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IBHJ Chapter 649
🕑 Added 2023-12-31 05:00:37 +0000 UTC"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
Several black silhouettes appeared before Shirou and knelt down on one knee before him loyally, like subordinates.
Holding the black grail, he had become the guardian of this connection point, just as Avenger Edmond Dantès had been.
These must be the Servant subordinates also summoned by the black grail and allocated to him by the COUNCIL.
Just like him, these Servants were probably altered and dragged into this world.
Shirou's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized these subordinates carefully. There was Lancer Diarmuid, Assassin Hassan, Rider Medusa, and Archer James Moriarty.
There was also a Saber who had answered the summoning, but she had yet to appear before him at the moment.
In that case, wasn't this connection point meant to reenact a standard Holy Grail War?
However...
"Why is there no Caster?" He raised a brow.
The seven classes made up a Holy Grail War, but including himself, only six classes had been summoned by the black grail in this world - Caster was missing.
But after some thought, this was a black grail summoning by the COUNCIL instead of a conventional one, so it was rather special.
He dispersed the Servants before making another round around Fuyuki to confirm the lack of normal humans. He then headed out of the city.
Unfortunately, about two kilometers outside of Fuyuki, there was just blurred fragments of jet-black darkness. It seemed no other cities or constructs existed beyond that point.
"How interesting. We can only access Fuyuki City itself - so the explorable map is limited to just the city?" He raised a brow, feeling this connection point was rather fascinating.
He was currently strolling through the forests on the outskirts of Fuyuki. In his version of the city, this area was untouched forest where the Einzbern family had prepared their castle for the Holy Grail War.
But that wasn't the case here. The local government had already developed these forests. Factories and plants had been constructed inside.
The once majestic Einzbern Castle didn't exist in this version of Fuyuki. All that occupied the land were empty factories and distinctly planned industrial zones.
But none of that truly mattered. Regardless of what this alternate Fuyuki City looked like, it was ultimately just a fabrication by the COUNCIL, fated to be dispelled and destroyed like any connection point.
He understood clearly - even if this was a version of Fuyuki City, it was not his Fuyuki City.
His sentiments towards this Fuyuki City were just an unfamiliar yet familiar feeling. After all, this version was developed from the 1993-1994 Fuyuki City he knew, so having such feelings was normal.
Shirou laughed and shook his head, preparing to return to the underground cavern beneath Mount Enzou. He wanted to see what exactly the COUNCIL was trying to accomplish by summoning him to this fabricated city.
He also planned to use [Evil] and his own Eternal King records to send a signal to his main body, lost in the dimensional rift. It would give him and Adam a clear sense of direction to move forward.
Just as he lifted his foot to leave, suddenly—
—Excalibur Morgan!!
A pitch-black beam shaped like a pillar shot out from the distance. It streaked towards him like a bridge of stars, trying to bombard him.
Oh?
He glanced over his shoulder and chuckled at the jet-black light permeated with despair before it engulfed him completely.
The beam swallowed him whole and destroyed the industrial zone behind him simultaneously.
Had the ambush worked?
Someone watched intently from afar.
As the smoke dispersed, the scorched ground billowed white fumes. Unharmed, Shirou emerged from the smoldering earth, holding a sword sheath - [Avalon].
The figure's expression turned grave and she immediately fled.
Shirou didn't pursue. The legend's influence made him want to reflexively counterattack with the Tower of Light, but he held back the urge.
"How interesting. So Saber was turned into an Alter...and she wasn't being controlled?"
Shirou laughed. He stowed the sword sheath and said, "Very well. I'll go find out what schemes the COUNCIL is planning, while you...” He trailed off. “Well, just wait until Chaldea gets here to help out."
A smile spread across his face. "But really...I get to play the BOSS this time around?... Heh."
Chuckling to himself, he turned and headed toward the underground cavern beneath Mount Enzou.
Behind him lay the razed industrial zone, now a smoking wasteland. Surrounding the destruction was circle after circle and rows of short, young saplings, contrasting with the towering old trees farther away.
...
It had been three months since Kiara first arrived at Chaldea. She finished all the necessary training and classes too. Most importantly, she passed her assessments today, so she was officially a novice Master now.
Starting today, she’d be going on real missions. Kind of like the on-the-job training Mash did when she first went to Romania.
Why'd she want to become a Chaldea Master anyway?
It was probably to prove something to her other self who had turned into a Beast.
Though Kiara herself wasn't clear on what exactly she wanted to prove. But she had to at least show that other version of herself that she wasn't weak.
Yes.
Maybe it was some stubborn pride too.
But still...
"Who do you think will lead us out there?" Kiara asked the friend beside her. She had lovely golden brown hair down to her shoulders. Delicate features like a porcelain doll, plus blue eyes peering out from behind black-framed glasses. She kept her chin tipped down a bit, looking gentle and refined but also kind of insecure.
Definitely seemed like the type who relied on others.
She was one of the novice Masters too, from Kiara's same training group. Maybe since they went through everything together, they'd become close friends. Talked about pretty much everything.
"I don't know..." her friend shook her head.
"Um...Hopefully it's a nice senior like Miss Gray." Kiara mumbled.
There were three other people doing this training batch.
Unlike Miss Gray who just brought Mash, their group had five trainees total.
That was partly because Miss Gray wasn't an assigned mentor, she'd volunteered to train Mash. And her condition was rather poor due to her curse.
Usually the training leaders brought five students out.
"But I heard the one taking us is from Team A."
"Someone from Team A?" Kiara was surprised.
She wasn't some ignorant kid anymore. She'd learned a few things by now.
Team A - the ace squad led by Chaldea's best, sent to deal with the toughest connection points.
They'd been fighting on the frontlines all this time, stabilizing who knows how many anomalies.
If someone so skilled was leading the mission, couldn't they handle this easily?
Not to mention all she could learn from them.
Kiara felt a spark of anticipation.
Amidst the murmurs, a petite girl with long black twintails walked up calmly. She wore white robes, holding a book, glasses perched on her nose.
Gazing coldly at the gathered group of five, she said "I am your training leader, Hinako Akuta. Address me as Captain or Senpai."
"Greetings, Senpai!" Kiara and the others quickly bowed respectfully.
Glaring at the polite trainees, Hinako muttered "Damn you, Morgan...shoving this troublesome thing on me.”
After a pause, she said to them "Inside the connection point, you'll follow my orders. No running off on your own. Of course, if you do act reckless and cause problems, I won't care. Honestly, watching you screw up badly enough to die in there...that could be pretty entertaining."
Yikes, Kiara winced worriedly. No way they'd get along with this senior. The other newbies seemed to shrink down too.
Seeing the properly intimidated group before her, Hinako nodded, satisfied. Not bad.
She raised her book to cover her face entirely.
No one moved a muscle, assuming she was formulating strategy.
Little did they know, Hinako was actually reading the dense text filling the pages.
She hadn't written it of course. Some pain-in-the-ass Dead Apostle had. Then named it “Friendly Interaction Strategy Book”.
Damn her!
Not only pushing this chore job on Hinako, but running off herself!
And who said she wanted to be all friendly with these guys anyway?
She should've just tossed the stupid thing straight in the trash right away, what a blunder.
That jerk was probably hiding somewhere right now, laughing at her misery!
Hinako ground her teeth in frustration.
But after taking a careful look at the content in the book...
- Share your interests, likes and dislikes
- That's it, don't scare the kids!
—Love, Muah Muah, Yours truly
Hinako's face darkened.
She tore the useless pages viciously before tossing them expressionlessly in the garbage.
Kiara and the rest watched in frightened silence, unsure if they had somehow offended this stormy senior. Nobody dared to make a sound.
With a gloomy face, Hinako said, "Move out!"
Comments
JeanMartin Freites
And now we have the deployed team.
