After hearing the entire story, a mysterious word emanated for the Clocktower Lord.
"A netherworld..."
Flat tilted his head at what El-Melloi II said.
"W-Wait a second Professor! So that means... we're already dead?!"
"Okay. Flat, be quiet. Moderator, are you okay with cooperating to get out of here?"
"Ahh, I won't be meddling in factional infighting. Also, the Church has quite the debt to you. You saved that rotten Sister Ilumia and..."
"No, if you're talking about debts, Karabo helped me out too. However, it was mutually detrimental to both organizations for that to go public. What we have now is purely you helping me supervise my student. You won't be exposed to danger."
Hearing those words, Hansa bitterly smiled as he shook his head.
"Flat, the rumors are true about your teacher. He's far from a magus. How on earth did you survive that den of demons you call the Clocktower.
"I've just been blessed with good luck and a fortuitous destiny. But, you know, I do understand my own lack of ability without needing to be told."
"That wasn't an insult. I was praising you. It must have been because of that nature my colleges and elders helped you. No matter how you deny it, a debt is a debt. I'll help you the best I can as a individual. Even if you become a bloodsucker, I'll overlook it unless you do something bad."
"You're also quite the departure from a normal priest of the Church. Of course, I don't plan on it or am competent enough to become a bloodsucker."
El-Melloi II said, amazed, before returning to his explanation.
"The fact you're calling me, means that of course you're not dead. I'm talking about the nature of what is within the bounded field."
"What do you mean? It doesn't feel like heaven or hell here?"
"Flat, I get you don't listen in class, but cast aside your pedestrian stereotypes. I should start that there's guesswork involved in this hypothesis, but the place you're in originated from the little girl, Kuroka Tsubaki's magic circuit and mind. As for the monstrous beast... no divine beast the Father saw in the distance, if this world has stimulated Cerberus then this world probably possess an aspect as a netherworld."
"So there's a synergy there?"
"The expression Flat previously used 'It's like we're in a dream,' is quite on point. If we were to look at this from a magecraft perspective, we would treat the dream as a world of the afterlife. Using the comatose girl as a catalyst, the Servant constructed a pseudo-netherworld. Of course, there are other theories to consider but, from what Flat has been saying and the information I've been able to obtain on my own, there's very high chance this is the case." Then, Hansa who had been silent asked a question.
"I may not have been exposed to many afterlives but... a netherworld that reflects reality?"
"There are many netherworlds that reflect reality. For instance the tombs of Pharaohs or Emperors have rites that take cities as netherworlds. You get countless descriptions around the world like, after death I saw my ancestor living in the exact same place, doing the exact same thing. Though for it to create the identical place where the person lived makes me believe the Servant who created this boundary field world is quite the systematic being. Incorporate Cerberus into the world indicates it might still be evolving."
"Evolving? What do you mean, Prof?"
"This Heroic Spirit is probably the concept of "death" itself. The manifestation of the netherworld. Hades, Hel, Nergal, Ereshkigal, a netherworld go - No, you wouldn't be able to call forth such a Saint Graph though... Furthermore, if they were the caretaker of a netherworld, this bounded field world would be closer in form to one of their netherworlds. So then its closer to the concept of 'death.' than netherworlds."
Says El-Melloi II in a fluent tone as if reading the conclusion which will dismantle the bounded field world he cannot see out from a blackboard.
"The Servant's personality was probably formed in response to his Master when he was summoned and even now continues to learn. Or maybe it takes a different personality every times it summoned, but considering how rare Ghost Liner summons are we can't make comparisons. However, its possible that it's learning about our species now that you have entered its world.
"But Professor, why aren't we brainwashed?"
Flat raised a question.
Before they came into the building, they passed by several brainwashed figures. As a precaution, Flat and Hansa had prepared several defensive measures but no brainwashing magical formula has been used on them.
"There must be something different about you. There are so many mind-control methods that I couldn't possibly guess which one is being used, but I can make a guess at why."
"Yay! W H Y D U N N I T! The professor's catchphrase!"
"Ho, you're a "
" guy, huh. Well, sure, the "
" is obvious and if we're talking about magecraft the "
howdunnit
how did they do it
" is meaningless. But, with a catchphrase like that, you're more detective than magus."
Hansa muttered.
El-Melloi II cleared his throat and continued.
"Come on, I only analyze previously acquired information. If I had a detective's insight or flashes of inspiration, my life would be quite different. But anyway, the reason why you haven't been put under mind control seems to be due to how you entered this world."
It had be pointed out to him that "people who left the city, came back behaving strangely," and animals were becoming sick in droves.
According to Fluger, a magus El-Melloi II was acquainted with, although there were some individual differences, there were cases of humans and animals developing a sickness that led to internal hemorrhaging.
From this El-Melloi II had come up with "For those infected with the curse-like disease only their minds, reconstructed, enter that world. It's different for those whose bodies forcibly entered the bounded field."
"There's a large probability the latter are enemies while even if the former performed hostile actions... there's no physical damage, and they have no use in the Holy Grail War for the mastermind of this world. There's high probability that no matter how strange they might be, they're not hostile."
"Ahh, so the Clocktower people are all okay, then. That's good, right, but looking around they sure are a big inconvenience."
"This isn't the place for me to be shouting at you, so just stop. Anyway, lets think about how to get you out of there. Realistically, you can't wait for their magical energy to run dry. Given the situation, the fastest way would be to defeat the Master and Servant. Well, since you're allied with the policemen who are protecting the little girl, there's no way to harm her."
Even if there wasn't an alliance, wouldn't there be some reason excluding that course of action?
Jack and Hansa thought that when they heard El-Melloi II's words, but didn't want to pursue the thought. Instead they shrugged their shoulders and kept listening. But half of the Sisters tilted their heads as they were in a far more rationalist state of mind than El-Melloi II before asking "why not eliminate the Master?"
"You could, without harming the Master, negotiate with the little girl to let you out. But there's the problem if whether the Servant even acknowledges her as its Master. If you coerced her with suggestion, the Servant would take that as a hostile action and might more actively seek to eliminate you."
"What about negotiating with the Servant?"
"There's a high probability it's more like a system than anything with a clear personality. No matter what it might be, you should avoid contact before confirming what it is. Of course, the same with trying to fight it. You saw last evening how terrifying Servants are."
El-Melloi II was much more vigilant of the being that controlled that space than even the people who were inside of it and was therefore trying to make sure they weren't getting too carried away.
After all, he himself had once accompanied his contracted Heroic Spirit into the Reality Marble it possessed. The sublime sight was still burned into his eyes.
"If this world matches that of a netherworld and the Servant is related to that concept, there's no escaping that bounded field. The underworld has no limits, death is everywhere. Magically, the air and water, rocks and earth are all saturated with the concept of death. That room you're in too.
After declaring so in a grave voice, El-Melloi II further urged Flat and the others to stay vigilant.
"In other words, you're like Pinocchio being swallowed by the whale. The womb that serves as the outset for a Heroic Spirit."
"We're in the stomach of a whale? How cool!"
"What did you say!?" El-Melloi hysterically started to raise his voice, but Flat's eyes were sparkling as he said,
"In class, we learned that the hero's return from the land of the dead was kind of a return from the womb, right? When everyone becomes a Pride they go through a ritual where there are motifs of death and rebirth. Also, there's a story of a man who gets eaten by a giant fish and awakens his piety to become a superhero to save a city, yes?"
"The story of Jonah and the Leviathan? Certainly giant fish, labyrinths, and countries of the dead in epics frequently correspond to the return to the womb but you expect me to accept a sloppy report like that? Well whatever, you can do you remedial lessons later."
Said El-Melloi as if amazed before turning to a more concrete example of something that could help them escape.
"The fact this place was connected to the outside probably means that something in this place and the same place in the real world are in harmony. Most likely its a corpse, but a simple corpse isn't going to have much effect to the bounded field. It must be a corpse under some magical influence... or perhaps, something that's compatible with the Servant who created this world. You said it was like a workshop, but what type?"
"Ummm, there are a lot of Mesopotamian decorations."
Originally Posted by yokushi
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