FATE/PARALLEL COLORS

Chapter 18: Uncanny Transition

In Chaldea's simulator, there was a three-way match going on between Cuchulainn Lancer, Izo, and Lucius. It wasn't a serious competition – just a friendly spar so their combat skills wouldn't dull while waiting for their next proper mission, and also as a way to help Lucius recover from his near-fatal match with Connla. Of course, anyone watching the fight wouldn't think it was a harmless fight, considering how intense and passionate each man was as they yelled and slashed at each other with little rhyme or reason.

"Heyah! How 'bout this!?" Izo taunted as he rushed at Lucius and swung his katana low. The Roman emperor retaliated by blocking the strike and putting all of his might into a blow that knocked the ronin away. While Lucius was distracted with Izo, Cuchulainn leapt in from behind and attempted to swipe Gae Bolg down upon his shoulder. He detected the spearman's presence due to the unexpected surge of wind billowing behind him, and he swung Florent in a 360 degree arc to bash his opponent back.

"Damn it! I was sure I had you there!" Cuchulainn exclaimed.

"Fwah hah hah hah hah! You might be the son of my favorite god, but not even you can get the upper hand on me that easily!" Lucius bellowed.

"Glad to hear you have such respect for my old man. Speaking of which, you aren't planning on making any moves against my kid, are you? I heard you were quite taken by her for that reason during the Fomorian incident."

"Who knows? If she aged up about 10 to 15 years, I may consider it!"

"Careful there, chump. My standards for who gets to win her hand are quite high."

"Oh ho, is that a challenge I hear? If there's anything that one of Rome's finest emperors never does, it's back down from a threat to his authority!"

"Sorry fer buttin' in yer lil' conversation there," Izo interrupted them, "but I'm gettin' tempted t'kill ya both while yer distracted."

"Whoops, sorry," Cuchulainn chuckled. "I just needed to set the record straight for our resident tyrant here. It's not because we thought you were so weak that we could spare a moment to ignore you."

"The 'ell!? The fact ya said that with such a straight face means exactly that, doesn't it!? No one makes fun o'me an' lives t'tell 'bout it!"

"Oh boy. I wasn't even trying, and you're already this riled up over a silly joke? I think your sense of humor needs some training rather than your swordplay."

"That's it! Yer dead!"

Before Izo could even take a step to duel with Cuchulainn, that was when the klaxon alarms blared all throughout Chaldea, including the simulator. The ronin's fury immediately ceased as he looked around and asked, "Eh? What's goin' on now?"

"I don't know, but I don't like this one bit," the Celt scowled.

"Hey, operator! I need a status report at once!" Lucius shouted at the person operating the control panel.

The person managing the simulator was Mash, who was already analyzing all of the data to see what the problem was. The Demi-Servant soon found an error in her readings and relayed, "I've got it! Apparently the alarm was activated in the recreation room!"

"The rec room?" Izo raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Maybe they were gettin' a lil' too rowdy in there an' set it off by mistake?"

"I don't think that's the case. I'm watching the security footage right now, and it looks like something happened in there. I can't really tell what though due to all of the chaos."

The three men joined her at the control panel and watched the images for themselves. Cuchulainn yelped when he saw Fran jolting Connla back to her senses, followed by the Lancer fleeing the room in total panic. He demanded to Mash, "Can you use the cameras to track where the kid ran off to?"

"Give me a moment," she replied and looked through all of the camera feeds until she found a couple of relevant shots of a terrified Connla running back to her bedroom and locking the door. Tomoe and the others caught up to her and were currently banging on the door while calling out to her. Cuchulainn didn't need to know anything else. He rushed out of the simulator and hurried to the same location, with the other three following him.

As soon as Connla returned to her room in a frenzied panic, she quickly changed the password for the door's security lock and planted several layers of basic barrier Runes so no one could enter. She figured they wouldn't last long once one of the Cuchulainns arrived on the scene, but she just needed a few minutes to think about what to do next. She retreated to the bathroom where she couldn't hear the others banging on the door and crying out her name. She just wanted a moment of quiet to herself. She got inside the shower and laid on her side, curled into a fetal position. Blood continued trickling out of her burn wounds, covering the white tiling with ugly red splotches.

I can't do this anymore. I'm tired of being a threat to everyone.

Connla couldn't stop thinking about what she experienced while playing the video game. Her mind seemed to drift to a faraway place, and she didn't feel like she had control over her own hands as she played the game. Most importantly, she kept hearing a disjointed voice calling out to her. The deeper she succumbed to this bout of madness, the clearer the voice became.

"YoU mUSt leAVe YouR WorLd. If yOu do NOt... I wiLL baNisH thEM. EvERy… siNglE… OnE. YoUr MasTErs… yoUR frIenDs… youR eNemIes… aLL oF thEm. You muSt leaVe."

It sounded like a hundred people were talking to her all at once. She had no idea who to focus on, or even if it was necessary to try and discern each voice when it was so obvious who was talking to her.

Daoloth…

She knew the Outer God was totally capable of ejecting people from one dimension to another. It was perfectly willing to do it as well, so long as she continued resisting its influence. Deep down, she was disgusted with the cheap tactics it was using to force her to do what it wanted, but she was so far gone that she no longer cared to call it out. She had to do something to keep Chaldea intact so it could fight the Incineration of Humanity. After all, despite the frequency that these incidents with the alien deity were occurring, it was still inevitably a side mission compared to the organization's primary objective of saving humanity from certain extinction. Connla always felt terrible whenever Chaldea's precious resources were diverted toward her problems. From the increasing severity of Daoloth's invasions on her Spirit Origin, she knew it couldn't last forever.

There was no other way around it – she needed to let herself be banished. It was the best way she could think of protecting everyone, especially Ritsuka and Waver. They represented this timeline's last hope for survival, and she didn't want to risk their lives over these ridiculous incidents.

Master Ritsuka… Master Waver… I'm sorry, but I must leave Chaldea. It is for everyone's safety.

Daoloth seemed to recognize Connla's willingness to surrender, because the moment she thought that, she was sucked into a hidden portal that opened on the shower floor, and she plummeted for a short distance before crashing onto a new floor. Her eyes felt a lot heavier than usual. It was a real struggle just to peel them open, since the darkness felt more inviting than whatever light threatened to burn her retinas. She soon regained enough strength to open her eyes and feebly glance around at her new surroundings.

The first thing she noticed was the overwhelming canary yellow tint glowing on the walls and musty brown carpet she lay upon. The constant humming buzz of fluorescent lights droned all around her. While the vast majority of the spattered ceiling panels were clean, some of them had mysterious blobs of brown… paint? Or old dried blood? Whatever it was, they spattered the occasional panel to create a sense of mystery about what could have happened here in the past. Connla got onto her knees and took a proper look at the random hallways and doorways pointlessly leading into empty rooms. The bright yellow wallpaper was hideous to look at, as if it belonged in some drab office building where boring paperwork was done in the middle of the night.

I guess… I've been spirited away.

Whatever fear she felt before was gone. Now that she had followed through on her part of the bargain with Daoloth, she figured that Chaldea would be safe from the Outer God's threats.

In their respective rooms, Ritsuka and Waver woke up simultaneously. Although it was the middle of the night, they were wide awake within seconds. Neither of them bothered to change out of their night attire as they stepped outside into the hall. Their rooms were right next to each other, so each Master was surprised to see the other having the same sense of urgency that they did.

"Waver…" Ritsuka murmured with a wide-eyed expression.

"Did it happen to you too?" the black-haired teenager asked.

"A dream about Connla being taken away? Yeah, it did."

"She was absolutely terrified out of her mind. I don't like this one bit."

"We need to check on her before something bad happens."

Before either of them could move an inch, the alarms screamed all throughout Chaldea. Neither of them were sure what was going on anymore. They heard another set of footsteps running full speed toward them. They belonged to Alexander, the younger version of Iskandar who was still in his training years as the prince of Macedonia. The red-haired fellow raced up to them and barked, "Are you guys okay!?"

"We're fine, but we only woke up just now," Ritsuka told him.

"Good. I should get you two evacuated to the royal lounge. Many of our strongest Servants are there, so you guys will be better protected there. Doubly so once Mash is on the scene and she can use her Noble Phantasm. I wouldn't be surprised if other Servants are assembling the staff members and bringing them there right now."

"Why? Is there something going on?"

"I can't explain it, but I've been having this unusual feeling of dread lingering over me for the last while, even though we haven't in danger recently. I asked some of the other Servants if they've been experiencing the same thing, and they have."

"A feeling of dread?" Waver asked. "Do you think we're being attacked?"

"I don't know…"

Alexander suddenly glared back, concentrating his line of sight on one of the walls nearby. He wasn't sure if it was a trick of his eyes, but he swore he saw the wall ripple like water for a brief second. His uncharacteristic look of fear disturbed the two Masters, and they nodded in agreement about accompanying him. Ritsuka said, "Fine. We'll figure out what's happening later. We should make sure everyone is safe first. Alexander, can you lead us the way?"

"Of course!" the prince exclaimed and led the duo through the facility towards the royal lounge further in the back. By now, even Ritsuka and Waver were starting to notice the unusual distortions in the atmosphere, and they shared the same sense of terror. Despite all of this, neither of them could forget the same dream they had – of a mortified Connla laying on her side, apologizing for being a burden, then falling through a rift in their reality.

Waver swallowed hard to fight back the despair gripping his chest, and he asked Alexander, "Do you think we could stop by Connla's room on the way? I want to see if she's okay."

Before the Rider could respond, another Servant leapt over the trio and flanked them so that he was covering the rear while Alexander protected the front. Edmond Dantes swayed his black trench coat aside and declared, "That would be a terrible idea. The Lancer's quarters are too out of the way to be worth investigating."

"Sorry, Waver, but I'm gonna have to agree with him on this one," Alexander replied despondently. "Believe me, I'm worried about her just as much as you are, but protecting our Masters is our top priority. Chaldea's entire existence revolves around you two staying alive."

"But…"

Ritsuka put her hand on his shoulder and said, "I'm sure there will be others Servants that'll check up on her. Let's place our trust in them and retreat for now."

"Gh… Okay. You have more experience with these kinds of emergencies anyway. I'll just go along with whatever you think is best."

"Damn it all," Edmond glowered under his breath as he followed behind the trio. "What the hell are you doing, Van Gogh? You're supposed to prevent this from happening."

Mash, Cuchulainn, Lucius and Izo ran toward the door to Connla's room. Van Gogh, Tomoe Gozen, Heroine X and Fran were already there pounding on the door and crying out the Lancer's name, begging for her to come out. Mash exclaimed, "We came running when we saw the security footage! What happened!?"

"I honestly don't know," Tomoe frowned. "I was hearing rumors about her being possessed by some strange entity, but I didn't think it was true."

"She was possessed!?" Cuchulainn yelped. "That shouldn't be possible! The Outer God's fragment was removed already! That should've cut the link between the kid and the alien, right!?"

Van Gogh visibly shuddered as she moaned, "That assumption is wrong."

"What do you mean?"

The artist quickly explained everything about what she and Edmond discussed earlier. The spearman grew fearful and said, "I see. So we were too hasty to assume she was free. It's always going to be an intrinsic part of her Spirit Origin, no matter what we do."

"Yeah. The only thing we can do is help her make peace with it."

"Well, we sure can't do that when she's locking herself in here, can we!?" Lucius yelled and barged through the crowd to slam his fist on the door numerous times.

Izo grit his teeth and muttered, "All o'this talk 'bout aliens an' fragments may be goin' over my 'ead, but damned if I'll let the kid suffer the same way that Cliste did! If she causes a ruckus again, I'll strike 'er down faster than she can blink!"

As everyone attempted to get through to Connla, that was when they felt a compelling force repel them from the door, throwing them everywhere around the hallway. Izo hit his head on the opposite wall, and he rubbed it while cursing, "Shit! What in the 'ell was that!?"

Van Gogh frowned hard and narrowed her eyes, concentrating on the eerie atmosphere itself. After a tense moment, she murmured, "Something's in there."

Lucius clenched his teeth and snarled, "You notice it too? I might not be in the same class as you, but I'd never forget this sensation. It's exactly like when Connla was possessed and used those portals during my fight with her."

"Yes. It's telling us to back off, or face the consequences."

Cuchulainn scrambled back to the door and smashed his fist on it as hard as he could multiple times while shouting, "Connla! You better get your ass out here, or I'm going to break my way in!"

To everyone else's surprise, the angered Celt brandished Gae Bolg and prepared to stab it through the door. Then, something even more shocking happened…

The air rippled for a moment. A few seconds later, Cuchulainn was looking at his own stunned expression in a mirror… No, it wasn't a mirror. It was a polished metallic sphere that wormed its way out of an invisible gap in reality. Before he could register what the hell he was looking it, several bright lights converged into a central point and fired a thin bright green laser at his head!

"AAAAH!?" Fran shrieked and tackled Cuchulainn moments before his cranium could be spliced open. The beam pierced through the air and burned the opposite wall.

"Gh… Thanks, Fran," he said, and helped her sit up as they glared at this new enemy. More ripples distorted the air around the door, and a series of thin rods poked through. They seamlessly merged with the sphere to function as spider-like legs, and the geometric monster crawled around while firing more deadly beams at the other Servants.

As this was going on, more bizarre shapes emerged – from simple shapes like spheres, rods, pyramids and cylinders; to complex and mind-blowing illusions like Mobius strips, Klein bottles, Dupin cyclides, tesseracts, trapezohedrons, and many more. All of them congregated to create more nonsensical metallic creatures, each as deadly as the last one. Worst of all, the hidden portals appeared to be expanding their influence, radiating from the door further out into the hallways. If they didn't do something quickly, Chaldea was going to be overrun with these things.

Tomoe leapt back to avoid a shot, then charged one of her arrows with fire and launched it with her bow. She intercepted another laser coming for her, then shouted, "We need to retreat!"

"Gah! Someone pull the emergency brake, 'cause we're about to crash on Crazy Street!" Heroine X blurted as she rammed her sword against an entity's spiked hammer shaped out of some rods and a three-dimensional icosahedron. She managed to cut through it with a critical hit, cleaving it in half and causing some unknown fluid to spray everywhere.

"AH!" Fran angrily screamed and smashed her electrified war hammer upon the same sphere that attacked Cuchulainn. However, something seemed a little off to her. Normally a powerful blow like that would be enough to crush any other opponent. Against this thing though, it barely seemed to faze it. She stared in shock as the sphere gathered energy for another deadly laser beam.

"Gae Bolg!" Cuchulainn shouted, releasing his Noble Phantasm before the creature could react. His crimson spear pierced the metallic shell and shot several spiked barbs through the flesh and viscera inside, turning it from a smooth orb into a spiked one that gushed fluid everywhere. He glanced at Fran and asked, "You okay?"

"Uh!" she grunted in the affirmative.

"Stay alert. We've got more of them coming."

As he was warning her, a Szilassi polyhedron slipped through another rift in the wall and bounced along the ground like a rabbit. Lucius bashed his sword against it, then shouted, "I don't care how many of these abominations pop out! I'll just blow them all away with Florent's true power!"

"You can't do that!" Mash implored after bashing the base of her shield upon a triangular prism that had been harassing her with a series of multicolored light beams. "If you unleash your Noble Phantasm here, you'll blow the whole facility up! The simulator is the only place where our abilities can be used safely!"

"We don't exactly have the luxury to worry about such trifling things, sweetheart! We have enough resources to rebuild everything, don't we?"

"Maybe, but our stores are not infinite! We can't just casually repair Chaldea every time you use your Noble Phantasm without thinking!"

"It'll be fine this time though, right?"

"I still can't let you do that!"

"Last time I checked, you don't have the authority to boss other Servants around. Only our Masters can tell us what we can and can't do, and I'm not hearing any objection from them!"

"Only because they're not here!"

"Do you have any better ideas then?"

Mash cringed, unsure of how to retort. Before Lucius could do anything though, his polyhedral opponent was suddenly knocked back by a large spear that had been flung from many meters down the hallway. It effortlessly skewered the creature and made it fall backwards. It turned out to be a second Gae Bolg, but this one was way more massive than Cuchulainn's and was adorned with dozens of thorny spikes.

"Oh, shit," the Celt cursed as he immediately realized what was going on. "Should've figured he'd show up eventually."

Indeed, everyone looked down the hallway and discovered a very stern and mean-looking Cuchulainn Alter standing there in a throwing posture. Medb stood behind him wielding her riding crop. For some reason though, some of the alien fluid dribbled from the Berserker's mouth down his chin, and the rest of his face was practically caked in the stuff like war paint. Cuchulainn Lancer noticed that something seemed different with his counterpart though. The same creepy ambience that had been bothering the Servants recently seemed to intensely radiate from all around him, placing even more emotional pressure on everyone than usual.

"Alter! Medb!" Mash exclaimed. "What are you two doing here!?"

"No time to talk," Alter said. "Haul your ass to the royal lounge, pronto. Both Masters have been evacuated there, but we need your Noble Phantasm to ensure that it's fully secure."

"Senpai and Waver are all right?"

"Thanks to Alexander and that Dantes guy. Don't worry, I've got this little invasion in the bag. Quit flapping your mouth and get the hell out of here already."

"I'm not sure what's going on, but okay!"

"Allow me and X to accompany you," Tomoe offered, accompanied by Heroine X. "It wouldn't do us any good if we let you run around in such a dangerous environment by yourself."

With that, the three girls fled down the hall past Alter and Medb. The Berserker stepped over the spheroid creature that Cuchulainn Lancer killed, then picked it up and ripped open the outer casing like a shell so he could see its innards. Lancer became appalled as he asked, "Hey, are you doing? We're supposed to be killing the ones that are-"

Without warning, Alter buried his face into the alien's viscera and started chewing on it!

"Uh, uh, uh, UUUH!?" Fran blurted in total shock.

"'Oly SHIT, man! What in the nine blazes are ya DOIN'!?" Izo shrieked in pure revulsion, nearly falling onto his buttocks from how disgusting the sight looked to him.

As Alter was busy eating, Medb glared at the ronin and said, "Well, while we were hiding away in the royal suite, Cu suddenly had an idea and wanted to try it out."

Ten minutes ago…

Ritsuka, Waver, Alexander and Edmond successfully managed to reach the royal lounge – the area of Chaldea where the kings, queens and nobility among the Servants liked to go for some high-class relaxation. All of the other staff members were assembled in the center, either standing around and talking to each other in hushed whispers or sitting around with looks of disbelief on their faces. The huge room was already encased within multiple Bounded Fields, so there was little chance of the foreign invaders getting in and attacking anyone. Even if they did, the Masters and staff were being guarded by some of the strongest Servants in all of Chaldea. Many of the technicians didn't understand what was going on, and Roman felt he had no choice but to reveal what was happening behind the scenes with Connla and Daoloth. No one was sure what to think anymore, which caused at least one or two people to suffer panic attacks. The more caring Servants ushered them aside and attempted to console them.

For all of the chaos and bedlam surrounding them, Da Vinci maintained her usual cool and collected nature as she remarked, "Well, folks. Looks like the proverbial boot has finally dropped."

"What are we supposed to do? How did the Outer God manage to breach our security like this?" Roman wondered worriedly.

"You remember what Dantes told us, right? Connla's Spirit Origin was so corroded that it affected our immediate time-space. Daoloth must be using those distortions as beacons to send pieces of himself to attack us directly."

"Luckily, this doesn't seem to be a full-on assault on his part," Sigurd said. He stood near the entrance to act as a vanguard alongside Cuchulainn Prototype, Gilles de Rais, Medea and Crom Cruach. He added, "Madam Inventor's assertion of us just fighting 'pieces' is the important part. If Daoloth truly wanted to crush us, he could have easily warped his entire self here."

"Ugh…" Medea cringed, and a soul-rending chill coursed through her spine. She didn't want to imagine what would've happened had such a scenario occurred.

"Oooh, what a festival of carnal madness that would have been!" Gilles cried out exuberantly, obviously ignorant of his fellow Caster's discomfort. "How could I say no to a personal invitation from an Outer God to partake in such a momentous-!"

"Not another word out of you! Not unless you want me to shove Rulebreaker down that face anus you call a mouth!"

"…"

"Calm yourselves," Crom Cruach told them in a terse tone. "It will not do any of us good to either be frightened of or exhilarated by this invasion. Stay focused and remain indifferent to the invader's motives. That is the most efficient way to behave if we are to serve our Masters and their human allies as their weapons."

"He's right," Cuchulainn Prototype agreed. "The last thing we need is for us to bicker between ourselves. Our attacker might try to find a chip in our armor if we wind up fighting with each other."

"Ngh… I suppose so…" Medea groaned. "I still don't really know what these monsters are supposed to be though."

"Waver and I never saw anything as we made our way here," Ritsuka admitted. "What's attacking us anyway?"

Da Vinci replied, "A bunch of various three-dimensional shapes that can meld together and becoming various weapons. For now, I think we should dub these things Hedrons."

"Hedrons?"

"Remember what Van Gogh said when she described what she perceived Daoloth as."

Ritsuka thought back to what the Foreigner claimed:

"There were tons of shapes… Cones, rods, cylinders, diamonds, spheres, sphericons, gyroids, helixes… Countless types of hedrons… All of them, there. Twisting, turning, undulating, refusing to adhere to human logic…"

The Mage exhaled a small gasp of realization. Da Vinci's idea certainly made a lot of sense.

The blonde-haired technician named Sylvia became visibly frightened as she asked in a panicked voice, "How can we possibly fight back against something we don't understand? Are we really going to be stuck here forever?"

"If Sigurd's assertion is anything to go by, then I think we should be okay," Alexander said.

"How do you know that?"

"If Daoloth's just sending pieces of himself here, it means this isn't a total invasion. If anything, I'd say this is a tactical distraction."

"I have to concur," Sigurd added.

Medb heard this and became surprised. "A distraction? From what?"

"Although I have no evidence to support my theory, I strongly believe that Daoloth is doing something malicious to Connla. These so-called Hedrons are simply keeping the rest of us at bay."

Cuchulainn Alter was obviously not happy to hear this. He grit his shark-like teeth and bellowed, "Son of a bitch! I have to look for her!"

"You might be the Mad King, but even you wouldn't be so insane as to rush headlong into an alien god's invasion," Edmond berated him.

"And what if I am?"

"Call me the Devil's Advocate if you want, but it may actually be safer for Chaldea to cut its losses and let the Lancer be taken away. The majority of our resources are already being devoted to resisting the King of Mages and the Demon God Pillars. If we persist in knowingly keeping around what is essentially a human portal to a malevolent Outer God, we will be overwhelmed with attempting to thwart two world-shattering threats at the same time. To be frank, the timing behind this attack may also be part of Daoloth's calculations."

No one was sure how to respond. Logically speaking, he was right. Emotionally though, it felt like a searing hot dagger piercing through everyone's hearts all at once. Alter looked so furious with Edmond's cold assessment that everyone thought they were going to have a bloodbath on their hands.

Suddenly, Ritsuka declared, "I'm not abandoning Connla. No way, no how."

Although disappointed, the Avenger wasn't surprised to hear this. He closed his eyes and sighed quietly.

"Think about it," the teenaged Master said in as equally curt a tone as his. "Why do you think all of this is happening in the first place? It's because the world - or rather, her own family - abandoned her at the moment of her death. Being so young, looking up to her family is practically the same as treating them as her entire world. Can you imagine how crushed her soul must have been right then and there? She reached her hand out for anything, anyone to take it. Yet, it wasn't a human who responded – it was an alien god."

"…"

"I can't think of anything more utterly messed up and deranged than this. The temptation for us to discard her out of convenience, and for her to leave us all behind… It must be so incredible. Since it's such an easy way out to just let Connla go, that's precisely why I refuse to do it. Say what you want, but I'm not giving up on her. It might be 2000 years too late, but as humans, we have a responsibility to correct this. Even if I'm alone in this belief, I'm going to take her hand and pull her out of the brink of madness itself."

Alter and Prototype grinned simultaneously. They were pleased to hear Ritsuka shoot down Edmond's bullshit with such heartfelt passion. If she didn't, they probably would have skewered him many times over in a tandem attack. As if Ritsuka hadn't said enough, she pointed at Edmond and said, "If you've got a problem with it, then you're free to go through one of those portals and leave Chaldea behind yourself, because I don't tolerate that kind of talk between my Servants. Are we clear on this?"

Everyone focused their attention on the angered Master and the silent Avenger. Eventually, the black-coated man smiled lightly and exhaled a single mirthful chuckle. He only murmured one word in response:

"… Transparently."

"Good. Now then," Ritsuka said, satisfied that she had put Edmond in his place, "do we have any ideas on how to combat the Hedrons without weakening our defenses here?"

"If only Mash was with us, we could use her Noble Phantasm to solidify the barrier. At the moment, our Casters are working together to turn this space into a workshop that all of them are sharing, enhanced with additional spells and Runes the other Servants can offer. It's not of the same caliber as Lord Camelot though," Roman said. "Da Vinci, can we contact Mash and have her come here as soon as possible?"

"That's not going to be easy," she admitted. "Our temporary Chaldea Workshop may prevent outsiders from coming in without everyone's combined permission, but it also causes us to lose contact with anyone not present. Ritsuka and Waver's Command Spells aren't going to work either."

"Then I'll go," Cuchulainn Alter interjected.

"Cu?" Medb wondered.

"All I have to do is find the Shielder and tell her where Master is, right? That shouldn't be a problem for me. Besides, if the workshop's barriers are this solid, there's no point in me sticking around when I could be weakening the enemy's offensive by destroying the Hedrons."

"You've got a point," Roman said. "But you're going to have to act quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if you had to escort Mash back here."

"I'll have someone else deal with that. I'm just too worried about what's happening with the kid to focus on anything else."

At the royal lounge's posh bar, Gilgamesh calmly gulped down some of the best wine he kept in his treasury, then retorted, "That shouldn't be a surprise at this point. But do you actually have a plan for fighting an enemy that humanity has never seen before? Or are you just going to flail your spear around hoping it'll cut something, Mad Mongrel?"

"Hmph," Alter snorted. "Don't you worry your golden little head over that. I've got an idea in mind."

"Sounds fascinating. As tempting as it is for me to accompany you and see what sort of silly tactics a Berserker can come up with, I think I'll remain here as the mongrels' last and most perfect bastion against these abominations."

"Fine by me. You'd just slow me down anyway."

As much as Gilgamesh wanted to throw a curt retort for that insult, he figured it was better to say nothing and let Alter do the dirty work.

"I'm coming too, Cu!" Medb exclaimed.

"No, you're not," Alter snapped back.

"I'm coming, and that's final! You're not the only one who's worried about Connie! Besides, I promised her that I'd trample anyone who'd hurt her under my heel, and now is precisely that time!"

"Grrrgh…"

Ritsuka commanded, "I know you don't like it, but bring her with you. Her skills should give you some additional boosts to your fighting abilities."

Although visibly annoyed, he relented for his Master and said, "If you want me to quietly agree with you, then at least give me one of your Command Spells to augment my own skills."

"Fine! Just go already!"

She expended one charge of her Command Spell, sending a burst of energy through Alter. He and Medb approached the entrance, prepared to charge headlong back into Chaldea's invaded hallways. As Alter passed by Prototype, the younger Cuchulainn told him, "I'm counting on you. Bring the kid back to us."

"I know. Hold the fort until I get back."

With that, Alter and Medb hurried through the gap that the Casters all created to allow them back outside. While everyone else was preoccupied with watching the two Servants leave, Gilgamesh got up from his seat and approached from behind Edmond. The King of Heroes leaned in close to the Count of Monte Cristo's ear and whispered something as quietly as he could:

"Admit it – you were testing Fujimaru Ritsuka's mettle as a Master, weren't you?"

Edmond sniggered and shrugged. "Take it however you want."

Cuchulainn Alter took the lead as he and Medb dashed through the corridors, making their way closer to Connla's room. They passed by the cafeteria, tea room, some workshops, and several dormitory rooms. They heard the sounds of combat echoing from other sections of the facility, but they paid it no mind. Eventually, they encountered their first obstacle. A small circle constantly cycled around in a larger circle, creating a reddish astroid in the center. The entire Hedron was called a hypocycloid, and it functioned like a shield, preventing them from making any further progress.

"Ugh, how repulsive!" Medb cried out in frustration. "This is supposed to be a small piece of an alien god!?"

"Get your head in the game, woman! No matter what they look like, we cut them down all the same!" Cuchulainn snapped her to attention, then slashed Gae Bolg at the Hedron's front. To his surprise, he barely seemed to make a nick against it. His eyes widened in total surprise. Normally, his attacks would shred any other enemy into pieces. Combined with his legendary tenacity, that was what made him one of the most powerful Berserkers in all of Chaldea. Here though, none of that seemed to matter. He didn't want to imagine that he was actually a terrible fit for fighting against the Hedrons.

Medb noticed her partner's unusual look of shock, and ran up to him before using his shoulder as a platform to hop off of. She dropped upon the Hedron and stomped her feet against it several times. Surprisingly, that seemed to cause more damage than Cuchulainn's spear – the small tear started to open up some more. She landed back next to him and murmured, "That's odd. I'm not as strong as you, yet I'm wounding it more than you are?"

"Gh…" Cuchulainn grunted and stepped back, becoming more disoriented the longer he stared at the hypocycloid's hypnotic spinning.

"Are you okay, Cu?" the queen asked.

"Shit, I'm getting dizzy. Is looking at it bothering you in any way?"

"Not really."

He wasn't really sure of it, but he had a suspicion that this disparity had to do with their classes. Either way, it was good information to work with. He told her, "All right, I need you to do something for me."

Her eyes brightened up, and she shouted, "Really!? Anything for you, my king!"

"Don't get too excited. I need you to break that thing's shell open with everything you've got."

"Break it open? Like an egg? Do you want me to pound its insides into a bloody pulp as well?"

"No. Leave that intact."

"What do you mean?"

"Just trust me on this one. I'll provide a distraction for you in the meantime."

Before Medb could ask Cuchulainn any more questions, he darted to the left and charged at the Hedron with a resounding war cry. The larger sphere rolled toward him akin to a steamroller, while the smaller orb fired a single beam that carved clean arcs into the walls and flooring. He hopped and vaulted over the laser several times, then jammed Gae Bolg at the outer orb's base and pushed back with all his strength to halt its advance.

"Now, Medb!" he screamed.

While the Mad King was busy with his offense, the Queen of Connacht was preparing her Noble Phantasm. She summoned a chariot being pulled by a single armored bull, then sat in the seat and commanded the animal to rushed headfirst into the cracks she made on the Hedron's shell earlier. Cuchulainn jumped out of the way seconds before impact.

"Chariot My Love!" she shouted an instant before the bull made contact, causing an ear-splitting reverberation to resound all around them. They weren't sure if the Hedron was actually screaming in pain, or it was nothing more than a sound being created like a tuning fork being struck, but the awful noise was almost unbearable for them. Regardless, the alien's outer hull snapped open, revealing a disgusting mess of viscera and colored blood.

Cuchulainn landed in front of the stricken creature, then grinned wide and glowered in a sinister voice, "Perfect."

Medb was unable to stop him before he reached his hands in and grabbed fistfuls of alien meat. Without even a shred of hesitation or doubt, he proceeded to feast on the Hedron's innards like a starving animal! It tasted as awful as it looked. He wasn't really sure what he was doing anymore, but damned if he was going to stop after coming this far. Bit by bit, he devoured every last scrap of blood and gore until there was nothing left but the Hedron's dead shell.

The stunned queen couldn't say or do anything. She really didn't know how to respond to such a display of incredible carnage. All she could do was drop her jaw and watch the brutal spectacle in total silence. After Cuchulainn finished his abhorrent meal, he jerked about and moaned in agony. His ruby eyes glowed bright beneath his dark hood, making him a thousand times more menacing than usual. His Spirit Origin was being warped into something else, and his body was reacting to the violent transformation. It took everything he had to prevent himself from succumbing to riastrad, even if it was the most excruciating pain he had ever experienced in his life.

"Cu!" Medb squealed.

"Ngh… Ghhh… Agh… Ahnythor lllln'gha ahog…" †

She had no idea what he was saying. He shook his head to refocus, then muttered, "Shit. It's already happening, isn't it?"

"What do you think you're doing!?"

"Giving us a fighting chance, that's what."

"I don't understand!"

"You don't have to. Come on – we're going Hedron hunting."

AUTHOR'S NOTE #1:

† - R'Lyehian for, "Must consume more."

AUTHOR'S NOTE #2: If you're not familiar with where Connla has been taken, it is indeed taken straight from The Backrooms creepypasta. I highly recommend watching The Backrooms (Found Footage) by Kane Pixels, a playthrough of The Backrooms game from Steam, and/or an analysis of liminal spaces and how it ties with The Backrooms on YouTube. If you don't know what The Backrooms is, look it up. It's a very fascinating concept, and I wanted to blend it together with Daoloth's ability to warp people to unknown dimensions.

Additionally, the first spherical monster that attacks Cu Lancer is a nod to the Torch Eyes from Shining Force. I swear, those things can go straight to hell.