Emiya Shirou doesn't want to work overtime

The appearance of such an existence in the Crimson World would undoubtedly bring about a bloodbath. This is no so-called projection technique; it's a weapons dealer and a humanoid treasure manufacturing machine.

The reason why those treasures are coveted is precisely because of their uniqueness and powerful functions.

Shirou Emiya could prevent it from becoming unique if the Crimson Denizens found out.

Alastor suddenly thought of the situation where each of the Crimson World Apostles had a Nietono Shana, and the balance between the Flame Haze and the Crimson World Apostles would probably be broken in an instant.

Not to mention that the Crimson World's Noble Phantasms are not limited to just this.

Emiya Shirou's value has surpassed the value of his Noble Phantasm.

Rather than protecting those treasures from being taken away by the Crimson Lords, it's more important to prevent Shirou Emiya from being kidnapped by them.

Chapter 240 An Unusual Number of Torches

"Do you have any means to trace the Dharma of Fariagni's liberation?"

Emiya Shirou, who had been wandering through the city's streets, returned to the rooftop and questioned Shana, who had been searching the surroundings. He realized that searching aimlessly like this was not a solution; there was no way to find a Crimson Lord who wanted to hide in such a vast sea of ​​people.

Not to mention that Fariagni is a Crimson Lord known for his wisdom and cunning, so finding him under such circumstances is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

But Shana did not respond to Shirou Emiya's question at this moment. Her pretty, youthful face was tense, her brows were furrowed, and she was staring at the street below.

"Shana, you must have noticed the strange things about this city by now."

Alastor, who had been silent in front of Shana, suddenly spoke up.

"The number of torches in this city is unusually high."

Shana didn't realize it when she first arrived in the city, but now, standing on the rooftop looking down at the streets below, she noticed it.

There are so many torches in this city that they almost make up one-tenth of the entire city.

The torch exists precisely to prevent the world from becoming distorted due to the loss of a large amount of existential power.

However, this is a problem that Flame Haze need to worry about. Crimson World Apostles like Ruze never care whether their absorption of the power of existence will cause any distortion to the present world.

They wouldn't care about the survival of humanity.

Therefore, the Crimson World Apostles are not worried about the torches. The reason why they leave some residue after absorbing the power of existence and make torches is to prevent the distortion of the world from attracting Flame Haze warriors.

Both Flame Haze and Crimson Denizens use the remaining remnants of humanity's existence to create torches when their power of existence is extinguished, but the torches' survival afterward is no longer relevant to either of them.

After all, humans who are merely remnants of their former existence, those who become torches, are practically already dead.

So why did Fariagni set up so many torches?

Are they afraid of attracting the Flame Haze?

It should be noted that Fariagni has killed countless Flame Haze warriors who came to defeat him. As a powerful Crimson Lord, he has absolutely no reason to be afraid of Flame Haze warriors.

From any perspective, Fariagni's setting up of the torches was an unreasonable act. Crimson Lords do not have a fixed location of activity; they usually leave after absorbing a portion of the power of existence in one place.

Staying in one place would only make one a target for Flame Haze to attack in groups. Fariagni was clearly not so arrogant as to believe that he could fight against several Flame Haze at the same time.

However, the fact that so many torches were set up so discreetly clearly indicated that they did not want their actions to be discovered by the Flame Haze.

Otherwise, why would the Crimson Lord, who disrupts the mortal world, be so kind as to set up so many torches to maintain the stability of the mortal world?

But Shana couldn't figure it out, nor could she imagine what it was. Her intuition told her that Fariagni was involved in a huge conspiracy.

Seeing Shana's utter bewilderment, Alastor, who was standing in front of her, spoke up.

"Long ago, on the western border, there was a powerful demon king who devoured humans at will and left behind a large number of torches, in which some kind of mechanism was installed."

These words were not only spoken to Shana, but also to Shirou Emiya, who was standing beside her.

The well-informed Alastair had already figured out what Fariagni was doing.

If Shirou Emiya hadn't suggested searching for Fariagni, and Shana hadn't come to the rooftop to search for him, he wouldn't have realized that Fariagni was making such a grand move.

It was impossible to sense this anomaly while in the crowd. Only from a wide vantage point, observing the sheer number of torches, did Alastair suddenly recall a very distant memory.

Under normal circumstances, Flame Haze warriors wouldn't pay attention to those torches.

"The function of that mechanism is to allow the user to manipulate the torch, which is used as a substitute, to completely disintegrate and restore it to its original power, thus causing all the torches to lose their function as substitutes."

"All the torches?"

Shirou Emiya, who was standing next to Shana, didn't quite understand what she was hearing, but Shana, who was familiar with the power of existence, immediately realized how terrifying this method was.

"If that's the case, it would cause enormous distortions in the present world."

The purpose of the torches was to alleviate the distortion of reality caused by the disappearance of the power of existence. If they were to disappear all of them in an instant, it would not only severely damage human memory, but also generate a large amount of power of existence.

The power of existence contained within each torch is extremely scarce, but if there are enough torches, they can generate an incredibly terrifying amount of power of existence.

And with such a large amount of existence power appearing in the densely populated city in an instant, the existence power within those people also became part of that existence power.

Just as a highly concentrated liquid will diffuse towards a lower concentration, the human body's capacity is insufficient to contain such a massive amount of existential power.

It will be burst apart in an instant by such a huge force of existence, and the force of existence that is released from the burst will make the original force of existence even more concentrated.

Flame Haze, Torchbearers, Crimson Lords—humans possess different forms of power.

After Flame Haze forms a contract with the Crimson Lord, most of the Existence Power they use is provided by the contracted Lord. The Existence Power they consume gradually recovers over time, so Flame Haze don't really consider the consumption of Existence Power when fighting.

The torch is like a container for the power of existence. The power of existence is like water in a cup. After it evaporates and is used up, the torch will also disappear when the water is gone.

Crimson World Demons are like collectors; there is no limit to the amount of existence power they can possess, it all depends on how much existence power you have in your hands.

Humans are the most special among them. Their life force is like a solid. Each time the life force is reduced, it is like cutting a piece off this solid. Once the life force in a human body is consumed, it cannot be replenished.

In layman's terms, the reduction of a human's existence power is like directly reducing their maximum mana, not consuming mana. Therefore, whether one infuses a human with existence power or devours it, it will lead to the human's death.

This is why humans cannot use their own power of existence to perform free magic; only Flame Haze warriors who have made a contract with the Crimson Lord, or Torches with self-awareness, can use their power of existence to fight.

Because when humans use the power of existence, it's like using their own life force to fight, and there's no way to replenish it; once it's used up, it's equivalent to death.

Chapter 241 Torch and Humanity

"The power of existence, when gathered together, will grow like a snowball, becoming larger and denser until there are no more humans in the entire city."

Alastor told Shana in a somber tone.

"This secret technique is called devouring cities."

"Not just this city, but all the high concentrations of existence power generated like this will eventually be devoured by the Crimson World Demon Lord who uses this secret technique, right?"

Alastor did not respond, choosing silence as her answer to Shana's question.

The power of a city's existence is enough to transform an ordinary Crimson World Apostle into an incredibly terrifying Crimson World Demon Lord. If Fariagni were to succeed, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Fariagni naturally anticipated that Alastair would discover what he wanted to do in the city.

For the Flame Haze's contracted demon lord, who had extensive experience, discovering the city's devouring was only a matter of time. However, to his surprise, Shana had already discovered the city's anomaly in such a short period of time.

In his deduction, it would take at least three days to discover the secret of what Fariagni had done.

He knew very well that the Flame Haze warriors would never pay attention to the torches. Unless they were deliberately probing the entire city, the Flame Haze warriors would have a hard time discovering the secrets within.

However, as long as one goes to investigate with a specific purpose in mind, the existence of the Contract Demon King will quickly discover the problem.

"Then there's only one answer—"

The moment Shana finished speaking, her hair instantly turned bright red, and a large katana appeared in her hand.

"What are you going to do?"

Seeing Shana suddenly pull out a weapon, Shirou Emiya had a bad feeling.

“If the number of torches in the city is reduced rapidly, then Fariagni’s plan will not be able to be completed.”

Before the number of torches is enough to engulf the entire city, quickly reducing their numbers will effectively thwart Fariagni's plans.

Although it will have some impact on the present world, compared to swallowing up cities, such an impact is negligible.

"boom--!"

Shana instantly transformed into a bullet, leaping off the building and rushing towards the crowd in the street.

As Flame Haze warriors, they are able to freely use the power of existence, which allows them to make others ignore their presence. However, not everything needs to be resolved by using sealing techniques.

At least, resolving the issue of those torches doesn't require a complete blockade.

"Qiang——!"

The clanging of swords against swords echoed fiercely through the street.

Everyone immediately noticed Shana's presence at that moment.

Standing in front of her was a man in armor wielding a katana, desperately blocking Shana's slashes.

Panic instantly gripped the streets, with everyone rushing away from the area. Only a few people, eager to watch the spectacle, remained, observing the two clashing.

However, no one noticed the torchbearer who should have been slain by Shana's blade.

"Step aside!"

Shana, somewhat puzzled, angrily rebuked Shirou Emiya for blocking her way.

"No, those torches shouldn't die like this."

Emiya Shirou remained blocking Shana's path, refusing to budge an inch.

With the blessing of "Possessed by Evil Spirits", Shirou Emiya, whose strength was not much different from Shana's, immediately surpassed her and forced Shana to retreat backward.

Even when Shirou Emiya was weaker than Shana, he was still able to suppress her and force her to retreat.

"They're dead!!"

The torches are no longer human; they are merely remnants formed from the remaining power of human existence. Even if Shana doesn't kill them, they will dissipate over time.

Every trace of its existence in this world will disappear.

The Flame Haze and Crimson Denizens treat the torches as if they were mere props, especially since the torches were created to slow down the distortion of the present world.

This was knowledge that Shana had always accepted and believed in, and she couldn't quite understand why Shirou Emiya wanted to save the torchbearer.

Even though he was right in the middle of their battle, the torchbearer seemed to see nothing and continued walking forward on his own.