Chapter 140: Accidents Rarely Happen, But Not Impossible

Two days have passed since I arrived in Romania. The first thing I did was to scout the surroundings as well as the potential battlefield.

The Black Faction has an entire city to be used as a fortress. There are hundreds of homunculi patrolling its vicinity along with superimposed bounded fields to prevent any form of surveillance and trespassing.

As for the Red Faction, they are still residing in a church along a small hill. Although nothing seemed wrong at first, I feel they are hiding a trump card under their sleeves.

A proof of it was the "territory" made by their Caster's [Territory Creation] that is way out of the norm. It is reminiscent of the mobile airship, Altair, with the level of magecraft she exhibited.

Hence, I wouldn't even be shocked if she could summon something like that.

Add to that the gods summoned on both sides, the result of this Great Holy Grail War is a bit unclear.

With both of these factions being present in Romania, they are like gunpowder kegs that could explode at any moment.

"Red Faction… They're quite strange…"

I haven't forgotten about the revelation about a certain man two days ago. Him showing up on my revelations could only mean that he plays a crucial role in this war.

"Hm..?"

Suddenly, a strong aura appeared out of nowhere. It carried a potent Telesma, akin to a light pillar that could be seen all over the world.

Instantly, all of my nine mind partitions were opened. I immediately deduced the nature and the origin of the aura—

"Ah..?"

—and it was none other than Kabbalah.

To be precise, it is the "golem-making" field of Kabbalah. Unlike Numerology, it deals with the creation of life itself, thus it is a mimicry of His miracle. The only person I've seen use it is none other than Nietszche.

The presence from afar is comparable to one of his greatest works, something that was meant to be used against that world's sole goddess.

Amongst the list of names that I got, there is only one who qualified for this creation.

Avicebron.

…or his other name, Solomon Ibn Gabirol. He was supposed to be a poet. He wrote the book "Fons Vitae" to introduce neoplatonism, a philosophy that emphasizes the mind as the ultimate cause of everything.

Considering his background on Judaism in my world, I am not surprised that he took the path of Kabbalah in this world.

"The Kabbalah of this world…"

I became interested in seeing it in person.

*****

"Ha… Ha, ha, ha..!"

The man wearing a full-body suit and a featureless golden mask looked at his creation in a daze. He had never expected for one of their attempts to accidentally complete his lifelong work.

"Teacher, that is…"

The boy who stood beside him looked at it with admiration. He didn't even care that the golem grew extremely big, to the point it destroyed many core areas of the Yggdmillennia castle.

It didn't take long for someone to break inside his workshop.

A long-haired man with pale skin entered the room. He wore a full-black suit akin to the nobles of the medieval era.

"Caster! Explain, what's going on?!"

"Haha…"

Still unable to extricate himself, Avicebron continued staring at his lifelong project. It was just completed when they tested three homunculi to be its core. The final homunculi's compatibility was extremely good to the point it abruptly completed his work.

"It cannot be easily stopped. It will be the one who will lead the world to paradise."

Just before Vlad III could further question him, the ground rumbled. No, rather, it was forcibly changed. The tough cement flooring became a field of grass. Flowers and fauna began growing out of it. It was turned into a new world of its own.

Losing the foundations, the entire room began to collapse. It forced the Duke of Wallachia to rush out of the room.

Bam-!

Rumble-!

'This thing is..!'

It didn't take long for him to realize what was happening.

As the Duke of Wallachia, he received a huge territory bonus when he was summoned in it—within Romania. It is one of the reasons behind their confidence in this war.

'It's swallowing up my country..!'

Vlad II realized the loss of his country's territory the moment that golem appeared.

In actuality, it swallowed the space on its radius and replaced it with his own.

"What have you done..?!"

"Your Highness! What did just—?"

Vlad III's Master, the Clan Head of Yggdmillennia, Darnic Prestone Yggdmillenia, appeared by his side. He wore a serious expression in response to the out-of-the-chart magical energy that appeared within their vicinity.

"That Caster..! It was his creation… If it continues at this rate, it will swallow up the entirety of Romania..!"

Within a moment, Darnic understood what had happened.

"A Reality Marble…"

The grip on his hands tightened as the severity of this matter dawned upon him.

'The Greater Grail… It shouldn't be lost..!'

"Your Highness, we should defeat it swiftly."

In a split second, the plan for a debriefing was laid out.

*****

"A golem…"

"It could do something like this… nothing less expected from heroic spirits…"

Within a minute during the golem's formation, Vlad III called forth for a short debriefing. Darnic, who was on his side, explained what happened to the rest of the Black Faction.

"...A golem must have a core. I presume it is our main target."

"Precisely. That golem has to be stopped before it causes further damage."

Their Archer, Chiron, nodded at his words.

He is a centaur as well as a sage famous in Greece for teaching many heroes, some of which are Heracles and Achilles. This time, he took the form of a two-legged human.

Rumble-!

As they spoke, another portion of the castle collapsed. The golem's reality marble was steadily expanding, engulfing the Yggdmillennia castle as time passed.

"We have two objectives. First, the capture of Caster. He knows best how to handle his own creation." Vlad III declared. "Second, the destruction of his golem. Its advances shall be halted with force."

By the time the briefing ended, every heroic spirit went to their planned positions. It was also at this time that several pairs of Master and Servant had a small talk.

"...I trust in you, Saber."

The Master of Saber, Gordes, spoke with utter seriousness. Although he had several anxiety issues after their brief clash with Lancer, it was swiftly suppressed by the current situation. This crucial fight to preserve Yggdmillennia's main base didn't leave any room for doubts, after all.

"I shall do my best."

As usual, Saber, whose name is Siegfried, replied with a determined look.

"That golem wouldn't know how to deal with your immortality. If you need any assistance, I could use one of my command seals."

Siegfried, the dragon-slaying hero, was once bathed in its blood. It turned his entire body immortal. It became impervious to weapons and magic alike. Unfortunately, a small spot on his back was covered by a liden tree leaf, making that spot his sole weakness.

It is akin to Achilles' heel, and as such, Gordes became extremely concerned about others knowing his identity.

"Understood, Master."

Meanwhile, Berserker had a talk with her monster…

"Ugh… Mn…"

…or not.

"I'll watch from the back." Her Master, Caelus, said. "...Remember, don't use that. At least not now…"

"Mn…"

Berserker, Frankenstein, gave him a dull look before nodding. She then followed in Siegfried's steps as she jumped off the castle wall.

When Caelus returned to the backlines, he was greeted by his sister, Fiore. Due to her disability in her legs, she was forced to sit on a wheelchair at all times—except for when she'd use her "mechanical legs" designed for combat.

"Are you worried..?"

"About everything? Of course I am. If we lose this castle, we'd lose all of our preparations. Even if Uncle Darnic could save the grail from that golem, it would be left out in the open. I can't help but worry if the other faction would notice this."

"You thought it well."

Even Chiron couldn't help but praise his analysis.

"If there are any incoming servants, I will take care of them. This must be the reason why Lancer positioned me here."

"Lancer… He really is a King."

Boom-!

With that loud explosion marked the start of tonight's three-way battle.

*****

"Letting Berserker escape… They wanted to scope out the enemy faction's strength."

"Using an expendable servant who cannot be controlled. Our Masters are really ruthless and decisive…"

Under the veil of the night, two heroic spirits rushed from within the cover of trees. Their speed is extremely fast to the point mortals would only see a blur when they pass by.

This is to be expected on the Archer and Rider of the Red Faction.

Their Archer is the famed Atalante, one of the huntresses under Artemis' guidance. On the other hand, their Rider is none other than Achilles, the hero dubbed as the "fastest hero" to exist.

The two of them are currently supervising the berserk heroic spirit—Red Faction's Berserker, Spartacus.

Due to his nature, he couldn't be reasoned out. It left the choice of him being used as an expendable—a one-time use bomb.

Atalante and Achilles were ordered by their Masters to supervise the berserk Spartacus and deal damage to the opposing faction if they could.

"...Something's wrong, big sis."

Despite Achilles' informal words, Atalante quietly heeded it. The two stopped running and vigilantly scanned their surroundings.

"It's wrong… There's something that doesn't fit…"

Suddenly, Achilles' keen eye noticed something. The gust of wind stopped somewhere… that was supposed to be nothing but thin air.

"There!"

Atalante's long green hair swayed along the wind as she drew her bow. The wind hadn't affected her accuracy and struck the position Achilles pointed out in an instant.

Swoosh-!

Sou-!

Bam-!

As expected, "something" blocked her arrows. It crushed them into nothing but pure blue particles.

Soon, a person appeared out of thin air. His entire body was no longer covered in thin gray fog, but his face remained to be blurred in their sight. Worse, his existence had seemingly "incapacitated" even Atalante's skill that could predict her opponent's next move.

Although he was no longer hidden, his presence alone is a huge, unknown enigma to them.

"Both of you have sharp eyes. I would expect nothing less from heroic spirits."

Sou-!

The person jumped down from the tree as he faced the two of them upfront.

"Are you the Assassin of Black?"

"Assassin… You could consider me as such."

The man thought of the Assassin whom he saved a few days ago. Since he helped them 'forfeit' from this Great Holy Grail War, the position for the Black Faction's Assassin became empty.

It is evident the man didn't care about blatantly hiding his identity. As long as he could achieve his goals in the end, having his identity revealed in the end would no longer be a thing of concern.

The ends of his overcoat flapped along with the wind. The two heroic spirits in front of him locked their eyes on him.

"But to think I would meet you here… the machinations of fate are truly amazing… yet ruthless." His voice resounded in their ears. "Tell me, for what reason do you fight for?"

Although the man didn't specify which person he was talking to, Atalante had a feeling it was her.

"You…"

At this moment, she felt a faint sense of familiarity towards the man. She couldn't pinpoint which it was, but he is familiar.

Seeing Atalante being confused by his words, Achilles cut it short.

"Did you come here to intercept us?" He asked.

"Would you believe it if it was a coincidence?"

"That's hard to believe."

"I presumed so."

The two knew it was the time for a fight. Without a warning, Achilles charged at him. Not only do they outnumber him two-to-one, he is also confident about his own prowess.

His lance drew a straight line to the man's forehead.

Clang-!

Much to his surprise, his blow was parried by a small silver dagger.

'Huh..?!'

Achilles reacted swiftly and threw out several strikes, but each one of them were parried by him. He didn't feel the reverberations on the man's hand whenever he parried his strike, leading him to believe that…

"Tsk. What a monster..!"

In theory, Achilles' current stats should've gone through most servants in this grail war. Even someone like Chiron would be beaten by him in terms of strength. Only the Saber-class and the Berserker-class with high levels of strength should've bested him in this aspect.

"Are you really an Assassin?!"

The man replied with a calm tone:

"As I have said, you could consider me as one."