187 Evil Spirit Battle Royale
"Yeah, I'm not good with those dark places where a killer suddenly jumps out," the red-haired Dragon Girl, Elisabeth, said, pressing a red finger against her lower lip.
"The people on the third street are all crying and look pitiful. I, Lady Elisabeth, shall save them with my wonderful idol singing voice! I will definitely move them so much that they stop crying!" Elisabeth puffed out her chest, took out the microphone that was transformed from her lance, and said with full confidence.
"Hmm... I'm the only one who can resist her singing here. Although I don't want to go out, that place seems quite fun, so I'll go there too," Osakabehime said with a shadowy smile.
"Alright, then the fourth street is entrusted to Jeanne and me. I'm counting on everyone! Let's rescue the people trapped in this dream world," Shirou said, looking at the group.
"We, too, thank you all for being willing to help France. I will surely remember your kindness," Emperor Louis said, saluting everyone.
"Since it's the country Marie likes, there's no way I can just sit by and do nothing," Mozart said, shrugging his hands.
"Well, we are all trapped here, so we're in the same boat," Elisabeth said, shrugging her hands.
"I have already added Shirou as a friend, and now I just want to quickly go back to my room," Osakabehime muttered.
"Hmph, France is whatever to me, but I still have to settle the score with that black mud bastard for making me run away," Jeanne d'Arc said, showing a malicious, villain-like smile.
And so, they split into five small teams and headed toward their respective destinations.
Emperor Louis mounted a castle horse and rode with D'Éon, Sanson, and Mozart toward the black mud monster lingering near the Palace of Versailles.
Astolfo summoned his Hippogriff, took Tamamo Cat, and soared into the sky.
Merlin, Elisabeth and Osakabehime, and Shirou and Jeanne d'Arc, ran toward the entrances of the segmented black city walls.
Shirou and the silver-haired girl arrived at the Street of Nightmares. They passed through the black passage, and what came into view were corpses everywhere, and fresh blood still dripping from the wounds. The amount was so large that the metallic smell could be tasted in the air.
In the memories of both Shirou and Jeanne d'Arc, there were battlefields more brutal and with a greater number of fallen bodies than this, but this place was even more sinister.
Some were stabbed by sharp blades, some were cleaved by axes, some were cracked by hammers, and some were sliced apart by various sharp tools.
There were even several corpses of the same appearance, indicating that the slaughter was cyclical.
Some were dismembered, so one could see seven or eight similar torsos, arms, and thighs. If a funeral make-up artist were to work here, it would not be an easy task.
Even if they could distinguish parts belonging to the same body, putting them back together would cause various issues. For example, while stitching the body, they might find an extra left hand or two right feet among the collected corpses.
The people fighting here appear as the images they fear most in their nightmares. They see themselves being chased by various terrifying monsters, yet they are completely unaware that their current appearance is just as terrifying.
There was a clown with snowy white skin and red hair, wearing a red nose, holding a small knife and letting out a sharp, cackling laugh.
Hannibal was holding a dining knife, sneering elegantly. There were chainsaw killers, pig-headed men wielding butcher knives, mutated zombies, and various non-human creatures. It was a monster's carnival party.
"This looks like the street of endless mutual slaughter," Shirou said helplessly, looking at the fallen corpses around him.
"What an awful place. I really feel like burning it all down," Jeanne d'Arc said, frowning at the blood-splattered ground everywhere.
The moment she finished speaking.
"Gah-gah-gah-gah!!!" A smell of scorching reached them from ahead. A grotesque figure, entirely covered in black scars and engulfed in fire, rushed toward them. The flames were burning itself, giving off a charred smell, while simultaneously igniting everything it crashed into. The area ahead was quickly covered in a sea of fire.
"...I haven't set anything on fire yet," Jeanne d'Arc looked at the flames ahead, momentarily stunned.
"Run!" Shirou grabbed Jeanne d'Arc's hand and quickly pulled her in the opposite direction.
Screams came from behind. The monsters set on fire flailed around, eventually falling to the ground and rolling, trying to put out the flames, but it was useless. The surrounding houses also caught fire, and the streets were covered in flames.
The fire-man continued to make a crow-like screech and pursued them.
Malice, hatred—since ancient times, they have served as the energy for curses. Because this is the dream world, these monsters also possess the ability to harm Servants.
"This monster is too disgusting, Shirou. Let me fight back! Fight back!" Jeanne d'Arc yelled, raising her banner.
"This way!"
Shirou yanked Jeanne d'Arc into a small alley around the corner, hiding in a recessed wall corner inside. The fire-man ran straight past the alley entrance. In front was a bloated, fat green zombie. When the flames touched its body, it exploded with a bang, and a massive heat wave instantly erupted.
"Aah-aah-aah!" A black shadow dropped down from the alley's eaves, hanging upside down, right in front of Shirou's face. It opened its sharp-fanged mouth and screamed.
PUNCH!
Shirou punched the upside-down bat-man to the ground. After a twitch, it did not move again.
Jeanne d'Arc and Shirou exchanged glances.
"Um... well, you should definitely act when you need to," Shirou said awkwardly.
But at this moment, Jeanne d'Arc was in no mood to worry about this. The young man had pulled her into the narrow space, and they had been pressed tightly together the entire time. "Shirou... how long are you going to hold me there..." Jeanne d'Arc said in a low voice, her face slightly flushed, looking at the young man.
"Ah, sorry," Shirou quickly released the girl's hand, which he had hugged in the emergency.
"No, it's nothing. I won't lose a piece of meat from a hug anyway," Jeanne d'Arc said, her face still slightly red.
"Um, Miss Jeanne d'Arc, could you also take your hand off that area of mine," Shirou said with some embarrassment.
"Huh? Shirou, what are you talking about? My hand isn't touching you right now?" Jeanne d'Arc spread her hands and looked at him strangely.
"Huh? Then what is this unsettling feeling..." Shirou turned his head in confusion. Jeanne d'Arc also looked behind the young man.
They saw a pair of female hands wearing cement-colored gloves reaching out from the wall Shirou was leaning against, moving back and forth on the young man's backside.
"Huh? Huh!" Jeanne d'Arc's mouth opened wide.
She finally saw a humanoid shape emerging inside the wall, blending completely with the gray-white cement wall. This was the nightmare of the wall peering at humans and swallowing lonely people into the cement, manifesting as a bizarre 'Wall-Man.' Well, in this case, it should be called a Wall-Woman.
"Oops? A nice butt suddenly appeared right in front of me. Anyone would want to touch it, right?" The Wall-Woman hiding in the wall awkwardly waved her hands as if greeting the two.
The area below her mouth was a bit damp, as if she had just drooled. Her fingers unconsciously rubbed her palms a few times, seeming to recall the sensation earlier.
"Who would do that!" Shirou was so startled he quickly pulled away.
"Get out of the way! Shirou! —Roar! My anger!!!" Jeanne d'Arc dragged the young man behind her and immediately activated her Noble Phantasm. Consequently, another house was set ablaze. As for the monster hiding in the wall, it had already been reduced to ashes.
"Thank you. I feel like you saved me," Shirou said to the silver-haired girl.
"Gah-aah-aah!" At this moment, the crow-like screech came from outside, but it sounded somewhat rushed and pained.
In this round of slaughter, the fire-man burned everyone outside, the bat-man hiding in the alley was defeated by Shirou, and the Wall-Woman in the wall was dealt with by Jeanne d'Arc.
And so, the black mud monster clone, which had been lurking in this street, quietly waiting for the battle to end, made its move.
Unlike the fully formed black mud monster near the palace, this clone was like a moving chunk of flesh without distinct limbs, resembling a gooey black mud mixture. Although it could change the shape of its mud body through mimicry, it would collapse and sink with a little water.
It first lured the victorious fire-man into a swamp formed of black mud, dragging him little by little into the ground. As the winner, he would gain the advantage of appearing ten minutes later, while the other corpses would be absorbed by the black mud monster clone.
At this moment, the corpse of the bat-man in the alley was also being dragged underground by the black mud clone's shadow bit by bit.
"Shirou!" Jeanne d'Arc reminded him.
"Don't even think about escaping!"
Shirou projected the Ootsurune and Kotsurune blades of the Fox-JK Suzuka Gozen, slashing at the emerging black mud monster. The wisdom sword of the Buddha sliced through the evil creature and the maze, cutting off the part of the black mud clone that had popped its head out. The golden light of the blade vaporized it.
"Yaa-aah," the black mud clone let out a baby-like shriek, jumped out of the ground, and lunged at Shirou.
Shirou leaped high, and he and Jeanne d'Arc rushed out of the alley, onto the street where the walls had been blackened by the fire.
The black mud clone, which lacked high intelligence, pounced like a beast when provoked. Shirou and Jeanne d'Arc naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity.
It wasn't difficult to deal with, and under their combined effort, they maintained distance.
Dozens of golden sword lights split and precisely stabbed into the black mud. The divine weapon with the special effect of evil-breaking caused a chunk of black mud to be scorched and vaporized with every stab.
A large chunk of black mud leaped up, stretching thin like a towel, trying to wrap around the young man's head from behind.
"Shirou, look out!" Jeanne d'Arc swung her banner staff like a long spear, knocking the black mud away, then released her magical flames. The malice and hatred from the slaughter here also served as the source of magic for her Avenger class. Sizzling flames ignited, burning away the surrounding fragments of black mud.
It seemed that because this black mud monster clone had been hidden underground, traces of black mud residue were hidden everywhere beneath the surface.
The black mud swamp that was created earlier to bury the fire-man now writhed and moved under the young man and girl's feet, trying to launch a sudden attack and drag them into the black mud.
"Hah-aah! Why is this endless!!" Jeanne d'Arc shouted, raising her banner and releasing magical flames to burn away the chunks of black mud that the clone had split into.
"Yaa-aah!" The black mud clone's shriek grew smaller and smaller as its size shrank. The sound it made now truly resembled a baby crying.
This time, the black mud clone was vaporized under the double assault of flames and golden sword light. No more black mud crawled out of the ground; it had completely vanished.
"Phew... It's over. I've had enough of this place, Shirou. Let's leave quickly," Jeanne d'Arc said.
"Since the black mud monster clone is dealt with," it was more stimulating than going through the world's most realistic and terrifying haunted house.
"Is that so? Then never mind. I wonder how the others are doing?" Jeanne d'Arc turned her head away. Truthfully, she felt it was better to leave this awful place as soon as possible.
Although she was fearless and would just burn down anything she disliked, she found it difficult to deal with this kind of monster that seemed endless and could revive after being killed.
"Gah-aah-aah!!!" At that moment, a fiery figure burst out of the ground not far behind the girl, leaping high into the air, making a crow-like shriek.
"Waaah! It appeared!" Jeanne d'Arc was startled and immediately hugged the young man.
"Jeanne d'Arc? Calm down, calm down. That's just a person's nightmare. It's easy to defeat," Shirou said.
"Then quickly defeat it!" Jeanne d'Arc shouted, hugging him even tighter.
Shirou felt a huge force. The silver-haired girl's arms were like iron tongs, restricting him to the point of near suffocation. The armor on the girl's body even creaked under the pressure.
"My arm, my arm! It's locked. Let go first!"
The figure that jumped out of the gap was the monster engulfed in flames. Without the black mud clone holding it back, it heard the noise and followed them, reappearing here. The monster, controlled by the nightmare and only knowing slaughter, headed straight for the young man and girl.
Just then, the sound of a car speeding and tires screeching came from ahead. A red Ferrari rushed over and slammed directly into the flame monster, sending it flying.
A high, fiery red parabola streaked through the air.
"Gah... ugh." The flying flame monster flew over the rooftops on one side and dropped onto the ground behind. It left only a scorched trace on the eaves. After a muffled thud upon landing, its head tilted, and it breathed its last.
"Huh? Did something very dazzling just fly out?" Astolfo, sitting in the driver's seat, blinked curiously, shaking his head from side to side, but saw nothing.
So he smiled indifferently, "Never mind~! It's probably pretty normal to hit things when driving. I hit weird things all the time when I ride the Hippogriff, anyway."