Anime Crossover: The Losing Heroines Have Become Witches

Chapter 576 571: Golden Fruit

The vintage car glided through the air.

As the saying goes, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Compared to walking, which was naturally slower and required navigating terrain and obstacles or taking occasional detours, taking a shortcut through the sky was significantly faster.

A journey that originally would have taken over a week on foot was directly compressed into less than an hour.

However, just as they were about to reach the tallest tree, the sky abruptly darkened once again.

"Is the daytime actually this short this time..." Utaha looked at the sky in surprise.

But before she could react, the vintage car jolted violently, nearly throwing the girl out of the vehicle.

"W-what happened?" she asked in panic, gripping the handle on the car's ceiling.

Asakura glanced at her with some surprise.

She hadn't shown this kind of expression even when she was previously entangled by a swarm of snakes; back then, although Asakura could tell her calmness was partly a forced performance, she was at least pretending to be composed. But now she seemed to have become much softer; was it because she had become somewhat familiar with him, so she relaxed a bit and stopped intentionally acting tough?

"It's nothing, we were just hit by a tree." He swallowed his questions and said casually, "It looks like a large monster pulled up a tree and used it as a throwing weapon."

"Is this car really okay after being hit by something like that?" Utaha asked hurriedly.

After all, the exterior of the vintage Ford really didn't give off a sense of having much defensive power.

"Don't worry, within five hits, even if it's hit by a missile, this car won't break." Asakura gave her a smug smile.

"That's good, but what about after five hits?"

"Then we'll have to start considering the matter of parachuting."

"P-parachuting?!" The girl's face turned pale.

"Also, there's another problem..." As Asakura said this, the vintage car jolted violently once more, as if there were a damnable speed bump in mid-air.

"What problem?"

"A normal car isn't equipped with parachutes."

"Then isn't that just a plain crash!"

Another jolt came, and a look of terror had already spread across the girl's face.

But at this moment, the giant tree was already close at hand.

Thus, Asakura grabbed the girl's arm, kicked open the car door, and leaped out of the cabin with her, beginning a free fall from a height of over five hundred meters.

From an angle they couldn't see, the old Ford—which Asakura had used to draw the monsters' attention—was hit twice more. Its already low durability was instantly depleted, and it exploded into a ball of orange fire.

Asakura unfolded the spell [Scale] beneath his feet, forming a slope invisible to the naked eye.

He gently reached out and took the girl's hand. Their figures glided through the night, lightly skimming through the high altitude as if treading on starlight, flying toward that mountain-like towering tree. The fireball exploding behind them was like summer festival fireworks, plating their bodies in a layer of warm orange light.

(Old Car: Feed me peanuts!)

When the two landed steadily on a branch extending from the giant tree, Utaha finally rubbed her chest with lingering fear. The high peaks slightly deformed due to her movements, showcasing a softness that only a certain second young lady or a certain Tokyo Arnie could dream of possessing.

Asakura only took a brief glance before shifting his gaze away.

Humph, nothing more than this.

"What should we do next?"

Utaha didn't notice Asakura's gaze; she simply asked him after catching her breath for a moment.

Without the girl even noticing it herself, she had already come to view Asakura as a pillar of support she could rely on—or rather, depend on.

"Just keep moving forward, be careful not to fall off." Asakura snapped his fingers, and several clusters of flame emerged around them, illuminating their surroundings. "We're almost at the core."

After following Asakura forward for a distance, Utaha was surprised to find that what she originally thought were "branches" didn't seem to be limbs of the giant tree itself, but parts of a vine that wound around the tree like a giant serpent. After walking to the end of a branch, they could continue upward along the vine itself, much like walking up a spiral staircase, without needing the climbing the girl had initially worried about.

As a modern JK whose physical strength wasn't exactly a strong suit, she had no confidence in climbing over a hundred meters bare-handed...

By comparison, the thing she had viewed as a giant tree was more like a pillar towering into the sky.

The pillar itself was quite thick; even by the most conservative estimate, Utaha felt it was thicker than the football field at Toyogasaki. The effort required to walk around it once would be much greater.

This also made the girl somewhat curious, and she couldn't help but want to see what the situation was at the very top of the pillar.

But in reality, Utaha did not end up walking all the way to the top.

Because midway, they saw a massive tree hollow.

"It should be right here."

Asakura stood at the entrance of the hollow and took a deep breath.

His brow furrowed slightly, feeling a subtle sense of unease in his heart.

This Demon Realm was truly too strange, completely different from the ones he had experienced before.

In fact, even until now, he hadn't felt any fluctuations of magic power, nor that sensation one gets when encountering supernatural items. His guess regarding the core was solely based on his "intuition"—though as a magician, his intuition was usually quite accurate.

Since things had come to this, wasting time outside wasn't an option. He lightly pressed his temples, maintaining a "Future Sight" of about three seconds. With maximum vigilance, he led the girl into the tree hollow.

The moment they stepped inside, both Asakura and Utaha couldn't help but reveal looks of astonishment.

The interior of the hollow was extremely spacious, even wider than the "football field" Utaha had initially sensed. It was the kind of space where you could fit the surrounding spectator stands along with the field without any issue. From the ground to the ceiling covered in wood grain, it was a good ten-plus meters high, without a single bit of oppressive narrowness.

Interestingly, while the surroundings outside the hollow were shrouded in pitch-black night, and Asakura's candle flame only illuminated a small area around them.

Upon entering the hollow, the inside was incredibly bright. They hadn't seen any light at the entrance, as if all the light inside the hollow was trapped within and wouldn't leak out even a tiny bit.

The light source inside the tree hollow was a golden fruit growing from the ceiling.

The fruit was exceptionally massive, about ten meters high. Its overall size looked no smaller than a small building. At this moment, it was broadcasting a warm golden light throughout the entire space of the hollow.

"This is truly..." Asakura looked at the golden fruit. Before he could finish his exclamation, the scene in his Future Sight made him react immediately, grabbing Utaha as she charged toward the golden fruit.

"Ah... ah..."

Utaha, currently under Asakura's restraint, was like a zombie; her eyes were filled only with that giant golden fruit as she struggled desperately, trying to break free from his control.

In Asakura's Future Sight just now, because he hadn't reacted in time, the girl had charged straight to the side of the golden fruit, pressed her entire body against it, and finally turned into a streak of light that merged into the fruit.

Although it wasn't quite clear what exactly the situation was, in any case, stopping the girl from this near-suicidal behavior was definitely the right move.

After struggling for a moment, Utaha's movements stopped again.

"I... what was I doing just now?" She looked blankly at her own hands, then noticed that Asakura was holding her back, and couldn't help but ask in confusion.

"You wanted to run over to that big fruit."

Asakura replied: "That thing is definitely not ripe yet; I advise you not to try and go over to pick it..."

"...I seem to remember a little now, that thing... it's calling out... ugh, wa?!" As the girl spoke, her eyes began to grow hollow again. But this time, before she could go into a frenzy, Asakura directly delivered a hand-chop to her forehead, making her eyes clear up once more.

"Try not to let your thoughts wander; strive to maintain your own will and fight against that thing."

Asakura glanced at the golden fruit and said: "It seems this is the culprit; I'll be the one to..."

He reached out and pointed at the golden fruit, and the massive fruit instantly burst into flames.

However, upon it burning, Utaha clutched her chest and let out a groan of pain.

Asakura hurriedly made a swiping motion to cancel the spell [Candle], then squatted down to check on the girl's condition.

The girl's condition was somewhat poor; a faint burnt smell could be detected from her body. It seemed that when Asakura attempted to burn the golden fruit, the girl's heart would also be scorched by the intense flames.

Asakura furrowed his brows tightly.

He had guessed that the enemy this time would likely be related to Utaha's current state, but he hadn't expected it to be this troublesome.

"Using [Scale] attached to the sword from the hat to cut through space... no, first use [Snake] to turn Kasumigaoka into a snake to trick this synchronization state's loophole-seeking tactic..."

Asakura's brain operated rapidly, trying to think of the most suitable solution, but regardless of which one, there was no way to solve the problem while guaranteeing that Utaha would not be harmed.

"I... I seem to... know a little..." Utaha caught her breath. She clutched her chest and said painfully: "Although I'm not quite sure what's happening... but when I look at that golden fruit... I feel like a lot of things have been added to my head... they are whispering, saying things that aren't very pleasant..."

"Is it saying things like wanting you to merge into one with it? Just don't pay attention to it; these things are very good at deceiving people's hearts."

Asakura immediately warned her: "Don't be afraid, I will definitely save you."

"It's not like that..."

The girl said softly: "I saw myself turn into a seed, sprouting, growing, becoming a fruit... then the people around me also began to sprout... then the entire island nation began to turn into seeds... finally even the Earth... it was practically like a terrifying plague..."

She covered her face and began to sob hopelessly: "I'm already finished... just as you said... I'm no longer human... I beg you, at least let me find release while still in human form..."

But Asakura did not agree to her request. He only moved gently to place the girl on the ground, then pointed a finger. Snakes surged up from the ground and coiled around the girl's body, then the snakes turned back into wood. It was effectively a way to restrain the sobbing girl to the ground to prevent her from being controlled by the fruit again or seeking her own end.

Having done all this, Asakura slowly walked toward the golden fruit himself.

However, once he got close enough, his Future Sight was interfered with, and he could no longer see the future clearly.

Yet, this also confirmed one of his suspicions.

"They really are coming over one by one without stopping..."

The power of Future Sight did not originate from this world, but from outside the world; it was part of an Evil God's authority that could easily manipulate time.

Theoretically speaking, it was impossible for an existence with a higher status than the authority of an Evil God—whose mere descent could destroy a world—to exist in this world.

Therefore, Future Sight should not be subject to any power's constraints.

—Unless that was the authority of another Evil God.

Asakura stood still before the golden fruit for a moment.

He hesitated.

Unlike his past self, the current him was no longer alone in this world.

Whether it was Asagumo, who had expressed her love for him, or Hitori, who already had a connection with him, both were existences Asakura could no longer easily discard.

If he died here, they would surely be very sad, wouldn't they?

If he couldn't stop the Evil God and the world was destroyed, they would die too, wouldn't they?

Should he be more cautious?

Or, as Utaha said, directly kill her to fundamentally shatter the Evil God's scheme?

"...Don't underestimate Azkaban!"

But Asakura did not choose that stable, or rather, cowardly behavior.

If he stopped here, or chose to kill Utaha, he felt he would lose something important. Perhaps at that point, he would be more suited to keep company with Dementors.

"I've rested for so long; it's about time I get up and do some work!"

Asakura deactivated Future Sight, then concentrated his magic power into his right eye, forcibly opening the not-yet-fully-recovered True Sight to its maximum.

Sinister patterns like blood vessels bulged around his eye socket. The consequences of forcibly activating True Sight manifested immediately; a sweet, metallic taste rose from his throat, which he forcibly swallowed back down.

Countless pieces of intelligence, transformed into 'information' that humans could understand, began to bombard his brain.

After gazing at the golden fruit for just a moment, Asakura was already approaching a state of bleeding from his facial orifices.

It felt as though a red-hot iron rod had been thrust into his brain and then crudely stirred; the intense pain and scalding sensation made Asakura feel for an instant that he was about to lose consciousness.

But in the end, he endured.

Although the pupil of his right eye had completely lost its luster, he had already roughly understood everything before him.

Next, it was time for a counterattack!