“As expected! Building a chariot behind closed doors by myself ultimately has its limits. An omnipotent genius might exist, but that is destined not to be me.”
“But what if more ‘mes’ come to help me? If one person doesn’t work, then two people; if two people don’t work, then split into three people; if that still doesn’t work, then ten people, a hundred people!”
“One person’s plan is short, many people’s plans are long! When one me falls, there are tens of thousands of me!… Any difficulty will surely be solved head-on!”
“Ah, Ishtar, now I have gradually understood everything. It was me who misjudged you before.”
“Thinking that this about you is bad, that about you is no good, and that you are a good-for-nothing goddess who has no talent, has her eyes higher than the top, and likes to throw tantrums for no reason.”
Under the surge of emotions, Grimm suddenly felt a grand and heroic spirit rising in his chest.
He solemnly and enthusiastically raised his arm and shook hands with the blank-faced Ishtar.
“Yet facts have proven that I was wrong! You are not as unbearable as I imagined. You successfully advised and inspired me with the most unadorned principles… This shows you are not completely useless!”
Ishtar: “…”
Is this the fixed humiliation segment after every defeat?
Can you let me skip it!
With a blank face, she twitched her hand back, and a trace of pain came from her wrist.
She saw that spot tightly and forcefully gripped by Grimm’s vise-like hands, unable to break free.
Numbed, it seemed it couldn’t be skipped.
Grimm dragged the goddess who was doubting her life forward with bold strides, wind beneath his feet, “Let’s go, Teacher Ishtar, let you and everyone see the latest achievement I am about to roll out.”
Hearing this gave Ishtar a huge headache.
Can you stop calling me teacher, I really can’t bear it!
The little ingenuity you come up with is more thunderously shocking than the last; why don’t you take this position of teacher yourself!
…
When an eagerly-faced Francesca and a mentally exhausted Ereshkigal arrived, Grimm had already been in the research institute’s test field for quite a while.
According to the completion and acceptance filing materials dug up by several people, this non-open-air test field built inside Area 51 had a large amount of high-strength alloy added to its surrounding walls to enhance performance such as seismic and strike resistance.
Although for this bunch of non-humans, such protective measures were equivalent to mere decorations.
“What is Grimm doing?”
The latter had a gray and defeated complexion, full of bitterness and grievances: “I don’t understand, I don’t understand, don’t ask me.”
“Wasn’t it you, his Alchemy teacher, who ran over to guide him personally before?”
“Guidance?” Ishtar shook her head fiercely, “It wasn’t me, I didn’t, I can’t bear the title of teacher!”
“Ha? Are you kidding me?”
Ereshkigal widened her eyes with suspicion.
Previously, Grimm had been downcast, but after Ishtar made a trip over, he immediately became full of drive, while she herself looked deeply battered.
So smiles don’t disappear, they just get transferred, right!
While these two sisters were bickering with each other in their daily routine, Francesca had long sneaked ahead, using illusion magic to intervene in Grimm’s spiritual domain world.
Seen there, Grimm and “Odin”—his other self—each wielded weapons in fierce combat, locked in a hard-fought battle.
gungnir howled through the air, as fast as thunder, violently colliding with the thunder-wrapped battle saber, and rune light flashed instantly.
As if anticipating it in advance, Grimm suddenly tilted his head to dodge the striking white thunder, then let out a low roar to activate the Word Spirit domain “Discipline”, while wielding the battle saber to fiercely strike forward with a surging immense force resembling a landslide.
Yet “Odin” was not afraid in the least.
The moment he realized he was weakened by Discipline, he immediately crossed his spear to block, and dazzling electricity burst forth from the spear shaft…
Anyway, this was a spiritual domain and wouldn’t actually cause injuries, so both sides naturally exploded with all their might without holding back.
Since both were the same person, their minds linked without delay, allowing their thoughts to synchronize at high speed.
It was just like playing both roles in a single person, acting as both the first and second movers in the same game of chess.
He could basically achieve: I predict your move, you predict my prediction, I predict your prediction of my prediction…
The thoughts iterated at high speed, the thinking speed multiplied, and the accumulated experience also showed geometric growth!
As a bystander, Francesca couldn’t tell these things for a short time; what she could more intuitively feel were other aspects.
“That is… the kind of Primal Runes that Odin had cast before? How incredible…”
The gothic-dressed girl muttered softly, feeling somewhat emotional for once.
Grimm had previously demonstrated the method of inscribing Primal Runes on weapons, and at that time she only felt that Grimm was amazing without much concrete concept.
But now, seeing Grimm and the other “Odin” personality using Primal Runes more and more skillfully in battle, she realized that Grimm would probably master all the Primal Runes sooner or later.
At this moment, she thought of someone.
Grand Magus, genius puppeteer, Aozaki Touko.
Francesca and Aozaki Touko had once interacted—though not in a positive sense.
At that time, out of malicious humor, she shouted out the title that the other person hated most, “Painful Red”, to Aozaki Touko.
As a result, she was hunted down for a long time and even lost a body.
‘My oh my, if Miss Painful Red knew that there is a chance to learn the complete set of runes here, what would happen?’
“What? Do you want to learn?” Grimm had already noticed the gothic-dressed girl and stopped to speak.
“Hmm…? Yes, yes, that is right! Master Grimm, I want to learn runes~!” The gothic-dressed girl was extremely excited, and without saying another word, she happily pounced toward Grimm.
“Alright, I will teach you!”
Francesca was his right-hand man and a vital pillar of support!
She was also the key to promoting the completion of this cranial nerve alchemy circuit, and Grimm was not a person who failed to reward and punish fairly; how could he not attach importance to her needs?
“Yay!” Francesca hugged Grimm’s arm, shaking it and cheering.
When you know that the precious inheritor of the Age of Gods runes stands on my side, Miss Painful Red, what kind of reaction will you have?
Hee hee hee hee hee, I am so looking forward to it!
I really want to see that jealous expression of yours when you can’t do anything about me!
…
The next day, outside Snowfield City.
At the junction of lush towering woods and barren rock cliffs, several large, black-coated devices stood buzzing in between, with figures flickering around, hidden within a boundary that obscured vision.
After Fadius repeatedly instructed and urged Assistant Adela to command and control the field, he turned alone into a corner and took out a pocket-sized magical communication device.
[…Fadius! What is the whereabouts of the lesser grail? The Holy Grail War cannot tolerate such loopholes happening again, and our patience is also limited, understand?]
The other end of the communication was a low, majestic male voice, coming from the high-ranking officials of the Pentagon in Washington D.C.
“Understood…” Fadius replied in a low voice, “There are already clues to the matter, and I am trying my best to conduct a search. However, my lords, regarding resisting the pressure from the Clock Tower…”
[…]
The opposite side was silent for a moment, and then said: [Prepare yourself mentally, quite a few people have come from the Clock Tower, and I have received some wind over here that a troublesome figure outside the estimated range has also come.]
“Who?”
[Aozaki Touko.]