Leaning beside Rin and Luvia, Naoki watched Miyu and Gray injecting Mana.
'If it were Illya, after this, the surge of Mana should cause Kuro and the Class Cards in her body to separate. But now it's Gray, so there shouldn't be any worry about her splitting in two.'
Gray wasn't like Illya. There was no mysterious power within her body. What was special was her constitution. Although only a small part was visible now, Gray's body was actually gradually transforming into Artoria.
'It's impossible for her to suddenly split into a little Artoria, right?'
Just as Naoki thought of this—
*CRACK!*
A clear cracking sound suddenly rang out. With the earth needle as the center, cracks spread at a speed visible to the naked eye. And as the cracks appeared, the Mana that was initially continuously flowing in actually showed a tendency to flow out!
Seeing this, Rin quickly shouted, "Miyu! Gray! Stop! The Mana is going to start flowing back! Hurry back!"
"Ah, yes!"
"Understood."
The red and blue Mana lights instantly disappeared quickly, and the two also quickly returned to Naoki's side.
The sound of boiling water continued to echo within the large cave. Small stones kept being thrown upwards along with bursts of Mana. The large platform even bulged upwards and part of it cracked. But it quickly returned to flat as the remaining Mana dissipated into the atmosphere, leaving only a platform full of cracks.
"Is this enough?" Gray asked while holding her magic staff.
"It should be fine. I'll check next. If it still doesn't work, then we'll have to think of another way."
Saying this, Rin carried her bag back to the large platform. After storing the earth needle, she re-erected a simple four-legged platform on the large platform—namely, four iron rods, with a piece of somewhat yellowed paper tied in the middle.
After setting up the support, Rin took out a thick, brick-heavy book from her bag and held it at her wrist, raised parallel to her body. Her other hand took out a gem connected to a pendant.
"That's a ritual to check the ley lines."
Luvia explained from below.
"The Tohsaka family has managed the ley lines of Fuyuki City for generations. Although I don't want to admit it, but in this land of Fuyuki, their privileges are greater than mine."
"It's rare to hear you praise Rin." Naoki raised his eyebrows, "Usually, aren't you supposed to mock each other and then have a big fight?"
"What do you mean by a big fight? I was just giving punishment to a third-rate servant who disobeyed her master. And I'm not an unreasonable person either. For aspects of others that are worthy of praise, I won't be stingy with compliments."
"Of course, Rin only has this one aspect worthy of praise. All other aspects are far below me, oho ho ho ho ho~~"
Rin, who was on the large platform, heard this familiar laughter and her eyebrows instantly twitched violently!
That damn Luvia must be talking about her behind her back again! If it weren't necessary to check the ley lines right now, Rin would definitely go down and punch Luvia!
And while thinking, Rin continued to chant German incantations that were difficult to understand. As the sound of the incantations ended, the gem on the pendant in her hand shone brightly like a crystal, illuminating the entire large underground cave space.
"—Trace—"
Uttering this concluding word, Rin placed the gem on the scroll of paper. A beam of fire instantly ignited, burning a strange spiderweb-like pattern in black on the paper.
This was the map of the ley lines of Fuyuki City. As long as no discrepancies appeared on this map, it meant that the ley line problem was completely resolved.
However, as the ley lines continued to appear, at a certain point, Rin's expression suddenly froze.
"This... how is this possible?!"
In the lower left corner of the ley line map, a very subtle but very regular outlined small box, like a foreign object, blocked one of the ley lines, like sticking a small piece of pure white mosaic on a black picture, looking very awkward.
Undoubtedly, this was the blockage in the ley line.
But hadn't a lot of Mana been injected just now? According to common sense, any blockage should have already disappeared. Why was there still one here? And the ley lines around this blockage...
'Wrong position? Part of the ley line shifted from the whole?'
Rin had checked the ley lines more than once or twice. She had also checked the ley lines to fulfill the Tohsaka family's responsibilities. She was sure, this part of the ley line was definitely not like this.
"What's wrong? Rin!" Luvia's voice sounded, "How are the ley line checks? Are they done?"
"Not yet."
Rin shook her head, gesturing for the others to come closer.
And after approaching and seeing it, Luvia's expression also dimmed slightly: "This place... although it's called a blockage, it's not actually a blockage."
"That's right, actually this should be a fictional space, it knows how to absorb the Mana of the ley lines, located in the imaginary realm, you could say it's the shadow space of this world."
"—Mirror World—"
Naoki added the words Rin wanted to say.
"After I collected all seven Class Cards and gave them to you, now the Mirror World appears again, and the new Mirror World can only exist if it's attached to a Class Card, this means... the eighth Class Card?"
'Gilgamesh... it seems the Ainsworth Family will also arrive soon.'
After Rin and the others leave, reinstall the traps.
And Naoki, who thought so, didn't realize that when he mentioned the eighth Class Card, Miyu's initially calm expression momentarily showed considerable panic, but after glancing at Naoki, she returned to calm.
"Want to take it?" Gray asked.
Rin nodded: "This must be done, but the problem is this place..."
If the map of Fuyuki City and this ley line map were superimposed, it would be seen that the location of the eighth Class Card was right on the coast, and since it was located on the ley line, to enter the Mirror World, they had to go underground.
"It's estimated to take about a month, considering we also have to hide ourselves—at least two months." Luvia thought for a moment, then said, "Let me think of a way to go to the Mirror World. With the wealth of the Edelfelt family, digging a tunnel to reach the depths of the underground is just a matter of time."
"In that case, collecting the Class Card is my job." Naoki laughed, "It used to be one million dollars per card, but now this is extra work. If you count overtime..."
"I'll give you a check, you can fill in whatever price you think is acceptable."
The wealthy Luvia directly offered a lump-sum price.
"But in return, the big commotion like when fighting Berserker, you're not allowed to repeat it again, otherwise I won't pay a single cent."
"That depends on the situation. After all, the opponent this time is estimated to be more difficult to deal with than Berserker."
After all, the opponent was Gilgamesh. Although it was a very weak version, because he was berserk, he wouldn't hold back during the fight but would exert all his strength. And facing the fully opened Gate of Babylon, Naoki didn't dare guarantee his victory.
Unless it was Moon Fall.