We are several kilometers away right now. He works better at long range when it comes to fighting servants, not essentialy Beasts. I don't know how much farther you want us to go

Aren't we 1 kilometer? And again, kilometers is less than you think for the 333 meter walp.

The reasons for him being better at long range should stick, that is, sniping 4KM away.
 
Non fight votes are far less stressful most of the time.

I can only hope so!!!!!!!

It's funny, of the servants we ended up interacting with, excluding Jack for obvious reasons, I think the ones I would have called my favourites initially were the ones that this story made me care the least about.

Achilles is fucking dope as hell, and I am a fan of the original legend, but in a social setting??? Kinda eh. Same with OG!Lancer. He's probably my favourite servant outside of Medusa from the FZ/FSN setting but in a social setting (not that we social'd much with him), he doesn't do much.

Amusingly, Archer!EMIYA I actually cared the least for of all the servants in FSN, outside of maybe, I dunno, Berserker? I like his story a lot, but he is incredibly white bread for me. Shirou is the same way. Even in the context of this story I really only care about him as much as it comes to his interactions with Homura. The romance plot with Kirika's mom was... a thing that I have no feelings for, to be honest. Other than Kirika's mom is fun to be around. Assuming this goes well, I have no idea how she will even try to parent Homura. Homura is at least... 26 but probably closer to 27 or 28 mentally given all the time she has stopped.

As we come to end of the story, the ones I wish we had spent more time with, were Brynhildr, Saber and Lancelot. Though, hell if I know what Homura would have done with them. Saber just didn't get much screen time early and for half of the story Lancelot couldn't speak.

Would love to see the servants just hanging out when the girls hang out, but that ship has sailed.

Aren't we 1 kilometer? And again, kilometers is less than you think for the 333 meter walp.

So, gonna break that one down. Every time SVS described distance in the fight he said "several kilometers" which would mean 3+. In addition, the 4 kilometer thing for Archer... it's a very specific thing. It refers to this; Clairvoyance rank C

Capable of keeping track of fast-moving object within a range of four kilometers. EMIYA acquires this by applying Reinforcement to his eyes.[20]

He... doesn't get any better at a farther range. He just has total or higher situational awareness within 4km of himself. Mix that with Eye of the Mind (True) Rank B, and he has immense reaction timing. In the visual novel, he has good eyesight and can count tiles on a bridge from a couple kilometers away but it wouldn't increase his damage by adding distance. Just safety from melee.
 
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I never said an increase of damage though. I've just advocated sniping for safety from melee.

And mb about the kilometer thing.
 
I never said an increase of damage though. I've just advocated sniping for safety from melee.
I don't think Wally has ever did a Melee attack on us? The only thing she can do right now is building tosses and beam spam. There's more than enough defense for buildings and it's probably best that Archer stick close to the girls so Kirika has enough time to Avalon save from beams.
 
I don't think Wally has ever did a Melee attack on us? The only thing she can do right now is building tosses and beam spam. There's more than enough defense for buildings and it's probably best that Archer stick close to the girls so Kirika has enough time to Avalon save from beams.

Dodging both of those things from a distance is easier. Also fire breath but that's been mentioned. There's also whatever else this version of walp may have that she'll throw desperately in her dying struggles.
 
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It's funny, of the servants we ended up interacting with, excluding Jack for obvious reasons, I think the ones I would have called my favourites initially were the ones that this story made me care the least about.

As we come to end of the story, the ones I wish we had spent more time with, were Brynhildr, Saber and Lancelot. Though, hell if I know what Homura would have done with them. Saber just didn't get much screen time early and for half of the story Lancelot couldn't speak.

Would love to see the servants just hanging out when the girls hang out, but that ship has sailed.
Part of the problem is that we're locked into either Homura or Archer's perspectives, so if they aren't focusing on someone, that person generally doesn't get the spotlight; and if, as was the case many times in this quest, the players choose to interact with person A over person B, then that leaves person B out to dry. Omakes can mitigate this, but they're also dependent on my ability to put something out that satisfies me, and if I can't think of anything substantial that I consider worth putting into writing, then that character ends up getting the shaft. An alternative I've considered for the sequel is to give us the ability to switch perspectives between all five of our main girls, or to perhaps focus on a different girl's perspective each day, rather than just keeping things constrained to Homura or her servant; but the problem there is that I'm worried about how difficult it would be for me to keep track of everything when I'm writing for five perspectives and not just two. I feel like that might work better for a straight fanfiction than it would for a quest like this.

There's also the problem of my having gone into this with almost no clue about how to approach things, a very loose sense of what I wanted to accomplish, and only a few ideas to bridge the massive gaps in-between what I wanted to accomplish. That's why I consider the second week of Part 2 to be my technical best for this quest, because I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to accomplish in Part 2 and a very clear idea of how to build us up to what I had in mind. I have a much clearer idea in mind for what I want out of the sequel, so I'm really hoping that the entire 13+ days are closer to Part 2 in fit and finish than to parts 1 or 3.
Assuming this goes well, I have no idea how she will even try to parent Homura. Homura is at least... 26 but probably closer to 27 or 28 mentally given all the time she has stopped.
When you add up all the time she's spent repeating, yes, it does look like Homura is that old. But do recall that she's spent the entire time repeating the same stretch of time. She hasn't actually made any progress maturing emotionally. She's grown hard, but if you crack her open she's still an insecure 14-year-old girl navigating through her first relationship, no matter how many times she's had to fail and repeat that relationship. Archer and the players have done a very good job of cracking Homura open, so that's most of the hard work already done.

Granted, we're asking that she be parented by a man who has post-Grail-War Kiritsugu as his parental role model, and by a woman who spent so much time working to support her daughter that she never got to be a mother to her daughter, so that's still going to be a challenge for them; but at least it won't be because Homura is actually 26.
 
When you add up all the time she's spent repeating, yes, it does look like Homura is that old. But do recall that she's spent the entire time repeating the same stretch of time. She hasn't actually made any progress maturing emotionally. She's grown hard, but if you crack her open she's still an insecure 14-year-old girl navigating through her first relationship, no matter how many times she's had to fail and repeat that relationship. Archer and the players have done a very good job of cracking Homura open, so that's most of the hard work already done.

Granted, we're asking that she be parented by a man who has post-Grail-War Kiritsugu as his parental role model, and by a woman who spent so much time working to support her daughter that she never got to be a mother to her daughter, so that's still going to be a challenge for them; but at least it won't be because Homura is actually 26.

I agree that Homura spent most of those time loops repeating the same experiences and thus not mentally maturing as if she had had actually lived through that same amount of time. However she did have to grow and deal with situations that a 14 year old simply don't deal with. I would put her at around 18 mentally, granted a rather traumatized 18. If you compare her to the other magical girls she definitely seems older. Of course she's much happier being able to act 14 and do all those things she thought she had to discard.
 
Day 47 Chapter 23
[X] Jefardi



"If there's something you'd like me to do for you in exchange for your assistance, just let me know."

"I believe we have had this conversation already, Archer."

"That's not what I meant, and I know you know it." Caster smirks; yeah, he knows. "I meant besides that."

"Of course," Caster says, as his smirk turns to a much more somber expression. "But I warn you, Archer; you may not like what I have to say." Caster looks at you, his crimson eyes piercing you to your core to gaze at the deepest recesses of your soul, as he prefaces his words with "We are heroes of old, Archer; our time in this world has come, and it has gone, and we have no more right to lord over the present day as we do lord over its victories. Heavy as my heart is to say this, we cannot be the ones to defeat Walpurgisnacht. That triumph must be one earned by our masters, and not by us."

"So you're saying we have to stand by and watch as our masters throw themselves at something they can't possibly hope to defeat by themselves?" you ask, your voice cut with the first tinges of disrespect for the King. "I thought you said you'd fight Walpurgisnacht even if it meant disobeying your master. Where'd that Gilgamesh go?"

"And fight Walpurgisnacht I shall, Archer; but I cannot be the one to defeat it. I have had my time to shape the world already, and now it falls to my master and her allies to have their turn. I shall give them all the aid I can muster, but I shall not stand in their way and solve their problem for them. I have seen how this fight ends, Archer; I know when the time will come for I, the King, to depart from the stage and allow my master to claim victory where I may not. I ask that you do the same."

"Are you insane?" you bark at Caster. "Homura needs me, clearly a lot more than Tomoe needs you if you're willing to throw your life away just to prove a point to her. I'm not doing it. You can throw your life away if you're that tired of being here, but I'm not going to throw away my daughter just to satisfy whatever sick scheme you've come up with. I thought you were different from the other Gilgamesh, but clearly you've just traded one form of insanity for another."

Caster shakes his head, and stays his hand from the onslaught of swords you were certain your scathing remarks against him would have earned you. "I have seen how the coming battle will end, Archer, and our outlook is grim. Victory, if it can be won, will be won upon the edge of a knife, for I have seen it. You and I will be the only servants left standing when the battle enters its final turns, and only with the offering of our flesh can our masters' victory be purchased. But it is not just this victory which our sacrifice will purchase; we are also buying the initiative against the storm which shall follow."

"That's absurd," you say. "How can you expect me to believe that?"

"Because the storm I spoke of is another War, one which shall pit our masters against a team of rival puella magi and their servants. If even one of us survives, this Grail-less War shall continue as it has, and our masters will have to wait until the initiative falls to their enemies before they will be allowed the chance to summon us again. But if all of us have fallen, then the initiative will be theirs, and they can summon us again as soon as they are able." Caster places a hand on your shoulder, and for a moment his crimson gaze appears not quite so piercing as before. "I know what I say must sound absurd to you, Archer, but you have trusted the wisdom of I, the King to give you proper guidance before. All I ask is that you trust in my guidance once last time."

"Call upon the sword of promised victory. Sacrifice yourself, and open the pathway for your master and her allies to claim that victory promised to them. It will be theirs, so long as you trust me, Archer, as you have many times before."

Caster was right. You don't like what he had to say to you. But if he's right, it may be the only way for Homura to defeat Walpurgisnacht and come out alive...




The battle has been a hard-fought one, and even getting this far has taxed you greatly. You've had to stand by and watch as you lost Assassin, as Kirika, Kyouko, Mikuni Oriko, and Nagatsuki MIyuki lost their servants one after another. Now, you've had to watch as Caster lets himself be taken by one of Walpurgisnacht's beams of light, and Tomoe-san is completely powerless to stop the attack or to protect her servant in any way.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Kirika asks. "Caster was, like, our strongest attacker with that vacuum-wave thing of his, wasn't he? So how are we supposed to beat this stupid witch without him?"

As the battle against Walpurgisnacht rages on, you feel the chance of victory slipping from your fingers, little by little as the seconds pass. "We have to keep pressing the attack<" you say, not entirely believing the truth in your words as you speak them. "If we give up, we've already lost."

"Akemi-san is right," Tomoe-san says. "The loss of Caster may be... Disheartening, but we cannot simply lie down and let Walpurgisnacht defeat us! If we did that, then the losses of Assassin, Berserker, Rider, Lancer, Saber, and he will have been for nothing!" You cannot forget that buildings are still being thrown at you; fortunately, Tomoe-san is ready to intercept them, calling on an assortment of artillery pieces with a wave of her hand. "Come on, everyone! We've got to keep at it! Tiro Finale!"

Tomoe-san lets loose with a barrage of artillery from her massed Tiro Finale, doing her bets to shatter the falling buildings as Caster had done before her. Joining her is Kyouko, whose massive spear blockade serves as an adequate substitute for Saber's Book of Water; adequate, but not quite as good at pulping the incoming buildings as Saber had been. Fortunately, Mikuni Oriko is there, bearing the burden of the falling debris with her barrier lattice.

"Homura, I'm going to launch a pretty high-powered attack on Walpurgisnacht. I need you to throw some Command Seals my way to give me as much mana as possible for my attack."

You look at the diamond pattern tattooed onto the back of your hand. It's been there ever since the day Archer first crashed through your couch and into your life. At first, it represented a way to ensure obedience from an asset you could only tenuously trust, and whose status as an asset was equally tenuous. But now, those Command Seals represent the indelible mark Archer has made on your life. To give them up would mean severing the pact between he and you, right? What would happen then? Would he be forced to leave you at that point?

But if you don't, and you lose the battle and are forced to reset, what guarantee do you have that you'll find Archer again? Your hand clenches into a fist, as you say "Alright."

No sooner has Mikuni Oriko heaved the burden of the fallen debris from the shoulders of her barriers, than you say to her "I need Command Seals. At least two."

"Of course."
The transfer takes only a moment, and your hand is burdened with two of Mikuni Oriko's sins, which form into a pair of shapes reminiscent of a raven's wings flanking either side of the main diamond pattern. "use them well, Akemi-san."

"I will,"
you say, before returning your attention to Archer, who has already Projected his weapon of choice, a sword whose simple form radiates a power and magnificence unlike anything you've ever felt; truly, a sword of swords. "Ready whenever you are."

"Give me as many Command Seals as you're willing to spare, and follow that up with whatever you've got that can deal a lot of damage. With Tomoe and the others working building defense, we're the only ones left who can deal any real damage to this thing, so we've got to keep at it no matter what."


You hold out your hand. You've never had to do this to Archer before, but you've seen it done enough times by your allies to know what's expected of you. "Archer, by my Command, use these two Seals to empower your attack with as much mana as I can give you! Don't let Walpurgisnacht survive!"

As soon as you've spoken those words, your Command Seals swell, sucking power from you and transplanting it directly into Archer's body. Immediately, you make sure to cleanse yourself, and bring up your bow to follow along with Archer's attack. You draw back the string of your bow, calling the ice into your hand, and Archer swings his sword wide, calling out its name as he unleashes his attack.

"Merodach!"

"Finitora Freccia!"


Gold and icy blue mingle together as your attacks soar against your foe, colliding with Walpurgisnacht. It's a beautiful sight to behold, but beautiful or not, what matters is whether your attacks will defeat Walpurgisnacht or not. Your ice has already proven to be ineffective once before, with Walpurgisnacht springing back and launching a counter-attack even after being completely encased in ice by your Finitora Freccia. But Archer was right; with Tomoe-san and Mikuni Oriko focusing on building defense, you and he are the only committed damage-dealers left on the team, so you have to keep up the pressure no matter what. And who knows? the hopeful part of your brain wishes the rest of you would say, maybe one of those attacks will be the one that finally defeats Walpurgisnacht.

Unfortunately, it will not be this one. The ice fails, just as it did before, and you hear Archer mutter to himself "I hate when Caster is right." His sword of swords disappears, and in its place he Projects one very similar; and yet, from this other sword, you can feel a certain radiance, a radiance which even the previous sword was lacking. It's the same feeling you got from Avalon the first time you saw it.

So entranced by the beauty of this second sword, that no words are enough for you to describe it. You cannot speak, cannot find the words to give command to Archer as many motes of gold surround his form and the form of his sword. Archer readies himself for another strike, thrusting the weapon as hard as he can as he cries out its name.

"Excalibur!"

The name of the sword pierces your mind, as the brilliant beam of light erupting from the sword pierces through Walpurgisnacht. The sword belonging to King Arthur, the very same servant who in life your servant was once the master of. It has to be enough, that optimistic part of your mind hopes. It has to be. But, even this sword, its brilliant beam of light shining as brightly as thirty torches in your eyes, is not enough to bring down the massive black gear floating in the sky.

Archer breathes out deeply, saying "Ah, man, I really hope Caster was right," as his body succumbs to the same fate as all the other servants so far. You fall to your knees, unable to even croak out his name as you watch your father disappear before your eyes. "Imagine something you can win with."

Those are the last words your father says to you.

Do you
[ ] Keep fighting; don't let Archer's death be for nothing
[ ] Give up; restart the timeline
[ ] Give up; become a witch and and keep destroying until there's nothing left
 
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Dropping what I know will be the most controversial update to date, and packaging it with the single most important vote of the entire quest. Going to need all hands on deck for this vote, because this is the moment that decides what ending we get.
 
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Is it sad that my first thought from this chapter was DAMN WE WASTED COMMAND SEALS?!?!?!

Real talk... Is... This a trick question? It can't be... Because give up is to lose out on this timeline.

[X] Keep fighting; don't let Archer's death be for nothing

Also my hidden text was wrong and in addition I called this from the second most important vote that this would be the most important.
 
Is it sad that my first thought from this chapter was DAMN WE WASTED COMMAND SEALS?!?!?!
Probably not, because the emotional impact of Archer's death was ruined by a prolonged battle against Wally and the knowledge that he'd be back for the sequel.
Real talk... Is... This a trick question? It can't be... Because give up is to lose out on this timeline.
I don't know. maybe it is a trick question. Maybe you want to make the wrong choices so you can see the Tiger Dojo endings before you get to the real ending. Maybe you want to vote the way an emotionally unstable teenager who just watched her father die would, rather than voting the way a smart player would.
Also my hidden text was wrong and in addition I called this from the second most important vote that this would be the most important.
Let's be real here; there was no way it could be anything but. There's no more important a decision to make than whether Homura restarts the timeline or not.
 
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So
Madoka bow time

A omake of the bad ending would be neat though it prolly ends with... Homura about to nuke the universe until Madoka saves her ala a wish. And then Madokas witch form dooms the universe.

Cool

[X] Keep fighting; don't let Archer's death be for nothing
 
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Walpurgisnacht is almost down and Madoka is alive and not contracted. Like hell we're going to give up here.

[X] Keep fighting; don't let Archer's death be for nothing
 
As if there's really any other option.

[X] Keep fighting; don't let Archer's death be for nothing

After all this? Giving up would be spitting on everyone who sacrificed themselves so we could get this far. And that would be unacceptable.
 
Let's be real here; there was no way it could be anything but. There's no moe important a decision to make than whether Homura restarts the timeline or not.

If it was me, I'd have gotten it in such a way that one of the puella Magi was dead, like kyouko or Mami and then give the choice but have everything else be fine.

I do wonder if the command seal smudges will be on the back of hands after this and if that is what will tip off the girls to resummon. Or Homura will try regardless out of desperation.
 
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