"Wait! Did a whale shark just leap out from the side of the road? How is that even reasonable?"
Is this really okay? Chu Tianjiao didn't think so.
"It's very reasonable, because this isn't reality. This is Nibelungen."
Zero casually used "Nibelungen" as a catch-all excuse, as if it explained away every anomaly like some kind of universal answer.
Chu Tianjiao didn't press the issue. In truth, even the Secret Party—an elite mixed-blood organization on the front lines of dragon slaying—knew very little about Nibelungen.
What they had seen so far felt straight out of mythology.
Mixed-bloods referred to Nibelungen as the "Land of the Dead."
In Norse mythology, the black dragon Nidhogg guarded the branch of Yggdrasil that led to the land of the dead. He was the gatekeeper of that entrance. During Ragnarök, the sea would part, and a ship made from the fingernails of the dead would rise, carrying an army of the deceased to wage war on the living.
Alchemists, however, described this land of the dead as an infinitely valuable treasure trove, because the essence of alchemy lies in "killing" matter to enable its "rebirth." In the land of the dead, even matter itself is dead.
They say there is no day or night here. The bronze mountains and ground are made from dead earth elements, the gray sky from dead wind elements, and the cold blue flames from dead fire elements...
It was essentially an endless reservoir of raw materials.
To be honest, although Chu Tianjiao didn't understand alchemy, he couldn't see how this Nibelungen resembled the treasure trove those alchemists raved about.
Maybe none of those alchemists had actually been here and were just making wild guesses and blowing hot air.
Tsk tsk, those stiff old men burying themselves in dusty labs probably knew less about Nibelungen than an amateur like him.
Chu Tianjiao found himself bitterly amused by his own thoughts.
Beside him, Zero's face remained as stoic as ever, even colder than the perpetually icy-faced Chu Zihang.
She calmly disassembled her wireless communicator, pulling out a power amplifier and a spare antenna from her briefcase. Then, using a self-made SWR meter, she tested the antenna's matching, tweaked the RF gain and squelch settings…
In just a few minutes, she had reassembled a more powerful, lower-loss communication device.
Chu Tianjiao was awed by the dazzling speed and skill of her movements. "You know how to do this?"
Zero answered casually, "Not really. I just studied it once."
With her "Mirror Eyes", once was enough.
Thanks to the learning and analytical power of her Mirror Eyes, she could understand calculus at age two, and by three, she had disassembled a broken radio with 178 components—then reassembled it using only 167 of them to get it working again.
Zero rebooted the communicator, and sure enough, her teammate's voice came through. Her expression finally softened, her eyes lit up. "Where are you now?"
——
"We're here, we're here. This is the intersection you guys mentioned, right? But I don't see either of you!"
Joude Mai parked her Lamborghini Estoque on the side of the road and scanned the area through her window. The light rain pounded on the dark, empty asphalt. This stretch of road was near the original transaction location, just before the ramp leading to the overpass.
But due to the approaching typhoon, the entrance to the overpass had been barricaded, warning signs and tape stretching across the road. No one in their right mind would keep driving forward.
What the hell? Zero had said she and Chu Tianjiao had driven a black Maybach straight through this way…
Is this really Nibelungen? Joude Mai had run up and down this area and hadn't even found a proper gate. It made no sense.
"Alright, Triple-Zero, hang tight. Onee-san will go try busting through the overpass ahead."
Joude Mai gritted her teeth. No way was she going to let her boss's precious darling die in Nibelungen. "Good timing too. I just got intel from that samurai Em—ya saying the entrance to Nibelungen had something to do with this so-called Zero Overpass."
"…Zero… Overpass?" Zero's voice came through choppy and garbled, but Joude Mai could still make out the words.
"Yeah. The little shrine maiden sent us some keywords—typhoon, Zero Overpass, ocean—seems like they're all related to this Nibelungen thing."
"Possibly… The typhoon's the right timing… Zero Overpass might be the correct entry point…"
Then Zero's voice grew choppy again, but with a hint of urgency. "Ocean? …Ocean!"
"We did encounter marine creatures… whale sharks… and… Turn around! …Ahead is… a tsunami!"
Turn around? What turn around?
Joude Mai instinctively turned the steering wheel, but after checking all around her, nothing seemed out of place. Then the connection cut off.
Shit. Were Zero and Chu Tianjiao talking about something happening inside? Had they just encountered an accident? A tsunami?
Driving into Nibelungen and encountering a tsunami—was that even reasonable?
Joude Mai's first instinct was to say it defied common sense. But thinking more carefully, maybe defying common sense was just Nibelungen's defining trait.
"Ugh, what the hell is this nonsense? Overpass, huh? Damn that Zero Overpass—I refuse to believe I can't find it!" Joude Mai glanced at the blocked overpass sign. Unfortunately, it read 023—definitely not the damned Zero.
She had no choice but to turn the Lamborghini around and rejoin the side road, searching for the next overpass entrance.
——
Time passed. Night fell. The rain thickened into a torrential downpour, like a deluge pouring from the heavens.
As the rain intensified, drivers instinctively slowed down.
In this kind of weather, the taillights of compact cars stretched into long lines of glowing red across the street, punctuated by waves of impatient honking reverberating in the rain.
Chu Zihang stared at the blurred rainscape through the constantly-pelted window.
He had taken a taxi home. His "new dad" Lu Tianming still hadn't remembered that picking up his son was a basic duty.
Chu Zihang had wanted to call the man, but his phone kept showing "Chu Tianjiao" as unreachable. The automated voice repeated: "The number you dialed is not in service…"
For the first time, Chu Zihang was completely confused and unsettled by the situation.
That man had always been accommodating. Even if he liked to flaunt his so-called "face," he had always been dutiful, almost like a chauffeur. Chu Zihang doubted he treated his boss any better.
The only time that man had ever acted out of character was when Chu Zihang met those red-haired siblings. He'd issued a strange and serious warning that felt totally out of place.
So… was this related to those red-haired siblings?
Suddenly, a sharp honk blared from behind, and a red Ferrari burst out of the traffic behind them, speeding along the emergency lane like a blade slicing through a sea of cars.
The taxi driver noticed the aggressive sports car and adjusted slightly to avoid being sideswiped—
He knew that if anything happened to this company car, the repairs would delay his ability to pick up new fares.
The Ferrari blazed past, overtaking them with ease. The driver muttered, "Driving like that? Must be in a damn hurry to reincarnate."
Chu Zihang stared at the Ferrari the entire time. Even though it was just a fleeting glance—
He thought he saw a flash of red hair inside.
——
Inside the Ferrari, Emiya's fingers flew across the screen as he typed on his phone, its glow lighting up his face and hair.
"I just heard from Joude Mai. She sent a message."
Nono was still driving, weaving recklessly through traffic like she was in a racing game. Her skills deserved a seat at the same table as Lady Irisviel…
If this weren't an emergency, Emiya would never let Nono behind the wheel again.
"What did she say?"
"She's still driving, so she can't talk. Her message was short."
"Basically, one of her teammates and someone else ran into trouble. The description was bizarre—they got trapped in some kind of alternate space, endlessly wandering. Inside, they encountered phenomena related to the 'ocean.'"
"Sounds like a rare type of magical labyrinth that only opens during typhoons, and you have to enter via the correct Zero Overpass. That was our original objective anyway. Now with her and Old Tang, we can split into three exploration teams—should be enough."
The largest "non-human labyrinth" Emiya knew of was the Spirit Tomb Albion—a vast underground maze stretching tens or even hundreds of kilometers. Its surface entrance constantly shifted coordinates.
Then there was the Alcatraz 7th Labyrinth from Fate/Labyrinth, an artificial testing ground where not only fantasy creatures roamed, but a Subspecies Holy Grail War had also taken place.
(Unlike normal Holy Grail Wars, Subspecies Grail Wars had fewer than five Servants—too few to open a hole to the Root.)
"We found the Zero Overpass!"
Nono, tearing through traffic, finally spotted an empty ramp leading to an overpass. Tree branches had been obscuring the sign, but now she could barely make out the characters, "Overpass Entrance…" followed by a number.
Emiya focused his enhanced vision and confirmed it—sure enough, it read "000."
(End of Chapter)
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