Chapter 289

"...But, they said they wanted to exclude Seiya and the others from participating--"

"It just so happens that Tonghu can't come back yet, and doesn't need to participate in this trial. Let Shilong take them to Lushan."

"You guys can arrange the matters in the Sanctuary, but remember to inform me when you can start the trial. I will go there to check the situation."

After deciding on the arrangements for this group of Bronze Saints, Lancermello left the Papal Hall and went to the training ground to check on the progress of the Servants in building the Hundred-Storied Tower. Although they were allowed to work according to their own interests, the specific personnel arrangements for each floor still had to be determined through formal discussions within Chaldea.

"So, will the rest room be opened according to the progress of the Hundred-Storied Pagoda as usual?" Fujimaru Ritsuka checked the past records while confirming the list of Hundred-Storied Pagoda members sent back to the control room by Lancermello. "Should we set up a rest room inside? Or should we ask Kido Saori to borrow the Twelve Palaces?"

"Borrow the Twelve Zodiac Signs - In addition, there is no upper limit on the number of people in the formation this time, so the number of servants on each floor is not fixed." Lancer Mello walked into the Hundred-Storied Pagoda and confirmed the list of the Hundred-Storied Pagoda with Fujimaru Ritsuka on the other end of the communication. "However, although the members of the first floor meet the requirements, I always wonder if I set the conditions too lenient..."

"Let me see... the story about Aries being the Golden Fleece?" Fujimaru Ritsuka flipped back to the top of the list and saw the first layer of member registrations, "The Argonaut-related, Shepherd David... Ereshkigal and Jedidiah!?! Wait a minute! I remember when I looked at it before, Miss Ereshkigal and the doctor weren't on it!!!"

"It's rare for the king to want to come out and play in his young form, so I agreed." Lansemero glanced at the tiny Solomon Lliy on the first floor downstairs, while explaining to Fujimaru Ritsuka, "As for Ereshkigal, it's because of Dumuzi. I think Asclepius was dragged here by Jason as a member of the Argonauts, so let's just let Ereshkigal go with him."

"The difficulty of the first level is so high..." Fujimaru Ritsuka sighed, looking at the candidates for the second level, "Europa, the protagonist of the Taurus myth, Asterios, Ishtar... Although there are only three people, this level doesn't look easy - ah, Miss Ishtar is because of the record of the Bull of Heaven, right?"

"Then there is the third level—"

"Well, it's packed with two-person servants and various normal servants and their Alters and Lilies, as well as some two-faced servants and true brother and sister servants." Lancermello raised his hand and waved to the three Paradise Fairies over there, and then continued to go upstairs, "Including some brothers and sisters who are not related by blood - aren't Mash and Galahad coming?"

"Mashu told me that she wanted to stay in Chaldea." Fujimaru Ritsuka interrupted Lancer Mello with a smile on his face. "If I could come here as a Servant, I would like to try it on the third floor with Emiya-senpai. Doesn't the deputy director think that we are very similar? If we stand there, we are also a pair of real twins, right?"

"The guy from Emiya is older than Kirsh." Lanser-Melloi roughly recalled the ages of the students and reminded Fujimaru Ritsuka who was sitting in the control room, "They are three years apart... Ah, as expected, the group in El-Melloi's classroom are a few years older than Kirsh and Olga. Only Fujimaru and Mash are the youngest in Chaldea - if you don't consider the guy who became a human after making a wish."

"But if we only consider the similarity... you two are indeed very similar."

By the time the Hundred-Storied Pagoda was decorated and Kido Saori began to organize the Saints to participate in the trial, all the Saints who had been hiding in the underworld of Ereshkigal had been resurrected, Mu, who was left in Jamil by Shion, had dealt with the Saint Cloths hidden in the Saint Cloth Cemetery and sent them back to the cemetery, and Seiya and others were persuaded to go to Lushan - even Ikki, who had always been a loner, was found by Kido Saori and tied up and brought directly to Dohko.

——The Saint who tied Ikki up was Shun, who was also not allowed to participate in the trial.

On the day the trial began, the previous generation of Gold Saints gave up their work and went to the training ground to watch the trial of the current generation of Saints. Even though most of them were Saints who had witnessed themselves obtaining the Cloth in the past, this did not prevent them from following their inner thoughts and watching the young people make fools of themselves in the trial.

——It’s just that they probably didn’t expect that the test subjects in the Hundred-Storied Pagoda would surprise even them.

"Are they here?" Lanser-Mero, who had just watched the Saints enter the Hundred-Storied Tower with Kido Saori and was setting up projections to monitor the situation inside the tower, turned his head to look at the people who had come with him and brought out the two Geminis. "Aspros and Defteros just missed the last Seven-Storied Gate and will also have to participate in this trial process. They are still on the first floor, so they should be in time."

"What is the order of the levels in the Hundred-Storied Pagoda?" After sending Aspros and Defteros into the Hundred-Storied Pagoda, Sisiphos confirmed the details of this trial with Lansemello and Kido Saori. "I've been in the Papal Chamber since I came back. I only know that this trial is themed around constellations. The one hundred floors represent the eighty-eight constellations and the twelve gods of Mount Olympus."

"The level of the twelve main gods is at the highest point." Lansemero arranged the projection array and opened the huge projection like a movie theater to show everyone the situation inside. He also added a progress bar of the Hundred-Story Pagoda on the left side of the projection. "The order of the first eighty-eight levels is determined by the five regions of the modern eighty-eight constellations - the order is the ecliptic, the equator, the southern sky, the northern sky, and the northern sky arch. Taking into account the situation in the Holy Land, Ophiuchus, which passes through the ecliptic equator, is placed in the equatorial constellation area instead of the ecliptic constellation."

"Huh? There are so many people in the Aries Trial..." With Sisifoss asking about the order of the levels, Shion, who had already shifted his attention to the projected image, looked at the situation on the first floor with his eyes widened in surprise, "You have prepared seventeen people on the first floor!? Even Master Ereshkigal and Master Asclepius are in there!?!"

"Asclepius appeared as a crew member of the Argonauts. Isn't Aries related to the Golden Fleece that the Argonauts wanted to obtain?" Lansermello looked at the projection while estimating how much magic power would be needed to add the small anomalies to the Hundred-Storied Tower. "The rest are either shepherds or were chosen because they have some connection with the sheep-shaped mascots."

"Well, actually, the most difficult person for you guys is probably not Hercules..."

"Circe, the witch of Aiyu Island," Kido Saiori spoke at this time, "will treat human males who visit Aiyu Island with delicious food, and after they have eaten and drunk their fill, she will transform them into various animals. And among the Saints who have entered the Hundred-Storied Pagoda, there are only a handful of female Saints."

"However, as I said when I launched the Seven-Layered Gate Trial more than two hundred years ago, the trial objects you defeated have all been weakened to varying degrees." Lansemero stood up and transferred the communication from Chaldea to the temporary projection array. "Achiman, the answer to the question is left to you - someone invited me to participate in this Hundred-Layered Tower as a gatekeeper. Of course, I can't just sit here and explain it to them."

"I understand - nice to meet you. I'm Romani Achiman, the head of Chaldea's medical department. You can call me Dr. Roman." After greeting everyone, Roman sighed and complained to Lansermello, "You used the Holy Grail to transform the interior of the Hundred-Storied Tower, but how come the ones who passed through were still Servants who were suppressed in various ways... It was obviously the original bodies that passed through, right? It's not like you can't let them off just because the original bodies passed through -"

“After all, there are too many of them.” Lansermello crossed his arms and answered Roman seriously, “Although there are no gods or the like, too many of them is also a problem - not to mention that there are a total of 100 floors here... the number of members in some of the floors can already be called a sea of ​​people..."

"That's true." Roman smiled helplessly. "Leave this to me. The Heroic Seat is counting the number of times everyone's Hundred-Storied Tower has appeared. If you're interested, you can also count it on the spot. Or directly count the maximum number of people on a single floor? You can also count the number of people who participated in each battle. By the way, you have added a barrier to each floor, right?"

“Yes, in order to prevent them from getting inspiration from the previous battle of the Zodiac, I added a rule to the Hundred-Storied Tower that only those who defeat the guardian of the current floor can enter the next floor.” Lansemello held his wand and supplemented Roman, “It’s the kind of inherent barrier and the rule-based barrier of the ‘innocent people can enter’ type - okay, I’m going in.”

So Roman, who took over the commentary task, confirmed that everyone in the Sanctuary understood the basic rules of the Hundred-Storied Pagoda, and then began his own commentary work based on the images in the projection - and by the way, he used the chat room of the Throne of Heroes to call in several Heroic Spirits who had served as commentators in Chaldea's internal competitions such as the Fairy Knight Cup to come and take turns to commentate.

Merlin and Taigongwang, who were called by Roman to help, brought their own stools and sat on Roman's left and right. They put on fake smiles that were even more brilliant than usual and began to explain - and in the process, they made sarcastic remarks to each other.

"C.S.: I shouldn't have asked them both to come here together."

"R.N.: They've all gone, just be patient, Solomon."

"R.N.: How about the other two?"

"CS: They can even commentate with Meilin Taigong Wang, how much better can they be......"

"B.T.: ...You could have just asked Merlin to go over there."

『C.S: Never mind, let’s leave it at that.』

"Okay! The interstellar city mountain range Olympus Hundred-Storied Tower has begun! I am your sister, Ms. Avalon, please take care of me!" Ms. Avalon, who was sitting next to Merlin, clapped her hands and announced with a smile, "But, is it really okay to use this name? Although it is indeed held in Greece and the theme is related to Greek mythology, isn't it a bit too much to not change a single word?"

"It's because the collective of the Heroic Spirits of the Writers rejected the Master's request for a name." K. Rasputin, wearing sunglasses, explained the true situation to everyone. "Anyway, I wish all challengers good luck in their military affairs. After all, even if the Servants of the first stage have been weakened, they are not easy opponents to deal with."

Merlin finally found an opportunity to grab the microphone and ended the opening speech: "Let's turn our attention to the battle scene--"