Every single soul was utterly precious, utterly irreplaceable and something that she treasured beyond all else. A human's death to her... Was not something to appreciate, not something to enjoy. But there was an innate, unmatched satisfaction that entered her at all times whenever a new soul entered her care.
Her care would ensure the soul would be cared for, for eternity. No being is wiped away by the Root to reincarnate again. The powerful and amazing souls being chained by that wicked force Alaya, that would drive those beautiful souls to further suffering.
Golden eyes at the thought of the force of the concept of humanity's collective will looked at a once-tainted and worn soul that was in a deep slumber.
The soul that had its own internal world, a world of countless swords that mirrored its tired and broken owner, as the inner world was a fractured reality of a deadland and mere floating gears.
"One day... One day I will bring life to your inner world and you will have peace, Emiya. All humans will have eternal peace within my protection for all of eternity. Even if the Earth Mother wants you all dead." A soft voice rang out.
Then she paused and, with a disdainful expression, she flicked the soul remnants of the wretched and twisted form of Medusa away that was entering her realm. Casting the broken essence into the void to be absorbed back into the Throne of Heroes.
As she utterly refused to take souls into her protection and arms who didn't identify themselves as human.
Then her gaze turned towards the distance. Beyond her endless realm of the dead held in perfect peace for eternity. And her gaze fell within another realm. A realm filled with seventy-two pillars of demonic divine power that formed a singular gestalt core.
A figure, based on a perfect human form but twisted and filled with demonic power, stood atop a cliff and likewise staring past it's own realm... No, not a singular realm. But a temple devoted to time.
And seeing that figure, indignation filled her as she said in fury with her voice. "You said that Chaldea would fall! You said the human souls of the singularities would fill my realm, and most importantly. You lied about human suffering in this bleaching you did upon the Human Texture!"
The gestalt of the 72 Demon God's Goetia barely shifted before he spoke in a powerful voice. "You played your hand too early in bringing your afterlife towards the surface to save the human souls. Every single human organization with any sense realized an important event was to happen to the point of the very few minutes of its occurrence."
Goetia gave her a dark look with his glowing gold and crimson eyes before saying flatly.
"You were in such a rush to save all the human souls that Atlas, the Wandering Sea, Chaldea, and basically any group who simply went more than a couple of hundred meters underground. Where your own texture infested the human logic was able to protect them from my Noble Phantasm."
A flash of crimson lightning flared with Goetia's mortal human form that matched the Grand Caster Solomon being blasted across his realm. And with a loud crash he smashed through a cliff and his form was obscured.
There was a heavy pause as the smoke cleared and as it did so. Goetia's mortal form of Solomon was partly shed. His tanned human skin hid demonic muscles of crimson-lined gold along with black, cursed tattoos that crossed his form.
But even with that attack, Goetia was completely unharmed besides cosmetic damage to his disguise. As after all... He was the Second Beast of Humanity.
"You are being emotional again... I can't help but wonder how you will react should Chaldea reach the demonic front and meet your counter part. Will you pity them even further? Will you attempt to 'save' them personally? I cannot wait to see." Goetia said in a rather bored tone.
She snorted before she said pointedly. "Fine! I accept I moved too eargerly. But don't poke fingers at me. Beast of Pity itself. We are both working to prevent the Alien God's plans from coming to pass... As well as preventing humanity from destroying this Lost Belt world."
There was a pause before Goetia said rather bluntly. "And yet you summoned me through the essence of that wretched shepard David's left over essence in the Grail after you stole the body of Rin Tohsaka when she tried to summon her own servant. A Beast as well, whose Logos is different from your own."
Silence rang out before she said calmly. "I can meet the Alien God in open combat. I do not fear it. But it's apostles and how it has entangled itself with other Lost Belt's, other timelines, and other universes entirely? I need a powerful force while I am outside of the Earth's reality field to keep things contained."
Goetia turned his head to the side before he said in amuesment. "I believe you have been rendered into a form of stupidity due to your host body. But fine, if you won't interfere with my own plans to rewrite human history. I will otherwise not interfere with your own plans."
Then Goetia asked the more pressing question. "What if Chaldea and the Apostles of the Alien God work together?"
She remained silent with a frown at the thought before she shook her head and said with some annoyance. "No, that is all but impossible... After all, THAT all seeing God King is playing his own games as well. He refuses to allow the Alien God to use his own Pantheon as fuel for a lost belt to anchor it's twisted reality."
After all. The Alien God was only attacking earth and it's Human Texture in this very recent amount of time specifically because of all the powerful divine Pantheon's had retreated to the Reverse Side of the World.
The Alien God would have never dared to invade when the Greek, Roman, Hindu, Celt, Shinto, Mesopotamia, and the Aztec Pantheon's were all active at the same time and the world was so much bigger.
After all... With enough human faith, sacrifices, and divine will. Camazotz in most timelines was capable of killing a Type in ORT. Who was to say other divines coudn't do the same in a similar situation.
-
"Soooo you are the scary magus who was making all the other mages scared over in Chaldea huh!" Ritsuka said with a gremlin like smile as she bounced over boobily as she looked between me and Tamamo.
Then she said with a knowing smile. "And this is... Your girlfriend?" She finished with a teasing note.
Tamamo huffed but said with a hint of pride. "You are only wrong only in the matter of scale Mikon! Jake Bariss is both my master and beloved! Not merely some boyfriend or some trifling nonsense!"
Mashu then approached a bit closer and as I took in her appearance... I coudn't help but note she looked a bit sorta different. Like she was missing something inside of herself.
And for a moment I thought it was something like Marisbury being the shit heel he was. Actually had to be cheap with the materials he used to make Mashu with how she was a homunclus.
But no, there was just a heavier weight in her eye's that gave her a more worldly look.
And the moment she spoke. I realized she wasn't the almost ditsy and energetic kouhai that I was used to from my own playthrough of FGO.
No there was a dimness of the life being beaten out of her. I wondered if it had another to do with 'Fou' not being around Chaldea or anything as well.
In either case I was still a mite bit worried about what would happen should Tamamo and Scathach come across one another.
"So you guy's haven't found any other chaldea agents at all?" I asked with a frown.
As I wasn't sure what was going on right now as the events of Singularity F wasn't a planned thing. All though there were a fuck load of bombs spread across Chaldea, there was every chance that the A-Team might have survived.
At least I did in fact hope that the Gary Stu overpowered Kirschtaria Wodime was still alive as I knew he was here at Chaldea. And not at the Clock Tower even if he basically had taken over the Astronomy Classroom and Department.
And of course... I was also interested in the sleeper big titty 'vampire' in the blood elemental in Akuta Hinako.
"No Jake, sadly we haven't managed to find anyone at all. And even with this mystic code outfit I am wearing. The staff back at Chaldea hasn't contacted us at all." Ritsuka said with a frown.
I was quiet for a moment as I absorbed that. No Romani telling us where to go. No Da-Vinci supporting us with Black Technology that was a fusion of super technology and magecraft.
Hell, the reality was that we were fucking alone. As those bombs and the attack on Chaldea weren't right with how everyone's souls were taken.
I took a deep breath before I said quietly. "Alright then. We are in Fuyuki where the Holy Grail War is held, obviously. After the Matou mansion was wiped away, there is only a couple of places the Greater Grail could be at this point. And that Grail will obviously be where the core that is holding up this Singularity."
Unless for some reason, there was just no saber alter or whatever?
Either way, I shared a look with my new team at my words. Ritsuka slowly nodded in agreement. What else could we do at this point?
But then Ritsuka asked the more pressing question as well. "Let's say we get the grail or whatever is holding up this singularity. What then? What do we do next?"
I opened up my mouth to say that obviously Chaldea would rayshift us out of here and back to our worldline... But uhhh yeah, no communications at least on our end with Chaldea. Hell, we had no idea if there were hostile servants on the way.
"We have to try. Perhaps collecting whatever is holding up this singularity will allow us to leave as Chaldea itself figures out we managed to clear up the distortion in history." I said helplessly.
Then Tamamo cleared her throat and said in a more upbeat tone. "Do not worry darling! In the worst-case scenario, I can take us to get lost in the mountains. And in doing so, we can reach my friend Beni-enma and her eternal onsen ufufu."
'Beni-Enma in the actual flesh... She is a scary one with how she was able to train with the First Hassan to be able to inflict the concept of death upon fucking ORT.' I thought helplessly.
But I only shrugged and said. "We will see... I certainly am not going to stay stuck here in this singularity after all."
In the worst case. I could in fact remake the ritual that could take me back to the Land of Shadows. But I had a strong feeling that should I do so. Scathach woudn't be pleased in the slightest at me running to her when I ran into a problem.
With a solid plan set. We moved to leave the remains of the also wrecked Tohsaka mansion, which sadly didn't have much in the way of anything to collect. Just broken boundary fields and a burning wreck that held nothing but death.
And as we left the Tohsaka manor that looked to have been struck with several missiles with the dozens of explosive crater's left by whatever bombed it to shit. We only crossed the road as we headed for the mountain shrine where the grail would be.
When I found something that made a pit form inside of my stomach.
A figure... A corpse impaled on a concrete wall that separated the road from one of the nearby homes. That red sweater, dark short skirt, stockings, and dark hair were unmistakable.
That pit in my stomach weighed on me as I realized I was staring at the corpse of Tohsaka Rin of this Singularity. She had been grabbed by the neck, her neck crushed by a servant's strength, and then impaled through the chest on a piece of rebar that had been staked through the wall beforehand.
A heavy exhale left me as I forcefully pulled my gaze away from her remains, as I wondered where the hell the corrupted Emiya was. Hell, where was Caster Cu anyway? As I remember, Odin was doing some fucky shit in the background of FGO to help things out a bit.
Including forcing Cu into a caster form instead of his lancer form.
But silence was my only answer. There was no mad roars of the mad Herakles, there wasn't the scream of hyper sonic exploding sword arrows.
This singularity was for the dead, and that was what seemingly remained entirely.
'Well, at least with Olga not being here... She at least isn't going to be getting thrown into Chaldeas to be burned for eternity.' I mused helplessly as we made our way towards the temple