A dimensional journey starting from the Dragon Clan

When Ayaka was distracted, the stalker suggested that "if you want to choose a base, there is a suitable house over the swamp." However, he was worried that the "monster" might come back, so the three of them went there together.

Well, then, because there was a light on the other side of the window, Miss Stalker said she was going to check on the situation. Not long after, an alarming sound came from the bungalow and a dazzling light came on...

Ayaka was in confusion at that time, and she only knew that the swordsman had a few discussions with them. By the time Ayaka came to her senses, the situation had entered a new stage.

Ayaka felt that she was really just being played around, and while feeling ashamed of her own uselessness, she expressed her gratitude to the swordsman who had always protected her.

She fell asleep thinking about this, and then had that strange dream. When she woke up, she realized that the enemy had become those special forces.

I really don't understand what those people who volunteered to participate in the Holy Grail War think.

Ayaka murmured in her heart and asked Sigma, "It would be better for you to gain a foothold by betraying us, right?"

Hearing Ayaka's straightforward words, Sigma replied: "Once Faldius knows that the chess pieces are useless, he will immediately want to eradicate them. Compared with him, I still hope to deal with people like you. "

"In other words, we are your guarantee... once it becomes useless, maybe you will get rid of us, right?"

"I don't deny it. So, you can always be wary of me. I won't completely believe you, and you can also not believe me from the beginning."

Sigma opened the skylight and spoke openly, which made Ayaka sigh.

Just when she was wondering what else to ask, the swordsman interrupted: "You just said that 70% of the troops have left. Did something happen?"

"It seems like there's a monster causing trouble in the industrial park."

"Monster? Please tell me in detail..."

Ah, oops.

Ayaka quickly tried to stop her, but it was too late.

"I don't know who summoned the heroic spirit, or the monster summoned by the heroic spirit, but according to the communication I monitored, there is a monster about the same size as this house that is wreaking havoc in the industrial park."

After Sigma finished speaking, Ayaka slowly turned back to look at the swordsman. I saw an adult standing there who was not young but had sparkling eyes like a child.

"Swordsman."

"Huh? Ayaka, what's wrong?"

"Do you want to go?" Ayaka asked straight to the point.

The swordsman's eyes wandered around and he replied: "Ayakashi! What are you talking about? Of course I really want to go. I want to recreate the legend of destroying demon cats with a shield or something. I really, really want to! But I can't do it either. Take it to such a dangerous place."

"Yesterday you took me to the forest where the other servants were without saying a word."

"It is true that there is such a thing...but this time it is a monster after all..."

Although they had only known each other for a few days, Ayaka already knew the swordsman well.

He is basically a big cat that relies on spinal reflexes to move, and his mobility is surprisingly strong. As long as he finds someone he is interested in, even if the person is wagging his tail at him from dozens of kilometers away, he will pounce on him without hesitation.

Moreover, he is very gentle. So when faced with his own desires and concerns about Ayaka, he was in a dilemma.

Although it is troublesome to go around...but I don't want to be a burden to him.

With this thought in mind, Ayaka was about to say something to the swordsman—but she saw "that thing" in the corner of her vision.

Cold sweat broke out on Ayaka's face, and her breathing naturally became heavy.

Why...are you here...there is obviously no elevator! A girl wearing a red hood stood on the bed.

She slowly turned her face towards Ayakashi, but half of her face was blocked by the hood and her expression could not be seen clearly.

The girl's lips moved slowly, as if she was smiling at Ayaka. This frightened Ayaka so much that she almost screamed.

"Ayaka, what's wrong?"

The swordsman's voice brought back Ayaka's lost sanity. Ayaka took a closer look and saw that Little Red Riding Hood was no longer on the bed, only the swordsman and Sigma looking at her strangely were in front of her.

"It's okay, it's nothing. What are you going to do next? Do you want to go take a look?"

Ayaka changed her usual attitude and took the initiative to make suggestions. Before the swordsman could answer, Sigma said first: "I advise you not to go."

"Why?"

Sigma started by saying, "I just received a communication," and added the current situation.

"My real employer seems to be up to something."

"Hey, employer, isn't it the country's special forces?"

"Although I have not signed a confidentiality agreement with my employer, I am a person of integrity, so I can't tell you too much... At least it is certain that what the employer is going to do is very dangerous. If you don't want to be implicated, it's best not to do it for the time being. Get close there.”

After saying that, Sigma was silent for a moment and said something that was unclear whether it was a joke or sincerity.

"However, whether you or I come to this city at this time, there is actually nowhere to escape."

············

Somewhere dark.

Francesca's workshop can barely accept external light, and only the light from the screen constitutes the light source here.

Snacks and snack packaging bags were scattered everywhere on the messy bed. Francesca, the owner of the workshop, was sitting face to face with her servant Francois.

"Then I give the order as the master? Hey, speaking of it, don't you feel a very strong dislocated pleasure when you order yourself? What does it feel like to be ordered?"

"There is an indescribable, jealousy and masochistic pleasure intertwined. I am intoxicated and forget myself. Do you want to exchange the identities of the master and the servant tomorrow?"

"Okay. It's a pity that it doesn't work. At the moment of exchange, you will take away my command spell, and then start playing a game of making me commit suicide, right?"

"That's an accurate guess! As expected of me! It's so hard to deceive!" Francois laughed loudly and leaned against the wall, continuing to say to Francesca, "Then what order do you want to give? But generally speaking, I You can guess it.”

"Your guess is the correct answer! From now on, I plan to have Servant Francois do his best to eliminate the monsters in the factory! It's so awesome! It will be fun!"

"If it is an ordinary servant, even if the master uses the command spell, he will not be willing to carry out such an order."

"But you will go, right?"

Francesca smiled like a little devil at her male self, and Francois nodded with a little devilish smile in return.

The contract is established——

Francesca couldn't wait to hit the floor with the tip of her umbrella.

As a mechanical voice sounded, the wall Francois was leaning against shrank back.

Then, the wall slid open like a tram door, releasing the isolation between the workshop and the outside world.

The transparent blue gradually appeared, and countless lights poured into the room.

The extremely dazzling white light of the sun and the cloudless blue sky came into Francesca's eyes.

This is a bluer and broader sky than when viewed from the ground.

Francois, who was leaning against the wall just now, was thrown directly to the outside world. Now he saw a completely different scenery from Francesca.

In the boundless red land, the city is like a salt mountain spread over the wilderness.

If it were late at night, the street lights would look like an uneven starry sky.

François felt a little regretful that he had not been able to see such a scene, and then he opened his arms without hesitation, spinning and falling freely as if dancing.

Twenty kilometers above the ground, at the lowest level of the stratosphere, is where Francesca's "workshop" is located.

It was a high-altitude unmanned airship being tested by the US military. Francesca applied multiple enchantments such as invisibility and wind protection, and made several modifications from three aspects: magic, science and her personal interests, and finally built this huge airship with a total length of 200 meters.

However, it is not the kind of mobile fortress that appears in science fiction novels that attacks the ground with full armor. Instead, it uses a 200-meter-long air bag to lift the small Prelati workshop.

Francois was at a height where he could overlook everything, but it was basically impossible to see clearly what was going on on the ground with the naked eye.

However, the changes in the industrial park were so exaggerated that even Francois could detect them with enhanced vision.

The giant mechanical spiders were destroying everywhere, and the archers who transformed into Avengers fought against them single-handedly.

The surrounding factories have been razed, and the meatpacking plant is no longer what it once was. Not only could one see the alienated remnants and impurities of the barrier, but also the monsters running outside the workshop. The indescribable chaotic scene was spreading bit by bit.

Seeing this scene, Francois had only one reaction - he smiled happily.

"Hahahaha! Not bad! Great! Francesca (me) is simply great!"

As he kept laughing, the ground was not far away from him and he could see everything clearly.

While admiring the chaotic scene in the industrial park, Francois thought about what was going to happen next: Although I really want to continue to watch this scene spread throughout the city... But it is not the time, not yet, and I have to endure it.

Although Francois couldn't control his laughter, he managed to calm down.

However, this is just a reluctance that he endures in order to experience longer and greater happiness.

Even if it's just superficial, you have to control it well.

The master's friend named Faldius was able to clean up the entire street in one go.

After deciding on his purpose, Francois accelerated his fall. He opened his arms and fell to the ground with his head down.

Francois sang in the endless sky, it was like singing loudly, but also like chanting passionately.

It was a poem praising his Noble Phantasm and expressing his joy in unfolding it.

"I want to offer my blessings, thanks and sacrifice to this destroyed world!"

"Thanks to my mother (Arte), I was born to be the embodiment of madness!"

"Bless the whole world, Holy Spirit, it is you who taught me the madness of mankind (magic)!"

"Show me a different kind of crazy saint and knight. You are both right!"

"I want to offer sacrifices to all humanity this destroyed world allows, and that's me!"

François shouted a selfish congratulation. At the same time, the surrounding space began to distort.

He quickly approached the ground——

As he rushed towards the ground that was getting closer and closer, he shouted the name of the great magic of the Noble Phantasm.

"Luoyan City does not exist, so the madness in the world will never end (Grand Illusion)!"

············

Above ground industrial park.

"Found it! It's that woman!"

After discovering Harley, the black magicians of the Scladio family chased after her with sinister expressions.

The berserker is prioritizing "destroying the magic workshop", and Filia is following it, so now Harley has to rely on herself.

The meat processing plant has been destroyed to the point of being unrecognizable, but the surrounding factories seem to be facilities like magic workshops, and the berserkers who regard them as "enemies" are still doing their best to destroy them.

The berserker breathed fire and turned several factories into a sea of ​​flames. Seeing this, Harley decided not to think about the Berserker's action pattern anymore.

Anyway, now we have to get rid of those magicians in black...

"Please!"

Harley shouted, and the bee hidden in her clothes immediately appeared.

"Stop those people!"

After she said this to the countless bees sitting on her shoulders, the swarm flew towards the men behind her without any disturbance.

"What? Bee!"

"Struggle to the death...watch me squeeze to death...woo!"

Some bees attacked the men from the front to attract their attention, while the rest quickly circled behind the men.

The men discovered that they had been stung by a swarm of bees on the back of their necks. They panicked and prepared to use magic, but they all rolled their eyes and fell to the ground.

It turns out that the venom secreted by these familiars (bees) contains powerful hypnotic effects. Harley thanked them in her heart and ran non-stop to the outskirts of the industrial park.

Not even close... As long as I leave this area, the Magic Workshop shouldn't be able to affect me...

Harry looked back and saw that the Warcraft lost control due to the destruction of the workshop and started fighting with the men in black of the Scladio family; the berserkers knocked down the two chimneys on the roof of the factory; the archers stepped on them. The fallen chimney leaps high and releases arrows that look like laser beams.

The arrow hit the berserker's back directly, and the berserker suddenly made a scream-like mechanical friction sound that echoed around the industrial park.

Arrows came one after another, and the berserkers responded by waving cables and wires wrapped around their bodies like tentacles.

Filia also took the opportunity to fight back, but was defeated one by one by the archers with their bows.

In the eyes of others, they are constantly engaged in an offensive and defensive battle of advancing and retreating.

Harley knew that this kind of battle was not something she could handle, so she had to cheer for the berserker in her heart: Although my magic power is insignificant, you can also absorb all the magic power. So...so destroy it, destroy everything! Destroy, destroy, destroy everything the magicians have created!

The berserker pulled out the cable from the pulpy ground and sucked it into his body as energy to replenish his magic.

Something magical happened. The berserker's body absorbed the rubble of the surrounding factories and became even larger.

It doesn’t matter what your true identity is anymore! Please...please destroy everything in this magical world...

Thinking of this, a bullet suddenly passed by Harley's shoulder, taking away a trace of flesh and blood.

"ah!"

Harley let out a silent cry of pain and fell to the ground.

It turned out that the bullet instantly penetrated the defensive barrier covering her body and wounded her shoulder.

The barrier still offset part of the impact of the bullet, but even this was enough to scrape off a layer of flesh and knock Harley to the ground.

Then, after the man - Bazdilot Cotilio fired the menacing bullet, he asked without changing his expression: "Harry Bolzak, what on earth did you summon?"

"Do you think...I will easily tell you...the information about the servants?"

"It's too easy to kill you here. But once I kill you, the alien will lose control and I don't know what it will do. If you can tell it's information or use a command spell to order it to commit suicide, , I can get you on your way without any pain.”

Harry stood up and pressed his shoulders, and replied: "At this time... shouldn't I say 'I can spare your life'..."

Bazdilot tilted his head slightly and asked, "Are you a stupid magician who would believe such lies?"

Harley felt very complicated. A magician—a dabbler like her would be called a magician. She made a decision silently.

Pretending to let the berserker commit suicide, he actually ordered it to use all its strength to completely destroy all the magic workshops in the city. Then, let it go to Las Vegas or Los Angeles and have fun until the momentum runs out.

For the rest, let the local tribesmen do whatever they want. It may cause them to lose their own mystery, but all I can say is "I'm sorry."

"Okay, then I will use the command spell to make the Berserker..." Harley slowly raised her hands -

Suddenly fell into the bottomless abyss.

The light in the sky became farther and farther, but there was no change in Bazdilot, who was holding a gun a few meters in front.

This means that Bazdilot is also falling downwards.

Go back a few seconds.

The first person to notice that the situation had changed was Filia.

"This magical aura...is it the group of guys living in Mycenae?"

As soon as Filia whispered these words, she caught the abnormal change with her naked eyes. The ground beneath his feet suddenly disappeared, and the whole person began to fall downwards.

"Huh?"

She hurriedly wanted to jump into the air, but found that the magic that originally filled the space disappeared.

"This...is not aimed at me, but a magic trick to deceive the fabric of the world! How unreasonable!"

Filia looked around and realized that it wasn't just the ground around her that had disappeared.

Centered on the meat processing plant, the circular land including most of the streets in the park disappeared, turning into a huge, bottomless, dark gap.

Not only that, the surrounding magic also disappeared completely. Whether it was the group of low-profile magicians of the Scladio family, Philia, Alcides, or even the huge berserker, everyone came together. Falling down.

When everyone could only fall freely, Filia saw the culprit that caused this phenomenon.

The boy fell to the ground at high speed and gave an innocent smile back to the android who stared at him. For some reason, only the boy can use magic. He adjusted the speed of his fall and cooperated with Philia, Harley, Bazdilot, Alcides and others to fall into the bottomless abyss together.

"Oh, this is the first time for many of us. However, I saw the archers in the snowy mountains, so I probably haven't seen them for a day, right?"

The light sound came from the boy falling headfirst.

He opened his arms widely and said to everyone who was falling: "It is said that the Abi Hell in the East can keep falling for two thousand years, which means that it will reach the bottom after two thousand years. In this sense, it is quite gentle, right? However, since we will have to endure hundreds of years of torture in the end, maybe it is better to continue falling? Which one do you prefer?"

Following the boy's words, countless luminous images appeared around the black hole - where the dark earth wall had been before - and then disappeared one by one.

Some of the pictures are of monsters having a banquet, some of a bleak paradise parade, some of starving children, some of the boundless starry sky, some of terrifying monsters that cannot be described in words, some of cities as beautiful as golden land, and some of people running in the wilderness. Saints, there are knight corpses covering the ground.

The low-end magicians of the Scladio family felt that these scenes were lifelike. In fact, their self-awareness was on the verge of collapse at this time, and more than half of them fell into coma.

Although the use of magic power was controlled, Bazdilot Cotilio still maintained his usual expressionless and ferocious face.

But in the end it still affected his control of the "black mud" in his body. You can see from the hem of his clothes that black things like tattoos are rolling violently on his skin.

"Warlock, what do you want to do?"

Hearing Bazdilot's indifferent question, the boy known as the Warlock bowed respectfully in an inverted posture and replied: "There is nothing I want to do, just to make the Holy Grail War proceed smoothly. If this continues, Faldius’ stomach will be perforated, and the world will be filled with sadness. Flowers will bloom, birds will sing, and butterflies will fly at the end of the world. When a typhoon blows, it will be discovered that it is a cornucopia containing Faldius’ body?”

The second half is meaningless.

Bazdilot didn't respond, just stared at him. Seeing this, the warlock laughed and said, "It's really uncooperative," and then said, "Don't worry, I am your companion, and I am with you. I am a companion of humans, a companion of gods, and a companion of warcraft." , companions of the magician. So, I came here just to prevent them from disappearing... just to prolong the happy time."

After saying that, the young warlock clapped his hands.

The outer wall of the black hole also disappeared, and thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people suddenly appeared and continued to fall into the depths.

"I don't know what you think about the 800,000 people in Snowfield. Anyway, I don't want to do anything yet."

The boy's figure disappeared instantly——

When he reappeared, he had transformed into a giant with a length of several kilometers.

The young man continued to fall into the bottomless abyss with everyone, and at the same time expressed his wish: "So, let's make a deal.

"The object of the transaction is what the unabashed people in the past called the 'devil'... me."

············

Koltzman Center for Special Orthodontics.

"You will really cause trouble for me, Miss Francesca..."

Looking at the scene on the screen, Faldius frowned in a rare way.

It happened after he received a "It's okay, it's okay, I'll sort it out soon" contact from Francesca.

As a layman of Onmyodo, Faldius saw the scene in front of him that made him think of a Onmyodo word to describe today - bad day.

What appears in the picture is a large black hole that makes the entire industrial park disappear.

This goes beyond the excuse of "sinking of the earth's crust". Even if he takes "emergency measures" to wipe out all of Snowfield, it won't hide the big black hole, it will only make it clear to people across the United States.

In a few minutes, the observation satellite will pass over the city.

It was a civilian satellite that provided intelligence to everyone in almost real time, including ordinary scholars. If they could see such a clear big hole, there would be no need to talk about it being hidden and mysterious.

Faldius was about to call Francesca and ask her how she was responsible - more exaggerated things began to happen on the scene.

The huge hole was suddenly filled. Then, as if going back in time, the fallen chimneys and crumbling factory walls began to regenerate, and even the previously burned grass in the open space returned to green.

"This is……"

Just when Faldius was at a loss, Francesca contacted him. "Yeah! Are you scared? I think your coffin face has softened a bit, right?"

"Stop talking about irrelevant things...what exactly did you do?"

Francesca laughed so hard that she replied: "It's just an ordinary illusion. That's my Noble Phantasm after I turned into a heroic spirit. It can do things many times more powerful than turning a wasteland into a snow-capped mountain! Ah, yes By the way, the people fighting there seemed to suddenly reconcile for some reason. This is really the power of love, right? It’s awesome! Love!”

Faldius turned a deaf ear to most of what Francesca said and mentally analyzed what deal they should have made.

But before he could mention it, Francesca warned him: "In the end, you and I will be enemies in this Holy Grail War. Don't forget it."

Then, Francesca mentioned something that made Faldius unbelievable.

"Although that area seems to have returned to its original state, it is actually an illusion. You can touch it, you can live in it, and you can also use it as a factory or workshop like before. It's just an illusion! It's not like going back in time. , don’t be too naive. In about five days, the world will realize that it has been deceived, and then it will collapse back to its true appearance. So during this period, I will trouble you to do covert work!"

Francesca cut off communication after leaving all the work to Faldius.

Faldius looked up, stared at the airship that was blocked by the ceiling and could not be seen at all, and said: "If there is a next time, I will get rid of you before we start... Miss Francesca .”

In any case, Faldius decided to start covert work first. He considered whether, like the last time when it was disguised as a desert gas explosion, the cause was that the same gas company caused successive accidents due to management negligence.

At this moment——

"We received a strange report that the twenty-eight monsters used means such as expelling barriers to lead people to escape."

Aldora sent a report to Faldius, but it was of little value.

"A large number of citizens living around the industrial park went to the central area and residential areas to evacuate." According to Faldius, anyone who hears such explosions and collapses will automatically find a place to take refuge without even thinking about it.

Because of this, he didn't immediately notice that something was wrong.

After the commotion in the industrial park subsided, something more troublesome accidentally awakened.

············

In a dream.

"Are the people at the factory okay?"

"Well, it must be okay...Ah, look! Everyone is here! They are taking refuge in the streets!"

Following the direction indicated by the young man, Chun saw a large number of citizens walking towards this direction, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

Just now, a sound like thunder came from the direction of the factory. At this time, Jesta has become Chun's friend and told her that "there is a fire at the factory."

"Ah, if it catches fire, it means there must be someone there. It's okay, everyone can evacuate safely."

Hearing Jesta's worried expression, Chun also began to speak uneasily to "Mr. Black": "I hope the people around the factory can escape smoothly."

But Chun didn't see it. The boy who called himself "Jesta" showed an evil smile behind her.

As a result, the 120,000 residents living around the industrial park were all infected with an unknown "disease".

Only the vampire in the appearance of a young man accurately understood the significance of this matter.

The city is slowly but surely beginning to move towards tragedy.

Little did they know that only half a day later, someone trying to turn the tide would appear.

Time goes back to when Sigma, Swordsman and others met.

When Sigma stated, "I am also a Master who participated in the Holy Grail War," the oriental girl named Ayaka seemed to be slightly more vigilant, but the swordsman didn't pay much attention, and just asked in a cheerful tone: "No matter what, you won't Will he even introduce the heroic spirits to us?"

"...That is my trump card after all, I can't tell others."

Sigma shook his head. The female stalker who had been observing him said, "He just called Servant Chaplin."

Ayaka opened her eyes wide in surprise, looked at the silent Sigma, and said, "Ah, I have heard of that person..."

"The movie I watched yesterday at Live House included that actor's movie!"

The swordsman's eyes also brightened visibly.

Although Sigma didn't break out in a cold sweat because of his weak feelings, he still felt that things were a bit troublesome.

What would be the consequences if he told Ayaka and his party that he was possessed by a servant named "Watcher" instead of simply signing a contract?

If the other party believes it, he may be able to protect himself through appropriate responses.

Just now, under the guidance of the "shadows", Sigma escaped from the stalkers, which shows that his ability to "extract intelligence" is indeed very strong.

A question flashed through Sigma's mind: If I were purely regarded as a supply, everyone would probably think that instead of killing me, it would be better to use me, right?

However, this did not change his determination.

Because he wants to participate in this war as Sigma, not Soldier A. Sigma only made his decision at the instigation of the "Shadows", so his determination was not strong enough to change his life. But at least he no longer had any reason to remain friendly to his employer Francesca, saying: "I just want to be a soldier!"

Although Sigma also felt that it was a bit hasty to decide how to live based on "not wanting to die", he at least knew that rashly making enemies of the heroic spirits in front of him would shorten his lifespan. Therefore, he decided to temporarily hide the abilities of the heroic spirits and communicate with Ayaka and his friends in a friendly manner.

"Now that we know the name, how about introducing us to him? I want to show my respect to the actors on the stage."

"... He said that an actor's duty is to show himself in the movie and not let the audience see his usual appearance."

Sigma made up a random reason to deal with the swordsman, but even he himself felt that this reason was too untenable.

Just when he was thinking this, the swordsman nodded vigorously and replied: "I see, I can understand."

"It's actually understandable..."

Ayaka glanced at the swordsman silently, but did not continue to ask.

In short, everyone tentatively signed a simple truce agreement. Sigma breathed a sigh of relief after returning to the room alone.

Sigma proposed that each other's positions should be kept confidential to the greatest extent possible. He would not pry into Ayakashi's privacy, and Ayakashi and the others should not ask about his position and camp.

Unexpectedly, the swordsman agreed without saying a word.

In this regard, Sigma couldn't help but wonder: Does that swordsman always give priority to intuition and emotion, and basically doesn't think about anything?

On the contrary, he felt that the swordsman was terrible like this. Although the swordsman prioritizes feelings, he still became a famous hero in the world, which means that he has extremely powerful power hidden in him.

At this moment, a knight-like "shadow" suddenly appeared next to him and said: "Your intuition is very accurate. He is that type of king, a passionate person who puts the emotion first. His real name is Richard De, speaking of Lionheart... have you heard of it? Speaking of which, you should know the story of King Arthur and the search for the Holy Grail, right?"

"People still know this kind of story, it's a comedy movie by Monty Python."

For some reason, the knight was silent. The silence disappeared after that, and instead the captain took over the conversation: "Anyway, the boy named Richard is a person driven by emotions. He can stride forward on the battlefield as his own yard. Completely. He is just a lion in human skin, but he is deeply loved by the people. Maybe he actually knows a lot of tricks to manipulate people's hearts, so you have to be careful."

The captain means "don't be careless".

Indeed, it may be a cover-up for the swordsman to trust others so easily.

While Sigma felt that he had to be careful to prevent the other party from stabbing him in the back, he was wondering how long the truce agreement would last.

Although it is considered safe tonight, how should I deal with it in the future?

For Sigma, the most important thing is to "survive".

After the fight with the stalker, this idea became even stronger.

Sigma felt personally that the shadow of death that pounced on him this time was deeper than in previous missions.

He was obviously in a city in the United States, but he felt nostalgic, as if he was in "the country" where he lived when he was a child.

If it were an ordinary person, would he be more afraid and anxious?

Sigma recalls the people he met while on missions. If they were in the same environment, they would be even more desperate to survive.

For a person like me, whose brain has been modified, to compare others with myself is a strange thing.

Sigma sighed softly. He understood that as long as he had a peaceful sleep and stable food, it was enough.

In the average family in this country, you can enjoy both of these things even if you do nothing. But Sigma knows very well what life is like in countries without such conditions - such as his hometown. Therefore, he believed that sleep and food were valuable things.

In this sense, the safest choice is to cooperate with Faldius. After all, he has the backing of the country... But I have a hunch that I am afraid that he will not be able to survive this Holy Grail War. .

Sigma thought about it until dawn. Just then, Faldius contacted him.

"'Domestic Animal' asked 'Scarcity', is there any movement?"

"...A woman suspected of being a stalker appeared in the house and attacked me."

"Ah, it's the heroic spirit that attacked the police station... It's amazing that you survived. In other words, the heroic spirit you summoned is excellent. What's the situation of the female stalker now?"

Sigma could sense Faldius' surprise. Perhaps it was because Faldius had such a low opinion of him as a magician that he never expected to survive the first battle of the Holy Grail War.

"Later, the swordsman and his master came and asked me for a truce, and I agreed."

"……What?"

After hearing Sigma's report, Faldius thought about it several times and finally gave Sigma the most basic order.

That is to say, while inquiring about the opponent's intelligence, he also proposed an alliance to jointly fight against Gilgamesh and his equally powerful spearmen.

Sigma found this request too difficult.

Because the moment he heard this order, the "Shadow" carrying the mechanical wings said: "Ah, the swordsmen and the others have already formed an alliance with that spearman - Enkidu, who is as powerful as the King of Heroes."

Sigma was thinking about whether to report this matter to Faldius, but the other party asked first: "Speaking of which, do you know the true identity of your heroic spirit?"

"Well, my heroic spirit..."

He was thinking that he should at least tell Faldius correctly about this. The captain chuckled behind him and said, "Be careful, the stalker is watching you behind you."

Sigma glanced into the dresser mirror and noticed that the shadows in the corner of the room were darker than usual.

Although "Shadow" will deliberately conceal important information, he has never lied.

Sigma believes that the first step is to avoid making enemies of the Rogue. So he pretended not to notice and replied calmly: "It's Chaplin, Lancer Charlie Chaplin. This is the heroic spirit I summoned."

"...Excuse me, can you say it again?"

"Lancer Charlie Chaplin. I will ask about his Noble Phantasm and other information later. I think it is not a good idea to force him to answer with a command spell. So, I will hang up now."

Sigma had just cut off the communication with the earphone-type magic communicator and sighed when he heard a voice coming from behind him.

"Is the... one you trust just now?"

"...Miss Stalker, you are here."

"I don't fully trust you yet. Answer my question." The stalker glared at Sigma through the gap in his hood.

Sigma replied: "I don't believe in anyone. Whether it's my employer or myself, whether it's gods or demons, I don't even believe in the magic I use."

Hearing this, the female stalker asked blankly: "Don't you have a god to pray to?"

"No, I have never known... what God's favor is like."

After being asked by Stalker, Sigma began to think about how he could explain to others in a simple and clear way why he did not believe in God.

He organized his words while thinking: "People say that being born in this world is a blessing from God, but living is meaningless to me. Not long after I was born, I saw many dead people as soon as I could open my eyes. Children from the same hometown. The group of people who raised us pulled us out of our mothers’ wombs before we were born and conducted magic experiments. Their purpose of raising us was to transform us into murderous magic weapons.”

This beginning will make people feel that Sigma's past is very heavy, but his tone is very calm, and he continues to say to the stalker by listing the facts: "The people who raised me said... Those who promote the country are gods. But the gods are the ones who promote the country. , the country was destroyed by a group of guys who called themselves magicians. Therefore, I don’t know what God is at all. Without knowing anything, I believe in something that I don’t know what it is. The one who is believed in It might also be troublesome.”

What the hell am I talking about. She wouldn't understand if I said that. And I subconsciously told the truth. How can a person who doesn't trust anyone get others to trust him?

It seemed that the answer was wrong from the beginning, and Sigma regretted it very much.

However--

"Really...I'm sorry to remind you of painful memories."

The voice of the female stalker was faintly filled with kindness, and the previous hostility had completely disappeared.

"You don't need to take it to heart. This kind of thing is very common. Compared with the mercenaries from my hometown who are still on the battlefield, I should be considered one of the favored people, but I can't seem to really feel it."

While employed by Francesca, Sigma spent most of the year fighting monsters and low-end magicians. Even so, when Sigma saw the battlefield scene on TV in the city, he still thought that he should have been there, dying on the streets at a young age.

He cannot regard his current life as "the favor of God."

The female stalker shook her head slightly at Sigma and said: "There is no shortage of sad and painful people in the world. Regardless of pain or sadness, they are equal to joy and happiness in the human world. Even so, sadness and pain should not be regarded as Laughing off ordinary things.”

The female stalker narrowed her eyes, looked at Sigma and said: "You are different from the magicians I met before. You really don't believe anything... your eyes tell me so. However, your disbelief is not right. The denial of everything in the world, but the fact that we have not yet encountered anything worthy of belief.”

Sigma felt like his heart was being penetrated and wanted to look away. But he seemed to be firmly attracted by the stalker's deep eyes, unable to move his gaze.

"Not only am I immature now, I am also tainted by the magic power of monsters. I was supposed to tell you about faith, but unfortunately I no longer have the qualifications to do so."

After blaming himself, Stalker sent Sigma a message: "But, I hope you will encounter something worthy of belief in the future, at least it is something kind."

"Hope" instead of pray - and with that, the stalker left the room.

Sigma stayed in place for a moment, but a voice sounded from behind: "What's wrong? Could it be that you fell in love with her at first sight? Hello."

Hearing what the tall "Shadow" said, Sigma shook his head quietly. "It's just that, apart from Francesca's 'request', this is the first time I've heard from others that they want me to do something." Sigma thought for a while and asked the shadow, "Sleep and food , is it a kind thing?"

"Sleeping is not a belief in itself, is it?"

············

A few hours later, Sigma was woken up by the captain from a nap in his chair.

"Hey kid, are you awake?"

Just in case, Sigma used light sleep self-regulation, so he immediately responded: "What's wrong?"

"Although I won't take the initiative to say anything to you except in critical situations, your companions...the team called 'Thorns' dispersed around."

"Thorn" is the code name for one of Faldius' execution troops. Faldius is the "livestock", Sigma is the "scarcity", and the "thorns" are the heavily armed assault troops against the magicians. Before, Sigma also saw through the eyes of the familiars that they used bullets to smash the body of the puppet master named Langal to pieces.

"Haha, it seems that people don't trust you, boy. That guy named Faldius ordered them to monitor you. But the watchers can't read minds, so I don't know what Faldius wants to do with you. knew."

Sigma knew very well that with his skills, it was impossible to make an enemy of that army.

If Faldius ordered the troops to "solve" him, unless the servant had substantial combat effectiveness, he would not be an opponent at all.

Even if you can use the watcher's ability to control everyone's actions, it's useless. The opponent is not a gang of gangsters on the street, but a well-trained unit specially designed to deal with magicians. He does not have enough firepower to break out.

So that’s it, since I don’t believe it, it’s natural that the other party doesn’t believe it either. Maybe he had discovered that Chaplin was fake, but I think it’s unlikely.

Seeing that Sigma really thought he had deceived Faldius, "Shadow" was about to say something. But before they could do anything, Sigma left the room.

In order to gain firepower, he wanted to sell favors and recycle them at the same time.

He pretended to communicate with someone and said to the stalker he met first: "My original employer sent a message. This house seems to be surrounded by the country's special forces."

Sigma uses Francesca, his original employer, as a tool and continues to think about the future.

No longer act according to other people's orders like before——

Rather, it is purely to survive and go on according to one's own will.

At the same time, Sigma also made a wish in his heart, hoping that he and the "Watcher" could have the power to light up the road, even if it is just a small step forward.

············

The Escardes family is a very old family among the magician families in the Mediterranean area.

There is a theory that before the Clock Tower was established, they had been working together with the magician Jishua Zelrich Shibain Ogu and other magicians who had been active for centuries before and after the Era. . But no one at the Clock Tower believed it. The most important thing is that even the heirs of the Escardes family don't believe it.

After all, as such ancient magicians, their family has not made any practical achievements. The magic seal is only old, and more than half of the spells in the seal are "magic that even the heir himself cannot understand." Future generations even doubted whether it was just a fake that looked like a magic technique, simply used to scare people.

Even so, the magic seal still retains advanced life-sustaining functions, barely preserving the majesty of the ancient family.

Although the Escardes family maintained their lineage by creating various trivial magic patents for generations, they were still ridiculed by the Clock Tower - "It's the Escardes family in name only."

It would be great if the magic circuit was developed enough. For hundreds of years, every leader has been worried about this matter. Incredibly, the number of magic circuits in each generation of the Escardes family was very small. No matter how excellent the blood of magicians is absorbed, no matter how many generations it is passed down, the magic circuit will only improve a little bit.

Even so, it is better than decline.

Neither the Magic Circuit nor the Magic Seal has stopped growing.

They are obviously such an ancient family, but the magic seal has not yet shown any signs of their lifespan approaching. In a sense, this can be regarded as a threat, and it is often discussed as a research object by the Clock Tower. In any case, it is better than the Machili family. The seal reached its limit, the circuit gradually declined, and was eventually swallowed up by the torrent of magicians' demise. In order not to follow in the footsteps of Magiri, the Escardes family worked hard to consolidate the foundation of magicians.

Even if the magicians around them laugh at them and say that they are struggling in vain.

After hundreds of years of hard work, an "abnormality" was born in Eskaldes' home. There is a "huge gap" between the number of magic circuits in this child and his ancestors. The magic power in his body seems to be circulating to every corner of his body with the help of capillaries.

With genius-like skills in controlling magic, the ingenuity to combine past magic to develop independent magic, and a magic circuit unparalleled in the family - an ideal heir was born.

However, the incompetent but stable Escardes family is facing the end of decline. Although this descendant has the abilities expected by his ancestors, when his talents came to the fore, his biggest flaw was also exposed, which was that he completely lacked the most important "mentality" of being a "magician".

The boy has been able to see "that thing" since he was a child.

Therefore, the boy always regarded "that thing" as a normal thing and thought that other people could see it.

However, he soon discovered that he was wrong.

When he was not yet ten years old, he learned that he was a member of a special family of magicians. After knowing this, he thought that maybe because he was a magician, he saw "that thing". However, during the conversation with his parents and the magician who had communicated with his parents, he discovered that he was wrong again.

His parents seemed to see the world differently than he did.

The boy who understood this intuitively felt fear, but he could not express the nature of this fear to others through concrete words. When the parents first noticed something was wrong with their son, they thought their child was suffering from some kind of delusional disorder - but after several tests, they discovered that what his son was telling seemed to be the truth.

The Escardes son must have a powerful magic eye - this news caused a moment of sensation, but the boy's eyes were just ordinary eyes. Therefore, the fact that he could see "that thing" puzzled the magicians around him.

To the boy who was a topic of conversation, it was just an ordinary thing, but the people around him always looked at him with a look like "Why do you, a human, breathe with gills?" Gradually, the boy began to hate that "thing that could be seen".

The reason is that he was almost killed by his parents several times because of that "thing he could see." But it's also thanks to that "thing that can be seen" that he's alive until now, so he can't completely deny it.

I obviously like magic and I also like humans, but what will happen if I hate "that thing" that is closely related to the two?

Until one day, the young boy met a magician, or a woman who resembled a magician, on his way to the Casa. The woman asked the boy to take her to the port. During the conversation, she seemed to be aware of the boy's troubles.

"If you are worried about magic, the first thing you should do is study. If your family is unreliable, you can go to the Clock Tower and have a look." The woman finished speaking in a relaxed tone and boarded the luxury passenger ship.

The boy took the female magician's words to heart and thought, "If I can study in the clock tower, I might be able to solve my own mystery," so he went to discuss it with his parents. In fact, his parents had just carried out their fifth murder plan and it still failed.

The boy, who is under ten years old, said he wanted to leave home and go to school in the Clock Tower.

In the end, the parents kicked the boy out like a plague. Externally, it is said that rare prodigies will be sent to the Clock Tower to study, and they will be introduced to everyone by the way. In fact, seeing that this boy with an abnormal number of magic circuits could skillfully use advanced magic that was inconsistent with his age, many professors thought excitedly that maybe they had welcomed a talent who could leave a mark in the history of the Clock Tower.

However, things are not that simple.

The boy is highly anticipated for his unprecedented ability to control magic circuits and circuits, but his shortcomings as a magician - although his magic circuits and magic intuition are first-class, he does not have the mentality of a magician at all - how can None of them could be corrected, which made the lecturers gradually feel disgusted with him.

It's like there is a rough stone in front of you but cannot be polished. However, this rough stone maintains the appearance of the original stone and emits a more dazzling light than the polished gemstone. Every lecturer wanted to win the young man into his own camp, but most of them had their self-esteem hurt by the young man, and the final result was to drive him away.

In the life of being kicked around like a ball, a professor named Locke Bellfebon once patiently corrected the teenager. But soon, the old professor was puzzled by another part of the boy's personality, so one day he made a suggestion.

The old professor said that a unique man opened a new classroom. He is one of the Lords of the Clock Tower, but his sensibilities are somewhat different from those of ordinary magicians. If he studied under that man, the young man might be able to learn what he desired. ()