"Ah, but before that, there’s something I want to ask."
"Hmm? What is it?"
"The thing is, both Ritsuka and I shouldn’t actually be here at this point if everything had gone according to plan, right? Ritsuka was excluded from the First Mission entirely, and I was supposed to Rayshift a day later. If not for the terrorist attack, we wouldn’t be here."
"Th... that’s true, isn’t it?"
Olga Marie answered. A brief silence fell, and in that gap, Ritsuka, who had been hesitating beside us, carefully spoke up.
"Director? What about the other Masters...?"
"Hmm? Ah, they’re in cryogenic preservation for now. We don’t have enough medical staff, either."
"I... see."
As if relieved, Ritsuka’s expression brightened a little. Even in a situation like this, he was worrying about other people... he’s a kind one.
No, maybe that wasn’t quite right. Then again, maybe I was the one who had blown away all the dangerous stuff.
"Ahem. Anyway, Ren. What were you going to say?"
"Ah. Right, the objective."
"The objective?"
"Yeah. What are we doing from here on out? Keeping to the original goal of identifying and retrieving, or destroying if necessary, the cause of this Singularity? Or are we changing it?"
"Ah, that’s what you meant? Hold on..."
"...For the record, I’ll give you something that should help you decide. Right before we came here, Caldeas, set to reflect real-time data, turned red."
"..What?! Is that true?!"
"Yeah."
"Haa... how should I put this, thank you, I guess. You’ve made it so there’s not even a need to think about it... Ahem. Ahem. As the Director of Chaldea, I hereby order Fujimaru Ritsuka and Tohsaka Ren. First, Fujimaru Ritsuka."
"Y-yes?"
"I appoint you as Chaldea’s 48th Master. Furthermore, I am assigning you to the First Mission. Ah, and for the record, you do not have the right to refuse."
"Ahaha..."
"Wow, that’s blunt."
"Shut up! Anyway, the objective of the First Mission remains unchanged. In this situation, or rather because of this situation, our primary objective is to identify and retrieve the cause of this Singularity. If that proves impossible, then destroy the cause. Understood?"
"Yes."
""Yes.""
"Well, honestly, if we’re talking about the cause, it’s pretty obvious. If this is Fuyuki in 2004, then there’s one thing that’s the most likely culprit, isn’t there?"
"That’s true."
"Shall we say it at the same time?"
"[The Holy Grail War.]"
Even without the faint memories of the original story, that was the only possible conclusion. After all, the Holy Grail is exactly the kind of thing that, if handled carelessly, can turn human history into a complete disaster. It’s a wish-granting machine that can do anything, and precisely because it can do anything, it’s even more dangerous.
And if an ordinary Holy Grail is already like that, then the Holy Grail involved in this Fuyuki Grail War is the so-called Great Grail. A thing that makes a normal Holy Grail look like nothing. If completed, it’s a monstrous device that can definitely reach the Root.
You could say it lives up to the name of something forged by grinding up three magi who achieved True Magic. If you think about how desperately the Counter Force tries to prevent anyone from reaching the Root, it’s an extremely strong suspect. With more than a 99% chance, the Great Grail is the cause.
On top of that, my faint memories of the original story tell me that a larva of “human evil” is sleeping in the Great Grail of this Singularity. A Great Grail, a Beast. At this point, it would be stranger to say this isn’t the cause of the Singularity. It wouldn’t be weird at all if the Counter Force sent a Grand here.
"In any case, then we’ll need to summon even more Servants..."
"Worst-case scenario, we may have to deal with seven Servants at once."
"Haa... all we can do is pray for luck... Romani, what’s the status of the Fate system?"
"Just a moment... oh, Director? There’s a problem."
"Hmm? Romani? A problem?! Of all times, now?!"
"It’s because it’s now, even more so."
Damn bomb terrorist.
"Ren’s right. The Fate system has been restored, but because it was repaired in a hurry, it hasn’t been fully adjusted yet, so the output is insufficient."
"...In other words?"
"Normally, we’d make up for the missing output by drawing from Prometheus’s Furnace, but the explosion damaged Prometheus’s Furnace too, so its output has dropped as well... If we summon now, we’ll have to replace the missing output with Saint Quartz. Each summon will consume two additional Saint Quartz."
"...In other words, the output is insufficient. Then what if we identify the coordinates from our side and send mana resources over instead? If we draw from a ley line, it should be possible."
"Uh..."
"Step aside, Romani! From here on, this super-genius is taking over! To answer your question, yes, it’s possible. However, the ley line there won’t provide enough output."
"Hmm. How much would we need at minimum?"
"About this much."
That much, huh... I quickly ran through Fuyuki’s major ley lines in my head and narrowed them down to the ones that fit the conditions.
"Let’s see... Enjou Mountain... won’t work."
"Hmm? Why not?"
"The Great Grail’s there."
"Ah."
"Then the next candidates are... eliminated, eliminated... The best one is the church."
Kotomine Church. The place where that fake priest is. Well, we did agree on our love of mapo tofu, at least.
"Da Vinci, what happens to communications if we leave the ley line?"
"Now that we’ve established a stable connection once, communications should hold."
"Then I’m sorry to keep you busy when you’re already swamped, but do a scan. Just checking whether there are Servants nearby would be enough. Every ten seconds."
"Understood."
"After one scan of the surrounding area, scan the entire Singularity. A rough terrain check is enough. Run Mnemosyne as support and have it handle existence proof for a bit, then use Shiva for observation. Also, focus on the southern side of Miyama Town. Our house is over there. If any facilities are still left, we should be able to use them to some extent. Since this is during the Grail War, if we’re lucky, we might even be able to get some catalysts."
"Leave it to me!"
"The strategy, roughly speaking... if either the Tohsaka or Matou household is still standing, detour there and secure catalysts. If not, head straight to the church. The moment we arrive, set up a temporary workshop and draw a summoning circle, then begin summoning Servants. If we encounter local Servants along the way, persuade them if possible; if not, drive them off by force. After that, drive off or persuade as many Servants as possible, then head straight for the Great Grail. Excluding the Servants already at the Great Grail, we’ll have to settle things with everyone before we get there, one way or another. After that, we finish it. That about cover it? Any objections?"
None.
"Looks like there aren’t any. Da Vinci? The scan?"
"Just a moment... First, there are no Servant-level mana reactions nearby. There are minor mana reactions, but nothing much different from those skeleton soldiers from earlier. And... oh dear. The area around Miyama Town has been completely destroyed."
"Destroyed?"
"Indeed. Take a look."
A map appeared on the terminal. Good grief.
"...Did someone drop a meteor on the Holy Grail or something?"
"Who knows."
"Hmm. In that case, using the Tohsaka and Matou households in this Singularity is impossible, so... we’ll have to head straight to the church. We may as well make the church our base. We’ll summon first, then formally set up the workshop right away. Grab what we need and let’s move. Ah, Ritsuka. Do you need a rest?"
"Ah, no. I’m fine."
"Really? If you’re tired and don’t want to get in the way, saying nothing is actually more of a problem."
"I’m really fine."
"Mash?"
"I’m fine as well. Since I’m a Demi-Servant, I can recover as long as I have mana... Besides, I didn’t really fight much at all."
"Okay. We’ll focus on water and food, and leave as soon as we’re ready. Then let’s pack up."
""Yes.""
I fastened two longswords to my waist and took my spare sword. I filled the water bottle enchanted with spatial expansion magic, then stuffed my pockets with energy bars that could be eaten quickly.
A glance showed that Ritsuka seemed to have packed everything too. Hmm. I put the rest into a bag and slung it over my back.
"All right, let’s go."
""Yes.""
"Then... huh?"
A chill ran down my spine. A familiar sensation. I reached out toward Ritsuka and Mash’s heads, knocking them down as I crouched low.
"Move!"
"Wha—? Whoa!"
An arrow sliced through the spot where Ritsuka’s head had been a tenth of a second earlier. Using the angle, I roughly pinpointed where it had come from and identified the blind spot.
"That way!"
"Y-yes!"
"Tch!"
When we rushed into the alley that was blind to the direction the arrow had come from, a skeleton soldier appeared before us. Mash, who had gone in first, smashed the skeleton with her shield, but more skeleton soldiers were following behind it. Beyond them, a gray skeleton that looked more advanced and carried much denser mana was charging toward us.
"Dragon Tooth Soldiers, huh. They don’t have any special weakness, so you have to smash them completely."
"Tch!"
I cast reinforcement magecraft on Mash as I fell back.
"Break through! Mash, buy me just a little time in front!"
"Yes!"
As Mash stepped forward to hold them off, I drew up wave energy and began chanting at high speed.
"Der Freischütz! Load rounds one through seven! I declare the seventh round discarded! The bullets are my own power!"
Seven long patterns appeared on the wrist where I had drawn up wave energy, and one of them vanished. Then the wave energy wrapped around my wrist began to subside. No, more precisely, it was being sucked in.
"Fire!"
As the bullet-shaped pattern on my wrist vanished, six magical bullets formed by the four-line chant flew out, infused with wave energy. Five of them struck the skeleton soldiers they had targeted, and the wave energy burst outward, sweeping through the surrounding skeletons. Then the sixth magical bullet hit the Dragon Tooth Soldier, blasting out a massive surge of wave energy and shredding it to pieces.
Nice. Clean. I’d lost a bit of mana, but... whatever.
"What are you standing around for? Let’s go!"
"Ah, yes!"
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