By creating a special barrier within the guest room, we exchange conversation in secret. As long as that magic-circle has been activated on such a big scale, the inside of this castle as well as the outside is in a pre-battle situation. In other words, it wouldn’t be weird for the coup d’état faction to attack this guest room at any moment. “Well, since the government-faction that teamed up with the Carmilla-faction will be attacking this castle, I’m sure they will concentrate most of their man power for that purpose. But we still need to be cautious.”
That’s what Sensei says. Like Sensei said, I can’t feel the presence of any soldiers heading towards our side at all. Though you can already hear the sound of explosions and screams coming from the outside. ……It means that the battle has already begun. Sensei takes out a single map and spreads it on the floor. It’s a handwritten map. “It’s a map I sketched in secret. Take a look at this. There is a huge spacious area that is located really deep down in the castle. The basement is deep, but there are four main floors. The Tepes-faction performs their main ritual that is related to the Vampires on the lowest floor which happens to be a ritual area—. Since that magic-circle activated with this castle as the centre point, I have no doubt that they are performing the ritual to extract the Holy Grail on the lowest floor of this castle.”
“And the Khaos Brigade will be down there too, right?”
Xenovia says that and Sensei nods in agreement. “The higher-ups who were involved with the coup d’état and their royal guards must be there right now. And the place we are heading towards would be there as well.”
Kiba then starts to put marks on the map. “I got a fair grasp of the range that the soldiers here work at during the past two days in this castle. I think I can prepare a route to go down the basement without encountering that many soldiers just in case. What I mean by “just in case” is that since this isn’t a normal situation now, I am sure that the formations of the soldiers here have changed.”
Oh, so the reason why Kiba sometimes disappeared from the guest room during our time here is because he went to check out the castle. Since it’s Kiba who has god-speed, he didn’t get caught by the soldiers. “Either way, the ones that we would be encountering are the strong foes that will be at the basement whether we like it or not.”
Kiba fearlessly smiles. That’s how it will turn out. Since they are performing the important task of extracting the Holy Grail here, Marius and those around him with important roles would be there……along with that Evil Dragon. So there will be plenty of strong foes in the path we are taking. Well, it does seem like a battle that the Gremory group would usually face. I make a big sigh and scratch my head. “We sure do get ourselves dragged into such situations often.”
Sensei puts his hand on my head. “Well, that’s the reason why all of you made such remarkable growth and attained the firepower and the force to break through obstacles which is fitting for your growth.”
Sensei then says while looking at all of us. “Our plan is to stop the Holy Grail from being extracted. I might be saying a cruel thing, but in the worst case scenario, we will still capture Marius even if it’s after the Holy Grail has been extracted. The other Vampires besides Marius with a high post……try to keep them alive as much as possible. —So the point is, you can eliminate the terrorists without any mercy. I will allow it. If you are put in a dangerous situation of being attacked by an Evil Dragon, then escaping with Valerie and the Holy Grail is an option too. Don’t push yourself to defeat it. I won’t go as far as to ask you to defeat an Evil Dragon.”
That’s simple and easy to understand. So if an Evil Dragon appears……we can run if we feel that it’s dangerous. That Crom Cruach is someone I don’t want to fight at all costs. Even Ddraig warned me about him. “I-I’m going to bring back Valerie!”
Gasper stands up and says that in high spirits. Everyone sees that and puts on a good smile. [Of course!] Our words overlap each other! That’s how it is! We stand up altogether and leave the guest room with much enthusiasm—. We walk down the stairs towards the basement. Thanks to Kiba making a route for us, we didn’t receive that much assault. As we suspected, the locations where the soldiers would normally be on standby has changed. Though we only had two easy battles till we got here. We can hear the powerful noises of the battle happening outside. There was a lot of damage to the castle due to the battles occurring outside where their attacks have even reached the castle. Well, I doubt their attacks will reach here inside the basement, but the earthquake-like shock due from the battle outside echoes even in here. After we walk down the stairs for a while, we exit out onto the first floor we reach. An open space. It’s big enough such that it will be alright even if we go a bit wild in here. Thanks to the lighting on the ceiling we can see till the furthest part of this floor. Though we can still see inside dark places due to being a Devil. —Then there are lines of shadows belonging to a group of people. There are so many Vampire soldiers clad in armour that they can easily fill half of this floor. Every one of them has a weapon in their hands and their red eyes are glowing so intensely that it looks dangerous. There are……more than a hundred of them. They are Vampires that were formerly human. Even though their traits as Vampires are weak compared to the pure-bloods, their physical ability is so extraordinary that a mere human cannot stand against them. Sensei says while creating a spear of light in his hand. “Now then, who wants to take them on? Since there will be strong foes below this floor, I don’t want to waste unnecessary strength here.”
“Since you have a job to do once we reach the Holy Grail, we will be troubled if we have you waste your energy here, Azazel.”
Akeno-san says. Exactly. Since Sensei is someone who left the front-line, it may be better for him to stay behind us during group battles and command us instead. Xenovia carries Durandal on her shoulder. “I would like to release Durandal’s aura here as the signal for the start of our battle, but it would be better that I don’t, right?”
Rias nods. “Yes, that is something you cannot use consecutively, right? If that’s the case, it would be better to use it against the Evil Dragons.”
See? That’s how it is. Xenovia sure does think like that all the time! When I thought she became skillful in using Ex-Durandal recently, she starts to behave in such way! Irina then warns Xenovia. “Xenovia, use your head a bit. I thought you became capable of using techniques, but you ended up fighting with power again!”
Xenovia tilts her head. “I can’t help it, since Kiba is with us, I can’t help but think that I don’t need to do complicated things.”
Kiba makes a deep sigh upon hearing that.