"So, Mr. Argos, you've been here longer than us - what can you tell us about this place?" Mash asks as we start to move away from the shoreline.
"-Huh!? You think I'd go inland alone? Are you crazy? Deserted islands are always full of cannibals or monsters! I'd die!" Argos says.
"No, I think she meant the Singularity as a whole…" I say.
"Oh. Well, it's a big uncharted ocean full of dangerous islands - like I said, monsters and cannibals," He shrugs. "I can't really tell you much about them, I mostly just stayed on the Argo and let Heracles handle the exploring."
"Geh," I let out a reflexive shudder, recalling that skinless mass of muscle from Fuyuki. "That freaking monster-"
There's a sound of a fist striking steel - and with a shock, I see Argos's fist, stopped a few inches from my face by the timely intervention of Georgios.
"-Hey," Argos glares at me as he lowers his fist. "You can say whatever else you like since you've basically got me at your mercy, but I'm not gonna let you badmouth Heracles."
"S-sorry. I guess you guys must have been friends, huh?" I say. "He was berserk back in Fuyuki, so…"
"What the hell is a Fuyuki…?" Argos asks.
"It was one of the previous singularities Chaldea corrected," Mash says. "An out-of-control Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City, Japan."
"Ah, previous singularities…" He mutters, a strained smile on his face. "So you guys just go around foiling anyone trying to change the past?"
"Pretty much," I nod. Hopefully this will get him to cooperate, now that he knows we're trying to save-
"That's so rude!" Argos shouts, pointing at me. "What do you have against people wanting to fix their past, huh!? You freaking killjoys! I bet that [Alter Ego] guy was with you after all!" Oh my god, this guy doesn't understand the stakes at all, does he?
"Were you summoned with no knowledge of the incineration of humanity..?" Georgios asks.
"Eh? You mean like cremation? I'm not an undertaker." This man is totally hopeless.
***
We spend the next five to ten minutes of our trek to the island's interior getting the clueless Rider up to speed as his face distorts into an increasingly intense expression of horror.
"-And so we rayshifted to this one next." I conclude.
"...Oi, this is really freaking bad," He says.
"Mister Argos, you said Medea had said something to you about us before… Just what did she tell you, if it wasn't all of this?" Mash asks, tilting her head cutely.
"Ah, that… before I answer that, I should ask, hypothetically speaking, just what would happen if someone sacrificed a Greek Divine Spirit on the [Ark of the Covenant]?" His response is a total non-sequitur.
"That would be… probably the total annihilation of the era." Georgios says.
"I see," Argos says, closing his eyes. He takes a deep breath, and- "MEDEAAAAAA! You psycho witch! 'Lord Jason, just leave all the planning to me,' you said! 'If you just listen to my instructions, you'll become immortal,' you said! Why on earth did I trust you!? I should have known you were up to something nuts like usual! 'Well, if you're erased from existence you can technically never die, tee-hee,' - I bet you'd say something like that just before I got blown up! No wonder Heracles was acting so weird, you were clouding his thoughts, weren't you!? No wonder no one showed up when I used my Noble Phantasm, I was on the evil side! AAAAGH, I'm so stupid!"
His furious rant pauses for a moment as he repeatedly slams his face into his palm- wait, did he just imply…?
"-You're not Argos!" Mash says, gasping. You're Medea's lover, Jason!"
"Ex-lover! I'm her ex-lover!" He protests. "It's exactly because of shit like this that we're not together anymore! Because she's a fratricidal, infanticidal, homicidal, backstabbing, crazy witch!"
Ugh… He can say that,, but… "Dude, half of that stuff was things she did for you - and the rest is pretty much your fault. You're the one who set her off by abandoning her…"
"I wasn't going to abandon her! I'm not that scummy!" Wait, really-? "I was going to keep her as a mistress, obviously." Die, scumbag.
…The truth is, though, I'm really not in a position to be throwing stones about proper romantic behavior.
"Let's not get distracted," I say. "Medea of Colchis is the mastermind, I got that much, but what else is going on in this singularity?"
"She was the mastermind," Jason corrects me. "But that's probably not true anymore - why do you think I wound up sitting alone on a freaking island, huh?"
"Senpai, do you think this is another case of a second Demon Pillar arriving?" Mash asks. Right, the original villains of France got their plans derailed when Bael tried to possess Prelati…
"I don't know anything about Demon Pillars. Medea never introduced me to whoever gave her the grail, and as far as I know, the guy who showed up and ruined everything was - no, calling him an 'ordinary servant' is wrong," Jason says. "He introduced himself as a Caster first, but after he thought he had won he went and blabbed a bit - he's an extra class. Something called an 'Alter Ego', whatever the heck that's supposed to mean."
"...Oi, aren't Extra classes supposed to be rare?" I mutter. I feel like my Game Master is fudging his Random Encounter rolls.
"Alter Ego, huh… That's an annoying class," Cu mutters, closing one eye and stroking his chin.
"You know about it?" I ask.
"Maybe. I'm gonna need to do some Divination to really narrow it down, though," he answers. "In terms of how 'out there' of a class it is… well, I'd say Alter Egos are closer to the Watcher side of things than the Shielder side."
"It's another confusing one, huh…?" I sigh.
"-Speaking of confusing, there's another thing." Jason stares at me directly, a grimace on his face. "I don't know how to say it nicely, so I'll rip the band-aid off - Alter Ego's got the same face as Natsuki Subaru."
…Oh come on. "Another freaking Evil Clone arc? Right after the first one?" I complain. Is this my payback for not letting Jeanne confront her dark self directly or something? Despite the wisecracking though, this sense of unease… "His Noble Phantasm… did you see it?"
Somehow, I know he has. Because, those nightmares, the dreams that were haunting me in Chaldea, were-
"Yeah - a Reality Marble. If you kill him inside it, he comes back and dumps curses on you, over and over, until your Spirit Origin gets corrupted," Jason says. "I got off lightly since I never actually killed him - all of the curses that hit me were from him killing himself. Heracles, though…"
"Another corrupted Heracles!? Oh come on!" I moan.
"...Oi, what do you mean, another?" The Rider asks.
"...I don't suppose he did us the favor of getting his skin torn off before he got corrupted this time?" Cu Chulainn asks.
Jason groans. "So that's how you guys beat him when you fought him. Someone else already did the hard part for you."
I raise an eyebrow. "I don't think losing skin stops Servants."
"Iiiidiot," Jason replies. "As a Berserker, Heracles's Noble Phantasm is his skin. [God Hand] makes him immune to every attack below A-rank-"
"What the hell, that's broken!" I shout
"-lets him come back from the dead eleven times-" Jason continues.
"That wasn't even all of it!?"
"-and makes him immune to any attack that took one of his lives before," he concludes.
"Oh come on! What's with this freaking glitch character!?" This is some Reinhard level nonsense!
"-By the way, since Heracles is the strongest, I'd bet he could come back an extra time or two if he really felt like it. Also he has A-rank Battle Continuation," Jason continues to boast about how cool his friend is. "Well, all of that being said, Berserker is his weakest class."
"What."
"I mean, Heracles is already the strongest without Mad Enhancement, so really the only thing the Berserker class does for him is take away his ability to plan ahead," He continues chattering without pause. "He has [God Hand] in most of his other Classes too, anyway. I think he only loses it when he's summoned as an Assassin or as a Rider - but after he was corrupted, he did come out wearing the [Pelt of the Divine Beast], so I think [God Hand] might have gotten swapped out for [King's Order]."
"Okay, so only one life, but for those of us who aren't Heracles Otaku, what exactly-?" I start to ask.
"Nah, he's still got one extra from the Fourth Labor," He crushes that hope without mercy.
"Sure, why not!?" In throw up my hands.
"Um, Mr. Jason, what Senpai really wants to know is, how do we fight-?" Mash starts to ask.
"You give up," Jason says simply. "Why do you think I'm just sitting around on this island? The moment Heracles wound up on Alter Ego's side, it was over. The only reason you guys aren't already dead is because this storm means he hasn't seen you yet. That's not even considering the other ones he had with him - some Conquistador and Pirate, the Minotaur, and don't forget about Medea! And even if you manage to avoid Heracles somehow, and defeat the rest, you don't have an answer to [Infinite RuinReturn From Death]."
That name really is on the nose - and disturbingly close to that.
"That's…" Mash mutters.
"Hey, Master, why don't we just leave this weak loser here?" Cu Chulainn says. "We've gotten about all that we can out of him, I think." He gives a grin, resting his staff across his shoulders. "If it's just the strongest Greek hero-!"
"Don't go getting a big head just because people call you 'Irish Heracles', moron. Come back as a Berserker, and you might stand a chance," Jason says, taking a seat on a stone. "But if you're not gonna make me go with you, that suits me just fine. You guys captured me, after all - I don't want to go on some stupid adventure with you."
"You don't even feel the slightest obligation to fix this mess?" I can't help scowling at his attitude. "You were duped into helping wipe out humanity - don't you feel even a little guilty!?
"And so what? Even if I felt guilty… what would it achieve?" Jason leans back, clasping his hands behind his head and closing his eyes, as rain continues to pour down on him. "You're young, so maybe you don't get it yet, but- sometimes, you don't get another chance. Sometimes, there is no fixing things. And this is one of those times."
…Yeah, I understand. What was it Prelati said, back in France? 'If it doesn't break the heart of anyone who loved the original, then it's probably not a real [Blackened] Servant.'
Jason didn't get off easy or anything, when he was corrupted. For that adventurous man filled with hope, who inspired all of the heroes of his era to join him in a quest for treasure on sunlit seas… the miserable, hopeless man he became at the end of his life, sheltering beneath the prow of his rotting ship, was already his darkest self.
For a moment, I start to think of a response-
Georgios's sword cleaves a spectral butterfly in two. "Enemy attack!"
In an instant, the island trail is full of similar butterflies, and I begin to grow tired - not this time!
"{Emergency Citrus]!" The stupidly named cleanse function of my Mystic Code purges the sleep spell, and I frantically move to get behind Mash's shield.
"[Chaos…Labyrinthos]!" A male voice snarls - and the next thing I know, I'm alone in an empty white hallway.