Shirou, who returned from the Fairy Kingdom

That was a deep scar etched by Ryougi Shiki two years ago.

"I am--"

Just as the monk was about to reveal his identity...

New footsteps sounded in the lobby on the first floor, and Araya Sōren turned around to look.

After seeing who it was, he frowned deeply.

"I should have set up a maze at the entrance, how did you get in?"

"You actually think a mere spatial barrier can stop me?"

The red-haired boy spoke as he walked into the hall.

Fujino looked delighted and called out the name of her savior.

"Shirou-kun!"

Volume 3, Chapter 162: "The Two Rites"

"...Amamiya Shirou."

The magician, Araya Sōren, maintained a troubled expression as he confronted Shirō, who entered from the entrance.

To prevent similar incidents, he once set up a maze-like barrier around Ogawa's apartment.

The barrier is set up simply—anyone who has entered the apartment once and left can never enter it again.

Despite the barrier being set up, the red-haired boy in front of him ignored it and passed through it with ease.

Not only that, Araya Sōren was completely unaware that he had broken into the apartment.

"Did you kill Aruba...? No, that's not right. The one who killed him was Aozaki Touko. So that's how it turned out."

The magician nodded and said.

He seemed to have no reaction to the outcome of the fight between his two old friends.

"My name is Araya Sōren."

"I heard about it from Orange Sister. Oh, I see... This is the first time I've ever seen a human who has lived longer than Zouken!"

Shirou wore a very strange expression.

Through the "Eye of the End," he deduced that the man before him had lived for more than five hundred years.

He was born long before the island split from a unified nation into numerous smaller states and was constantly at war.

The genius magician Zouken Matou's soul began to decay rapidly at the age of three hundred, and by the time he was five hundred, he was completely withered.

However, Araya Sōren, despite being five hundred years old, showed no signs of aging.

This is not because his magic skills are superior to Zouken's; on the contrary, Araya Sōren, as a magician, is probably only third-rate.

Magic circuits... should be similar to mine, Shirou thought.

Araya Sōren's origin is "stillness".

He was born with the ability to see through the origins of humanity, and he controlled his own origins, becoming truly immortal (static).

His existence is unlike any other life form on Earth, creating a natural phenomenon known as Araya Sōren.

So, what would a man like this be after?

Shirou asked curiously.

"Araya, why do you collect death? What is the purpose of building this twisted death loop device?"

"In order to reach the root cause."

"That's what the magician replied."

"I believe that after experiencing tens of thousands of different ways of dying among different humans, there will be a soul spreading out from among them that leads to the source."

However, that still cannot reach the origin of all things. The only place that method can reach is the 'origin' of humankind, not the origin of primates as a whole.

Moreover, what matters is not the quantity of deaths, but the quality of those deaths.

I have roughly categorized the possible paths to death, and the result is close to sixty-four in total.

The people gathered here are those who bear all kinds of death.

This is a microcosm of the world, which will eventually simplify from the Eight Trigrams to the Four Symbols, and ultimately aim to reach the Two Principles—

"Hey! How long are you two going to keep chatting?"

The girl's voice interrupted Shirou's conversation with Araya Souren.

"Sorry, Shi, it'll be done soon. I'll be done once I've got everything sorted out."

Shirou continued speaking while trying to calm the impatient Ryougi Shiki.

"Now I think I understand your motives. Wujō Kirie and Asagami Fujino are both your pawns."

If you act personally, the suppressive force will notice, so you use them to awaken Ryougi Shiki's origin—

You, like me, have sensed the presence of "that person."

Shirou recalled what Touko had said: Araya Souren was "a misguided version of Shirou," and now he could understand that assessment more deeply.

Despite possessing the insight to see through everything, like a saint, he was more clumsy than anyone else.

"But I don't understand, we've already prepared to this point, why give up all of a sudden?"

In Shirou's view, Araya Souren's move to the forefront meant that he had given up his plans so far.

He should have prepared other pieces besides Wutiao and Fujino.

The magician in black replied, "I have reached a new conclusion. As for Shiki, she doesn't need that body, so I will take it."

Araya Sōren said these words in a grand manner, and Shirō exclaimed with his mouth wide open in surprise.

"You wouldn't be thinking of transplanting your brain into Shiki's body..., would you...?"

"........."

The girls, including Shiki herself, were dumbfounded, while Araya Sōren wore an expression of complete indifference.

Shirou nodded knowingly and said, "Yes, theoretically it is indeed feasible, and doing so can indeed reach the root."

Just wondering, have you considered giving up?

“Impossible,” Araya Sōren asserted firmly.

"Let me ask you this as well, Shirou Amamiya, would you be willing to assist my cause?"

Araya Sōren asked with an unchanging expression.

Shirou did not answer, but his amber eyes revealed an absolute determination to "refuse".

"...Is that so? What a pity. Amamiya Shirou, I thought you would be one of my kind."

After saying this, Araya Sōren took a step forward.

That was the signal to start the war; he was invincible in this apartment—

However, Shirou raised one hand, making a "stop" gesture.

"Sorry, I'm not going to fight you."

"what?"

The magician frowned in confusion: "Didn't you come here to stop me?"

If I were to fight Shirou Amamiya, even inside Ogawa's apartment, I would likely lose.

If things really turn out that way, Araya Sōren will not feel regret.

Not only because he had long since lost the ability to feel joy and sorrow over the years.

Just as I have failed countless times in the past due to the obstruction of inhibitory forces, this time it is just a repetition of the same failure.

For the demonic monk, who is equivalent to a concept and possesses infinite time, all he needs to do is wait another hundred years before engaging in the next root challenge.

However, to his surprise, Shirou, the only one he calculated who could possibly defeat him, said he wouldn't do anything... He found this utterly baffling.

"I see. You can't see everything, can you?"

Shirou smiled and said, "It's quite sad that you can see your origin (cause) but not your death (effect)."

Here's a hint, Araya—I'm not the one who's going to defeat you.

The ceiling above Araya Sōren's head began to warp.

Asagami Fujino's eyes shone with a burning light, distorting the floor above the magician.

"……Well!"

The falling rubble buried Araya Sōren completely.

Taking this opportunity, Shirou approached the injured Shiki and Fujino and placed his hands on their respective wounds.

With incantations and a faint light, Shirou healed the two men's injuries.

Shirou stared at Shiki's face: "I'll hold off on asking why you're injured like this for now."

"..." The black-haired girl pouted and turned her head away.

"Thank you, Shirou-kun," Fujino said softly, her face flushed.

"Let's finish this quickly. It's getting late, but I'll prepare dinner for you when we get back."

Shirou patted the two on the shoulder: "The air in here is too stuffy, I'm going outside for some fresh air."

After saying this, Shirou left the lobby on the first floor.

Not long after he left, Araya Sōren reappeared.

He didn't lift tons of rubble; he simply appeared out of thin air in another part of the first-floor lobby.

This apartment is Araya Sōren himself; the common sense of architecture, whether it's the walls or the floors, is useless to Araya Sōren.

He can exist anywhere in the apartment, and he can grab any space.

This is an alternate world called Araya Sōren. As long as he is within this area, he can instantly teleport to any place.

The magician looked around.

It's hard to believe, but Shirou Amamiya really doesn't intend to fight himself...

"It seems he really thinks the two of you can beat me."

Araya Sōren stared at Ryougi Shiki and Fujino as he spoke.

"..."

Ryougi Shiki, whose ankle had been healed, grabbed the Japanese sword that had fallen to the side and sprang up from the ground as lightly as a swallow.

Accelerating in a manner absolutely impossible for a human, she charged towards Araya Sōren.

Approaching at this distance takes less than a few seconds.

A sigh was enough to pierce the black hole in the center of that guy's chest with a knife.

Before that, the magician made a sound.

"I am not afraid."

The air changed.

Shiki's body suddenly stopped in mid-air.

"Vajra, Serpent, Heaven-Dai, Top Sutra, King Manifestation."

The man raised his right hand, and with a whisper, the triple six-path barrier was completed in an instant.

Ryougi Shiki felt like a butterfly caught in a spider web, completely unable to move.

It is a magical line that spans between the ground and space, between two-dimensional and three-dimensional space. As soon as a living being comes into contact with the line that forms a circle, its power will be instantly taken away.

Araya Sōren carries a triple barrier centered on himself, making him virtually invincible in close combat.

He walked toward Ryougi Shiki, whose freedom had been taken away.

Now that Shirou Amamiya has left, there's nothing left to worry about.