Well, it's been a while since I've written any form of creative writing. Still, I've recently received a massive boost thanks to watching Fate/Apocrypha and Fate/Extra Last Encore. However, the main inspiration for me was the Fate/Grand Order game and movie, the latter giving me the inspiration to write this.
...Well, enough time with the retrospective chatter. Onto the story!
Prologue 1 - Error 404: Hero Not Found
The sound of furious typing could be heard as moonlight barely illuminated the closed room, the pale beams diluted by the vibrant colors from the computer screen.
"Come on, come on, come on…," The teen at the screen muttered as he stared intensely at the screen, his fingers darting from key to key as he watched the gameplay. Yep, that's me. Not really much to describe, physically. Short black hair, a slightly chunky build and a pair of glasses resting on the bridge of my nose. To be honest, the words 'average' would probably be the best word to describe me overall.
On-screen, my character barely dodged a blast of fire from the opposing wizard, firing three ice blasts in response that managed to trap them with a slow effect. Switching my POV from third-person to first-person, I began charging the Reign of Light so that I could - Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!
"Goddamnit, PrismWizard!," I shouted into my microphone, slamming his fists on the keyboard in fury at my character was finished off by the poison effect of a friend's Magical Girl-inspired Rogue PC, "I thought we agreed on no friendly fire this raid!"
"You were the one who said that, not me!," An elderly, yet somehow vigorous voice cackled through the speakers, and I let out a groan as I leaned back in my seat, waiting for my character to respawn. Why was it I was friends with him again? To be honest, with how much of a troll he was at times, it was hard to remember. Still, his skill with MMO games definitely helped with some off the quests, and it was nice to have someone to bounce Fate/Stay Night ideas off of from time to time, even if he was rather adamant on the 'can' and 'can't's of the Type-Moon universe.
Seeing that the respawn option was now available, I clicked the tab and my character resurrected in the main spawn point before sending my character racing towards the raid boss's location, the process accelerated with the help of a Warpgate.
"By the way, Alex, did I mention that there was a new version of Fate/Grand Order coming out soon?," PrismWizard asked as the two of us began to focus on the main Raid Boss, a Gigantic Glacial Golem that had a tendency to spam slow effects. I blinked in surprise at the question, having not expected the question.
"Really?," I said into the microphone as I blasted the Golem with a Thunder Rush that sending it stumbling back with the knockback effect. "Would've thought that it'd be announced by now."
"Well, it's still technically in the closed beta session, but I was lucky enough to get a couple copies for personal use. You want the extra copy?," PrismWizard asked as he got the Golem with a preset Iron Trap, bringing it down to the last HP bar. As I began charging the Reign of Light, I began thinking the offer. While it was not exactly legal to publicly share closed betas, the potential of checking out the new Fate: Grand Order… Screw it, I'm going to give it a shot!
"Sure, just send it over after we finish this raid boss," I finally answered, and PrismWizard gave a chuckle in response, before silence filled our mics for the next few minutes, save for the sound effects in-game and the occasional shout of warning. Soon, the golem fell thanks to a mix of Fire Elemental spells and Instant Traps PrismWizard constantly threw at its feet. With the boss defeated, I logged out of the game and opened my Dropbox, the voice chat still running thanks to a third-party program.
"Alright, just sent the file over," PrismWizard said, and my Dropbox alarm chimed, as if right on-cue. Clicking the file, the program immediately began downloading, though the title 'kld_.scp' was a bit unusual.
As the file continued downloading, the size of the folder being larger than expected, I couldn't help but ask PrismWizard, "So, how's the gameplay?"
"While I can't say too much for the sake of spoilers, I can say that it's definitely... immersive," PrismWizard answered with a rather devious chuckle. Almost reminded me of when he led me into that Dire Wolf ambush...
A sudden ping drew my thoughts away, and I realized that the file was finished downloading. "Huh. That was fast," I commented, clicking the file open. The file stalled for a few seconds, the screen seeming to freeze before cutting completely to black.
Several seconds passed in silence as I waited for the computer to load the program, but after nearly a minute of nothing happening, I began to get worried. "Hey Prism, you sure the file's the right one?" The only response I got was the faint static across the connection, and I leaned over to the screen, tapping it in hopes of getting the program starting.
A sudden flash of light seemed to dart across the screen, and I leaned back, watching the screen as multicolored beams of light began to jump from the center of the screen. In fact, the beams of light seem to be almost jumping out of the screen.
"Oh sweet Jesus, my eyes!," I shouted as I fell back, blinded by the rush of lights. I tried to close my eyes, but that didn't help at all. Soon, my mind started to waver as the lights continued to assault me, and my mind soon shut down from the overload assault.
I let out a groan as I came to, a headache pounding on the inside of my head like a jackhammer. "Fuck, what the hell happened?," I muttered as I looked up at the white walls. Last I remembered, the lights had been blasting my eyes like a firehose and-
Wait, when did I have white walls?
My thoughts came to a halt as I realized that I wasn't in my room anymore. That didn't make any sense. The only other person who could've entered the apartment was the landlord, and they were out for the weekend for a funeral.
Spotting two slips of paper resting on the nightstand with 'Alex' written on the front (and I have to say, the nightstand is a rather nice one), I grabbed the closest one and opened it, silently reading the note inside:
'Sorry about dropping this on you, Alex, but due to a certain event that's going to be happening soon, I needed someone to help take care of the Singularities. I can't affect it personally thanks to the Singularities keeping me from entering the world until they're taken care of, so it looks like it's up to you. Good luck with handling Fate: Grand Order on your own, kiddo!
-Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg'
I slowly set the note down on the nightstand, an new twitch starting to develop underneath my right eye. I took in a deep, steady breath, trying to calm myself. After all, it's Fate/Grand Order. I've played the game enough to know who the big bads, summons and noticeable threats are. I can get through this without any issue, right?
...Oh, who the hell am I kidding? I take in one last calm breath before immediately descending into a panicked rage, flipping the nightstand over in the process.
"Void fucking-!"
