And again he lies on the ground, God knows where. With only one difference. This time he do remembers who he is.

"Senpai, get up!" A shout made him open his eyes, only to see Mashu next to him. Except this time Mashu looked completely different. Her old costume disappeared, being replaced by an incomprehensible mixture of a fetish outfit and armor. One of those types that someone like Peroroncino would appreciate, her glasses disappeared, and she was holding in her hands...

Something big.

"Mashu?" slowly rising from the ground, Momonga shook his head then looked back at the girl. "What happened?"

"Rayshifting, I suppose" she gave her best guess, then looked over Momon carefully. "Is something
wrong?"

"Not that..." Momon sighed, thinking. It seems that even if as he did not want to choose, the choice was made for him - "Rather, just ... Well, what can we say about what just happened."

A howl rang not far from Momonga that made him concentrate on a newly appeared enemy. After which his newly acquired Servant abilities let him understand.

"Enemies!" Mashu responded instantly and practically jumped in front of the man, trying to shield him with a strange incomprehensible something in her hands.

"Not exactly..." Momon looked thoughtfully at the approaching creatures "Just skeletons."

Skeletons have traditionally been considered in all games to be the bottom of the undead hierarchy and one of the weakest monsters in general. So, in general, it was in Yggdrasil skeletons were usually no higher than fortieth level. However, there was one exception to this rule, the highest levels of the undead. Though they were not skeletons often had an appearance very similar to the appearance of skeletons. Considering how strongly the developers of the game pressed on searching and extracting information, it was not for one and not for two players that met, say, the Emperor of Death, taking on the appearance of a skeleton in tattered rags, it became an unpleasant surprise.

However, specifically in this case, the skeletons that jumped on them were of insignificant strength. Satoru could hardly feel them with his Servant skills, so their level was even lower than the thirties. In other words, it was an adversary who could be ignored with a clear conscience.

"Senpai, they are attacking!" however, Mashu did not share the same view and therefore as rattling bones approached,the girl prepared herself. "What should I do?"

'Leave them.' Momonga wanted to answer, but the understanding that the undead would only ignore him, the undead like themselves, while Mashu would have to fight, made him reconsider the order. "Mashu... Can you deal with them?"

"Yes!" In spite of the fact that Mashu did not inspire confidence with the display of her own power in Momonga only a few minutes ago, now she looked completely different. In addition, her opponent was a low-level skeleton. If necessary Momonga himself could intervene in the battle.
However, this was not required.

The strange thing in the hands of Mashu was something akin to a shield, or a sleeper, torn off from the railroad bed. But she had no problems trashing the skeletons. From every blow, the bone soldiers flew in all directions.

"I suppose they really were very low level" Momonga said to himself, watching the girl cracking down on her opponents with her valiant dare. "Although, using her in battle... I feel like an unfair boss who uses child labor against their enemies... No, hey, it's even worse, it's kid fights!"

However, Mashu seemed not burdened with such reflections. Easily dealing with the crowd of skeletons that had appeared and then with the final blow dealt turned towards Momon.

"Admittedly, you didn't look that strong before." Momong tried to think of a topic for conversation.

"I was not." sticking her strange weapon in the mood, the girl leaned on it. The idea that she had to spend so much energy on something that Momon himself could carry out in a blink of an eye with one spell confused the man a bit but he stoically made an attempt to ignore it.

"I am a researcher, not a soldier."

"This battle says otherwise" Although it was impossible to call it a battle. Just waving the thing to the side, occasionally knocking bone skittles approaching the goal.

"The fact is that..." The girl tried to explain something, but before she succeeded a voice distractred them.

"Hurray, it connected!" A voice came out that was familiar to Momon. "Chaldea is in touch!"

"Doctor Roman!" Masha shouted into the air. "Here is Group A: Mashu Kyrielight, There is one person with me, Momon from Group D. The current state is normal, Rayshifting is one hundred percent complete."

"Okay" Romani breathed out after these words. "Are you alright... Mashu, why do you look like that?!"

"I'm sorry, this is a transformation" after these words Momonga found himself listening carefully. "Otherwise I could not fight."

"Transformation?" The doctor' voiced thoughtfully. "...What are you talking about?"

"Look at my vital signs!" After that Romani became silent as he started to search for something in the computer.

"Oh... Magic circuits, mana, physical condition... beyond the human max potetnial!" Romani's voice was shocked ,that was not surprising. Momonga himself realized the same thing. "You ... Are you a Servant?!"

"As a child, Chaldea saved me by fusing my body and the soul of a Servant that had lost his Master." Masha sighed. "The sixth experiment, Demiservant. Completed successfully."

"So is the Servants consciousness in you now?" Romani asked.

"No." But Mashu only shook her head. "The Servant disappeared, leaving me with weapon and abilities but no knowledge."

"Sounds familiar..." Momon said to himself then shook his head. "Although I had the opposite, it was not the Servant that disappeared..."

"Well, then I should check the Momons condition..." Hearing this, Momonga felt a rush of panic, instantly crushed by reason. He can not give himself away!

But what to do?

False data? He knew a few basic spells for hiding information about himself like False Data: Life or False Data: Mana. But there was no guarantee that Romani would not dtry to check something other than his HP and MP. Therefore, Momonga acted as logically as he could in this situation.

"Silent Magic: The Blockade of Observation" with silent metamagic, the spell instantly broke the already weak connection of Chaldea and Singularity, without giving out its action to anyone.

"Doctor Roman? Dr. Roman!" Having found that the person at that end was silent, Mashu tried to shout several times into the void, but did not receive a reply. "Seems like connection broke".
Sighing the girl turned to Momonga again, forcing him to look at her.

"Do you know about Servants?" Asked Mashu first. To what the Servant in the body of the mage nodded in the affirmative.

"Good." she sighed again. "Then you understand everything. I cannot sustain my body and abilities as a Servants for a long time, so I need a Master capable of supplying me with mana."

The meaning behind the phrase was obvious but Momon did not answer.

Yet another choice.

Even assuming that he can deal with the Singularity and escape if he would form a contract with Mashu as a Servant, he will remain associated with her until... Who really knows how long? Servants in the Grail War were always called for the Grail War and died before they reached their goal. In other words there are no concrete examples of how just how long a Servant can exist. Presumably that for as long as a Master can feed him with mana. In other words, until the Master dies.

Given that for Momonga death was not the determining factor at all the offer to become a Master for Mashu was something like signing a contract for eternal servitude. And, to put it more bluntly, as a contract for eternal servitude of the girl more than half his age.

"Mashu..." he tried to hint tp the girl about the special circumstances. "You see, the contract with me will be somewhat ... An unusual contract."

"In what sense?" The girl was guarded with these words.

"The thing is that..." Momon thought for a second. "It will not be possible to terminate it."

"I know." but Mashu, who did not understand the background of the question, just shook her head. "Otherwise, I will die without nourishment, I understand it…"

"Not quite so ..." Thought Momonga after which he sighed. "In fact, this contract is concluded until I stop feeding you with mana. In other words, as long as I can produce mana... But the fact is, I can produce mana for a very, very long time…"

"So, this is good." Mashu raised one eyebrow. "Is not it?"

"Yes, maybe..." Momon looked thoughtfully up at the sky "But, in general... A contract with me is a very bad idea in the long run."

"But... Do we have a choice?" She raised an important point forcing Momon to twist. She, too, was right, in a way. Even if Momonga can fight on his own,without the help of Mashu will simply die without his supply. "I cannot live long without a Master."

Momon raised his hand behind his head and patted his nape, thinking about these reckonings of fate. Eternal service or death? A sadistic choice that made him look worse than he should be in this kind of situation.

"Well, apparently, we really have no choice." Sighing Satoru still held out his hand. "In that case... Mashu Kyrielight, is this a contract?"

"Yes, this is a contract" Without a shadow of a doubt on her face, Mashu extended her hand...

To immediately fall to the ground in a second, when Momonga only felt the light touch of the contract.

"C..." The girl tried to breathe, instantly clutching her throat - "Can't... Bre... Ah ...Ath…!"

Instantly and instinctively, Momonga reduced the strength of the connectio after which Mashu stopped grasping the air with her mouth and dropped her head powerlessly to the ground.

"Wh... What..." Slowly moving her eyes around the sky, gradually she managed to concentrate on the slightly worried face of her senpai "What... was that?"

"Please forgive me." Suzuki tilted his head guiltily. "Apparently you can't stand all my mana yet..."

"All your... Mana?" Barely catching her breath, the girl looked at Momonga in disbelief. "How... Where did you get so much?!"

"As I have already said, the contract with me will be for you... An unusual contract" Sighing, Momonga put his hand behind his head. "By the way, new skeletons are approaching us".

"Uh...Yeah" Slowly rising from her position, Mashu clutched at her strange weapon that
was apparently a shield then looked at a new approaching crowd of skeletons.

"So, I wonder where we should go now?" At the moment when Mashu rushed into battle herself, Momon thought 'Hmm, if only…'

In Yggdrasil, when it was still a game, there was a whole school of all kinds of spells aimed at obtaining information. About goals, objects, events, quests. And so it happened that, thanks to his strange preferences in building the character, Momon knew several spells used as pointers to the goals of the quest or boss in the dungeon. Two exactly, Blessing of Titania and Lead of Yatagarasu, that could point the way to goals. However, it was in the game, in this reality it was not known what the spells with the lore of 'pointing the way to the most cherished goal' would do.

"'But whats that worst that could happen if I used them now?" The magician said thoughtfully, watching the girl cracking down on another bundle of low-level undead. "In that case... Blessing of Titania!"

A moment later a firefly appeared in front of him that slowly moved forward.

"So, I still have some kind of purpose in this place..." Said Momonga thoughtfully, watching the firefly swimming ahead. Blessing of Titania was a high-level spell that showed the safest path to a goal, so Momonga might had relaxed. At least, as relaxed as it was possible in such conditions.

However almost instantly Momon felt something that touched his left hand. With which he had just sent his spell. Moving his eyes Momonga was very surprised.

Because suddenly found that he does not have a hand.

Though not so, more precisely he had a hand even more familiar to his gaze. It was the bone hand of his in-game avatar, which continued to function and obey all his thoughts. But there was no human hand there.

"Apparently, this body cannot withstand high-level magic yet." Said Momon thoughtfully, then bent his bone arm and held it to his chin. Apparently, he will have to hide this.

Pulling off his jacket and tearing it, in a hurry, Momonga built himself something like a bandage with whic he hid his bone hand completely.

"Senpai!" Returning after a couple of minutes, Mashu was walking a little uncertainly, slightly hobbling on ene leg. It seems that despite all the weakness of the opponents, one still managed to injure her. "Senpai, you... Senpai, what's wrong with your hand?"

"Nothing special" Momonga replied as calmly as possible. "It just got hurt it a bit."

"Sempai, let me see!" Mashu tried to rush to help him, but Momon only took a step back.

"It's all right." After these words the man tried to change the topic. "I determined where we need to go."

"Senpai?" Masha frowned a little but continued. "So where?"

"This way" Not being able to answer the question, the man decided to take assertiveness and just moved forward to the side in which the creeping firefly left.

"Senpai, wait!" Mashu shouted when she realized that she did not get any answers about her earlier questions. "Senpai, stop, senpaaaaai!"


"Senpai, please tell me where we are going!" Mashu, who has plunged into an increasingly strange world over the past few hours, was desperately trying to get at least some answers from Momonga "Where are we going, what happened with your hand, where did you get so much mana, what happened here…"

A resounded girlish scream interrupted Mashu's tirade.

"Someone in trouble!" The girl instantly realized. "We must hurry!"

Judging by the fact that the firefly of the spell continued to hang in the same place, exactly where the cry of a certain girl was coming from, it was obvious that that is where they should rush.

A second later, Mashu practically flew out to the site only to see her friend, desperately fighting off the attacking monsters. Momonga, who had followed out after her, also recalled the girl's appearance. white hair, dropping below the shoulder, sharp features, a snub nose, a black jacket draped over her shoulders, turning into a white skirt — there was no doubt.

"Lev!" Taking a step back and chanting spells, trying at least a little to reduce the number of attackers there was the chief of Chaldea on her own. "Lev, save me! Lev, please!"

"Olga Marie!" Memories of the strange name of a friend made Momonga sigh. And then people with the name Olga Marie Animusphere consider the nickname Touch Me strange!

"Mashu?!" Turning to the voice, the girl immediately noticed first the Servant herself and then Momon. "What is happening?!"

"No idea!" With these words, Mashu crashed into a bunch of skeletons, frantically waving her shield, demolishing several soldiers at a time.

It was over quickly, the pure power of Mashu and her huge shield did their job in a couple of minutes. Turning the advancing skeletons into heaps of bones.

"Interesting." Thoughtfully Momon sent the last skull flying off with gaze. "Should I sympathize with the undead being destroyed? We are of the same species, after all."

"It seems, like it over." After that Mashu stopped for a second, catching her breath. "Chief, are you injured?"

Glancing at Mashu, the chief blinked several times.

"Chief." the Demi-servant immediately tried to explain. "The thing is I..."

"You merged with a servant, I know." Marie immediately cut her off and looked at Momonga. "You! Why the hell did you become her Master?!

"What?" Looking at the Animusphere, the man looked surprised.

"Why did you agree to his demands?!" Having looked at Mashu, the chief immediately tried to lecture her as well. "Do you at least understand what you now doomed yourself to?!"

"No, chief, you got it wrong!" The carrier of the shield tried to defend him. "I forced Momon to become my Master — he tried to dissuade me!"

"Chief, we are in a critical situation!" Realizing that the brief respite in the accusations was short, Mashu tried to instantly describe the whole situation. "We were dragged into reyshifting and so we all came here. The remaining masters either died or are in a critical situation. However, chief, if you're here…"

"There is no one beside us." The Animusphere instantly responded to the unspoken assumption. "If we are here, then it only means that no one could be here except us. Reyshifting without a capsule is possible, but its probability is very low, so the device would not have launched it without a capsule if it were possible to send a capsule here. In other words we ended up here only because no one except us could be here."

"So we are alone." Momonga concluded.

"That's correct." Looking at the man, the Animusphere frowned. "Hey, you! You are the forty-eighth master who came here by accident! How could you even be here?!"

"Are you in a position to insult your rescuers?" Momonga wanted to protest, but he only breathed and exhaled. "Just like you. Through reyshifting."

"Well seems like in any case, I have no choice." With a sigh, the girl shook her head. "I recognize your contract with Mashu as valid and from now on you will be under my command! And my first order is the arrangement of the base. We need to establish contact with the headquarters and a powerful source of mana, such as the leyline…"

"By the way about a powerful source of mana…" After these words Mashu glanced at Momonga, but he only slightly waved his head at it.

"What?" Nonetheless Mashu drew attention of Animusphere.

"You're standing on the leyline." The girl immediately changed her thoughts.

"Huh?" Uncomprehendingly she responded. "And... And I knew it!"

Olga Marie took a step aside, then commanded, trying to recover from her mistake. "Put the catalyst on the floor! I will use it to create a connection!"

In fact, Momonga could just send the girl home, using a spell like the Gate, but the memories of the fallen arm forced him to wait a little with this option.

"Senpai?" Mashu turned to Momonga, to which he only affirmatively shook his head. "Okay…"

The shield instantly appeared on the floor, after which Olga took a step towards him, stretching out her arms.

"Au, headquarters, headquarters in touch!" -Rng out a voice in from the drawn circle in a couple of seconds. "Oh, chief, you are alive!"

"Romani!" The shout of the chief spread throughout the area. "Why the hell are you in charge, Romani?! Where is Lev?!"

"Chief, how did you survive?! You were in the very center of the explosion!" Roman was unable to keep his surprise, but he nevertheless took himself in hand and was able to start talking. "Including me, only twenty people from all the Chaldea survived. Professor Lev was in the very center of control room when the explosion thundered, I think…"

"N-no..." After the last phrase she heard, the girl's eyes filled with tears "Lev, he..."

"I'm sorry, chief" Roman said with regret.

"No, wait." But only after a couple of sobs, Olga still managed to take control of herself. "Twenty people... Why so few?! But what about the masters?!"

"All the capsules turned out to be destroyed or permanently damaged." Said the man in a dark voice "Unfortunately, we had no opportunity..."

"Call in the cryo-storage facility immediately!" Animusphere Instantly reacted.

"But, chief, this is a matter of jurisdiction..." Mashu tried to get into the conversation, but she turned out to be cut sharply.

"Better I end up in prison later than let them die now!" Olga Marie's answer was instant and tough. "Lev... If only Lev was here!"

"The Chaldea has lost four fifths of it's functionality." However, Romani continued the report. "The remaining people are divided into three groups; controlling reyshifting, repairing Chaldea and supporting S.H.E.B.A. We are trying to establish contact with the outside world. If we succeed, we will be able to get supplies and a rescue team."

After a moment of silence, Roman tried to say it as gently as possible ."Chief, we will build everything back and pull you out. Everything will be fine, chief…"

"Do not reassure me as if I am hysterical!" Iin the contrary of the implied, the girl shouted into the air. "Of course, we will rebuild everything! So, although I don't like it - Dr. Romani Akiman, before my return, you are appointed as my deputy and interim director of the Chaldea!"

"My honor, chief!" Trying to convey his joyful smile through communication, Roman disconnected after these words.

"So, in the meantime, we are going to solve this problem!" Raising her finger in the air, the Animusphere solemnly uttered. "Our goal is to find the cause of the existence of the Singularity and the cause of the disappearance of humanity!"

"Upon returning, another battle for Chaldea awaits us!" But after bravado, the girl's voice suddenly died out. "Now, with the financiers and magicians..."

"But the right to serve and fight during the greatest difficulties is the honor of the Animuspheree family!" Proudly raising her chin the girl then sighed. "And so now we are going to solve the mystery of the disappearance of humanity!"


Status: Grand Servant

Grand status is given only to those Servants who left an indelible mark on the Earth that remained in all existing cultures, like the wisdom of Solomon, or those whose strength cannot be contained within the frame of awareness of ordinary human reason. It is impossible to say exactly what happens earlier - the Servant receives Grand status, or achieves incredible strength, but the correlation of these two things is undeniable.

All Grand Servants have the power and ability beyond even the most powerful ordinary Servants - and usually are such important historical and mythological figures who center on themselves whole epics, like the Magus of Flowers, that the very faith of humanity in their importance allows them not only to reach the top of strength, but also to maintain their existence independently, without the help of not only the Master, but also without the help of third-party systems, such as the Throne of Heroes or the Moon Cell, appearing simply because in the mind of the observer they exist on their own.

Usually, using these same forces, Grand Servants easily avoid an unenviable fate - it is impossible to erase from the history of someone who left such a powerful mark, as it is impossible to kill a creature, that in the mind of the observer there is not as a separate myth, but as the central basis of the mythology itself.

The main function of the Grand Servants is to preserve the history of humanity and fight with Beasts or Evils of the Mankind. Usually, the Grand Servants are called by the World itself to protect it, as a counterweight against creatures of such destructive power that threatens the World itself, but still, in some cases, the Grand Servants can be called in other situations, however only when there involved a power comparable to the will of the world itself.

There are only seven Grand Servants at a time, one for each class — however, the servants who are suitable for becoming Grand Servants are still much more, and therefore, if one existing Grand Servant ceases to be such — for example, in the case of his own death — Grand Servant status simply goes to the next possible candidate.

Despite the fact that there are only seven Grand Servants at a time, embodying the highest manifestations of the seven standard call classes, Grand status only means that this Servant is most suited to incarnate his class, possessing strength, history and mythology sufficient to alone to incarnate each Servant of his class, therefore, theoretically, the status of a Grand Servant is possible for any existing class, and their maximum number is not limited.