Chapter 207: Lighting Incense: I Have a Bad Premonition

"This——?!"

Behind the thick isolation walls of the testing ground.

All around were smooth metal surfaces, inside a clean and tidy observation room.

Perceiving the riot of the summoned Heroic Spirit Legions, realizing a great rebellion was about to occur right before her eyes, Artoria was instantly startled; her first reaction was to grip the Sword of Promised Victory, wanting to rush down and control the situation.

However, although her instinct to protect her Master was swift, the shift in the on-site situation was even faster.

In merely the blink of an eye, those Heroic Spirit Legions preparing to riot calmed down, or rather, it wasn't that they calmed down, but that they veered toward a fanatical direction instead; the only obvious fact was that they had defected in a split second.

——The previous second they were still loyal and righteous, fighting for Human Order;

——The next second they flipped like a book, becoming fanatical supporters of her Master.

This unreserved betrayal of light for darkness happened at a speed that made one stare in shock; and looking at the vigor of their cheers, they seemed about to lift the dome of the huge enclosed testing ground, the thunderous sound waves reflecting back and forth in the space one after another.

Judging by this momentum, even the brain-dead fans of various idols probably wouldn't reach one ten-thousandth of their fanaticism.

After all, no matter how unspeakable later-generation fandom tactics are, they absolutely cannot compare to genuine supernatural charm.

"……"

"……"

The corner of Artoria's mouth twitched slightly a few times, then she couldn't help but sigh, looking at the ranked ranks of soldier Heroic Spirits below with a face full of pity, as if seeing them single-mindedly walking toward the dark side of life.

Once you board a pirate ship, it's not so easy to get off……

Of course, this probably wasn't much of a choice either. And considering her own current situation, Artoria also felt from the heart that she had no standing to say such things.

"Mr. Xia Zhi definitely has a sense of proportion, Saber, you actually don't need to worry too much."

Alice beside her said softly.

"I'm not worried about him."

Artoria shook her head, saying with a touch of self-mockery: "I'm just worried about that group of people opposite him."

"……"

"……"

Alice gently blinked, those crimson pupils quietly reflecting the figure of her good friend before her; she didn't say anything, merely pursing her lips slightly, smiling with a hint of teasing.

"Alice!"

Artoria instantly felt a somewhat inexplicable annoyance.

"What's wrong, Saber? I didn't say anything." The silver-haired princess-like woman looked surprised, feigning ignorance as she asked back.

………………

………………

Xia Zhi casually glanced at the observation room behind the isolation wall, then withdrew his gaze quite calmly.

He lightly pinched his chin, looking like he was seriously pondering something, while simultaneously leisurely sizing up the rows of Servants before him, his eyes revealing a trace of prudence and contemplation.

Just like a serious chess player, examining the pieces on his own board.

Because he locked onto main Servants such as "Spartan King Leonidas I" or "King of Conquerors Iskandar," using them as Legion Commanders for positioning, then chain-summoning the legions they led in life, although the entire Heroic Spirit Legion before him are all genuine Servants, there inevitably exist natural deficiencies.

For example, the vast majority of people in the legions are not equipped with the Noble Phantasms they should have……

Nor were they assigned specific Classes according to Holy Grail War rules, so they also have no Classes, and no Class-related Skills……

Their performance suffers obvious losses due to these factors; existing merely in their original Servant identities, they are equivalent to characters with only blank stats, and in terms of strength they undoubtedly take a discount.

But this is also a helpless matter.

Xia Zhi deeply knows the vast majority of people in this Heroic Spirit Legion were able to be summoned not entirely because of their own achievements or martial prowess leaving names in history. The reason they can be summoned here is because they were recorded in history as members of a group.

Like the King of Conquerors' legion, numbering tens of thousands; even though the whole legion enjoys illustrious renown, it's impossible for tens of thousands to independently become Heroic Spirits; among them only a few important ministers under Iskandar — some even founders of future dynasties — had the chance to individually leave names in history, achieve great feats, and be elevated to Heroic Spirits.

The saying "one general's success built on ten thousand withered bones" refers to nothing more than this.

As cruel as it is, this is reality; Human Order's defense device aims to protect, yet cannot avoid civilization's cruel undertone.

So the Servant army summoned at this very moment indeed mostly relies on the Legion Commanders' own abilities and bonds to chain-summon, crossing spacetime boundaries to manifest in this era.

Of course, even without Noble Phantasms, without Class passive bonuses——

Their essence is Servants, supernatural Spirit Bodies; this destines their foundation to be stronger than ordinary people.

Ordinary humans wanting to directly confront Servants, such supernatural units, have almost no chance of winning, unless they themselves possess extremely solid martial skills and rich professional combat experience, plus enchantment reinforcement from a top-tier Magus like Medea……

Then even a first-rate Servant would not be without a chance to contend.

However, such a coincidence probably won't happen.

Xia Zhi also didn't look down on these blank-slate Servants; in his view, these fellows' plasticity is still quite good.

First, under his seemingly endless vast magical energy blessing, every legion Servant has the most ample magical energy supply, so their ability parameters all reached their own theoretical limits, even slightly enhanced; whether Strength or Agility, the base values are relatively not bad.

On this foundation, only a series of targeted reinforcements are needed, then they can equally become extremely elite warriors.

As for corresponding reinforcement methods, there is currently no lack either.

——The technique of copying Noble Phantasms, making it possible for every Servant to possess powerful weapons;

——The application of nanotechnology, allowing Servants' physical capabilities to be further finely adjusted;

——And Britain itself as a base, after being brought under control by Magecraft's Mystery, the land's power will also become the Servants' most solid backing.

This series of targeted reinforcements poured in is absolutely enough to make these blank-slate Servants' individual combat power skyrocket, directly crushing the average Fairy individual.

Combined with that considerable quantity numbering in the tens of thousands, their function as an army is undoubtedly excellent. And when the army's function is not needed, these well-trained warriors split from the overall army still possess huge value, able to flexibly integrate into every corner of the Fairy Kingdom, providing solid guarantee for the whole country's stability and order.

Especially the latter, for consolidating Britain's rule, maintaining Queen Morgan's Absolute Monarchy, will also inevitably have immeasurable help.

If a Fairy rebellion occurs in the future, unless the scale is unprecedentedly massive——

Otherwise, local grassroots forces would likely be able to easily suppress it.

Just like that, Xia Zhi extremely quickly had already thought clearly, decided how to "use" this batch of Heroic Spirit Legions before him; although these legion Servants are mostly Bronze Cards, they win in huge quantity, strength in numbers, just feed them some resources to raise levels a bit, and they can still grind weekly dungeons.

"Quiet!"

Raising his hand, he snapped his fingers with a crack, and Xia Zhi was very pleased to see the noisy Heroic Spirit Legion instantly fall silent like chickens.

「……」

「……」

Although they worshipped him fanatically, shouting "Hey! We revere you!" one after another, he felt the flavor was a bit strong, like some random fishy magnetic-field spectators popping up from nowhere, really quite clamorous.

"Exit from that side, leave in an orderly fashion; the Court Center will guide each of you on what you should do next. Obey orders!"

The youth scratched his ears, pointed a finger not far away, and the heavy metal gate rose slowly with a slightly dull friction sound, opening a passage to the outside for this enclosed trial area. Though looking out, beyond the exit was still a long tunnel, with only the indicator lights along the way flashing, no one knew where it led.

Without any hesitation, the moment they received the order, the Heroic Spirit Legion marched in unison.

Marching in neat and uniform steps, amidst the powerful footsteps, rows of soldiers lined up and filed into the tunnel one after another.

——The entire trial area once again became spacious.

Xia Zhi stood where he was for a while, then looked toward the observation room again and made a gesture, indicating that the second batch could begin summoning.

Those just summoned were all relatively normal Servants; in terms of rank, they were only at the level of mortal heroes, so such performance was unsurprising. Xia Zhi did not believe his Charm Power could not handle targets of this level—that was impossible. Even for mass charm targeting tens of thousands of targets simultaneously, it was nothing for him.

He simply maxed out the charm intensity just to see the specific effect.

For now, the effect was indeed very good.

It was basically a Dimension Reduction Strike.

Not considering the possibility of higher-level power intervening, unless he actively removed the charm or the charmed target died, otherwise the charm effect was permanent.

But this still could not serve as a reference, so he would next gradually raise the specifications of the summoned Servants.

Legion Servants could hardly be called true Servants, and even among true Servants, there were inevitably distinctions of first-rate, second-rate, and third-rate. And even among first-rate Servants, there were differences in superiority; although he wanted to disparage Gilgamesh, objectively speaking, if that fellow were used as the standard, they might even be able to divide a so-called "Flash-level Servant."

As for above these normal Servants, there were also abnormal Divine Spirit Servants...

For those Divine Spirit Servants who, though descended as a divided spirit, had extremely high Divinity and also possessed a Divine Core, Xia Zhi was full of curiosity.

If facing such a target, he could still easily charm them and achieve excellent results, then it would show that his Charm Power, under the enhancement of the Foundation Establishment Realm, had reached or even surpassed the original strength of the Love Goddess—referring to the Love Goddess possessing a Machine God True Body, with design functions at their peak.

Through the direct mental link maintained with Alice, Xia Zhi browsed without any psychological burden the Spirit Origin Portraits stored in the summoning system represented by this humanoid Holy Grail.

They were basically links stolen from Chaldea Master Lady.

Back when he still had the Outer Elixir refined from the Great Holy Grail, this record was stored in his Magic Furnace Core.

And after he completely digested that Outer Elixir and the Magic Furnace Core was updated and iterated, this function of the Holy Grail System naturally no longer existed... only the backup made in advance at Alice's place remained, so she was said to be the current Administrator of the Holy Grail System.

"Ereshkigal..."

He pondered, his expression suddenly becoming somewhat playful and strange.

"This Divine Spirit Possession body looks a bit familiar, isn't it Miss Tohsaka? Hmm, and there's also Ishtar, twin goddesses..."

——————

——————

At the same time.

Outside the King City, a snow-white Pegasus spread its snow-like wings and soared through the heavens riding the wind.

"Rider, where are we going?"

Sitting on the Pegasus's back, Fujimaru Ritsuka couldn't help but look back and found that Londinium had already been thrown far behind, leaving only some blurry outlines on the horizon.

Though she could still see it, she knew it was because that majestic city was too huge, its scale astonishing, and building it had mobilized power that could be called moving mountains and filling seas; relying on the Magicians' inexpressible power, they flattened mountains, dug through rivers, changed the terrain... finally, based on the deliberately transformed terrain, utilizing the Fairies' mystery and Magecraft, they redesigned the city based on the mysticism system.

Although there were no modern skyscrapers, the skyline had tall buildings.

However, the spires towering in Londinium, the majestic domes, casually hundreds of meters in height, and especially the palace district at the center was built atop a thousand-meter-high mountain peak.

Thus forming a fantastic landscape of another meaning, incomparably magnificent and gorgeous, as if only appearing in game CGs displaying the mysterious majestic city of the peak civilization of a magical world.

Precisely because of this, Fujimaru Ritsuka clearly understood that she had already left the King City very far.

"Wales Forest, it seems there's a problem over there..." The cool, tall beauty wearing an Eye Patch, while effortlessly driving the Pegasus, answered in a cold tone, "I'm faster, I'll go scout the situation first."

"Wales Forest..."

The girl recalled for a moment, had no impression, but didn't care, and said in a relaxed tone: "Then let's go take a look; just right, I haven't been out for a long time, can get some fresh air and relax..."

Actually it would be better if you didn't go...

Medusa pursed her lips, but did not say those words.

This was originally part of the plan—to transfer her Proxy Master away from Londinium at this time, to avoid any accidents—only Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't notice at all, and in fact it was she herself who requested to come along.

Medusa just mentioned it casually at the appropriate time, as if unintentionally—

Saying she had to go on a business trip, leaving the King City to carry out an Outer Duty Mission.

"Mm—"

At this time, Chaldea's Master Lady suddenly frowned and hesitantly said:

"Rider... I suddenly have a bad feeling, is there a problem over at Wales Forest? Could it be dangerous? I suspect this mission isn't simple."

「……」

「……」

Medusa was silent for a moment and did not answer.

She felt it was more likely another reason.

Still under review... (ˉ﹃ˉ)

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(Chapter End)