Chapter 148 - Konosuba Side Part 33.

"..." Ritsuka sighed when she saw the conversation go silent after getting an open death threat.

"Senior, what are you doing?" Ritsuka turned around to find everyone staring at her strangely when she heard a voice behind her.

"Did you get hit on the head, little girl? Perhaps your mind was affected by the heavy concentration of mana?" As he looked at his temporary Master, Cù Chulainn smiled.

"Calm down, Fujimaru Ritsuka! Regardless of the case, behave like a proper master" Olga said as she went to check the communication device again.

"I'm fine, Mash. I'm just checking on something" Ritsuka said, shaking her head and waving her hand.

"Senior..." Mash frowned slightly, but she opted not to press the issue further.

Looking at Ritsuka, she could guess it's about the holographic screen that neither Chaldea nor Caster(Cu) can sense up close.

Mash tried to ask Archer, but all she got was a shake of the head, showing that he, too, doesn't know anything about it. Maybe only her Senior had an idea, but given the circ.u.mstances, she decided to wait until the situation stabilized or Ritsuka agreed to explain.

{...The scent of the Counter Force became stronger and more stable} Archer maintained a poker face, but he was frowning as he examined the holographic panel.

Even though he has already guessed... no, he should tell that anything like this has at least a 120 percent chance of being involved with the Counter Force.

Whether it's summoning him directly from the Throne of Heroes to the scent of World on this holographic panel, Archer knows it's the work of the Counter Force, or at the very least 'they' had a part in it.

As Archer examines this screen, he detects traces of Alaya and Gaia, but he is unable to determine the reason or motivation for this because it is not his area of expertise. Using his status as a Counter Guardian, he can only detect it to a certain extent.

Counter Guardians are simply soldiers whose primary mission is to find, search, and destroy any threats to mankind. Then, like all servants and phantasms from the past or future, they vanish into thin air as if they never existed.

EMIYA realized this a long time ago and stopped questioning Counter Force's will, but now... He may finally have some questions.

The Heroic Throne is one of the CounterForce's most valuable tools and devices, if not the most important. For the time being, it seems to be the safety mechanism and main means of combating threats to the planet.

Even then, humans have previously gained access to the Throne by magecraft, such as the Holy Grail ritual, but it is barely scratching the surface to cause Alaya and Gaia to act.

Fujimaru Ritsuka is an entirely different story. EMIYA thought there was no resistance from the Counter Force based on how she summoned him and the 'he' she called. It's as if they gave Ritsuka the Heroic Throne's city key, and 'they' may also have helped a little.

{The same goes for that Shielder, but Master's screen is strangely empty and clean… or maybe I just can't see it} Archer leaned his back on the wall and looked at the burning Fuyuki from the window { A war with Beasts, now this… Just what are 'they' trying to do}

Most of this period was just an intense fight for Chaldea's bunch. The moment Cu broke his barrier, the horns of war directly blew over the singularity and everyone decided to strike.

It was a period that made Ritsuka doubt life a couple of times and Olga almost threw up. Well, I guess this is the nature of the Holy Grail War, no matter what time and situation.

The fight between EMIYA and EMIYA(Shadow), which had a rare clash between reality marbles, even if EMIYA(Shadow) output was very minimal to count.

King Arthur, who was cursed by the Holy Grail according to EMIYA, was in simple words, a monster in humanoid form. The terrifying amount of magical energy supplies and magic reactor shocked Romani greatly.

She literally used mana burst in a similar manner to jet propulsion and sent beams of magical energy in almost every attack, even all her actions were strengthened by the excessive magical energy allowing her to crush almost anything in her path. Moreover, the strongest Holy Sword that was blackened still gives Ritsuka chills because she almost evaporated twice by it.

Just the oppression and dense magical energy that make it difficult to breathe is enough evidence of King Arthur's strength. Well, although it wasn't strong enough like Solomon and Leo clash that crushes the body, soul, and probably the laws of Thaumaturgy, it is still shocking to face it head-on, unlike their battle that happened far away in the sky.

Chaldea's group could only run away after meeting Saber, especially because the Demon God Pillar was there too. Who could have thought that EMIYA(Shadow) was leading them to Saber? Well, everyone… except Olga and Mash.

However, EMIYA didn't want to stop at all because he also wanted to use King Arthur's power on the Demon God Pillar, except that this plan might have gone slightly wrong. After all, Saber is more focused on them than the Demon God Pillar.

If Mash didn't activate her Noble Phantasm with command seals, Ritsuka has all reasons to believe that they'd evaporate into atoms. I mean, that dark aurora breaching through the Reality Marble with sheer force isn't something funny at all.

Then listening to Cu saying that was also a part of the plan almost made Ritsuka punch him. At least the attack hit the Demon God Pillar head-on, which gave it some deep injuries, but King Arthur kept aiming at them because of Mash's shield or something.

In that madness, they could only run away after the Demon God Pillar lost its mind and started shooting laser beams everywhere. Ritsuka thought she might have heard something screaming 'You lowly insects!', but she didn't stay to listen.

"*Sigh*" Ritsuka sighed when she remembered that EMIYA had to explode his Noble Phantasm as a smokescreen, then using Mash's shield as a launcher. I think the only person that enjoyed that was Cu.

Looking at the bright side, King Arthur was entangled with the Demon God Pillar in a fight and most of the undead in the city were evaporated by Excalibur attacks… Well, the city also evaporated. Oh, and most shadow servants got defeated, which is a win in Ritsuka's book.

Olga was frowning while checking the communication device. It slightly got damaged because of Excalibur attacks and Romani was cut off in mid-sentence, which makes her wonder what Chaldea's situation now.

This whole situation is ridiculous for Olga, or maybe with what happened in Chaldea, she's already on the edge. Despite that, she almost couldn't tolerate Ritsuka's attitude. Summoning servants, having certain information about servants, and all of this without the support of Chaldea.

How could she have all these abilities while being just a mediocre magus, even Olga, the director of Chaldea, didn't know anything. Moreover, isn't she too casual?! Also, that 'Archer', who has reality marble… is she supposed to believe this?! And why everyone seems to be cool about it! Is she the weird one here?!

"...." Glancing at Olga, who was looking at him, EMIYA closed his eyes and ignored her. This isn't a thing he should worry about, especially because he is used to getting doubted.

"So, now, it is only that flesh pillar and King Arthur" Feeling the silence around, Ritsuka said.

"Ah, only those two, which is an underestimation. If it was only Saber, I think we can manage, but I don't think that flesh pillar is dumb enough to be a 'shield' for us this time" Cu grinned when he remembered the Demon God Pillar tanking Excalibur aurora while they moved behind it.

" Of course, our goal is the Holy Grail, which is in Saber's hands. Saber's location is in the center of Fuyuki, the Greater Grail, and the… 'flesh pillar' should be aware of that. After getting hit by Excalibur, I doubt it'll keep this chase, and instead, it'll switch to the hunter role." EMIYA and add to the conversation his ideas " It'll most likely wait for the best moment to strike, which is the fight with Saber"

"I see, then we'll move after we recover contact with Chaldea. We need all the support we can get" Ritsuka nodded, but then she noticed that everyone was staring at her " What?"

"Aren't you forgetting something, little girl?" Cu had an odd expression on his face.

"Huh?" Ritsuka couldn't help but tilt her head.

"Going to the battle without recovering mana, I didn't know you're into suicidal tactics" Opening one eye, EMIYA stared blankly at Ritsuka, who froze in her place.

"Hahaha… we'll go after recovering mana" Ritsuka dropped her head in defeat. This is really embarrassing.

How could she forget about magical energy? Maybe because Chaldea's system is helping her with energy problems?

Wait, why doesn't she feel mana exhaustion? Ritsuka froze for a moment. Clearly, several servants released their Noble Phantasm, even with the support of command seals, it is impossible that she is completely okay.

{Is it because of this…? } Looking at the so-called Chaldea's system, Ritsuka entered deep thoughts. Even if it was because of this system, then… what is the price?

"Senior…" Mash showed a concerned look while holding Fou.

"...." Olga seemed to be about to start a new lecture, but strangely she stopped and sighed.

{You said the master with the six wings command seals, but is this what you meant… father} Returning back to the communication device, she started getting a signal, but her head was thinking about other stuff.

Meanwhile, in Konosuba's world.

A boy gathered all his strength to go against fate. Holding his weapon in hand and keeping his eyes peeled at the goal, the boy aimed.

At this moment, the icy bolt shot in the clear blue horizon. Passing all obstacles, the icy shadow pierced through its goal without stopping, leaving an icy rose in the air.

The boy closed his eyes and didn't look at the result like destiny was fulfilled, he was sure about his success.

Lowering his weapon, the boy felt the light breeze before he glanced at his goal… a dead pigeon in the ground, so he… screamed "YEAHHHHH!!!"

"DIE, you little shit, die! Hahahahah!!" Laughing for his victory, Kazuma nodded proudly at himself for killing these pigeons.

Although everything else was a product of his imagination, Kazuma finally killed those damn pigeons.

"Man, why was this so hard? Did my luck become negative when I attacked them?" Kazuma stretched his hands.

"I told you to just let me do it" Misaka stared blankly at Kazuma, who unlocked the achievement of the pigeon's enemy.

"And what? You'll properly use a lot of power because of your mood swings…" Kazuma shook his head calmly, but he stopped when he saw electric arcs around Misaka.

"What did you say? Do you think I'll turn them to charcoal?! I can easily control my power or else you'll already be lying on the ground!!" Misaka said while clenching her fist.

"I didn't say that, you said it" With a serious face, Kazuma gave a thumbs up.

"You… do you want to go?" Raising her fist, Misaka took one step forward before she saw Kazuma stare at her with the most serious expression in his life before he said "… No"

"Hah?" Misaka blinked before Kazuma sighed and said " There's no way I'm getting into this battle, do you think I'm an idiot or an M?"

"Listen! If you ever attack me then remember that you'll be bullying the weak and poor me that has tons of debts on his shoulders!!" Kazuma dramatically pointed at Misaka as time seemed to have stopped.

The breeze blew slightly as it made their clothes and hairs move a little before Misaka caught Kazuma's pointing finger and sent an electric shock.

Looking at Kazuma falling into the ground with his frozen serious face like a plank, Misaka left with a speechless face.

Kazuma was on the ground, slightly paralyzed from the electric shock while looking at the pigeon next to him… what a sad day.

"Indeed, it's a sad day" Hearing the sound from the void, Kazuma moved his eyes to see the Chat Screen activated again and Leo was reading a thick book while walking in the street.

[Advocate of Gender Equality: Shut it!]

Glaring at the screen, Kazuma used his mind to type his thoughts into the messages.

"Hm? Did you awaken a sudden love to the ground and dirt?" Leo said as he flipped more pages while frowning like he's reading something weird.

[Advocate of Gender Equality: You bastard… Hm, why I can't see… hold on, is that book censored? Why the hell is the book censored?! Are you watching p.o.r.n?!]

"Sure, sure, this is just a safety measure of the Chat. Hmmm, it's kinda interesting seeing this chat taking into consideration all these harmful factors and disabling them" Leo tilted his head while looking at the book, which made Kazuma interested, but apparently, it's one of those complex brain consuming stuff, so he'll pass.

[Advocate of Gender Equality: Anyway, what are you doing? Just coming to laugh at my misery?]

"Nah, I just finished my task and I'm free to mess with the world-ending stuff now" Leo flipped another page before he glanced at the chat like he could see Kazuma directly.

[Advocate of Gender Equality: After calling the new member a human, you're listening to humans, what a Beast]

" Humans are humans, but this is called respect, which I have for certain people" Leo shrugged while returning to reading the Book of the Law.

[Advocate of Gender Equality: Wait, if you're calling Gudako a human, then what about me? I'm a pure human!]

"Are you? No, that's wrong" Leo tapped his forehead before he said " It's mostly about that world, but… do you want me to treat you as a 'human'?"

[Advocate of Gender Equality:.... No, thank you! I prefer to stay a candidate for giving up humanity!]

{No joke! That was so scary! That game lied to me!! Beasts are f.u.c.k.i.n.g horrifying!} Kazuma can swear that those words contained some kind of icy chill that went straight to his instincts of survival and probably his soul {Okay, I'll never try to mess with Type-Moon stuff ever again! It isn't worth it!}

"Very well, then" Leo nodded and returned to read some complicated stuff while Kazuma breathed a sigh of relief.

[Advocate of Gender Equality: Anyway, is this stuff really enough to jump from a world to another?]

"Absolutely not! This barely counts as a test. I need more data, which can only be gained via trial and error in this situation, so we need more material properly… get more pigeons" Leo gave a thumb up when he said that.

[Advocate of Gender Equality: Man, why pigeons! That hellspawn of creatures made my luck negative! Can't I do something else?]

"Something else?" Putting his hand on his chin, Leo thought for a moment before he said " You could help me add and balance meanings for the spell, I kinda wanted to use more 'traveling' meanings and focus on it, but this will get in the way of 'dream' and 'vision' meaning a little…"

[Advocate of Gender Equality: Uh]

"Oh, do you think we can add a major 'idol' for the spell? Hmmm… perhaps… How much do you think about the possibility of using the 'World's Wills' as an 'idol'? Or is it just me going for another suicidal attempt?" Leo seemed seriously asking while pushing his glasses and said " Sorry, that was a strange thing to ask"

[Advocate of Gender Equality: Sorry, please, spare me]

"I didn't say anything deep though…" Leo shook his head.

[Advocate of Gender Equality:...]

"Oh, and Kazuma, don't look at what other people are doing and focus more on your own, and why did I say this, dunno, probably because I'm bored. See ya, I'm going to read a certain heretic works" Leo waved with his hand before the screen turned orange and sound vanished.

"What the hell… how did he know I'm going to ask that without his future eyes… I call hax!" Kazuma blinked his eyes before he looked at the dead pigeon next to him… this is really a sad day.

At this rate, the day passed slowly until the sun went down and the night fell on Axel. Kazuma has already recovered his mobility, which made him cherish it more… and also thinking about some lightning resistance stuff, but that's for another time.

Anyway, he brought the poor pigeons to be used by these mad magicians, but well, he doesn't really care. He just wants to know where Whitebeard vanished!!!

How could they lose a 6 meters tall giant?! Just how?! Kazuma feels like something bad will fall on his head tomorrow, he just knows it! Well, he'll think about it tomorrow. This was a long and awful day by all means.

Kaguya should be still trying her ritual, but he thinks she teleported to the capital to meet Leone about something. Aqua got drunk and dragged by Darkness to her room and Megumin already lost her one-day nuke, so Kazuma felt a strange sense of peace at this moment.

Looking at Chat, he saw the demon's stream screen has a new thing, which is a larger banner that said 'please wait'. It must be the demon's subordinate(Novem) work. Does it think he'll fall for the same trick again?! Hah! Think again!

Ritsuka also went silent, properly thinking about humanity, salvation, and stuff. These things are basically everyday routine in Type-Moon. Kazuma wouldn't be surprised to see her and Leo arguing about philosophy in the future with chunni phrases.

Welp, the whole human history is edgy and chunni, Kazuma doesn't understand why their generation has the right to say anything about it? Maybe we're all hypocrites.

"Enough with this… I just want to sleep, goodnight" Without waiting for a moment, Kazuma landed on the bed and closed his eyes immediately. It's been a while since he had a peaceful sleep because of everything going on.

Feeling his eyelids heavy, Kazuma relaxed completely. He also thought about what Leo said, but he basically ignored it, sleep is more important than some heretics works!

When Kazuma was about to enter the land of dreams, a loud sound kicked him straight from it.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

A burst of loud laughter was heard from the Chat Screen as Kazuma opened his bloodshot eyes.

This was like some very bad trick from fate as Novem already left the chat screen and was lying around something with curiosity.

"What in the…" Kazuma wanted to complain, but then he froze when he saw what was happening.

"You gotta be kidding me, hahaha… Ahahahaha!!" Leo's whole body was shaking. From a little to full-blown laughter.

In the middle of empty land, Leo was laughing loudly as three magic circles were fixed in mid-air while facing each other.

After Kazuma joined, most of the members, except those who quit the stream long ago, joined.

To be honest, it was such a rare sight. Before or now, they didn't see Leo acting like this, especially after he became an angel, he was like 'taken for granted' for most things and never truly surprised.

To see him laughing genuinely like seeing the most ridiculous thing in the world, made them curious, but also… uneasy. This is bad, something bad is going to happen.

"Hopeless prayers echoing in the empty sky, where will you go? What will you reach? Cry for it to be a dream, yet left unanswered and carried a belief to the end. Reaching the point of the conclusion, it's time for realization and awakening, a new era for will and truth… AHAHAHAHAHA, this is so ridiculous!!" Leo looked at the three magic circles in the air before he started laughing again, which made everyone flinch.

[Advocate of Gender Equality: You okay? Uh, you're even saying chunni stuff without giving a damn, oh god]

"Oh god, indeed, Kazuma. Hahahaha!" Leo put his hand on his forehead before he tapped the ground with a weird jet black and red staff that who knows where he got.

[Advocate of Gender Equality: Okay, I'm officially worried]

[NEET Princess: Me too. Did Micheal turn into a burning pigeon or something to make him laugh like this?]

[Advocate of Gender Equality: Pigeon?! Does this have something to do with this ritual?!]

"I don't really know if I'm okay or not, but if you're asking, then I'm just in wonder about how wonderful the rules and different truths of worlds clash and transform…" Leo tapped the ground again with the staff before the air started vibrating around him and the book of the law appeared as it opened immediately.

Raising his right hand, Leo whispered " People praise the fools as thou knowest not… Abrahadabra"

With his words, the mana flickered on the circles before several 'things' became visible. Yes, it was like they were invisible and gave the feeling like they were always waiting before they appeared finally.

They were like fireflies or glowing small butterflies, they were floating freely in Leo's palm and magic circle and shone with a clear platinum glow.

"From dreams to dreams. To think this was possible here…" Leo lowered his staff while looking at those platinum particles of light.

[NEET Princess: Hold on, what is that?]

"This? Well, this is just a new era… This world is dead if someone from Toaru finds it." Saying some dangerous and confusing words, Leo caught one of the lights.

[NEET Princess: era?]

{This guy might have gone insane... again} This was the shared thought of most of the members.

Yet no one of them realized how ridiculous this phenomenon is. Even if it was just a tiny part, this act is something that requires the whole planet to be dyed red in blood to make it work in Toaru.