I've never seen a fic where Gilles realizes how horrible Prelati was to him, so kudos for that. I do wonder if maybe Prelati really did consider Gilles something of a friend at some point... He did lend him the spell book, after all. But in this fic it seems he's a true bastard through and through, right to the end, so.
Save Scumming? It's on my Character sheet. (Re: Zero/Fate Grand Order)
- Thread starter Xorn
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- Norfolk, England
Ohhh, that's double-plus ungood. This won't end well for anyone.
- Location
- Somewhere North of south
Wait was that Caster Gilles using a sword?
Xorn
Master Procrastinator
- Location
- Somewhere I won't be able to rest in peace
He considers Gilles a friend, but Prelati's form of friendship is leading you straight to your doom, because he's the worst.
Francois nicked his book, so he picked one up as a backup weapon.
- Location
- Somewhere North of south
I'm just trying to picture it.
99: The Final Arrivals
Xorn
Master Procrastinator
- Location
- Somewhere I won't be able to rest in peace
99: The Final Arrivals
"-So that's my excuse. I had your situation kind of tangled up in my head with that girl's, and I said some really cruel things as a result. I'm very sorry!" I finish my apology with a bow.
"Mmmm… fine. Not everyone gets tutored in social grace like me," Elizabeth says with some hesitation - oi, wait, you clearly didn't learn anything in those classes, right!? "I'll forgive you for being socially stupid! Besides," she continues, glancing away and blushing a little. "Y-you're the first person to… say they were my fan. So I'll forgive you! Just this once!"
…Dammit. I'm gonna have to clear that one up too, huh? "S-sorry. That was a lie, I just wanted to try to break Phantom's charm on you. I… I'm not actually your fan or anything." I say cringing.
"E-eh?' She freezes, and it looks like tears are welling up in her eyes-
"It's no use acting tsundere now, Subaru," Amadeus says. Wait, just what are you saying you bastard-!?
"Oh, so that's how it was!" Elizabeth, of course, buys it completely. "You know Fishie, you won't be able to get a job as my manager unless you're honest with yourself."
"When was it decided that I wanted-?!"
My complaints are cut off completely as we exit the tunnels, and I once again breathe the fresh night air. Something's not right. Something's definitely off about this situation. And that something is-
"Wait, where is everyone?" Mozart sent a familiar to alert them, so shouldn't we have run into them by now-?
"Oh, I actually just dismissed it once we were out of range," he says blithely. "I figured we could handle a weakling like the Phantom on our own."
My jaw drops. "What, you mean you didn't tell anyone!?"
"I already got yelled at by Maria once today. I may be a pervert, but I can only enjoy so much verbal abuse!" Amadeus continues, "Let's keep this our little secret, okay?"
"You're just going to get us in more trouble!" Elizabeth shouts - right, come to think of it, she's due for a scolding too, huh?
"Not if we don't get-!" He starts.
"Ahem." Jeanne coughs, and all three of us idiots freeze in terror.
"It was all Elizabeth's fault!" Mozart shouts.
"It was all Mozart's fault!" I shout.
"It was all Fishie's fault!" Elizabeth shouts.
"I see!" Jeanne smiles sweetly, but somehow I hallucinate a menacing purple rumbling behind her. "How about all three of you sit down and listen to big sis for a moment!"
***
A short tongue lashing later, we return to the Maison Aux Piliers - but any hope of me getting some rest tonight is swiftly dispatched.
"Sorry to disturb your- oh, nevermind you're not sleeping." Doctor Romani says as my communicator beeps to life. "What are you still doing up, though- he what? With just Mozart!? Why didn't you say something sooner?" Naturally he immediately gets sidetracked chattering with the other staff.
"Why are you calling, Doctor?" I ask, rubbing my eyes with some grogginess. "It all went well, so I was about to get some sleep-"
"No time, I'm afraid," He responds. "Merry just contacted us. Chlodovech and one unknown Servant have been sighted."
Another? Who… "Shit, is she still summoning more!?" I groan. "Alright, tell her to follow the plan, we're going after Orleans."
It's fine. Even if unexpected things happen, Kongming's plan should be flawless. Chlodovech hitting Merry and Siegfried is the ideal scenario, anyway.With him gone, the only known obstacle is Prelati's sea monster, which he won't be able to summon until he gets his hands on the grail.
But despite that, I've still got an uneasy feeling. "...Doctor, what else haven't you told me? What had you distracted enough that you missed our fight with Phantom?"
"I was trying not to worry you with it, since it's happening back here," He says with a sigh. "...Someone accessed Chaldea's Spirit Origin archive without permission earlier tonight, and the summoning system was utilized shortly thereafter. The whole facility's on high alert right now."
"...Shit." I mutter. An unauthorized summoning could only be insubordination of the highest kind. The director had been pretty damn clear - Chaldea only had UN approval to summon seven servants; that's why she wouldn't let me resummon Hanam after Fuyuki. But now, considering everyone else was still summoned…
"Yeah. Hassan-i-Sabbah has been summoned to Chaldea," Romani confirms, "and we have no idea where he is."
***
With no answers to that ominous mystery forthcoming, the only path available is to wake everyone up and prepare to head towards Orleans.
And with that, comes a destined third meeting.
"So," Says Ahab, a smirk on his face. "Thou hast returned at last, boy."
"Yeah," I say with a small sigh. "It was a bit awful, but I'm here. I found your whale, by the way."
"Hah! Now there be some good news at last! What form has she taken, this time?" He asks.
"Ah it's… kind of indescribable, to be honest. Prelati mixed a bunch of things in with it when he finally summoned it for real, so it's at least got the qualities of a lovecraftian horror and Demon Pillar, in addition to being a whale," I say. "You'll know it when you see the horrifying sea monster emerge from the sky."
"...Like that, I suppose?" he asks, pointing towards the horizon. "However… that be no sea monster."
And in the distance, taller than any mountain, I see it descend.
***
The key ingredients were a simple matter. Putting aside the hundreds of innocent lives, and a few spirit origins included on a whim, the most important ingredients were twofold
The first, the Evil God of the Abyss. A being from outside reality, with no basis therein. It was the progenitor of the sea demons utilized by Gilles de Rai and Francois Prelati, that which lay dead and dreaming within the depths of the Sunken Spiral City That Did Not Exist.
The principle of this ingredient was [Nonexistence].
The second, Demon God Bael. One of the seventy-two Demon Pillars, capable of endless propagation in service of their goal to incinerate all of humanity. One of the nine pillars that administrate the Spy Satellite in the Temple of Time.
The principle of this ingredient was [Propagation].
Both were miles beyond any other ingredient, even Gluttony's White Whale, in their conceptual weight. However, [Propagation] and [Nonexistence] reached an equilibrium, weakening each other, allowing the other ingredients, primarily the White Whale, to play a role in the final product.
However, that was all before the last ingredient was added. The Witch Factor of Ley Batenkaitos. [Gluttony]. A fragment of a [Beast of Another World].
The capacity for [Propagation], and a rationalization for [Nonexistence]. This foreign element provided both, and so the monster summoned by Prelati's wish was stabilized, and a new horror was brought forth, capable of drawing on the might of all three without compromise.
And so, what descends from that rippling alien sky is no mere sea monster. What emerges, as though rising from a star-filled sea, is a towering cityscape of spiraling black stone. A hideous, mind-bending construction of cyclopean arches and non-euclidean geometry. The Sunken Spiral City, which Francois Prelati only touched upon in dreams, thrusts its way into reality like a railway spike driven into the brain of the world.
The sound follows. A rising, clamorous crashing and howling that carries all the way to Paris, sending a shiver down the spine of Natsuki Subaru, and a shudder through his brain, as the lightless vaults and portals deep within that sunken city crash open, and endless horrors pour forth.
***
Merry d'Lyon
Stick to the plan and everything will work out - that's easy to say, but…
"...This is too much for me." That's my honest sentiment, as he approaches.
I can barely look at him, after all. Nobility beyond nobility, so far above my station that every part of my soul is screaming at me. Why am I here? Why am I, of all people, here?
I'm sorry, Monsieur Subaru. I know you put such great trust in me, but I can't possibly understand that.
"Alright, brats, let's make this quick." King Clovis I says, hefting the enormous axe onto his shoulder, a sharp-toothed grin visible. "Hey, girl, that face of yours - are you one of my descendants or something?"
{Tell him the truth, Merovech,} Watcher whispers. {Put the boy in his place.}
Shut up. I'm not that person. "I am… told as much, your Majesty," I say instead.
"Haha! At least you know how to give a bit of respect!" He barks a laugh.
"There were a few people in this region, with faces like that, some three hundred years from now," A more subdued voice says, and my attention is finally drawn to him. He doesn't stand out much - a man with white hair and icy blue eyes, wearing a long black coat with a red cravat. He doesn't stand out until those empty eyes meet my own, and he speaks once more. "They were all criminals, though. So I killed them."
Terror. Sheer terror seizes me. Worse, far worse than the King. As his eyes lock with mine, I understand that this man is Death himself. This is the man who will kill me. I understand that instinctively.
And so, fear prompts what bravery could not. "[Frankreich Über Alles]!" I shout, and King Clovis's axe is mine.
"Wha-?" The first king of France says, and then Siegfried is next to him, sword awash with green light.
I see him dodge backwards, just barely ducking under Siegfried's slash, as he roars his Noble Phantasm's name. "[Quino-!"
"[Bal-" Siegfried raises his own to respond.
"-taurus]!" King Clovis concludes, and an enormous steel bull with three horns erupts into reality in a burst of water and steam-
-mung]!" Siegfried finishes, and a blast of energy pours forth from his blade, meeting the monster in midair, driving it back, and finally annihilating the beast in its entirety.
And King Clovis-
{Behind you!} Watcher shouts, and I just barely turn and raise the axe in time-
The white-haired man's blade slices through it like butter, and I fall backwards, his slash just barely missing me.
"That won't protect you," He explains, grinning. "That axe, the embodiment of the French Monarchy, will serve no use against the blade which ended it forever."
…What?
"Merry, don't freeze!" Siegfried, shouts, turning back-
"Who are you fighting, brat!?" King Clovis says, lunging at him with a bloodstained trident, torn from the brow of his slain bull.
I don't understand. I don't understand. I thought Monsieur Subaru said that France still existed, in the future. So then, this man- "You're lying! You must be!"
"I'm not," He says with the same cold-eyed smile. "I'll show you, the same way I showed your descendants." Shadowy hands gather in the night air, gripping me, dragging me towards him.
"[La Mort-"
Thunder rings out, and in a flash of light, the limbs gripping me disintegrate.
"Ooh la la!" A masculine voice calls, and my would-be killer's eyes go wide. "You're looking energetic today, Monsieur de Paris! But I have to ask-"
He lands in the ground between us, a bearded man wearing a massive tricorn hat, his scarf fluttering in the wind. And then, with a roguish grin, and a wink directed towards me, he continues. "-Just who do you think you're executing, without your Emperor's permission?"
***
In 1815, it had taken the best seamen at Napoleon's disposal three days for a one-way trip from Elba to France. Taking into account that a round trip would be necessary, Waver Velvet had estimated it would take at the very least six days for the Count of Monte Cristo to retrieve the Emperor.
-However, the seamen selected by Napoleon in 1815 had been chosen for loyalty first. They had needed to dodge any other boats that might appear along their trip. They were not Servants.
And perhaps most importantly, none of those sailors was Edmond Dantes.
-Exactly when he is most needed, at the end of everything, Napoleon Bonaparte arrives in France, three days early.
"-So that's my excuse. I had your situation kind of tangled up in my head with that girl's, and I said some really cruel things as a result. I'm very sorry!" I finish my apology with a bow.
"Mmmm… fine. Not everyone gets tutored in social grace like me," Elizabeth says with some hesitation - oi, wait, you clearly didn't learn anything in those classes, right!? "I'll forgive you for being socially stupid! Besides," she continues, glancing away and blushing a little. "Y-you're the first person to… say they were my fan. So I'll forgive you! Just this once!"
…Dammit. I'm gonna have to clear that one up too, huh? "S-sorry. That was a lie, I just wanted to try to break Phantom's charm on you. I… I'm not actually your fan or anything." I say cringing.
"E-eh?' She freezes, and it looks like tears are welling up in her eyes-
"It's no use acting tsundere now, Subaru," Amadeus says. Wait, just what are you saying you bastard-!?
"Oh, so that's how it was!" Elizabeth, of course, buys it completely. "You know Fishie, you won't be able to get a job as my manager unless you're honest with yourself."
"When was it decided that I wanted-?!"
My complaints are cut off completely as we exit the tunnels, and I once again breathe the fresh night air. Something's not right. Something's definitely off about this situation. And that something is-
"Wait, where is everyone?" Mozart sent a familiar to alert them, so shouldn't we have run into them by now-?
"Oh, I actually just dismissed it once we were out of range," he says blithely. "I figured we could handle a weakling like the Phantom on our own."
My jaw drops. "What, you mean you didn't tell anyone!?"
"I already got yelled at by Maria once today. I may be a pervert, but I can only enjoy so much verbal abuse!" Amadeus continues, "Let's keep this our little secret, okay?"
"You're just going to get us in more trouble!" Elizabeth shouts - right, come to think of it, she's due for a scolding too, huh?
"Not if we don't get-!" He starts.
"Ahem." Jeanne coughs, and all three of us idiots freeze in terror.
"It was all Elizabeth's fault!" Mozart shouts.
"It was all Mozart's fault!" I shout.
"It was all Fishie's fault!" Elizabeth shouts.
"I see!" Jeanne smiles sweetly, but somehow I hallucinate a menacing purple rumbling behind her. "How about all three of you sit down and listen to big sis for a moment!"
***
A short tongue lashing later, we return to the Maison Aux Piliers - but any hope of me getting some rest tonight is swiftly dispatched.
"Sorry to disturb your- oh, nevermind you're not sleeping." Doctor Romani says as my communicator beeps to life. "What are you still doing up, though- he what? With just Mozart!? Why didn't you say something sooner?" Naturally he immediately gets sidetracked chattering with the other staff.
"Why are you calling, Doctor?" I ask, rubbing my eyes with some grogginess. "It all went well, so I was about to get some sleep-"
"No time, I'm afraid," He responds. "Merry just contacted us. Chlodovech and one unknown Servant have been sighted."
Another? Who… "Shit, is she still summoning more!?" I groan. "Alright, tell her to follow the plan, we're going after Orleans."
It's fine. Even if unexpected things happen, Kongming's plan should be flawless. Chlodovech hitting Merry and Siegfried is the ideal scenario, anyway.With him gone, the only known obstacle is Prelati's sea monster, which he won't be able to summon until he gets his hands on the grail.
But despite that, I've still got an uneasy feeling. "...Doctor, what else haven't you told me? What had you distracted enough that you missed our fight with Phantom?"
"I was trying not to worry you with it, since it's happening back here," He says with a sigh. "...Someone accessed Chaldea's Spirit Origin archive without permission earlier tonight, and the summoning system was utilized shortly thereafter. The whole facility's on high alert right now."
"...Shit." I mutter. An unauthorized summoning could only be insubordination of the highest kind. The director had been pretty damn clear - Chaldea only had UN approval to summon seven servants; that's why she wouldn't let me resummon Hanam after Fuyuki. But now, considering everyone else was still summoned…
"Yeah. Hassan-i-Sabbah has been summoned to Chaldea," Romani confirms, "and we have no idea where he is."
***
With no answers to that ominous mystery forthcoming, the only path available is to wake everyone up and prepare to head towards Orleans.
And with that, comes a destined third meeting.
"So," Says Ahab, a smirk on his face. "Thou hast returned at last, boy."
"Yeah," I say with a small sigh. "It was a bit awful, but I'm here. I found your whale, by the way."
"Hah! Now there be some good news at last! What form has she taken, this time?" He asks.
"Ah it's… kind of indescribable, to be honest. Prelati mixed a bunch of things in with it when he finally summoned it for real, so it's at least got the qualities of a lovecraftian horror and Demon Pillar, in addition to being a whale," I say. "You'll know it when you see the horrifying sea monster emerge from the sky."
"...Like that, I suppose?" he asks, pointing towards the horizon. "However… that be no sea monster."
And in the distance, taller than any mountain, I see it descend.
***
The key ingredients were a simple matter. Putting aside the hundreds of innocent lives, and a few spirit origins included on a whim, the most important ingredients were twofold
The first, the Evil God of the Abyss. A being from outside reality, with no basis therein. It was the progenitor of the sea demons utilized by Gilles de Rai and Francois Prelati, that which lay dead and dreaming within the depths of the Sunken Spiral City That Did Not Exist.
The principle of this ingredient was [Nonexistence].
The second, Demon God Bael. One of the seventy-two Demon Pillars, capable of endless propagation in service of their goal to incinerate all of humanity. One of the nine pillars that administrate the Spy Satellite in the Temple of Time.
The principle of this ingredient was [Propagation].
Both were miles beyond any other ingredient, even Gluttony's White Whale, in their conceptual weight. However, [Propagation] and [Nonexistence] reached an equilibrium, weakening each other, allowing the other ingredients, primarily the White Whale, to play a role in the final product.
However, that was all before the last ingredient was added. The Witch Factor of Ley Batenkaitos. [Gluttony]. A fragment of a [Beast of Another World].
The capacity for [Propagation], and a rationalization for [Nonexistence]. This foreign element provided both, and so the monster summoned by Prelati's wish was stabilized, and a new horror was brought forth, capable of drawing on the might of all three without compromise.
And so, what descends from that rippling alien sky is no mere sea monster. What emerges, as though rising from a star-filled sea, is a towering cityscape of spiraling black stone. A hideous, mind-bending construction of cyclopean arches and non-euclidean geometry. The Sunken Spiral City, which Francois Prelati only touched upon in dreams, thrusts its way into reality like a railway spike driven into the brain of the world.
The sound follows. A rising, clamorous crashing and howling that carries all the way to Paris, sending a shiver down the spine of Natsuki Subaru, and a shudder through his brain, as the lightless vaults and portals deep within that sunken city crash open, and endless horrors pour forth.
***
Merry d'Lyon
Stick to the plan and everything will work out - that's easy to say, but…
"...This is too much for me." That's my honest sentiment, as he approaches.
I can barely look at him, after all. Nobility beyond nobility, so far above my station that every part of my soul is screaming at me. Why am I here? Why am I, of all people, here?
I'm sorry, Monsieur Subaru. I know you put such great trust in me, but I can't possibly understand that.
"Alright, brats, let's make this quick." King Clovis I says, hefting the enormous axe onto his shoulder, a sharp-toothed grin visible. "Hey, girl, that face of yours - are you one of my descendants or something?"
{Tell him the truth, Merovech,} Watcher whispers. {Put the boy in his place.}
Shut up. I'm not that person. "I am… told as much, your Majesty," I say instead.
"Haha! At least you know how to give a bit of respect!" He barks a laugh.
"There were a few people in this region, with faces like that, some three hundred years from now," A more subdued voice says, and my attention is finally drawn to him. He doesn't stand out much - a man with white hair and icy blue eyes, wearing a long black coat with a red cravat. He doesn't stand out until those empty eyes meet my own, and he speaks once more. "They were all criminals, though. So I killed them."
Terror. Sheer terror seizes me. Worse, far worse than the King. As his eyes lock with mine, I understand that this man is Death himself. This is the man who will kill me. I understand that instinctively.
And so, fear prompts what bravery could not. "[Frankreich Über Alles]!" I shout, and King Clovis's axe is mine.
"Wha-?" The first king of France says, and then Siegfried is next to him, sword awash with green light.
I see him dodge backwards, just barely ducking under Siegfried's slash, as he roars his Noble Phantasm's name. "[Quino-!"
"[Bal-" Siegfried raises his own to respond.
"-taurus]!" King Clovis concludes, and an enormous steel bull with three horns erupts into reality in a burst of water and steam-
-mung]!" Siegfried finishes, and a blast of energy pours forth from his blade, meeting the monster in midair, driving it back, and finally annihilating the beast in its entirety.
And King Clovis-
{Behind you!} Watcher shouts, and I just barely turn and raise the axe in time-
The white-haired man's blade slices through it like butter, and I fall backwards, his slash just barely missing me.
"That won't protect you," He explains, grinning. "That axe, the embodiment of the French Monarchy, will serve no use against the blade which ended it forever."
…What?
"Merry, don't freeze!" Siegfried, shouts, turning back-
"Who are you fighting, brat!?" King Clovis says, lunging at him with a bloodstained trident, torn from the brow of his slain bull.
I don't understand. I don't understand. I thought Monsieur Subaru said that France still existed, in the future. So then, this man- "You're lying! You must be!"
"I'm not," He says with the same cold-eyed smile. "I'll show you, the same way I showed your descendants." Shadowy hands gather in the night air, gripping me, dragging me towards him.
"[La Mort-"
Thunder rings out, and in a flash of light, the limbs gripping me disintegrate.
"Ooh la la!" A masculine voice calls, and my would-be killer's eyes go wide. "You're looking energetic today, Monsieur de Paris! But I have to ask-"
He lands in the ground between us, a bearded man wearing a massive tricorn hat, his scarf fluttering in the wind. And then, with a roguish grin, and a wink directed towards me, he continues. "-Just who do you think you're executing, without your Emperor's permission?"
***
In 1815, it had taken the best seamen at Napoleon's disposal three days for a one-way trip from Elba to France. Taking into account that a round trip would be necessary, Waver Velvet had estimated it would take at the very least six days for the Count of Monte Cristo to retrieve the Emperor.
-However, the seamen selected by Napoleon in 1815 had been chosen for loyalty first. They had needed to dodge any other boats that might appear along their trip. They were not Servants.
And perhaps most importantly, none of those sailors was Edmond Dantes.
-Exactly when he is most needed, at the end of everything, Napoleon Bonaparte arrives in France, three days early.
Next chapter might take a bit. It's gonna be a long one, with a lot of moving parts. Here's hoping I stick the landing.
- Location
- LA Bossier
Imma hope that Satella did that, and Hassan is gonna give Preleti the ol' Zabaneya at an optimal time that save the day. I don't care how delusional that is.
100: Triumph, arcing through the night sky
Xorn
Master Procrastinator
- Location
- Somewhere I won't be able to rest in peace
100: Triumph, arcing through the night sky
Natsuki Subaru
"Alright, we've finished our analysis," Doctor Romani says. "...Sorry to say, it looks grim. There's a lot, so I'll take it one step at a time.
"That city - there's no two ways about it. It's enormous. The very fact that you can even see it from Paris, more than a hundred kilometers away, is proof of that. In terms of its location, it seems to have manifested at around the border of the stratosphere and troposphere, around twelve kilometers above sea level. The tallest tower, that twisted obelisk that looks like it's about to touch the ground? It's probably only a little smaller than Mount Everest. Areawise, the place is comparable to modern Tokyo. It's not necessarily as crowded, since the inhabitants are bigger, but… well, let's get into those inhabitants now, actually."
His image disappears, and the projection changes to a shaky recording - from the familiar Da Vinci sent over, I suppose - displaying a rolling white fog slowly flooding the streets of Orleans - but beneath the seemingly placid surface, I can see a roiling mass of tentacles. The fog passes a street sign, and golden tentacles with spasming red eyes emerge, crush it, and drag it under. It catches a stray dog, and that too is wrung out and swallowed. Even a Sea Fiend, dropping down from the Spiral City above, is unfortunate enough to get close, and the things in the fog tear it to pieces.
"The first thing is this fog. It's been pouring out of the city since it appeared, mostly from that big tower - it's about four feet deep in Orleans, and growing. Anything small enough to get pulled in will be, even the monsters coming from the city; of all the things that have emerged so far, close to two thirds of them were killed by the fog already. That's going to be a running theme with these guys, they don't seem to have any sense of friend or foe."
The image switches to another display, a vague tentacled mass drifting through the air. But there's a striking, obvious distinguishing feature - a large, spiraling horn jutting out above its hideous circular maw, and glowing pink wheel-like sigil floating above that. Its body pulses, and a surge of diamond-eyed tentacles mixed with thick fog spews out of its mouth like vomit, falling to the ground below.
"There's around a hundred of this kind." I'm gonna throw up. You've got to be fucking kidding me. "In terms of raw magical energy, they're Phantasmal Beast tier, but those things mixed in their fog are giving off a signature similar to Flauros in Fuyuki."
"Yeah." I say, my mouth dry. "Bael was an ingredient in their creation, after all. But beyond that… Ley's whale went into the mix too. That fog they're spewing out, if it touches you, you'll be erased. It might happen to a human who ends up in the fog coming from the tower too."
How did she get so many monsters? What made the difference? I know the answer to that. "This was my fault. I totally forgot about Ley's Witch Factor when we killed him - I'm sure that's how Prelati's been able to produce so many monsters. The Gluttony Witch Factor was where all the monsters of the other world came from, after all."
"No, it was a natural assumption that it would disappear with him," Doctor Romani says. "This is my fault for not monitoring Batenkaitos's disappearance closely enough."
Is that really okay? I want it to be. I want to believe it. "...Thanks, Doctor."
There's a movement on the display - a titanic arm, with webbed fingers, reaches up, and snatches the flying abomination from the air, and I watch as a corpulent monstrosity that looks like a crossbreed of a frog and a bat stuffs the 'whale' down its enormous gullet without a second thought.
"That's as good of a segue as any." Roman says with a grimace, and the display changes once more, this time to four photos.
The first is the toad-bat monster, in all its hideous glory. In truth, the comparison to any earthly creature ended at its neck, because everything below that head was a formless corpulent mass, and the unnatural, asymmetrical angles of its limbs could not belong to any real animal.
The second is a pale white worm-thing with crystalline and pseudopodial growths extending from its body at seemingly random points, grabbing anything living to usher it towards the beast's vast mouth.
The third is a six-legged, three-eyed creature covered in what at first seemed to be fur, but on closer inspection have to be tentacles. This one is smaller than the others, but the fog seems to have parted around it, and I can see it snatching at the things in the fog with its crab-like pincers, its dangling proboscis dripping with blood.
The fourth is simply a photo of an Orleanian street, but with a blobbish segment of the image seared away into pure blackness. At the edges of that damage, I can make out hints - vague implications of some indescribable, formless, writhing tentacular monstrosity.
"These four are giving off readings on par with what we'd expect from a high level Divine Beast. For now, we're labeling them 'Frog', 'Worm', 'Lobster', and 'Basilisk'. I can't really tell you much beyond that, unfortunately - they're big and awful, and that's all we've really got." Romani grimaces as the display returns to showing his face. "As far as I can tell, the only good option is to just hole up in Paris and hope for the planet to summon something stronger to deal with this."
That's-!
"Doctor, that's no good." Mash says before me. "You said it yourself - that fog is just going to keep rising and spreading. Besides, in that city - there's more things like those four, aren't there? This is only what's emerged so far."
"...The Grail." I say. "There's no way Francesca could have summoned something like this without the Grail involved, right?" She needed it just to summon that big monster at the end of the last loop. Even if she's got the Gluttony Witch Factor this time, it can't be possible that it made such a difference that she could summon a whole freaking city on hier own - which I guess means she snuck in and killed Dark Jeanne and that Gilles bozo. Good riddance, I suppose.
"Yeah. In terms of its 'existence' that city is basically being held together with scotch tape and thumbtacks," Romani says. "The second someone else gets their hands on the grail, the whole thing will just go poof - but we haven't been able to locate the grail, so-"
"No, I can guess where it is," I reply, pointing to the upside-down city. "That big tower, the one most of the fog is coming from - she's got to be at the 'top' of that, the point closest to the ground. Putting everything else aside, Francesca Prelati is ultimately a living human. She wouldn't survive at the altitudes necessary to hide in any of the smaller ones."
"Ah! That does make sense!" The doctor says. "Alright, I'll approve it. It's crazy, but I think that this is the only plan that gives us a chance of success, I think."
"Alright," I nod. "Did Da Vinci and Cu get a chance to finish those other levitation mystic codes?"
He shakes his head. "No, with how crazy things have been the past few hours, we had to assign them to guard duty in the command room. Until we can find Assassin, it's not safe for them to be anywhere else."
"Alright, I guess that's to be expected," I sigh, closing my eyes for a moment. "We have four, so… Gareth, Saint George, Marie, and Jeanne get them. Elizabeth can use her wings. Mash, Mozart, you're on Ahab's boat with me. You can sail over that mist, right?"
"Naturally," The Avenger answers.
It's fine. It's fine. It has to be fine. We can win this, because that's what Kongming promised. 'Attack Orleans as soon as Chlodovech shows himself somewhere else.' That was the plan. It's guaranteed to be right, even if there is missing information.
But man, I really hope someone ridiculously powerful gets summoned by the planet to bail us out-!
***
Merry d'Lyon
A flicker of motion. That's all that the clash between the first King of France and the self-proclaimed Emperor amounts to. As for the white haired man he had called Monsieur de Paris, the one I had been certain would kill me, his demise doesn't even amount to the blink of an eye. In the same moment of that brief clash between Clovis I and Napoleon Bonaparte, that man's head simply vanishes, and he crumples to the ground.
As for King Clovis, he staggers back, both arms broken, with a gaping hole in his chest. "S-seriously…? What are they… feeding you kids these days…?" He grunts as he fights to stay standing.
"Surely you've heard, your Majesty?" Napoleon replies with a grin. "There's not a person in the world who can beat Napoleon Bonaparte on French soil. And that was before I was summoned with this Saint Graph."
King Clovis's eyes widen, and he lets out a bark of laughter. "I get it! No wonder that girl was so damn scared of you!" His eyes narrow again as he leans on his trident. "You're a [Grand Servant], huh?
***
-[Grand Servant]. A variant of the normal class container, manifested through the [Ritual: Heroic Spirit Summon] performed by the Planet itself. Granted a class container as far beyond a normal Servant as a normal Servant is beyond a human, a Grand Servant is summoned to cooperate with six other Grands, for the purpose of saving humanity from the [Beasts].
In other circumstances, a Grand could not have been summoned to Orleans. Even if Francois Prelati took control and unleashed the Evil God of the Abyss itself, a Grand would not have been summoned. The necessary condition, the manifestation of [Beast], would not have been met.
But in this world, there is a shadow following Natsuki Subaru. The Beast of Another World, who has usurped the position of [VII of the End], who has alreadyreset the world more than twenty times in this singularity alone.
This was all the justification necessary for the Planet to summon a Grand Servant.
In another situation, another Servant would be the "strongest" Archer. But in this world, where the obstacle is the Evil God of the Abyss, who embodies "impossibility" the "strongest" is Napoleon Bonaparte, who makes the impossible possible.
And so it was, that the Grand Archer Napoleon Bonaparte was called to the French singularity.
(He might have ended the singularity before Chaldea even arrived, had he not been compelled by his nature to attempt to court Jeanne Alter. But that's a story for another time.)
***
"Hah… I guess this is it for me, then," King Clovis says. "But I've got a bit of advice for you kids before I vanish." A wide smile stretches across his face. "-Be nice to your parents."
And then, in a shower of golden dust, the first king of France disappears.
"W-what perfectly normal grandfatherly advice…" I mutter - and then, there's two horrible pulses of energy, hot within my chest, and I wince as I absorb both his spirit origin and the white haired man's.
"Ack!" Napoleon slaps his forehead. "My apologies, mademoiselle. I forgot I was supposed to take them alive."
"...Eh?" I mutter. How did he-
In a blink, a man in a green cloak is standing nearby - wait, that's the scary "kuhaha" guy who almost killed Lord Siegfried a few days ago!
"We don't have much time," He says. "The frenzy has begun."
"Who needs time, Monsieur Comte?" Napoleon shoots back. "If it's about those monsters, or that hideous city above Orleans… I can hit them from here."
***
Natsuki Subaru
"[Báthory Erzsébet]!" Another tentacled whale-like creature moans as Elizabeth's sonic blast begins to tear at its flesh, opening a stomach wound that Gareth plunges her lance into, blue ether erupting out of the beast's mouth and the top of its mouth as it dies.
"...Pathetic." Ahab mumbles, as the Pequod continues to carve a bloody trail across the tentacle-filled fog, the creatures within dying beneath us. "Where art thou? Where art thou, my true whale? Dost thou not know that I seek thee?"
"Incoming! Beneath the ground!" Amadeus calls, and a moment later I hear the rumbling - and a moment later, it emerges. A massive worm-like creature, with a black-gray body, and a writhing tentacular maw, large enough to encircle the Pequod twice over. It lunges for us and-
"[Lord Chaldeas]!" Mash shouts, and the beast is repelled - and then I realize. "Worm", the creature we saw before, wasn't this color, was it?
No sooner have I thought that, than it arrives, a pale white worm just as large as the first, plunging down from above, tangling around the first and-
I understand, in that moment, the true scale of things.That white worm - no, the tentacle, catches up the lesser worm, dragging it into the air, and towards the maw of "Worm", who swallows it in a single gulp.
It's almost a kilometer away. It's that far, and it was in range to snatch away the biggest monster we've seen so far and eat it like a single french fry.
Spindly crystal claws shoot towards us, and Mash's shield blocks them all, but-
Something lands on the deck of the shup with a wet thud.
"Fishie, I…" Elizabeth says, from that spot, right next to me, when she should have been in he air. "Sorry, I guess this is-" Her legs, where are her legs?
I understand, at last. "This is… impossible." These horrors, those four monsters alone, are-
"[Attendre, Espérer]." In a flash of golden light, Elizabeth is restored, and I'm left with my mouth hanging on the floor. The Count of Monte Cristo glances towards me, a grin on his face. "Kuhaha! If he could hear you, that Emperor would tell you to stop making up words, Natsuki Subaru!"
Mash looks at him with fear. Elizabeth with confusion. Mozart with a raised eyebrow. Ahab with a roll of his eyes. And as for me-
I see it. A rainbow, arcing across the still dark sky, towards Worm's head. The Great Old One turns, and a fractal pattern of energy stretches in front of it, forming a barrier - and then a second, and a third.
The first shot of Napoleon's Noble Phantasm shatters through all three as if they weren't even there, and annihilates the monster's head completely.
Worm recoils, writhing, and I already see flesh beginning to emerge from the stump of its neck - but in its flailing, the wound dips too close to the mist, and a tentacle shoots out, burrowing into the wound and dragging it down. And then another, and another, digging in, spraying foul black blood and pulling, pulling. There's a hideous crack as the monster's carapace splits, the tentacles within the fog working to peel it like a lobster, all the while pulling it down, splitting, tearing, until finally it vanishes beneath the surface of the fog.
Finally, as I look at the Count of Monte Cristo, his back turned to the whole affair, I find words.
"If you're going to get here three days early, say something about it, you asshole!"
***
From his position ahead of all the others, Saint George sees "Worm" die. "One down - but that means nothing if we cannot stem the tide. That's where my battle comes in."
All of the horrors emerging have been wholly mindless. Simple creatures, moving, eating, and little else. Why, then, did they emerge in the first place? They had plenty of each other around to feed upon. 'Something' has to be urging them on. A leader, or perhaps merely a first in line.
"And the way that I see it, the only one around which these things are exhibiting any sort of direction, is you, correct?" Saint George concludes, pointing his blade at the creature labeled 'Lobster' as the things in the ring of mist surrounding the two churn hungrily.
It makes no sign of having heard him - but then, there's a flash from its third eye, and an invisible force crashes against the Rider's sword like a freight train.
"Hm," The Saint lets out a contemplative noise. "Unfortunately for you, my sword is invincible."
The beast dashes forward at that, snapping with its claws, but each blow is parried with ease - and then in a spray of blood, its right claw is severed, and Lobster scuttles back once more, its third eye letting out several more blasts of invisible force.
"I wonder if this might be enough to make you surrender?" Saint George asks. "You can understand what I'm saying, right? With all of those attempts to mislead my sword there, I can only assume you do. Of course, I'm a bit too experienced to fall for tricks on that level."
Lobster's third eye lets out a hideous sustained glow, and as it washes over him, the Rider feels his organs begin to heat up. "I guess not, then. Of course, my Magic Resistance will hold this trick off long enough. This is your last chance to give up - my next blow will end this. Especially with your hand like that."
The creature glances for just a moment, at the dragon's claw that has regrown from its wrist stump in the place of its normal pincer - and then it charges, toothed proboscis flared out, all three eyes flashing intermittently with blasts of force.
"Thou dragon, clad in sin, see the truth of [Ascalon]!" Saint George's blade gleams a blinding white as it cleaves Lobster in half vertically.
With a small sigh, he steps in between the split monster's halves as they sail past him and into the mist, where they detonate in a brilliant explosion. "And you?" He asks, gazing up at the hulking form of "Toad".
The great creature blinks once - and then, after dropping a last handful of tentacles scooped out of the mist into its mouth and letting out a deafening burp, it hops back towards the spiral city above in a single leap and vanishes into a strange angle in the rock of one of the buildings.
In the city above, the terrible howling that had been audible all this time, finally falls silent.
***
Napoleon's eyes find his next target - and then he freezes for a moment, and gives a full body shudder. "So that's how it's going to go, huh?" He asks with a grimace - before forcing a grin back onto his face. "Fine! [Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile]!"
Once more, a dazzling light erupts from his oversized golden cannon. Three hundred and sixty miles away, "Basilisk" dies and is swallowed by the still rising fog.
"Mademoiselle, can I borrow your communicator now?" He asks, finally looking away from the horizon.
"Y-yes milord!" Merry says, still wearing the wide smile that hasn't left her face since the Emperor arrived.
A moment later, the sweat-damp face of Natsuki Subaru appears in front of the Emperor.
"Man, I'm so freaking glad to finally meet you." The boy says, wiping his brow. "How close are you now?"
"Ha! Monsieur, I haven't moved since I arrived!" Napoleon retorts, grinning.
"S-seriously!? Aren't you like, 600 kilometers away right now!?" Subaru shouts. "The Archer class is seriously made up of Archers!"
"-That said, I've got some bad news." Napoleon continues. "I saw something I shouldn't have, just now - or maybe it's good that I was the one who saw it, since anyone else would have been petrified already, with how it's affecting me."
"Geh!" Subaru flinches. "Is it… that 'Basilisk' guy?"
"Basilisk… that's a good label for that thing. Anyway, it's dead now, but I'm afraid I've only got one more shot in me." The Grand Archer says. "It's not that bad, I was running a bit low on mana anyway - but now I've got to make the call. This is my last shot, and then I'll try to get as far away as I can from Mademoiselle Merry before I disappear."
"That's…" Subaru looks away.
"Ooh la la! Why so glum, monsieur!?" Napoleon grins. "I was going to forfeit my Spirit Origin on the last shot anyway. It's too good an option to leave on the table. So with that in mind, what do you say to cracking that big tower wide open, Monsieur!?"
Subaru closes his eyes, and a weak voice escapes his mouth. "...Is that really okay?"
"I made a lot of men die for this country, you know?" The Emperor grows serious for a moment. "It's only proper that when I'm called to do the same, I follow through, right?"
Subaru sighs - and then, he opens his eyes, grinning. "Alright! After that first shot, I'm expecting a lot! Blast it wide open, Monsieur!"
"Oui oui!" Napoleon shouts, aiming his cannon. "I renounce my status as Grand Archer!"
In that moment, his power surges. All the enhanced might of his Grand saint graph, is poured into a single attack.
"Oh people!" The Emperor shouts, and his voice seems to resound to every corner of France. "Lift up your voices! Make your plea heard! There's no need to fear! Nothing is impossible! Why!?"
The golden cannon shudders as he levels it, cracks starting to form through which blinding light pours.
"Because I'm here."
The world shakes.
"[Arc de Triomphe-" Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte shouts, even as his limbs begin to tighten and freeze up. "-de l'Étoile]!"
A rainbow splits the sky, arcing far into the distance - and that tumorous growth, the tower at the heart of the [Sunken Spiral City], shatters.
-Its lower body already destroyed, the great squamous form of the [Evil God of the Abyss] slides out of the rubble with a wet pop, and falls to the earth with a howl.
***
(Recommended music.)
Natsuki Subaru
My brain shudders as the monster emerges. Even from here, some ten kilometers out, I can feel my eyes burn from the sheer stench of its wound - the dust of the oldest tomb in the world, mixed with rotten fish and ooze. And then the sight, the strange twists and curls of its hideous green skin, the horrible unfeeling malice of its dull yellow eyes, the bone-shaking force of its cries.
I can feel it, that spiral, boring into my brain, and-
The stroke of a piano key cuts through the haze of pain and madness.
"If all he's got is aesthetic horror, he doesn't stand a chance against me." Amadeus announces with a smirk.
And then, all is motion.
"Forward!" Ahab roars, springing from the wheel to the deck, running to the prow. The ship begins to lean, but an invisible force arrests the wheel and rights it. "Forward, all hands! Aye, there she be! Thou damned whale! At last, thou showest thyself to me!"
This is it. This is the end. We draw nearer and nearer. Have I missed anything?
"To the last, I grapple with thee!" Ahab roars, and black fire begins to emerge from the pale white scar running down his body.
The flying abominations are still being held at bay by those with the levitation mystic codes (plus Elizabeth and the Count). Mash is by my side to defend me from any surprise attacks. Mozart is repelling the mental damage from the thing.
"For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee!" The old whaler roars, raising a harpoon now alight with black fire.
In that moment, my vision swims. I double over, feeling sick. This is - mana exhaustion!?
"The generators - no, it's the summoning room!" Doctor Roman shouts. "Someone is performing another summon!"
***
"♪A pinch of silver and a pinch of iron♪
"♪Boil up the head clerk♪
"♪That's Até's lovely recipe♪"
Tenor notes ring out in Chaldea's summoning room. A middle-aged man waves his finger this way and that, his eyes closed, a smile on his face.
"♪Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill it up♪
"♪Fill, fill, fill it till it spills♪
"♪Bring together five closed wounds♪"
It's in the middle of his nonsense chant that the door opens, and he cracks one eye to see Olga Marie Animusphere arrive, alongside… that girl from the records department?
"♪Time's up, so I'll skip the rest...♪" The man concludes with a grin as the summoning circle shines, and emerging from it-
"Haha! My new Master must be quite the eccentric to summon me!" Says Francois Prelati. "-Oh, and it seems we're in a tense situation?"
"John Marcus, huh?" The Director says with a sigh. "Or should I just call you Francois Prelati?"
"Haha! You figured that much out?" The middle-aged man laughs, in a manner totally divorced from the working attitude she had seen from him in the years he had worked at Chaldea "But since there's two of me here, now, you can call me Francis."
"Pffft- haha! Wait, seriously? Why would you even do that!?" Francois laughs.
"Well, my past self is living it up as the big villain of the current singularity, and he summoned himself too! So I figured it looked like fun!~" Francis answers.
Olga grimaces, and she takes a step forward to place herself in between Elron and the two maniacs.. "I should have come here first, not the generator room."
"Haha! I bet you thought it was me that did the summoning last night, so I wouldn't come here, huh?" Francis asks. "Bad luck. Looks like you managed to hire three traitors, huh? Maybe more - to be totally clear, I wasn't the one who offed Marisbury, or the one who summoned Hassan-i-Sabbah, okay?"
"I know." The director responds. "You've been a loyal asset to Chaldea up until this point. I realized yesterday I'd heard the name Prelati before in connection with Chaldea, so I looked you up - you were the one who set up my father's UN connections, and you were our primary financier before he won the Holy Grail War."
"I did do that." He says with a smile and a nod.
"To be honest, my plan was to just arrest you for now, and release you again once the temptation to aid your past self was gone." She continues, eyes narrowed. "But this was a step too far. I won't forgive insubordination."
"Haha! That's cute! I'll take those as your last words, okay?" Francois says, and the room begins to melt into a meadow. "And you, lovely lady with the blue hair?"
"...Don't miss." Mutters Cerejeira Elron.
"What adorably defiant last words!" - Is Francois Prelati's thought in that moment.
But as for Francis, his thought is - "Oh crap, I've made a mistake."
His mistake is a very simple one. He forgot that Olga Marie Animusphere is a hypocrite. While she'll take every effort to make sure her own staff follows the rules with absolute exactitude - she is also the kind of person who will break those same rules without a second thought the moment it becomes necessary for Chaldea's survival.
Why did Olga Marie bring Cerejeira Elron here? The answer is plain and clear from the Command Spell glowing on her hand.
"[Zabaniya]!" As ordered, Hassan of the Cursed Arm does not miss.
A crimson arm finds the heart of Francois Prelati, and he dies one minute and twenty-four seconds after his summoning.
Francis Prelati, on the other hand-
"[Gandr]!" Olga shouts, staggering him - and the next moment her reinforced fist shatters his nose.
-he still has a good amount of pain ahead of him.
***
Natsuki Subaru
-As quickly as it hit me, the mana exhaustion vanishes.
"-Huh? Wait, it's gone? Don't tell me whoever was summoned was eliminated already?" Romani says.
We draw closer, closer, to that mountainous green squid-like head filling all of my vision. The monster swings one flabby arm towards us, but-
"[Guillotine Breaker]!" A crystalline horse slams into it, holding it back. And then-
"[From Hell's Heart, I Stab at Thee]!" Ahab roars, and black fire consumes his body as the harpoon at last finds its mark.
The Evil God of the Abyss reels, flaming cracks appearing in its head - and then the Pequod slams into it, and for a terrifying moment, its bulbous skull offers resistance. Then, with the stench of a thousand open graves, the monster's head bursts like a rotten fruit, and we carry through to the other side.
But this scenario, in that story, is-!
"It's reforming!" Amadeus shouts, gazing back at the monster.
I can see it, the wretched green flesh of its head already knitting back together - and even its legs as it begins to rise out of the water.
And in the center of the monster's reforming gray matter, I can see - male, this time, white hair stained red with blood - Francois Prelati standing, a triumphant grin on his face.
***
"So close, Subaru! You got so close, this time - the boat grazed the top of my head! But that's all!" Francois Prelati laughs. "You blew it, idiot!"
A javelin of light, launched from Saint George's sword - embeds itself in the rising wall of regenerating flesh.
A sonic blast from Elizabeth Bathory - is blocked by the Evil God's leathery wing.
Edmond Dantes flickers into close range, his hands alight - but a fractal shield springs from the grail clutched in Prelati's hand, deflecting the attack, and the Avenger must retreat as tentacles surge from the Evil God's regenerating flesh to ensnare him.
"Too bad! So sad! Back to square one for you!" The Alchemist laughs as the Great Old One's flesh blots out the last light, protecting him completely. "Suffer more! Die more! I can't wait, this really is the absolute-!"
A spark of crimson light, at his feet.
"-Eh?" Prelati glances down to see a pale hand emerging from the meat at his feet, encased in fire, just barely visible because of the damage the Evil God had sustained. "-Seriously!?"
"[La Grondement-" Jeanne d'Arc Alter snarls.
"Wait, wait, wait wait wait-!" Prelati backpedals, fractal barrier appearing in front of him again.
"-Du Haine]!" Cursed flames erupt from the Evil God's head, and Prelati tears out of the monster's head, propelled by a burst of crimson fire.
"No waaaay!?" He screams, even as the gout of flame homes on him, several black iron stakes exploding from the Evil God's head to chase him. How was she even able to- "Don't tell me she actually became an Avenger!?"
***
Natsuki Subaru
Fire explodes from the Evil God's head, and I don't have time to figure out what caused it- "Mash!"
"[Lord Chaldeas]!" She shouts, and the shield comes down, blocking… Jeanne Alter's cursed fire!?
Something lands on the Pequod's deck a moment after the wall is raised, and as it stands-
"Safe!" Francois Prelati shouts, and with a grin, he raises the grail still clutched in his hand, as Mash stares at the one who slipped past her shield in horror. "Now then, let's-!"
Crack!
-Before he can say a thing, [Heaven's Lash], the whip I made from Jeanne's holy shroud, finds its mark.
The Holy Grail, knocked from his grasp, bounces across the deck, and his head whips towards it in shock-
"Where the hell are you looking!?" I roar as my fist, still clutching the whip, crashes into Prelati's jaw.
He staggers back, but behind him, I see Mash's invincible shield begin to crack as she fears for my life, even as the Evil God's fist crashes into the chalk wall. "Keep your eyes forward, Mash!" I shout. "If it's just this guy… I can handle him."
"Ahaha! Handle me, huh!?" Prelati shouts, pointing a hand towards me, glowing with a menacing purple light. "Let's just see about that, Subaru!"
-His spell fizzles into nothing before he can fire it, my Command Spell gleaming. "[EMT]!" My next punch breaks his nose, sending him sprawling backwards- but I'm not done!
[Heaven's Lash] catches Prelati's neck, and yanking it back, I pull him straight into a left hook.
-A glint of steel, and my pathetic fighting instincts allow me to just barely dodge backwards as a newly drawn dagger slashes towards me.
Heaving breath after breath, each of us takes a few steps back.
"Ha… haha…" Prelati gives a forced laugh as he spits a few teeth out of his mouth. "You really are… something else, Subaru. I wonder, how many-?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, asshole. I've been flying blind since we took down Ley." I say, grinning.
He returns my grin. "-I love you."
"Shut up, I'm only interested in silver-haired elf girls." I shoot him down without a shred of mercy.
"But you'll remember me. No matter what, I'll engrave the memory of me onto your very soul!" Prelati raves. "Hate, love, who cares which is which!? I'll definitely-"
"You think so?" I scoff. "-Like hell. I don't even hate you. I'll end this here, and then I'll forget all about you, Francois Prelati."
"Ha, haha, hahahaha! Is that so!?" He laughs "Then I'll just have to try, again and again, until-!"
-In that moment, he lunges, knife gleaming under the starlit sky.
My whip snares the blade, and I wind up my fist. "Get the hell…!"
EMT ends. [Emergency Reinforcement].
"...OUT OF MY WAY!!!"
Bone shatters. Prelati's right eye is crushed as my final blow sends him sailing up, over the Pequod's railing-
-He grins, and just before he careens over the side, his remaining eye is exchanged for the diamond-shaped eye of Demon God Bael. 'Something' settles upon me, and I flinch.
-and then Francois Prelati vanishes over the side of the boat, and his laughter mixes with screams and the crunching of bones as he is crushed and dragged into the mist.
A moment later, Mash picks up the Grail, and all of the horrors summoned vanish like a popped soap bubble, leaving only a slowly dissolving boat in a wasteland stripped bare by the devouring fog.
Natsuki Subaru
"Alright, we've finished our analysis," Doctor Romani says. "...Sorry to say, it looks grim. There's a lot, so I'll take it one step at a time.
"That city - there's no two ways about it. It's enormous. The very fact that you can even see it from Paris, more than a hundred kilometers away, is proof of that. In terms of its location, it seems to have manifested at around the border of the stratosphere and troposphere, around twelve kilometers above sea level. The tallest tower, that twisted obelisk that looks like it's about to touch the ground? It's probably only a little smaller than Mount Everest. Areawise, the place is comparable to modern Tokyo. It's not necessarily as crowded, since the inhabitants are bigger, but… well, let's get into those inhabitants now, actually."
His image disappears, and the projection changes to a shaky recording - from the familiar Da Vinci sent over, I suppose - displaying a rolling white fog slowly flooding the streets of Orleans - but beneath the seemingly placid surface, I can see a roiling mass of tentacles. The fog passes a street sign, and golden tentacles with spasming red eyes emerge, crush it, and drag it under. It catches a stray dog, and that too is wrung out and swallowed. Even a Sea Fiend, dropping down from the Spiral City above, is unfortunate enough to get close, and the things in the fog tear it to pieces.
"The first thing is this fog. It's been pouring out of the city since it appeared, mostly from that big tower - it's about four feet deep in Orleans, and growing. Anything small enough to get pulled in will be, even the monsters coming from the city; of all the things that have emerged so far, close to two thirds of them were killed by the fog already. That's going to be a running theme with these guys, they don't seem to have any sense of friend or foe."
The image switches to another display, a vague tentacled mass drifting through the air. But there's a striking, obvious distinguishing feature - a large, spiraling horn jutting out above its hideous circular maw, and glowing pink wheel-like sigil floating above that. Its body pulses, and a surge of diamond-eyed tentacles mixed with thick fog spews out of its mouth like vomit, falling to the ground below.
"There's around a hundred of this kind." I'm gonna throw up. You've got to be fucking kidding me. "In terms of raw magical energy, they're Phantasmal Beast tier, but those things mixed in their fog are giving off a signature similar to Flauros in Fuyuki."
"Yeah." I say, my mouth dry. "Bael was an ingredient in their creation, after all. But beyond that… Ley's whale went into the mix too. That fog they're spewing out, if it touches you, you'll be erased. It might happen to a human who ends up in the fog coming from the tower too."
How did she get so many monsters? What made the difference? I know the answer to that. "This was my fault. I totally forgot about Ley's Witch Factor when we killed him - I'm sure that's how Prelati's been able to produce so many monsters. The Gluttony Witch Factor was where all the monsters of the other world came from, after all."
"No, it was a natural assumption that it would disappear with him," Doctor Romani says. "This is my fault for not monitoring Batenkaitos's disappearance closely enough."
Is that really okay? I want it to be. I want to believe it. "...Thanks, Doctor."
There's a movement on the display - a titanic arm, with webbed fingers, reaches up, and snatches the flying abomination from the air, and I watch as a corpulent monstrosity that looks like a crossbreed of a frog and a bat stuffs the 'whale' down its enormous gullet without a second thought.
"That's as good of a segue as any." Roman says with a grimace, and the display changes once more, this time to four photos.
The first is the toad-bat monster, in all its hideous glory. In truth, the comparison to any earthly creature ended at its neck, because everything below that head was a formless corpulent mass, and the unnatural, asymmetrical angles of its limbs could not belong to any real animal.
The second is a pale white worm-thing with crystalline and pseudopodial growths extending from its body at seemingly random points, grabbing anything living to usher it towards the beast's vast mouth.
The third is a six-legged, three-eyed creature covered in what at first seemed to be fur, but on closer inspection have to be tentacles. This one is smaller than the others, but the fog seems to have parted around it, and I can see it snatching at the things in the fog with its crab-like pincers, its dangling proboscis dripping with blood.
The fourth is simply a photo of an Orleanian street, but with a blobbish segment of the image seared away into pure blackness. At the edges of that damage, I can make out hints - vague implications of some indescribable, formless, writhing tentacular monstrosity.
"These four are giving off readings on par with what we'd expect from a high level Divine Beast. For now, we're labeling them 'Frog', 'Worm', 'Lobster', and 'Basilisk'. I can't really tell you much beyond that, unfortunately - they're big and awful, and that's all we've really got." Romani grimaces as the display returns to showing his face. "As far as I can tell, the only good option is to just hole up in Paris and hope for the planet to summon something stronger to deal with this."
That's-!
"Doctor, that's no good." Mash says before me. "You said it yourself - that fog is just going to keep rising and spreading. Besides, in that city - there's more things like those four, aren't there? This is only what's emerged so far."
"...The Grail." I say. "There's no way Francesca could have summoned something like this without the Grail involved, right?" She needed it just to summon that big monster at the end of the last loop. Even if she's got the Gluttony Witch Factor this time, it can't be possible that it made such a difference that she could summon a whole freaking city on hier own - which I guess means she snuck in and killed Dark Jeanne and that Gilles bozo. Good riddance, I suppose.
"Yeah. In terms of its 'existence' that city is basically being held together with scotch tape and thumbtacks," Romani says. "The second someone else gets their hands on the grail, the whole thing will just go poof - but we haven't been able to locate the grail, so-"
"No, I can guess where it is," I reply, pointing to the upside-down city. "That big tower, the one most of the fog is coming from - she's got to be at the 'top' of that, the point closest to the ground. Putting everything else aside, Francesca Prelati is ultimately a living human. She wouldn't survive at the altitudes necessary to hide in any of the smaller ones."
"Ah! That does make sense!" The doctor says. "Alright, I'll approve it. It's crazy, but I think that this is the only plan that gives us a chance of success, I think."
"Alright," I nod. "Did Da Vinci and Cu get a chance to finish those other levitation mystic codes?"
He shakes his head. "No, with how crazy things have been the past few hours, we had to assign them to guard duty in the command room. Until we can find Assassin, it's not safe for them to be anywhere else."
"Alright, I guess that's to be expected," I sigh, closing my eyes for a moment. "We have four, so… Gareth, Saint George, Marie, and Jeanne get them. Elizabeth can use her wings. Mash, Mozart, you're on Ahab's boat with me. You can sail over that mist, right?"
"Naturally," The Avenger answers.
It's fine. It's fine. It has to be fine. We can win this, because that's what Kongming promised. 'Attack Orleans as soon as Chlodovech shows himself somewhere else.' That was the plan. It's guaranteed to be right, even if there is missing information.
But man, I really hope someone ridiculously powerful gets summoned by the planet to bail us out-!
***
Merry d'Lyon
A flicker of motion. That's all that the clash between the first King of France and the self-proclaimed Emperor amounts to. As for the white haired man he had called Monsieur de Paris, the one I had been certain would kill me, his demise doesn't even amount to the blink of an eye. In the same moment of that brief clash between Clovis I and Napoleon Bonaparte, that man's head simply vanishes, and he crumples to the ground.
As for King Clovis, he staggers back, both arms broken, with a gaping hole in his chest. "S-seriously…? What are they… feeding you kids these days…?" He grunts as he fights to stay standing.
"Surely you've heard, your Majesty?" Napoleon replies with a grin. "There's not a person in the world who can beat Napoleon Bonaparte on French soil. And that was before I was summoned with this Saint Graph."
King Clovis's eyes widen, and he lets out a bark of laughter. "I get it! No wonder that girl was so damn scared of you!" His eyes narrow again as he leans on his trident. "You're a [Grand Servant], huh?
***
-[Grand Servant]. A variant of the normal class container, manifested through the [Ritual: Heroic Spirit Summon] performed by the Planet itself. Granted a class container as far beyond a normal Servant as a normal Servant is beyond a human, a Grand Servant is summoned to cooperate with six other Grands, for the purpose of saving humanity from the [Beasts].
In other circumstances, a Grand could not have been summoned to Orleans. Even if Francois Prelati took control and unleashed the Evil God of the Abyss itself, a Grand would not have been summoned. The necessary condition, the manifestation of [Beast], would not have been met.
But in this world, there is a shadow following Natsuki Subaru. The Beast of Another World, who has usurped the position of [VII of the End], who has already
This was all the justification necessary for the Planet to summon a Grand Servant.
In another situation, another Servant would be the "strongest" Archer. But in this world, where the obstacle is the Evil God of the Abyss, who embodies "impossibility" the "strongest" is Napoleon Bonaparte, who makes the impossible possible.
And so it was, that the Grand Archer Napoleon Bonaparte was called to the French singularity.
(He might have ended the singularity before Chaldea even arrived, had he not been compelled by his nature to attempt to court Jeanne Alter. But that's a story for another time.)
***
"Hah… I guess this is it for me, then," King Clovis says. "But I've got a bit of advice for you kids before I vanish." A wide smile stretches across his face. "-Be nice to your parents."
And then, in a shower of golden dust, the first king of France disappears.
"W-what perfectly normal grandfatherly advice…" I mutter - and then, there's two horrible pulses of energy, hot within my chest, and I wince as I absorb both his spirit origin and the white haired man's.
"Ack!" Napoleon slaps his forehead. "My apologies, mademoiselle. I forgot I was supposed to take them alive."
"...Eh?" I mutter. How did he-
In a blink, a man in a green cloak is standing nearby - wait, that's the scary "kuhaha" guy who almost killed Lord Siegfried a few days ago!
"We don't have much time," He says. "The frenzy has begun."
"Who needs time, Monsieur Comte?" Napoleon shoots back. "If it's about those monsters, or that hideous city above Orleans… I can hit them from here."
***
Natsuki Subaru
"[Báthory Erzsébet]!" Another tentacled whale-like creature moans as Elizabeth's sonic blast begins to tear at its flesh, opening a stomach wound that Gareth plunges her lance into, blue ether erupting out of the beast's mouth and the top of its mouth as it dies.
"...Pathetic." Ahab mumbles, as the Pequod continues to carve a bloody trail across the tentacle-filled fog, the creatures within dying beneath us. "Where art thou? Where art thou, my true whale? Dost thou not know that I seek thee?"
"Incoming! Beneath the ground!" Amadeus calls, and a moment later I hear the rumbling - and a moment later, it emerges. A massive worm-like creature, with a black-gray body, and a writhing tentacular maw, large enough to encircle the Pequod twice over. It lunges for us and-
"[Lord Chaldeas]!" Mash shouts, and the beast is repelled - and then I realize. "Worm", the creature we saw before, wasn't this color, was it?
No sooner have I thought that, than it arrives, a pale white worm just as large as the first, plunging down from above, tangling around the first and-
I understand, in that moment, the true scale of things.That white worm - no, the tentacle, catches up the lesser worm, dragging it into the air, and towards the maw of "Worm", who swallows it in a single gulp.
It's almost a kilometer away. It's that far, and it was in range to snatch away the biggest monster we've seen so far and eat it like a single french fry.
Spindly crystal claws shoot towards us, and Mash's shield blocks them all, but-
Something lands on the deck of the shup with a wet thud.
"Fishie, I…" Elizabeth says, from that spot, right next to me, when she should have been in he air. "Sorry, I guess this is-" Her legs, where are her legs?
I understand, at last. "This is… impossible." These horrors, those four monsters alone, are-
"[Attendre, Espérer]." In a flash of golden light, Elizabeth is restored, and I'm left with my mouth hanging on the floor. The Count of Monte Cristo glances towards me, a grin on his face. "Kuhaha! If he could hear you, that Emperor would tell you to stop making up words, Natsuki Subaru!"
Mash looks at him with fear. Elizabeth with confusion. Mozart with a raised eyebrow. Ahab with a roll of his eyes. And as for me-
I see it. A rainbow, arcing across the still dark sky, towards Worm's head. The Great Old One turns, and a fractal pattern of energy stretches in front of it, forming a barrier - and then a second, and a third.
The first shot of Napoleon's Noble Phantasm shatters through all three as if they weren't even there, and annihilates the monster's head completely.
Worm recoils, writhing, and I already see flesh beginning to emerge from the stump of its neck - but in its flailing, the wound dips too close to the mist, and a tentacle shoots out, burrowing into the wound and dragging it down. And then another, and another, digging in, spraying foul black blood and pulling, pulling. There's a hideous crack as the monster's carapace splits, the tentacles within the fog working to peel it like a lobster, all the while pulling it down, splitting, tearing, until finally it vanishes beneath the surface of the fog.
Finally, as I look at the Count of Monte Cristo, his back turned to the whole affair, I find words.
"If you're going to get here three days early, say something about it, you asshole!"
***
From his position ahead of all the others, Saint George sees "Worm" die. "One down - but that means nothing if we cannot stem the tide. That's where my battle comes in."
All of the horrors emerging have been wholly mindless. Simple creatures, moving, eating, and little else. Why, then, did they emerge in the first place? They had plenty of each other around to feed upon. 'Something' has to be urging them on. A leader, or perhaps merely a first in line.
"And the way that I see it, the only one around which these things are exhibiting any sort of direction, is you, correct?" Saint George concludes, pointing his blade at the creature labeled 'Lobster' as the things in the ring of mist surrounding the two churn hungrily.
It makes no sign of having heard him - but then, there's a flash from its third eye, and an invisible force crashes against the Rider's sword like a freight train.
"Hm," The Saint lets out a contemplative noise. "Unfortunately for you, my sword is invincible."
The beast dashes forward at that, snapping with its claws, but each blow is parried with ease - and then in a spray of blood, its right claw is severed, and Lobster scuttles back once more, its third eye letting out several more blasts of invisible force.
"I wonder if this might be enough to make you surrender?" Saint George asks. "You can understand what I'm saying, right? With all of those attempts to mislead my sword there, I can only assume you do. Of course, I'm a bit too experienced to fall for tricks on that level."
Lobster's third eye lets out a hideous sustained glow, and as it washes over him, the Rider feels his organs begin to heat up. "I guess not, then. Of course, my Magic Resistance will hold this trick off long enough. This is your last chance to give up - my next blow will end this. Especially with your hand like that."
The creature glances for just a moment, at the dragon's claw that has regrown from its wrist stump in the place of its normal pincer - and then it charges, toothed proboscis flared out, all three eyes flashing intermittently with blasts of force.
"Thou dragon, clad in sin, see the truth of [Ascalon]!" Saint George's blade gleams a blinding white as it cleaves Lobster in half vertically.
With a small sigh, he steps in between the split monster's halves as they sail past him and into the mist, where they detonate in a brilliant explosion. "And you?" He asks, gazing up at the hulking form of "Toad".
The great creature blinks once - and then, after dropping a last handful of tentacles scooped out of the mist into its mouth and letting out a deafening burp, it hops back towards the spiral city above in a single leap and vanishes into a strange angle in the rock of one of the buildings.
In the city above, the terrible howling that had been audible all this time, finally falls silent.
***
Napoleon's eyes find his next target - and then he freezes for a moment, and gives a full body shudder. "So that's how it's going to go, huh?" He asks with a grimace - before forcing a grin back onto his face. "Fine! [Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile]!"
Once more, a dazzling light erupts from his oversized golden cannon. Three hundred and sixty miles away, "Basilisk" dies and is swallowed by the still rising fog.
"Mademoiselle, can I borrow your communicator now?" He asks, finally looking away from the horizon.
"Y-yes milord!" Merry says, still wearing the wide smile that hasn't left her face since the Emperor arrived.
A moment later, the sweat-damp face of Natsuki Subaru appears in front of the Emperor.
"Man, I'm so freaking glad to finally meet you." The boy says, wiping his brow. "How close are you now?"
"Ha! Monsieur, I haven't moved since I arrived!" Napoleon retorts, grinning.
"S-seriously!? Aren't you like, 600 kilometers away right now!?" Subaru shouts. "The Archer class is seriously made up of Archers!"
"-That said, I've got some bad news." Napoleon continues. "I saw something I shouldn't have, just now - or maybe it's good that I was the one who saw it, since anyone else would have been petrified already, with how it's affecting me."
"Geh!" Subaru flinches. "Is it… that 'Basilisk' guy?"
"Basilisk… that's a good label for that thing. Anyway, it's dead now, but I'm afraid I've only got one more shot in me." The Grand Archer says. "It's not that bad, I was running a bit low on mana anyway - but now I've got to make the call. This is my last shot, and then I'll try to get as far away as I can from Mademoiselle Merry before I disappear."
"That's…" Subaru looks away.
"Ooh la la! Why so glum, monsieur!?" Napoleon grins. "I was going to forfeit my Spirit Origin on the last shot anyway. It's too good an option to leave on the table. So with that in mind, what do you say to cracking that big tower wide open, Monsieur!?"
Subaru closes his eyes, and a weak voice escapes his mouth. "...Is that really okay?"
"I made a lot of men die for this country, you know?" The Emperor grows serious for a moment. "It's only proper that when I'm called to do the same, I follow through, right?"
Subaru sighs - and then, he opens his eyes, grinning. "Alright! After that first shot, I'm expecting a lot! Blast it wide open, Monsieur!"
"Oui oui!" Napoleon shouts, aiming his cannon. "I renounce my status as Grand Archer!"
In that moment, his power surges. All the enhanced might of his Grand saint graph, is poured into a single attack.
"Oh people!" The Emperor shouts, and his voice seems to resound to every corner of France. "Lift up your voices! Make your plea heard! There's no need to fear! Nothing is impossible! Why!?"
The golden cannon shudders as he levels it, cracks starting to form through which blinding light pours.
"Because I'm here."
The world shakes.
"[Arc de Triomphe-" Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte shouts, even as his limbs begin to tighten and freeze up. "-de l'Étoile]!"
A rainbow splits the sky, arcing far into the distance - and that tumorous growth, the tower at the heart of the [Sunken Spiral City], shatters.
-Its lower body already destroyed, the great squamous form of the [Evil God of the Abyss] slides out of the rubble with a wet pop, and falls to the earth with a howl.
***
(Recommended music.)
Natsuki Subaru
My brain shudders as the monster emerges. Even from here, some ten kilometers out, I can feel my eyes burn from the sheer stench of its wound - the dust of the oldest tomb in the world, mixed with rotten fish and ooze. And then the sight, the strange twists and curls of its hideous green skin, the horrible unfeeling malice of its dull yellow eyes, the bone-shaking force of its cries.
I can feel it, that spiral, boring into my brain, and-
The stroke of a piano key cuts through the haze of pain and madness.
"If all he's got is aesthetic horror, he doesn't stand a chance against me." Amadeus announces with a smirk.
And then, all is motion.
"Forward!" Ahab roars, springing from the wheel to the deck, running to the prow. The ship begins to lean, but an invisible force arrests the wheel and rights it. "Forward, all hands! Aye, there she be! Thou damned whale! At last, thou showest thyself to me!"
This is it. This is the end. We draw nearer and nearer. Have I missed anything?
"To the last, I grapple with thee!" Ahab roars, and black fire begins to emerge from the pale white scar running down his body.
The flying abominations are still being held at bay by those with the levitation mystic codes (plus Elizabeth and the Count). Mash is by my side to defend me from any surprise attacks. Mozart is repelling the mental damage from the thing.
"For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee!" The old whaler roars, raising a harpoon now alight with black fire.
In that moment, my vision swims. I double over, feeling sick. This is - mana exhaustion!?
"The generators - no, it's the summoning room!" Doctor Roman shouts. "Someone is performing another summon!"
***
"♪A pinch of silver and a pinch of iron♪
"♪Boil up the head clerk♪
"♪That's Até's lovely recipe♪"
Tenor notes ring out in Chaldea's summoning room. A middle-aged man waves his finger this way and that, his eyes closed, a smile on his face.
"♪Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill it up♪
"♪Fill, fill, fill it till it spills♪
"♪Bring together five closed wounds♪"
It's in the middle of his nonsense chant that the door opens, and he cracks one eye to see Olga Marie Animusphere arrive, alongside… that girl from the records department?
"♪Time's up, so I'll skip the rest...♪" The man concludes with a grin as the summoning circle shines, and emerging from it-
"Haha! My new Master must be quite the eccentric to summon me!" Says Francois Prelati. "-Oh, and it seems we're in a tense situation?"
"John Marcus, huh?" The Director says with a sigh. "Or should I just call you Francois Prelati?"
"Haha! You figured that much out?" The middle-aged man laughs, in a manner totally divorced from the working attitude she had seen from him in the years he had worked at Chaldea "But since there's two of me here, now, you can call me Francis."
"Pffft- haha! Wait, seriously? Why would you even do that!?" Francois laughs.
"Well, my past self is living it up as the big villain of the current singularity, and he summoned himself too! So I figured it looked like fun!~" Francis answers.
Olga grimaces, and she takes a step forward to place herself in between Elron and the two maniacs.. "I should have come here first, not the generator room."
"Haha! I bet you thought it was me that did the summoning last night, so I wouldn't come here, huh?" Francis asks. "Bad luck. Looks like you managed to hire three traitors, huh? Maybe more - to be totally clear, I wasn't the one who offed Marisbury, or the one who summoned Hassan-i-Sabbah, okay?"
"I know." The director responds. "You've been a loyal asset to Chaldea up until this point. I realized yesterday I'd heard the name Prelati before in connection with Chaldea, so I looked you up - you were the one who set up my father's UN connections, and you were our primary financier before he won the Holy Grail War."
"I did do that." He says with a smile and a nod.
"To be honest, my plan was to just arrest you for now, and release you again once the temptation to aid your past self was gone." She continues, eyes narrowed. "But this was a step too far. I won't forgive insubordination."
"Haha! That's cute! I'll take those as your last words, okay?" Francois says, and the room begins to melt into a meadow. "And you, lovely lady with the blue hair?"
"...Don't miss." Mutters Cerejeira Elron.
"What adorably defiant last words!" - Is Francois Prelati's thought in that moment.
But as for Francis, his thought is - "Oh crap, I've made a mistake."
His mistake is a very simple one. He forgot that Olga Marie Animusphere is a hypocrite. While she'll take every effort to make sure her own staff follows the rules with absolute exactitude - she is also the kind of person who will break those same rules without a second thought the moment it becomes necessary for Chaldea's survival.
Why did Olga Marie bring Cerejeira Elron here? The answer is plain and clear from the Command Spell glowing on her hand.
"[Zabaniya]!" As ordered, Hassan of the Cursed Arm does not miss.
A crimson arm finds the heart of Francois Prelati, and he dies one minute and twenty-four seconds after his summoning.
Francis Prelati, on the other hand-
"[Gandr]!" Olga shouts, staggering him - and the next moment her reinforced fist shatters his nose.
-he still has a good amount of pain ahead of him.
***
Natsuki Subaru
-As quickly as it hit me, the mana exhaustion vanishes.
"-Huh? Wait, it's gone? Don't tell me whoever was summoned was eliminated already?" Romani says.
We draw closer, closer, to that mountainous green squid-like head filling all of my vision. The monster swings one flabby arm towards us, but-
"[Guillotine Breaker]!" A crystalline horse slams into it, holding it back. And then-
"[From Hell's Heart, I Stab at Thee]!" Ahab roars, and black fire consumes his body as the harpoon at last finds its mark.
The Evil God of the Abyss reels, flaming cracks appearing in its head - and then the Pequod slams into it, and for a terrifying moment, its bulbous skull offers resistance. Then, with the stench of a thousand open graves, the monster's head bursts like a rotten fruit, and we carry through to the other side.
But this scenario, in that story, is-!
"It's reforming!" Amadeus shouts, gazing back at the monster.
I can see it, the wretched green flesh of its head already knitting back together - and even its legs as it begins to rise out of the water.
And in the center of the monster's reforming gray matter, I can see - male, this time, white hair stained red with blood - Francois Prelati standing, a triumphant grin on his face.
***
"So close, Subaru! You got so close, this time - the boat grazed the top of my head! But that's all!" Francois Prelati laughs. "You blew it, idiot!"
A javelin of light, launched from Saint George's sword - embeds itself in the rising wall of regenerating flesh.
A sonic blast from Elizabeth Bathory - is blocked by the Evil God's leathery wing.
Edmond Dantes flickers into close range, his hands alight - but a fractal shield springs from the grail clutched in Prelati's hand, deflecting the attack, and the Avenger must retreat as tentacles surge from the Evil God's regenerating flesh to ensnare him.
"Too bad! So sad! Back to square one for you!" The Alchemist laughs as the Great Old One's flesh blots out the last light, protecting him completely. "Suffer more! Die more! I can't wait, this really is the absolute-!"
A spark of crimson light, at his feet.
"-Eh?" Prelati glances down to see a pale hand emerging from the meat at his feet, encased in fire, just barely visible because of the damage the Evil God had sustained. "-Seriously!?"
"[La Grondement-" Jeanne d'Arc Alter snarls.
"Wait, wait, wait wait wait-!" Prelati backpedals, fractal barrier appearing in front of him again.
"-Du Haine]!" Cursed flames erupt from the Evil God's head, and Prelati tears out of the monster's head, propelled by a burst of crimson fire.
"No waaaay!?" He screams, even as the gout of flame homes on him, several black iron stakes exploding from the Evil God's head to chase him. How was she even able to- "Don't tell me she actually became an Avenger!?"
***
Natsuki Subaru
Fire explodes from the Evil God's head, and I don't have time to figure out what caused it- "Mash!"
"[Lord Chaldeas]!" She shouts, and the shield comes down, blocking… Jeanne Alter's cursed fire!?
Something lands on the Pequod's deck a moment after the wall is raised, and as it stands-
"Safe!" Francois Prelati shouts, and with a grin, he raises the grail still clutched in his hand, as Mash stares at the one who slipped past her shield in horror. "Now then, let's-!"
Crack!
-Before he can say a thing, [Heaven's Lash], the whip I made from Jeanne's holy shroud, finds its mark.
The Holy Grail, knocked from his grasp, bounces across the deck, and his head whips towards it in shock-
"Where the hell are you looking!?" I roar as my fist, still clutching the whip, crashes into Prelati's jaw.
He staggers back, but behind him, I see Mash's invincible shield begin to crack as she fears for my life, even as the Evil God's fist crashes into the chalk wall. "Keep your eyes forward, Mash!" I shout. "If it's just this guy… I can handle him."
"Ahaha! Handle me, huh!?" Prelati shouts, pointing a hand towards me, glowing with a menacing purple light. "Let's just see about that, Subaru!"
-His spell fizzles into nothing before he can fire it, my Command Spell gleaming. "[EMT]!" My next punch breaks his nose, sending him sprawling backwards- but I'm not done!
[Heaven's Lash] catches Prelati's neck, and yanking it back, I pull him straight into a left hook.
-A glint of steel, and my pathetic fighting instincts allow me to just barely dodge backwards as a newly drawn dagger slashes towards me.
Heaving breath after breath, each of us takes a few steps back.
"Ha… haha…" Prelati gives a forced laugh as he spits a few teeth out of his mouth. "You really are… something else, Subaru. I wonder, how many-?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, asshole. I've been flying blind since we took down Ley." I say, grinning.
He returns my grin. "-I love you."
"Shut up, I'm only interested in silver-haired elf girls." I shoot him down without a shred of mercy.
"But you'll remember me. No matter what, I'll engrave the memory of me onto your very soul!" Prelati raves. "Hate, love, who cares which is which!? I'll definitely-"
"You think so?" I scoff. "-Like hell. I don't even hate you. I'll end this here, and then I'll forget all about you, Francois Prelati."
"Ha, haha, hahahaha! Is that so!?" He laughs "Then I'll just have to try, again and again, until-!"
-In that moment, he lunges, knife gleaming under the starlit sky.
My whip snares the blade, and I wind up my fist. "Get the hell…!"
EMT ends. [Emergency Reinforcement].
"...OUT OF MY WAY!!!"
Bone shatters. Prelati's right eye is crushed as my final blow sends him sailing up, over the Pequod's railing-
-He grins, and just before he careens over the side, his remaining eye is exchanged for the diamond-shaped eye of Demon God Bael. 'Something' settles upon me, and I flinch.
-and then Francois Prelati vanishes over the side of the boat, and his laughter mixes with screams and the crunching of bones as he is crushed and dragged into the mist.
A moment later, Mash picks up the Grail, and all of the horrors summoned vanish like a popped soap bubble, leaving only a slowly dissolving boat in a wasteland stripped bare by the devouring fog.
And so, France ends exactly as it should have began, with Subaru punching Prelati off a boat.
Comments on the chapter:
-It's a pretty weak showing from the Cthulhu crew. Napoleon, on French soil, with his NP that has special effectiveness against Mystery and Divinity, is a pretty hard counter to them. Enhanced by his status as a Grand Servant, they just don't really have a chance against him. At least Ghatananothoa gets a sneaky mutual kill with his curse, so he's got that going for him.
-Of course, Rhan Tegoth loses to Saint George, not Napoleon. But he's a jobber in the source material too, his great revival stopped by a single guy with a handgun.
-And Tsathoggua is just in it for the munchies. If there's fighting happening, he'd rather just go home and sleep.
-Speaking of Napoleon, some people may be aware of the lore originally saying that only one person could occupy the position of Grand in an era. That was retconned. (Thanks Nasu!) Now it's just 'whoever is strongest for the battle that needs to be fought'.
-Prelati's presence in Chaldea is going to be controversial, but I strongly believe that this is a twist that's being set up in canon.
-Cerejeira has miniscule Master potential and no Rayshift potential. Don't expect her to go adventuring with Subaru. She was just brought into this because Olga hersefl can't summon Servants.
Comments on the chapter:
-It's a pretty weak showing from the Cthulhu crew. Napoleon, on French soil, with his NP that has special effectiveness against Mystery and Divinity, is a pretty hard counter to them. Enhanced by his status as a Grand Servant, they just don't really have a chance against him. At least Ghatananothoa gets a sneaky mutual kill with his curse, so he's got that going for him.
-Of course, Rhan Tegoth loses to Saint George, not Napoleon. But he's a jobber in the source material too, his great revival stopped by a single guy with a handgun.
-And Tsathoggua is just in it for the munchies. If there's fighting happening, he'd rather just go home and sleep.
-Speaking of Napoleon, some people may be aware of the lore originally saying that only one person could occupy the position of Grand in an era. That was retconned. (Thanks Nasu!) Now it's just 'whoever is strongest for the battle that needs to be fought'.
-Prelati's presence in Chaldea is going to be controversial, but I strongly believe that this is a twist that's being set up in canon.
Fate Strange Fake Volume 6 said:
-My actual guess is that it's Meuniere, but I didn't want to have such a dangerous guess be part of this story, so changed it to "John Marcus", a spiritron engineer. (He is one of the members of Novum Chaldea.)Enkidu Interlude 2 said:
-Cerejeira has miniscule Master potential and no Rayshift potential. Don't expect her to go adventuring with Subaru. She was just brought into this because Olga hersefl can't summon Servants.
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Xorn
Master Procrastinator
- Location
- Somewhere I won't be able to rest in peace
*Applause for a mostly correct guess*
- Location
- not doing my homework
- Pronouns
- He/They
Best rendition of Napoleon's Noble Phantasm I will ever read. No notes. 10/10 chapter.
- Location
- Norfolk, England
Ah, magnifique! Très magnifique!
- Location
- Oregon, USA
You know, when it comes to time loop antagonists, I don't know how you're going to top Prelati.
Maybe if you swap out some of the bad casters in London with actually competent ones? Then do something with Zouken?
I suppose there's Fou, and Babylonia could be fun. But other than that you're kind of out of options.
Maybe if you swap out some of the bad casters in London with actually competent ones? Then do something with Zouken?
I suppose there's Fou, and Babylonia could be fun. But other than that you're kind of out of options.
- Location
- Somewhere North of south
FUCK YEAH THAT'S MY BESTGIRL! GIVE ME MORE OF THIS!
Also that song was timed perfectly, it ended right when I finished reading the A/N
101: Farewell France
Xorn
Master Procrastinator
- Location
- Somewhere I won't be able to rest in peace
101: Farewell France
The moment I step off Ahab's boat, my legs start to give way and I find myself flopping onto my back, lungs aching under heavy breathing and slightly hysterical laughter.
"Ah, Senpai-!?" Mash glances at me with a worried expression.
"I… I'm fine, Mash-tan," I gasp out through heavy breaths. "I'm just… so glad to be alive right now…"
"Um, that's…" What's with that disappointed - oh.
"You did great, Mash," I say, grinning at her. "I wasn't talking about fighting Prelati; that guy was a piece of cake." That's what happens when you put all of your skill points into magic, idiot! Sure, I got a little worried when you pulled that knife, but I think even those alleyway thugs in Lugnica were scarier than you! Eat shit, Prelati!
"R-right!" She nods, giving a small smile. "I guess the rest of it was sort of scary on its own, huh?"
"'Sort of scary' she says…" I mutter, sitting up. "But moving past that for a moment… Hey, Doctor, how long have we got before we need to rayshift out of here?"
"Sorry to tell you, you'll be dealing with me from here on out, Natsuki," Says Director Olga Marie as she appears in response to my question. "To answer - You've got about ten minutes before you leave. And to answer your next question - between the strain of two Round Table knights on the generators and the summoning of Hassan-i-Sabbah, we only have the power for you to bring back one extra tag-along from France."
"-Right, there's still that issue!" I say, springing to my feet. "Director-!"
"Everything at Chaldea has been resolved." Olga says, smirking. "Chaldea staff member John Marcus, true name Francois Prelati, has been detained. His summoned servant, Francois Prelati, was dispatched by Hassan-i-Sabbah, summoned by Auxiliary Master Cerejeira Elron on my orders."
WHAT.
"Fundamentally, I'd prefer to just kill him, but I still haven't got the slightest clue how his reincarnation trick works. I won't have him possessing staff members or stalking Chaldea's ventilation ducts like some movie monster. For the time being, we're going to put him on ice in one of the spare coffins - Romani's overseeing that right now," She explains.
"Ugh… I feel like that's just begging for something to go wrong and let him loose again…" I mutter. "But… seriously, nice work, Director. I'm… so…fucking glad, you caught him so fast…" By the end of my sentence, I can feel tears of relief welling up in my eyes.
I could have lost. If she hadn't been on top of it, I totally see a world where he could have ambushed me on my way out of the singularity and trapped me in another neverending hell.
"R-right." The Director gives a small cough. "In any case - excellent work on your end as well, Natsuki. There was that small hiccup in that reality marble, but that's about it! If every singularity goes this smoothly, we'll have an easy job on our hands!"
…
I can't help the absolute shudder that runs through my body. Don't let her get to you, Subaru, she doesn't know-!
"If any of the others are this hard I'm going to freaking cry!" I shout.
***
Of course, for all the struggle I went through, I can't deny that it was basically a perfect victory.
There's Ahab, of course. But I had kind of already made my peace with that one - I saw his memories, after all. There was no exit from this singularity that wouldn't involve him burning himself in the same manner, I think. Even if he had survived, bringing him along with me would have pissed off Satella at some point, so…
And then, as for the matter of Napoleon… somehow, his argument convinced me. Once he said it was alright with him, I just kind of… stepped past it. His [Charisma] skill, maybe? Of course, given enough time for it to sink in, I think I would have felt guilty about it, but-
"Anyway, it turns out that it was a curse of mummification, not petrification!" The hologram of Napoleon says with a laugh. "I've got a pretty good advantage against Egyptian curses specifically, so once I got moving, it pretty much just slid right off of me!"
"Give me back my mental anguish…" I mutter, pinching my brow.
"Of course, it doesn't matter that much in the end." He continues with a wry laugh. "Everything wrapped up before I could get enough mana to take another shot, and now that I've renounced my Grand status my vision's nowhere near as good."
"Right, about that!" The Director asks. "What on earth is a Grand Servant!?"
"In worlds where the Counter Force is strong enough, there appear certain monsters, called [Beasts], born from the Sins of Humanity, to test the strength of the Human Order," Saint George says. "The Grand Servants are then summoned to oppose them - the mightiest of each class, manifested in vessels so far beyond a normal Servant as to make one a mere disposable familiar in comparison."
"Ooh la la! Have you played such a role in the past, monsieur?" Napoleon asks.
"I have no clear memory of it - but if I had, it would have been as Grand Lancer, against some manner of demonic dragon," the Saint replies. "In any case, the question is - Emperor Bonaparte, was that sea monster your target?"
What does he-?
Napoleon closes his eyes. "It wasn't. Whatever Beast was supposed to manifest in this singularity - it never made an appearance. I get the feeling that the danger has passed for now, but… VII of the End, who was supposed to appear here, was not at any point encountered."
Oh. Ooooohhhhh…
That name… Flauros used it, back in Fuyuki, when he met Satella while trying to possess me. Isn't this… really freaking bad?
(Something buzzes in the background of Olga's transmission.)
Could Napoleon have beaten her? Could he have stopped her from resetting the world, had he been in position to see her after I died? With that gun of his, which pierces impossibility, I'm not certain I can say no.
(Something buzzes again, and I see her pick up a phone and look at it.)
Are these guys gonna be my enemies going forward? On top of all this other crap, am I gonna have to contend with-!?
"Oh it's Romani's," The director says. "That stupid internet idol of hiiiIIS WAIT A SECOND-!? How the hell is this Magi☆Mari chick sending messages right now!?" She can pronounce the star!?
"Idols are magic, obviously," Elizabeth says - oh, she was paying attention? She's been chattering with Marie this whole time…
"I think the Doctor said he was guessing she had some kind of AI set up to answer after long periods of absence…" Mash says… not a chance!
"Machine learning isn't anywhere near that advanced!" I protest.
"The… true VII got her place usurped, so it's really not that big of a deal!?" The Director starts reading one of the messages on Romani's phone out loud, her voice slowly growing more baffled with each sentence. "False VII is… mostly helpful in the long run so just take the extra help and be grateful!? YOU'RE WELCOME FOR SUPPLEMENTING YOUR GENERATORS DURING FUYUKI☆!?" She screams, but she's still diligent enough to pronounce the star! As expected of Chaldea's director!
With a deep breath, I see her depositing the phone offscreen. "Romani and I are going to have a long conversation later!" That smile on your face is really menacing, Director!
"Fou!" A little furball cries as he crawls onto Mash's shoulder - hey, why've you got a menacing expression too, Fou-kun!?
***
As a group, everyone is disinclined to take the advice of strange internet idols - but with no answers to the mystery forthcoming (and me keeping my mouth shut about a certain stalker of mine), eventually the conversation drifts to its next subject.
"So, coming with us-" I start to say.
"Not it!" Amadeus shouts without an ounce of hesitation.
"R-right…" And just like that, all my momentum is gone. Of course, not bringing a secret Demon Pillar along is common sense, but still-!
I pause, and glance at the candidates. Jeanne d'Arc. Marie Antoinette. Saint George. Elizabeth Bathory. Merry, Napoleon, and Siegfried are still halfway across the country, but we might be able to do something to get them to come along. And then there's also-
"Wait, where the hell did Dantes go!?" I ask.
"Hm? That guy teleported away the moment Prelati went down." Mozart says. "I think his last words were something along the lines of-" He clears his throat, and shifts into a slightly nasally impersonation. "So that's how it is. Kuhaha! Very well, Natsuki Subaru. Kuhaha! The next time you see me will be hellish indeed! Kuhaha! But even so - wait and hope! Kuhaha!"
"You obviously threw in at least three extra 'Kuhaha's!" I counter.
"All four of them were my own addition - but the fact that you couldn't tell that is what makes my impression perfect!" The composer retorts gleefully.
"Um, on that note, why was he on our side anyway?" I see a hologram of Merry appear. "He attacked Lord Siegfried just a few days ago…"
"Well, he's a character from a novel, so Mozart's music was able to shake his madness enough to help us." Luckily, we prepared that excuse ahead of time!
"Hm, I had guessed it wouldn't be that effective, but if you want to give me the credit, I'll take it!" He laughs - and then he starts glowing. "Whoops, I guess that's it, everyone. Like I said, I don't really feel like coming along, so don't get upset or anything - I wouldn't mind some applause, though!"
I close my eyes for a moment - and then, after I'm sure I've suppressed the tears, I open them again as I start to clap. "Yeah. Bravo, Amadeus. Thanks for everything."
He melts into golden dust and floats away on the breeze.
"On that note, I believe this is where I step off as well." Jeanne says, and I flinch. Yeah, that one hurts. She's pretty much been with us from the start, after all. But, like Mozart- "Not only was my summoning incomplete, you already have Mash to provide protection. You need someone with firepower - I just don't make the cut."
"That's…" It can't be helped. She's right, after all. I knew this was coming. So instead of apologizing- "Yeah. Thanks for everything, Jeanne."
She smiles back at me, and in a shower of golden dust, she too is gone.
But at this rate, I should probably… "Merry-"
"No, no, no! Absolutely not!" She makes an x with both arms, shaking her head rapidly. "I'm going to stay right here in France where I belong! S-so what if all of my descendants are going to be killed in some horrible apocalyptic revolution a few centuries from now, I still-!"
"Oh, um, on that note!" A portly face appears on the Chaldea side of the transmission. "Hi, Mademoiselle Merry, I'm Jingel Abel Meuniere, I was observing your side of the fight, and-" He pauses and scratches his head for a moment. "Well, to put it simply, I'm from Lyon, and my grandmother's pretty much the spitting image of you. So whatever that guy - Sanson, I guess? -Whatever Sanson said, I can assure you that your family doesn't die out or anything."
"O-oh! I'm… really glad. Thanks, Monsieur Meuniere." She gives a hesitant smile.
"Hey, I'm your great-however-many-times grandson, you should just call me Jingel." He says with a smile of his own, and she lets out a charming laugh in response.
I cough. "-Anyway, what I was saying was, if Siegfried or Napoleon wants to come along with Chaldea, we're probably going to need your help for it."
"O-oh! Right!" She says. "What should I-?"
"Hmm… well as nice as that sounds, I think I'll refuse, Monsieur." Napoleon interrupts. "Between you and me, I just about broke my cannon with that last shot. Not to mention I'll never live up to this level of performance again… Hmph, why couldn't I have left a striking statue on the French shore? Wouldn't that have been more suited to me?" By the end of his refusal, he's practically pouting…
"...And if you want a dragonslayer, well… you've already got one there, right?" Siegfried says. "Not to mention, I doubt I'd make it in time. Sorry."
"...Yeah, that's about how I figured it would play out." I mutter as the communication closes.
In the end, he makes a good point. Out of everyone here-
"I don't wish to be prideful, but-" Saint George says.
"Yes, you're indubitably the best pick, no?" Marie says."I don't mind."
"R-right! If my rival doesn't mind, then I don't mind either!" Elizabeth gives a forced nod, and then she points at me. "Okay, I'll be sure to keep a spot as my manager open, so make sure you find me in the very next singularity, okay Fishie?"
…She'll forget about that promise. I know that, it's how Servants work. Besides, the odds of running into the same exact Servant in wildly different singularities are slim to none. But… "If you somehow manage to remember everything… I'll take that role."
A wide smile splits her face as her eyes light up - and then forcing herself to make a serious expression, she coughs. "Okay! I'll see you - hey, Mash, where are you guys going next again?"
"A singularity in the Ocean-" Mash starts to answer.
"Beach episode! Okay, the long awaited Summer Eliza will make an appearance, so you better be ready, Fishie!" She says with a grin - and then, she dissolves into golden dust, blown away on the wind.
"Her energy really is lovely, isn't it?" Maire asks with a laugh, and I finally turn to look at her. "But I suppose this is where we part, Subaru, Mash. It was lovely meeting you both - Vive la France!"
"Vive la France, Marie!" Mash replies with a smile.
"Yeah. Vive la France." I say, and as I wave, she too disappears.
On that note of finality, I finally turn to look at Gareth and Saint George. "Ah, she kind of just ignored you guys…"
"That's normal." Gareth says. "There's a special relationship between Servants and living humans, after all."
"Um, does that apply to me?" Mash asks.
"Absolutely! You're alive, aren't you?" Gareth retorts, and Mash gives a small smile.
"But I guess this means… Welcome aboard, Georgios!" I say. "Sorry if it feels like some kind of last man standing thing…"
"It's quite fine, Subaru." He says. "Still, Georgios, huh? I think only Ahab was calling me by that name…"
"Y-yeah, I heard him calling you that, and I don't really want to use the full title the whole time you're here, so…"
"Well, that is my name." He says with a chuckle. "Feel free to call me by it - perhaps I'll be able to stop myself from getting too prideful if you do."
"Right, I did notice you were doing a bit of a humblebrag thing when you fought Lobster…" I mutter - and to my shock I see him blush in response.
"I-indeed. Forgive me if I offended you." He says.
***
In the moments that follow, a contract is made, and the rayshift process begins - and I remember something at the last minute.
"Hey, Merry, how did things go with Watcher? Did he disappear properly?" I ask
"Y-yes, he's gone," she says, nodding hesitantly - and then, she grits her teeth and looks away from me. "But- he said he would curse you, Monsieur Subaru. That no Ocean would ever be safe for you, and you would regret making an enemy of him."
Ugh, and the next singularity is an ocean? This is gonna suck… But I don't want to part with her having such a miserable expression on her face.
"Ah! That bastard!" I shout, clenching my fist with exaggerated fury. "That must be why I get seasick so easily!"
Merry lets out a peal of slightly shocked laughter, and with that I'm satisfied.
The world melts into a tunnel of blue light.
***
"-[Attendre, Espérer]."
"What-" Jeanne d'Arc Alter coughs as her body is restored by her final Servant's Noble Phantasm. "-what a freaking help you were, Count."
"Kuhahaha! And yet, I'm the last one standing, am I not, my Master? And you truly became an Avenger, as I promised," The Count of Monte Cristo laughs in response. "To think it would be Gilles's death that pushed you over the edge - I suppose he was useful after all, in the end. Wait and hope, right?"
"...So fucking annoying! As if things would have gone anywhere near as bad without you going AWOL!" She shouts. "As if I wanted to be like this! It's awful. I feel sick. I never asked to become something like you, idiot!"
"You did not ask, my Master. But turning you into an Avenger was the form my Mad devotion took." The Count says, grinning, and for the first time she notices the sparks of hatred in his eyes are directed at her. "So that you would become 'real'. So that you might be punished properly."
"Tch." The Dragon witch snarls. "So that's how it is. Is there a single one of you fuckers that wasn't secretly resenting me? So annoying."
"The path of vengeance is a lonely one - did I not tell you that from the start?" He retorts. "But do not compare my resentment to theirs. These embers of rage, inherited from all those you have slain - I have hung onto every one of them. An Avenger never forgets, after all. Even across twenty-seven repetitions."
"What nonsense are you spewing now, you pointless asshole?" She says, voice rising to a roar. "If you're going to kill me… just do it!"
Red fire dances along her flag. Black fire crackles in his hands.
"[La Grondement Du Haine]!"
"[Enfer Château d'If]!"
On an isolated French hillside, after everything is over, long past the point where it would have mattered, two Avengers spend the last of their mana reserves and die in agony amidst a storm of cursed fire.
The moment I step off Ahab's boat, my legs start to give way and I find myself flopping onto my back, lungs aching under heavy breathing and slightly hysterical laughter.
"Ah, Senpai-!?" Mash glances at me with a worried expression.
"I… I'm fine, Mash-tan," I gasp out through heavy breaths. "I'm just… so glad to be alive right now…"
"Um, that's…" What's with that disappointed - oh.
"You did great, Mash," I say, grinning at her. "I wasn't talking about fighting Prelati; that guy was a piece of cake." That's what happens when you put all of your skill points into magic, idiot! Sure, I got a little worried when you pulled that knife, but I think even those alleyway thugs in Lugnica were scarier than you! Eat shit, Prelati!
"R-right!" She nods, giving a small smile. "I guess the rest of it was sort of scary on its own, huh?"
"'Sort of scary' she says…" I mutter, sitting up. "But moving past that for a moment… Hey, Doctor, how long have we got before we need to rayshift out of here?"
"Sorry to tell you, you'll be dealing with me from here on out, Natsuki," Says Director Olga Marie as she appears in response to my question. "To answer - You've got about ten minutes before you leave. And to answer your next question - between the strain of two Round Table knights on the generators and the summoning of Hassan-i-Sabbah, we only have the power for you to bring back one extra tag-along from France."
"-Right, there's still that issue!" I say, springing to my feet. "Director-!"
"Everything at Chaldea has been resolved." Olga says, smirking. "Chaldea staff member John Marcus, true name Francois Prelati, has been detained. His summoned servant, Francois Prelati, was dispatched by Hassan-i-Sabbah, summoned by Auxiliary Master Cerejeira Elron on my orders."
WHAT.
"Fundamentally, I'd prefer to just kill him, but I still haven't got the slightest clue how his reincarnation trick works. I won't have him possessing staff members or stalking Chaldea's ventilation ducts like some movie monster. For the time being, we're going to put him on ice in one of the spare coffins - Romani's overseeing that right now," She explains.
"Ugh… I feel like that's just begging for something to go wrong and let him loose again…" I mutter. "But… seriously, nice work, Director. I'm… so…fucking glad, you caught him so fast…" By the end of my sentence, I can feel tears of relief welling up in my eyes.
I could have lost. If she hadn't been on top of it, I totally see a world where he could have ambushed me on my way out of the singularity and trapped me in another neverending hell.
"R-right." The Director gives a small cough. "In any case - excellent work on your end as well, Natsuki. There was that small hiccup in that reality marble, but that's about it! If every singularity goes this smoothly, we'll have an easy job on our hands!"
…
I can't help the absolute shudder that runs through my body. Don't let her get to you, Subaru, she doesn't know-!
"If any of the others are this hard I'm going to freaking cry!" I shout.
***
Of course, for all the struggle I went through, I can't deny that it was basically a perfect victory.
There's Ahab, of course. But I had kind of already made my peace with that one - I saw his memories, after all. There was no exit from this singularity that wouldn't involve him burning himself in the same manner, I think. Even if he had survived, bringing him along with me would have pissed off Satella at some point, so…
And then, as for the matter of Napoleon… somehow, his argument convinced me. Once he said it was alright with him, I just kind of… stepped past it. His [Charisma] skill, maybe? Of course, given enough time for it to sink in, I think I would have felt guilty about it, but-
"Anyway, it turns out that it was a curse of mummification, not petrification!" The hologram of Napoleon says with a laugh. "I've got a pretty good advantage against Egyptian curses specifically, so once I got moving, it pretty much just slid right off of me!"
"Give me back my mental anguish…" I mutter, pinching my brow.
"Of course, it doesn't matter that much in the end." He continues with a wry laugh. "Everything wrapped up before I could get enough mana to take another shot, and now that I've renounced my Grand status my vision's nowhere near as good."
"Right, about that!" The Director asks. "What on earth is a Grand Servant!?"
"In worlds where the Counter Force is strong enough, there appear certain monsters, called [Beasts], born from the Sins of Humanity, to test the strength of the Human Order," Saint George says. "The Grand Servants are then summoned to oppose them - the mightiest of each class, manifested in vessels so far beyond a normal Servant as to make one a mere disposable familiar in comparison."
"Ooh la la! Have you played such a role in the past, monsieur?" Napoleon asks.
"I have no clear memory of it - but if I had, it would have been as Grand Lancer, against some manner of demonic dragon," the Saint replies. "In any case, the question is - Emperor Bonaparte, was that sea monster your target?"
What does he-?
Napoleon closes his eyes. "It wasn't. Whatever Beast was supposed to manifest in this singularity - it never made an appearance. I get the feeling that the danger has passed for now, but… VII of the End, who was supposed to appear here, was not at any point encountered."
Oh. Ooooohhhhh…
That name… Flauros used it, back in Fuyuki, when he met Satella while trying to possess me. Isn't this… really freaking bad?
(Something buzzes in the background of Olga's transmission.)
Could Napoleon have beaten her? Could he have stopped her from resetting the world, had he been in position to see her after I died? With that gun of his, which pierces impossibility, I'm not certain I can say no.
(Something buzzes again, and I see her pick up a phone and look at it.)
Are these guys gonna be my enemies going forward? On top of all this other crap, am I gonna have to contend with-!?
"Oh it's Romani's," The director says. "That stupid internet idol of hiiiIIS WAIT A SECOND-!? How the hell is this Magi☆Mari chick sending messages right now!?" She can pronounce the star!?
"Idols are magic, obviously," Elizabeth says - oh, she was paying attention? She's been chattering with Marie this whole time…
"I think the Doctor said he was guessing she had some kind of AI set up to answer after long periods of absence…" Mash says… not a chance!
"Machine learning isn't anywhere near that advanced!" I protest.
"The… true VII got her place usurped, so it's really not that big of a deal!?" The Director starts reading one of the messages on Romani's phone out loud, her voice slowly growing more baffled with each sentence. "False VII is… mostly helpful in the long run so just take the extra help and be grateful!? YOU'RE WELCOME FOR SUPPLEMENTING YOUR GENERATORS DURING FUYUKI☆!?" She screams, but she's still diligent enough to pronounce the star! As expected of Chaldea's director!
With a deep breath, I see her depositing the phone offscreen. "Romani and I are going to have a long conversation later!" That smile on your face is really menacing, Director!
"Fou!" A little furball cries as he crawls onto Mash's shoulder - hey, why've you got a menacing expression too, Fou-kun!?
***
As a group, everyone is disinclined to take the advice of strange internet idols - but with no answers to the mystery forthcoming (and me keeping my mouth shut about a certain stalker of mine), eventually the conversation drifts to its next subject.
"So, coming with us-" I start to say.
"Not it!" Amadeus shouts without an ounce of hesitation.
"R-right…" And just like that, all my momentum is gone. Of course, not bringing a secret Demon Pillar along is common sense, but still-!
I pause, and glance at the candidates. Jeanne d'Arc. Marie Antoinette. Saint George. Elizabeth Bathory. Merry, Napoleon, and Siegfried are still halfway across the country, but we might be able to do something to get them to come along. And then there's also-
"Wait, where the hell did Dantes go!?" I ask.
"Hm? That guy teleported away the moment Prelati went down." Mozart says. "I think his last words were something along the lines of-" He clears his throat, and shifts into a slightly nasally impersonation. "So that's how it is. Kuhaha! Very well, Natsuki Subaru. Kuhaha! The next time you see me will be hellish indeed! Kuhaha! But even so - wait and hope! Kuhaha!"
"You obviously threw in at least three extra 'Kuhaha's!" I counter.
"All four of them were my own addition - but the fact that you couldn't tell that is what makes my impression perfect!" The composer retorts gleefully.
"Um, on that note, why was he on our side anyway?" I see a hologram of Merry appear. "He attacked Lord Siegfried just a few days ago…"
"Well, he's a character from a novel, so Mozart's music was able to shake his madness enough to help us." Luckily, we prepared that excuse ahead of time!
"Hm, I had guessed it wouldn't be that effective, but if you want to give me the credit, I'll take it!" He laughs - and then he starts glowing. "Whoops, I guess that's it, everyone. Like I said, I don't really feel like coming along, so don't get upset or anything - I wouldn't mind some applause, though!"
I close my eyes for a moment - and then, after I'm sure I've suppressed the tears, I open them again as I start to clap. "Yeah. Bravo, Amadeus. Thanks for everything."
He melts into golden dust and floats away on the breeze.
"On that note, I believe this is where I step off as well." Jeanne says, and I flinch. Yeah, that one hurts. She's pretty much been with us from the start, after all. But, like Mozart- "Not only was my summoning incomplete, you already have Mash to provide protection. You need someone with firepower - I just don't make the cut."
"That's…" It can't be helped. She's right, after all. I knew this was coming. So instead of apologizing- "Yeah. Thanks for everything, Jeanne."
She smiles back at me, and in a shower of golden dust, she too is gone.
But at this rate, I should probably… "Merry-"
"No, no, no! Absolutely not!" She makes an x with both arms, shaking her head rapidly. "I'm going to stay right here in France where I belong! S-so what if all of my descendants are going to be killed in some horrible apocalyptic revolution a few centuries from now, I still-!"
"Oh, um, on that note!" A portly face appears on the Chaldea side of the transmission. "Hi, Mademoiselle Merry, I'm Jingel Abel Meuniere, I was observing your side of the fight, and-" He pauses and scratches his head for a moment. "Well, to put it simply, I'm from Lyon, and my grandmother's pretty much the spitting image of you. So whatever that guy - Sanson, I guess? -Whatever Sanson said, I can assure you that your family doesn't die out or anything."
"O-oh! I'm… really glad. Thanks, Monsieur Meuniere." She gives a hesitant smile.
"Hey, I'm your great-however-many-times grandson, you should just call me Jingel." He says with a smile of his own, and she lets out a charming laugh in response.
I cough. "-Anyway, what I was saying was, if Siegfried or Napoleon wants to come along with Chaldea, we're probably going to need your help for it."
"O-oh! Right!" She says. "What should I-?"
"Hmm… well as nice as that sounds, I think I'll refuse, Monsieur." Napoleon interrupts. "Between you and me, I just about broke my cannon with that last shot. Not to mention I'll never live up to this level of performance again… Hmph, why couldn't I have left a striking statue on the French shore? Wouldn't that have been more suited to me?" By the end of his refusal, he's practically pouting…
"...And if you want a dragonslayer, well… you've already got one there, right?" Siegfried says. "Not to mention, I doubt I'd make it in time. Sorry."
"...Yeah, that's about how I figured it would play out." I mutter as the communication closes.
In the end, he makes a good point. Out of everyone here-
"I don't wish to be prideful, but-" Saint George says.
"Yes, you're indubitably the best pick, no?" Marie says."I don't mind."
"R-right! If my rival doesn't mind, then I don't mind either!" Elizabeth gives a forced nod, and then she points at me. "Okay, I'll be sure to keep a spot as my manager open, so make sure you find me in the very next singularity, okay Fishie?"
…She'll forget about that promise. I know that, it's how Servants work. Besides, the odds of running into the same exact Servant in wildly different singularities are slim to none. But… "If you somehow manage to remember everything… I'll take that role."
A wide smile splits her face as her eyes light up - and then forcing herself to make a serious expression, she coughs. "Okay! I'll see you - hey, Mash, where are you guys going next again?"
"A singularity in the Ocean-" Mash starts to answer.
"Beach episode! Okay, the long awaited Summer Eliza will make an appearance, so you better be ready, Fishie!" She says with a grin - and then, she dissolves into golden dust, blown away on the wind.
"Her energy really is lovely, isn't it?" Maire asks with a laugh, and I finally turn to look at her. "But I suppose this is where we part, Subaru, Mash. It was lovely meeting you both - Vive la France!"
"Vive la France, Marie!" Mash replies with a smile.
"Yeah. Vive la France." I say, and as I wave, she too disappears.
On that note of finality, I finally turn to look at Gareth and Saint George. "Ah, she kind of just ignored you guys…"
"That's normal." Gareth says. "There's a special relationship between Servants and living humans, after all."
"Um, does that apply to me?" Mash asks.
"Absolutely! You're alive, aren't you?" Gareth retorts, and Mash gives a small smile.
"But I guess this means… Welcome aboard, Georgios!" I say. "Sorry if it feels like some kind of last man standing thing…"
"It's quite fine, Subaru." He says. "Still, Georgios, huh? I think only Ahab was calling me by that name…"
"Y-yeah, I heard him calling you that, and I don't really want to use the full title the whole time you're here, so…"
"Well, that is my name." He says with a chuckle. "Feel free to call me by it - perhaps I'll be able to stop myself from getting too prideful if you do."
"Right, I did notice you were doing a bit of a humblebrag thing when you fought Lobster…" I mutter - and to my shock I see him blush in response.
"I-indeed. Forgive me if I offended you." He says.
***
In the moments that follow, a contract is made, and the rayshift process begins - and I remember something at the last minute.
"Hey, Merry, how did things go with Watcher? Did he disappear properly?" I ask
"Y-yes, he's gone," she says, nodding hesitantly - and then, she grits her teeth and looks away from me. "But- he said he would curse you, Monsieur Subaru. That no Ocean would ever be safe for you, and you would regret making an enemy of him."
Ugh, and the next singularity is an ocean? This is gonna suck… But I don't want to part with her having such a miserable expression on her face.
"Ah! That bastard!" I shout, clenching my fist with exaggerated fury. "That must be why I get seasick so easily!"
Merry lets out a peal of slightly shocked laughter, and with that I'm satisfied.
The world melts into a tunnel of blue light.
***
"-[Attendre, Espérer]."
"What-" Jeanne d'Arc Alter coughs as her body is restored by her final Servant's Noble Phantasm. "-what a freaking help you were, Count."
"Kuhahaha! And yet, I'm the last one standing, am I not, my Master? And you truly became an Avenger, as I promised," The Count of Monte Cristo laughs in response. "To think it would be Gilles's death that pushed you over the edge - I suppose he was useful after all, in the end. Wait and hope, right?"
"...So fucking annoying! As if things would have gone anywhere near as bad without you going AWOL!" She shouts. "As if I wanted to be like this! It's awful. I feel sick. I never asked to become something like you, idiot!"
"You did not ask, my Master. But turning you into an Avenger was the form my Mad devotion took." The Count says, grinning, and for the first time she notices the sparks of hatred in his eyes are directed at her. "So that you would become 'real'. So that you might be punished properly."
"Tch." The Dragon witch snarls. "So that's how it is. Is there a single one of you fuckers that wasn't secretly resenting me? So annoying."
"The path of vengeance is a lonely one - did I not tell you that from the start?" He retorts. "But do not compare my resentment to theirs. These embers of rage, inherited from all those you have slain - I have hung onto every one of them. An Avenger never forgets, after all. Even across twenty-seven repetitions."
"What nonsense are you spewing now, you pointless asshole?" She says, voice rising to a roar. "If you're going to kill me… just do it!"
Red fire dances along her flag. Black fire crackles in his hands.
"[La Grondement Du Haine]!"
"[Enfer Château d'If]!"
On an isolated French hillside, after everything is over, long past the point where it would have mattered, two Avengers spend the last of their mana reserves and die in agony amidst a storm of cursed fire.
This officially ends the France singularity. Next will be three or four chapters at Chaldea, plus another flashback chapter to the pre-Chaldea loops.
I'll probably drop my final notes on this singularty sometime around then - and then there's an IF story I've got cooked up that I'm not sure if I should use now or save for April.
Beyond that, "Four Day Maelstrom - Okeanos" will begin. Thanks for supporting me these past three freaking years and hopefully the next singularity goes faster.
I'll probably drop my final notes on this singularty sometime around then - and then there's an IF story I've got cooked up that I'm not sure if I should use now or save for April.
Beyond that, "Four Day Maelstrom - Okeanos" will begin. Thanks for supporting me these past three freaking years and hopefully the next singularity goes faster.
ExNihilo
SPACE!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Grand Lancer Saint George...
I never learned that guy's first name, so the fact that it's canonically Jingle Bell was really a shock to me.
What could possibly be a better end for two super-chuuni avengers than killing each other with cursed fire after everything has been solved?
I never learned that guy's first name, so the fact that it's canonically Jingle Bell was really a shock to me.
What could possibly be a better end for two super-chuuni avengers than killing each other with cursed fire after everything has been solved?
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Wait, his name is Jingle Bell George???
Xorn
Master Procrastinator
- Location
- Somewhere I won't be able to rest in peace
Pretty sure he's talking about Jingle Abel Meuniere, not Saint George.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
I figured, but that was my initial thought, so I posted it anyway.
EX2: Quasar
Xorn
Master Procrastinator
- Location
- Somewhere I won't be able to rest in peace
EX2: Quasar
Before Chaldea, Loop Nineteen
"...How the hell did I let that woman talk me into this?" I wondered once again as I took another step along the steep mountain path. "Go to Atlas, she says! They're all about protecting the world from destruction, she says!"
My throat was so dry. It was so freaking hot - am I even going to be able to find the entrance before I die of thirst?
…
"GaaAAAHH! Aozaki, you bitch! I really thought I had gotten through to you, but in the end you just sent me off to die again, huh!?" I finally shouted, falling into a sitting position on a boulder.
I can't move my legs. Am I seriously going to die here, just like this?
…Fuck it. I had assumed Aozaki Touko was my best chance for someone I could reason with, compared to those Burial Agency psychos and the Chinese mages. But this was the fifth time she had responded to my good intentions with cold-blooded murder. I'd have to try the Church again. Maybe if I could split Mr. Dawn from his partner…
A shadow fell over me. "You got a little bit lost, didn't you?" It's a woman's voice.
Squinting, I looked up from my seat to see a purple-eyed woman with long purple twintails smiling down at me. Her skirt and blazer combo seemed ill-suited for these desert mountains, and her pale skin made it obvious she wasn't from town, which meant-
"Atlas…?" I rasped.
"Indeed, I am from the Atlas Institute! The director sent me to pick you up once he realized that you had not found the entrance." She responded, her smile getting a little shaky by the end of her second sentence. She extends a hand to me. "Can you stand?"
"Heh… who do you think you're talking to?" A smug grin settled on my face, and with a grin I pointed my thumb towards myself. "I'm Natsuki Subaru! Not only am I clueless, I also can't feel my legs in the slightest!"
She gave a small chuckle. "Then I am Sion Eltnam Sokaris! Not only am I a genius, I also have magecraft for just this situation! [Rain of Isis]!"
S-she responded in kind to my greeting! Could this be… one of my people?
***
"-But actually, that was all a joke! I do not actually want you to become my slave, so you can relax." My brief time with Sion during our walk into the Titan's Pit was indeed enough to confirm: just like me, this girl was a social moron! "Enough of that, though. What actually brings you here, Subaru?"
My face fell, a serious expression replacing my previous bemused grin. "It may be hard to believe, but… unless something is done to stop it, the world will end three months from now."
"Oh, I see." She accepted my words without a hint of doubt. "In that case, you are well suited to Atlas."
I ought to have felt relief at her words. Not even my own parents believed me instantly; to have someone finally just accept what I was saying should have been a breath of fresh air. But what I felt instead was a sense of vertigo. That answer wasn't right. It was at odds with every standard of common sense to simply accept a baseless assertion like that.
That was my first glimpse of the madness at the heart of the Atlas Institute.
I don't remember what we talked about after that. Sion led me through the winding tunnels of that place, I dimly recall, and after that, I wound up-
"...So this is the script I'm working with." The man I could only assume to be the Director of Atlas said as he turned away from - a crystal ball!? Seriously!? The blond man gave a self-satisfied smirk as he closed his blood red eyes. "Wonderful. I've been curious how this particular play would end for a few centuries now."
I blinked. I had thought, when Sion came to get me, that she was acting on Aozaki having sent a message ahead or something. But now it seems like… "What… do you mean by that, Director…?" I didn't actually know his name.
"Zepia Eltnam Atlasia," he answered, and once more he opened those eyes, prompting a shudder from me. But it was what he spoke next that truly unsettled me. "-In accordance with the request of the contract holder, the self-proclaimed Sage Flugel, I'll hand it over now."
My eyes widened. Barely, through gritted teeth, I spoke in reply, "What the hell… was that guy doing here?"
He was from Earth originally. I knew that. But judging by some of the things Shaula said, the guy had to have been from relatively recent times. We just arrived at different points in the timeline, or something. And yet, Zepia said he had arrived hundreds of years ago.
He withdrew something from a fold in his cloak. A palm-sized cube - probably silver, with black and white enamel in various places upon it. Something about the geometric designs on it evoked the appearance of a face - and then, to my shock, the moment he dropped it in my hand, the 'eyes' of said face opened
It blinked, once, turning in place to look back and forth. Something about its movements seemed reminiscent of the bad CGI in a low-budget movie. Finally, turning back towards me with an expression that seemed vaguely smug, it spoke.
"Oh, you're here." It - no, her voice was familiar. "I've been waiting a pretty long time, you know." Using 'boku' instead of 'watashi' again, huh?
I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I'm gonna punch that guy if we ever meet." Why the hell would he leave me something like this!? Putting aside the how, why did the voice from that world to find me in this one have to be hers?
"I won't oppose you getting angry on my behalf," she said. "He was cruel enough to abandon me here even after saying that in the best case I'd never meet you! Isn't that just-!"
"-Shut the hell up, Echidna." I finally said. "And quit it with the 'boku' thing, I'm already aware of your true nature."
"Right, you'd have to be pretty far along to meet Pandora," she replied pensively. "Oh, by the way, the name Flugel gave me wasQuasar ."
"Like I care, Boxdona." I shot back without mercy.
"Hm? I'm curious about that hostility of yours. Did my original screw things up somewhere along the line?" Boxdona asked.
"It's that damned curiosity of yours that's the problem! What you did to Beatrice-!" I started to say.
"-I don't know who that is, sorry." She cut me off. "I don't actually have most of the original's memories, after all. I'm just a pseudo-personality created based on Flugel's impressions of the Witch Echidna."
"That's pretty damn convenient for you, isn't it!?" I shouted.
The sound of clapping finally drew my attention away from the box. "Amusing! Very amusing!" Zepia said, grinning. "But I do have an apocalypse to avert, so as pleasant as this has been, I must ask you to leave my office."
"-Right! Three months from now-!" I start to say.
"The one I am working to avert kicks in two weeks from now," He said simply. "You are not unique, I'm afraid. There is only one alchemist in Atlas not presently working to avert some sort of disaster - that's why I could send her to get you."
…
At my despondent face, he let out a small chuckle. "Well, I won't leave you completely high and dry. Go find Sion, Natsuki Subaru. Tell her I asked for her to help you. It's time that daughter of mine started putting in some hours."
***
My memories past that point are scattered. Sion taught me a few things, but I can't really recall most of them. I learned Quasar was a replica of one of Atlas's Superweapons, Logos React. A sort of magical supercomputer, used to simulate possible outcomes in the real world. She guessed that it was similar in principle to Echidna's [Book of Wisdom], but as she'd never actually seen the thing she couldn't say for certain. Of course, as a replica she was inferior to the original - but she still offered some assistance.
"There's a person called the Kaleidoscope at the Clock Tower, capable of accessing Parallel worlds. If you want to get back to Lugunica, maybe we should try talking to him? I admit, I'm pretty curious about it myself… But considering the time you've already spent here I doubt you'll be able to become prominent enough for us to meet with him before [Apocalypse Conflagration] kicks in," She offered at some point in the second month.
"Oi, bring that up sooner, dammit!" I complained.
"I would have, but you'd have just abandoned me, right?" She answered. "You only really started trusting me in the past two weeks."
"Like hell I trust you," I retorted. But in the end, she was right in a way. I guess Natsuki Subaru just isn't the type to hate those he has regular exposure to.
"In any case, I do have a tentative plan," Quasar said. "To avert the disaster, I mean. It'll be risky, though."
"I'm the type of guy who works best with risky plans. What have you got?" I said.
"We steal [RESTITVTOR ORBIS]. Or rather, the axe [Fleur de Lys]. [Apocalypse Conflagration] goes against any kind of common sense; with that superweapon active, it should be forestalled indefinitely." She replied. "Of course, it's dangerous. You'll definitely have to die a few times. But you can just use the extra time to learn more about alchemy, right?"
Against my better judgment, I agreed with her plan.
***
Needless to say, I died horribly. It's easy to enter Atlas, but leaving is all but impossible. Leaving with a superweapon in tow? I was slaughtered before I had the chance to blink.
-And then I found myself floating outside my body. Unable to speak. Unable to do anything but observe as my bloodied body slowly dried.
"What will you do now, I wonder?" Quasar asked - and in that moment, I felt all my hatred for Echidna return. I should have known better than to trust her. I should have known better, but I walked into it anyway.
Silence followed that for a long time. I couldn't do anything. I simply floated there, unable to return. Later, I would realize that Atlas's defenses had made it impossible for me to Return by Death - it was only after the incineration of humanity that they failed and I was able to return once more.
But for the time being, all I knew was despair. Had Satella abandoned me? It was Quasar's fault. It was all her fault, for talking me into this. Slowly, something about 'me' began to corrode.
She finally spoke again at some point.
"Ah… why does love always fade?"
***
French Singularity, Loop Twenty-Four
Francois Prelati
"That was some dream, huh?" I mutter, yawning. The dream cycle sure is great! "But, you know, that woman was pretty shallow."
Love doesn't fade. Love goes on forever and ever. Because love, real love, is to enjoy the way your love changes you, and the way you change your love.
"That's why, Subaru… just you wait." I'll show you the true depths of my love. All the way to the very bottom of hell.
***
Loop Twenty-Seven
It can't end here. No way, no way, no way! I haven't even begun yet!
Subaru catches my knife with his whip, and the next moment, his fist meets my face. My eye bursts and something ruptures in my brain - but there! He reinforced! He reinforced, right!?
The [Curse of the Evil Eye] I stole via Bael finds its mark as I laugh, teetering on the edge of the Pequod's railing - now I just need to - just need to-!
Wait, am I falling?
Am I really going to die like this? That's just right, if I had to lose! It'll be grisly, wonderfully violent and horrible!
My limbs are broken as the fogbound tentacles grasp and crush them.
You can't have killed many people, Natsuki Subaru. You're not the type. So scar this murder into your psyche! Come on, you hate me, right? So burn this into your heart!
This is love! This is the change I will make upon you!
…Hey, where is he?
My stomach bursts as my organs are squeezed out into the fog.
Where are you, Subaru? Shouldn't you be looking down at me? Come on, this is the death you caused, don't you want to see it!?
My ribs shatter and my lungs are crushed.
Don't you hate me? Don't you know I love you?
My head is torn off my shoulders, and I can't even scream anymore.
…Why won't you look at me?
Fog fills my vision, and then-
Nothing.
Before Chaldea, Loop Nineteen
"...How the hell did I let that woman talk me into this?" I wondered once again as I took another step along the steep mountain path. "Go to Atlas, she says! They're all about protecting the world from destruction, she says!"
My throat was so dry. It was so freaking hot - am I even going to be able to find the entrance before I die of thirst?
…
"GaaAAAHH! Aozaki, you bitch! I really thought I had gotten through to you, but in the end you just sent me off to die again, huh!?" I finally shouted, falling into a sitting position on a boulder.
I can't move my legs. Am I seriously going to die here, just like this?
…Fuck it. I had assumed Aozaki Touko was my best chance for someone I could reason with, compared to those Burial Agency psychos and the Chinese mages. But this was the fifth time she had responded to my good intentions with cold-blooded murder. I'd have to try the Church again. Maybe if I could split Mr. Dawn from his partner…
A shadow fell over me. "You got a little bit lost, didn't you?" It's a woman's voice.
Squinting, I looked up from my seat to see a purple-eyed woman with long purple twintails smiling down at me. Her skirt and blazer combo seemed ill-suited for these desert mountains, and her pale skin made it obvious she wasn't from town, which meant-
"Atlas…?" I rasped.
"Indeed, I am from the Atlas Institute! The director sent me to pick you up once he realized that you had not found the entrance." She responded, her smile getting a little shaky by the end of her second sentence. She extends a hand to me. "Can you stand?"
"Heh… who do you think you're talking to?" A smug grin settled on my face, and with a grin I pointed my thumb towards myself. "I'm Natsuki Subaru! Not only am I clueless, I also can't feel my legs in the slightest!"
She gave a small chuckle. "Then I am Sion Eltnam Sokaris! Not only am I a genius, I also have magecraft for just this situation! [Rain of Isis]!"
S-she responded in kind to my greeting! Could this be… one of my people?
***
"-But actually, that was all a joke! I do not actually want you to become my slave, so you can relax." My brief time with Sion during our walk into the Titan's Pit was indeed enough to confirm: just like me, this girl was a social moron! "Enough of that, though. What actually brings you here, Subaru?"
My face fell, a serious expression replacing my previous bemused grin. "It may be hard to believe, but… unless something is done to stop it, the world will end three months from now."
"Oh, I see." She accepted my words without a hint of doubt. "In that case, you are well suited to Atlas."
I ought to have felt relief at her words. Not even my own parents believed me instantly; to have someone finally just accept what I was saying should have been a breath of fresh air. But what I felt instead was a sense of vertigo. That answer wasn't right. It was at odds with every standard of common sense to simply accept a baseless assertion like that.
That was my first glimpse of the madness at the heart of the Atlas Institute.
I don't remember what we talked about after that. Sion led me through the winding tunnels of that place, I dimly recall, and after that, I wound up-
"...So this is the script I'm working with." The man I could only assume to be the Director of Atlas said as he turned away from - a crystal ball!? Seriously!? The blond man gave a self-satisfied smirk as he closed his blood red eyes. "Wonderful. I've been curious how this particular play would end for a few centuries now."
I blinked. I had thought, when Sion came to get me, that she was acting on Aozaki having sent a message ahead or something. But now it seems like… "What… do you mean by that, Director…?" I didn't actually know his name.
"Zepia Eltnam Atlasia," he answered, and once more he opened those eyes, prompting a shudder from me. But it was what he spoke next that truly unsettled me. "-In accordance with the request of the contract holder, the self-proclaimed Sage Flugel, I'll hand it over now."
My eyes widened. Barely, through gritted teeth, I spoke in reply, "What the hell… was that guy doing here?"
He was from Earth originally. I knew that. But judging by some of the things Shaula said, the guy had to have been from relatively recent times. We just arrived at different points in the timeline, or something. And yet, Zepia said he had arrived hundreds of years ago.
He withdrew something from a fold in his cloak. A palm-sized cube - probably silver, with black and white enamel in various places upon it. Something about the geometric designs on it evoked the appearance of a face - and then, to my shock, the moment he dropped it in my hand, the 'eyes' of said face opened
It blinked, once, turning in place to look back and forth. Something about its movements seemed reminiscent of the bad CGI in a low-budget movie. Finally, turning back towards me with an expression that seemed vaguely smug, it spoke.
"Oh, you're here." It - no, her voice was familiar. "I've been waiting a pretty long time, you know." Using 'boku' instead of 'watashi' again, huh?
I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I'm gonna punch that guy if we ever meet." Why the hell would he leave me something like this!? Putting aside the how, why did the voice from that world to find me in this one have to be hers?
"I won't oppose you getting angry on my behalf," she said. "He was cruel enough to abandon me here even after saying that in the best case I'd never meet you! Isn't that just-!"
"-Shut the hell up, Echidna." I finally said. "And quit it with the 'boku' thing, I'm already aware of your true nature."
"Right, you'd have to be pretty far along to meet Pandora," she replied pensively. "Oh, by the way, the name Flugel gave me was
"Like I care, Boxdona." I shot back without mercy.
"Hm? I'm curious about that hostility of yours. Did my original screw things up somewhere along the line?" Boxdona asked.
"It's that damned curiosity of yours that's the problem! What you did to Beatrice-!" I started to say.
"-I don't know who that is, sorry." She cut me off. "I don't actually have most of the original's memories, after all. I'm just a pseudo-personality created based on Flugel's impressions of the Witch Echidna."
"That's pretty damn convenient for you, isn't it!?" I shouted.
The sound of clapping finally drew my attention away from the box. "Amusing! Very amusing!" Zepia said, grinning. "But I do have an apocalypse to avert, so as pleasant as this has been, I must ask you to leave my office."
"-Right! Three months from now-!" I start to say.
"The one I am working to avert kicks in two weeks from now," He said simply. "You are not unique, I'm afraid. There is only one alchemist in Atlas not presently working to avert some sort of disaster - that's why I could send her to get you."
…
At my despondent face, he let out a small chuckle. "Well, I won't leave you completely high and dry. Go find Sion, Natsuki Subaru. Tell her I asked for her to help you. It's time that daughter of mine started putting in some hours."
***
My memories past that point are scattered. Sion taught me a few things, but I can't really recall most of them. I learned Quasar was a replica of one of Atlas's Superweapons, Logos React. A sort of magical supercomputer, used to simulate possible outcomes in the real world. She guessed that it was similar in principle to Echidna's [Book of Wisdom], but as she'd never actually seen the thing she couldn't say for certain. Of course, as a replica she was inferior to the original - but she still offered some assistance.
"There's a person called the Kaleidoscope at the Clock Tower, capable of accessing Parallel worlds. If you want to get back to Lugunica, maybe we should try talking to him? I admit, I'm pretty curious about it myself… But considering the time you've already spent here I doubt you'll be able to become prominent enough for us to meet with him before [Apocalypse Conflagration] kicks in," She offered at some point in the second month.
"Oi, bring that up sooner, dammit!" I complained.
"I would have, but you'd have just abandoned me, right?" She answered. "You only really started trusting me in the past two weeks."
"Like hell I trust you," I retorted. But in the end, she was right in a way. I guess Natsuki Subaru just isn't the type to hate those he has regular exposure to.
"In any case, I do have a tentative plan," Quasar said. "To avert the disaster, I mean. It'll be risky, though."
"I'm the type of guy who works best with risky plans. What have you got?" I said.
"We steal [RESTITVTOR ORBIS]. Or rather, the axe [Fleur de Lys]. [Apocalypse Conflagration] goes against any kind of common sense; with that superweapon active, it should be forestalled indefinitely." She replied. "Of course, it's dangerous. You'll definitely have to die a few times. But you can just use the extra time to learn more about alchemy, right?"
Against my better judgment, I agreed with her plan.
***
Needless to say, I died horribly. It's easy to enter Atlas, but leaving is all but impossible. Leaving with a superweapon in tow? I was slaughtered before I had the chance to blink.
-And then I found myself floating outside my body. Unable to speak. Unable to do anything but observe as my bloodied body slowly dried.
"What will you do now, I wonder?" Quasar asked - and in that moment, I felt all my hatred for Echidna return. I should have known better than to trust her. I should have known better, but I walked into it anyway.
Silence followed that for a long time. I couldn't do anything. I simply floated there, unable to return. Later, I would realize that Atlas's defenses had made it impossible for me to Return by Death - it was only after the incineration of humanity that they failed and I was able to return once more.
But for the time being, all I knew was despair. Had Satella abandoned me? It was Quasar's fault. It was all her fault, for talking me into this. Slowly, something about 'me' began to corrode.
She finally spoke again at some point.
"Ah… why does love always fade?"
***
French Singularity, Loop Twenty-Four
Francois Prelati
"That was some dream, huh?" I mutter, yawning. The dream cycle sure is great! "But, you know, that woman was pretty shallow."
Love doesn't fade. Love goes on forever and ever. Because love, real love, is to enjoy the way your love changes you, and the way you change your love.
"That's why, Subaru… just you wait." I'll show you the true depths of my love. All the way to the very bottom of hell.
***
Loop Twenty-Seven
It can't end here. No way, no way, no way! I haven't even begun yet!
Subaru catches my knife with his whip, and the next moment, his fist meets my face. My eye bursts and something ruptures in my brain - but there! He reinforced! He reinforced, right!?
The [Curse of the Evil Eye] I stole via Bael finds its mark as I laugh, teetering on the edge of the Pequod's railing - now I just need to - just need to-!
Wait, am I falling?
Am I really going to die like this? That's just right, if I had to lose! It'll be grisly, wonderfully violent and horrible!
My limbs are broken as the fogbound tentacles grasp and crush them.
You can't have killed many people, Natsuki Subaru. You're not the type. So scar this murder into your psyche! Come on, you hate me, right? So burn this into your heart!
This is love! This is the change I will make upon you!
…Hey, where is he?
My stomach bursts as my organs are squeezed out into the fog.
Where are you, Subaru? Shouldn't you be looking down at me? Come on, this is the death you caused, don't you want to see it!?
My ribs shatter and my lungs are crushed.
Don't you hate me? Don't you know I love you?
My head is torn off my shoulders, and I can't even scream anymore.
…Why won't you look at me?
Fog fills my vision, and then-
Nothing.
Last edited:
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Prolly reserve power made unnecessary things deactivate.
Xorn
Master Procrastinator
- Location
- Somewhere I won't be able to rest in peace
Subaru doesn't remember it since his 'self' had corroded away by the point he properly reset, but it wasn't strictly the Incineration that caused the defenses to fail. A lack of maintenance, or perhaps a weapon went off in the absence of humanity, or maybe just damage to the foundations of magic caused by the loss of mankind - something like that caused it, in the end.
That makes sense, I thought it was strangely fast for Subaru to experience what I assume is soul rot of some sort - Zouken lasted decades, after all.
Xorn
Master Procrastinator
- Location
- Somewhere I won't be able to rest in peace
As far as that goes, it's faster when disembodied. That's why Zouken uses the worms, after all.
102: Daily life is stressful too.
Xorn
Master Procrastinator
- Location
- Somewhere I won't be able to rest in peace
102: Daily life is stressful too.
A blue sky, choked with smoke. A green meadow, drowned in mud. At the top of that hill, I see them. Corpses, piled one upon the other. How many times?
"Guaaah! Uooo!" He continues to rage. His axe splits my skull. A stray elbow breaks my neck. His white hair is already stained red. The corpse lodged on his horns finally dies at some point.
The tower grows higher. The hole at the top vomits out more mud. How many times have I died?
"Die!" He rages. "Die, die, dieeee!"
I die again. I die again. I die again.
He's up to his knees in mud now. How much longer can he last, I wonder?
The tower grows. The mud rises. He grows larger and paler. He bites me in half. The tower grows. The mud rises.
I wake up screaming.
***
"-So that's the situation," I conclude. "I know that the plan was to give us all some down time at Chaldea, but without my [Dreamcatcher], I'm just going to get worn down."
The nightmares haven't let up in the slightest. Professor Velvet gave me some rudimentary knowledge of Feng Shui, but that's not enough now that I'm not in one of the rooms he saw with his own eyes. I've been making do with a hug pillow, but if my loops reaching Chaldea are anything to go by, I'm just going to end up more worn down as time goes on, and next thing I know I'll be agreeing to an idiotic plan to rob Atlas again.
(I miss Beatrice.)
"...To be honest, prior to a few days ago I'd say lost sleep is no reason to blitz the next singularity in search of allies," Director Olga Marie says with a sigh. "But after realizing everything my own lost sleep was causing me to miss, I can't exactly say it's not a big deal."
"Siegfried's lullaby really worked wonders, huh?" I chuckle.
"...That's not it. It was…" She looks away, and I catch a dusting of pink on her cheeks. "I-it was your strangely persuasive words, okay!? You… were right. There was so much I was missing. Ever since you scolded me, it's been like… I keep realizing, 'I'm smarter than this'."
"You're smarter than that, Olga Marie," Professor Velvet said.
His [Discerning Eye], delivered secondhand through me… that couldn't be the case, right?
"A-anyway! It was thanks to that I was able to catch Prelati before he caused permanent damage, so… thank you." She falls to a mumble.
…That reminds me. "On that note, why did you summon Assassin in secret, anyway? Just to bait him out?"
She sighs, and a severe look falls upon her face. "The plan was to corner and blackmail him. After pressuring him into signing a Geas Scroll, Elron was to dispose of Assassin in secret."
I blink. "Wait, you mean-?"
"Correct. I had no intention of informing you or anyone else that Prelati was present," She explains, even as my jaw continues to drop lower and lower. "The summoning of the Servant Prelati was what forced my hand. Even if we killed him, his presence would remain in our records; I had no choice but to come clean at that point."
"Are you crazy!?" I shout. "Just what did we gain by-!?"
"Francois Prelati was a founding member of Chaldea," she says, cutting me off. "That alone means he had expertise greater than most of the rest of our staff. But beyond that - the combat simulator was his handiwork. And as John Marcus, he was one of the key developers for FATE's Shadow Servant summoning features."
"...The shadow what now?" I ask. Shadow Servants sound scary.
She groans. "You still haven't read the introductory pamphlets have you?"
"Mash has been helping me through them…" I give a nervous laugh.
"It's a system to allow Chaldea's Masters to summon weaker copies of the Servants here at Chaldea to the battlefield. Once defeated or unneeded, they return to Chaldea instead of the Throne of Heroes, and then you can just summon them again," She says. "A perfect answer to your hang-ups about losing allies, essentially."
"Th-that's-!" That sounds way too good to be true!
"-However, that system was damaged when Lev bombed Chaldea," She says. "The other Spiritron Engineers are looking at it, but most of the formulas were incredibly complex illusioncraft - Prelati's work. With him on ice…"
"Prelatiiii…!" I hiss. How dare you get my hopes up and then dash them like that! I wish I had walked over to watch you die now, forget being the bigger man!
"...Well, what's done is done. I don't really wager we'd get much help out of him now even if we were to defrost him," Olga says. "He's got no reason to hide his true nature now, after all. Regarding your request, I'll push up the timetable, but it will still take at least a week for the grail we got from France to be properly hooked up to the generator system. In the meantime… fine, I was going to wait for Da Vinci to finish the Mystic Code I ordered, but there's no reason not to start now. Follow me, Subaru."
She stands up from her desk and immediately starts towards the door to her office without a single additional word of explanation- wait, she called me by my first name!?
Slightly flustered, I fall in behind her as she begins aggressively walking down the hall. "Um, Director, where-?"
"My workshop. Your origin is [Star and Spirit], so you should have a good aptitude for Astromancy - I'll take you on as a disciple, so be grateful!" She answers, barely slowing down.
W-wait, calling me by first name… seeing her workshop… "S-sorry Director. I'm already in love with someone else, so-!"
Director Olga Marie Animusphere promptly polymorphs into a tomato. Or at least, that's what it looks like.
"J-j-just what are you implying, you idiot!?"
***
A blue sky, choked with smoke. A green meadow, drowned in mud. At the top of that hill, I see them. Corpses, piled one upon the other. How many times?
"-Tch, so that's how it is." She mutters. I grab her long red vest, trying to drag her down, and she discharges a pistol into my skull. The tower grows. The mud rises. "Your Noble Phantasm really is exactly what it says on the tin, huh?"
My blades aim for the scar on her face. My fire targets her long pink hair. My spells target her exposed chest.
Cannons fire. I die. I die. I die
The tower grows higher. The hole at the top vomits out more mud. How many times have I died?
Her cloak is beginning to be dyed black. A black-armored fist shatters my jaw. I die again. The tower grows. The mud rises.
I wake up screaming.
***
"HuuuUUUHH!? Just what were you saying about my performance in the last fight, Sir Mordred!?" Gareth shouts.
"I'm saying you only killed like, two of those goofy whales, idiot! I would have killed way more!" Mordred retorts, pressing her forehead against her sister's.
"I killed four! The one who calls people idiots is the idiot, idiot!" Gareth's lance begins to glow.
"Okay, to the simulator, you two." Georgios grabs both of them by the ear and drags them out of the cafeteria.
"Gareth and Mordred really are getting along well, aren't they Senpai?" Mash asks, and I just about drop my fork.
"What do you- actually, considering how things turned out at Camelot, maybe they are?" I say, slumping to rest my aching head on my hands. "I just wish they'd be a little more quiet…"
"Ah, are you feeling sick, Senpai…?" She asks.
"Sick of the Director's lectures, maybe…" I mutter. Just because I'm not getting much sleep already doesn't mean you can keep me up until two in the morning-!
"What was that, my disciple!?" A familiar shrill voice crosses the entire cafeteria to stab me directly in the ears.
"Nothing, Sensei, thank you for your time Sensei!" I cry out reflexively. It's only been three days…
"Hey, where's Saber and Lancer?" Cu Chulainn asks, poking his head into the room.
""Simulator."" Mash and I respond at the same time, and he grins, leaving immediately.
I take another bite of the real, genuine mashed potatoes on my plate.
"...Say, Mash, does it say something about me that I keep ending up making contracts with battle maniacs?" I ask.
A blue sky, choked with smoke. A green meadow, drowned in mud. At the top of that hill, I see them. Corpses, piled one upon the other. How many times?
"Guaaah! Uooo!" He continues to rage. His axe splits my skull. A stray elbow breaks my neck. His white hair is already stained red. The corpse lodged on his horns finally dies at some point.
The tower grows higher. The hole at the top vomits out more mud. How many times have I died?
"Die!" He rages. "Die, die, dieeee!"
I die again. I die again. I die again.
He's up to his knees in mud now. How much longer can he last, I wonder?
The tower grows. The mud rises. He grows larger and paler. He bites me in half. The tower grows. The mud rises.
I wake up screaming.
***
"-So that's the situation," I conclude. "I know that the plan was to give us all some down time at Chaldea, but without my [Dreamcatcher], I'm just going to get worn down."
The nightmares haven't let up in the slightest. Professor Velvet gave me some rudimentary knowledge of Feng Shui, but that's not enough now that I'm not in one of the rooms he saw with his own eyes. I've been making do with a hug pillow, but if my loops reaching Chaldea are anything to go by, I'm just going to end up more worn down as time goes on, and next thing I know I'll be agreeing to an idiotic plan to rob Atlas again.
(I miss Beatrice.)
"...To be honest, prior to a few days ago I'd say lost sleep is no reason to blitz the next singularity in search of allies," Director Olga Marie says with a sigh. "But after realizing everything my own lost sleep was causing me to miss, I can't exactly say it's not a big deal."
"Siegfried's lullaby really worked wonders, huh?" I chuckle.
"...That's not it. It was…" She looks away, and I catch a dusting of pink on her cheeks. "I-it was your strangely persuasive words, okay!? You… were right. There was so much I was missing. Ever since you scolded me, it's been like… I keep realizing, 'I'm smarter than this'."
"You're smarter than that, Olga Marie," Professor Velvet said.
His [Discerning Eye], delivered secondhand through me… that couldn't be the case, right?
"A-anyway! It was thanks to that I was able to catch Prelati before he caused permanent damage, so… thank you." She falls to a mumble.
…That reminds me. "On that note, why did you summon Assassin in secret, anyway? Just to bait him out?"
She sighs, and a severe look falls upon her face. "The plan was to corner and blackmail him. After pressuring him into signing a Geas Scroll, Elron was to dispose of Assassin in secret."
I blink. "Wait, you mean-?"
"Correct. I had no intention of informing you or anyone else that Prelati was present," She explains, even as my jaw continues to drop lower and lower. "The summoning of the Servant Prelati was what forced my hand. Even if we killed him, his presence would remain in our records; I had no choice but to come clean at that point."
"Are you crazy!?" I shout. "Just what did we gain by-!?"
"Francois Prelati was a founding member of Chaldea," she says, cutting me off. "That alone means he had expertise greater than most of the rest of our staff. But beyond that - the combat simulator was his handiwork. And as John Marcus, he was one of the key developers for FATE's Shadow Servant summoning features."
"...The shadow what now?" I ask. Shadow Servants sound scary.
She groans. "You still haven't read the introductory pamphlets have you?"
"Mash has been helping me through them…" I give a nervous laugh.
"It's a system to allow Chaldea's Masters to summon weaker copies of the Servants here at Chaldea to the battlefield. Once defeated or unneeded, they return to Chaldea instead of the Throne of Heroes, and then you can just summon them again," She says. "A perfect answer to your hang-ups about losing allies, essentially."
"Th-that's-!" That sounds way too good to be true!
"-However, that system was damaged when Lev bombed Chaldea," She says. "The other Spiritron Engineers are looking at it, but most of the formulas were incredibly complex illusioncraft - Prelati's work. With him on ice…"
"Prelatiiii…!" I hiss. How dare you get my hopes up and then dash them like that! I wish I had walked over to watch you die now, forget being the bigger man!
"...Well, what's done is done. I don't really wager we'd get much help out of him now even if we were to defrost him," Olga says. "He's got no reason to hide his true nature now, after all. Regarding your request, I'll push up the timetable, but it will still take at least a week for the grail we got from France to be properly hooked up to the generator system. In the meantime… fine, I was going to wait for Da Vinci to finish the Mystic Code I ordered, but there's no reason not to start now. Follow me, Subaru."
She stands up from her desk and immediately starts towards the door to her office without a single additional word of explanation- wait, she called me by my first name!?
Slightly flustered, I fall in behind her as she begins aggressively walking down the hall. "Um, Director, where-?"
"My workshop. Your origin is [Star and Spirit], so you should have a good aptitude for Astromancy - I'll take you on as a disciple, so be grateful!" She answers, barely slowing down.
W-wait, calling me by first name… seeing her workshop… "S-sorry Director. I'm already in love with someone else, so-!"
Director Olga Marie Animusphere promptly polymorphs into a tomato. Or at least, that's what it looks like.
"J-j-just what are you implying, you idiot!?"
***
A blue sky, choked with smoke. A green meadow, drowned in mud. At the top of that hill, I see them. Corpses, piled one upon the other. How many times?
"-Tch, so that's how it is." She mutters. I grab her long red vest, trying to drag her down, and she discharges a pistol into my skull. The tower grows. The mud rises. "Your Noble Phantasm really is exactly what it says on the tin, huh?"
My blades aim for the scar on her face. My fire targets her long pink hair. My spells target her exposed chest.
Cannons fire. I die. I die. I die
The tower grows higher. The hole at the top vomits out more mud. How many times have I died?
Her cloak is beginning to be dyed black. A black-armored fist shatters my jaw. I die again. The tower grows. The mud rises.
I wake up screaming.
***
"HuuuUUUHH!? Just what were you saying about my performance in the last fight, Sir Mordred!?" Gareth shouts.
"I'm saying you only killed like, two of those goofy whales, idiot! I would have killed way more!" Mordred retorts, pressing her forehead against her sister's.
"I killed four! The one who calls people idiots is the idiot, idiot!" Gareth's lance begins to glow.
"Okay, to the simulator, you two." Georgios grabs both of them by the ear and drags them out of the cafeteria.
"Gareth and Mordred really are getting along well, aren't they Senpai?" Mash asks, and I just about drop my fork.
"What do you- actually, considering how things turned out at Camelot, maybe they are?" I say, slumping to rest my aching head on my hands. "I just wish they'd be a little more quiet…"
"Ah, are you feeling sick, Senpai…?" She asks.
"Sick of the Director's lectures, maybe…" I mutter. Just because I'm not getting much sleep already doesn't mean you can keep me up until two in the morning-!
"What was that, my disciple!?" A familiar shrill voice crosses the entire cafeteria to stab me directly in the ears.
"Nothing, Sensei, thank you for your time Sensei!" I cry out reflexively. It's only been three days…
"Hey, where's Saber and Lancer?" Cu Chulainn asks, poking his head into the room.
""Simulator."" Mash and I respond at the same time, and he grins, leaving immediately.
I take another bite of the real, genuine mashed potatoes on my plate.
"...Say, Mash, does it say something about me that I keep ending up making contracts with battle maniacs?" I ask.
And now we're back at Chaldea! One more chapter of shenanigans and ominous dreams, and then Okeanos! Probably no Olga interlude this time, since I don't know what I'd do with it other than repeat stuff that already happened...