"Aura, in this brief life, I have come to understand a truth."
In the dim underground space, Shalltear, who was squatting in the darkness behind the greater grail with Aura and wrapped in a sound-insulating and shadow-erasing magic barrier, suddenly spoke.
"What truth? Also, you're a vampire, not a human, you don't have a life-da," Aura yawned, then turned to look at Shalltear and asked.
"The more one plots, the easier it is to fall into unexpected predicaments," Shalltear rolled her eyes and replied.
"Hmm—that sentence sounds a bit familiar, like I've heard it somewhere before," Aura rested her chin on one hand, as if trying to recall something.
"Don't worry about such details!" Shalltear quickly grabbed Aura, not letting her continue to think back.
Did she really want her to answer that this was a famous quote she had plagiarized after watching JOJO?
"So, why did you suddenly say this with such feeling?" Aura tilted her head and asked.
"Hmph hmph hmph... look." Shalltear pointed at the greater grail, which was still emitting a golden light in the dark cavity without a light source, and Darnic, who stood before it. "To keep the greater grail and win this Holy Grail War, he has been planning for sixty years, and you could say he has played his scheming to the extreme."
"However, he could never imagine that those ideas he schemed and planned are like paper before Master, easily pierced with a single poke."
"The greater grail will soon be in Master's pocket. Ohohohoho—!"
Aura looked at the wildly laughing Shalltear and sighed helplessly.
Shalltear-chan is looking more and more like a villain.
She's even plagiarizing lines from villainous characters.
Huh?
We were villains to begin with?
Then it's fine.
Suddenly, Shalltear's laughter stopped.
Darnic also seemed to have received new urgent intelligence, as he turned around and hurried out of the cavity.
"Shalltear?" Aura called her partner's name.
"Tsk, my cute familiars have already spotted the enemy shadows." A red light flashed in Shalltear's eyes. "Tsk tsk tsk, it's a group of very 'cute' skeleton soldiers."
Unfortunately, the bone quality wasn't very good; they looked just like common skeleton mobs.
Otherwise, Shalltear would have really wanted to collect a few of these skeleton soldiers as collectibles.
"Skeleton soldiers?" Aura tilted her head, then nodded thoughtfully. "They must be the Dragon Tooth Soldiers Master mentioned before."
"But why are humanoid skeleton soldiers summoned from dragon teeth?" Aura murmured, somewhat perplexed.
"Don't think too much about it," Shalltear patted Aura's shoulder to remind her. "The backgrounds and worldviews between worlds are different. Naturally, the things that cannot be understood are as numerous as the drops of water in the ocean."
"...While I don't know which manga you're plagiarizing lines from this time, but in the last world, did you mainly just read manga?" Aura stared at Shalltear with dead-fish eyes.
"What a way to put it. I just read a few hundred million more manga at Yu Ishigami's invitation, that's all." Shalltear turned her head away unnaturally.
"Alright, let's not mention that for now. Quickly give a live commentary of the situation outside," Aura urged.
"Although the exact number is still unclear, judging by the sound of bones clashing as those Dragon Tooth Soldiers march, the number should be no less than a thousand." Shalltear raised her head and looked in the direction where the Dragon Tooth Soldiers were marching towards the castle. "The Yggdmillennia Clan has also made deployments here: hundreds of homunculi and a large number of magic dolls... while their numbers aren't as large as the opponent's, their quality is slightly stronger... but only by a limited margin."
"If nothing unexpected happens, the battle of the mobs, in the absence of Heroic Spirits interfering, should end with the Dragon Tooth Soldiers being completely wiped out by the homunculi and magic dolls."
"However, the homunculi will likely be annihilated, and only a few magic dolls will remain."
"Hmm—but according to the news sent back by Albedo, in terms of the number of Servants, the Yggdmillennia Clan should have the advantage. So it's not ruled out that the Grand Duke will dispatch a few Servants as commanders to clear the mob battlefield."
"Or perhaps they'll throw out that Berserker they've controlled as a consumable," Shalltear said, stroking her chin.
"Ah, my cute familiars have found our car." Shalltear suddenly raised an eyebrow, a slightly ferocious smile appearing on her face. "It seems our surveillance mission will soon turn into an attack mission."
"Then we should get ready too." Aura began to stretch her limbs. "Didn't Master say that the priest from the Red Faction would fly the Hanging Gardens over the greater grail, open a hole in the ground, and then pull the greater grail up directly? Then let's move the greater grail to a different place now."
"That's a good suggestion." Shalltear clenched her small hand into a fist and then punched the thick underground barrier behind her.
Then came a series of continuous punches.
Aura, on the other hand, skipped over to the other side of the greater grail, her eyes looking at the golden figure inside with a bit of envy.
She also wanted to grow into the form of that golden big sister inside as soon as possible!
"Off you go!" Aura kicked the greater grail.
The greater grail was immediately kicked to a different angle.
Aura pressed her hand against the outer shell of the greater grail and then rolled it like a ball, using the spherical part of the back shell as the contact point with the ground, and making sure the face of the figure was facing sideways to avoid the front of the cavity touching the ground, which would prevent it from rolling.
In front, Shalltear used her familiars to lead the way on the surface while her fists cleared the path below; in the back, Aura rolled the ball with ease.
Soon, this cavity was completely swallowed by darkness.
"This position should be about right." Shalltear suddenly stopped her work, stood up straight, and blew the dust off her fists.
"We're only a few hundred meters away from the castle now, right? Are you sure this place won't be within the traction range of that Hanging Gardens?" Aura asked with some concern.
"No problem," Shalltear replied. "Didn't Master say that the traction range of the Hanging Gardens is half the castle and some of the surrounding land?"
"The central traction area is undoubtedly where the greater grail was located. As long as we break through to the periphery, there will be no problem."
"However, I still have one doubt." Shalltear tilted her head and looked at Aura. "How do you think that priest, who has never been to this castle, knew the location of the greater grail? His privilege as Ruler should have been limited to the last Holy Grail War."
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