Atalanta finished speaking.
The kindergarten yard was quiet for a few seconds.
The only sound was the cheerful chatter of children near the slide in the distance.
Ritsuka Fujimaru leaned against the iron fence, arms crossed, head bowed, processing all the information she had just heard.
Merlin sat on a small chair in the corner of the yard, a chair meant for four-year-olds. Her knees were almost touching her chin, but she didn't seem to care at all.
With the parasol resting on her lap, her rose-red eyes watched the children chasing and playing in the distance.
She was thinking.
"Wrong."
Merlin spoke first.
"Something's not right?" Ritsuka Fujimaru looked up.
" The Michael essence within Mukuro Hoshimiya was sealed by the Golden Sword, right? That would indeed cause the angelic side's authority to fall silent, and its power to be locked away."
Merlin tapped the handle of the parasol lightly with her fingertips.
But this is only a 'seal'.
The angel's power is locked; it should simply be locked.
The Spirit Origin will become weak, and its abilities will decrease significantly.
"But it should never be reversed."
Mash continued, "In other words, simply sealing Michael's divine essence wouldn't theoretically allow Mukuro Hoshimiya's Spirit Origin to completely shift from the angelic side to the demonic side. There's a missing link in the chain."
"Hmm." Merlin nodded. "There must be something we don't know yet."
Is there a problem with the structure of her Spirit Origin, or did the effect of the golden sword trigger some kind of chain reaction, or is her true nature not what we think it is at all?
Ritsuka Fujimaru remained silent for a moment.
"You can't guess it now."
"Yes, there isn't enough information."
"Then let's go look again."
Ritsuka Fujimaru up.
"Our goal is clear: to find Mukuro Hoshimiya himself, or to find a way to escape this dream and stop the Greater Grail."
He looked at Atalanta.
" Atalanta, do you want to come with us? The more people, the stronger we are."
Atalanta did not answer immediately.
She turned her head and looked at the children in the yard.
A dozen or so children were playing a game called "drop the handkerchief" in a circle.
A little boy was running too fast and tripped. The little girl next to him quickly squatted down to brush the dust off his pants, saying, "It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt."
Atalanta watched for a long time.
I'm not going.
"These children's consciousness is trapped in dreams. If I leave, no one will take care of them."
"They don't know this world is fake. To them, this is the real world. What if even the people who took care of them leave?"
Her ears drooped slightly to the sides.
I can't abandon them.
"Um."
Ritsuka Fujimaru nodded.
I understand.
He didn't offer any words of advice.
Mash stepped forward.
"Miss Atalanta, may we come to you if we need combat support later?"
Atalanta glanced at her.
"We'll see when the time comes. If it really comes to that, I'll go. But until then, these children need me."
A girl with two braids ran over and hugged Atalanta's leg.
"Teacher, are you leaving?"
Atalanta knelt down and picked up the little girl.
"No, the teacher isn't going anywhere."
The three Chaldea left the kindergarten.
The iron gate closed gently behind us, and the children's laughter gradually faded into the distance.
The three walked along the streets of the town of Trifas.
After passing the last row of houses, we walked onto the dirt road leading to the suburbs.
In the dream, the outskirts of Trifas were just like in reality, consisting of vast fields and scattered woodlands.
But Merlin's pace slowed down more and more.
She stopped.
The tip of the parasol pointed downwards, gently touching the ground.
"What's wrong?" Ritsuka Fujimaru turned around.
Merlin's expression changed.
A unique insight, characteristic of a nightmare, surfaced in her rose-red eyes.
There's something under my feet.
"Thing?"
"This dream world is not a single-layered one."
Merlin drew a circle on the ground with her parasol.
"The surface is the peaceful and beautiful dream we currently inhabit. But beneath it lies a deeper, darker space."
She squatted down and placed her palms on the ground.
"The sounds of battle. The clanging of metal. The burning of flames. And roars."
Merlin stood up and patted her skirt.
"Straight beneath this ground lies the battlefield of the final Great Holy Grail War, as remembered by Atalanta."
That battlefield wasn't integrated into the peaceful dreamscape; instead, it was sealed away as a separate layer within the dream world.
"If we're going to find the key clues to this anomaly, that place is the most likely place to hold the answer."
Ritsuka Fujimaru glanced at Mash.
Mash nodded, holding her shield horizontally in front of her.
" Merlin, can you take us down?"
"Sure."
Merlin raised her Magecraft wand.
The tip of the staff emitted a pale golden light, which fell to the ground and spread into the soil beneath the three people's feet.
The ground began to become transparent.
Like the lake water beneath the ice, the outline of another world can be vaguely seen through the gradually transparent ground.
A dark red sky.
Twisted terrain.
And a huge, black figure.
Are you ready?
The three of them sank together.
The ground beneath their feet shattered into countless points of light, and the three of them passed through the bottom layer of the dream world, falling into the nightmare interlayer.
The landing felt like jumping into icy water from a great height.
The air was all the wrong color. The sky was a sickly dark red, and the clouds looked like congealed blood clots.
The ground beneath my feet was riddled with craters and scorch marks, littered with the remains of destroyed trees and shattered rocks.
This is the final battlefield of the Great Holy Grail War.
The final battleground, sealed within a nightmare interlayer.
But now, a new battle is taking place on this battlefield.
About 300 meters ahead.
A golden-white figure is battling a massive black silhouette.
The black silhouette was over 100 meters tall.
Dark black muscles, enormous goat horns, spread purplish-black bat wings, chains wrapped around its entire body, and Hellfire coiling around its claws.
Belphegor's Rage Mode is a phantom.
And that golden-white figure.
Its entire body is covered in magnificent and sacred gold decorations.
The countless layers of pure white wings that unfolded behind it were particularly dazzling against the dark red sky.
Metatron.
She is fighting this Wrath phantom alone.
However, the situation is not optimistic.
Metatron raised his right hand, and a beam of blazing white light condensed in his palm.
" The Flame Is Here."
The Holy Flame Laser pierced directly into the chest of Belphegor's phantom.
However, the environment of the Nightmare World was like a giant sponge. The moment the Holy Flame struck the phantom, a large amount of Nightmare Magic surged in from all directions, filling the wounds burned through by the Holy Flame.
The wound healed completely in less than a second.
This is Belphegor's absolute home ground.
In the nightmare world, all environmental rules are biased towards the demons.
Metatron's attacks can deal damage, but the Nightmare environment provides an unlimited amount of repair energy.
And every attack from Belphegor Phantom was amplified to its limit by the home field.
The giant claw slammed down from above, and Metatron dodged to the side. The claw's force swept across the edge of her wing, tearing dozens of pure white feathers to shreds in the air.
The chains burst forth from the ground and coiled around her as if they were alive.
Metatron burned the chains with holy flames, but new chains immediately grew back from the broken ends.
She was subdued.
The angel's authority to judge is greatly weakened in the nightmare's home arena, while the phantom's combat power far exceeds that of normal due to the home arena's amplification.
Metatron can't win, and he can't back down either.
So for now, she can only tough it out.
Just then, Metatron sensed something.
Her gaze momentarily departed from the battle, passing over the phantom's enormous body to look at the three newly appeared figures three hundred meters away.
A boy in a white uniform.
A pink-haired girl holding a shield.
A white-haired woman holding a white lace parasol.
Metatron's pupils contracted slightly.
She knew them.
Chaldea.
Ritsuka Fujimaru. Mash Kyrielight.
That debate about the meaning of human existence.
That confrontation almost negated the entirety of Human History.
She was eventually persuaded to acknowledge that humanity has the right to bear its sins and continue to exist.
My heart stirred slightly, but it lasted for less than half a second.
Metatron suppressed all distractions and refocused his attention on the battle before him.
The giant claw slammed down again.
She stepped back, holy flames gathering in her hands.
"She's being suppressed," Mash said.
"Yes, the Nightmare World is that demon's domain. Here, that phantom is practically immortal. And Metatron's power is greatly diminished by the environment."
Ritsuka Fujimaru made her decision.
Go help her.
"Senior!"
Mash didn't hesitate. She raised the Round Table Shield, pushed off the ground with both feet, and her silver-white figure rushed towards the center of the battlefield.
Merlin folded her parasol, and the tip of her Magecraft wand glowed with a pale golden light.
"Let's go, let's go."
Belphegor's phantom claws slammed down on Metatron once more.
This time, Metatron did not dodge.
Before the giant claw could strike, a massive Round Table -like shield appeared before her.
" Shield of Human Order That Builds Hope."
A conceptual barrier unfolded on the shield's surface.
The giant claw slammed into the barrier, and the shockwave spread in all directions, creating a crater tens of meters in diameter in the ground.
Mash's feet sank deep into the ground, her knees bent, her jaw clenched, and the muscles in her arms were so tense they looked like they were about to snap.
But she held on.
" Metatron! We're here to help you!"
Metatron glanced down at the shield-wielding girl in front of him.
Short, light pink hair; purple eyes; silver-white paladin plate armor.
Exactly the same as I remember.
Chaldea.
Metatron's voice was cold and calm, like the tolling of a bell from a distant place.
Why are you here?
We'll talk about the explanation later!
Ritsuka Fujimaru's voice came from behind.
Let's solve the immediate problem first!