Chapter 93: Projection, the Primordial Fire! Shirou Upgrades Again!
There is a second Windmoon Street on Daedalus Street.
This was Shirou's hypothesis even before he started his investigation of Daedalus Street.
At that time, he couldn't understand the information that "Heith disappeared on Windmoon Street" at all, nor could he even guess the possible reason for it.
After all, the clues "Heith disappeared on Windmoon Street" and "the Investigation Eye on Windmoon Street did not detect any magical fluctuations" were completely contradictory.
In that case, the only possibility was that one of these two clues contained an error.
Although "Heith disappeared on Windmoon Street" was information told to him personally by Freya, who seemed very certain about it, Shirou had already learned from Naaza that the Orario's Investigation Eye had never malfunctioned before, so he was more inclined to believe the Investigation Eye was not wrong and that the information Freya received was the one with a problem.
However, since Freya was so confident that Heith disappeared on Windmoon Street, it meant she had a corresponding reason.
At that time, Shirou didn't know that Freya's judgment was based on information Heith transmitted at the last moment; he simply thought that if the clue "Heith disappeared on Windmoon Street" was not wrong, then the problem must have been with the location called "Windmoon Street."
In other words, the Windmoon Street where Heith disappeared was not the Windmoon Street controlled by the Ishtar Familia, but another unknown Windmoon Street.
With this suspicion, Shirou repeatedly searched Daedalus Street but never found a clear clue.
Just when he was about to give up, the sudden encounter of Bell and Lili solved his confusion.
In short, when Bell and Lili were investigating Daedalus Street, they unexpectedly went to the underground Daedalus Street.
Although the underground Daedalus Street looked almost exactly like the one above ground, since they arrived during the daytime rather than at night, when the surroundings suddenly changed from day to night, Bell and Lili almost instinctively sensed something was wrong and immediately came back to report.
At that moment, Shirou realized the fact that Daedalus Street was divided into an above-ground and an underground layer.
At the same time, he made the connection and realized that besides the underground Daedalus Street, there must also be another Windmoon Street underground.
But at that time, he didn't have the chance to investigate underground because the war between the Ishtar Familia and the Freya Familia broke out, and he was forced to come and stop the war.
Therefore, just now, Shirou not only brought Ishtar and Freya down to the underground Windmoon Street, but it was also the first time Shirou himself had come to the underground Windmoon Street.
Although he expected the underground Windmoon Street to be exactly the same as the one above ground, he was still very surprised when he actually saw it; he didn't expect the underground architecture to be so faithfully reproduced.
Not only did it perfectly replicate the environment above ground one-to-one, but except for the Babel Tower, the entire Orario was replicated one-to-one.
Such a level of craftsmanship was hard to describe as a tempOrario construction.
At least Shirou found it hard to imagine that such a one-to-one replica of Orario was purely built to trigger a war between the Ishtar and Freya Familias.
Therefore, he believed this underground Orario was more likely to have existed here from the start rather than being temporarily built.
The dark faction had just taken advantage of this underground environment to induce and trigger the war between the Ishtar and Freya Familias.
"So Heith was taken here?" Freya had already realized from the concept of underground Orario, "Where is she now? Is she still safe?"
"Don't worry, I've already found her." Shirou nodded. "It seems the dark faction didn't think this underground Orario would be discovered, so they openly imprisoned Heith in this underground Windmoon Street. Besides Heith, almost all the missing members of the Ishtar Familia are here as well."
"Everything was done by the dark faction…" Ishtar seemed still incredulous about all this. "Freya and I were both manipulated by them like pawns in their hands."
"It's only you who got manipulated." Freya still held a strong competitive spirit toward Ishtar. "If it weren't for your sudden appearance, I and your Familia would have completely destroyed you."
Ishtar couldn't deny Freya's words and fell into silence helplessly.
She then couldn't help but ask, "Why would the dark faction do this? What benefit do they get from making Freya and me hostile to each other?"
"The dark faction's real target is probably not you, Ishtar, but the Freya Familia." Shirou waved his hand.
"After all, there are too many coincidences in this incident. Not only did the Loki Familia conveniently leave Orario, but your conflict with Freya was suddenly ignited, and Heith's disappearance too…
According to the dark faction's plan, they intend to have the Ishtar Familia cause enough trouble for the Freya Familia, even severely damaging the Freya Familia."
"Severely damage my Familia? Is that even possible?"
Freya was very confident about her Familia's strength.
But Shirou didn't think so.
After all, if Shirou hadn't secretly killed Phryne and cooperated with Aisha to save Haruhime, once the Ishtar Familia used Haruhime to complete a full upgrade, it wouldn't be easy for the Freya Familia to easily defeat the Ishtar Familia.
Also, Shirou heard that Ishtar had contacted the Kali Familia outside Orario, planning to work with them in a coordinated attack.
If everything had proceeded exactly according to Ishtar's plan, even the Freya Familia would have suffered a heavy loss, possibly a severe blow.
It was clear that the destruction of the Apollo Familia had already made the dark faction anxious.
Therefore, they no longer hid in the shadows but chose to reveal their hand, trying to first crush the most dangerous Freya Familia.
Fortunately, all this was completely stopped by Shirou.
While Shirou was communicating with the two goddesses, members of the Hestia Familia and Takemikazuchi Familia who were investigating underground Daedalus Street soon arrived and gathered.
They also brought all the missing Heith and members of the Ishtar Familia over.
Although the missing persons were in poor condition, none of them were in mortal danger.
"Sorry, Lady Freya." Heith showed a troubled expression when she saw Freya's appearance. "I failed to do even this simple thing. Please punish me."
"…Although I do want to punish you, never mind, it's good you're alright." Freya looked at Heith gently. "During the time you were gone, the Familia was in chaos, after all, the only healer was absent, so those guys couldn't perform the daily blessings."
"This… I think they should reduce the number of blessings." Heith sighed.
She then looked at Shirou, the pink-haired twin-tailed girl spoke with a complicated expression, "Are you the rumored Emiya Shirou?"
"What? You know me?"
"Is there anyone in our Familia who doesn't know you?"
"Uh, am I really that famous?"
Shirou looked at Heith in confusion.
Heith, however, seemed to be scrutinizing him for a long time before finally speaking with resignation: "Just as the goddess said, you really are an extraordinary man. Thanks to you saving me this time, I will always remember this favor."
"That's not necessary..." Shirou didn't help her out of a sense of owing a favor.
But his words clearly could not stop Heith from wanting to repay him.
While the missing people were reporting back to their respective gods, Shirou turned his gaze to Ishtar, and his expression gradually became serious.
"Although I wanted to say this before, Ishtar, can you please stop the human trafficking in the Pleasure Street?"
"What?" Shirou's sudden mention of this topic caught Ishtar off guard; she was initially lost in thought or maybe feeling emotional, but immediately showed a surprised expression.
Then she said with a complicated look, "So you know about Haruhime's situation."
"Yes." Shirou nodded. "I don't know what your purpose was in buying Haruhime, but I don't think forcing innocent girls into prostitution is something to be promoted. So I hope you can stop such behavior."
Ishtar was silent for a moment in response to Shirou's request.
After some hesitation, she slowly spoke: "Why didn't you say all this earlier? If you had used this as a bargaining chip to negotiate with the Ishtar faction, I definitely would have agreed."
"Because I felt there was no need." Shirou shook his head. "After all, Goddess Ishtar, you are essentially a kind deity, aren't you? Most of the prostitutes on Pleasure Street were only taken in because they had nowhere else to go.
Haruhime's case was the same. Before you showed her any favor, you didn't even know her abilities, right?"
"Although your method of making these women into prostitutes is questionable, if you hadn't done it, the more likely fate for them would have been dying unnoticed in some corner, becoming nothing but dust in Orario.
The existence of Pleasure Street isn't entirely wrong. As long as Goddess Ishtar doesn't let jealousy cloud her heart, and guides it in the right direction, it can become a home for a small number of people, and also a home for you, Goddess Ishtar."
Shirou sincerely shared the thoughts in his heart with Ishtar.
Upon hearing his words, Ishtar fell into a long silence.
Eventually, she said bitterly, "I never thought you'd get me to this point. Now I finally understand why Freya pays so much attention to you..."
"So, do you agree to my condition?"
"Yes, I agree. From today onward, Pleasure Street will no longer engage in any human trafficking, and will never force ordinary people into prostitution again."
"Thank you."
With Ishtar's promise secured, Shirou had accomplished one of his most important objectives.
After that, all he needed to do was use the intelligence obtained from Daedalus Street to further uncover the truth about the Dark Faction and find their true base.
Thinking this, Shirou casually glanced at the surroundings. He noticed that although this underground Pleasure Street was largely similar to the one above ground, there were some differences in details.
The biggest difference was that at regular intervals, there were gutter-like depressions appearing, and each of these depressions was pitch black and bottomless.
"What exactly is this..."
Shirou had already been curious about this strange decoration when he first arrived underground. After dealing with other matters, he immediately went to the edge of one of these gutters and looked deep inside with his Eagle Eye.
Ordinary people wouldn't be able to see anything deep in such an environment, but Shirou's vision was far beyond normal.
Even in pitch darkness where you couldn't see your hand, he could still clearly see the scene.
Soon, Shirou clearly saw deep within the gutter. Inside the darkness, strange tightly closed flower buds were slowly wriggling.
On the stems and leaves of these buds were grotesque fangs and mouths emitting a terrifying stench!
The moment Shirou saw these plants, he immediately recalled the mutated plants from the 20th layer.
Without thinking twice, he shouted: "Retreat quickly! Everyone get out of here!"
"!!" Upon hearing Shirou's voice, everyone present immediately sprang into action.
But their movements were still a bit too slow.
The moment Shirou's warning was issued, a large number of carnivorous plants burst out from underground and surrounded Daedalus Street.
This was clearly an ambush pre-arranged by the Dark Faction, an assault launched against the two goddesses Ishtar and Freya!
Facing such a huge number of carnivorous plants, everyone showed panic on their faces.
But Shirou's expression remained calm because he had long suspected that the Dark Faction would set traps where Heith and the others were, in order to launch a surprise attack on the gods.
The reason he brought Ishtar and Freya underground was precisely to lure out the Dark Faction.
"Trace On!"
As the two goddesses and the others began retreating to the surface, and with everyone else too preoccupied to pay attention to him, Shirou was finally able to unleash his full power.
Because he had once fought these mutated plants on the 20th layer underground, Shirou knew he had to release a wide-area attack, using massive firepower to completely eliminate these mutated plants!
Also, plants naturally fear fire, so Shirou chose to project a fire-attribute weapon to combat them.
"Projection complete!" "Aestus Estus!"
As Shirou activated his projection, a crimson longsword appeared in his hand. When Shirou gripped this longsword, the blade emitted astonishing flames that rapidly burst outward!
This projected Noble Phantasm, Aestus Estus: The Original Flame, belonged to the heroic spirit Nero Claudius. Although not particularly powerful as a weapon, when wielded, it emitted flames. Shirou projected this weapon specifically to use fire to suppress the plants.
"Boom!" The moment Shirou swung Aestus Estus, flames spread from the blade and instantly incinerated a mutated plant in front of him.
Seeing this, Shirou's brow furrowed slightly. He hadn't expected the flames' power to be so immense.
Nero's Aestus Estus wasn't a high-level weapon—it was fairly average. Shirou didn't expect that simply wielding this Noble Phantasm would be enough to completely suppress the mutated plants.
"Wait, could it be...?"
Looking at the crimson longsword in his hand, Shirou suddenly had another thought.
He first put down Aestus Estus and projected an ordinary blank weapon. When Shirou wielded this plain weapon against the mutated plants, what shocked him was that even the attacks with this blank weapon carried fire and were effective against the plants.
"Is this because of that skill called [Karma's Fire]?"
At this point, the only thing Shirou could think of was the special skill [Karma's Fire] he had obtained when he upgraded to IV.2.
He had thought this skill would only provide special bonuses for forging weapons, but unexpectedly, Karma's Fire could be used directly in combat and appeared to have a special effect against these mutated plants.
Upon careful reflection, Karma's Fire's power came from absorbing the energy of the Sacred Essence, and the mutated plants were also manifestations of this Sacred Essence. Could it be that the Sacred Essence itself suppresses its corrupted parts?
As this thought crossed Shirou's mind, the enormous mutated plant's main body had already burst out from underground and was trying to chase after Ishtar and Freya.
Of course, Shirou wouldn't allow the mutated plant to follow them, so he decisively raised Aestus Estus.
With the flames of the weapon itself combined with the [Karma's Fire] skill, even before the sword swung, an astonishing energy condensed in the air.
The intense heat scorched everything around, as if trying to completely evaporate the air itself!
"Disappear!"
Shirou swung with all his might. The tremendous flames transformed into sword energy, charging toward the mutated plant and instantly tearing apart all its tentacles.
Though the mutated plant's outer skin was extremely tough, able to resist most attacks, it was no match for the blazing sword and was thoroughly struck by the flaming blade.
"Bang!"
The mutated plant's head was smashed off on the spot, turning to ash mid-air.
With the death of the main plant body, all its connected tentacles disappeared, unable to cause any more trouble. A golden magic stone exploded out from it.
Shirou immediately caught the golden magic stone and compared it with the one he had obtained previously when killing Phryne.
To his surprise, the two golden magic stones began to fuse together—the larger one engulfed the smaller one on the spot.
At the same time, the golden liquid inside the magic stones, as before, spread into Shirou's body the moment he touched them.
Soon, Shirou once again felt the sensation of an enhancement—like a power-up, but without perceivable changes in attributes.
If this situation was the same as before, Shirou might be undergoing another upgrade, from LV.2 all the way to LV.3.