Wow guys, time sure does fly by fast. It's been several months since I released this story and it's already Christmas time! I wanted to just take this time to tell all of you that I'm thankful for all your support in this story. As of now, it's the most popular story in my collection and I hope you all can continue to enjoy it!

Lots of things have been going on as well. With christmas time almost upon us, many of us FGO players are already trying to beat the demon pillars in record time so that we can enjoy our christmas. And for those FGO players out there, keep up the good work! We're almost there!

Also, I'm considering uploading another small story about Naruto and the Ninja's time in Chaldea before they went to the Camelot singularity since I didn't really go into detail about that.

With that said, I hope all of you had a splendid merry christmas! I'm not sure if I am, though. Those feels for the last singularity got to me hard ;(

"Hahaha... hahaha! Truly, I have never been this amused in my life! It almost makes this stiff neck of mine go away!" The Sun King roared with laughter from his position on his golden throne.

Nitocris had kept her promise to the letter. Nobody had attempted to attack them or put their hands on them the second they walked through the gates of the Kingdom, but everyone couldn't help but notice that most of the civilians that were loitering along casted some unusual glances in their direction. Part Anger, part confusion, it was starting to get them a little bit nervous.

Though it luckily ended when Nitocris took them directly to the 'Sun King'. Surprisingly, the man was exactly how everyone expected him to be. Dark hair complimented his olive skin as he sat comfortably on his throne. He barely wore any clothing other than golden armor from the waist down and a flowing white cape attached to his neck. He wore nothing to cover his top half, showing off his perfect physique like a total show off.

He was the Pharaoh Ozymandias, the greatest ruler of Egypt. And right now, he was supposed to be judging those who had saved his fellow Pharaoh. It was surely a gift from the gods to help relieve him of his boredom, as he could have sworn he was dying of it before they had come. Anubis had surely been coming for him.

So he introduced himself like any great Pharaoh would, making it a point to remind all of them that they were beneath him and that he would not tolerate any disrespect to his face. Watching them squirm a little bit when he said that was amusing, but he knew that he was going to have to be serious for a moment to confirm something.

So he gave them permission to talk, and he gave them the time of day to listen. The masters of Chaldea, as he dubbed them so, told him of their adventures in the past singularities of Okeanos, Orleans, and Rome. Their stories kept him busy for hours on end, invested in their tales of human order and salvation. They were such grand stories that he couldn't help but laugh.

"It amuses me that such a small group of humans had managed to accomplish such a tall order! Are you sure you're not telling me incredibly woven lies?" Ozymandias questioned, his voice echoing within the confines of his temple.

"I can assure you Sun King, everything we have said so far is the truth." Gudao said with an even tone, but enough force was put behind it to cover up weakness. "The King of Magic wishes to incinerate the human order. That is why we are here, to stop such a thing from occurring."

"And I believe you." Ozymandias nodded, earning surprised looks from everyone.

"...Really? Just like that?"

"I'm quite good at discerning lies. A Pharaoh must be a good judge after all, for every problem must go through him." He shifted on his throne, adjusting his position to a more comfortable one. The stupid pain in his neck was coming back again. "You seek the grail, don't you? To fix this singularity you require the magical cup!"

This truly was turning out better than he expected. On any other day, he would have sent out his sphinxes and scouts to destroy them for being in his territory. It was probably a good thing he forgot about Nitocris thanks to that stupid wound on his neck, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten such a privy form of entertainment. Dancers and concubines don't do much these days, and Nitocris trying to act mighty and failing is starting to get stale.

Speaking of which...

"Grail? Anomaly?" Nitocris blinked in curiosity as she looked upwards towards him for answers. Upon meeting his eyes, she immediately looked down in embarrassment. None who were lower may look upon the pharaoh without his permission.

"It is my failings to not have properly informed you of the circumstances, Nitocris. I shall remedy this as soon as we take care of our... esteemed guests properly."

"I shall accept whatever form of puni-"

"Worry not, that will not be necessary for bringing me such a surprising form of entertainment. If you do wish to seek to better yourself, go put your hand in a jar and give it to me."

"Right away." Nitocris bowed without hesitation, earning surprised looks from everyone. She agreed to something like that so easily?!

Ozymandias just simply looked amused and casually observed Chaldea's summoned servants, taking an interest in the two knights who bore the Lion King's symbol. It was certainly a very surprising moment, one that will surely lead to an equally amusing situation. He recognized the red knight as Mordred, one of the knights of the round table. The other, however, he did not recognize. Clearly a female, but he could not recall how many females had been on the Round Table.

"Yes... Certainly interesting. Nitocris, have the servants quickly make preparations for a banquet! We must show our guests how the people of the sand treat their guests, lest we dishonor ourselves! A small portion of the local surplus should suffice for a grand meal."

"O-of course your divine majesty!"

Soon, everyone was having idle chatter and relaxing at the seat of a golden table with numerous exotic food spread across on plates of gold. Any time the food would vanish from the table, servants of fire would immediately bring more from some unknown place to their hearts content. Most of them enjoyed themselves, with Kakashi and Jiraiya telling jokes and Oda laughing alongside them. Robin was currently tapped out, sleeping in his chair after having his fill.

Arturia was the one who was enjoying herself the most, inhaling food faster than what it should have been possible. It was like her stomach was a blackhole or a space to another dimension. Jeanne was chastising Arturia about table manners while Emiya just shook his head in amusement and continued picking at his food as he wondered if he could ask for the recipe. Medea and Medusa were talking amongst themselves as fellow greeks and women, probably not about anything relevant to the singularity.

Itachi himself was the only one who wasn't socializing or eating food. He simply sat at the far end of the table and watched silently. Although the servants wouldn't admit it out loud, they weren't comfortable around him. The only ones who did seem to be perfectly fine with him were Kakashi and Jiraiya, who seemed to treat him like an old friend.

Odd.

At the center of the table were Da Vinci and Scathach as they discussed about the data that they had managed to gather through Da Vinci's devices that she had been using to determine what time period they were supposed to be in right now. Cause obviously, this isn't Jerusalem.

"We're definitely in the 13th century, so we can cross off the fact that Roman's jump didn't send us anywhere else." Da Vinci said as she spoke through a mouthful of a green apple. "However, the data from my staff isn't wrong either. While we walked, it collected samples of sand from the desert and analyzed them. Studies shows that this is Egyptian sand from around B.C time. Nitocris wasn't lying on that part. What I don't understand is how Ozymandias had managed to transport an entire region is beyond me."

"So the cause of this singularity isn't in the Holy Land, but the desert?" Mashu asked curiously as she threw a piece of meat to Fou, who happily gobbled up the scraps. If that's the case, it's something she can peg Roman for later.

"Hm... I cannot be so sure of that. This Egypt just so happens to be very... foreign. I can detect several distortions around the singularity, including the place where Jerusalem was supposed to have been."

"And we can't contact Roman for assistance until we reach a safe spot away from those distortions..." Gabby muttered with a sigh. "The doctor must be worried sick about us."

"As long as things go smoothly, we should be fine." Scathach said as she leaned back in her chair. "Once we get out of the desert, it should be much safer. We have to watch out for the Hassans though, and I don't necessarily trust... him." She slightly cocked her head towards Itachi, who had his eyes closed as he sat motionlessly.

"Yeah, I get you. It's odd how Kakashi and Jiraiya seem to be pretty calm around someone like him." Gabby whispered, not wanting to let the dark shinobi hear them. If Roman was here, he would already be panicking and quickly giving everyone the simple advice of 'kill him before he does anything'. The doctor was always kind of overprotective that way.

It was very rare that she would get this nervous around a servant. Especially one who was responsible for saving them no less. If she remembered her history correctly, Itachi was a criminal and terrorist. That's pretty much about it. No text in any books explain why he murdered his entire clan and joined up with a terrorist organization. Most people who were villains at least had a motive that justified their actions slightly, but she couldn't find anything on Itachi.

Admittedly, she found it quite scary. This wasn't a man who held a morale compass like Kakashi or Jiraiya. He was just some unknown killer. A monster among men that represented the dark sides of humanity.

She was suddenly brought out of her worrisome thoughts as laughter could be heard from the end of the table where Ozymandias and Gudao were sitting. If there was anyone she had to thank for getting through to this king, it would be Gilgamesh. The Pharaoh was basically just a scaled down version of the king and was much easier to talk to without having to worry about being stabbed by swords or hit by clubs. As long as you appealed to his personality, it was easy to keep him contained.

But everyone couldn't help but feel like this entire thing was suspicious. Hospitality such as this was nice, but it was a rule around Chaldea to not look at people like Ozymandias in the mouth too much. No doubt there was some kind of other side to this.

"As much as I would love for you to regale me in your past exploits, I shall move on to the important reason as to why you are here. Since you have pleased me greatly and have done me a personal favor of rescuing Nitocris, I shall give you a favor of my choosing." He leaned back on his throne and readjusted his head back onto his neck. After the third time, no one was really willing to question it. "I have made up my mind. I shall answer the questions that you seek. Be grateful, for it is rare that I give a blessing to an outsider."

"Most gracious of you, Sun King." Gudao said with a smile.

"It is only natural." Ozymandias said with a small chuckle as he reached into a small compartment near his armrest. The man rummaged around within for a few seconds before pulling out an object nobody had been expecting.

Everyone gasped as he pulled out a familiar golden cup of unquestionable design, brandishing it out in front of him with an amused smirk as he saw everyones eyes drawn towards it like a beacon. "Yes... This cup. This is what you seek correct, masters of Chaldea?"

"You have a grail?!" Gabby exclaimed in shock. Everyone glanced at each other as they tried to comprehend their luck. Usually it would take several days or weeks for them to find the grail. Now, it shows itself only after a few days of walking. Truly, some kind of blessed luck!

"Indeed. It is a treasure fitting only for someone like me." Ozymandias boasted proudly as he placed the cup on his armrest. "From your faces, you wish to know where and how I acquired the Grail it seems. Very well. I shall tell you. A long time ago, I liberated the grail from the clutches of the Crusaders shortly after I was summoned into this world, but someone as powerful and incredible as I am does not require any need of it. It does make my wine taste a little bit more bitter when I use it, however."

Robin seemed to find amusement in that statement as he let out a quiet chuckle. The thought of using one of humanities treasures as a drinking goblet never really occurred to him at all. Perhaps he should try that when he got back to Chaldea. They did have a lot of those spare ones lying around somewhere in the vault if he recalled.

"I shall be honest with you. I had thought that you would have perished by the fourth singularity, but it seems you posses the will and desire to prove me wrong. The tenacity and drive you possess are above commendable." His proud smile suddenly turned into a frown. "But you are far too late! This singularity is far, far more different and more dangerous than the last singularities you have faced. The human order of this age has long since collapsed since the eradication of the Crusaders!"

"Um..." Everyone turned to face Mashu as she tentatively raised her hand. "What do you mean by that, Sun King?"

"I mean exactly what I said! There should have been a battle over the Holy Land. One side besieging and one side defending! Total war between two irreconcilable factions! At the end of the war, one side should have the Holy Grail and the Holy Lands would become a breeding ground for the demon pillars, for nothing nourishes a demon more than religious land... If you had arrived sooner that is."

"But that's not the case, is it?" Da Vinci spoke up, ignoring the glare Nitocris threw her was for speaking out of turn. "The war to reclaim the land never happened, right? You were likely summoned under someone from the Crusader side and began opposing them like it was the most natural thing to do, conquering the land for yourself and seizing the grail. Was it your doing, summoning this desert and causing the human order of this era to collapse?"

Ozymandias gave a raised eyebrow before turning to Gudao. "Might I ask, who is she? She's quite knowledgeable."

"That's Leonardo Da Vinci."

"Oh, I've heard that name. One of the brightest in all of human history, or some such." The Pharaoh mused. "I see... It's as they say; Genius and Idiosyncrasy are two sides of the same coin!"

"No, no. Compared to the Sun King, I'm juuuusst a bit more intelligent~!" Da Vinci chirped, continuing to ignore the hole piercing glare Nitocris was giving her.

"How bold, inferring that I lied about the use of the Grail." Ozymandias chastised, but he still seemed to be less angry and more amused. "But unfortunately, you are wrong. I am simply the owner of this grail, not the user. I have no need or want for the Holy Lands! And thus, listen carefully..."

Dramatic tension filled the room as the Sun King leaned forward in his seat. "The one who made this an exceptional singularity, the one who burned human history and is seated in the ruins of the Holy City you sought! It is the Lion King... Yes! The Lion King of Immaculate White!"

"...The Lion King?" Everyone looked at each other, expecting someone to at least know that moniker. Unfortunately, the only thing anyone received were confused looks and shrugs.

"You seem confused about their identity... I admit that I do know about the Lion King's features and identity..." Ozymandias smirked as he leaned back in his chair as an idea occurred to him. "But I shall no tell you. I believe I have revealed more than enough."

Da Vinci frowned. "You will not spare us the Lion King's identity?"

"Do not misunderstand, we are not allies. In the future, we may find ourselves fighting each other for control over the Holy Grail, but you are my esteemed guests as of now. Guests that still must see for themselves the true nature of this world." He proclaimed with a tone that clearly that there was no room for argument. Soon, however, his regular smile returned. "We of the sand are not unjustly cruel, though. To not give you our hospitality would be a great dishonor. Killing you after aiding us even more so. An alliance or parlay between us, however, is out of the question."

He leaned forward, his eyes gleaming. "As you all currently are now... Never mind. I shall speak no further. You must find out for yourselves. Like I said, even if you figure all of this out, I have low expectations that you will survive this singularity."

That seemed to get on most of the servant's nerves, specifically those of Medea and Mordred as their knuckles clenched in anger as they hated being talked down upon. Especially by arrogant men like Ozymandias. Robin and Medusa weren't as expressive, but you could still feel their shift in moods. They themselves didn't like rich kingly folk in the fist place. Everyone else remained silent with blank expressions, not willing to voice complaints as it will surely fall on deaf ears.

"But then again... you already have someone to guide you." Ozymandias said, his tone... different as he turned his attention on Itachi. "How is your arm by the way? I could have sworn that I burnt it off."

There was silence for a moment as Itachi opened his eyes, revealing nothing in their reflections as he stared at the king.

"I'm just fine. How's your spine?"

Before anyone could blink, a beam of light shot out from Ozymandias' staff, piercing Itachi from where he sat and sending him and the seat toppling to the ground. Everyone quickly stood up and drew their weapons in preparation to fight if the king decided to tur-

"Tch. I should have known if wouldn't have worked." Ozymandias muttered, letting go of his staff and sitting back in his seat. Nitocris suddenly yelped, drawing everyones attention towards her to reveal Itachi sitting next to her, casually sipping from his cup without a single scar or wound.

"He still has it." Kakashi muttered in amusement as he watched Nitocris panic, unsure what to do.

"Typical. Everyone always did call him a child prodigy." Jiraiya mused as he sipped from his tea. Up at the throne, Ozymandias just sighed and sat back down with a small amount of disappointment.

"It doesn't matter. As planned, I will give you another hour to finish your meals. Then we shall give you the necessary supplies and resources you need to leave this desert, lest you die and sully the sand with your blood. When the sun rises, I expect you to be out of my sights. The crow will be your guide... if he doesn't lead you to your death that is."

That... didn't sound ominous at all.

Mashu hummed to herself as she sat atop one of the buildings, eagerly looking across the sights and committing it to memory. Ever since she was born, she never had the ability to go out into the world and experience life as a normal person due to... circumstances. As such, she mostly lived her entire life within Chaldea before becoming a demi-servant and having the ability to see the world for the first time. Several of them in the past year to be exact.

She loved those memories. Seeing many things about humanity and the world kind of made her feel... enlightened. She was thankful for St. George that he would take pictures whenever they were out so he could give them to her for a photo album she had been working on.

Speaking of which, the pyramid looked like it would make a good photo. She reached into her pocket to pull out the special camera she always carried around with her before a sudden voice came from behind her.

"Enjoying the view I see, Mashu-chan."

She spun around in surprise and found Kakashi standing behind her silently with his orange book open in his hand. Seeing her surprised reaction, he put a hand up in a calming manner.

"Sorry. Old habit of mine."

Mashu relaxed, coming down from her battle high. "It's alright... Just don't approach me from behind so quietly like that, Kakashi-san."

"Can't help it. A-ranked presence concealment after all." Kakashi said with an eye smile, earning a small giggle from the shielder. Looking over her shoulder, he took in the sights for himself. "A beautiful view for sightseeing. You chose well."

"Thank you." She accepted the compliment easily as she placed her shield on the ground and sat comfortably. She didn't talk as much to Kakashi as the other servants, seeing as he was newer around them. The few times she did talk to him, however, she found enjoyable. Despite his lazy, dopey, irresponsible attitude, he could give some good advice when it was required.

But she sometimes found his presence concealment to be quite creepy sometimes. Unlike their residential Hassan, he usually approached them from the back and without warning like it was natural. The Hassans at the very least had the courtesy to show up from the front most of the time, even if they did wear those... creepy masks.

Which made her wonder if all Shinobi were like that. Even the loud Jiraiya, the perverted sage who had a big mouth, could be really quiet when he needed to. Frankly, it made her uneasy.

Then there was Itachi... A Shinobi known for killing other Shinobi. He was an oddity and an extremely dangerous one at that. If he ever decided to turn on them...

"What are you thinking about?" Kakashi suddenly inquired, snapping out of her thoughts. Turning to him with a questioning look, Kakashi elaborated. "You had a worried look on your face and were biting your lip."

"I was?" She questioned. Odd. She didn't feel like she had been doing anything.

"People do stuff like that when they get lost in thought." Kakashi said as he plopped down on the ground next to her. "Want to talk about it? It's better to let it out instead of bottling it up in my personal experience."

Mashu thought about it for a moment before sighing. "It's... um... About Itachi-san."

"Mmm..." Kakashi stared off into the distance. "You're wondering if we can trust him, correct?" Seeing her nod, he continued on. "So lets turn this into a little exercise, shall we? What part of him do you not trust?"

"Um..." She paused to think about it for a moment, placing a hand on her chin with a thoughtful look. "He's very quiet most of the time. And whenever he speaks, his tone just feels... empty. Like he lost something vital." she pursed her lips. "And there's his legend to think about, Kakashi-san. I know there are always bad people no matter the era, but the age of Shinobi blurs the line a little bit. The people of those time were killers in a world of constant strife." She paused and looked up at Kakashi, noticing that he was staring at her. Feeling nervous, she quickly raised her hands. "U-um... I don't mean that they were all bad people or anything..."

"You're not wrong, Mashu-chan." Kakashi said as he gave her a comforting pat on the head. "Don't be nervous. What you speak is the truth, Shinobi were not heroes. We weren't villains either. We fought for our own rules, our own villages, and we killed and stepped over the corpses of others to do so." He gave her an eye smile. "For a long time, I wasn't a good person either if you could believe it. I believed in following the rules to the letter, even if they made me do some... questionable actions."

"They called you 'Friend Killer Kakashi', right?" Mashu asked quietly, remembering that pop up somewhere in one of the books she read.

"Yeah. Thats what they used to call me." Kakashi said with a pained smile. "It's quite complicated to explain. Maybe sometime later I'll tell you." He looked away from her and started watching the people skirt around below. "Of course, the villages grew quieter when we weren't at war. When those days happened, we tried our hardest to keep it that way. Such was our code: The Will of Fire, which made it so."

"Will of Fire?" Mashu asked curiously.

"A belief those of my village shared." Kakashi explained, his smile turning into a fond one. "A belief of peace through love, the ending of hate with love, the end of wars with love, and the end of conflict with love. That is what we believed in. It gave us the strength to continue fighting, no matter what the odds against us were. All Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf respectfully followed that creed, for the sake of the next generation."

"That sounds nice..." Mashu muttered, finding herself drawn in by Kakashi's rant. "A world of love sounds nice."

"Mmm." Kakashi nodded in agreement. "Of course, people fought for this peace to stay. Some were recognized by history, and others were forgotten and went unrecognized."

"And what about Itachi-san? Wasn't he from your village?"

Kakashi remained silent, causing Mashu to worry and wonder if she went a little bit too far into their history. She knew that some servants didn't open up too freely about their pasts because there were some parts better left unsaid. Maybe she could just downplay the whole thing and just ask lat-

"Itachi was from my village, yes." Kakashi confirmed, though his voice was melancholy. "He was a child prodigy, a master in the art of illusions. An effective Shinobi who believed in the Will of Fire."

"Believed in The Will of Fire?" Mashu thought in surprise. But Itachi was a murderer... right?

"Yeah, he did." Kakashi said as he stood up and turned to her. "If you wish to find out more about him, why don't you ask the man himself?"

"U-um..." Mashu stuttered, suddenly feeling a little bit self-conscious. "I-I'm not sure that's a good idea, kakashi-san."

"Well, you'll never truly know him if you don't. It's not my place to tell you everything about his past." Kakashi said with an amused chuckle as he placed a warm hand on her head and ruffled her white hair, causing her to blush in embarrassment. "If you wish to know more, just ask him. He won't kill you. It's not... in his nature."

She wanted to complain that it kinda was if the readings were anything to go by, but as she watched Kakashi walk away she found herself thinking of another question.

"Kakashi-san..." He paused in his step. "Would you say that Itachi... was a good person? After everything he has done?"

He stood still for a moment before his voice rang out clear, but also quiet. "It is not wise to judge others based on their perceptions and appearances, for peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult of sacrifices. It demands greater heroism than war, and it demands a greater fidelity to the truth and perfect purity of conscious. Not many people posses those traits, and those that do often go unnoticed." He turned to her and gave her a sad eye-smile. "Think about that for a minute. Once you do, decide if you wish to talk to Itachi or not. Whatever choice you make is up to you." Once he finished saying that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Mashu alone to think about those words.

And think about them she did. For the girl who wishes to understand what it means to truly live a a human, she made a mental note to thank him later for those words of his.

"How sad..."

Several crowds of horrified men, women, and children cowered in fear as they stared at the brutal scene in front of them while also trying to cower between whatever cover they could find against this... invisible force of nature. In front of them was a Hassan of the order, one who rushed over here to save them as they found themselves cornered by the Knights of the Lion King. But she was not winning... far from it.

She was an assassin of the night. Under the cover of darkness she should have been undetectable to anyone. However, the red-haired knight's ability to attack without even bothering to detect her completely undermined her attempts to fight back.

Sir Tristan gave a sad sigh like this job of his truly was a chore. His bow held loosely in his hands was something that no archer could possibly call a bow. In fact, it looked more like a harp with multiple strings tied in a way that would make it impossible for anyone to use, much less shoot an arrow. There was also the fact that he didn't carry a quiver with him. Despite that, his bow was still dangerous. For it didn't shoot arrows, but something much more dangerous.

He stopped his approach towards the fallen Hassan, looking down at her without even opening his eyes. "I am most sad, Old Man of the Mountain. It would be easy for you to escape this alone, yet you have accepted your fate. The people of our Holy Land cower behind you, so you choose to protect them... and loose your worth to protect the worthless..."

"You say... that I am worth more than them?" The Hassan coughed out, trying her best to keep herself from letting her pain show. She wouldn't give her enemy the satisfaction.

"Yes. Had you run, even I would have had trouble catching you with my bow... yet you stayed."

"How honest of you..." The Hassan grunted as she rolled onto her back to stare at her captor, grateful at the very least that he was seemingly giving her the opportunity to speak her last words.

Lucky for her.

"If you are as chivalrous as you say you are, then I shall make a deal with you. For my life, you have to let these people go."

The man paused for a moment. Something was definitely wrong. "Nonsense. You have already fallen and I cannot let these people g-"

"Your arms and legs. For one day you shall not move those legs in hostile pursuit and you shall not move those arms in hostile intent. Though my life is a shameful one, something like this should be sufficient for a person like me."

Tristan's eyes narrowed. "St-"

"I hold you to this oath." The Hassan said with a small smirk as she reached for a knife. "The rest of you, run! Find the other Hassans! They shall surely take you in!"

And with that, she swiftly decapitated herself, pulling out a knife and beheading herself in front of the Archer much to the cries of the people behind her. As he stood there silently, he found himself snorting.

"To think she would cut off her own head... quite a show of bravery. I will indeed have to be forced to my oath."

Suddenly, the screams of the people rang through the air as something invisible began slashing through them, spraying blood everywhere without mercy.

"But you should have worded yourself carefully, Hassan. All I needed to kill your people... was a singer finger."