Chapter 043 [Inverted V] 43

Although Abe Haruaki tried his best to speed up the video playback when showing everyone the information extracted from the spiritual veins, the moment they entered the subway station, the time in the Shibuya Anomaly Point once again flowed to 20:31.

Everything on the ground was swallowed up by blood, leaving only everything underground unchanged. Even Abe Haruaki's clairvoyance could not see a different view - so they went all the way down, and finally on the brand new underground platform with bright lights, they saw the god of wisdom of the monsters standing on the edge of the last step, with a tall and thin young man standing behind her.

Looking in the direction where the two men were looking, the people of Chaldea saw on the dust-free platform in front of them the cube that appeared in the spiritual vein message. It looked like it was wrapped in bandages and sealed Gojo Satoru. It was lying quietly in front of everyone.

"Only half an hour is left." Fujimaru Ritsuka glanced at the watch-type magic dress in his hand, and simply and roughly decided the next course of action for the servants, "First, we need to change the status of the underground from 'false' to 'real'; at the same time, try to re-establish communication with Chaldea..."

"Finally, recover the Holy Grail and defeat the holder of the Holy Grail."

When Fujimaru Ritsuka arranged the actions of his servants, he did not avoid the two people below. In fact, after entering the subway station, the people of Chaldea no longer took the initiative to hide their own tracks, and naturally did not think of avoiding non-members when arranging actions; of course, the most important reason was...

This goddess of wisdom among the monsters was one of the people they had half of their own.

—even though the other party may not be informed at all.

As soon as Fujimaru Ritsuka gave the order, Abe Haruaki had already moved from the side, passed the two people in front and the boundary between the last step and the platform, and stood on the empty new platform. The huge Kikyo seal was flashing with white light, and Abe Haruaki pressed it to the ground with his hand. The whole subway station began to change with Abe Haruaki's action.

The lights dimmed, revealing a deep bloody red; the walls and the ground were melting, becoming distorted, and were dotted with blood; the air throughout the underground was filled with the stench of flesh and blood, dragging everyone into a scene of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood - in the end, as everything was over, the platform and the ground were littered with broken limbs.

The only thing that remained unchanged was the cube that sealed Gojo Satoru - it still lay quietly on the ground, but had pressed the platform floor so hard that it sank. The blood that had not yet dried gathered in the dent, soaking the cube covered with bandages; but those yellowed bandages still had the yellow color of age, without being stained by the blood at all.

The man in the five-strip cassock sat at the top of the empty subway train, appearing out of thin air in front of everyone, looking down at the people on the platform - and what attracted everyone in Chaldea's attention was the circle of seams on his head.

“…Found it.”

The first person to speak was not anyone from Chaldea, but the God of Wisdom of the monsters.

"My name is Iwanaga Kotoko - Iwa for rock, Eternal for eternity; Koto for musical instrument, Koto for child." The girl in a white dress walked to the edge of the platform with a cane, took off her beret and looked up at the man sitting at the top of the train. "I am a youkai, ghost, devil, demon, monster, ghost... In short, I am the god of wisdom of the monsters that exist in this world."

"Of course, except for cursed spirits - after all, these guys will seriously threaten the order in the two worlds I maintain." Iwanaga Kotoko raised her cane and pointed at the man, "Stop it, my lord. Whether it is the human world or the demon world, good order must be maintained. I will never forgive those who act recklessly."

"This world is not unpredictable. Even if there are monsters, ghosts, strange things, and demons... there are common sense that is absolutely unchangeable - and it is my responsibility to protect this common sense."

"So that's how it is. This time even the spokesperson of God who maintains the balance has shown up." The man smiled and looked down at Iwanaga Kotoko, but his words were filled with dark malice. "Although he is much easier to deal with than the six eyes, he is also a troublesome fellow."

"Ah, but the new world does not need to abide by the rules of the old world - naturally, it does not need the existence of God's spokesperson."

The alarm in Chaldea finally stopped - the entire Earth projection was displayed on Chaldea, and only the point where the Shibuya anomaly was located was lit with a red light that was completely different from the entire Chaldea.

“…the values ​​have returned to normal levels.”

"World existence observations have returned to normal."

"Special point exists and observation is normal - Lens Sheba magnification function is ready."

"Observe the situation inside the anomaly at the observation anchor point, Fujimaru Ritsuka."

The people gathered around the director's seat all stopped their work at the same time, and looked at the screen in the control room, which was finally projecting a scene from another world. Then, the first person who attracted everyone's attention was not Fujimaru Ritsuka, who they had been worried about for a long time, but the guy sitting at the top of the train, who seemed to be filled with malice.

——Chaldea just happened to arrive at the time when Iwanaga Kotoko was confronting that person, so no one chose to take the initiative to make a call. Everyone in the control room watched the person on the screen vigilantly, seizing the time to start checking all relevant information.

This appearance was too eye-catching - on the director's desk was a pile of key observation target data that several people had previously found in order to identify the protagonist. Lansemero quickly pulled out a piece of information with a man in five-striped robes from the pile of data, but he frowned when his sight fell on a certain line of small characters.

"Died on December 24, 2017."

“…I didn’t know that the guy in this world could make the dead crawl out of the grave.” Lansemello tilted his head and handed the information in his hand to Roman who was sitting on the chair. “The Throne of Heroes does not exist in this world - so there is no doubt that the guy who appeared in front of Fujimaru and the others is a corpse.”

"It's just that no one knows why the body moved."

Still standing on the steps, Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at everything in front of her and blinked slowly - then she gave the magic power of one of the only two remaining Command Spells to Abe Haruaki, who was standing on the platform without saying a word.

"Give Servant Alterego the power of a Command Spell."

——When Abe Haruaki remains silent, it usually does not mean that she is isolating herself from the scene, but that she is choosing the right time to intervene in order to achieve a development that is sufficiently beneficial to her side.

And Fujimaru Ritsuka is also an excellent Lord - she knows better than any other excellent magician what kind of support to give to the servants and when to achieve the outcome she seeks; of course, this is based on the tacit understanding and sufficient trust between her and her servants.

"...You said that it was troublesome to 'deal with' the 'Six Eyes' and the 'Balance Maintainer' -" Abe Haruaki also raised his head and looked at the man sitting at the top of the train, "but you were obviously surprised by the appearance of that child... Then, I can guess that you did not have a conflict with the 'Balance Maintainer' a thousand years ago."

Abe Haruaki brushed off the non-existent dust on his sleeves, took out his folding fan and tapped it on his palm, then walked briskly to Iwanaga Kotoko's side and gave her a foxy smile.

"I assume that you have never met the second 'Maintainer of Balance' since then?"

"...Indeed." Iwanaga Kotoko recalled the layout of the entire Shibuya, "The entire Shibuya was a trap prepared for the 'Six Eyes' - the strongest Gojo Satoru. But it's not that I didn't expect someone to come out and interfere... It's more that I am confident that even if someone comes to interfere, I can still get the ending I want."

"After seeing that body, I roughly understood the whole trap." Iwanaga Kotoko casually cited an example, "Just like when I suddenly appeared in front of Kuro-senpai after I died - no matter what, it would make the person in question stunned on the spot, right? Not to mention that you prepared a lot of traps to consume Gojo Satoru's energy."

——The body of the man sitting at the top of the train was undoubtedly the body of Geto Suguru, who had passed away on December 24, 2017.

"Indeed." Perhaps because he was sure that the outcome was settled, the man looked at Iwanaga Kotoko and Abe Haruaki standing in the front with the same smile as when he was the leader of the Bandei Cult, Geto Suguru. "If it was the 'person who maintains the balance' from a thousand years ago, maybe I would choose to avoid his edge - after all, he is a more difficult guy to deal with than the 'Six Eyes'."

"Really?" Abe Haruaki asked the man with a smile, the handle of the folding fan in his hand, but it did not fall into his palm.

"That guy has the Holy Grail reaction - confirmed!!!" Chaldea's communication cut in at this time. Fujimaru Ritsuka answered the call and led the servants down to the platform, "Second World Order, the final project execution begins - Holy Grail recovery execution!!!"

"...Understood." Abe Haruaki did not knock the folding fan against his palm again. Instead, he opened the folding fan in front of him, revealing only his smiling eyes. "Then I thank you for your compliment on 'me' - my real name is revealed, Servant Alterego Abe Haruaki. The 'person who maintains the balance' of Heian-kyo, the person who entertains all the monsters... Of course, my most famous identity will always be the genius Onmyoji who has never been seen before and will never be seen again."

"I wonder if my introduction to myself will help you realize that the 'law of balance' cannot be violated?"

Time is still ticking forward, and the time for the cycle to start again is getting closer and closer -

“Abe Haruaki!? Humph…hahahahahahahaha!!!” The man looked at Abe Haruaki and laughed so hard that his face twisted. “Not everyone can pretend to be him—if you are really Abe Haruaki, then even if I introduce myself as Asaya Doman, it won’t be considered lowering my status.”

"So I said it was to thank you for your praise of 'me'." Abe Haruaki sighed helplessly, and began to construct the treasure with the help of the magic power that Fujimaru Ritsuka had given her before, "The night when a hundred demons travel, the city where all demons feast; the son of the white fox in the forest, the one who maintains the balance - the last of all, turned into memories bound to Kikyo."

"Thousands of years of Heian-kyō."