The infinite sword system has been mastered, and you say this is the dragon clan?

Chapter 368 What's wrong with a world of illusions!
A few moments ago, near Shadow Border.

"Hey hey! Were you looking for me? Your lovely and reliable Chaldea companion! Paladin Astolfo is back!"

A cheerful, pink-haired knight, riding his eagle, circled several times in the sky, raising his arms in a "V" sign before obediently flying back to the ground.

In front of everyone, the eagle rolled its eyes speechlessly at its master's foolish behavior.

It seems that the eagle was strongly dissatisfied with Astolfo's practice of making him fly long distances everywhere without giving him any time off.

Mash, who had been busy setting up the summoning circle and had put down her shield, raised her pink-haired head. "Great! It's Astolfo, Leonardo da Vinci! Our work can officially begin now, right?"

"Hmm... For the spell to set up a summoning circle on the shield, we need to add three additional relay nodes, and the corresponding incantation will need to be increased..."

Da Vinci was still working intensely, chanting incantations while wielding his wand—of course, Da Vinci hadn't actually arrived at the singularity, so it was a virtual projection of a younger Da Vinci working.

Constantine, who was standing nearby, took over the conversation, "Ms. Da Vinci is currently working on improving the 'remote teleportation' summoning program, so she's probably very busy, but it will be soon. Tell me about the handover of the catalyst and other things."

“Thank you, Captain!” Mash called over the somewhat bewildered Astolfo to assist Constantine.

"Hello, Astolfo, judging from your appearance, you seem to have flown in from the coast, and you seem unaware of the current situation, right? Here's what happened: just fifteen minutes ago, Emperor Karl the Great launched a campaign that spanned the entire Frankish Empire, that is, most of Europe..."

Constantine first gave Astolfo a brief overview of the situation.

The latter was initially bewildered by the technical jargon used in Constantine's words, so Mashu had to step in to explain. Two minutes later, Astolfo finally patted his rusty head:
"Oh! So His Majesty the King couldn't beat Emiya, so he threw a tantrum and flipped the table, right? Hahaha, how lame!"

"Is that how you understand it? Well, that's fine too."

Constantine had to explain himself quite a bit to Alfred, and he also felt that he had finally witnessed the diversity of human nature and personality. This was probably one of the reasons why his brother Norton had sent him out to join Chaldea for training...

"Then things should be easier from here on out. To prevent this catastrophe in human history from escalating, we must help Emiya successfully stop Emperor Karl's plan. Otherwise, most of the people in Europe will have their souls and spirits completely sacrificed due to the ritual, allowing Emperor Karl to ascend to..."

Constantine brought up the matter of helping again, and Astolfo, after understanding the situation, surprisingly acted as if nothing was amiss:
"Hey, do you mean you want me to help you defeat His Majesty the King? Sorry, that won't do!"

"Huh?" Constantine's eyes were blank. No, Astolfo, what's wrong with you? Not long ago, weren't you just smiling and betraying your paladin and the king, giving information to Chaldea?
"Hey, this is different!"

Astolfo said with an air of seriousness, "Although our King has been acting outrageously since this appearance, he is still the one to whom all the Holy Knights serve."

"As for me, although compared to Roland and Olivier... well, I'm a little more idle, I still strictly adhere to my chivalrous code!"

Constantine dismissed it, finding Astolfo's statement, based on his recent exposure of intelligence from his own faction, utterly unconvincing.

Of course, he also considered that this was an unavoidable side effect of maintaining a state of "rational evaporation," and it was already quite remarkable that Astolfo could rely on this to withstand "vocal assimilation" and keep himself out of it.

In that short while, Mashu received a solution from a communication with a higher-level AI. She hesitated for a moment before speaking, trying to deceive them:

"Um... Sir Astolfo, actually helping us wouldn't violate your chivalrous duty, and it would actually be a very interesting thing!"

These words almost tickled Afu's sore spot, and his handsome face lit up with a bright light in his eyes. "Oh, oh, oh, something interesting? What is it? Tell me!"

"Actually, we need Astolfo's help to summon another Charlemagne...!"

Mashu's words stunned Astolfo.

Another...His Majesty the King?
There can be two? Wait, if Chaldea also produces a new emperor, then it wouldn't be impossible for Astolfo to switch allegiance to the newly summoned emperor, right?

Moreover, if Charlemagne of Chaldea, with my help, could stop His Majesty's atrocities against the people, that would indeed be a very interesting and mutually beneficial thing.

As expected of me, genius Afu!
Thinking of this, Astolfo's enthusiasm suddenly surged!
He was determined to help—it was for the sake of human history, for the sake of all the people of Europe! ...Ahem, it was definitely not to watch the two emperors put on a show of "fighting themselves"!
Mashu saw that Astolfo's eyes were almost shining, and thought to herself that the advice BB had secretly given her was really useful. It's just that she always had to maliciously target other people's weaknesses, and she felt that she was becoming a little despicable...

Constantine then breathed a sigh of relief. "It's good that you're willing to help. Just a reminder beforehand, we need to be prepared for the fact that 'Charlemagne's' spirit origin is extremely unstable before we summon him."

"Since an emperor has already appeared in the world, it is theoretically impossible for the same individual to appear. Therefore, the newly summoned 'Charlemagne' can only come from another level—'Holy Knight Emperor' Charlemagne, who incorporates fictional elements from knightly literature such as 'The Song of Roland'."

“The fictional elements will cause the existence of this Heroic Spirit to be unstable, and even signing a contract will not help. Therefore, we hope to use one or two of your Noble Phantasms as a catalyst to maintain the stability of this ‘Charlemagne’s’ existence. After all, you are the only one who will stand on the side of our Chaldea and also appear on the same stage as Charlemagne in the story of the Holy Knights.”

"Oh..." Afu blinked, "I didn't understand!"

Mashu was unsurprisingly forced to take on the role of narrator again. She carefully chose her words and then cautiously began to speak:

"Sir Afro, what he means is... we now need to create a 'paladin version' of Charlemagne who is as sunny, cheerful, enthusiastic and straightforward as you, but we don't have enough creative material, so we need to borrow your Noble Phantasm."

High emotional intelligence: Just like you, sunny, cheerful, enthusiastic, and genuine;
Low emotional intelligence: Just like you, an idiot.

"Oh, I see! If you had said so earlier, I would have known!"

Astolfo greatly appreciated Mash's explanation, but shook his head at Constantine—he hated academic explanations and other situations that required thinking!

Having said that, Afu casually took out a lance, which was his Noble Phantasm, "Trap of Argalia".

"Take it!"

Astolfo possessed a wide variety of Noble Phantasms, and he seemed unconcerned about giving any of them away. Even this particular lance was something Astolfo had taken from another knight, Algaria, before using it a few times in battle and then entrusting it to his colleague, Bradamante.

Faced with treasures possessing various magical effects, he only had a vague understanding of them and no intention of treasuring them. He simply used them according to his own feelings, which can be considered a characteristic of Afu's behavior.

Before long, the group, having finally finished their work, reconstructed the summoning circle, centering it on Mashu's shield and Astolfo's lance, and connected it to the Shadow Border's energy-activating summoning technique.

Lightning flashed, and the summoning radiance constructed of magic gradually brightened.

Mashu clasped her hands together, praying silently that she must succeed, she must succeed...

In the brief but anxious wait, the illusory, blurry figure gradually took shape.

He looked nothing like the meticulous and dignified Emperor Karl the Great; he was tall and handsome, with a sword at his waist, dressed like a dashing adventurer or knight from a fantasy work…

"...Huh, why are you all staring at me so seriously?"

The young man in the summoning circle actually spoke up. "Sorry, sorry, it seems like an emergency summon! Uh, my real name is Charlemagne, and my class is Swordsman! As for this outfit, it's my favorite 'adventurer style,' although it looks rather unimpressive... Eh? Astolfo, what are you doing here!?"

Charlemagne's tone carried an awkwardness reminiscent of someone who had secretly slipped away to disguise himself as an adventurer only to be caught red-handed by his paladin subordinates.

"Wow! Wow! It really works! It can move!"

Astolfo pointed at Charlemagne with disbelief in his eyes, "Completely different from the usual His Majesty the King, so you... um, what should I call you then? Never mind, it doesn't matter! I'll just call you 'Charles'!"

“What do you mean by ‘active’…” Charlemagne covered his face. “Besides, I’m still your King, and your ‘Charles’ is pronounced so strangely in French, it sounds like ‘Charlelu’—”

"Haha, it's because I recently made friends with people from Chaldea, and one of them, whom I get along with best, is from Japan~"

(Charlemagne's Japanese pronunciation: Charlemagne → cha(夏シャ)r(鲁ル)le(鲁ル)magne(曼纽マーニュ), the first half sounds like Charlotte.)
“This is not the time to dwell on this,” Constantine said, reluctantly interrupting their conversation. “May I ask, Saber Charlemagne, can you sense the anomalies on this continent?”

Charlemagne's smile vanished instantly. He closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings. "...Hmm, this continent is too strange, terrifyingly strange...I heard countless people praying to me from the bottom of their hearts, but this era shouldn't be the era of my kingdom?"

"There's no time to explain, Sir Afu, mount your horse quickly! Please give this Charlemagne a ride. We'll answer your questions via remote communication on your journey."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Time returns to the present.

The sea of ​​clouds was boiling, and the air currents were torn apart to an astonishing degree by the battle. Almost the entire European continent could see the terrifying celestial phenomenon of the clouds above being ripped into squares or fragments by the unknown battle.

[Be careful, senior. An unusual magical reaction has occurred 3,000 kilometers away. It may be the Noble Phantasm "Prison of Thaumaturgy" activated by the Holy Knight Malagiji. It creates a field that interferes with flight spells and magic spells. This field is about 500 kilometers long and has begun to move and expand. It is recommended to avoid it.]

"it is good!"

Emiya didn't want to complain about why all the paladins were enhanced to such an absurd level. Anyway, it was all caused by the Emperor influencing reality through his mind. He felt like he was fighting against "air". Unless he interfered with the Emperor's ability, this would drag on forever until the world collapsed and he was worn down to death.

Several golden lights flashed before my eyes again.

The three paladins, Roland, Rinaldo, and Oliver, flew in from different angles.

At the same time, they transformed into three enormous holy swords, just as before.

Durandal of Roland.

Rinaldo's Forsbetta.

Otto Claire of Oliver.

—Excuse me, but please accept this. Your swords are my swords!

[Senior, senior, we've detected the sound of a hawk! It's Astolfo carrying our support!]

"I've got it! I'll break through their lines!"

As soon as he finished speaking, purple and blue-white lightning erupted. Emiya manipulated Susanoo, changing his grip on the sword hilt from both hands to one hand. Then, a dazzling divine light surged from the free hand—the second Kusanagi Sword appeared.

The golden divine sword and the black divine sword, which was wrapped in an aura of destruction, presented a striking color contrast. Then, Emiya switched weapons, and Susanoo changed accordingly, forming a stance that had never been seen before.

Even three giant swords, hundreds of kilometers long, trembled as they faced the danger head-on!

"Two days, one style—"

On the outside of Susanoo, the ferocious and wrathful aura of "Acala" is faintly revealed.

"The profound mystery of emptiness, Ishana, the Great Celestial Phenomenon—!"

Centered on Emiya, the plane where the three holy swords were located suddenly rippled with pure-colored light.

A blinding white light engulfed the vast sky.

In this short period of time, the holy sword, hundreds of kilometers long, shattered, the clouds shattered, and even from the perspective of deep space, a clear and narrow crack could be seen in the sky above Europe.

"Wow, what a warrior whose combat power is comparable to a myth! I'm a little impressed with myself. The 'me' over there actually managed to fight such an opponent to this extent!"

After eliminating the enemy's interference, Emiya immediately heard the voice of the newcomer.

"...Charlemagne?"

He raised an eyebrow; it actually worked!

"Haha, it's me! Although you're fighting against 'another me,' right? But he's already a decrepit old man, and I don't really agree with his path. After all, that way of exploiting the people and monopolizing power is not cool at all!"

Charlemagne leaped from Afu's eagle and landed on Susanoo's shoulder.

Karl the Great, who had remained silent all along, finally couldn't help but speak up.

[Ha...Chaldea, so you actually interrupted my promotion in this way? With such a fake living in a knightly fantasy!?]

Perhaps because he was facing another version of himself, Karl the Great's tone began to lose a little of its composure.

Charlemagne retorted without hesitation, "Look at yourself over there! You've taken away the spiritual autonomy of the people, even robbing them of their lives. Is this how you save the world?"

That's because you haven't seen the 'Heavenly Kingdom' I've built!

[When I become the ruler of the world, the 'Human Love,' my people will live forever in heaven, filled with love and happiness. The only price is the relinquishment of their suffering bodies and imperfect reality!]

"Huh? You're saying I'm living in a fantasy? You're the one who's the biggest fantasyr, letting them live in a fantasy of happiness?"

What's wrong with this kind of world to them?

(End of this chapter)