Nono slammed on the brakes, forcing the red Ferrari to stop on a section of road that was still intact.
"You serious? So the big bad behind all this was just a whale?"
Nono felt they were finally getting close to the truth. This whale was probably the source of the massive tides—it must've been what Jiu De Mai's teammate mistook for a tsunami during the chaos.
"It's obviously not just that!" Emiya muttered. It felt clear there was still a masked final boss waiting somewhere in the shadows.
But why hadn't that masked figure shown up yet?
"We're getting ahead of ourselves. The road ahead is gone. We need to figure out how to get across."
They had no choice but to abandon their now-useless vehicle.
After all, there was no turning back. Reversing might not even lead back to the exit, and if that big white whale repeated its rampage and came this way through the destroyed expressway ramp, their hope of reaching land would grow slimmer.
The two approached the edge of the broken road—just a few meters ahead, the expressway was fractured and frozen. From here, they could see the white whale still circling in the waters below.
It was as if the beast had been ordered to block them from reaching the shore.
"..." Emiya silently drew his black bow and loaded a projected pseudo-Noble Phantasm, then aimed.
The white whale was now swimming blatantly near the surface, no longer hiding underwater.
Hadn't that masked man warned it about Emiya's fantasy collapse bombs?
With a sharp whoosh, several brilliant streaks of light—the Pseudo-Seven Star Longyuan—tore through the air toward the massive white whale.
———
"Oh wow, having the 'mark' really makes this easy. I just snuck in right behind them!"
While Emiya and Nono faced off against the whale, Shami and Norton had also slipped into Nibelungen through the Zero expressway entrance.
As Dragon Kings, they didn't need vehicles. A light jog was enough to keep up.
Shami's stride was casual, like she was out window shopping. Unfortunately, the world around them was bleak and gray, wind and rain battering down in all directions—nothing worth sightseeing.
"Quit slacking. We need to assess the state of this Nibelungen."
Norton hadn't been in a good mood with his sister lately. She had completely failed to keep pace with his research, forcing him to do most of the work alone.
"…This Nibelungen feels off. By logic, the original controller should be Odin, but now Leviathan's involved."
"Exactly!" Shami nodded, looking out over the sea beneath the expressway. "How the heck can there be an ocean under a highway? Leviathan must've modified it!"
"That would make sense… but you're still wrong."
Norton sighed and ignored his sister's scowl from the verbal slap. "This isn't a modification. Leviathan grafted other Nibelungen onto this one using spatial expansion."
"Wait—Leviathan's alchemy is that advanced!?"
Shami was stunned.
If Leviathan could use alchemy at this level, wouldn't that make her—the Earth and Mountain Queen—the weakest of the Four Monarchs?
She'd lose all her pride! Would she have to seek superiority among the lesser next-gen dragon breeds?
"…Not necessarily."
Norton's next words brought Shami a bit of relief. Though he often seemed exasperated by her, Norton was always academically precise and reliable.
"Spatial expansion arrays can be pre-set. All Leviathan needs is the 'key'—control authority—handed over. Once that's done, and he has the fundamentals down, executing the plan... well, it's as simple as having hands."
That last phrase made Shami twitch.
"Having hands" had become Norton's go-to phrase lately to describe anything he found laughably easy. To Shami, it always sounded like a not-so-subtle jab at her status as an "alchemy failure."
She cautiously asked, "But if Odin's the true master of this Nibelungen, can Leviathan really control it that easily? Doesn't sound right."
"My dear sister, now you're finally asking the right questions."
Norton's voice carried a rare tone of modest praise, like a teacher pleasantly surprised to see their usually failing student score a miraculous 10 on a test.
"Exactly. For Leviathan to manipulate a Nibelungen that doesn't belong to him—and link it to others—he must possess a 'key' granted by Odin, and personally operate the spatial expansion."
"In short, only Leviathan himself—his true Dragon King form—can perform the task. A puppet wouldn't cut it. So we can safely assume Leviathan's true body is currently hiding somewhere, operating the expansion from the shadows."
"Until that delicate work is done, neither we nor the humans who entered will encounter Leviathan's true body."
Norton snapped his fingers. "Which means we've arrived at just the right moment."
As the snap echoed, a burst of flame erupted nearby. From it emerged a crystal coffin—Frigg Zero's containment unit. It appeared as if summoned from a far-off location.
Another coffin surfaced beside it—this one holding the slumbering Melusine.
"One Melusine isn't enough. Our system needs more 'Heroic Spirits.'"
The two Dragon Kings looked far into the distance. Shami whispered, "Yes, we've found our opportunity."
Out on the distant sea horizon, a rotting, ancient black ship was rising. Its hull was cracked like the fingernails of the dead, its deck swarming with skeletal zombies whose hollow eye sockets glowed with eerie ghost flames.
It looked just like the army of the dead from Norse mythology—sailing to invade the land of the living.
Myth had become reality.
"So that's it," Norton murmured.
"No wonder Leviathan's acting so cautious. He's trying to graft not just one Nibelungen, but multiple—ha, trying to consolidate their power to wipe out all intruders in one strike?"
Norton stared at the approaching army of the dead as if admiring a lavish banquet.
"That won't be so easy," Shami said, her expression serious.
"We can harvest those corpses as Heroic Spirit stock for our system, but if mature dragon thralls show up—those loyal vassals of Odin and Leviathan—they won't serve us willingly."
"Don't worry. We'll only take what we need. Once Leviathan's body is destroyed, the 'key' goes with him, and all the grafted Nibelungen will collapse. Besides…"
Norton glanced at Melusine beside Frigg Zero.
"We've just finished the design. Today we'll complete the Heroic Spirit Reconstruction and Re-summon Experiment: Heroic Spirit #1—Melusine."
Just then, a youthful boyish voice cut in sharply:
"Excuse me, can I interrupt for a moment? I have... a bit of a different opinion."
It was the little devil, Lu Mingze—dressed in a neat suit with a smart bowtie, dragging a large box marked with the symbol of Yggdrasil.
(End of Chapter)
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