Eldritch Horror Theatre

"It was indeed Snakefoot, but he was undergoing living-corpse transformation. He even attacked us directly."

Noting Charlotte's confusion, Ais frowned as she summarized the bizarre scene before them, completely unable to understand why it had happened.

"He was contaminated? I didn't even notice when it happened."

Scrooge speculated on the cause.

Realizing something, the three of them turned to look at Left Hand, who stood quietly nearby.

"Left Hand, do you know what went wrong with Snakefoot?"

"He fell behind."

"...None of us noticed. How did you know he fell behind?"

Charlotte clearly wasn't going to let him brush this off so easily.

He had a point.

Left Hand's reminder sent a wave of delayed fear through Charlotte.

The teammate responsible for guarding their rear had suddenly turned into a monster.

If he had attacked them outright, the consequences would have been disastrous, even with Ais present.

But that was only part of it. Charlotte didn't buy the excuse about his hearing for a second.

This expedition seemed to be sliding unstoppably into the bizarre.

"Sage?"

Charlotte looked toward Sage, who had remained silent, hoping he could offer an explanation.

"Snakefoot's remains are still vastly different from a living corpse. We can't say for certain that he was contaminated yet."

If he wasn't contaminated... then why did he look like that, and why did he go mad?

The group exchanged uncertain glances.

The very next moment, Left Hand, who had been standing as still as a statue, seemed to sense something amiss. He turned to "look" at Sage, frowning slightly.

Catching this subtle reaction, Scrooge stepped forward.

"If that's the case, it seems we really can't go any further."

"Not necessarily—"

Sage's words came to an abrupt halt as a dark red ray pierced straight through his head.

...

"...Are you crazy?"

As Sage's lifeless body crashed to the floor, a deathly silence filled the air, only to be shattered seconds later by Ais's scream.

"Fools!"

Facing the team members who instantly went on high alert, Scrooge didn't try to flee. Instead, he let out a cold sneer.

"The degree of the Holy Grail's awakening was clearly underestimated. If it weren't for me, you'd all be dead!"

"What do you mean?"

"You can ask Left Hand what that means. Did you really not notice the changes in Sage at all—"

"What changes?"

The voice that interrupted Scrooge belonged to Sage.

To their shock, the headless corpse actually staggered back to its feet.

Even its ruined head had already regenerated.

"Heal me."

With that cold command, Ais sprang into action, awaking as if from a dream, while a dazzling golden light gathered in Sage's hand.

"I think I know what's going on—"

His voice came to an abrupt halt once again. Still locked in a struggle between life and death, Sage's head was pierced by another dark red ray, and the golden light gathering on his scepter instantly dissipated.

How could he use it again so quickly—it wasn't Scrooge!

Amidst changes that drove the expedition team to the brink of madness, everyone realized in the next moment that the ray had shot out from Left Hand's hollow eye sockets.

"He's the one with the problem!"

Charlotte was the first to react.

This wasn't a power from Left Hand's equipment. The only explanation was that it had been infused by the Holy Grail.

He was no different from those living corpses now!

The moment Charlotte realized this, blazing flames ignited on their right arm as they threw a direct punch.

However, the ferocious punch was blocked by rippling, invisible waves in front of the target, failing to harm him in the slightest.

Bastard!

Shocked and furious, Charlotte threw another punch.

Almost simultaneously, a dark red ray slammed into the invisible shield.

It seemed Scrooge had also realized the truth of what had just happened... and ultimately, he was the first to recover this killer move with its notoriously harsh activation conditions.

...

The combined force of their attacks was unexpectedly effective.

The invisible shield, which had previously been as steady as Mount Tai, was ripped apart without any resistance.

Behind the shield, Left Hand was struck simultaneously by the flaming fist and the dark red ray. Half of his body vanished instantly.

Was he dead?

Charlotte and the others breathed a sigh of relief, but their gazes froze a moment later.

He seemed to vanish for a fleeting moment, and when he reappeared, his mangled body was already completely whole.

"That's Sage's ability!"

Charlotte realized this and halted a third punch just in time, focusing entirely on defense.

"Don't bother with him. He'll die for real soon enough—"

Halfway through the sentence, they saw that Left Hand made no desperate counterattack as imagined, but instead turned and walked away.

He showed absolutely no sign of collapsing, even as he disappeared into the darkness.

"No, it's more like he directly voided a segment of fate."

As the group stood in stunned dismay, another unexpected voice chimed in.

Sage?

Realizing who it was, more than one person snapped their head around, and then began to doubt their own sanity.

Everything had happened in a flash of lightning and stone spark. It wasn't strange that this newly mangled body hadn't immediately collapsed, but at this moment, the horrific wound on his head was actually gone.

"...This is also why I survived. For that brief moment, Left Hand's existence seemed to be directly concealed, which included the act of killing me. I never imagined there could be such a Miracle... The Holy Grail's awakening seems faster than estimated..."

A rare trace of confusion flickered in the eyes of the twice-resurrected Sage.

"Then where did he go now?"

"To the Holy Grail. My previous judgment was flawed; I originally thought there was something else behind him."

"Then shouldn't we leave?"

"No."

Sage shook his head.

"The Holy Grail is far more powerful than we anticipated. That is exactly why we must control it, and this might be our only chance."

"Don't be frightened."

Seeing the hesitation on almost everyone's faces, Sage let out a low chuckle.

"Possessing such authority, yet it could only rely on the misdirection of an illusion to try and kill me. Even without our knowledge, it still didn't succeed."

"It is a wondrous Holy Artifact, but in its current state, it is not our match."

It seemed he was right...

Sage's tone remained full of infectious confidence. Framed from this new perspective, the crisis-ridden situation suddenly didn't seem so dire, and the group's confidence surged once again.

"We'd better hurry."

Leaving no more time for hesitation, Sage turned and led the way.

"Left Hand likely went to transfer the Holy Grail. Fortunately, the password to open the Clock Tower Hall is relatively long."

...

"There he is!"

Sage's judgment seemed correct.

When the expedition team arrived at the Stone Statue Hall, they were just in time to see Left Hand strike a stone statue for the final time.

Seeing the stone statue begin to rotate, Charlotte tried to rush forward but was blocked by Sage.

An invisible shockwave rippled out a moment later, and five figures of the Shadow on the domed ceiling grew clear in everyone's eyes.

Frowning at the sight, Charlotte didn't even have time to speak before a torrent of information exploded in their mind.

Sa...ge...

Relying on the sliver of adaptability forged through countless trials, Charlotte narrowly dodged the incoming ray.

As their mind recovered slightly, Charlotte noticed that Sage had actually walked into the hall alone, leaving behind a single instruction.

"Wait for my signal. Remember, only one person can cross at a time."

...

"I am not sure if a conversation like this holds any meaning, but please believe that I hold the utmost reverence for your existence."

A moment later, upon entering the Clock Tower Hall and walking straight to the golden lever on the wall, Sage finally spoke. He watched Left Hand, who was walking step by step toward the Holy Grail in the center.

"I think we can get along quite pleasantly, with the Gods as our witness..."

Clapping his hands to send the signal, Sage unhesitatingly grabbed the lever, adjusting the dial overhead according to the coordinates he had calculated long ago.

But in the very next moment, his rather strong hand fell clean off his wrist.

And in his equally plummeting vision, the last thing he saw was Left Hand gripping the handles on both sides of the Holy Grail, before the two vanished out of thin air.

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