After hearing what Semiramis said, Achilles and Atalanta both showed puzzled expressions. Shakespeare, who knew the characteristics of this treasure, smiled even more happily when he saw the reactions of the two. Karna remained calm. Shirou, the only master present, said to Semiramis with some expectation:
"Assassin, stop keeping us in suspense and let us experience it for ourselves."
"Hmm... Master, you seem quite passionate as well."
"Because I'm a man."
I see—Semiramis expressed her understanding, and then she pressed her hand on the gemstone inlaid on the armrest of the throne. Instantly, the ground began to tremble slightly.
Is it an earthquake? The Servants looked at each other. However, the shaking started to intensify... and then suddenly stopped.
"Hehe, look outside."
Amid Semiramis's laughter, everyone except her ran out of the throne room and came to the outside. The earthquake just now was obviously caused by Semiramis intentionally. But for what reason -
"What!?"
Achilles and Atalanta were speechless, Shakespeare was moved, and even Karna, who had always been calm, opened his eyes slightly and looked down.
The stone floor they used as a foothold - just a wide space opened up beneath it.
In other words, they were floating in mid-air—this vain garden was literally floating in the air!
"Surprised, right? Of course, it's not fast at all."
Assassin infused a hint of pride into these words.
Semiramis, the queen of Assyria. Her treasure, "Hanging Garden of Vanity", is like an aerial fortress. But it is impossible to manifest it through magic. First, materials such as stone and wood from a specific area must be collected.
After collecting the materials, Assassin performed a long ritual to finally make the Noble Phantasm fully formed. This is because the historical Empress Semiramis did not actually build the Hanging Gardens.
She had never actually seen the Hanging Garden. However, she knew that it was engraved in her memory as a fantasy, and she also had such a physical feeling. Although it was a mysterious phenomenon of a later repair nature, the impression of "the Hanging Garden built by the world's oldest assassin, the legendary empress" was too strong, so she possessed this treasure.
To materialize this treasure, she must first collect real materials based on this real world - wood, stone, minerals, plants and water from the land where she used to live.
She reassembled the things she had collected and used the ritual to achieve a real fantasy. That was a false reality, a treasure that could never exist.
Therefore, it was named "vanity". For those who know the truth, it will only become a topic of ridicule. However, vanity does not necessarily mean fragility. No, at the moment of collecting materials and completing the treasure, at least in this era, vanity has become reality.
However, this garden, dressed in a cloak of fantasy, is far more exaggerated than reality, to the point of being absurd.
"Well, everyone, the main attack is scheduled for this evening. Please be prepared."
Everyone was silent. Of course, it was not because they were afraid. It was just because they felt that the war was coming, which made them feel a strong fighting spirit.
◇◇◇
Unlike the masters and servants on the red side who are ready to do something big, the daily lives of the masters and servants on the black side are still so orderly.
After a hard night's work, the Fiore and Corres groups rested in their respective rooms.
Vlad III and Danik played chess between the kings and talked about last night's battle.
Gold took Siegfried to the forest outside the city again, doing something mysterious and unknown.
Roger and Avisbronn remained in the workshop, continuing their work of making puppets.
Roger never doubted that his side would win the Holy Grail War. In his opinion, this battle was a foregone conclusion.
Black Berserker, Black Saber, Black Archer, Black Assassin, plus the combination of himself and Caster - with this lineup, he is confident that he can defeat the enemy no matter who the opponent is. More accurately, he is confident that he can create a puppet that can defeat the opponent.
The black masters underestimated the puppets. Of course, the puppets were shattered by the blow of the red Saber. However, those were just puppets used as sentinels. Although their abilities were not inferior to other puppets, their main purpose was to detect and report, not to fight. If the puppets could exert their original fighting abilities, they would never be defeated so easily.
Of course, she would still be defeated in the end, but there were hundreds of puppets after all. If there were only ten or twenty puppets, then Saber might not be injured, but if she was attacked by more than a hundred puppets in succession, what would be the result
Although he knew very well that this was just talk, the possibility was definitely not low.
However, in reality, if he wanted to use the puppet to capture Saber alive, this expectation would be too great - he himself was well aware of this.
The problem lies in Caster's anti-army treasure "Crown·Light of Wisdom". Of course, Caster's treasure should also be a puppet according to speculation. But when it comes to its specific appearance, Caster is unwilling to say it for some reason.
That was because I was immature - I hope so. But from his words, I could definitely guess that it was a being with a huge body. And Caster also told me so.
—That puppet is by no means invincible.
—Instead, a mark must be engraved indicating the method by which the person died.
—The puppets I create will have life. And because of that, they will also die.
—The puppet is not just a ritual to bring clay figures to life. The puppet is a creation of life... an imitation of primitive humans.
That was the existence that Caster regarded as his target. For Roger, who only thought about how to create a more powerful puppet, the impact of Caster's idea was too great.
I really want to help him, and if I can't, I at least want to watch from the side. To be honest, the Holy Grail War is just a nuisance for Roger. However, if there is no battle around the Holy Grail, he will not be able to experience the miracle of summoning heroic spirits in person, and of course he will not be able to meet the Black Caster, Avisbron.
Therefore, fighting was out of the question. However, he still wanted to learn more from him, but the time for the Holy Grail War was too short. Therefore, Roger had decided on his wish.
To let Black Caster acquire a body - that was his wish. And Caster also had a wish to realize it in the real world. In that case, I would be satisfied if I could help him.
Black Caster said "thank you" after hearing Roger's wish. His calm attitude remained unchanged, and his teaching method did not become softer.
However, only the mind is connected. Just understanding this point is a great achievement for Roger.
Until now, he had never thought that communicating with others would be such an interesting thing. Moreover, the other party was someone he respected from the bottom of his heart, and this feeling was even stronger. Roger's parents had always been indifferent to him. No, although the tradition of the Frein family was to raise children with puppets, there was nothing they could do about it, but he did not feel the love from his parents in other aspects.
Perhaps that is necessary for a magician. Love for one's family can sometimes become an obstacle in one's pursuit of magic. In that case, it would be better not to give him such a thing from the beginning - at least that is the policy that the Frain family insists on.
Moreover, Roger is the most talented child since he was incorporated into the Yugdomilenian clan.
Roger himself also had this understanding. When he interpreted the many secret books passed down by his ancestors with great effort, he felt it was incredible why so much time and effort was spent to explain such a simple thing.
Then, the genius was summoned. Roger was impressed by him at first, and then he began to worship him. He was on the same level as himself... No, maybe he was just a super genius who deliberately lowered his status to cater to his level.
It is too disrespectful to use him as a slave. I am the one who must accept his guidance. And one day in the future, I must see with my own eyes the scene where his wish is finally realized.
In order to achieve this goal, he was willing to do anything. If he needed lives, he would find them no matter how many. Even if it would harm the interests of the clan, he would be happy to do it.
Because there is no other way. All of this is what we have to do to realize our teacher's dream.
Just like that, the youngest Master smiled at his Servant with longing. But he didn't know that he didn't really understand Avisbron, who was right in front of him. That man had never thought about anything related to humans from beginning to end. He only cared about completing the Noble Phantasm, and he would sacrifice anything for it without hesitation.
◇◇◇
As for the last Master, she was furious.
—It’s so hateful.
Serenika twisted her exquisite beauty in anger, and walked forward in the corridor with clattering footsteps. No matter how much she tortured Astolfo, he always had a playful smile on his face, which made her feel extremely depressed.
Although the delicious food was right in front of her, she was not able to enjoy it. Not only could she not eat it, but even when she pierced it with a fork, it was too hard to bite.
For Serenika, who was raised by old women who were black magicians, endurance and torture are completely synonymous. The only thing she can endure is something related to magic.
If there was anything that could distort that handsome face, it would be to bring back the android that Rider had let go. If Rider could dig out his eyes, cut off his arms, cut off his tongue, and dig out his intestines and let him eat them before his eyes, Rider would probably sigh in despair.
She wanted to see that expression on his face. She wanted to see it no matter what. She would not mind dying if she could only see the despairing expression of Estolfo, the cutest of the famous Twelve Warriors of King Charlemagne.
—At the same time, she felt that the android who had completely taken away Rider’s heart was extremely hateful.
Ever since the Black Rider was summoned, Serenikae has had one thing that she cannot obtain no matter how much she desires it.
That was what was called love, perhaps. To be fond of, to be kind to, and to feel joy because of it—a feeling that was completely incomprehensible to Serenika.
Why didn't he throw this thing at himself? It was really hateful, as his life was as fragile as a mayfly.
She had wanted to conduct a thorough search. Not only did Serenike possess a high level of magical ability, she was also more persistent than anyone else in the Yugdomilenia clan. Now, to her, the androids were no different from pests. And they were pests that had to be completely eradicated, eradicated.
However, it is impossible to start a war just to find a homunculus. It is not impossible to find him by using Serenika's black magic. But it requires a lot of preparation, and the most fatal problem is that the missing homunculus is also an excellent magician.
As the saying goes, a mouse with nowhere to escape will bite a cat. If it ends up getting bitten back, it's no joke. As for the matter of artificial humans, we can only talk about it after this war is over.
Seeing Rider's distressed expression, she wanted to do something more extreme. She wanted to ravage him, humiliate him, and make him fall into despair. Serenikai finally suppressed this evil impulse. As long as this war ended, as long as she won this war, there would be no problem.
After defeating the Red Team, he simply gave up his wish and the fight, and used three Command Spells to torture Rider to death.
Perhaps she was too anxious, and she bumped into a robot while walking. The boy who was delivering meals looked at her with a blank look, lowered his head and said "I'm sorry".
Let's use him—Serenike made the decision.
"You, come with me for a moment."
The androids had no right to refuse, and Serenike would certainly not show any mercy to the androids who were servants. Furthermore, consumption was a virtue of the magician.
Therefore, Serenika decided to vent her accumulated anger through a form of entertainment that was so offensive that even magicians would look down upon it.
PS: Come on, it’s time to start. What kind of ending do you hope this girl will have? —Please think about it under the current strict environment of online literature and give reasonable suggestions.
PS2: The concept of phantoms is certainly not something I made up. There is evidence that Shakespeare could create phantom puppets. This is a product that appears in the first chapter of FG0, Part 1.5. It is also in this chapter that Shakespeare's combat power has been qualitatively improved. If you are interested, you can go and take a look at the plot. There is a full dialogue translation online. Although most people's attention is focused on the new costumes of Hei Dai and Hei Zhen, I still think these new concepts are more interesting.