Powerful waves of magic shimmered from Rias's hands as she activated several magic circles outside the two steel shelters. Moments later, cold air began to spread from the runes, chilling the surroundings with increasing intensity.
The zombies' movements began to slow drastically, yet Rias remained cautious—carefully controlling both the spread of the frost and the temperature.
She knew that if she went all out and unleashed her full power, she might accidentally trigger the ownership protocol of this near-dead dimension—becoming its master.
That would be… an absolute disaster.
Rias had no interest in becoming the ruler of this broken world.
But just as she began dialing back the cold, a notification popped up in the corner of her vision—a spike in experience points.
Her expression immediately soured.
The ambient temperature hadn't even reached her designated threshold, and the zombies were already dying off.
Clicking her tongue, Rias lowered her arms. She stabilized the temperature, locking the environment where it was. Ice crystals formed around the outer perimeter of the steel shelters, slowly pushing the zombies farther away.
While she wasn't particularly skilled in ice magic, as an ultimate-class devil, she could still brute-force this kind of effect as long as she didn't care about the mana cost.
From the outside, it now looked like a massive glacier had formed around the steel shelters, encasing them in frozen protection and cutting off any direct zombie assaults.
Lowering her hands, Rias muttered her analysis aloud:
"Damn it… these zombies are still technically living organisms. If I freeze them too harshly, it kills them. But just dropping the temperature to minus ten or so? Doesn't do anything. It's only when I brought it down to minus thirty degrees Celsius that their activity started to decline and they began dying."
"Minus thirty?" Ryuji glanced out the window, blinking in disbelief. He had always known Rias was powerful—anime crossovers loved to hype her up—but seeing her manipulate environmental temperatures like this was something else.
"…Right. Either way, we should proceed cautiously and figure out what that puppet master behind all this really wants."
Rias sighed. Even with her power, heading out alone to investigate in this environment would be suicide—the endless wave of monsters would overwhelm even her. Unless they could somehow construct a fortress instantly, there was no way she could safely explore.
But that raised another question—were there stronger monsters and zombies waiting out there?
And more importantly, if they did locate the mastermind behind this horde… would they even be able to take him down?
Worry clouded her thoughts. But Rias was, after all, a devil. Her craving for strength overpowered fear. She chose to stay—for now—and use this opportunity to sharpen her abilities.
"This is the best we can do at the moment," she said.
Ryuji could only nod. If not for his agreement with Rias, and the fact that this environment was perfect for his training, he'd have bailed long ago.
The other three women didn't speak—just stared out through the windows, visibly tense.
The only one who looked somewhat at ease was Robin. She had her ticket out. She was just unsure if it would actually get her home.
Rin, on the other hand, was filled with hesitation.
"Can you really send me back home… just by using my mouth?"
She was stuck in the same dilemma that plagued Lux and others before her—whether or not she could trust Ryuji.
Unlike Rias, who had already figured out that Ryuji was just an extraordinarily unlucky guy with some strange quirks, Rin and Mai weren't so sure yet.
Even Robin had only sent a clone to make her deal with Ryuji—just in case.
A heavy silence blanketed the room.
Meanwhile, Ryuji—realizing no one needed him at the moment—returned to his favorite pastime: trial and error training.
Specifically, stress-testing his blood energy limits.
He had already mastered the basics: refining blood energy, reinforcing his internal organs and body, and even permanently boosting his constitution. But what he hadn't figured out yet was the absolute upper threshold of blood energy in full combat mode.
So now he was essentially dancing on the edge of death, testing how much his body could take before it broke.
His results?
Averaging one minor stroke every ten minutes, and a heart attack every twenty.
With every failure, he adjusted. Refined. Adapted. Slowly, he grew more skilled at controlling blood energy. Once he got the hang of it, he even tried using blood energy to repair his own internal damage—blood clots, heart spasms, and so on.
The result?
His brain exploded.
"Ryuji's not breathing!!" Rin, who had been collecting blood samples from him, screamed in alarm. Rias jolted up and shouted:
"Use the med-kit—now!"
Only then did Rin snap back to reality and pull a medical kit from her backpack, slapping it onto Ryuji.
The instant healing brought him back from death's door.
Groaning as clarity returned to his head, Ryuji wiped a bit of brain matter that had oozed out of his nose and muttered with a nod:
"Yeah… looks like brain arteries are not something I should mess with."
He was dead serious.
His brain had actually exploded.
"I have to ask," Rin snapped, "is this really how you plan to train?! If we didn't have this miracle gear, you'd be dead over three hundred times by now! You think anyone else could even practice this stuff?! Are you insane?!"
This wasn't just crazy—it was cult-tier madness.
Even magi known for their obsession with extreme practices would never willingly study something this suicidal!
Ryuji simply nodded. "Yeah, you're right. In the world where this power comes from, only those with special organs—ones cursed and infused with magical blood—can even handle this. Without them, you wouldn't last ten seconds."
He sighed again.
If it weren't for the side effects of using a "Ghost Hand"—namely, cognitive issues, erratic mood swings, and frequent blackouts—blood energy might be more viable.
Wait.
A sudden realization struck Ryuji.
What if the reason Berserkers were always angry, unstable, and prone to losing control was because they had chronic hypertension and nonstop brain hemorrhages?!
The emotional centers of the brain, the parts responsible for reason—what if they were getting fried by blood energy all the time?
Combined with demonic curses and negative emotional amplification…
Ryuji was starting to piece together the grim truth.
"Magic crests… or maybe even a phantasmal beast lineage. That world really is insane," Rin muttered, speechless.
"Yeah, sounds about right. Honestly, anyone in that world who becomes even moderately powerful could probably trade blows with a Heroic Spirit."
Ryuji couldn't help reminiscing.
Unlike the Type-Moon universe, the world of Arad was overflowing with high-tier magic. Magic was integrated into every part of daily life. Even something like "blood energy," which looked purely biological, actually contained magical components.
Sword auras? Required stamina to use. But they were clearly tied to magic, too.
After all—"Qi" and "magic"—they weren't so different at their core.
All of it was energy—energy that granted powers far beyond the capabilities of ordinary people.
The only difference was how easily it could be drawn out. One kind was accessible to many; the other required effort and talent.
But in Rin's era, magic had already fallen into decline. Despite the grandiose way it was often described, the truth was plain: in terms of sheer destructive power, modern magi were pitifully weak.
Of course, raw destructive strength wasn't the only measure of a mage's combat ability.
In contrast, Arad was undeniably in its divine era—a world still teeming with powerful Apostles.
So a budding hero from Arad's divine age could absolutely go toe-to-toe with so-called Heroic Spirits.
Forget everything else—even supersonic slashes were no big deal in Arad. Only when attacks moved so fast that the naked eye couldn't perceive them did they even begin to approach "Awakening" levels.
"…Whatever. It's not like I can see it anyway."
Rin turned her head aside. Though she was a magus and intellectually understood such things weren't supposed to matter, when it came down to it, she still blushed with embarrassment.
She wanted love too.
But now wasn't the time to be distracted. She couldn't afford to fall behind—she had to account for every possible variable.
And so…
She had already given up on trying to find her way home through blind exploration.
That was a battlefield far beyond her capabilities. At the very least, it would take a Clock Tower special ops unit to handle something like that.
And even they might not make it out alive.
The enemies were endless.
So instead, she said nothing—just quietly watched as Ryuji continued training.
Morning came. But no one looked relieved, because the retreat of the zombie horde was delayed yet again. This time, it didn't withdraw until eight in the morning—an hour later than before.
Ryuji stepped out of the steel shelter and immediately clicked his tongue at the sight.
The traps he had dug, the defenses he'd set up—everything was gone. The entire landscape had sunken, forming a crater over two hundred meters deep. It looked like a whole army's artillery had pounded the area all night.
Everything in sight was destroyed. Within a radius of two or three hundred meters, nothing remained but a gaping abyss. Only the "invincible" safe zone still had grass and trees. The rest had been obliterated by monsters rigged with explosives.
All their supplies left outside were gone. Ryuji found only a few charred and twisted remains of his barbecue skewers on the ground—blackened to a crisp, clearly caught in dozens of explosions.
"They really do want us dead."
He shook his head.
"Or maybe they want us to level up as fast as possible and take over the world. If that's the case… then the world's consciousness is worse off than I thought. It can't even scale its trials properly anymore."
"Tch, I'll never understand you Chosen Ones."
Ryuji shook his head again and turned to look at the newcomer spawn point.
"I wonder who's coming this time… Please don't let it be a guy…"
That was his heartfelt prayer. And under his eager gaze, two figures materialized before him—Hermione Granger, and a skintight-suit-wearing woman.
He instantly slapped a hand over his face.
He recognized Hermione right away. That was her look from the first movie!
And the other one—he knew her too.
Song Hana, or D.Va from Overwatch. The mech-piloting girl and queen of the 3D fandom.
Image (Here).
Hermione was a bit of a shock, but it was her look from Philosopher's Stone that really got to him.
"This… this is really happening?"
Ryuji groaned, covering his face with both hands.
Send her back? That would make him a scumbag.
Don't send her back? Still a scumbag.
Either way, it was a lose-lose situation.
"…Is this world just giving up? Like, it's so close to collapse that it no longer cares?"
He sighed, then thought better of not showing his face. So when Rias stepped forward to greet the newcomers, he slipped away, heading to the bottom of the crater in search of loot.
"Where... is this? Is this part of the Wizarding World? Some sort of Hogwarts entrance exam?"
Hermione looked around in confusion, clutching her wand and a book. She wasn't particularly frightened—after all, she'd seen stranger things recently.
But once the idea of an "entrance exam" crossed her mind, she suddenly tensed.
So when she began floating toward the ground, aided by one of Rias's magical circles, she looked surprisingly composed.
The other girl… not so much.
Song Hana stared in shock at the void beneath her feet, flailing slightly as she floated in midair with no support. She let out a sharp cry.
Still, she wasn't too shocked by the floating—after all, her world had teleportation and gravity manipulation tech.
What did worry her was the context.
As a member of Overwatch and an elite special forces pilot, her sudden displacement into this place was dangerous on every level. Who had taken her? Why? She had no idea.
A moment ago, she'd still been inside her mech!
These people clearly had terrifying capabilities.
So when she saw Rias—the red-haired woman waiting below—she stepped in front of Hermione protectively.
"Where is this? What are you planning?"
Hermione blinked in surprise. She hadn't expected this oddly-dressed older girl to shield her like that. But it did make her realize something was off.
"Well," Rias began, calmly, "this is a very dangerous place. The world is on the brink of collapse, and it's seeking a dimensional ruler to save it. Unfortunately, this place is no longer fit for habitation. You're lucky—we have someone who can send you home, though there will be… a cost. By the way—how old are you?"
Hermione blinked, momentarily confused, but Rias's elegant appearance and calm tone reassured her.
"Eleven," she replied.
Rias froze.
Then she clutched her forehead and took a deep breath before asking again.
"What's the legal marriage age in your country?"
Hermione tilted her head in further confusion, but answered honestly:
"Sixteen."
"…"
Rias groaned, visibly distressed. Even as a devil, there were lines she couldn't cross—expecting a child that young to be with Ryuji was absolutely out of the question.
"Ryuji, are you sure there's nothing you can do?"
She looked around, but Ryuji was already gone. She realized then that even if he could help, there was no way he would've appeared before them right now.
And honestly, she suspected he really didn't have a solution.
"Alright… this might get complicated. But it's not unmanageable. Compared to death, this sort of thing is minor…"
Rias drew a long breath and started explaining the grim truth.
"In short if you want to leave, you must..."
Hermione: ?!!
———
It took Ryuji a full 30 minutes to climb down into the crater—even with building blocks to help.
When he reached the bottom, what he saw was a pockmarked battlefield—craters everywhere, signs of heavy bombardment. But amidst the chaos, many yellow supply crates were scattered around.
"Wow. Now that's a sight."
He stared at the pit closest to their shelter, at least ten meters deeper than the rest, and carefully circled around it to approach a few nearby crates.
Opening one, he smoothly began stuffing medical supplies into his backpack, then made his way toward another one via a slope formed by a blast.
More meds. Jackpot.
This run was incredibly fruitful—he collected nearly 300 med kits, refilling his depleted reserves.
Still, his absurdly bad luck with drops left him speechless.
"This world is definitely targeting me."
He pulled a ball of blood energy from his hand and slammed it into the ground. The explosive burst shattered the nearby rock, and shards peppered his calves with painful stings.
He popped a med to counter the health loss and restore his blood energy.
Finally, his luck turned. In one of the last crates, he found a book that made his eyes light up with joy.
•Life Return:You've taken your first step in mastering the control your vitality. You can now direct your cells to reproduce and regenerate as needed.You can consume large amounts of nutrients to repair your body and restore stamina.
However, at this level of mastery…
You might be able to regrow hair and cure baldness.
As for healing wounds or internal injuries?
…It helps.
But not much.
~~~~~~~
Bonus chapter every 200 PS.