Chapter 326

"By the way, have you heard of any famous new ghost stories recently? Like the one about the living sacrifice Kaguya who suddenly appeared before."

Even though BB was once again brought in by Fujimaru Ritsuka to help, before the final battle on the weekend - Chaldea still did not find any suspicious traces of the virtual monster.

"You didn't use the Internet to spread it this time?" Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at the easy-to-understand report chart that BB pulled out on the screen, frowned and fell into deep thought, "It's really strange, the Internet media is obviously the most suitable breeding ground for the spread of fiction, but why can't we find even a trace this time..."

"Is it possible that the existence that provided fertilizer for the growth of fiction this time, 'imagination', was not human?" Abe Haruaki sat on the sofa and looked at the corpse of the small monster on the coffee table, which had obviously been dead for a long time. "Although the Internet can quickly give birth to a fantasy, netizens can be said to be a large number of fence-sitters. They can support the existence of strange stories, but they will also quickly abandon the story because of the boredom of strange stories."

“That’s where the Internet and humans are at a disadvantage.”

"So, Lord Haruaki thinks that this phantom..." Fujimaru Ritsuka blinked and turned to look at Abe Haruaki, "was nurtured by the 'imagination' of the monsters?"

"That's probably it." Abe Haruaki looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka and jumped down from the sofa. "But this way, it will be much more troublesome to solve the fiction - because judging from the places where these monster corpses I received lived, the other party should have searched all over Japan."

"...That has nothing to do with us." Fujimaru Ritsuka was silent for a moment, then stood up from his chair. "Because the only person who can convince the monsters is Iwanaga Kotoko. The rest of the members are prepared to deal with 'Awaya Doman'. So, Lord Haruaki, have you found the location of the Holy Grail?"

"Although it feels a bit expected, it's not easy to get to this place from the human world." Abe Haruaki put his hands in his pockets and looked up at Fujimaru Ritsuka, "You should know this too, right? Speaking of the Heian period..."

“That’s Mount Oe.”

"Although the Thousand-foot Mt. Oe is a real mountain, if we are talking about the Oe of the Heian period—" After arriving at the site, Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mashu monitored the scene while discussing the actual battle site, "There should be some differences, right?"

"It's not possible that we can find those two guys right here in this mountain, right?"

"That's not the case." Abe Haruaki, who once again took out the final spiritual base stage, shook the fox ears on his head and took a deep breath of the air filled with the scent of mountain plants. "Although I don't know how to explain it to you... but you can just treat it as a state similar to an imaginary pocket - the real coordinates of opening the door are on this mountain now, but the guy's camp "Workshop" is not on this mountain."

"So, Lord Haruaki, do you know how to open that imaginary pocket?" Fujimaru Ritsuka accepted Abe Haruaki's explanation smoothly, using the term "imaginary pocket" to refer to the location of Ashiya Doman's base in this world, "Should we go in now, or wait for a while..."

"Unfortunately, I don't know how to open the door. If I have some time, I should be able to open this pocket, but forget it now." Abe Haruaki said to Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash, "Ashiya should be able to guess what the key to open the door is, but we don't actually need it."

"When the evening comes, during the 'Devil's Hour', the gate here will automatically open - this is the rule of Mount Oe itself."

When dusk was about to fall, Monster An arrived at Oeyama with the last few people - before that, Mashu had used the name "Gift" given by Yahweh as his spiritual base for this battle; although Ortenaus was also very useful, it was not brought this time after all, and Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mashu did not plan to let the control room deliver Ortenaus by delivering supplies.

"The Goddess of Wisdom and her attendants have gone to deal with the elusive imaginary monster, so they won't be seen on the battlefield here." The first person to come out of the monster temple was Ashiya Doman. The black-haired Onmyoji waved happily to Abe Haruaki and reported the whereabouts of a certain ghost. "We shouldn't be too late, right?"

"The door hasn't opened yet, but it will be soon." Abe Haruaki put his hands in the wide sleeves of his kimono and looked up at Asaya Doman, who had a cheerful expression. "Aren't you going to change your clothes?"

"What's so good about that all-black outfit? It's not as good as your almost pure white twelve-kimono kimono." Asaya Michimitsu tilted his head and smiled gently at Abe Haruaki. "Well, when the Demonic Time comes completely, the gate here will be opened. I hope that guy won't turn the whole mountain into his camp."

"It's hard to say. He has so much time to use it. Even if it was a camp of monsters before, he will transform it into a fortress that belongs only to him." Abe Haruaki turned around and looked at the forest in front of him that was gradually getting darker as the light decreased. "This scene always reminds me of the day when I picked up the 'God's Cast Body'."

"He probably wouldn't build a shrine as his base." Asaya Michimitsu answered Abe Haruaki in a subtle tone.

"...Of course I know that." Abe Haruaki paused speechlessly, ignoring Ashiya Doman standing in front of him, and turned his head to greet Abe Harusai and Ashiya Hanae, "We meet again - although it is necessary to make a formal self-introduction before the final battle, please continue to call me Hakusan 'Hakusan'."

"Because, there are three 'Abe's' standing here now."

"Yes, Master Hakusan." Abe Harusai, the last one to leave Monster An, closed the door, turned around, nodded to Abe Haruaki and introduced himself, "I am Abe Harusai, the current abbot of Monster An. Asaya and Xiaomaoqiu are the servants of Monster An and also one of the participants in this operation. Hey, part-time worker, come over and introduce yourself. And Yahiko too."

"I'm Ashiya Hanae, a servant of Monster An!" Ashiya Hanae introduced Abe Haruaki while holding the furry creature in her arms. She sighed awkwardly, "The legislators all said that they can't leave the secluded world, so I may have to trouble you to take some time to protect us during the battle..."

"It seems that taking that child with us is the right choice." Asayamichi widened his eyes in surprise and looked in the direction of Mashu who was already wearing knight armor. "Everyone who was chosen here played a very indispensable role here... Hmm, this level of selection accuracy..."

"This is what is called the 'savior's intuition'." Abe Haruaki laughed and looked down at the fox demon with a collar that looked like a yellow flame that sneaked up to his feet. "So, this fox demon is Yahiko that Harusai has already introduced, right? Although I really want to say that even without your participation, we can successfully solve the problem here..."

"But you are willing to find someone else to help you. You are surprisingly a good kid."

"The door is open." When the devil's hour completely descended, Mashu clearly saw in front of him an ancient blood-red door slowly opening at the foot of the mountain. He began to inform everyone of the changes that had taken place on the scene, "Let's go, Lord Qingming, everyone in the Monster Temple, and - our battle is about to begin, Master."

"I understand, Shielder." After finishing his disguise and putting on a suitable magic dress, Fujimaru Ritsuka returned to Mashu's side and walked through the blood-stained door with everyone else. "Let's go to the mysterious Oeyama and punish the criminal who committed so many crimes."

After passing through the gate, what appeared before everyone was a black mountain filled with miasma.

“…Looking at it this way, it really doesn’t look like the Oeyama in our memories.” Abe Haruaki blinked, “It’s almost completely black—it should be a mountain covered in blood.”

"Maybe your memory is confused... Although I want to say so, it's so dark that it obviously means that our previous speculation has come true." Asaya Michiman shrugged and turned his head to ask Abe Haruaki, "What should we do next? Although that guy is different from us and doesn't need to calculate things like local bonuses-"

"But it's best not to get involved in a battle in the enemy's position." Abe Haruaki turned around and asked Asaya Doman, while starting to think about how to deal with it, "Should we start from the outside or turn this place into a position that is advantageous to us? Or should we turn it into a place where neither side has any advantages..."

"If you want to use 'Thousand Years of Heian-kyō', that won't work - once the inherent barrier disappears, the situation will instantly return to a situation that is favorable to that guy." Asaya Doman decisively rejected Abe Haruaki's proposal and turned his head to look in the direction of Fujimaru Ritsuka, "Come to think of it, did that vengeful ghost come with you this time?"

"The Chateau d'If is a barrier for the spirit, not reality. It's useless here." Fujimaru Ritsuka replied helplessly to Abe Haruaki and Ashiya Michiman, and at the same time turned his attention to Mashu, "If we want to change the environment here... that guy can turn this place into his fortress, then we can also move our fortress directly here, right?"

The Holy Grail Knight Galahad possesses a Noble Phantasm called "Lord Camelot," a round table of fame, which can be used to recreate a complete round table with the help of the Round Shield, and use it as an anchor to recreate a complete Camelot. As a gifted knight who accompanies the savior on many journeys, Mash also possesses another Noble Phantasm of the same nature.

Galahad's Round Shield is the anchor for the Knights of the Round Table to gather; and Mash's Cross Shield, which was derived from a part of the Round Shield, is not limited to the Round Table, but a "hero gathering place" that carries the fate of all heroic spirits - using this as an anchor, the Savior's Fortress can be recreated.

That is - "Lord Fenis Chaldea", the observatory that overlooks the Earth from the void.