He was imprisoned in Nibelungen for a thousand years, only to find out upon his release that he was

Ishtar: "..."

They held on with great difficulty.

Has her status within the team deteriorated from a useless goddess to a negative example?

Upon closer examination, aside from this "assassin duo"...

The gloomy Ereshkigal is able to resonate with Lu Ming through her simple, love-struck mind.

Francesca also resonated with Lu Ming through her neurotic, mad thinking.

She was the only one who couldn't get along with Lu Ming.

As expected... a normal person like her wouldn't survive in a group of extraordinary people.

They just want to make a quick buck and run.

Run back to a normal world without superhuman beings or conspiracy theories about cerebral palsy.

……

"No response, it's not in this location."

Ailei gripped the ritual implements that were vertically inserted into the earth's spiritual vein, sensing the direction of the vein and the flow of divinity.

She stretched out her hand, a faint divine aura swirling around her fingertips.

This was a trace of divine power that had been extracted from this ley line at a great length of time.

This restored her strength, but not much, and its usefulness was very limited.

This is quite different from the optimistic results expected in the initial probe.

The reason is that the detection technique and the actual earth vein energy that can be mobilized are not the same thing.

The ley line fulcrum where Lu Ming, Ai Lei, and the others were located could only draw upon the ley line energy in the surrounding area centered on it, rather than the entire Nibelungen world.

Although this area contains a vast stockpile of magical artifacts, the amount of usable divinity beneath the ley lines is quite limited.

This is probably similar to the idea of ​​"not putting all your eggs in one basket".

After all, for Odin, losing his stockpile of Noble Phantasms is insignificant and won't bring much of a boost to the "prisoners in jail".

However, if these prisoners were to seize power, it would be tantamount to holding the nuclear launch button, giving them the confidence to live as long as heaven and earth at any time. The nature of the situation would then be completely different.

“See? That’s Odin’s cunning! Hehehe!” Francesca bounced over.

"He anticipated our desire to seize the power within the ley lines, so before leaving, He transferred the power we needed to other fulcrums. Alas, Odin is such a wicked creature!"

Ai Lei thought the voice sounded familiar, "Hey, uh, you sound like Lu Ming."

"Hehe, is that so? Thank you for the compliment!"

Francesca bowed slightly, giving an elegant greeting.

For her, Lu Ming was the perfect being she craved most, someone she wanted to understand and emulate with all her might.

What? You mean, learning a way of speaking counts as imitation?

Hehehe! How can this not count?

After all, a fundamental aspect of human nature is the tendency to repeat a grade...

"There is a situation!"

The two looked up and saw the woman in black calling out. Was that Lu Mingxin's new disciple?

Aileen glanced at her "top disciple," Francesca, with a slightly strange expression.

The latter seemed indifferent, as if he had seen a more novel toy.

The two abandoned their concern about the ley lines and joined the others in gazing into the distance.

Soon they witnessed a massive black mist rising from the horizon, from which emerged a tsunami of skeletal monsters.

Some were humanoid, some were beast-like, and there were even skeletal dragons with enormous skeletons. They bared their blue fangs, roared, and shook the atmosphere. Their sharp, ferocious claws rubbed together, making a shrill and piercing sound.

Aileen was slightly surprised. Those were... monsters from the underworld?

She was all too familiar with the aura of death emanating from these monsters.

Just as she was about to explain to the others, she heard Lu Ming's voice again: "I know that!"

"Hey, Lu Ming, you know about this too?"

"Monsters created from the dead, huh? I'm very familiar with them."

Lu Ming knew about the corpse guard.

It is something that ancient dragons obtained by processing the remains of their own kind or servants using alchemical techniques.

The corpses processed by alchemy, though clearly dead, retain nerve and muscle activity. Even when the whole body is rotten and only the skeleton remains, they can still move freely, similar to high-level zombies or undead.

These corpse guards dare to invade Nibelungen! What arrogant fellows! They'll never leave alive!

Volume 1: Chapter 53 This is probably... the Sea of ​​Milk

The fanatical young lady gazed into the distance and saw a massive army of the dead descending upon the place amidst a thick, dark fog. The sight was overwhelming, yet she could not see through the strange black fog.

The dead marched forward amidst billowing smoke, their speed surprisingly fast, and they were soon approaching the place.

"Then what should we do now?"

"Fight or run?"

All the women's eyes immediately turned to Lu Ming.

"Fight, but fight with strategy; retreat, retreat with strategy," Lu Ming said in a profound and enigmatic tone.

Ishtar asked, looking puzzled, "What do you mean?"

"The search and raid are over," Lu Ming said.

The key is to first loot all the weapons and equipment stored here, then use the remaining weapons that cannot be carried away as bombs, and then evacuate as quickly as possible.

"Are you saying that we can no longer draw power from the ley lines here?"

“Yes, the position is wrong. Odin must have taken precautions in this regard. We need to find other support points and try again.”

"So that means we can abandon this fulcrum? In that case, why don't we just openly abandon our defenses and let these monsters in!" Lu Ming said fiercely.

"Huh? Could it be that..."

"That's right, use this ley line fulcrum, along with the entire treasure vault, to blast those invading monsters into the sky!"

……

A slightly earlier timeline, the battlefield near the Central Hospital.

Anne Coujaran tossed her long, golden braids that draped over her shoulders, her beauty mark at the corner of her eye obscured by black mud.

The spear-like artifact she wielded, crafted by Alexandre Dumas, possessed power surpassing her own magical abilities, yet it couldn't reverse the inevitable defeat.

Anne turned to look at her other police colleagues, who were also part of the "28 monsters." Most of them were also shocked and bewildered by the cruelty of the Holy Grail War and by the cold and powerful monsters like the Servants.

The black Archer clad in a lion's mane—Alcides—alone ruthlessly destroyed all the efforts of everyone else!

Director Orlando's ally, that Servant Fratt, possessed such incredible abilities that he seemed to be suppressing the opponent, only to have his Noble Phantasm stolen by the Black Archer in the blink of an eye.

Based on the intelligence they obtained, the Director and Caster Alexandre Dumas arranged for John Wingard, one of the "Twenty-Eight Monsters," to use a dagger-like artifact tainted with Hydra poison to seize the hard-won opportunity to stab Alcides.

The latter survived unharmed. The deadly poison, which should have caused a fatal wound, was completely devoured by the ominous black mud that emerged from the other's body!

We've exhausted all means.

Is there really no way to deal with this monster?!

"Knowing they are mere mortals, why would they participate in the Holy Grail War? A futile act of resistance."

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Alcádez looked towards the top floor of the hospital building.

That was his destination.

It is the source of the strange "plague" atmosphere that permeates the entire city.

Alcides once again drew his bow and aimed at the unconscious little girl, Tsubaki Kugaoka, from a great distance.

"Does our own powerlessness justify turning a blind eye to evil deeds?"

Despite his face being covered in blood, Wen Gaode shouted angrily. He was the policeman with the highest sense of justice, and also the most seriously injured.

"Protecting innocent civilians and preventing them from getting involved in the war is the duty of us police officers!"

To be fair, Chief Orlando and his unit have made the Snowfield Police Department the most ethically sound police force in America.

Police officers in America who only arrest people and don't protect civilians are the typical police force.

"Hmph, once you've personally joined the Holy Grail War, what difference is there between good and bad morality? Even if the enemy is a child, you should not hesitate to kill them."

Alcides said, "Pity for the enemy is cruelty to your own team."

Qiu Hai himself is a repeat offender.

Previously, he relentlessly attacked Tini, and now he's come to snipe Tsubaki, practically transforming into a loli killer. Such behavior would surely make Uncle B, who's on the other set, burst with murderous intent.

"Besides, do you really not know who caused the 'epidemic' spreading in the city? Do you really think that little girl (Kuangu Tsubaki) is innocent and pitiful?"

Alcádez's question left the police officers, including Wendard and Anne, speechless.

In fact, what Alcides said was true. Their police station also found the Command Seals on Tsubaki's hands and quickly determined that he was a hidden Master.

However, it cannot be denied that Tsubaki Kugaoka was merely an ignorant little girl who had lost her ability to act. Those with modern consciences would not act so cruelly without reason, nor would they allow Alcides to launch such an attack.

Ignoring her injuries, Anne struggled to her feet. "We will never allow the senseless slaughter of children..."

However, before he could finish speaking, something unexpected happened.

"Ok?"

Alcides stopped sniping and cautiously observed his surroundings. "This strange feeling of spatial swaying... it doesn't seem like Caster's technique, it's more like the world itself...?"

Buzzing—!

Suddenly, a black, surging tide swept in from afar.

Has that 'cursed plague' finally arrived?

Alcides began to retreat, his martial artist's senses penetrating the fur to observe the black mist tide.

That is Rider, the Pale Knight, the Servant of Master Tsubaki Kugane. He is suspected to be 'Death,' one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible.

"They were still outside the city just now, how could they react so quickly?"

At the same time, the shaking of space became increasingly violent.

Until a certain extreme point, everyone seemed to vaguely hear a massive explosion that blotted out the sky, like a blazing, white sun rising slowly from the earth's surface.

Anne, with her long golden braids, almost lost control of her expression as she saw all the buildings of the Central Hospital being mercilessly engulfed in a magnificent white light explosion!

“The reeling hill…!”

Just as I was about to cry out, I heard my colleagues exclaim in surprise:

"Look closely, it seems like nothing's wrong at the hospital!"

Wen Gaode shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Wait a minute, there seem to be two hospitals. The one that exploded is an identical hospital. Strange, how can they be exactly the same? It's like looking in a mirror..."

"A world like a mirror..."

Anne murmured.

Director Orlando analyzed some intelligence and believed that the "Odin image" video that circulated that day corresponded to another mirror-like world similar to Snowfield City.

That world was deserted, but the distribution of buildings was almost identical to that in reality.

Boom!

A series of massive pillars of fire erupted from the violent explosions.

Black arrows whistled through the air.

The commotion startled everyone awake—they had simply stumbled from one battlefield into another, and their enemy, Alcides, was still there.

boom!