Human beings are the most special among them. Their power of existence is like a solid. Every time the power of existence is reduced, it is like cutting a piece of this solid. If the power of existence in the human body is consumed, there is no way to replenish it.
To put it in simple terms, the reduction of human's power of existence is like directly reducing their upper limit of mana, rather than consuming mana, so in fact, whether it is infusing humans with the power of existence or devouring the power of existence, it will lead to human death.
This is why humans are unable to use the power of their own existence to perform free magic. Only the Fire Mist Warriors who have contracted with the Red World Demon King or the Torch with self-awareness can use the power of existence to fight.
This is because when humans use the power of existence it is like using their own vitality to fight, and it cannot be replenished in any way, so using it up means death.
Chapter 241: Torch and Humanity
"The gathered power of existence will grow like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger, and thicker and thicker, until there is no human left in the entire city."
Alastair told Shana in a heavy tone.
"This secret technique is called Devouring the City."
"Not only this city, but the high concentration of existence power generated in this way will eventually be devoured by the Red World Demon King who uses this secret method, right?"
Alastair did not respond, but answered Shana's question with silence.
The power of a city's existence is enough to transform an ordinary Red World Apostle into an extremely terrifying Red World Demon King. If Fariagni really succeeds, the consequences will be unimaginable.
And Fariagni naturally expected that Alastair would be able to discover what he wanted to do in this city.
For the contracted demon king of the Fire Mist Warrior, who had extensive experience, it was only a matter of time to discover the Devouring City. However, he did not expect that Shana had already discovered the abnormality of the city in such a short time.
In his opinion, it would take at least three days to discover the mystery of what Fariagni had done.
Because he also knew very well that the Fire Mist Warriors would never pay attention to the torches. Unless they explored the entire city with a purpose, it would be difficult for them to discover the secrets.
However, as long as you go to investigate with a purpose, the existence of the contracted demon king will quickly discover the problem.
"Then there is only one answer—"
The moment Shana finished speaking, her hair instantly turned bright red, and a large sword appeared in her hand.
"What are you going to do?"
Seeing Shana suddenly taking out her weapon, Emiya Shirou had a bad feeling.
"As long as the number of torches in the entire city is rapidly reduced, Fariagni's plan will not be completed."
Before the number of torches is insufficient to engulf the entire city, quickly reducing their number can effectively curb Fariagni's plan.
Although it will also have an impact on the real world, compared to swallowing up cities, such impact is harmless.
"boom--!"
Shana suddenly turned into a bullet, jumped off the building and rushed towards the crowd on the street.
As fire mist warriors, they can use the power of existence freely. Naturally, they can use the power of existence to make others ignore their existence, and not all problems need to be solved by sealing.
At least, there is no need to launch a seal to deal with the torches.
"Qiang——!"
The sound of swords clashing against each other echoed violently in the streets.
Everyone immediately noticed Shana's presence at that moment.
In front of her, there stood a man in armor holding a samurai sword, who was trying hard to block the attack from Shana.
The street suddenly became chaotic, and everyone quickly moved away from the area. Only a small number of people watched the two people fighting with the intention of watching the fun.
However, no one noticed the torch that was supposed to be killed by Shana's knife.
"Step aside!"
Shana was a little confused and angrily scolded Shirou Emiya who was blocking her.
"No, those torches didn't deserve to die like this."
Shirou Emiya still stood in front of Shana, refusing to give in.
With the help of [Evil Ghost], Shirou Emiya, who originally had a small power gap with Shana, immediately surpassed her and pressed Shana to retreat behind him.
Although Shirou Emiya was able to suppress Shana and push her back even when his strength was inferior to Shana's.
“They’re already dead!!”
The torches are no longer human. They are just the remnants of the remaining power of human existence. Even if Shana does not kill them, they will disappear with time.
Every trace of your existence in this world will disappear.
The Fire Mist Warriors and the Red World Apostles treat the torch as a prop. What's more, the torch itself is a prop made to delay the distortion of the real world.
This is the knowledge that Shana has always accepted and recognized. She can't quite understand why Shirou Emiya wants to save the Torch.
Even though he was at the center of their battle, the Torchbear seemed to see nothing and just kept walking forward.
The disappearance of the power of existence not only makes it difficult for others to observe him, but his own will and soul will also continue to turn to ashes due to the disappearance of the power of existence.
But in Shirou Emiya's eyes, it was not the case. After all, he met a torch, a torch that could be clearly noticed by others, could live in the world like humans, and could be remembered by himself.
Although the body no longer belongs to human beings, the soul, consciousness, and the torch are still human.
Since torches with complete self-awareness exist, doesn’t that mean that those dissipated torches actually have self-awareness, and are not simply puppets created by the Fire Mist Warrior and the Red World Demon King?
They are no longer human, but they are still human.
If they have completely lost their self-awareness and are just a walking corpse, then Shirou Emiya will naturally not stop Shana, because she is definitely no longer a human being, but just a tool without a soul.
"Don't you know your priorities? Didn't you hear what Alastair said? If we don't put out those torches, the entire city will be lost. Are you saving those torches and ignoring the lives of the entire city?"
Shana suddenly retreated backwards, pointing her large sword at Emiya Shirou and questioning loudly.
They are just some torches. Solving them can save the people in the entire city. As a human being, Shirou Emiya should understand this truth better.
This is a trade-off, not to mention that those torches themselves are dead people, and Shana has no idea why Shirou Emiya wants to save them.
Is the life of the torch more important than that of humans?
If the failure to extinguish these torches led to the destruction of the entire city, could he bear such responsibility and could he pay such a price?
Thinking of this, Shana became furious. The battle that had just ended seemed to be about to break out again.
Although the crowd around had no idea what they were arguing about, they watched with great interest. Such a fight between dragons and tigers was a rare scene in Misaki City.
What's more, this city is not like a certain city named Dong, where there is a small explosion every three days and a big explosion every five days. The gas company is condemned every day, and they don't worry much about their own safety.
They were just two people cosplaying with knives. How could we miss such a good opportunity?
Chapter 242 How to Save the Torch
"Now, this incident did not happen. Doesn't it mean that Fariagni did not complete the ritual?"
Shirou Emiya asked Shana in return, if Fariangni's [Devouring the City] technique had been completed, Shana would have no time to notice such a phenomenon.
Being able to accomplish his goal immediately, but waiting, waiting for the Fire Mist Warrior to discover his purpose, this is not something that the Red World Demon King, who is famous for his wisdom, would do.
Why did Fariagni wait until Shana arrived before using this spell? There is only one simple reason, that is, the spell was not completed.
It has not yet reached the point where it can be completed immediately.
If he was only one step away from completing such a terrifying technique, then there was no need to hide. He would use all his strength to devour the power of human existence and create torches frantically. Shirou Emiya and Shana would have no chance of stopping him.
Fariagni has a large amount of phosphorus in his hands that can deprive humans of their power of existence.
But there are only two Shirou Emiya, and they are unable to split the two. Even if the speed of the crusade is very fast, it is impossible to eliminate all the phosphorus in the city in an instant.
And if Shirou Emiya could think of this kind of operation, Fariagni could naturally think of it as well.
So why didn't Fariagni choose to do this? This is an open conspiracy, and it is impossible for Shirou Emiya and Shana to stop it.
In other words, the input and output are not equal, and doing this will not allow Fariagni to complete [Devouring the City].
This technique cannot be achieved simply by setting up a large number of torches. Each torch must have a method of freedom inside, which can enable all the torches to be released in an instant when Fariagn wants to use them.
This is also why when Yuuji Sakai saw the puppet devouring his classmate, he devoured all of his classmate's existence force, and then released a part of the existence force to construct it into a torch.
Instead of choosing to devour it and transform it into a torch.
The second type of power devouring is faster than the speed of creating torches, but it cannot make the torch achieve the effect that Fariagni wants.
If [Devouring the City] is just a simple matter of setting up torches, then the Red World Apostle only needs to use a large-scale free method to kill an extremely exaggerated number of humans before the Fire Mist Warrior arrives, and then set it as a torch to transform into a powerful Red World Demon King.
The world would have become a mess long ago.
"Moreover, from last night till now, the entire city has not been sealed off, and there has been no sudden explosion in that area. In other words, Fariagni has not taken any action during this period, and no new torches have been generated."
Shana put down the Zhidenzana in her hand. She was not an unreasonable person. Shirou Emiya's explanation was reasonable and well-founded.
The actual situation was just as Emiya Shirou said, it had not yet reached that critical point and there was no need to rush to put out those torches.
However, Shana still couldn't understand why Shirou Emiya cared so much about those torches. In any sense, they were all dead people, and they were just shells walking in the world.
"This is not the place to talk."
Shana looked at the crowd that was constantly surrounding her, her brows furrowed, and a ball of fire rose from the palm of her hand.
She was seen moving slightly in all directions, and the people around her suddenly became dazed, their eyes instantly lost focus, and they stared blankly ahead.
"I erased their memories."
As soon as she finished speaking, Shana disappeared from the spot in an instant.
Without stopping for too long, Shirou Emiya jumped and left the street.
Although Shana is not a Fire Mist Warrior who specializes in using the Freedom Technique, she still knows how to use the most basic Freedom Techniques, just like the Sealing Technique. The Freedom Technique that can erase people's memories is also something that Fire Mist Warriors often use.
Just like the most basic and most frequently used magic by magicians are suggestion magic and enhancement magic, both of them have extremely wide applicability.
When ordinary people discover that they are performing magic, magicians use suggestion magic to make them forget the experience or treat it as a dream.
The magic of freedom and suggestion performed by Shana are similar in nature, both of which are aimed at preventing ordinary people from entering such an unusual world.
After all, not everyone is like Shirou Emiya who can only use imperfect enhancement magic and unpopular projection magic.
"If we eliminate most of the torches, then the Hunter's goal will be defeated."
Back on the rooftop, Shana spoke calmly. Although she chose not to deal with the torches immediately because of Emiya Shirou, it did not mean that Shana would not choose to destroy those torches.
Because this is the simplest and quickest way to stop Fariagni's conspiracy and lure him out.
There was no way he would just watch something he had planned for so long being resolved so easily.
Emiya Shirou was well aware of this.
"Those torches are no longer human. As humans, they are already dead. Even if we leave them alone, they will soon perish."
A steady voice came from in front of Shana. Having lived with Alastor for so many years, he could see why Shirou Emiya chose to save those torches.
"Have you ever seen a torch with independent thoughts that can be easily discovered like an ordinary person and will not be ignored subconsciously?"
Shirou Emiya did not refute Alastair's advice. Living like a puppet was indeed like being dead.
If Shirou Emiya had not met Yuuji Sakai, he might have listened to Alastair's advice and let Shana get rid of the torches.
But since there are torches that can live like humans, doesn’t that mean that those puppet-like torches have a chance to recover?
Although they cannot become human, they can live like humans.
"Tianmu One"
Shana whispered a name.
"That was the original owner of the Zhidianzana in my hand, and also the forger."
She looked at the weapon in her hand and spoke slowly.
"Mistis?"
Alastair responded.
Torches that hold a treasure are called Mystis, but in essence, they are still torches, just with something that other torches don't have.
"Mistis?"
Seeing Shirou Emiya asking questions, Alastor quickly explained to him.
"No wonder"
Shirou Emiya also understood why Yuuji Sakai could live like a normal human being.
