"Huh?"
What the hell, why am I falling? And why is it only me?
Well, at this height, it doesn’t really matter. I release wave energy, use the recoil to steady my posture, and draw both wave energy and ki into my arm.
When I’m about ten meters from the ground, I slam the arm charged with wave energy into the side of a nearby building. Kwadudududuk! Concrete fragments fly as my speed drops.
Just before landing, I flood my body with wave energy to protect myself, roll with the impact, and disperse the shock through ki.
"Hmph!"
Ow. My leg hurts.
"Hmm... why did that happen? Hm. The basic coordinate setup was complete... Ah, I was sent through Mnemosyne. Was that to prevent accidents like crashing into something or getting stuck somewhere? No, if anything, that would make it less safe... Ah, only I was sent. Which means..."
"Hey, Ren?"
"Senpai, Ren is like that, so he doesn’t react to much of anything. That’s a waste of effort."
"Huh? Ritsuka? You were here too? Right, Mnemosyne included you at the end too... No, Mash?!"
What the hell?!
"You, you!"
"This is the first time I’ve seen Ren so shocked..."
"No, I’m human too. If someone whose leg looks like that shows up alive and well, and in that outfit, I’d be shocked."
"Ahaha..."
"No, but what even is that outfit?"
"Ah, well..."
"No, never mind. Demi-Servant. Right?"
"Yes..."
[Ah, you’re safe! Thank goodness! This is Chaldea control room—can you hear me clearly?]
"Yes, Doctor. I can hear you."
[That’s a relief. Even though Ren completed Mnemosyne, I was worried there might be some loss of meaning...]
"Hey, Chicken. Are you doubting my skills and Da Vinci’s technology?"
[Ghk! No, that’s not it...]
"Well, I can’t say there’s nothing that needs fixing."
[Is that so... No, more importantly, why is Mash dressed like that?! I’m glad she’s safe, I really am, but still! I didn’t raise you to be such a dirty child...!]
Clack!
[Move it, Romani! You’re being loud! Honestly... where did Lev go...?]
"Ah, Olga Marie."
[Ren, was it? That’s a relief, at least... But what happened to Mash?]
"Demi-Servant. Is that enough?"
[Yes...]
"Ah, and about that Lev..."
[! You know about Lev?!]
"Yeah. That turnip bastard was a traitor."
[...Huh?]
"Right before the explosion, he was laughing wickedly. He vanished in a golden light. No wonder he was so irritating."
[Le, v...]
Olga Marie seems at a loss for words, trailing off.
"Pull yourself together, Olga Marie. You’re the director. A leader can’t waver in a situation like this."
[Ghk, right. Ahem, ahem. Mash Kyrielight.]
"Yes, Director."
[You said you’re a Demi-Servant. Can you tell me the exact situation?]
"Yes. First, I don’t know the Heroic Spirit’s true name. That person... entrusted me with their combat ability and vanished. They said that if I eliminated the cause of this Singularity, they would hand over their abilities as a Heroic Spirit and their Noble Phantasm."
"Hmm. Then the Heroic Spirit’s consciousness..."
"Doesn’t exist. They never told me their true name or Noble Phantasm either... For now, I’ve made senpai my Master."
[Hah. It would have been better if Ren had been the Master, but... unfortunate, though it can’t be helped.]
[Director, Shiva’s output is unstable... It was hastily restarted with Da Vinci’s help, so it’s lacking power. It’ll shut down in about ten seconds.]
[I see. I’ll keep it brief. There’s a ley line here. If you go there... ksssh. Ren, you know... kzzzt kzzzzzt]
"It cut out..."
"At least I saw the map at the end. So that would be... the sixth ley line?"
"Huh? Ah, you’re from one of Fuyuki’s Second Owner families!"
"I know the basics."
"Um... Ren? I can’t follow this at all..."
"Follow me first. I’ll explain as we go... damn it."
"Um, that is..."
"...Obviously enemies."
Skeletons? Some half-baked necromancy?
"Mash, stay with Ritsuka. I’ll handle this."
This was getting annoying anyway. I reach for the hilt at my waist... and fumble at empty air.
"Damn it, I left it in My Room!"
"Uh, Ren?"
"Well, it doesn’t really matter."
I don’t even need wave energy. I reinforce my body a little with Magecraft and throw myself forward. There are five of them. I casually punch the one in front. Kwak! Its skull shatters and the thing collapses... or rather, it doesn’t, and instead swings its sword at me.
Clang! A sound so absurd it’s hard to believe a sword hit my coat rings out. Damn it, I treated it like a human and made a mistake. Whether it’s a monster or a person, usually if you smash the head, they go down. But skeletons are usually supposed to go down when their heads are smashed, aren’t they? Do they have some other core? Ugh, too much trouble to look for it...
"Too much trouble to exorcise... Fine. I’ll just smash the whole body."
When your body is bad, your head suffers. I lightly draw up wave energy, wrap it around my fist, and drive it downward.
Frey style [Void Break]
Kwadududuk! The remaining jawbone and part of the spine are ground to dust as the skeleton soldier’s frame collapses. Ugh, this is annoying too.
The second skeleton soldier had a fist driven into its chest, then I detonated ki at the same time. The area around its ribs turned to powder, and the remaining skeleton collapsed.
...This feels a bit like overkill. From the next one on, I’ll just rip them apart with brute force. I grabbed the third one’s limbs and tore its body away from its torso, then kicked its head off along with a few ribs. Even then it tried to keep moving, so I got annoyed and focused on the flow of mana to check it, and saw a single red bone, strangely like a mass of familiar curses.
Ah, this is a sternum. The same thing I farmed to death in my first life. No wonder it felt familiar. I ripped the sternum out and it stopped moving. So that was the trick.
I ignored the last two as they swung their swords and rushed them, tearing out their sternums too. The DC Coat really is convenient. As long as I have mana, I can recharge it anyway.
"Hmm, cleanup done."
"...No matter how I look at it, I think I’m much weaker..."
"Uh, Ren? Are magi all monsters like this?"
"Explain that and whatever else is related to it, Mash. I’ll take the lead, so explain while you follow."
"Ah, yes..."
++++
As we went along, I dealt with the skeletons that appeared, and when I got tired of moving around, I sniped their sternums with Gand and made them vanish as I advanced. Hmm, this is kind of fun, like a shooting game.
"Bang!"
Kwak. With a quiet sound, the sternum hit by Gand shattered, and the skeleton soldier literally collapsed.
"Gand, Gand, Gand!"
Hmm, my hit rate is 100% so far. It’s the three-way combo of dynamic vision, prediction born from experience—no, vibes from experience—and the high accuracy of Gand. How many years have I put in? You think I can’t hit a single red bone about three centimeters wide on a skeleton moving that slowly?
"Gand!"
Kwak.
"Oh, that time it was a double kill. Or should I call it a double bone kill in this case?"
"Uh, how much farther do we have to go?"
Ritsuka, who had been tense at first, now looked relieved and was walking along like he was out for a stroll.
"Just around that corner. Gand."
Kwak. As the skeleton soldier collapsed, the ghost inhabiting it rushed at us... what?
"Kyaaa!"
"Hyaa!"
"Agh?!"
"What, a spirit."
That’s even more annoying to deal with using Gand. I was about to draw up wave energy and blast it with my fist when an interesting thought came to me.
"Hmm, will this work?"
I spread my hand and drew up wave energy, concentrating it. Splitting it into two and resonating the two streams greatly amplifies the power.
I then lightly sweep my hand, releasing the two streams of wave energy from my fingertips. Sshhk! Oh, it works.
"Kyaaa..."
"You only have two lines, huh..."
"Eh? What was that just now...?"
"Sword mind... no, I’m kidding. Don’t look at me with such serious eyes. I just extended the blade of wave energy and cut it apart. Next time I should just blast it with ki or something... The efficiency is way too low. And annoying."
Honestly, moving my body around would be less troublesome. Splitting the wave energy in two and resonating it is a pain. If I concentrated it like I do with Heaven-Splitting Slash, I could probably do it without resonating, but that would be even more of a hassle. It also puts a bit of strain on the body.
"...It feels like I’ve been thrown into a martial arts novel."
"I don’t have internal energy, though. Ah, but I do have ki."
"...Seriously?"
"Yep."
As we chatted our way forward, the corner was suddenly right in front of us. I turned it and looked ahead... wow, why are there so many spirits and skeletons packed together like that?
++++
I got annoyed and borrowed Mash’s shield for a bit. It was fine even when I poured wave energy into it, so I got a little excited and dumped a ton of wave energy into it before throwing it...
"...It looks like a bomb went off."
"...Well, I made sure not to damage the ley line."
Hmm. With bone fragments scattered everywhere, it feels like an excavation site. Well, I don’t really care.
Crunch, crack. The bone fragments underfoot make soft breaking sounds.
[Ah! Director! The communication link is back up!]
[Ren! Thank goodness. I was worried when the connection became unstable at the end.]
"Well, I’m technically Chaldea’s technical advisor together with Da Vinci. I should write the summoning circle. Mash? The shield."
"Ah, yes."
I take the shield and pull a reagent from my pocket, then start drawing a summoning circle around it.
[You still had reagent left...?]
"I was wearing a protective coat, after all. This was protected too... done."
[It’s connected. I’ll send over some supplies first...]
"Oh, wait. If you check my My Room, there should be a sword there. Could you send that too?"
[Ah, yes... one moment.]
"Oh, and there should be a scroll and a black case next to it. Send those too."
[Hm? Understood.]
"Um... Ren? What is that?"
"Hmm... my own little hidden card, I guess."
It’s not something you need to worry about. When I told him that, he nodded.
Soon, light rose from the summoning circle I had drawn, and the items were transferred over.
"Let’s see. A little food, some water, huh? Alcohol? Oh, Saint Quartz too. Has the Fate system been repaired?"
[Ah, I did fix the Fate system for now, but... at the moment, there’s still some damage from the explosion, so something other than a Servant might get summoned. The Spirit Origin storage was destroyed too... I sent the rest after using up the Saint Quartz needed to restore the facilities in a hurry. There are thirty, so...]
"...In other words, it’s a gacha. A ten-pull."
[That wording is a little...]
"Ugh, gacha... I hate gacha... pity..."
"Ritsuka? Hey?"
"Gacha... spending..."
...Looks like he’s had a rough time in more ways than one. Damn it, the memories of my first life... Gawain exploding... ugh.
"...It’s a ten-pull, so maybe one of them will come out."
"...You think so?"
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