People are in Type-Moon, but they practice science

"Little girl, I don't mean to blame you," Orange didn't care about this problem. "It's good that you can provide information even though you are not from Ainsworth. Otherwise, our understanding of this family would be completely dark."

Although regardless of whether or not there is intelligence on Miyu, the association will definitely arrange for intelligence gathering.

"Julian is gone, and Darius shows up?" Qin Xuan paid attention to the last bit of information. "Is there no paper record related to Julian?"

"No, Darius did have it, and it wasn't found in some family tree, but in their family's magic research materials. And there are quite a lot of records, so many that I suspect that all the achievements of the Ainsworth family were made by Darius alone."

"Is it true? Is it the kind that occupies most of the family's magic library?"

"That's about right. There are both new and old books," Aozaki Touko smiled. "Interesting, isn't it? And as you know, most of the materials passed down by the family for future generations to learn are 'outdated' and not very advanced. They are purely for beginners in the family and will not be published in the near future."

Orange wanted to check it out at that time, but he didn't have the time to confirm it carefully. It was better to keep the infiltration operation fast and efficient.

"Does this mean Darius isn't as old as he appears to be?"

"Of course. Maybe he's more than just Julian's father. But his exact age cannot be confirmed. What I want to know more is where Julian Ainsworth is."

"Is that so? Well, let me go take a look at the results of your investigation."

Chapter 278: Replacement of the "world" itself?

Time after meal.

Qin Xuan, Aozaki Orange, and everyone else began to carefully look at the information they brought back. Of course, Miss Tanaka should be ignored at this time, as the role she can play is probably zero.

"A creation myth? Chronos, you really dare to use this?"

Qin Xuan flipped through the records on the stone slab. Aozaki Orange had already translated some of the text, but some of the text was so old that it had not been recognized. It was suspected to be an even older pre-civilization text.

Chronos was not originally a god worshipped by Orphics, but was added to the religion later. The terms "First Cause" and "The One" were also titles from the ancient Roman period. In the version of the Twenty-Four Lines of the Sacred Word, Chronos exists as the first origin, the creator god Phanes, and the father of the cosmic egg.

In another version, the first origin is considered to be ineffable, the second origin is water (Chaos) and earth (Gaia), the third origin is time (Chronos, confused with Phanes), and the Stoics believe that Hercules' death in fire is similar to the universe turning into a sea of ​​fire when Chronos' power is exhausted, forming a further confusion, that is, Chronos Phanes Hercules.

"Also, it's a bit strange," Orange also analyzed, "Chronos is a 'background character' who hardly participates in the evolution of most myths, just like the Japanese god Betsumi and the Northern European god Odembra. There is no separate prayer in Orphicism (there is a prayer that is confused with the image of Hercules). Neoplatonism after the AD has more records."

"There are two possibilities. Ainsworth is indeed a follower of Chronos, or they intend to become that god themselves."

Qin Xuan looked at Tanaka who was unaware of the situation. From the perspective of "presumption of guilt", it is possible that Ainsworth did something that caused great harm to the planet and triggered a crisis of extinction, which led to the appearance of Tanaka (Gaia's incarnation) to wipe out the Ainsworth family. Perhaps they wanted to sacrifice the planet to realize some kind of myth reenactment?

--------

"Strange, very strange."

The skinny alchemist muttered to himself in the deep and invisible cave.

The alchemist's name is Quat Ishtario Atzban, and he is a member of the alchemist brigade of the Atlas Academy. He is thin and has colorful hair. As a member of the Ishtario family with "skin" (including hair, teeth, etc.) as an inherited trait, he can form computing mechanisms on the surface of the skin through the surface denaturation mechanism and have a dissolving effect on hard objects.

Therefore, in this parallel world geological exploration team, Kuat is a member responsible for the important deep exploration sub-task.

Boom boom.

puff.

The alchemist squatted down and touched his palms to the ground below him. The next second, a large piece of soil melted like some soft cream or amorphous liquid, and then he quickly went deeper.

Kuat dug rapidly deeper underground through continuous dissolution operations, while carrying detection equipment to collect and record data on the soil environment at different depths, which he then quickly analyzed using his own computing device.

"This is Team 3's immediate report," Kuat said to the portable instrument, "The results of the deep soil analysis are mostly consistent with those of the surface. The elemental state is still solidified, and the distribution of this state is completely consistent in the deep area. If it is an unnatural feature, it must be a large-scale natural interference of the Great Magic level."

"Di Di-"

Unexpectedly, Kuat got a quick response, the voice of Captain Shion was heard.

"Team 3, Team 3, you are less than 300 meters away from the 'Dead Zone'. Please adjust your exploration direction immediately."

Kuat's guess was wrong, and Shion didn't say anything about his feedback, but reminded him not to go deep into the dangerous area.

"Dead Zone?" Kuat opened the latest information he received, "Preliminary Study on Dead Zone", and the author column caught his attention. It was Qin Xuan.

"It was actually sent by the president," Kuat quickly read the information. The content roughly said that the Dead Zone would definitely disintegrate all known native life forms on Earth that entered the range at the first moment, and "degrade" the products of human civilization at a secondary speed, and then produce incompletely degraded "lost objects".

"…It is speculated that there are unknown laws that are different from the current rules for planetary operations."

After reading it, Quart did not feel any fear or anything. Rather, for an alchemist like him, nothing could be more meaningful than understanding the various laws of the world.

"Wait a minute," Kuat recalled the soil element data he had collected along the way, and combined it with the characteristics of the dead zone and the deep soil environment outside the dead zone, "The elements solidify... the deeper the layer, the more solidified... the closer to the dead zone, the more solidified... I have an amazing guess!"

Kuat then probed the soil close to the dead zone, and scanned a layer of soil on his way back to the surface, and finally found a clue.

Soon, he found Shion.

"I heard that you made an important discovery?" Shion was coordinating and monitoring the actions of all alchemists and keeping an eye on any movements within the survey area. She would not keep an eye on a particular person's records at any time.

"Yes, although there is no further conclusion yet, there is solid evidence. I just found it in the deep soil," Kuat pointed to the samples he collected and the data report he sent over. "I think our previous speculation was wrong. The problem of this land may not be caused by the exhaustion of planetary power, but a phenomenon caused by human interference."

Kuat then pointed to the sample piece in his hand.

"Please take a look at the special sample I found in the deep layer close to the dead zone. This piece looks like a slice of solidified elements, but a large amount of it is mixed with 'false elements', which are fake data of some real elements."

"Hmm!?" Shion's attention was completely diverted, staring at the sample, "This characteristic... looks very similar to--"

"Yes, you have thought of it, right? This is a feature that only mirror space has!"

Kuat then began to explain his own ideas. "I think there was a group of magicians or alchemists in this world who mastered the technology similar to the mirror space, but the concept they developed was completely different - by creating the mirror space, that is, the fake intelligence of the real space, to 'replace' the reality, so that those vibrant real elements were replaced with false elements."

"So that's how it is. That's indeed a train of thought," Ziyuan said, sorting out the train of thought. "In that case, they obviously didn't randomly choose a location to carry out such an operation. They would choose a good spiritual place, and then they would be able to remove a large area of ​​planetary energy through a great mystery similar to the mirror space - and the false elements formed by the mirror space would fill it in."

Then Ziyuan used the equipment to make a simple hypothetical model: a spiritual land with a large number of spiritual veins was replaced with completely dried and solidified false elements for the energy. The land that lost the real elements became "soft", and the ground vein flow channels containing the false elements quickly began to settle, while the surrounding ground vein tributaries were squeezed and moved under the influence of the concentration difference of the real elements, causing the false elements to sink further and be deposited and buried in the deep layer.

"According to subsequent natural evolution, it seems to make sense... However, there is a doubt," Shion pointed, "Why did the dead zone appear here? Is there any relationship between it and the mirror space technology?"

"...This is what my conception cannot explain." Kuat spread his hands helplessly.

Shion thought for a moment and said, "Let's continue the exploration according to your idea. All teams, adjust your direction and explore the distribution of elements in the surrounding areas of all dead zones. Let's first study the relationship between the two."

--------

Erica Ainsworth walked in the spacious castle. She looked only 10 years old and had beautiful golden curly hair. If you ignore her true identity, you might simply think of her as a foreign lady.

Erica recently left the top floor of the castle. Her father (Darius) seemed to be angry because something was delayed and there was no progress. She was afraid that she would be spanked if she did not perform well, so she simply slipped down and found someone else.

"But, but, who should I look for?"

Erica was carrying a small schoolbag like an elementary school student, carrying a stuffed doll, and walking down the stairs in a strange, "ladylike" way, "Sister Beatrice...? No, no, she always takes my doll away and twists off its head. If that happens, I'll have to ask Sister Angelica to punish me again."

"——But Angelica seems to be very busy recently. Will she ignore me?"

Erica was walking when she suddenly stopped. "Yes, it seems that there is an older brother living at home. Hmm - seems to be in the dungeon...?"

So she spent some time walking to the first floor of the underground canal below the ground. There was a cell in the corner, and the person imprisoned was a well-known old acquaintance, Shirou Emiya.

"Ummmm--Brother Shirou Emiya, umm, Brother Shirou, can I call you that?" Erica asked the person in the cell, regardless of whether the person inside was in the mood to pay attention to her or not.

"..."In the cell, Shirou Emiya was bound by instruments of unknown material, covered with vicious and deadly curses. He sensed a little girl outside the door. He hadn't spoken to anyone for a long time.

Never seen——

They look like elementary school students. Are they Ainsworth's children?

"Hey, are you Miyu-nee's brother?"

The general details are as follows:

5000. cat coins, words plus

100. blades, words plus more

100. monthly tickets, words plus

1000. recommendations, words plus

As of 2023.9.28.24, the data is: 301 monthly tickets, 7386 recommendation tickets, 14840 rewards, 114 blades

Add more specific rules:

9.28. During the official event period (10.7-6), k words will be updated daily normally, which is not included in the additional update.

10. After October 7, the official event will end and there will be no more chapters that need to be updated, so daily 4k updates will be resumed.

10. After 6:12 on October , the number of chapters that need to be updated will be announced.

10. Additional chapters will be released after 6:12 on October , and the chapter title will state "x thousand words added".

----------

As of 2023.10.6.12, the data is: 379 monthly tickets, 8524 recommendation tickets, 16640 rewards, 134 blades

Monthly ticket: 379-301=78

Recommended votes: 8524-7386=1138, add words

Reward: 16640-14840=1800

Blade: 134-114=20

----------

Alas, the statistics are dismal.

A total of one thousand words is better than nothing. To round it up, let's just make it two thousand.

Chapter 279 ██ Celestial Sphere·Gaia Record 4-【Giant God】

"Hey, are you Miyu-nee's brother?"

Erica asked.

"..."

Shirou Emiya did not answer. Perhaps he had been tortured for too long and did not want to deal with Ainsworth anymore, or perhaps he was wary of the enemy and did not want to tell the other party. Even if the other party was a child, a little girl who he vaguely remembered.

"Hey, Shirou-kun, are you still asleep?" Erica looked at the layout of the cell in confusion. Did she really understand the meaning of those torture instruments, or did she just treat them as some kind of daily decoration?

"Hmm, what should I do? Should I ask Angelica to help Shirou-brother? No, no, Angelica is already very busy. As a lady, I have to solve the problem myself!" Erica puffed her cheeks. She wanted to find some way to "wake up" Shirou Emiya.

So she opened the small schoolbag she was carrying and began to search. "Search, search, search, oh, I found it! This should be it..." Erica took out a prop with a small button from her bag. "Sister Angelica said that if you just press it like this..."

She pointed her finger at the button and pressed it.

“——” Pitch-black curses suddenly appeared in large patches on the torture instruments on Emiya Shirou’s body, “Ahhhhhhhh————”

An ear-piercing scream sounded, and then echoed throughout the vast dungeon floors. It was extremely abrupt, yet extremely hoarse.

Erica withdrew her finger, and the dark curse immediately dissipated, allowing Emiya Shirou to regain his composure. However, his heavy breathing revealed that the pain in his body had not completely dissipated.

"Hehehe, Shirou-brother is awake, and he's full of energy all of a sudden~, the toys that Angelica-sister gave me are really useful~," Erica smiled innocently, she seemed to really think that she was just using a toy to wake up Shirou Emiya in a normal way.

"…What do you want to ask…?"

Emiya Shirou seemed to be out of breath and spoke in a low voice.

"Oh, do you need Erika to repeat the question? You are Miyu's brother, right? Erika just wants to play with Miyu."

Erica also knew what her father Darius and sister Angelica were busy with all day long. After all, they were not shy about Erica. She could freely go in and out of various places, including the workshop. But all their busy work - the matter of welcoming sister Miyu back home never made any progress.

After understanding the situation, Erica thought of Miyu's brother and asked about Miyu's possible whereabouts.

"..." Emiya Shirou knew that Ainsworth wanted the Holy Grail of Miyu and had not given up until now, but what did this kid in front of him mean? Did Ainsworth think that this would make him relax his vigilance? Or did he still have some surplus value to dig out?

Shirou Emiya and the people of the Ainsworth family did not know that Miyu had returned to this world. However, even if he thought that Miyu had not returned, Shirou Emiya did not know what else he could do. The reason why Ainsworth only imprisoned him instead of executing him was because they thought they would have more information about Miyu's whereabouts?

Unfortunately, when the Fifth Holy Grail War was won, I simply made a wish to bless my sister.

"I'm sorry. I don't know who you are, but where Miyu is going... I'm sorry, I won't tell you."

"!" Erica didn't expect Emiya Shirou to be so direct. He was probably cooperating with her. "Oh, I see. So that's how it is. This is the rhetoric you adults use to fool Erica! Huhu, you knew it but didn't tell me. I... As a lady, I won't be angry!"

However, in reality, Erica was so emotional that her face turned red. Shirou Emiya did not have any hope for a child like Erica, and the character of this Ainsworth did not seem normal. He even thought that Erica would press the controller to continue to torture him.

But it didn't.

"...Humph, just forget it if you don't want to tell me. Erika can go find Sister Miyu on your own."

Erica no longer cared about Shirou Emiya's stunned look. She swung the controller and threw it to the ground - it seemed that she didn't grasp the direction well, and it was a little close to Shirou Emiya's cell.

"Clap."

The controller didn't fall there smoothly, but was picked up by a hand.

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? Did you throw the controller there on purpose so that this guy could pick it up?" An abrupt girl's voice came over, "Erika, you want to get into trouble again, don't you? Do you really think that Lord Darius is in a good mood these days and won't punish you?"

The person who suddenly appeared in front of the dungeon was named Beatrice Flowerchild. She had golden eyes and red hair, and was wearing a Gothic Lolita outfit, which was mostly red and black. She was one of Ainsworth's dolls, along with Angelica.