Danmaku, my skills refresh weekly.

……

Chapter 77 The Jester Who Traveled Through Time

Outside of Orario, there is a deserted, dilapidated village.

Two people, one in gray and one in black, wearing cloaks, are gazing at a male god.

At that moment, a golden light streaked across the distant sky, followed by a fleeting, chaotic terror.

“It’s in the direction of Orario, what’s that?” Chardo murmured softly.

"I don't know either, ha, interesting." The god-like man with short, black hair as dark as the underworld chuckled.

"Isn't this just the prelude to forcing us to make a decision?" Alfia frowned and gazed into the distance.

"No," the male god said frankly, "I have no reason to interfere with your choices. Whether you agree or not doesn't have much impact on me."

Alfia's brow furrowed deeper and deeper; she had a hunch that Orario was in deep trouble.

"Have you made up your mind?"

"Let's go back to Orario."

Erebus, the handsome man, asked again, "You just mentioned 'that child,' didn't you? Don't you want to go back and see him?"

“You don’t need to confirm our resolve anymore.” Alfia smiled with relief: “It’s more important to nurture more heroes who can stand in front of that child than to provide temporary protection.”

at the same time……

On the other side,

From the sewers of Daedalus Street, countless Dark Faction soldiers dressed in white Saudi-style uniforms rushed out of their stronghold.

Carrying explosives, they dispersed quickly and systematically to various urban areas, setting up traps under the cover of darkness.

Amidst the massive flames and billowing smoke, piercing screams and wails, along with the raucous laughter of the thugs, echoed through Orario.

On the city streets engulfed in flames, a pink-haired girl dressed in a wild leather outfit, revealing her waist and thighs, grinned maliciously as she surveyed her surroundings.

"Where is it? Where is the treasure that even the gods covet?!"

She grabbed a resident covered in blood from the explosion by the roadside and sneered, "Tell me, where is that 'treasure'!"

"Uh...ah..." the man whimpered a few times, pus and blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

"Useless trash. If you don't want to talk, then you'll never have to." The girl grinned maliciously, lifted the person high above her head, and slammed him to the ground.

Under the immense kinetic energy, a pool of blood and broken bones stained the street red.

Having done everything, she sneered and stared ahead: "Let's go! Minions, let's have a big celebration and give Orario a taste of its own medicine!"

"Yes, Lord Vareta!"

……

The explosions continued throughout the night, and the flames completely engulfed the entire city.

Before dawn, Ciel, who hadn't slept all night, received the prophecy from Cassandra with bloodshot eyes.

A vortex of chaos, a seed of miracle, the scales of fate tipped, the planet's inner and outer worlds interacting. A fool, burdened with the world's pain, arrives across time and space. Heroic hymns, the roar of tyrants, rebirth or destruction, sacrifice or continuation—the mystery will be revealed in the flames.

"Chaos again, planets again, is this going to be this exciting? What on earth is all this? You didn't just write something random, did you?" Charles scratched his head, looking annoyed. "I hate riddle writers, especially that brat named Kuroba Kaito!"

“I’m sorry…” Cassandra tugged at her skirt, trembling nervously.

What did she dream about?

Giant roots pierced the earth, and the Tower of Babel collapsed. A pillar of light, capable of destroying everything, ignited the entire city. The corpses of countless heroes were buried beneath the vast void. Black, fleshy wings, obscuring the sky, unleashed hurricanes that tore everything apart, leaving humanity to hide in underground caverns, barely clinging to life.

Something has to be done. That future is terrifying. Why have I been having these nightmares lately? Compared to this, a world dominated by that man doesn't seem so bad.

"Ah—anyway, this is bad, right? A lot of people are going to die, right? First, tell me, what's the annotation that will change all this?"

At this moment, Charles's impatient groan broke Cassandra's panic.

Oh, and him too.

No matter how outrageous the prediction was, the boy would still do it, grumbling and cursing.

He said, "I don't believe it, but that doesn't stop me from giving it a try! What's the harm in trying? What if it works?"

Cassandra frowned, her single eye, hidden beneath her black hair, widened:

"In this land of bliss, a bewildered clown and a knight searching for their 'ideal paradise,' amidst the chaos, they recount absurd and bizarre tales."

Ciel took a deep breath and tilted his head back: "Ah~ that's why I hate riddle people!"

After a pause, Charles clapped his hands: "Got it! Enough talk, don't resist, let me in and check your memories!"

"Eh?"

Before she could react, Charles transformed into a dazzling cat-like shadow and rushed into Cassandra's chest.

Inside the Mind Room, Ciel stared at the image of despair projected onto Cassandra, his face filled with bewilderment. So that's what it was…

That was a land ravaged by monsters, a scene where white-haired adventurers were forced to become heroes. When the white-haired adventurer, exhausted, fell into a deep slumber in the fortress…

The scene shifts, and the white-haired adventurer is once again standing in the burning Orario.

This place is very familiar to Charles; it's the very scene of the street right now.

"It's this?" Ciel recalled a branch in the DanMachi arc that wasn't recorded in the main canon. It was the storyline of Belkrani, who crossed the vortex of chaos and returned to seven years earlier to save the Astrea Familia and Adi.

But why would Cassandra predict the end of the world? Wasn't that part of the story where Bell said "happy end"?

Furthermore, this rabbit seems to have a problem too; in a visual novel format, this could be considered an "ed if" ending.

Having obtained the basic information, Ciel chanted again, left Cassandra, and transformed into a cat to enter Lily's body.

"Anya, you stay here and watch the house. Little Lizi, let's go." He decided to go and ask the rabbit who had wandered into Alice's Wonderland himself.

"Hey? Now? Where to? It's dangerous outside!" Lily clutched her head, trembling.

"Let's go save the world! Prepare for battle, my knight!"

"Eh eh eh eh————"

……

Flip over the partition and push open the door.

The sky was overcast, and a pungent smell filled the air as soon as I left the church. The air became hot and humid, thick with smoke, and littered with debris in the alleyways, as residents scattered in panic.

Boom—boom—

The earth trembled, and raging flames exploded in the nearby streets, creating a huge mushroom cloud.

In this situation, Lily, carrying her spear, went against the flow of people and quickly stepped into the deserted alley.

The road was littered with rubble and collapsed houses. The walls were covered in charred paint, and the once smooth paving stones were now pitted and uneven. Occasionally, carbonized corpses and limbs fell from the windowsills along the way. In just a short distance, Lily saw nearly 50 corpses in various gruesome states, a truly eerie and terrifying sight.

"This is... the 'Dark Ages'." Ciel's expression was solemn, and for the first time, the sense of despair from this era entered his eyes.

"Should we go on?" Lily hesitated, fear gripping her.

Charles regained control of the body, his eyes instantly becoming serious and resolute: "We must go, we must stop that child before he leaks the information!"

……

Beneath the walls of the Western city.

Following the interpretation of the document, Ciel, posing as Lily, arrived in the western part of the city represented by "Paradise on Earth".

Looking around, relying on my keen senses, I heard a sobbing sound around the other corner.

"Hmm... Ah... Hmm?" A gentle yet resolute androgynous voice rang out: "This is... an alley? Hmm? The Tower of Babel? Orario? Eh? Why?"

Follow the sound...

She was an adventurer wearing tattered white light armor. She was young, with messy short white hair, soft facial features, and a small ponytail hanging down her neck. If it weren't for her resolute and sharp eyes, her eyes, which looked like the most beautiful rubies in the firelight, and her cute and easy-going appearance, she would look like a soft and cuddly rabbit.

"That feeling...it's him! Bell Craney! How did he end up here? Is it because I transformed Lily into Hestia yesterday? Is there a bug in the world?"

Seeing Cassandra's precognitive dream, Ciel, who knew the plot, naturally couldn't believe it. But unfortunately, the child's "lie" always seemed to become reality!

And the "protagonist" of this world just brazenly travels through time, returning from the future to the past.

That is a taboo that even the gods cannot touch. Only those with extremely strong luck can survive and reach this place from a probability of one in a hundred million, one trillion, or one in a thousand.

thump—

While Charles was still in shock, a huge flame erupted not far away.

"Explosion?! The city is on fire!"

Bell looked in the direction of the sound, his body reacting instinctively. With a whoosh, the white figure vanished like a shadow, leaving Ciel bewildered in the wind…

"It ran away...it ran away! And so fast! This level...at least level 5! What era is this rabbit from?! It wasn't mentioned in the main story!"

In a moment of despair, Ciel took a few quick steps and dashed towards the site of the explosion on another street.

We absolutely cannot... we absolutely cannot let him get away!

Sorry, the plan has changed. Orario might be stronger now! I'm sorry, Lord Rudra, I'm actually a "Partner of Justice"!

……

On the other side, Belle, who had rushed out of the alley, stood frozen in place.

The firelight, the ruins—it all looked so much like what I remembered, but that was all history now…

"I remember Orario was destroyed in that disaster! Why? What happened?"

Thump—boom—

In the room just inches away, the remaining gunpowder was ignited by the gunpowder, and the flames shot towards Belle at close range.

"careful!"

Golden strands of hair brushed through the air as the masked elf yanked the stunned Belle away: "That was close call! You're not hurt?"

“Ryu…Sang? Aren’t you already…and, with long hair?” Belle’s pupils dilated as she looked at Ryu’s familiar attire.