Chapter 22: 21 - Karma and Swords
After confirming that Saint was in some sort of metamorphosis, Shirou and Sunny decided to go down into the basement. Sunny lead the way with his shadow, while Shirou followed him. Ingvild stayed as a puddle at the entrance to the basement.
As they walked down, they had encountered a wall. Sunny sensed shadows behind it, meaning that there was a secret room. They looked around for a switch.
After a few minutes, Sunny had found the hidden lever and pressed it. It didn't move however, as the mechanical parts had rusted. He summoned his sword and inserted the blade into a seam. He pushed with all his might until he heard movement.
The wall had slid away slightly, leaving enough space for a person to enter. Sunny walked in with Shirou close behind. There was a long staircase going down, deep underground.
Once they had gotten to the bottom of the stairwell, they had noticed a large black door, surrounded by pale torches. The shadows were absolutely motionless, so Sunny commanded his own shadows to move away from the room.
As the two of them approached, they realized that the torches were some type of protective charm.
Shirou saw Sunny pull out a key, and asked him where he had found it.
"Oh, this? When I had left with Nephis and the others two months ago, we had fought this bone creature. I saw the key in it's body and pulled it out."
Indeed, for the past two months, Sunny had left on a journey around the Forgotten Shore. They had went to collect the shards, and returned having accomplished their goal.
Although Nephis and Sunny had asked him to come, he had to decline. Somebody had to stop Nightmare Creatures from getting into the Dark City after all.
In the castle, Gunlaug ruled the Dark City as a king. The people who bowed down to his reign were supposed to protect the city from outside threats. Unfortunately, they were not very competent, nor that worried about protecting the people.
Shirou decided to do it himself.
Gunlaug had tried to recruit him on numerous occasions, but he had declined. Shirou would never serve somebody who did not even attempt to save the people here.
Sunny had inserted the key into the lock, and a faint light of divinity started to become brighter.
Once Sunny turned the key, a click resounded through the room, and the door opened slightly.
Inside the room, there was a corpse chained down to a circle. It wore a dark mantle and a black lacquered wood mask. The mask resembled the face of a demon, and had three twisted curved horns.
As Sunny slowly approached the corpse, Shirou felt his eyes being drawn to something. He walked over to a corner of the room, and found a small box on the floor.
Shirou opened the box. His eyes widened when he saw two eyes. The eyes looked to be completely fresh. Eyes should not be able to last so long outside of the human body. This was not what unnerved Shirou the most however.
The eyes were the exact same color as his own.
Shirou didn't think that amber eyes were very common. He stood in silence as he heard Sunny throw up in the background. He completely ignored this before reaching for the eyes. He held them in the palm of his hand for a few moments.
Shirou held his free hand to his face, and proceeded to silently gouge out his own eyes. As he tore his eyes away from his skull, he tried to place the other eyes into the bloody sockets.
Of course, Shirou still could not see after placing them in his eyes, but he did not worry about it. He breathed in and turned his nerves into swords. He slowly stabbed the nerves into his new eyes. He then turned the eyes he had placed in his skull into steel.
Shirou had never tried to turn an organ into swords, especially one that was not his own. The eyes did not feel foreign at all. It was like they were made specifically for him.
In only a few seconds, Shirou was able to see again. He had felt that he made some progress with [Fleshforge], but wasn't entirely sure.
[You have received a new attribute: Karmic Eye.]
Shirou paused for a moment.
…Why the hell did I just do that?!
He quickly turned around, just to see Sunny wearing the mask that was on the corpse. The corpse seemed to be completely gone. They both stared at each other before asking:
"Are you a corpse robber?"
"Why the hell are your eyes not bleeding?!"
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"Alright, let me get this straight. You had the great idea to tear your eyes out and replace them with some that you found in a box."
"Unfortunately, yes."
"I'm going to ask you a question."
"Sure."
"Are you crazy?!"
"I'm not too sure myself. Anyways, I don't want to hear that from the guy who robbed a corpse."
"I didn't try to rob the corpse!"
"That's what they all say."
Shirou and Sunny were currently back in Sunny's room. It seemed that Shirou had gotten a new attribute, while Sunny had gotten a new Memory. After a few minutes of freaking out, they had come to the conclusion that nothing could possibly make sense about what happened down there.
Shirou sighed.
"Anyways, I really got to go. I was only supposed to come for a short visit, but you dragged me into a fight against a Fallen Devil, before causing me to tear up my eye sockets."
"How the hell is that my fault?!"
"I'll see you later, Sunny."
Shirou stepped out onto the balcony, and proceeded to scale down the wall with his spikes. Once he reached the ground, he walked deeper into the outskirts of the Dark City.
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Shirou stared down a well. Ingvild had reverted to her human form before jumping straight into it.
Shirou summoned a pendant. Once he did, he hopped into the well behind Ingvild.
After a few seconds, Shirou had hit the bottom of the well. Immediately, the pendant glowed slightly, before covering his head with an air bubble. He had gotten this memory when Ingvild had killed a Fallen Beast in the dark sea.
Shirou waited for Ingvild to grab him as she pulled him deeper into the water. For a few minutes, they were swimming through multiple tunnels. Once they had arrived at their destination, the two of them climbed into an abandoned standalone prison cell.
They walked into the prison cell, which was actually quite luxurious. Shirou wondered if this was the cell for the previous king of the Dark City or something. The cell was connected to another room, which was a spacious bathroom. It had some runes in it, which Ingvild explained were the runes for "water".
Somehow, it had allowed them to get indoor plumbing. All that was needed was for somebody to say the True Name of water, and water would flow into the bath or sink.
Inside the main room of the cell, a large bed can be seen. The bed was actually a Memory that Shirou had obtained when he fought a Nightmare Creature that placed a sleeping mental attack on you. The bed had an enchantment that made it very comfortable.
Ingvild had immediately went to take a bath, so Shirou decided to sit down on the floor to check his new attribute.
He did not want to get water on the bed.
[Karmic Eye]: (The eye of the Daemon Blacksmith are now yours. Whenever you hold a weapon, you will be able to see and interact with karma.)
"I wonder what "karma" is supposed to refer to."
He understood what karma was to a degree. However, Shioru did not understand how karma can be seen, or interacted with.
Shirou summoned a greatsword into his hands.
Memory Name: [Gargoyle's Blackblade]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Description: [Bronze greatsword wielded by Valiant Gargoyles mended with blackened corpse wax.]
Memory Enchantments: [Corpse Wax Cutter]
Enchantment Description: [Imbue the blade with the power of corpse wax.]
The greatsword held in his hands was covered in black wax near the end of the blade. He had gotten it from a gargoyle he had killed outside of the city. It was quite bothersome due to how it was flying in the air. Fortunately, Shirou was quite a good shot, and used the [Gandiva], to snipe it down.
The enchantment was not currently usable, as Shirou needed soul essence in order to activate it. However, the sword's performance had outclassed the [Washing Pole], so it was currently the weapon he mainly used.
When the sword was summoned into his hands, Shirou started to see double. His eyes hurt for a moment, before everything became clear. There were some strings that were loosely attached to him. He grasped them, and tried to pull.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remove the strings from himself. They didn't seem to be tightly attached to himself, so he wondered why.
After a few moments, the door to the bathroom opened twice, and he saw Ingvild walk out twice. Every movement she made happened twice. One image looked looked faded, while the other looked physical.
[What are you doing?]
"Oh. I'm just trying my new attribute. It looks like I can see the future by around two seconds."
[…What?]
It seemed that Shirou couldn't hear from the future.
Shirou tried to consciously deactivate the attribute, and it seemed to work. He was still holding the sword, but his vision was now back to normal.
However, Shirou started to scream.
Normally, Shirou would have been able to withstand pain. Somehow, when he used [Karmic Eye], [Mind of Steel] immediately shattered the moment he deactivated it.
Shirou felt his body be stabbed, sliced, ripped apart, disemboweled, crushed, strangled, dismembered, and all other types of pain he would have never imagined were possible.
Then, it had stopped.
Shirou found himself on the ground curled up against himself. He was being cradled by somebody, but he didn't look to see who.
…Is this the pain of others?
As Shirou was screaming in pain, he had felt many types of pain. He had felt physical pain, but he had also felt mental pain. He had experienced emotions that have never once touched his heart, as it has always been protected by a [Mind of Steel]. Shirou had understood something.
[Mind of Steel] was not obtained during his First Nightmare.
It had been there all along.
Since the day he had been found in the fire, he had wanted to experience the emotions that Kiritsugu had show him on that day. Shirou had never experienced any deep emotions in his life. It was mostly surface level, such as irritation, anger, joy, or gratitude.
He had not been able to smile the same way that Kiritsugu had.
[Karmic Eye] seemed to connect him to every single living being in the Dream Realm. He thinks that it may even connect to the Waking World as well. He then proceeded to feel the pain of all those people.
Shirou did not think that the attribute would have normally done that.
The culprit has been with him all along. Ever since he had completed his First Nightmare.
Flaw: [Heart of Glass]
Flaw Description: [You can constantly feel the pain of others.]
His flaw had never caused him any major troubles. The worst that happened was when Nephis's flaw caused him to lose his arm against the Centurion.
[Heart of Glass] gave him the pain of the people he was near.
What would happen if the Nightmare Spell considered him to be near every living being?
Shirou heard somebody call out to him. He was being held by Ingvild, who's hair seemed to still be wet from her bath. She looked at him with worry as she held him against her.
"…Can you let go of me?"
[Are you okay?]
"Yeah, just please let go."
Once she did, Shirou immediately stood up and walked towards the bathroom. He locked the door before taking off his clothes.
He looked into the mirror, and almost didn't recognize himself. His face was slightly red, and his eyes seemed much more lively.
This scared Shirou.
He froze when he realized what had just happened. Shirou had experienced true fear for the first time of his life. It wasn't that he was a courageous individual. He simply couldn't feel it at all.
This scared Shirou even more, causing an endless loop of Shirou being scared of being scared.
He said the True Name for water before laying in the bath.
The fear slowly turned into excitement. Shirou realized that he was now able to feel the things that normal people did. He was now one step closer to fulfilling his goal.
The way that Shirou saw the world had completely changed.
Both in the literal, and the non-literal sense.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Type_Sword
Type_Sword Crazy chapter. I was lowkey seeing a whole bunch of plot holes but I tried to fix them. If you see anything you think I missed, please tell me.
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