Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

Humans always repeat the same mistakes, ah... I took off from the spot again and then nothing happened.

That's good. I fully understand now that the result of endless prayer is to end up with nothing.

So, it's time to learn from Asanagi... Damn, I'm starting an FGO x Shadowverse project tomorrow.

The script... let's start from chapter 154, and the protagonist... let's use the universally hated Shinji. I remember he was the main character in the Shadowverse crossover vampire event, right? _(:з」∠)_

Chapter Twenty-Three: Combat - Please Choose Your Partner

Meanwhile, at the top of the Isengard Tower within Rohan.

As the battle between the two extraordinary beings triggered celestial shifts, the entire sky above Rohan was instantly covered by torrential rain, fierce winds, and incessant, muffled thunder. These severe weather phenomena transformed into a devastating natural disaster in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, Isengard's area was within the affected zone.

The tree people stationed here had no choice but to gather together and support each other as they turned back towards the Fagon Forest. It wasn't that they lacked the power to interfere with celestial phenomena, but for these tree people who had just experienced a war and, even if they had won a great victory, still had many tree wounds, it was not a good choice to expend their precious power on such a calamity.

Saruman has utterly failed. The once-renowned white wizard has paid a heavy price for his actions. He was a Maiar, a servant of the true God, but now he has been abandoned by Valinor, and the dark evil of Mordor from the East has also distanced itself from him—he has fallen from a demigod to a mere mortal. Continuing to vent power and rage on this worthless man is of little consequence.

The Treefolk understood this, and their leader, Treebeard, understood it perfectly. So when the regional cataclysm struck, he chose to lead his people back to the Forest of Fangorn, leaving Isengard, a low-lying region, to be transformed into a swamp by the torrential rains. The ground began to crumble, and the raging floodwaters quickly overflowed the tower's base as it sank, forming a vast lake that, in a short time, submerged a third of the wizard's tower.

The history of Isengard has come to an end.

This place may one day be called 'Lake Isengard' or 'Saruman's Burial Place'. Whether the former white wizard imprisoned here can escape or not, his name and the meaning it represents will gradually fade from this world. Besides... he probably won't be able to leave this place.

'Sizzle————'

A massive bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking precisely the spire atop the wizard's tower. Accompanied by a subtle spatial tremor, a pale purple figure appeared atop the spire.

Patchouli closed the large book she carried with her.

“The means of spatial interference have finally reached a level that can be practically applied. Now distance is no longer a problem to worry about.” The girl raised an eyebrow slightly, and the torrential rain surrounding her suddenly stopped at her will. She looked down at the wizard tower at her feet, and with the unfolding of a detection spell, a simplified model of the energy flow inside the tower appeared in her eyes.

This tower stores treasures. This tower suppresses treasures. This tower itself is a treasure.

Patchouli had come for this purpose, and she didn't intend to leave empty-handed. With rapidly shifting data calculations in the witch's eyes, she opened a secret passage from the outside into the now-unattended wizarding tower from its apex in a short while. Her figure then flickered again, and the next moment she appeared on the top floor of the wizarding tower.

The top layer, the most confidential layer.

Saruman altered the spatial structure of the tower, expanding what was originally a small area into an immense expanse. And just as Patchouli had a penchant for collecting books, this white-robed wizard, who had lingered in Middle-earth for a long time, clearly held a necessary reverence for knowledge.

The top floor of the tower contained only two things: books and bookshelves. These bookshelves interlocked, stretching from her front to the very limit of her vision. Perhaps all the knowledge in Middle-earth that could be recorded on paper was stored in this library, and undoubtedly, this knowledge would be extremely useful to Patchouli.

“Saruman.” She reached out and touched an ancient book on the shelf. A wealth of complex knowledge came alive with Patchouli’s touch, and these moving messages, like living things, flowed into her mind through her fingertips.

“A wizard may die, but his knowledge should not be lost.” A faint light flickered in Patchouli’s eyes. In an instant, she memorized and understood everything described in the ancient book—an ancient history book in poetic form, telling the story of heroes from ancient times battling stone giants in the mountains. The heroes’ fighting techniques and the characteristics and patterns of the stone giants were buried within the ancient text, and as Patchouli’s fingers left the thick spine, a swordsmanship style completely different from what she had learned before was firmly grasped by her.

Know how.

Acquire knowledge.

Patchouli's gaze shifted from the treasure-filled library to the next level of the wizard's tower. She wouldn't relinquish this knowledge, nor would she tolerate it slipping from her grasp. But before that, she had other important matters to attend to.

She wanted to find Saruman and obtain all the secrets of the wizarding tower from him—a plan she had originally intended to carry out when Chelsea first infiltrated the hobbits' ranks. However, due to the uncertain external circumstances at the time, she had temporarily shelved it. Now that these external interferences were gone, she naturally needed to achieve her goal.

She flicked her wrist, and the silvery-gray mist formed by the nanites poured out from her cuffs and the hem of her skirt. In the coming days, they would replace all matter in this space except for the books, incorporating all the data without damaging the books themselves—she wasn't sure if she'd have enough time to ensure the integrity of the wizard's tower in a few minutes, so she had to prepare beforehand.

Objective one: Find Saruman, deal with his weaknesses, and maximize his value.

[Second objective: To acquire this wizard's tower and awaken the entire orcish legion slumbering beneath the water. Their bones and souls are valuable materials, which can be used to build the legion.]

[Objective Three...]

Patchouli lowered her eyes. The time she had spent on the top floor of the wizard tower was enough for her to seize partial control of the unmanned magic circle inside the tower. A few seconds later, something slightly unexpected happened.

Saruman is dead.

He and Clever Grimma were killed on the lower level of the tower—a single, fatal blow, and the killer did not leave. The very next moment, Patchouli traversed space to arrive at the scene where the bodies were placed.

A beautiful woman in purple, exuding the same mysterious aura as her, was waiting for her there. And when she arrived, she instantly knew who she was.

"One of the two from the East American team, Sirin?" Patchouli raised an eyebrow slightly, looking at the pretty woman with long, wavy, light purple hair that reached her ankles. The other woman had a similar aura to her and a pair of X-shaped golden eyes. A well-tailored combat uniform perfectly accentuated the reincarnator's graceful figure, and around Sirin, several spheres composed of light bands floated silently.

[...She arrived before me, and the magic circle of the wizard's tower remained undamaged.]

[She possesses incredibly powerful spatial manipulation abilities, surpassing mine. This information aligns with the intelligence we gathered earlier… Did Chu Xuan assign me here to be his opponent I need to defeat? It doesn't seem like it…]

"One of the strategists of the Central State Team, Patchouli Knowledge?" Sirin stared at her, showing no sign of intending to make a move.

"Looks like you've done some research. Did Neos tell you?" Patchouli, holding the large library in her arms, looked at the other person with slight surprise. She was certain that this guy had definitely crossed the boundary between mortal and supernatural. But for some reason, she could vaguely sense a certain deficiency—perhaps this was why he hadn't made a move immediately. And she was happy to play a game of delaying with this guy.

She stared at the ground, where Saruman and Grimaldi's corpses were quickly covered by crystals that had sprung up out of nowhere. And just as she had guessed, the creature opposite her was unmoved by her little action.

“To be precise, he only told me part of it, and I have another way to get the rest.” Sirin’s ten fingers were lightly clasped together, her eyes, shaped like a cross, held an unreadable emotion. “In fact, I’ve been waiting for you here for a long time—though it may only seem like a few minutes on a macro scale, you should know how long that feels to both of us. But thankfully, this wait has ultimately paid off, so I think I can calm my anger for now.”

"Have you been waiting for me for a long time?"

"You don't believe me?" Sirin's form suddenly vanished along with a spatial portal that opened, and her next words came from behind Patchouli. A crystalline barrier that appeared out of thin air blocked a pale arm that lunged at Patchouli like a shadowy mist. Then, the activated crystal captured it, and it vanished into thin air within the crystalline cage.

More crystals sprouted from the ground, instantly covering nearly one square kilometer of the vast tower space. However, the rapidly growing crystals did not encounter their intended target, as Sirin's figure had already appeared about fifteen meters above the ground.

She leaned casually against an open spatial door, her languid posture reminding Patchouli of a certain old hag who liked to tie bows on spatial rifts.

"Actually, this isn't the first time you and I have met. Before this world, I experienced a team battle against the Demon Team. Although it wasn't a pleasant experience, I had a brief encounter with another version of you before my East American team was defeated and fled."

She held up one finger and shook it slightly.

"Don't try to get any information about the Demon Team from me. Your methods of concealing information are far more sophisticated than yours are now. After that story world ended, I forgot all the details of my battle with the Demon Team. I only remember fighting you, and I probably lost. I fought some guy who piloted an EVA, and I probably won. As for another Zheng Zha—well, I don't think I fought him. Instead, when I became aware of his presence, I simply used the escape effect of the resurrection item to commit suicide and run away."

She tilted her head slightly. "My situation is relatively good. Zhao Zhuikong doesn't even have much of an impression of that story world itself. He only remembers that he met with his clone and chatted for a while. Then someone whose name and appearance I can't remember killed him, and it was from then on that he became able to listen to what others were saying. At least before that, he would never have been willing to lower himself to cooperate and form an alliance with the weak Nan Yan Zhou team."

"...A very interesting experience. And then?" Patchouli's gaze remained unchanged. "Because you lost to me from the Demon Team, you're planning to cause trouble for me from the Central State Team? Well, perhaps you'll soon reach an unexpected conclusion."

"Taking it out on someone? No, I'm not such a lowly scumbag." Sirin shook her head slightly. "You have to get up from where you fall. A temporary setback doesn't mean final defeat—that's a lesson I learned from a group of interesting guys before I entered the God's Space, after they made me pay a huge price. I received very thorough and comprehensive care from them in that lesson, and although I ultimately made them truly understand what despair is, the pain they left on me is something I still remember to this day."

"I'll settle the score with you for losing to the Demon Team sooner or later. But before that, that defeat at least proves that you're someone I should bother dealing with—you're a member of the Central Continent Team, which means that the others on your team might also have strengths that I can't match. So..."

"I can handle Zhao Zhuikong's situation, although I have a feeling that I don't need to deal with him at all. But I'm here to form an alliance with you."

....................................

Thinking about it...would it be better to use Sakura as the main character? The data mining supposedly reveals she's a necromancer...which seems to fit the 154 scenario quite well. However, is it Black Sakura or White Sakura...? Damn, the data mining isn't fully complete yet, it's giving me a real headache...

And should I keep spending money on in-game purchases... or just forget it _(:з」∠)_

Section 24. Engagement: Trust Your Staff Officer's Abilities

"An alliance?"

“An alliance.” Sirin’s tone was full of certainty. “I’ve fought against the Celestial Team before and I know their strength. Due to some special reasons, the evaluation of our East American team’s main god is lower than our true strength. I can confirm that even if the Celestial Team uses all their trump cards, they can only manage a draw with our East American team at best. And if we add your Central Continent team, then the other side will have no chance of turning the tide.”

“We are strong, but I know your Central Continent team is even stronger. You, Alice Margot Lloyd, Zheng Zha. You members of the Demon Team have the ability to wipe out our East America team. While you members of the Central Continent Team may be slightly inferior, I don’t think there is a significant difference in absolute strength.”

"I remember you allied with the Southern Flame Continent team before," Patchouli said calmly. "Is this how you treat your allies?"

"Southern Flame Continent Team." Xilin muttered these words to herself. A cold smile suddenly appeared on her lips.

"It seems that some things are better explained beforehand."

She jumped down from the air, her toes landing lightly on the ground.

"You are strong, but not overwhelmingly strong. After I descended into this world and heard the Supreme God's declaration, I didn't think I had much of a chance of winning. And after I assessed the strength of the Celestial Team, I was even more certain of this view—the only way to defeat your Central Continent Team is to take advantage of the momentum of the entire horror movie, and at the same time, to mobilize both sides and the other reincarnators to join forces to suppress you. The reason I persuaded Zhao Zhuikong to form an alliance with the Southern Flame Continent Team was to use the ability of the Southern Flame Continent Team's strategist to unify this momentum. After all, although our East America Team has enough fighting strength, our intelligence... is still slightly lacking."

She shook her finger slightly and casually circled around the extremely spacious hall.

"I actually cooperated with Neos's plan as much as possible. He wanted Zhao Zhuikong and me to fight the Celestial Team to the death, to test their strength, and to weaken both the Celestial Team and our team to increase the chances of the Southern Flame Continent Team reaping the benefits—no problem, I cooperated with him. I had a good fight with Luo Yinglong and Captain Adam of the Celestial Team. Then Zhao Zhuikong fought a swordsman named Song Tian to a draw."

"He wanted me to cooperate in the Helm's Deep battle, to take on the toughest targets hired by Saruman and Sauron, while leaving the most harmless and easiest-to-farm-points-farming frontal battlefield to the South Flame Army's weaklings. He also wanted to increase the South Flame Army's importance in the eyes of the main characters while giving them the task of saving characters who were doomed—no problem. It took me a lot of effort to appease Zhao Zhuikong, who was planning to wipe them all out. Then I secretly left to take down those monsters that were troublesome even for me and didn't offer any reward points."

"He wanted me to launch attacks on several of the most likely landing sites, including Fangorn Forest, right after you arrived. To create a man-made disaster so that the blame could be placed on you—no problem, I opened portals over these multiple locations simultaneously, created fires in Fangorn Forest, thunderstorms in Mirkwood, and a necromantic plague on the borders of Gondor. I made each disguise perfect, and when they were completely ineffective, I was still responsible for cleaning up any potential traces, bit by bit, until not a single suspicious mark remained."

She stopped and looked at Patchouli while spreading her hands.

“Look, I have perfectly fulfilled my duties as an ally—or rather, I’ve done the menial work of a thug and bodyguard, rather than an ally. I’ve cooperated so well with the Southern Flame Continent team, obeying every single one of Neos’s orders. All this was to use his intelligence to try and gain a slight chance of winning against your Central Continent team. But how has Neos repaid me? Using me and scapegoating me is one thing, I don’t care. But his useless schemes have left me utterly disappointed.”

"He betrayed my trust, taking so much of the benefits that belonged to our East America team but failing to achieve this crucial objective that was vital to both of us—I sensed a few minutes ago that the spatial mark I left on them had completely failed—Zhao Zhuikong may have left a mark as well, and he should already know that the Southern Flame Continent team has been completely defeated. And he hasn't sent me any mental communications until now. So I think he's probably already entangled with your people. Defeat probably won't be long."

"Look, the situation is so clear now. The Southern Flame Continent team has proven their weakness and incompetence, and our East America team has absolutely no chance of defeating your Central Continent team. As for Adam from the Celestial God team, although he seems like a wise man, cooperating with him is not a good choice for us. So, do you think our East America team has any other options besides cooperating with your Central Continent team?"

“Perhaps the Central Continent team can get more reward points from your corpses.” Patchouli looked at her, staring at the two diagonal crosses in her eyes.

“No, you wouldn’t.” Sirin smiled, confidently waving a finger. “Although I don’t remember the experience of fighting against the Demon Team, I remember your style. You and Alice Margot Lloyd are both meticulous, detail-oriented, and very rational individuals. Although I don’t know if there are other wise individuals in your team, I can assure you that you would never gamble with your own safety on something that might reduce the final gains in a cycle of reincarnation.”

"You guys are strong, but not strong enough, at least not as overwhelmingly strong as the Demon Team. Let me give you some information: before encountering the Demon Team, the East Sea Team was actually a fully equipped squad. After Zhao Zhuikong and I escaped that horror movie, the only two of us who returned to the Main God Space didn't even remember the names or appearances of the members who had ever been in the squad."

"If you can't remember your name or your face, you can't be resurrected. The Demon Team can even render my resurrection items useless with this method. I've assessed your combat strength and know very well that you haven't reached that level, and you probably don't have any secret treasures of this caliber. So this is the premise for the possibility of cooperation between our two teams."

Her ten fingers were gently placed together.

"Our East American team lacks strategists and has no chance of winning through brute force. So, what I really need to do is minimize our losses. The East American team has at least two Tier 4 combatants. Even if they don't go to participate in the rewarding main or side quests, helping your Central Continent team out and dealing with some tough nuts that you can't handle or don't have the manpower to crack can still make up for our negative points in this team battle—after all, all our rookies are dead, and it would be very awkward to just return to the Main God Space like this."

"Of course, if you don't intend to give us this chance to cut our losses, or if you plan to sabotage us in the plot, that's fine with me. Zhao Zhuikong and I both have high-level resurrection items, and as fellow fourth-tier beings, I'm absolutely confident I can commit suicide before you strip me of my resurrection items. At worst, we can just lose a little and roll back to the Main God Space to slowly grind points in other worlds. And when we meet again at the end of this cycle, our two teams can fight to the death right at the opening."

"Look, the pros and cons are all here. I think with your intelligence, it shouldn't be difficult for you to make a choice. If you want to bargain, please do so sooner rather than later. In our East American team, there are only two combative people, Zhao Zhuikong and me. We don't want to play mind games with you bunch of clever people whose brains twist billions of times."

She stared at Patchouli, awaiting her reply. Clearly, she didn't expect the witch to offer an answer she didn't anticipate.

Patchouli lowered her eyes.

[Chu Xuan didn't assign me any combat missions, but he sent me here. If he really could foresee all this, then his opinion should be obvious. He's truly a terrifying man... Although I did have some considerations in mind, for him to be so certain and make such appropriate arrangements... Tsk, having a teammate like this is really a headache.]

Then I'll do my job well and try to secure as many benefits as possible for this collaboration.

Her thoughts raced, and she quickly drafted a complete set of terms in her mind. Since Sirin had made herself so clear, it was obvious that these terms didn't need any constraints—and Patchouli didn't actually possess anything that could completely restrain extraordinary life forms—she waved her hand, and a huge crystal plate appeared beside her.

There's no need to discuss Zhao Zhuikong's matter further. Since Xilin didn't specifically mention him, it means she has confidence in him, and Patchouli also knows very well that Zhao Zhuikong won't encounter any trouble with Zhao Yingkong; in fact, there's even a possibility he might transfer teams. And the thought of transferring teams—

Patchouli pondered, and some of the more stringent terms in her mind softened. In the end, she simply erased the entire plan. With a flick of her finger, the enormous, yet-to-be-manifested crystalline plate dissolved into scattered, free energy before it could take shape.

“On behalf of the Zhongzhou team, I agree to this cooperation. No oaths or treaties are needed. From this moment on, the Zhongzhou team and your East America team are allies. What you intend to do is your prerogative, and we will offer our suggestions for the alliance at the appropriate time. Whether you choose to adopt them is up to you.”

She looked at Sirin, her pale purple eyes filled with sincerity.

"But before that, we need to communicate in another way."

"A fight, is that it?" Sirin raised an eyebrow, not seeming particularly angry. "Indeed, a wise person needs a certain level of familiarity and understanding of every power they possess. I understand that. So..."

The light behind her spread out to both sides, and she instantly became serious.

"Let's use this level of the tower as a platform, without damaging the structure and furnishings inside this mage tower. Let's have a good fight!"

..........................................

"Achoo—" Zheng Zha sneezed suddenly—as a superhuman being, he shouldn't have had this symptom, nor could he have lost control of his mucous membranes and nasal cavity. So it was obvious that this was a sign that something related to him and that might surprise him had happened.

[What could possibly happen? At worst, it's just our team fighting four of their teams... It can't be that one of the rival Reincarnation teams has defected.]