บท 134: Konosuba Side Part 19.
Under the heavy clouds of smoke, the flames that spread to the end of sight were scorching anything they came across. The sound of crackling echoed in this ghost city while everything had a shade of redness because of the heat and fire.
In this purgatory, several figures were spread across the city. Some of them were scorched and burned badly, and some of them were just skeletons. These creatures, which were generated from the huge amount of death, were wandering aimlessly or standing without moving.
These creatures, coupled with the scene of flames' purgatory, made this city look like hell-spawned on earth. It's hard to believe that this place was just a 'normal' town filled with people living in 'peace'. Like there was no huge magic ritual that was able to achieve limited wishes at all.
However, such situations only affect normal people, anyone with some combat and intelligence can take care of himself, which made most of these creatures sandbags, especially after only servants were roaming around in the city.
Above the clueless undead, a shadow was jumping from a building to another. Archer was crossing a large distance with few leaps, with no particular direction, like he was just strolling around.
He didn't even seem to be prepared for battle. Just slightly closing his eyes while glancing at the surrounding. However, his eyes were completely calm as his projection was always ready to be triggered.
Across the sea of flames, on the rooftop of a Fuyuki's school, four people were watching from afar. However, from outside the rooftop, they seemed to be transparent and very hard to detect.
"He's sure taking his time…" Cu said while operating the boundary field he just made to cover everyone.
This is a boundary field with some defensive and stealth capabilities, well, it isn't all that strong, but its main objective is to prevent sneak attacks and allow Cu to have a reaction time if someone attacks now.
Chaldea's team gathered here after the great announcement from Archer, so they came to watch, although only Cu and Mash can see that far while Olga didn't want to waste mana, and Ritsuka didn't have any spells of that category, but she could check Archer's location from her 'system'
After arriving here, Ritsuka closed the chat and stared at the screen. She wore a serious expression from the moment Archer left.
{He won't just drop down… right?} Mash looked at Archer jumping from a building to another with his eyes closed. She wasn't sure about this anymore.
"This is a waste of time. Why did you allow a servant, especially an archer, to go to the front…" Olga frowned as she was muttering under her breath. Her expression darkened, which made her look so upset.
"Although I want to agree, I think you need to observe more, little girl" Cu grinned when he heard Olga's words.
"Don't worry director, things don't seem to be simple" Before Olga said anything, Ritsuka said without taking her eyes off the screen.
"What do you mean, senior?" Mash was confused slightly, so she asked.
"Do you think he went there just for a reason like 'killing himself'?" Ritsuka answered while studying the screen in front of her. She saw an icon showing Archer's picture and there were three icons at the side, which were named after her Mystic Code's spells.
{Maybe I can use my mystic code on the servants… No, does it work with this description?} Ritsuka saw the description of spells was slightly different as she thought for a moment before saying " The enemy is also an archer"
"Clever" Cu nodded before he said " The enemy is an 'identical' archer to that guy, who know no honor and can use a lot of underneath means"
"You want to say that an enemy in the dark might be staring at us" Mash understood immediately while Olga's expression became darker.
"Yeah, but there's still two more important reasons" With Cu's words, Ritsuka said " The pillar creature from earlier, right?"
"It seems that my current Master is smart, huh?" Cu nodded and said "There are two sides in this HGW. After Saber hunted all servants and turned them into shadows, they went on a massacre, but is the pillar creature also with them?"
What is happening currently is baiting the enemy to get information. Archer found his other self in this reality and wanted to use him because he knew that there's no other person in the world who hates him more than himself.
By appearing in the open, Archer wanted to see the reaction of his other self(Shadow Archer). If the Demon God Pillar was with him, he'll attack without hesitation to eliminate them or he'll attract the Demon God Pillar to find them here.
The Demon God wants to kill Chaldea's team and Shadow Archer can never control such a thing, so him not appearing here means that Shadow Archer's party isn't in the same lines as the Demon God.
Cu realized that, which made him click his tongue. With this information, a lot can be done. For example, attracting both of their enemies and making them fight each other if possible. Or gather them in one place and bomb them all.
"What is the other reason?" Mash asked innocently, but she realized the seriousness of the situation.
"The other reason… huh?" Cu looked at the sky with a 45-degree angle. His voice was deep and serious that it made everyone feel that things aren't simple.
"Killing himself, heh" Cu grinned as the serious atmosphere was shattered like glass. Mash blinked innocently while Olga almost fell.
"....." Ritsuka felt speechless before she massaged her temples and said " So, don't worry, director. It's better if we use this time to think about our next move, did you manage to contact Chaldea?"
"Hmph! You don't need to remind me, Ritsuka Fujimura. A master candidate with no magecraft's knowledge doesn't need to worry about me" Olga replied sharply before glancing at Mash, who had a way to contact Chaldea.
Ritsuka took her eyes off the screen and glanced at Olga. She wasn't surprised by Olga's response, but what surprised her was… it wasn't harsh enough. The director she knew would never stay silent about this. She didn't even ask how Ritsuka was able to summon servants.
"Fou!" Without a warning, Cu heard a sound as he looked to the side. On the edge of the rooftop, a white fluffy creature was looking at them.
{How did this thing crack my field…} Cu's eyes sharped, but Mash was faster than him and said " Fou, how did you appear here?"
Fou jumped from the edge and landed in Mash's arms while saying "Fou, fou!"
"Is this the creature that lives in Chaldea?" Olga was surprised by Fou's appearance while Cu noticed that everything was normal and ignored them.
"Did you follow us from Chaldea?" Mash was talking and hugging Fou while Ritsuka was staring blankly.
How long has she been ignorant? How long has she been blind? To be honest, if someone came to her and said that a fluffy white creature is one of the seven grand calamities against all humanity, she'll think they are hallucinating.
But after all that she saw, Ritsuka realized that the most dangerous thing in Chaldea was Fou. It's like you put a nuclear bomb in your home and slept next to it.
{A Beast… the greatest disaster against humanity} Blankly staring at Fou, who was cuddling in Mash's arms, Ritsuka was beyond speechless. {Do you still dare to call yourself a Beast? Don't you have any dignity and honor as the greatest evil?!}
{If a Beast was acting like this, what does this make humanity?} Ritsuka continued with her thoughts before Fou looked at her and said " Fou, fou!"
"Fou said: They are pests. But why did Fou say this for senior?" Mash was confused while Ritsuka didn't understand how, but she felt her whole species was insulted right now.
However, only Cu noticed that Olga was staring at Ritsuka's hand with a complicated expression.
{Why… You... you know this will happen, so why didn't you say anything… Father} Glancing at Ritsuka's hand, which had traces of six wings command seals, Olga had a lot of complicated emotions.
*Ding!* *Ding*
"Hel-lo… can you hear me? Anyone there?" Suddenly, the communication device of Mash was activated before a holographic screen appeared.
"Thank god, is everyone okay! Is that you, director, but how…" A man with a long orange ponytail appeared as a projection with a worried and confused expression on his face.
After Romani Archaman appeared and the connection with Chaldea was established, Olga took the lead and started to ask questions. The other didn't bother her as she was talking about Chaldea's situation.
When Olga's finished her commands to Chaldea, Cu was staring at Archer, who stopped on top of a building and took his bow.
"Hey, master, I happen to know a way to help that guy" Cu said with a funny tone, but Ritsuka directly said " Can you help him?"
"... You asked 'if' before 'how' " Cu was slightly surprised by this amount of trust, but he just shrugged and said " Yeah, do you want to?"
"Of course" Ritsuka glanced at her system while Olga and Mash noticed the situation.
"Okay…" Raising his staff in the surprised eyes of everyone, Cu said with a smile that will make children cry " Show me the best-shocked expression you have"
*BOOM!!*
Slamming his staff on the ground, the whole boundary field was broken as Cu released his mana, announcing his presence. And without any delay, several red arrows of mana crossed the distance towards Chaldea's team.
Staring at the arrows rushing towards them and Archer projecting his bow, Ritsuka sighed helplessly. It's time to start again.
"Ehhhhh!!! What just happened!!?? Can you hear me?!" Romani suddenly lost contact with the team as he shouted at the screen, even if he knew it was a useless act.
"Stabilise the signal, try all the means to reach them again!" Giving the orders, Romani sighed as he glanced at the screen, but his eyes were slightly complicated.
{Things… Are coming together, aren't they?} Romani closed his eyes slightly as he put his hand on his chest. There was a golden ring with small cracks hanging on his neck like a necklace.
Shaking his head, Romani returned to work immediately. It isn't time to be lost in thoughts at all!
Meanwhile, when Ritsuka exits the chat for a few minutes, a couple of hours passed in Konosuba's world, showing a huge difference between the two worlds' times.
With Ritsuka leaving, the group quickly got bored and they exited the chat quickly. However, to their surprise, Kaguya told everyone to meet at the city gate before they left.
After thinking for a moment, everyone went to the city gate. They didn't have anything important to do currently, and they were also curious about Kaguya's words.
It didn't take long for everyone to gather together. Whitebeard was just around, punching frogs, Misaka and Leone were walking around the city, so they were slightly late, and Kazuma being the last to arrive. Kaguya didn't say anything as the team departed into the road.
"So, where are we going?" Kazuma asked, but he kinda recognized this road.
"Somewhere interesting" Kaguya said ambiguously while smiling.
"You discovered something didn't you?" Misaka stared at Kaguya with suspiciousness, but the latter continued to smile.
"Heee, so mysterious" Leone said in a long tone while looking at the surroundings.
"....." Whitebeard, who was slightly taller than the trees, didn't say anything while walking forward in slow steps.
"Oh, right. Kazuma-san…" Kaguya suddenly pumped her fist on her palm before looking at Kazuma.
"What?" Kazuma's attention was drawn to Kaguya before she said " When I said everyone, I meant 'everyone'(Chat Room), right?"
"Yeah" Kazuma nodded naturally, of course, he knew this simple thing.
"Then… what is this?" Kaguya pointed at Aqua, and Darkness holding Megumin while following them with Kazuma.
"Don't ask me" Kazuma shook his head while denying having any connection to the current situation.
"What? This goddess wanted to follow and help you, isn't this a great honor" Aqua buffed her chest, but Kazuma glanced at her and said " You just don't have money, so you followed"
"As a knight, it's my duty to protect my allies in their journey" Darkness was beaming with heroicness, but Kazuma looked at her with contempt and said " You sure about that?"
"Of course, meeting some monsters that'll attack me and knock me while trying to subject me to all vile treatme-" A blush appeared on Darkness' face, but Kazuma just stopped her before she continued.
However, everyone, even Whitebeard was staring at Darkness with a weird gaze.
"We're a team, Kazuma. We'll always support each other as friends, and with our powers together, nothing can stop us" Megumin's words and smile made Kazuma stop in his place before he sighed.
Scratching his head, Kazuma looked at her with a smile and said " You know?" His expression quickly vanished before he said " I'd believe you more if you could walk on your own and not tagging along just because you were afraid to be left alone"
"*Cough* No, that's completely wrong. With our power combined, we can do anything! Aren't we comrades?" Megumin said with a smile, but this time, her smile was slightly twitching and she didn't dare to make eye contact with Kazuma.
"Fuck your friendship power!!" Kazuma snapped immediately while waving the gun in his hand.
Ignoring this farce, Kaguya shook her head before looking at the front. Between the trees, she could faintly see a large castle on top of the cliff. That's their destination.
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