『Oraoraoraoraoraora──!!!!!』
Kraaaash──!!!
Before Olga Marie’s eyes, something invisible unleashed a torrential rush, reducing the Skeletons surrounding them to fragments like leaves scattered by an autumn wind.
And amid the clouds of flying bone dust stood a man who had saved Olga Marie, holding her as though she were a piece of luggage.
"H-how did you get here!?"
"It has been a while, Director Olga Marie. Has it been about half a day since we last met?"
"We saw each other at the briefing! No, that is not the issue right now!"
Diego Joestar.
Having witnessed the countless enemies surrounding her vanish in a single instant with his arrival, the director denied reality.
They were enemies that a skilled magus could dispatch without much difficulty if properly prepared—but there had been so many that even Olga Marie herself had struggled against them.
"What is going on here!? And what was that bizarre phenomenon just now!?"
He had wiped out all those enemies in an instant. Literally, in an instant.
Which meant that the man before her either possessed incredibly precise Magecraft so refined that she could not even sense the flow of Magical Energy, or abilities so far beyond the norm that even Olga Marie knew nothing of them.
"You are as noisy as ever. No, perhaps it is impressive that your personality has not died even under circumstances this extreme."
"...What on earth is happening...?"
The man called Diego Joestar, as Olga Marie remembered him, had been an unsolvable mystery—a painting whose thoughts she could not read.
He was the first person to walk directly into Chaldea while somehow evading even Chaldeas’s predictions, and though he was not a magus, he possessed an intimate knowledge of this world.
Right after being accepted into Chaldea, she had thought him someone extraordinary. Yet all he actually did was raise some mysterious pet.
And somehow, she had no idea how he had managed it, he was close with Mash Kyrielight—the sole survivor of the Demi-Servant experiment conducted by Marisbury, her father and the former director of Finis Chaldea, the Human Order Continuation Security Organization.
Other than such things, he had never shown Olga Marie anything particularly special.
And yet, Olga Marie had been saved by that man.
"To begin with, you were supposed to be an ordinary person with no aptitude for Magecraft."
"...To be precise, it would be more accurate to say I have no aptitude for Magecraft."
"That is exactly what I am asking! To begin with, you barely have any aptitude as a Master [Rayshift] either!"
"..."
As ever, Diego Joestar was a strange man who said things that made no sense at all.
"Well, it is not as if I had any aptitude either, but..."
Come to think of it, nothing but strange things had happened.
Olga Marie herself had once been forced to abandon her training as a Master due to her lack of talent for Rayshifting, so it was a mystery how she had even been able to Rayshift to a Singularity.
"Well. I would dearly like to clear up that question for you, but—enemies."
"...What?"
Grrraaaah...
"Eek!"
As if they had no intention of giving her time to think, the Skeletons Diego had swept away in a moment began charging again, their numbers now swollen even further.
And it would have been fortunate if only simple hostile lifeforms like Skeletons were attacking them, but─
"...! It is coming!"
"What do you mean, wha──!!"
Booom─!!
"Aaaah──!!!!"
The ground suddenly spewed fire. The air trembled, leaving behind traces of immense Magical Energy, and the road was shattered in an instant.
There was a cause, and therefore an effect. Fire could not simply erupt from untouched ground. Which meant this was surely─
"...Sniping. And from quite a distance, too."
"What?! Sniping!?"
Anti-air fire launched from dozens of kilometers away.
Something like a missile, bearing tremendous speed and destructive force, was being fired at Olga Marie and the others.
"[Golden Spirit] Star Planita."
────────!!!!!!!
Again. It was happening again.
Closing her eyes at the strange sensation, Olga Marie found herself slung over Diego’s back before she knew it, relocated to the exterior of a building several meters away.
"...Again. What in the world was that...? Spatial movement? Teleportation?"
"We are not at leisure enough for me to explain that now. Getting to the point the Doctor mentioned comes first."
Diego, a man calmly causing events beyond all common sense, coolly observed the situation and murmured,
"The shape of that projectile was rather distinctive. An attack that throws or fires something resembling a spiral-shaped sword, perhaps."
"...!"
Had he deciphered the enemy’s attack in that brief instant? With only scant clues, Diego had inferred its nature.
Even Olga Marie could tell that the sniper shot had surpassed the speed of sound, an attack that moved at a speed beyond human perception—yet─
"A wide-area attack fired from dozens of kilometers away. Well, what a grand welcome."
That man analyzed his circumstances with absurd composure.
His combat instincts were enough to make her doubt he had ever truly been an ordinary person.
"—But there is a way."
"! R-really?!"
"Yes. The one and only method passed down through my family."
Did he really have a way to resolve this situation?
His eyes, as he assured her there was a way, held a strangely powerful certainty.
Perhaps she found something trustworthy in that gaze. Olga Marie began to feel great expectations toward the man called Diego. Of course, that method was──
"The one method passed down through the Joestar family for surviving any situation. It is──"
『Ora──!!!!!』
Booom──!!!
"Run away."
"Huh...?"
───If only that had not meant casually smashing through walls and beginning to run while teleporting wildly about.
"W-what is with this man──!!"
What was he? What was this man, really? After saying something that sounded so impressive, he was running away instead of dealing with the enemy!? What kind of family strategy was that?!
"Unfortunately, my ability does not have a very long range."
"What kind of Art of War have you people been reading?!"
"Ha ha. That is right: of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, retreat is best. Besides, meeting up with the other survivors is more urgent right now."
"I understand that, but──!!! Aaaah──!!!!"
Booom──!!! Boom──!!! Boom──!!!
Perhaps it had locked onto the fleeing Diego. The sniper fire began drawing impossible arcs and arriving at ever shorter intervals, swiftly turning the surrounding area into a wasteland. The shocks alone were enough to push Olga Marie to the brink of fainting.
Yet perhaps Diego had calculated every enemy shot. It was impossible to catch him as he moved with such speed and precision it was as though time itself had stopped─
Booom──!!! Boom──!!! Boom──!!!
"Aaaah──!!! Could you at least—move more gently──!!!"
"Impossible."
Until the enemy, now a dog chasing chickens, lost Diego and ceased its sniping—Olga Marie’s screams continued without end.
─────────────────────
"...So that is why the director ended up such a mess?"
"...You could say that."
"...How cruel."
『That is cruel.』
"Diego..."
"Fou..."
Diego and Ritsuka’s group had somehow managed to meet at the rendezvous point.
Diego and Olga Marie had been waiting there ahead of Ritsuka’s group. What Ritsuka’s group saw upon arriving was─
"Sob...! What do you mean, ‘you could say that’?! My heart nearly burst and killed me!!"
"I am not so deranged that I would let the people around me die. If I had not done that much, we would already be dust."
"Urgh...!"
Olga Marie, with her hair in disarray and an expression like she was half-dead, and Diego, calmly surveying the surroundings.
‘Wow... So that is the Diego Mash was talking about.’
His nose was sharper than that of most actors in magazines, his blond hair shone brilliantly, and his eyes stared straight ahead without the slightest wavering. Those features alone were not enough to say he was incredibly handsome, but—
They were more than enough to make her call him manly.
"Ahaha... Director. I am sure Diego did not mean any harm by it."
"Fou fou!"
"Mash! Whose side are you on?!"
"I am on no one’s side. If I had to say, I suppose I am on my Master’s side."
"...Master?"
Having finally calmed down, Olga Marie looked over Ritsuka’s group.
Her gaze first landed on Mash’s changed attire, then inevitably moved to Ritsuka at Mash’s side.
"...Ah! You are!"
Perhaps recalling the briefing, Olga Marie instantly looked at Ritsuka as though she were a person not to be trusted.
"Ah, ahaha! Now that everyone is here, shall we continue exploring the city?"
"Hold it. Before we start exploring, there is something you need to say to me, Ritsuka."
Indeed, it would be strange to forget someone who had fallen asleep standing in the very front row of the briefing.
"Hmm, not particularly? Things like getting drunk on REM sleep and being kicked out of the Command Room, that is... Gasp!"
"So you do remember!? Sit properly right there!! You!!"
"Gah!"
『Director Marie, calm down! Ritsuka did not mean any harm either!』
"You sit properly too!!"
"Fou!"
『Why me!?』
"...Good grief."
As Olga Marie caught both Ritsuka, who had tried to wriggle out of the situation, and Doctor Romani, who had been mediating beside her, and began giving them a crash course on Chaldea, Diego slowly began assessing the situation.
Judging by the Japanese signs around them and the strangely concentrated ley lines, it was reasonable to conclude that this burning district was Fuyuki City—the place designated Singularity F, which should have been the stage for the first Rayshift.
A Singularity. A hole in the records of observation that emerged after Chaldeas suddenly became unable to observe the future of human history. It was another world, detached from the proper timeline and not belonging to the human history in which they now lived.
He did not know why a turning point with such great impact on human history had occurred in a small modern island nation, but he had at least some knowledge of the Holy Grail War that had taken place here.
A wish-granting vessel. A war fought over the Holy Grail by seven Servants and seven Masters. The mere existence of such an aberrant ritual was enough to make it a Singularity.
‘But this is strange. —It is too intact.’
Through Director Olga Marie and Mash, he had learned that the density of Magical Energy around them was steadily rising, reaching an unbelievable level for the modern age—a density akin to ancient times.
But even taking that into account, this Singularity was far too intact.
‘As though—someone is forcibly holding it together.’
"—If you are done talking, let us move."
"Ah, Diego. Yes. Staying in one place for too long is certainly dangerous."
"The director was sniped, after all."
"...Be quiet."
Once they had decided what to do, remaining still was a loss.
As long as they did not know what abilities their enemies possessed or where they might attack from, they needed to keep moving and gather information.
Since this place was a Singularity as well, there had to be a core somewhere.
『A good decision, Diego. I wanted you to find a nearby ley line and move there, if only so we can keep supplies flowing smoothly. The approximate location is around here.』
"...A church nearby, perhaps. It feels as though it might be an ominous place, Master."
"Hmm. A church being connected to something magical is a cliché if there ever was one. Like a cathedral church, for example."
"..."
They still did not know what served as the medium for that core, but if they wanted to find out, they had no choice but to press forward.
Perhaps the fortunate thing was that they knew where to go.
『Unfortunately, the medium needed to activate Chaldea’s vaunted [Heroic Spirit Summoning System] [Fate] was completely blown away in the explosion, so bringing in additional forces will be difficult.』
"No, this man alone is enough firepow—"
"—Now that we have a destination, shall we move? It seems we have no time to stand around."
"...Naturally."
There was no time to dawdle.
Even now, the hand of malice was reaching for them. All they could do was always move first.
"All right. Let us go, Mash!"
"Yes, Master!"
And so, surrendering ourselves to the great flow of the story that would begin there, we set our feet toward our one destination.
──────────────────────────
The road to the church was not particularly dangerous. Skeletons attacked them now and then, but—
"Hah─!"
Crunch.
With that sound, they were smashed to pieces by Mash’s shield and scattered away as bone dust.
Perhaps because Mash had secretly been receiving combat training from Diego from the start, she seemed to be quickly learning how to skillfully use even the imperfectly merged power of a Demi-Servant.
But something was strange. Diego knew that Servants were supposed to possess an ultimate technique or armament representing them—the manifestation of a concept known as a Noble Phantasm.
"Hah... hah..."
No matter how he looked at it, she did not seem to be using such ultimate power. If this, too, was a trait of being a Demi-Servant, he could understand it, but─
"...Ngh."
"...Hm."
That look in her eyes. Something was indeed wrong. The enemies Diego had faced who felt things were not going as planned always wore that same look.
But Servants were unknown territory even for Diego. Until he found another way, perhaps he could only wait to summon another Servant who might serve as a mentor.
"Are you all right, Mash?"
"...Yes. I am all right, Master."
"You will be able to use your Noble Phantasm soon. Our junior is the strongest!"
More importantly, this faint presence he had been sensing for a while now was surely─
"An enemy."
"...Pardon?"
Diego’s casual murmur sounded so ordinary that everyone’s judgment was delayed for an instant.
『Oh no, it is a hostile lifeform response! Everyone, be careful! This is... a Servant?!』
A dark gaze had watched Diego and the others from the moment they entered the church.
That serpent-like gaze, which did not feel human, had continuously waited for an opening in their guard.
"?! —Master!"
"Fou!"
"...Huh?"
Whoosh──
A chain that had closed in within an instant aimed for Ritsuka’s head, and Mash reacted a step too late.
Ordinarily, the chain bearing a sharp spike would surely have crushed Ritsuka’s head just like that.
"—[Golden Spirit]."
—Ordinarily, that was.
『Ora─!!!』
Clang──!
"...Well, that was a rather cowardly trick."
"D-Diego!"
"...!"
When an invisible force lightly knocked away the weapon rushing at her, the opponent must have been flustered as well, for its presence scattered.
"There...!"
Seizing that chance, Mash charged at the enemy hiding in the darkness in an instant. At last, the enemy concealed within the shadows revealed itself.
It had a body no different from a human’s, but its form, cloaked in a dark shadow as it retrieved its weapon, was─
"..."
"Good grief."
『A Shadow Servant...!』
It told them that the thing before them was no ordinary lifeform.
"Leave this one to me, Mash."
"...! Diego...!?"
──────────────────────────────────────
Step—step—
Wherever this Joestar blood led, there had always been struggles, great and small.
"I do not particularly enjoy charging in when I do not know who you are, or even what power you use, but—"
From murderers in everyday life to vampires who sought to rule the world. None of them had happened in this world, yet they were stories that undoubtedly existed.
"Diego! It is dangerous!"
"—No, Master. He will be all right."
When my Stand first awakened, there were those who spoke to me first.
Characters from stories. Yet they were the people closest to the blood I carried.
"I hate lukewarm things, you see."
Those with golden spirits.
「[Golden Spirit]」
"──I will crush you right here."
And I knew how to make their power my own.
「──Star Platinum.」
─────
─────!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!
"──My time."
『Ora───!!!!!!!!!!!!!』
The fist unleashed alongside the shout of a man who had surpassed even the speed of light and transcended time itself—
Crunch──!!
—splendidly pulverized the enemy, punching a hole clean through the Shadow Rider’s body.
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