Meanwhile, the members of Penguin Logistics were also extremely curious about whether that enormous sword had actually been something Shirou had produced.
However, it was obviously not the time to ask such questions.
Just from the blood covering his body, it was clear enough what he had been doing moments ago.
Combined with the conversation between him and Blaze...
They were not fools.
Quite the opposite.
They were all very perceptive people.
But when faced with something like this, it was impossible not to feel upset.
"These people will be dealt with. As for the ones inside... without a full set of protective equipment, it is probably impossible to go in and clean things up. But we cannot just leave them there either. Could I ask you to help with that, Shirou? I hope they can leave peacefully rather than remain here as tools for others to exploit."
After taking custody of the prisoners and gaining a rough understanding of what had happened inside, Blaze made her request.
Of course, she had no intention of making Shirou do it alone.
Since she was the one asking, she fully intended to accompany him.
"...I will handle it."
The moment he heard her words, Shirou understood exactly what she meant.
Leaving those infected there indefinitely would be...
Cruel.
Moreover, if nothing was done, the Originium concentration in this area would continue to rise rapidly.
Watching Blaze put on a temporary protective suit, Shirou knew she intended to accompany him, so he politely refused.
He had no idea how long that suit would actually protect her inside.
There was no need for her to take unnecessary risks.
As for how to deal with the situation, he already had an idea.
Turning his head toward the Mountain-Splitting Sword, Shirou hesitated briefly before deciding against using Broken Phantasm on it.
Blowing a massive crater into Ursus certainly sounded appealing.
In fact, he really wanted to do it.
But he was still capable of rational thought.
If he actually detonated it, even the Boss might not be able to deal with the consequences.
The people in this region were not the sort anyone wanted to provoke.
"You are going in alone? There should be a lot of people in there. How long would it take you by yourself?"
Blaze stopped putting on the protective suit and looked at him in confusion.
"I have a way. Just stay back for now. I will be right back."
Faced with her question, Shirou offered no further explanation.
He disliked wasting time on explanations.
It was faster to simply act.
The sooner this place was dealt with, the sooner he could enter the city and find Amiya and the others.
After seeing what those people had done, the sense of unease in his heart had only grown stronger.
He needed to prepare himself for the worst possible outcome.
With those words, Shirou vanished in a blur, leaving everyone staring blankly after him.
"Hey! Wait! Shirou, hold on! You are not even wearing a protective suit!"
Seeing him disappear into the distance, Blaze hurriedly finished putting on her suit and chased after him.
Before leaving, she made sure to tell everyone else not to follow.
At least she had a protective suit.
That hypocrite Shirou was wearing nothing except the strange outfit that had suddenly appeared on him.
As for everyone else, it went without saying.
Without proper protective equipment, they absolutely could not be allowed to follow.
Otherwise, they could become infected or worsen their Oripathy within minutes.
Blaze moved quickly.
In no time, she passed the impossibly large sword and finally saw the scene behind it.
"Death was too merciful for them."
Her eyes turned bloodshot as she looked over the corpses of the white-masked individuals.
But they were already dead.
There was no point saying anything more.
All she could do was continue searching for Shirou.
Fortunately, finding him was easy.
Among the countless bodies lying on the ground, he was the only one still standing.
The lingering sand and dust from the earlier battle obscured her vision somewhat, but after moving closer she finally saw what he was doing.
"...Was she someone you knew?"
Blaze pressed her lips together as she watched Shirou kneel down and gently place a hand on the head of a young Feline girl.
His head was lowered, making it impossible to see his expression.
But the movements of his hand were exceptionally gentle.
"Not really. But I saw her photograph once, in the hands of a child at a shop."
Carefully removing something from the girl's hair, Shirou brought his hands together before her.
Then he spoke softly.
"Your little sister is doing well now. She spends her days following a doctor around, studying hard because she wants to become a physician capable of treating the infected..."
"I am sorry that I cannot bring you home. Instead, let me take this hair ornament to your sister. She has one exactly like it in her hair. It is very beautiful."
"Truly... I am sorry. If only I had dealt with those people sooner..."
Shirou knew perfectly well that she could not hear him.
Yet he still wanted to say it.
Nearly thirty percent of the people here wore the kind of short-sleeved clothing commonly seen in Lungmen.
During this period, the only major case involving large numbers of missing infected people had been the kidnapping incident.
He could not remember every victim who had disappeared.
But he remembered this girl.
Or perhaps "remembered" was not quite the right word.
The ravages of Oripathy had long since distorted her appearance beyond recognition.
If not for the hair ornament, which looked painfully familiar, he might never have noticed who she was.
If he had acted sooner.
If he had eliminated those people earlier.
Then perhaps...
She would still be alive today, living happily alongside her younger sister.
Although he had long known that this land was exceptionally harsh toward the infected, this outcome was absolutely not something they should have had to face.
Burdened by Originium crystals in life.
Unable to rest in death.
Used as tools by people with ulterior motives...
"Do not blame yourself. This is not your fault, Shirou."
Even Blaze found the situation difficult to deal with.
Still, she tried to comfort the young man in front of her, imitating the reassuring tone Amiya often used during operations.
"You have already done more than enough. If it were not for you, even more people would have suffered. The ones truly at fault are those who refuse to treat the infected as human beings."
She did not understand why Shirou was placing all the blame upon himself.
No matter how she looked at it, he was clearly not the one in the wrong.
After all, despite being a non-infected person, he had helped countless infected individuals without ever asking for anything in return.
That alone was enough to prove how kind-hearted he was.
A kind person should not be left covered in wounds because of someone else's crimes.
Yet that was often how the world worked.
And no amount of reasoning could change people like that.
They acted recklessly because that was simply who they were.
"...I know."
After a long silence, Shirou finally spoke.
Those people had already received the punishment they deserved.
What troubled him now was simply his own powerlessness.
Things had gone too smoothly for too long.
He had become overly confident without realizing it.
With that thought, Shirou looked at the childish hair ornament in his hand.
Then he let out a deep breath and slowly stood up.
"Shirou?"
His sudden movement startled Blaze.
She had still been trying to think of ways to comfort him.
For a moment she had even considered hugging him.
That was what people did in movies, after all.
Though it seemed unnecessary now.
After regaining her composure, she carefully examined him.
He looked better than she had expected.
She had thought she would find someone with swollen, tearful eyes.
Instead, aside from a faint trace of loneliness, his expression looked calm, the same as before.
Though if Blaze remembered correctly, people like that were often the most frightening.
After all, if you kept pumping air into a balloon, sooner or later it would burst.
Still, that was not a problem she could solve.
Amiya understood those things far better than she did.
"I am fine. Let us finish dealing with this place."
Projecting a small piece of cloth, Shirou carefully wrapped the hair ornament inside before speaking calmly.
As though the person kneeling there moments ago, consumed by guilt, had been someone else entirely.
"Alright. In that case, we should gather them together and cremate them. Leaving them here will only result in them becoming Originium crystals or rotting away."
Since Shirou seemed composed again, Blaze decided to focus on the task at hand.
According to her plan, the two of them would gather all the infected remains and burn them.
The Oripathy in their bodies had already been pushed to a dangerously unstable state through artificial means.
At any moment, they could break apart into Originium dust and scatter across the land.
Cremation was hardly ideal.
But it was still better than leaving them here.
"No. There is no need to go through all that trouble. The size is about right."
Shirou looked around for a moment before shaking his head.
"The size is about right for what?"
Just as Blaze was preparing to get to work, a question mark practically appeared over her head.
Then she watched Shirou walk deeper into the area.
Blue light began gathering around his right hand.
The glow flickered.
Took shape.
Solidified.
Eventually becoming a real weapon.
A strangely shaped...
Spiral sword?
"Come on. Let us meet up with the others."
After planting the spiral sword into the ground, Shirou turned around and began walking away.
"What is this?"
Blaze looked first at the spiral sword embedded in the earth, then at Shirou's departing figure.
After hesitating for several moments, she ultimately chose to follow him.
She had no idea what he was doing.
But Shirou's Originium Arts or whatever his abilities actually were always seemed to have countless strange applications.
Trusting him was probably the safest option.
Blaze did not recognize the spiral sword.
After all, the one before her was not being used as an arrow, so Shirou had not bothered transforming it into its alternate form.
"You will find out soon enough."
Forcing a smile onto his face, Shirou spoke in a joking tone.
"Fine."
Seeing his expression, Blaze decided not to press further.
Giving him some space to calm down was probably the better choice.
After all, the worst-case scenario was simply that she would have to return later with more personnel and equipment to handle the situation.
The two of them quickly returned to where the five others were waiting.
"Already finished?"
Seeing them return, Exusiai looked surprised.
After all, not even ten minutes had passed.
She had not expected them to work so quickly.
"Not yet. There is still one final step. Cover your ears."
Shaking his head, Shirou answered.
At the same time, he raised a hand and looked toward the Mountain-Splitting Sword.
Or rather, toward somewhere even deeper and farther beyond it.
"Caladbolg!"
As Shirou completed the chant, everyone could clearly feel the surrounding air and the drifting yellow sand being pulled toward a single point at an incredible speed.
"By Laterano!"
As someone who frequently played with explosives, Exusiai immediately recognized what this reaction meant and could not help cursing aloud.
After all, they were standing quite close.
The others obediently covered their ears and did not hear Exusiai's Laterano profanity.
That did not stop them from wanting to curse just as much.
Because anyone fortunate or unfortunate enough to witness a mushroom cloud of that size from such a distance would probably react the same way.
First, they saw the enormous mushroom cloud rising into the sky.
Only afterward did the deafening roar reach them, followed by the explosion's shockwave sweeping outward in all directions.
Fortunately, something blocked the blast from reaching their position.
Still, the massive sword trembled slightly under the force of the explosion.
Just once.
A single shake.
"...Shirou, next time you do something like that, could you at least warn us first?"
Only after the gigantic mushroom cloud had begun to dissipate did Blaze lower her still-trembling hands and speak.
"Did I not just do that?"
Shirou looked genuinely confused by her accusation.
"I mean a detailed explanation of what you are planning to do so we can prepare ourselves mentally."
Looking at the expression on his face, which practically had What are you talking about? written across it, Blaze felt her teeth itch with irritation.
She almost wanted to bite him.
"Next time... Right. Next time, definitely."
At first, Shirou intended to brush her off with a casual response.
But then he remembered how much effort she had put into comforting him earlier.
After a moment's thought, he decided to give her a proper answer.
Even if it still sounded somewhat perfunctory.
"You really are something else... Fine. Are you sure this actually solved the problem?"
Blaze ground her teeth for a moment before finally deciding not to pursue the matter.
What interested her more was the result of that explosion.
Shirou did not answer.
Instead, he withdrew the magical energy sustaining the Mountain-Splitting Sword.
The colossal blade dissolved into particles of light and vanished.
With the sword gone, everyone could finally see the landscape beyond.
What should have been flat ground had become a massive crater.
Several spots within it still glowed red and emitted thin trails of smoke.
Apart from that—
Nothing remained.
"...This is good. Thank you."
Looking at the scene before her, Blaze felt that perhaps this was the best outcome possible.
For that, she was grateful to Shirou.
"It is alright. Let us go."
His golden eyes swept across the area one final time.
After confirming that nothing had been left behind, Shirou decisively turned and walked away.
The others exchanged glances.
Then, one after another, they followed him.