"—And time begins to move."
Crack—!!!
"......!? G-ghk?!"
Shadow Rider was deeply confused. Naturally, he would be.
He had never encountered an enemy with such an overwhelming disparity in power.
"W-what?! How is this happening?!"
"Diego, nice!"
"...I knew it!"
Surely, he had focused all his senses on his opponent, prepared to counterattack the instant they made a strange move.
And yet, bizarrely—the one losing his strength and collapsing was not his opponent, but Shadow Rider himself.
"With that covered eye of yours, and considering you are a Servant, you must have some sort of trump card concealed—but..."
"Oraoraoraoraoraoraoraora—!!!!!!"
Kwagagagagang—!!!!!
Was it that he could not tolerate even a momentary lapse in vigilance against an enemy?
Battered by an invisible force that rained down with merciless brutality, Rider was smashed to pieces and gradually returned to the void.
This was no longer a simple matter of a difference in strength.
It transcended even the natural causality in which an attack is launched and strikes its opponent—
"I am not foolish enough to let you use something like that freely."
It was something on a far higher plane.
‘We are... on entirely different levels.’
Having tasted a fragment of that unreasonable gap in power, Shadow Rider was forced to retire, unable to continue fighting.
───────────────────────────
Ritsuka herself, at the center of this entire incident, was equally shocked.
An enemy lurking within a leyline she had thought safe. Killing intent that came for her life as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The terror of knowing that, if even one thing had gone wrong, it would have been her—not that Servant—who lay dying as a cold corpse.
The world’s unfairness had descended upon her far too quickly just as she had begun to let down her guard, as though showing her how harsh the road ahead would be.
But—
"Thanks, Diego! For a second there, I thought we were done for!"
"I only did what I could. There is no need to make such a grand matter of it."
"Still, I am grateful! Seriously, thank you! You saved us!"
"I am so glad you are safe, Master!"
"Kyuu! Fou!"
The man beside her appeared to be far stronger than she had imagined—strong enough to crush such unfairness beneath something even more unreasonable.
"...Honestly."
Ritsuka felt as though she finally understood why Mash and the Doctor had called him an invincible ally.
His eyes were so calm that it was hard to believe a life-or-death slaughter had unfolded only moments ago.
His strength allowed him to literally pulverize enemies with a mysterious power that was not even Magecraft.
Diego Joestar was the kind of man whose presence as an ally could not help but feel profoundly reassuring.
Did he even know how highly she thought of him?
The golden-haired man at the center of it all spoke calmly once more.
"—If hiding is difficult, why not come out?"
"What?! There are more of them?!"
Another enemy had come seeking the group’s lives.
"...!? What?! It is true—Servant signatures are appearing nearby! Everyone, get ready!"
"Oh, come on! Is this Singularity having some kind of party for Masterless Servants?!"
"Master, Director Olga Marie! Get behind me!"
Two pitch-black figures emerged at Diego’s words.
One enemy had an arm grotesquely stretched out, while the other carried countless weapons across his back.
"The Holy Grail... will be... in my hands."
"Hahahaha! This is fun! I want to kill!"
"Those Spirit Origin patterns are Assassin and Lancer! Though for some reason, Assassin is not concealing himself...!"
Assassin was a Class specializing in stealth and assassination.
But the enemy before them slowly stepped forward as though such things had never even entered his mind.
Without bothering to hide his elongated arm.
"I will take Lancer. I am confident in my speed."
"Yeah! Leave it to me, Diego!"
"...All right. If it gets dangerous, call for me without hesitation."
With those words, Diego vanished in an instant.
Ritsuka was certain he could have dispatched the enemy in an instant with that bizarre ability he had used earlier.
"I am engaging, Master!"
"...Yeah!"
—But he did not.
Which likely meant he had noticed how frustrated Mash had been at being unable to use her Noble Phantasm earlier.
Then all Ritsuka herself could do was what she was capable of doing now.
"That Assassin is not trying to hide at all."
"Yeah. ——It is like he cannot think of anything other than engaging the enemy..."
Having reached her judgment, Ritsuka analyzed the situation as best she could in that brief span of time.
She could not know the enemy’s full capabilities until she saw them, but she could at least draw conclusions from what she observed.
"Master! Your orders!"
"Ah, right! Okay! Even in that state, he is still an Assassin, so ambushes will probably be his main form of attack! Watch out for that abnormal arm!"
"Yes!"
Unlike before, Ritsuka assessed her opponent with considerable composure.
She had not realized it herself yet, but in that moment when she had faced death, she had instinctively understood what she had to do as a Master.
Not merely fighting alongside her Servant in person, but thinking and reasoning without pause.
Unconsciously, she understood that this was the means by which she herself could exert the greatest influence as a Master.
"...Oh?"
"Eek?! W-when did you get here?!"
"You already finished him?!"
Having dealt with Lancer in an instant, Diego watched the battling Ritsuka and Mash from a distance as he thought.
Of course, she could have asked Diego, who had just saved her life, to save her once again.
But that girl, Ritsuka—did not.
And in Diego’s view, it was not because she felt guilty about asking for help again, nor because she had some lofty notion of repaying the favor she had received—
"Let us go, Mash!"
"Yes!"
It was simply returning the same boundless trust to the junior who had promised to protect her no matter what. Nothing more.
That alone moved Ritsuka on an instinctive level.
Even considering the visual reassurance of Mash carrying such an enormous shield, this was not normal.
She was surely a girl who had grown up in an environment with little connection to battle.
So why could she entrust herself so completely to Mash, whom she had only met a day ago, for no other reason than that she was her Servant?
"Hah—!!"
"Not yet! Just a little more!"
They could not yet know for certain, but everyone watching their fight could not help sharing the same thought.
"Now—!!!"
"Hah—!!!!"
That girl named Ritsuka—
"—I-it cannot be. Defeated by such inexperienced little things..."
Not through overwhelming combat prowess like Diego’s, nor through the strength born of magical aptitude like Director Olga Marie’s.
But as a Master who trusted her Servant to the very end, no matter the situation.
"Heheh! Our Mash is the strongest!"
"...Yes! Hostile life-form has been completely silenced, Master!"
"Yeah! You were amazing, Mash!"
"Fou fou!"
—She might possess an utterly extraordinary talent, greater than anyone had expected.
Everyone who had witnessed the fragment of Ritsuka’s talent manifesting as a Master found themselves thinking so, if only implicitly.
"Ritsuka! That was excellent judgment! Your coordination with Mash was perfectly in sync, too!"
"Hehe. It is because Diego was behind us that we could fight without worrying!"
She meant that sincerely as well.
As Diego saw it, Ritsuka had acted with the complete assurance that there was someone else who would protect her.
Whether that had been a judgment she reached consciously or an instinctive intuition, no one knew.
"Master is right. Knowing that Diego has our backs gives us tremendous strength."
"...Certainly. If he were watching our backs, even I feel as though I could join the battle."
"...If you praise me that much, it becomes difficult to respond."
"Hehe, do not be embarrassed."
In any case, had the situation finally settled down for now?
Still maintaining their vigilance, the Chaldea group was finally able to rest.
"With this much Magical Energy in the leyline, our connection should be stable. You all did very well."
"I am hungry~."
"Fou fou~."
"Haha! Right. You have to eat well before you can begin anything. I will send supplies over to you now."
"Hooray!"
With the surrounding area secured, the Chaldea group was finally able to connect to the leyline and receive Chaldea’s support.
A small amount of food, Magical Energy that Chaldea could provide as backup, and information on the present situation.
"......"
Though the situation had improved, no one’s expression was particularly bright.
They had certainly escaped the immediate threat to their lives, but—
"This is bad."
"Yeah. We have filled our stomachs, but..."
That was as far as the Chaldea group’s unimpeded progress went.
Chaldea still did not know where the center of this Singularity was, or what exactly they had to do to restore it to normal.
It was a Singularity they had entered for the first time, and they had not even arrived through the normal route, so they had extremely little information to work with.
"At times like this, it would be nice if we could meet someone local who has information..."
"Do not expect things to go that conveniently. Relying on luck is the stupidest method!"
"I suppose so..."
"Fou..."
Looking at the state of the world outside, expecting to find other survivors seemed impossible no matter how they considered it.
And blindly sending only Mash and Diego ahead to force a path through, when they had yet to fully grasp either the enemy’s numbers or their strength—
"—is impossible."
It would be both shortsighted and inefficient.
In Olga Marie’s view, they were in a situation where even carelessly revealing the cards they held was dangerous.
At a time like this, simply wandering through a city whose geography they did not even know would be no different from walking straight into an enemy trap.
"Hmm—if only the Heroic Spirit Summoning System were functioning properly at a time like this..."
"...Is there really no way?"
"...Wait."
As everyone discussed how to break through the situation, Diego—who had remained firmly silent—finally spoke.
Did he have some kind of solution?
"Diego, did you figure something out?"
"Diego, have you found a way?"
Since he had single-handedly resolved nearly every incident that had occurred so far, everyone focused on him and waited for his next words.
"...No, I have not found a method. But it feels as though a direction has been decided."
"What?"
"Fou?"
And what came from his mouth next was—
"...It seems that luck has come looking for us of its own accord."
"—Hey, folks. Sorry to interrupt such a serious conversation, but would you mind letting me in on that interesting talk?"
"...No way."
News had arrived that such tremendous luck had rolled right into their laps that all their serious deliberation felt foolish.
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