of the true distance between himself and a true strongman!
But this doesn't mean Shirou will give up.
For him, it's too early to give up now.
This is just the beginning.
"IAmTheBoneOfMySword!"
Faced with the onslaught of death rain and the endless barrage of rock spears, Shirou raised his hand to maintain the Sevenfold Ring of Blazing Heaven while chanting the incantation of the Heroic Spirit Emiya once more.
His chanting quickened.
The land around Shirou also began to undergo drastic changes.