Chapter 152 - Konosuba Side Part 37.

After a long night, the eerie darkness of the nighttime faded away slowly by the first light of the sunrise. The magnificent sunlight shone on all this land, turning the coldness of night into warm, and announcing the start of a new day.

The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming, on such a beautiful day, Kazuma was… sleeping.

These were some rare moments where he can be lazy like usual, but even so, Kazuma knew that he had to wake up to start a new adventure at 'work'. After all, the debt won't pay itself… Well, it could do that if the rich bastards(Kaguya, Whitebeard) felt some pity for his poor soul.

"Like that could ever happen… the only thing I see is the scary smile from that old hag" Kazuma looked at the ceiling in a daze before he stood up slowly.

"As for the old man, I can, no, I absolutely see him wasting my whole day by teaching a life lesson about relying on yourself in shonen anime style" Fixing his sheets, Kazuma shuddered at the dreadful words.

As a perfectly healthy young man from modern society, Kazuma still feels weird and can't deal with Whitebeard when he gets fired up, also known as a shonen mode.

"There's no way his world isn't shonen based or something" Kazuma shook his head and left the room.

After washing, he has to go get more missions, claim more rewards, make sure new debts do not fall into his head, take the explosion maniac to do her daily terrorism. He sure has a lot to do… or so he thought.

"Oi… why does this place feel empty?" Looking at the long and quiet hallways of the mansion, Kazuma flinched for a moment.

Although it's not big like those super mansions, Kazuma never lived in a place this big, so he wasn't that familiar with them, especially in this situation.

The empty hallways were shrouded in a weird silence that Kazuma didn't notice before. Usually, he'll be awoken by the dumb goddess screaming for life or money, then the explosion maniac will drag him.

"Oi, oi, why is it so cold here?! I'm getting a haunted house vibe now…" Some sweat appeared on his forehead as Kazuma swallowed, but the sound of his swallowing was particularly loud in the empty hallway.

Although he talked with annoyance, he was subconsciously speaking to himself because of nervousness. Ghosts and all unknown things automatically produce fear in humans, especially because Kazuma felt all those scary movies and games he played are flashing back in his memories.

{No! Calm down, Kazuma!! You're in a fantasy world with magic, so ghosts aren't a strange thing…} Shaking his head, Kazuma took a few deep breaths before walking forward, of course, and also getting his gun.

Ignoring the sound of his footsteps and also the creeping darkness, Kazuma knew that he couldn't stop, after all, if he let ghosts in the mansion… doesn't that mean he is losing money?! Just that thought was enough to make him choke the ghost to death!

"Hm?" Halting his steps, Kazuma listened carefully because there was a muffled sound at his left.

Turning his head like rusted gears, he saw a door of a room shrouded in darkness and a weird atmosphere.

"..." Kazuma stared at it for a moment before he almost turned away and left.

That's absolutely haunted!! All signs told Kazuma about how bad of a choice to go there, but he didn't know where everyone went, and also this ghost might cause property damage.

"Dammit, where are these bastards when you need them…" Taking a breath of the cold air, went in front of the door and put his hand on the door handle.

Hearing the muffled screams and weird sounds again made Kazuma's body shiver, but he opened the door gently as he readied his body to run at any moment.

However, instead of the scene of blood and ghosts in his mind, Kazuma was presented with a scene that made him go " Huh?"

The room was dark because of the curtain that blocked the sunlight, but candlelight made the vision possible as Kazuma stared at Aqua tied up like a worm and her mouth tied up. She was screaming and struggling, but the only thing that came out was muffled screams.

Next to her was Darkness, who was in the same state except her mouth was free, breathing heavily with a blush on her face.

"So, is it like this?" Misaka was asking a floating screen in mid-air as the zapping sound of bluish-white sparks echoed from her fingertips.

"Indeed, no need to be very accurate in drawing them. The planetary astronomical symbols of the Seven Classical Planets just need to be aligned with the ruled zodiac signs, then give them a link" Leo sound was heard from the chat screen. He was guiding Misaka in drawing some symbols using her electricity around a red magic circle.

In the middle of the room, a red magic circle filled with runes was surrounded by candles. In the middle there was a red dagger stabbed on the ground, at the rear, a green d.i.c.k was lying around the edges of the circle, and at the top, a metallic staff with a small angel opening its wings like a lotus was pinned on the height position.

"Hmmm, the energy around is getting drained by the ritual a little by little" Kaguya was floating around the magic circle while feeling the cold air.

"The coldness of the winter is calling for the blazing inferno that goes past this time in a red rose of explosions!" Megumin's eyes were shining red while looking at the magical circle, which made Kazuma blink his eyes.

"...." Looking at all that was happening and ignoring Aqua's pleading eyes and tears, Kazuma closed the door slowly.

"Oh, you're here, Kazuma" Unfortunately, Kazuma was spotted by the explosions maniac, which drew all attention to him.

{Of course, it has to be that terrorist!!} Kazuma was screaming in his heart as he dashed away quickly.

But the moment he took a step forward, he found himself in that room and facing the magic circle.

"..." Recovering his foot to its original position, Kazuma raised his head to look at Kaguya, who turned her head away while humming a song.

"You bastard… Why are you using time powers for these things?!" Kazuma exploded with anger as Kaguya tilted her head and said " Why not and also aren't you interested in what is happening here?"

"NO!! Not at all! I don't want to stay close to the bomb!" Kazuma pointed at the magical circle and screamed. There's no way Kazuma will trust that thing. He bet it'll explode in his face the moment he touches it!!

"Oh, good morning, Kazuma" Leo on the screen looked in Kazuma's direction and waved.

"Don't 'good morning' me!! You're the reason why the mansion is almost entering the ice age!! Wait, where are you? " Kazuma pointed the finger of accusation at Leo, but then he noticed the strangeness.

It was completely nighttime with the bright moon and the stars shining in the sky on the chat screen. Despite the darkness of night, the picture was quite clear. Leo was sitting with legs crossed on top of a big boulder at the top of a huge mountain, but the strange thing is what he was around him.

Several creatures were surrounding the boulder, which mostly was snakes and bugs like scorpions, Leo even was teasing a scorpion in his hand.

"Why are you holding that?" Kazuma stared blankly at the screen while Misaka said with the same blank face " I said the same thing"

"Why not? C'mon, these little guys aren't dangerous" Leo tapped the scorpion's claw before he put it on the boulder and let it go.

"...." Misaka turned her face away like she didn't want to see any insects.

"How many times I have to say that we're not you! Is this some sort of KI or life energy thing?" Kazuma just sighed at this pointless conversation.

"Maybe, yet it's kinda the opposite" Jumping down from the boulder as all animals and insects went away, Leo looked at something in the sky before he nodded and said " I guess this is a good time to start"

"Wait, is everything ready?! How?" Kazuma exclaimed while looking at all the stuff around the magic circle before he stared at Kaguya.

"I have a lot of time to make everything" Kaguya raised her head proudly, like saying get on my level.

"Weren't you away? How did you get involved in this here" Kazuma's words made the proud expression on Kaguya's face vanish.

"I was threatened and murdered tens of times by a blonde witch" Kaguya showed a blank and expressionless face while pointing at the screen.

Leo gave a thumbs-up as Kazuma knew that Kaguya saw Leo demolish her character in Touhou's game.

"Then why are you here again?" Kazuma didn't understand before Kaguya covered her mouth and said " I want those games"

"..." Kazuma was again rendered speechless before he facepalmed himself like the world is going to end " How I did not think of this before… I could have… I could have... blackmailed you!"

{He knows that he doesn't have a way to make those games now, right?} Kaguya was staring down at Kazuma.

"Excuse me, I didn't want to interrupt you, but why are you three talking to the air?" Megumin raised her hand like a student asking a question.

"She knows too much, let's take her down" Kazuma raised his stun gun before Misaka slapped the back of his head.

"No, you don't!" Misaka stopped Kazuma from committing friendly fire.

"It's new long-distance communication magic. We're talking to a magician, who appears to be very wise, but he's a fool. He even calls himself an angel, can you believe that?" Kaguya shook her head sadly.

"Ah! It's another delusional" Megumin looked at Aqua before she sighed.

{She believes that?} Kazuma has facepalmed himself.

"Did she just compare me with that blue thing?" Leo's eyes shone slightly and that gleam wasn't friendly at all as Aqua struggled more intensely.

"Well, you're all divine beings, right?" Kazuma waved his hand and showed a bright smile before he said " Although I don't really care, why is the useless goddess tied up?"

"She freaked out and started to wreck everything when she saw the magic circle despite me explaining to her, so I tied her up as for the other one…" Kaguya looked with annoyance to Darkness before she said " She saw what happened to Aqua, so she repeated the same thing to get tied up"

"....." Kazuma turned to face Aqua and Darkness and clapped his hands while praying to their poor souls.

"Anyway, did you collect enough data, so we can start and let this ritual explode? I have the stuff to do" Kaguya sighed and hurried Leo.

"You guys… what exactly were you doing when I wasn't here?" Kazuma's eyes were almost looking dead because he knew these guys were testing some nukes in the same house he lives in.

"I only just got here, but they were doing this for a while" Misaka shook her at these unscientific means.

"Adjusting the ritual according to this reality or what he was saying" Kaguya pointed at the screen.

"..." Leo turned his dangerous eyes from Megumin before he rubbed his temples and said " Fine, but let me take you on a short tour and explain some things"

"Please, skip it " Kazuma said his first reaction to cut scenes in any video game.

"Hahahahaha, no" Leo clapped his hands before he walked forwards.

After he took a few steps, pink ripples spread from his foot towards all the surroundings, even the moon and stars in the sky suddenly vanished and left only pitch-black darkness. Then like giving everyone in the chat diplopia, the trembling space turned into a double before it slowly overlapped.

"All worlds work on a set of rules and laws. How fire burns, why water has three states, how energy operates in the universe, and even how power systems, you know, things like Magic, in any world work" Taking another step, this time, Leo directly stepped on the empty air.

"Basically, laws are the thing responsible for operating this whole world, and all outcomes and phenomenons are the results of their existence" Leo was walking in the air with his hand in his pockets.

"Of course, like the difference in each world, all these laws vary and change from one world to another, but there are similar laws too" After taking a few more steps, the air under Leo's steps began to glow before the structure of a huge building started to appear with each step, no, it was more of a temple.

"The best analogy for you now is programming languages, algorithms, and operating systems. The world is like a big operating system, and the laws are the languages and algorithms that operate it" The ripples didn't stop until they crossed at least 20 kilometers.

The whole area witnessed a drastic change in these few moments.

The rocks, the plants, the green fields, and the entire terrain shape all have changed into a different form across this area. Around the mountain, a village appeared, yes, a whole village made of old clay and rock buildings, but the most noticeable is the huge temple that is made of the bright white stone above the mountain and the five gigantic pillars around it.

Under the gleam of pink ripples, the terrain change was like a process of building that happened in front of everyone's eyes. Almost like a giant hand shaping the vast land and changing the earth, which was so ridiculous and baffling to look at.

"Of course, you can't really compare the worlds and laws to some rigid machines. But in basic understanding, consider that each operating system can perform some things that others can't, certain apps can work and some can't, it's all about if they're compatible with it. Even if they are similar sometimes, some worlds can't really handle those things" Leo walked slowly until he reached the highest position on the temple. When that happened, the entire temple shone with a faint light.

Like receiving a signal, the black lifeless sky burst into light with countless bright stars exploding into breathtaking brilliance. Suddenly, a bright orange-red light burning like flames filled the sky and turned into several thin lines.

One by one, like drawing on paper, the orange-red light crossed the night and connected thousands and thousands of stars until the entire night sky turned into one huge magic circle that stretched into the horizon. The 12 zodiac constellations, runes, symbols like the moon and sun, all were included in this ridiculously big, yet beautiful painting like a magic circle.

"Making use of the similarities between the laws in both worlds, we're trying to reach a point of balance to connect them via the ritual and chat" With a turn, Leo turned to face the chat room as the burning brilliance of the sky seemed to fall on his body.

His entire outfit was changing under the brilliance into long black robes with red decorations.

From the back of his shoulder, a star mark shone with a white gleam before fine golden ornaments appeared on the shoulders of the robes and some turned into a total of seven rings on the c.h.e.s.t. The light seemed to finish its job by burning one last time on Leo's neck and turning into a red stole filled with different astrology symbols and runes at its edges.

A circle with a dot in its middle and an empty crescent symbol appeared on it at each end of the stole, representing and shining like the sun and moon.

"Then based on that point, like an avalanche effect, we'll hope that the laws of the other world guide and at least 'understand' and 'translate' the nature of ceremony and power to allow their manifestation there without the use of an emulator like this Chat Room" Waving his slightly big sleeves, a black substance moved on Leo's right hand before it turned into withered tree looking staff.

"No questions? Good, let's start the test" Under the brilliance of the World Wide Grand Magic ritual and the whole temple, Leo smiled slightly, which was a magnificent scene.

"Wait, wait, pause!! What, when, where?! We were just talking, then boom, a temple, and a magical circle, just pause for a moment!" Kazuma waved with his hands non stop like asking for a time out.

"Tch, you have a question" Leo was slightly annoyed that he couldn't skip questions, but he stopped.

"What is this?" Kazuma calmed down and took a few steps away from the magic circle in the room before asking. He has an absolute belief that the magic circle will explode now.

"A workshop that helps in operating the ritual site. In this alternative space that I made to avoid any annoyance, from the temple to at least 20 kilometers radius, is a ritual site that I build" Leo looked down from the temple to see the village.

In each house, there were several symbols and antiques arranged in unique ways all over the village.

Every house, every symbol, every tree, and even every rock in this place has been arranged by Leo to set up the ritual to draw the full power and meaning of him and the world. It's really a World Wide Grand Level Magic ritual.

"When did you even make this" Kazuma was completely baffled, even Kaguya was speechless.

"Well, I worked for five days and nights on it to make sure everything is in order" Leo put his hand on his chin.

"When did you even have time?!" Now it was Kaguya who was shocked.

" I just turned off the stream and messed with the flow of time in an alternative space, duh. Basic stuff" Explaining casually, Leo had a look of 'can we hurry up' on his face.

"You used the difference of time between two worlds and also accelerated your time… Isn't this a double-time skip?" Kazuma felt his head hurt from all this while Misaka just shook her head… this just isn't scientific.

" Enough questions, your little friends are already looking at you like idiots" Leo said as Kazuma noticed his party's weird stares.

"Wait! Aren't you saying a spell or something" looking at Leo raising the staff, Kazuma panicked.

"This is Thelema-based. My will is the law" With those words, Leo gently tapped the floor with the staff.

*click* *click* *click* *click* *click*

Five loud sounds were heard before a mechanism inside the five pillars around the temple activated. The middle part and the upper part of the pillars opened up slightly and showed several small rituals made of runes.

On the top of the pillar in front of the temple, a small piglet with blue horns raised its head before bluish-white lightning rushed from its body and covered the pillar, then one by one, it connected all the pillars like lightning chain.

Waving his hand, four masses of compressed Alter Telesma shot from Leo's hand into the four last pillars before they stabilized on the upper platform and changed color into red, blue, green, and yellow, even the pillars' ritual colors changed.

The magic circle in the sky started to rotate slowly and shine on the temple. The whole space was going into a certain rhyme at this moment with the ceremony. If it wasn't for this hidden alternative space, the whole world would probably be awakened by a massive magic circle on top of their heads.

Well, Leo still thinks that some people noticed the change, after all, this is a very huge ceremony, but oh well, who cares about them? They can't find the space with all the hidden rituals and preparations.

This makes Leo kinda miss the easy-to-use anchor of the planet, Rhongomyniad. But well, the tower at the world end is in Type-Moon, so this renders Leo's ever-changing weapons form of the lance useless.

Making sure the preparations were correct, Leo put the Chat Screen in front of him and closed his eyes while connecting the ceremony. He felt his entire existence enter a very weird state of emptiness. It was such a hollowness that he couldn't describe.

A dark empty world with no light or any meaning. You can't feel any direction, nor hear anything. In this state of loss, where there was no way to go, Leo focused on the ritual that he couldn't exactly feel now and tried to find a solution.

Then a spot of light appeared in this dark world. He didn't know if it's some sort of illusion, but Leo went for it because he didn't sense any danger. It was rather a familiar feeling.

Not knowing how much time he had been chasing the light spot, Leo suddenly stopped this weird 'chase' as he felt 'something' in front. A barrier or a wall of some sort, or even a door, he has no idea at this moment.

Yet, this wasn't unexpected. After all, this is how it should be, no? Advancement or evolution are all explorations and discovery to the unknown and magic is no exception. Sometimes, no, in most cases, there's a leap that needs to be taken no matter how good, bad, dangerous, or safe it is.

{At the end of the day, all the groundbreaking advancements aren't done or started by people and actions labeled as 'wise'. It's done by someone who breaks the norm no matter how ridiculous it sounds. Fools if I may say} Despite not being able to hear his thoughts, Leo ignored the weird nature of this place and stretched his hand.

There's no need for hesitation nor a reason to stop. Even if the only indicator now is pure guts, Leo would still go for it in this unknown domain. Just like that, Leo finally 'touched' something in this neverending darkness before everything vanished.

He found himself back into his previous position on the temple, stretching his hand to the empty air to the front. Glancing at his empty palm, Leo could swear that he felt something before he looked at the chat screen.

Kazuma was holding Darkness in fronts of him like a shield and Kaguya and Misaka were hiding behind them while Aqua was squirming on the ground.

"We didn't explode?" Kazuma slowly opened his eyes as he glanced at the magic circle.

The red glow dimmed down quickly and the smark electric sparks vanished as well. The dagger and disc on the ground returned to normal, but the small angel statue on top of Lotus Wand closed its wings. However, no explosions whatsoever happened.

"Eh? Nothing happened" Megumin tilted her head in disappointment.

"That's impossible!!!" Kaguya was looking at the magic circle like the end of the world was near.

"Why is it impossible, exactly?" Misaka's eyebrow twitched.

"What are you standing for?! Tell me all about what happened in detail!" Hearing the annoyed voice, the trio awakened from the near explosion experience.

"It was like this…" Misaka narrated what happened as Leo nodded and said " I see, again"

"What?!" Kazuma was freaking out as the ritual was shining again and Leo closed his eyes, but nothing extraordinary happened.

The result this time was the ritual dimming much quicker than the last time before Leo opened his eyes and closed the stream. Without giving the group time to be confused, the stream was turned back on quickly and Leo started the ceremony again.

The result this time was the angel statue opening its wings, but no response from the magic circle as Leo asked them to describe what happened before he closed the stream.

"We're really going to die today" Kazuma surrendered to his unfortunate fate and prayed to his mother and father in the other world.

This situation continued for a whole hour and more. Each new attempt gave new results and some gave some similarities to previous ones.

But when Kazuma lost count on how many times this happened, the results started to become more stable and less randomized, until the result of everything activating in the magic circle became the most common one.

"Tch, letting the laws guide the process is really like using RNG. I already exhausted my means, but the result isn't completely fixed" Holding his head for a moment, Leo clicked his tongue.

"Are you okay, man?" Kazuma breathed a sigh of relief when the ritual stopped before he noticed something.

"No worries, just a slight headache from the continued use of the ceremony" Leo shook his head and shrugged.

{Why are you even desperately trying to do this?} Kazuma wanted to say those words, but it couldn't come out of his mouth for some reason.

"Well, we can't do anything about this, so let's try the second part" Leo rubbed his temples before tabbed the ground again.

"Sure… wait, a second part?!" Kaguya nodded before her mind processed the previous words.

"Obviously, the first part was about if it's possible to establish a connection, now, is it possible to go further" Waving his hand, the five pillars around the temple opened even further.

The lightning chain connecting the pillars that hold the five elements of nature changed to link all the pillars to each other, making a pentagram in the air. The symbol of spirit descending into matter.

"I'll try to connect the spirit now. The ritual will automatically target the closest person from Konosuba World" Leo's words made Kazuma flinch before he went straight to Aqua.

"Here, take her!!" Throwing Aqua under the bus despite her struggle, Kazuma returned to taking cover behind Darkness.

"You also need to be a member of the chat" Leo finished his words slowly as Kazuma blinked his eyes.

"Rejoice, Kazuma. You were asking for a chant, right? Well, although this ceremony doesn't need a chant, a declaration to both worlds and realities is required. Well, don't worry about it, you'll not understand anyway" Pointing the staff end at the chat screen, Leo grabbed a tarot card of the fool and threw it on the ground as it sank into the temple.

"The fOrMlesS throNe waiTIng For the emPty KEy, I, the Angel beARiNg the numBEr 19, annOnCe this lAw" Despite talking in a completely normal language, Leo's voice was going up, down, and distorted at some points. Like it cannot be converted properly.

After the declaration of the ceremony was complete, the whole rituals in both worlds were fully activated.

"Nothing different happened" Misaka stared at the magic circle activating like usual, but nothing else happened.

"Kazuma is down!" Megumin exclaimed as everyone turned their heads to see Kazuma, who was trying to throw Aqua into the ritual, falling to sleep.

Meanwhile, Kazuma opened his eyes slowly before rubbing them.

"Where am I? Did I sleep on my desk again" Standing up from the computer desk, Kazuma yawned before he froze in his place.

"Desk…?" Turning his eyes like rusted gears that didn't work in a long time, Kazuma was his old computer from his past world.

"This is… this is my room" Kazuma looked at this place for a moment before he screamed "AHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

Rushing to the computer, he wanted to turn it on, but it never worked as he screamed " Let me delete my search history, you bastard!!!"

Even after a lot of attempts, Kazuma still failed in turning the computer on for some reason as he fell defeated on the desk " Do I really have to break it?"

Considering the option of murdering his old friend, Kazuma sighed before he said "Why am I here anyway? Ugh, I can't clearly remember"

"Maybe I should ask… someone" Jumping from his chair, Kazuma opened the room door before he froze again.

When opening the door of a room, you'll expect to see the rest of the house, but in Kazuma's state, he found himself in an empty countryside street as the blazing sun was hurting his eyes.

"This place…." With a blank face, Kazuma walked like a zombie under the sun before he screamed " WHERE'S THAT DAMN TRACTOR?!"

Reminded of his most dark, embarrassing, and I want to kill myself moments, Kazuma lost his cool immediately and went to look for the damn tractor. He doesn't care about Truck-kun or any bullshit! He only wants to murder that tractor!

But that only lasted for a moment before he remembered that it was him that died from shock and in the most stupid way ever as his fire of anger was extinguished by the water of shame and disappointment.

"Anyway, how did I arrive here? Eh? The door disappeared" Kazuma noticed that the door leading to his room vanished, leaving him under the burning sunlight.

"W…. n…."

"Do I hear something?" Kazuma flinched and looked left and right.

"Yo… kn… the rul…"

"I'm sure I heard something. This is really getting creepy" Kazuma didn't see anything on this open countryside road.

"I just wanna tell you how…"

Despite trying to identify the voice source, Kazuma wasn't able to, until he finally heard it clearly " A song…wait"

"Gotta make you understand"

A dark shadow covered the bright sunlight and allowed Kazuma to finally open his eyes clearly, but he wasn't really grateful while slowly raised his head to the sky.

A large clipped JPG Rick Astley that covers the sun was falling from the sky at high speed towards the sweating Kazuma.

"Never gonna give you up!. Never gonna let you down!"

"AHHHHHHHH!!!!" Kazuma screamed in absolute terror as the gigantic JPG Singer crashed into the land, exactly on top of his head.

*BOOOOOOOOOM!!!*

"AHHHHHH!!! DON'T RICKROLL ME!!!!" Kazuma suddenly woke up and screamed like he was in a nightmare.

"Wait, whaaaaaat?" Blinking and rubbing his eyes, Kazuma looked at this new place as he wondered if he took some sort of drugs by mistake.

Standing up, Kazuma found himself standing in the sky, no, the ground and the sky were no different. Everywhere he looks there is a clear blue sky and white clouds. Exactly like a certain edgy anime that Kazuma remembers.

"Welcome, Kazuma. This is what I would say usually, but unfortunately, this is your dream. So, you lack hospitality"

Hearing a voice from his side, Kazuma turned his head to its source just to be astonished again.

In this sky-looking place, the only difference was a young man clasping his hands while sitting on a large chair, or maybe it's a throne? Kazuma couldn't see it for some reason, even Leo seemed weird and different. His eyes color became white, no, maybe platinum, and had a very weird and mysterious feeling.

Actually, nothing is making sense, but now, Kazuma's finally recovered and remembered what happened as he clenched his fist.

"Didn't I say it? Dreams are really easy to breach and break" Leo smiled slightly at the shocked Kazuma.

"Can I punch you in my dreams or better, shot you?" After a long time of silence, Kazuma only said those words.

"..." Leo stared down at him and shrugged.

Just like that, an awkward silence descended upon this weird place, which was Kazuma's dream landscape.