"Fabricating myths? Mass-producing disguises? Jormungandr, did you come here just to pick a fight with me?"
Norton's voice came through the mercury curtain of the alchemy array, carrying a metallic, unyielding edge. His figure appeared against the backdrop of a silver-lit laboratory, filled with precisely running alchemical instruments. Streams of mercury flowed, flames flickered, and light refracted dazzlingly.
"The execution of the Heroic Spirit system design plan was originally your responsibility along with Constantine. My role is to provide all the design blueprints! My request is both reasonable and compliant, and it can significantly raise the upper limit of the Heroic Spirit system!"
Xia Mi shot back without the slightest hint of weakness, her golden pupils shimmering in the dim cave with a stubborn light.
"You call that raising the upper limit?"
Norton's voice suddenly rose, and from his laboratory background came the crackling of a roaring blaze.
"You're basically forcefully grafting a mythology system onto the Heroic Spirit system! Do you understand the difference in workload and feasibility here?"
In the vast cavern, the conversation between the two Dragon Kings was charged with tension, sparks practically crackling in the air.
Fenrir, meanwhile, had long since shrunk down his massive dragon form. Beforehand, he had delicately picked up his beloved little television between two claws and quietly tucked it into a corner.
Now, the great dragon simply stared blankly at the massive alchemy array and Greater Grail in the center of the cave, pretending not to hear anything. This was far from the first time he had overheard his sister arguing with the King of Bronze and Fire, and to avoid becoming collateral damage over something he didn't understand, Fenrir had perfected the art of playing innocent.
"Fine, fine, Norton, you think your workload is heavy, huh?"
Xia Mi waved her arms angrily. Just remembering her endless, exhausting work in the East made her blood boil.
"Do you think my workload is small? Do you have any idea how many ideas I've had to… borrow and research to give you these designs? Do you know how many brain cells I've burned through?"
Norton's voice vibrated through the mercury curtain like struck metal. "Enough, Jormungandr, you still don't grasp the fundamental difference here!"
On the other side of the array, Norton hurriedly handed off his current task to the young man beside him—his younger brother Constantine. The youth took over, a flicker of concern in his golden eyes. Only then did Norton step closer to the mercury curtain, his deep voice tight with suppressed anger.
"Jormungandr, I'll be frank. That 'Minamoto no Raikou' design, you already gave it to me before. Now your new proposal is basically telling me—forget that, we're scrapping it—and while I'm redoing it, I need to match this Heroic Spirit with some wild, impossible mythology system!"
"How can you call that redoing it?"
Xia Mi spread her hands. "We're not tearing everything down. We're just giving Minamoto no Raikou a whole new side—'Ushi Gozen'! Then give Ushi Gozen a power system based on Indra's incarnation…"
Her words flowed faster, like a barrage of arrows. "With your alchemy skills, adding a wearable alchemical 'Ōgusoku' system is totally doable, plus the Ox-Head Heavenly King Apostle…"
But as she spoke, Norton's expression grew darker. The hum of the surrounding alchemical devices turned uneasy.
"Silence!"
Norton's voice boomed like a great bell. "This 'Ox-Head Heavenly King Apostle' in your design—capable of ultra-high-speed assaults, unleashing lightning, with a destruction range one kilometer wide and over ten kilometers long—"
His fingers cracked as he clenched them. "Where am I supposed to find the time and energy to build such an outrageous oversized toy?"
Xia Mi pouted, ready to retort, but Norton cut her off.
"If you've got that much time, why not just stand there and cast an apocalyptic word-spell yourself? And don't forget, the Holy Grail War is about to begin. There's no time to start over now!"
His tone turned mocking. "If the Holy Grail War is being held in Japan, I recall this Minamoto no Raikou has a huge fame bonus there. She's definitely going to be a top summon, isn't she? When time runs out, how will you, as the operator, deal with it?"
The new Heroic Spirit system made use of high-end alchemical techniques like "Mental Recasting." Mental Recasting was built on fantasy, using human legends and beliefs as raw material; the fame and strength of the legend affected the condensed fantasy's power.
From this perspective, Shirou's earlier point about fame bonuses wasn't wrong.
Xia Mi, however, just shrugged casually.
"Then we'll be late. Tokyo has a Genji suitable as a Master candidate, but the Minamoto clan hasn't only had one Raikou in a thousand years. Raikou's relics weren't only ever used by her. We can just match her with one of the Genji's Four Heavenly Kings, right?"
Norton shook his head silently. He couldn't understand Jormungandr's ruthless "black-hearted operator" mindset, as if every Master coming to the Holy Grail War was a rich fool ready to burn money on information and relics, flying across the sea to act as her lab rat.
Still, Norton couldn't be bothered to keep arguing. As long as Jormungandr stopped making demands and didn't add to his workload, he'd count his blessings.
"That wearable alchemical 'Ōgusoku' isn't a big problem," Norton said through the mercury curtain.
"But the 'Ox-Head Heavenly King Apostle' will have to wait. Unless we can truly open a 'mythology system' path, creating that kind of oversized toy in the short term is pure fantasy."
"Is that so? Be honest, Norton—do you really think a mythology system is impossible?"
Xia Mi still wasn't giving up, her voice tinged with stubborn determination.
"If we can use the White King's authority to turn ordinary human souls into Heroic Spirits, then human-created myths are also just stories of fantasy, right? In the end, shouldn't they fall under 'Mental Recasting'?"
Norton snorted coldly, his voice openly mocking. "Easy for you to say. But if you've studied human myths, you should know what level of power those myths attribute to their gods, shouldn't you?"
He clearly despised her "ignore scale, just talk theory" thinking, like listening to a layman spout nonsense about alchemy.
"And don't forget, Jormungandr—our ability to make Heroic Spirits in the first place is because that one (Lu Mingze) linked to the World Tree and opened the Throne of Heroes for us!"
Xia Mi's eyes suddenly lit up, as if catching a key clue. "Wait! If you put it like that, then isn't there a way? To create my mythology system, we just need to link to the World Tree and open a new Throne of Gods…"
Norton let out a short laugh. "Impossible. How would you even execute it? Hoping that one would kindly help us again? Or do you think you and I are capable of the feat of 'creating human mythology'?"
"…" Xia Mi was left speechless, her earlier confidence deflating like a pricked balloon. She muttered under her breath, "If dragons can't do it, then… maybe humans could…"
Humans?
"Wait!" Norton's pupils shrank sharply as Shirou's explanation of the Holy Grail War's "truth" flashed through his mind—
The Grail granting wishes was just bait to lure participants. Its real purpose was to use the souls of seven Servants as sacrifices, employing the Greater Grail to open a path beyond the world, in an attempt to reach the Root of all things. A human who could achieve this could become the legendary Magus.
"Humans… magic… the path to the Root… Could the Holy Grail War's true nature really work!?"
Norton's mind raced like lightning.
All things in the world, at their source, came from the World Tree. Even the Black King, progenitor of dragons, was no exception. The World Tree was not only the origin of dragons—it was also the origin of humans.
The Black King's throne was the highest seat for dragons, but did humans have a similar "throne"?
No one knew.
"It still sounds risky," Xia Mi said uncertainly.
"When we linked to the World Tree to create the Throne of Heroes, even the Black King's flesh and blood disappeared instantly. Could a human survive? What if they stepped in and just… vanished, never to return? Wouldn't we have wasted our one chance to connect to the World Tree?"
The World Tree was the world's origin. If a human truly entered it, they might dissolve into it like returning to a womb.
"Perhaps. But it's also the only chance for a human to become a god—to ascend in one step…"
Norton's voice trailed off as he suddenly noticed Xia Mi's expression change.
"What is it?" he asked with a frown.
Xia Mi's eyes betrayed her surprise. "That one (Lu Mingze)… just sent me a message. He's taking one of the Master slots."
———
Pier 4 of Tokyo Harbor lay under an inky night, its stillness unnerving.
This should have been a time of roaring life—the rough shouts of dockworkers, the rumble of truck engines, the hurried footsteps of customs officers, the coming and going of massive cargo ships whose gas turbines churned the salty wind.
Yet now, it was as if time had abandoned the place.
Metal-clad shipping containers stood in neat rows like silent tombstones. Dim yellow lamplight cast broken shadows on the damp ground, the scent of seawater heavy in the air, but not a single wave could be heard.
Zero and Sakade Mai stood side by side, their eyes fixed on the black surface of the water.
Zero's pale-gold hair swayed lightly in the breeze. Sakade Mai's fingers absently rubbed the hilt of her sword.
Then—
A deafening explosion shattered the stillness. The water erupted, a towering wave surging skyward like some ancient beast rising from the abyss.
Through the drifting mist, an enormous block of ice broke the surface, its crystalline form reflecting the cold moonlight like an iceberg risen from the sea floor.
And faintly, within the ice, the pale moonlight revealed the massive dark silhouette of something terrifying—
Like a colossal sunken ship.
(End of Chapter)
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