Chapter 263: The World Where the Human Order Incineration Succeeded, First Singularity Summoning
Upon hearing the blonde girl's words, the young woman called Da Vinci visibly paused.
The orange red haired girl and the pink haired girl whose shoulder length hair nearly covered one eye also turned toward her at the same time.
"Da Vinci chan does not know?" the red haired girl tilted her head. "But Da Vinci chan is also a Heroic Spirit, right? And unlike a fake like Mashu who is fused with a Heroic Spirit…"
"Senpai." The pink haired girl looked mildly displeased.
"Sorry, sorry. Bad wording." The girl scratched her head.
Mashu was not truly angry, however, because what the red haired girl said was also what she wanted to ask.
According to the Saber before them, that so called Origin Universe should be the source of all Heroes. Yet Da Vinci seemed completely unaware of it.
Leonardo da Vinci was also a Heroic Spirit, and a famous one at that. One of the greatest artists in human history, one of the three masters of the Western Renaissance.
"But I really do not know." Da Vinci took a sip of coffee, thoughtful. "This Origin Universe, or the Chaldea you mentioned, I have no memory of it."
"If I truly had those memories, I should not have forgotten."
She tapped her temple. As an outstanding artist and polymath of human history, she had always been confident in her memory.
"Ah, that was exactly what I was going to say." Saber raised the corner of her crimson lips, her beautiful and delicate face full of lively energy. "The Origin Universe occupies the most central region of the Sea of Stars and serves as the source Earth for almost all worlds. Almost all Servants emerge through the Chaldea system within the Origin Universe."
"But pay attention. I said almost, not all."
"The Origin Universe also has regions it cannot encompass, and places it cannot influence."
"For example…"
"Timelines fated for destruction. Worlds fated for destruction."
The girl's crisp voice echoed through the steel lined room, followed by a brief silence and a shared look of confusion from the other three.
"You mean…" Da Vinci repeated slowly, chewing on the implication. "Our world is fated to be destroyed?"
"Because of the Incineration of Humanity?" The red haired girl immediately thought of the crisis currently consuming their world.
It was a world level catastrophe born from massive deviations at critical points in history, causing distortion and collapse of Human Order.
The Chaldeas of this world, built atop a snow covered mountain in the Arctic at an altitude of several thousand meters, was an organization for the preservation of Human Order jointly established by the Association and the governments of the surface world. It existed precisely to address this class of disaster.
The red haired girl understood that fact all too well, not only because she herself was a member of Chaldeas, a Master candidate with aptitude for spiritron transfer who could travel to different eras of human history through Chaldeas's systems to restore them, but because she stood at the center of this very storm.
At this moment, the outside world was almost entirely blank. Until Human Order was restored, the exterior world remained in a state effectively equivalent to destruction.
And the burden of restoration now rested, without question, on her.
Chaldeas's last Master.
Fujimaru Ritsuka.
Ritsuka herself felt quite helpless about that.
Originally, she ranked at the bottom among Chaldeas's forty eight Masters, a reserve among reserves. The mission of restoring Human Order should never have fallen to her.
But right before the crisis was identified, an explosion occurred in Chaldeas. The original deputy director betrayed them and blew up the other Masters who were preparing to conduct spiritron transfers to different eras and restore Human Order.
Ritsuka, who had been late because she overslept and therefore escaped the blast, naturally became the only remaining hope.
On top of that, she was drawn into a spiritron transfer almost by accident. Together with Mash Kyrielight, a former Master candidate fused with a Heroic Spirit, she managed to restore an initial Singularity.
Yes, they had succeeded.
But whenever she thought back on it, Ritsuka could not feel happy.
"Senpai, are you thinking about the Director again?"
"Yeah…" Ritsuka did not deny it after Mashu saw through her so easily. "Sorry. I still cannot let it go."
"I keep thinking that if I had done better, maybe I could have saved the Director." Ritsuka gave an awkward smile.
The deputy director of Chaldeas had betrayed them. The original director, who had been active alongside Ritsuka and Mashu inside the Singularity, was pushed into incinerated lava by the deputy director and died a terrible death.
That was a wound Ritsuka could not cross.
"Do not overthink it. You already did everything you could." Da Vinci patted Ritsuka on the shoulder.
Although she was a Servant, Da Vinci had not been summoned after the Incineration crisis began. She had been summoned much earlier as the Third Servant during the initial construction of this world's Chaldeas. To some extent, the director, Olga Marie Animusphere, was someone Da Vinci had watched grow up.
And because of that, they could not afford to lose heart.
They had to work harder still.
They had to restore Human Order.
They had to prevent the world from collapsing, so that everyone's sacrifice would not be in vain.
As for whether the Incineration of Humanity was truly the future that would destroy this world.
"It might be. Or it might not." Saber's answer remained ambiguous. "To be honest, I am not completely sure either."
"Still, I can confirm one thing. The future of this world is dead." The blonde girl lifted her chin. "Otherwise, I would not have responded to the summoning on my own."
Servants of the Origin Universe could descend into many worlds through that universe's Chaldea system, but in normal circumstances they would only actively go to worlds already destined to die.
If this world's Chaldeas existed to save Human Order and thereby save this world,
then the Origin Universe's Chaldea existed to save all dead universes.
And she had come for precisely that reason, responding to the summoning the moment Ritsuka and Mashu returned from the Singularity.
Chaldeas had a system for summoning Servants, but until now, because conditions were not yet ready, only three trial summons had been performed.
Da Vinci was the third.
That was why she was called the Third Servant.
As for the young Servant before them, her appearance came from an automatic activation of the system.
Even Da Vinci, the all rounder who had taken over core technical management after Chaldeas's administrative collapse, had not detected it in advance.
That was why they had been so guarded.
Aside from the acting director, Romani Archaman, who needed to remain focused on Singularity monitoring, nearly all remaining Chaldea personnel had gathered here.
To question this suspicious newcomer.
"So the question is, why should we trust you?" Da Vinci voiced her doubt. "We do not even know your identity."
"Hm?" The blonde girl tilted her head. "Whether you trust me or not does not matter. I am just a vanguard anyway. Or rather, just an anchor point."
"An anchor point?"
Da Vinci, Ritsuka, and Mashu all paused together.
"That is right. An anchor point. Or maybe a locator is more accurate."
Saber did not mind their surprise. "There are countless Servants in the Origin Universe. Every one of them is a powerful individual formed by integrating countless versions of themselves across timelines and world lines. But only one person can truly bring a dead world line back to life."
"The Rowe you mentioned?"
"Exactly."
Da Vinci still wanted to ask more, but in the next instant her ear twitched. The voice coming through the communicator changed her expression immediately.
"Ritsuka, Mashu, Romani needs you."
"A new Singularity has appeared."
Ritsuka and Mashu stood up at once.
Whatever else happened, they remained the only Master and Demi Servant pair left who could restore Human Order and save the world.
"Unknown Miss Saber, please rest here. We will be back soon."
After saying that, Da Vinci left first.
Mashu and Ritsuka followed close behind.
But just as Ritsuka was about to step out of the room, she was suddenly called back.
"Miss Saber, is something wrong?"
"Hm hm, nothing serious. I just wanted to give you something."
The blonde girl handed something to Ritsuka, who instinctively accepted it.
"This is… cloth?"
"It is a catalyst. A catalyst." The blonde girl grinned. "After you enter the Singularity, use this to summon a Servant. You can call a very powerful helper with it."
"Okay…" Ritsuka hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Her first thought was naturally the person Saber had just mentioned, the one who truly saved worlds, and she was genuinely curious. "Thank you, Miss Saber."
"No problem. This is also my mission." Saber waved her hand and watched Ritsuka disappear beyond the door.
This should do it.
Will it work?
"Mister Rowe, the rest is up to you."
Saber, or more precisely one aspect of the King of Knights of Camelot from the Origin Universe, Artoria Pendragon, a wielder of the Holy Sword in the Sea of Stars manifesting in a youthful form, smiled.
Sitting on the bed, she swung her legs lightly, her expression carrying an unreadable amusement.
What she had told Da Vinci, Ritsuka, and Mashu was all true, and not a single word had been false.
But having no falsehood did not mean there were no omissions.
In truth, after Rowe completed the construction of the Origin Universe, many things had happened.
Their enemies had long since risen from planetary scale to cosmic scale.
Cosmic scale.
The Great Old Ones.
"The mastermind behind this world's Incineration of Humanity… those things are almost certainly involved."
Those were Rowe's words to her before she came to this world.
"Once you arrive, do not act recklessly. Use every chance you get to construct a path for my descent."
Mission complete, all right?
Mister Rowe.
Young Artoria leaned back and fell flat onto the floor, staring up and blinking her azure eyes.
Now it is your turn.
"This Singularity is located in the year 1431. Coordinates, Europe, France, during the Hundred Years' War."
"Please confirm stable communications. Spiritron transfer will begin shortly."
"Return safely."
In Chaldeas's spiritron transfer chamber, brilliant light flared.
A young man with a tied ponytail and a gentle face stared intently at the globe before him, part of whose surface looked scorched by fire.
That was the true form of Chaldeas.
A ritual device that simulated Earth's environment and observed crises afflicting the world.
Observe.
Locate.
Then transfer.
A stream of spiritron light flashed, and Ritsuka and Mashu vanished from their positions at the same moment.
"I hope this goes well…" Romani Archaman exhaled, his face full of helplessness.
He was just a slacker in support. Becoming acting director out of nowhere was honestly exhausting.
"Is that not a good thing? Talented people need a stage." Da Vinci walked over with coffee in hand. "And I have news you should be very interested in."
"What news?"
"Do you know the name Rowe?"
Romani Archaman froze.
Do I know him?
Of course I do.
How could I not?
…
Singularity.
1431 AD.
Europe, France.
As the light of spiritron transfer disassembled them into spiritrons and reassembled them in another place, producing the effect of travel across time and space, Ritsuka and Mashu opened their eyes at the same time.
"This is… France during the Hundred Years' War?"
Harsh sunlight poured down from overhead.
It was noon.
The wild plains stretched before them under a blazing sky. Grass swayed in the wind. What greeted them was an untamed landscape.
The girl standing in the grass had orange red hair tied in a high ponytail that fluttered in the wind. She wore Chaldeas's special staff uniform, a white jacket outlining her youthful figure. Below that was a black short skirt, black stockings over long athletic legs, and white boots built for movement and comfort while still looking stylish.
Beside her stood Mash Kyrielight, who had obtained powers similar to a Servant through fusion with a Heroic Spirit.
Mashu had already changed into her combat gear. The black form fitting armor emphasized the fullness of her chest. Her exposed shoulders and arms brought out the softness of her frame in contrast, and the exposed portions of her thighs were strikingly fair.
"No matter how many times I see it… that outfit is really too much, right?"
"Senpai…"
"Oops, sorry, sorry, it just slipped out." Ritsuka said she was sorry, but she looked completely unapologetic.
Mashu's cheeks puffed out a little unconsciously, but just like before, she did not actually get angry.
Ritsuka was simply that kind of person. A little worldly, playful, and utterly unlike the orthodox magus families.
And more importantly, the way Ritsuka looked at her had no contempt in it.
None at all.
No contempt for her being an artificial human shaped by both science and magecraft.
"Let us find the source of the Singularity first." Ritsuka forced herself back into focus.
As a reserve among Master candidates, she lacked proper training. But she had already done this once.
Practice did make perfect, and in this area at least, Ritsuka was genuinely talented.
Otherwise, she would never have been selected as a Master candidate at all.
"That is right, Ritsuka." Romani Archaman's voice came through the earpiece. "Information comes first…"
"Senpai, wait. Your Command Spells…"
"Huh?"
Ritsuka's steps stopped before they had properly begun.
She suddenly lowered her head and looked at her hand.
Chaldeas possessed a Heroic Spirit Summoning System, similar in principle to the Greater Grail system once constructed in Fuyuki.
As a Master, Ritsuka naturally bore Command Spells on her hand.
And now,
those Command Spells were glowing.
A glow in the Command Spells was the sign that Heroic Spirit summoning was about to occur.
But how was that possible?
Even if she skipped most of her classes after entering Chaldeas, she still knew basic thaumaturgical common sense.
To summon a Heroic Spirit, one needed at minimum a catalyst and a summoning circle, a framework to outline and support the Servant's Spirit Origin during manifestation.
Wait.
A catalyst.
Ritsuka abruptly pulled out the cloth Saber had handed her.
It was glowing too.
In that instant, as if struck by revelation or granted an oracle by a god of old,
Ritsuka suddenly understood what it was.
This was…
a Holy Shroud!?
"Ritsuka, what is happening on your side?" Romani's voice sharpened with anxiety. "Chaldeas is detecting a rapid rise in magical energy around you. It is almost like a Category 20 storm…"
Ritsuka answered in astonishment.
"Doctor Romani… is it possible for a Heroic Spirit to descend using the world itself as a Spirit Origin?"
Romani suddenly looked up at the massive globe at the center of the spiritron transfer chamber.
Light was bursting across it.
In Europe, over France, it looked as though a Wild Hunt storm was forming.
But what it carried was not destruction.
It was construction.
Heroic Spirit summoning did indeed require a summoning circle, a structure to build a provisional Spirit Origin.
But fundamentally, a summoning circle was only a medium.
If one's skill was sufficient, whether one used a magic circle or something else was merely a difference in method.
Weeds.
Gales.
Hills.
The land itself.
The very ground beneath Ritsuka's feet.
All of it could serve the same function.
That was exactly what Ritsuka and Mashu were experiencing.
What they were seeing.
Majestic light descended from the heavens onto the earth.
"Lord…"
Somewhere else, amidst swirling dust and sand, a saint in white armor held the Fleur de lis banner of France, her eyes blazing with ecstatic fervor.
Jeanne d'Arc, hero of France during the Hundred Years' War and saint of the Church, offered a devout prayer.
Elsewhere in the same France Singularity, in the heart of French territory atop a towering castle, a gigantic black dragon suddenly raised its head and roared.
Before it stood a black shadowed figure. Golden eyes narrowed with solemnity.
"What is happening…"
"Damn it, damn it."
Deep inside the castle, a gaunt man with bulging eyes cursed in agitation.
"Damn it. How could he descend in person? How could a place like this be worthy of his direct descent?"
"I need a way. I need a way."
"I cannot let everything be wasted."
The man frantically flipped through a tan book etched with human faces. Countless writhing tentacles emerged from its pages, and an indescribable aura of chaos spread through the entire basement.
"Disorder, chaos, madness, sublimity, eeriness, darkness…"
His whispers echoed.
Madness spread.