You are very strong, but my painting style is better than yours!

call!

A strong night wind blew by, and Kageno Minoru shivered.

"Wait! What is this?"

He faintly heard the sound of wild beasts again, which was not unusual in the mountains, but it made him inexplicably nervous, and the hairs on his body stood on end.

That feeling... yes, it was when I first saw a tiger at the zoo... even lying on the ground, it still had a vibrant life force like a flame, a powerful feeling that fascinated people.

But after he had explored the ultimate in martial arts, he had not felt similar emotions for a long time. Even when facing the dark muzzle of a gun, he could remain calm.

Now, just hearing the strange noise brought by the wind has put him on high alert?

——!

He was slightly taken aback, then an immense joy welled up inside him, his chest feeling as if it were about to burst from his rapidly beating heart.

It's "abnormal"!

Whatever exactly it was, it was definitely something he had never encountered before, an unusual situation that couldn't be encountered in ordinary daily life!

Ahhh, could my wish finally come true today? Does supernatural power really exist in this world?

As he swiftly traversed the mountains and forests, Minoru Kageno, a modern human, displayed agility comparable to that of wild animals. He followed the roars, finding his way closer, and the noise grew louder as he got.

……roar!

Although it was still a bit blurry, Minoru Kageno could almost tell that it was indeed the howl of an animal rather than the sound of the wind.

Animals? What kind of animal makes that sound?

As he drew closer, he began to see some traces, such as broken branches, large footprints, and claw marks... These were relatively common, but there were also things like a whole broken tree, rocks scorched by fire, and a narrow, deep ditch...

The boy sketched out a rough outline in his mind:

This is a creature of enormous size and intense aggression, and it is also very likely that it possesses some mysterious magical abilities.

Spell!

Just thinking about it makes Minoru Kageno want to jump up!

In his mind, since such a monster exists, there must also be an unknown "inner world" where he can show his skills and truly become a Shadow-level powerhouse!

At that moment, Minoru was overwhelmed with happiness and, without considering the danger, quickly approached the source of the sound. When the sound disappeared, he continued to examine the various traces along the way, his agile figure, more nimble than a monkey, traversing the moonlit forest…

Finally, he burst out of the forest and arrived at the end of the trail—

call!

A cool breeze brushed his face, and Kageno slowed his pace, stopping after only a few steps. He stood there, staring blankly ahead in the open space.

No!

Nothing at all!

There were neither monsters nor superhumans; all that was in front of them was emptiness, except for an open space about the size of two houses... It was simply a cliff with nothing at all!

In the end... was it all just wishful thinking?

Minoru Kageno became dazed. He began to wonder if there was some harmful gas in the meteorite crater that was causing him to hallucinate, which was why he could see so many "clues" along the way.

He took two steps forward dejectedly, but all he could see was emptiness. There was nothing here... So he decided to go back.

Bang!

The moment Minoru Kageno turned around, a weight of over a thousand pounds fell onto the cliff. The strong wind pressure whipped up fragments of rock, some of which struck Minoru Kageno's back, allowing him to clearly feel a sweet sensation rising in his heart.

But he didn't have time to check his injuries, because this jump and landing had already delivered what the boy had always dreamed of, and it was now right behind him!

call!

call!

call!

His breathing was even heavier than Minoru Kageno's, as if a blower had been placed behind his head.

Carefully, Minoru Kageno slowly moved her feet, turned around slowly, and looked again at the cliff that had once been empty.

However, this place was no longer empty; instead, there was a demonic creature that seemed to have escaped from the depths of hell!

The upper body is vaguely humanoid, with huge and ferocious horns spreading from both sides of the head. The lower body is like that of an arthropod, with several pairs of bladed legs connected to the carapace-covered torso. Its arms are outstretched, displaying a menacing posture.

deterrence?

Who is it deterring?

Did I make it feel threatened?

Kageno Minoru's expression gradually changed, then he suddenly turned around again, his pupils constricting sharply—

A boy holding a strange longsword, wearing loose martial arts clothes, and with indifferent eyes, stood there confronting the monster, while Minoru Kageno stood between the two!

Undoubtedly, this is the most dangerous position; whoever attacks him will be in danger. But at this moment, Kageno Minoru shows no fear whatsoever; instead, a pleased smile curls his lips.

Ahhhh, the "other world" really does exist!

I will eventually become a Shadow-level powerhouse!

Chapter 199: CG Mega Sale, As Expected of Lord Shadow! (4K)

It was slightly different from what I expected.

When Iori opened the story CG leading to "Shadow Warriors", she thought she would be transported to a fantasy world unique to Japanese light novels, with magic academies, princess knights, heroes and demon kings... living a carefree life of picking up girls on the roadside and divine artifacts falling from the sky.

But when he opened his eyes, he did not fall into a women's bathhouse or encounter a goddess of water and wisdom as described in many novels. Instead, he was met with a scene of purgatory.

The scenery was hard to describe in words. If I had to put it into words, it would be as if the whole world was about to collapse. The blood-red sky was filled with pitch-black cracks and blinding thunderstorms. The earth seemed to be made of layers of flesh and blood, which were then burned into an obsidian-like texture by fierce fire. The air was filled with the pungent smell of sulfur, and the few plants that could be seen occasionally looked like grotesque claws.

Surprisingly, this world is filled with magic, and in some ways, it's far from desolate; in fact, it's quite "rich." Although there's no suitable soil or water to sustain ordinary life, the ubiquitous magic has given rise to many alien creatures adapted to this extreme environment.

Iori calls it a monster.

When he arrived in that world, before his energy system had fully transformed from spiritual particles into magic, he was attacked by monsters. Their strength varied, and if classified by the level of Void, most of them were mixed Voids, while the leaders could reach the level of Kylian.

In the past, he might have posed a slight threat to Iori, but now he is one of the best among the captains. Even without using his energy, he can easily kill lower-middle-level Hollows with just his White Strike and Ama no Murakumo. So he easily survived the first wave of attacks.

Once he fully adapted to the energy system of this world, he directly unleashed his Noble Phantasm, amplifying its power to the point of being overwhelming in this magically rich environment, and cleanly annihilated the invading enemy.

Perhaps the commotion was too great, or perhaps his unusual appearance caused some kind of repulsion, but in the following days, magical beasts kept chasing after him. He fought his way out, his sword drinking countless drops of blood.

Gradually, he began to encounter stronger monsters, lord-level monsters comparable to or even surpassing Adjuchas, with countless cannon fodder under their command, which made Iori fight for a long time.

If it were any other Shinigami, even a strong one like Kyoraku Shunsui, they would probably be exhausted to death from this continuous high-intensity battle!

However, the advantage of the third method lies in this: Iori's magical power can be replenished indefinitely, and her materialized soul body will not get tired or deteriorate like the physical body, nor will it accumulate hidden injuries. Therefore, she can always maintain her peak condition and wipe out all the monsters in an entire area, including that lord-level monster.

After that battle, Iori finally had a little time to catch his breath and took the opportunity to wander around and carefully examine the local environment... and then he began to wonder if he had come to the wrong place.

He hadn't finished reading the novel "Shadow Warriors" (and it wasn't finished yet), he had only watched the first two volumes and watched the anime. He was quite certain that it was a standard light novel isekai world... rather than this kind of Shura battlefield.

But he did activate the cutscene, and nothing unexpected happened... so there's only one possibility:

Although it is not mentioned in the original work, such a place does exist in the real world.

It could be an independent space like a secret realm, or a common multi-world setting like heaven or hell.

Of course, considering the existence of the "demon possession" phenomenon in the original work, the source of its power seems to be from the demon king of another dimension... it may be related to this.

Iori was determined to investigate and figure out what this place was and how to get to the normal world, but there was clearly no civilization here, and few of the monsters were intelligent. Even if there were, she couldn't communicate with them. As a result, she could only kill her way through... and soon she got tired of it.

Just as he was about to temporarily abandon his exploration of "Shadow Reality" and retreat to Soul Society, an incredibly powerful magical reaction appeared within his perception range, sweeping towards Iori like a storm!

It was a deformed monster, its body swirling with crimson magic, and its size comparable to a skyscraper. Its body structure was somewhere between that of a human and an arthropod, and when it moved, it left deep trenches in the ground, as if it had dug out a riverbed.

Like the previous monsters, this guy lacked intelligence and wisdom, possessing only the instinct for killing and destruction. He launched an attack on Iori without any communication from beginning to end, plunging the young Shinigami into a rather tricky battle.

This monster's charged attack is comparable to a city-destroying Noble Phantasm, and its physical strength is like that of a mobile fortress.

However, despite its immense strength, it fights entirely on instinct, without any special skills; it simply swings its steel-hard limbs to unleash torrents of magical power.

With her comprehensive abilities, Iori was naturally not going to lose to such an opponent. After becoming familiar with the opponent's action patterns, she unleashed her full power to suppress it!

However, he then encountered a problem:

It's not that we can't beat them, but the monsters seem to be blessed in this world. Their physical damage can be quickly repaired with magic, and their bodies can forcibly draw magic from the external environment to replenish their consumption!

In other words, although the principles are different, on the surface, this guy has the same immortality and infinite magic power as Iori.

Thinking about it carefully, this is not surprising, after all, even in another world, the principle of "survival of the fittest" still applies.

Just like the race of Boros, the overlord of the universe, who evolved high-speed regeneration to adapt to the harsh environment of their home planet, in this "hell" without soil and water, life basically has the characteristic of feeding on magic, so there is no need to establish a complex food chain to maintain the environment.

Therefore, it is natural that the larger and more energetic a creature is, the more magical energy it needs to absorb to survive. However, the total magical energy in the environment is limited, and life forms within a region are in a competitive relationship, much like the many plants in a forest vying for sunlight.

As this process evolved generation after generation, the super-sized monsters that survived to the end naturally possessed the strongest "magic absorption" ability!

Fighting such a guy could easily turn into a mess, and there would be no benefit in winning. Iori originally didn't want to get entangled with him for too long, but seeing that the other party was like a mad dog biting and wouldn't let go, he made up his mind to find a way to kill him.

The two fought for dozens of miles, turning mountaintops into flat land and cracks into valleys... In the end, the "Third Method" proved to be the most effective, as the monster's physical body reached its limit first and could no longer maintain such a high level of magic absorption, and was gradually weakened by Iori.

Just as Iori was about to defeat the boss monster, the cornered creature suddenly self-destructed, triggering a cataclysmic magical surge that even affected the spatial rifts in the sky. Iori couldn't escape it and was swept into darkness...

Fortunately, this spatial rift seemed to have inadvertently opened a "path" connecting to a neighboring world, throwing Iori in—that is, the meteorite that fell into the mountains and forests.

Traveling through the world in this way is extremely dangerous no matter how you look at it. In a cultivation novel, one would need to be at least at the Nascent Soul stage to withstand a spatial storm.

However, Iori didn't feel any danger throughout the entire process. Although it wasn't entirely smooth sailing, it was still a close call, and she didn't even get injured... This was either extremely lucky, or the two worlds were so close that crossing over was so easy.

He carefully sensed the new world and discovered that it was a place completely opposite to "Hell," with an unusually thin magical atmosphere... no, there was no magical atmosphere at all!

Yes, absolutely not. The portion that flowed with Iori also quickly disappeared into the atmosphere.

Iori was astonished and carefully checked the CG system, discovering that the energy converted from the art style value was still magic power, and the multiplier was a relatively high "9".

It seems that although this is a world without magic, it still values ​​"prestige" even more than Type-Moon, second only to Bleach, where everyone is a great poet.

Regardless of whether there was magic or not, as long as Iori could enjoy the art style, she didn't complain. She quickly began to gather information about her surroundings and then discovered a brightly lit town in the distance.

It's modern society!

This immediately brought Iori to mind the plot of the "original work," and a slightly unbelievable idea emerged:

He didn't arrive in a fantasy world, but rather in the 21st-century Earth before the protagonist's time travel!

This is a bit troublesome, because the first two volumes of the novel he read did not involve this place, and only the first episode of the anime takes place in modern times... In other words, Iori has no intelligence advantage here.

Just as he was pondering where to begin exploring this world, a subtle fluctuation of magical energy caught his attention.

He then realized that he wasn't the only one who had traveled through time; there was also the flesh and blood of the giant beast after its self-destruction. Most of it had lost its vitality in this vastly different environment, but a few had gained the ability to move by devouring other pieces of flesh.

They look like clones of that monster.

After that, things were quite simple. Iori didn't let these monsters take over the mountain or storm into the town. Instead, he chased them down in the forest and killed them one by one... until the very last one, when someone unexpectedly stumbled into the battlefield.

—Back to the present, Iori merely glanced at the boy before focusing her attention on the monster.

"Roar!"

The crimson magic was released like a whirlwind, leaving deep marks on the surrounding ground. Just as it was about to tear the boy apart, an invisible barrier appeared and blocked the wind blades.

"Ugh!" Kageno Minoru's pupils contracted. He had never felt death so close. Just a moment ago, he had tried to find a way to dodge or resist, but in reality, he could do nothing but close his eyes and wait for death.

If it weren't for that peculiar "invisible wall" protecting him, he would probably be torn to pieces by now.

He turned to look at Iori, but before he could say thank you, a black figure walked past him.

Without glancing at him, Iori gripped the Ama-no-Kurakumo in her hand, and with a slight push of her feet, the ground cracked instantly, and the misty water vapor transformed into sword light that sliced ​​through the atmosphere—

Zheng!

A ripple spread through the air. The sword was so fast that the monster had no time to react. The crimson magic on its body was easily pierced, and its flesh, which was tougher than steel, was sliced ​​like tofu. Its enormous head flew into the air...

hum!

hum!

Several glowing wedges fell from the sky and pierced the monster's body, instantly suppressing its violent magic and eliminating the possibility of self-destruction. The monster's head was also completely reduced to ashes in the dazzling lightning.

In just two seconds, a mere blink of an eye from a mortal's perspective, the ferocious monster was completely annihilated, revealing the enormous difference in strength.

Minoru Kageno stared blankly at the scene. He had imagined countless times what it would be like to fight against the Demon King, monsters, and eccentric executives, but obviously, fantasy was far less shocking than reality. Iori's indifferent expression, his ease in eliminating enemies, his shihaka armor fluttering in the wind, and the charming sword blade flowing with moonlight... all of these completely plunged him into a vortex of emotion.

[CG included]

Shadow of Fate/stay night