(Rayshift Vault)
"You carrying the invitation letter?" Gudao asked his fellow Master as the Rayshift Vault opened to admit the party of eight who would be tackling the Event.
"Of course." Gudako nodded after checking that it was, indeed, safely in her pocket. "Though I expect we would be identified by magical energy signature anyway."
"... a splendid serenade from an adorable idol, a sweet serenade from a young girl that will set your heart on fire, and a serenade that's sung by an unparalleled diva..." he recalled. "If it's actually a trick by Camilla, please remind me to, uh, mock her for it before the inevitable life-or-death battle.
"I'd be very astonished if it was her, rather than simply some third party pretending to be Elizabeth," Marie suggested. "But while that letter is pretty much dripping with a lust for the spotlight, that is hardly rare in humans, and perhaps even more prevalent in Heroic Spirits."
"Aww, don't be such a downer," Anne poked her playfully. "It's bad enough that we can't Rayshift in with appropriate costumes for the party. We'll have to try something when we get back though."
"I'm still not going to dress up like a magical girl," Mary grumbled, having successfully held the line on that for the last two days. "And we should take this seriously, remember?"
"At least you have a selection of outfits," Chloe jumped in cheerfully. "What do I need to do to get a second option, huh? Hey, maybe lend me Ruby for a bit?"
"Please don't," Gudao quickly directed otherwise, though it was hardly needed.
"Alright, let's all get in the oddly-Event-appropriate-named Coffins and Rayshift !" Indeed, da Vinci was perhaps the most excited of the group, since she hardly ever actually used the system that she had helped develop.
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(Singing Pumpkin Castle Graveyard)
"Oh, look jack-o-lanterns hanging all over the place, and the skeletons are... dancing about?" Mary was looking about in surprise, perhaps due to not having much experience with modern Halloween celebrations.
"They might be hostile, form up," Jeanne answered calmly. Though this really meant to stay close to her, in case of a surprise attack.
"I take it our host has taken to decorating with gusto," Marie observed while watching a ghost and several skeletons moving to investigate the new arrivals. "Should we be destroying them?"
Chloe had already taken out her bow and put arrow to string. "Really, what're the chances they're friendly?"
A piercing screech washed over the group as the skeletons, clearly armed, rushed towards them. "Very low, now. Take them out," Gudao directed, though it was hardly needed by this point.
"In that case~" Dancing forward, Marie started taking out skeletons with blasts of magical energy in time with sweeping hand movements.
"Please do your transforming thing, we need to conserve magical energy," Gudako said from Jeanne's side to the group's other Ruler.
"I thought the spears were rather efficient?" Sasaku replied, having just thrown one at a skeleton who had managed by luck to get close to Marie. However, the weapon's path went through the target without harming it. Without missing a beat, Anne quickly blew away the skeleton with ease born from many similar battles with Mary.
"Oh. Right. Ruby~"
"I'm here, I'm here," the wand sang while popping up and flicking its handle into her hands. "Let's go !" A reverse-flash of shadow soon followed, while Chloe began blowing up a number of ghosts who were clearly trying to hang back out of the melee, but were still easy targets for the Archer. Gudako couldn't help but think the explosions made the overall effect more climatic.
"Ahem. Shoot !" Rather than waste any time, Sasaku pointed Ruby at the enemies directly in front of the group. A pink magic circle appeared, with surprisingly standard runic inscriptions and iconography, and started firing bright pink magic bullets into the hostiles.
However flashy the attack might have looked, it lacked effectiveness. A lot of the bullets missed outright, but a number of the skeletons even saw rounds passing through their bony structure via the gaps. Further back, the ghosts were also able to dodge the barrage as it spread out due to the distances involved.
"They seem hardier than the Fuyuki ones," Chloe commented, being the only Servant in the group which had experienced them outside of the weaker Free Quest variants. "And some sort of passive Evasion against ranged attacks?"
"Some are being hit," da Vinci observed, drawing a slightly different conclusion from the same evidence. "I would imagine they just have a minus-to-hit that is particularly effective against low Ballistic Skill statlines." Taking off her backpack, the Rider let it down to the ground before opening it and fishing around inside for something.
"Excuse me, who exactly has such a statline?" Ruby protested. "Try the homing attacks, please."
"Wait, what?" Gudao looked on in astonishment as da Vinci pulled out a full-sized longarm out of her backpack; it was as least twice as long as the pack it came out from.
"It's a lever-action shotgun," she explained nonchalantly. Aesthetically, the weapon was modeled after Anne's rifle, with the important exception of having some sort of optic mounted on it. da Vinci brought the gun up to her shoulder and worked the action. "Field test time !"
*boom* *ka-chack* "Hmm..."
*boom* *ka-chack* Lowering her weapon, she frowned at the small number of skeletons which had been taken out. While two of the larger homing shots from Ruby sufficed to break a skeleton apart, they didn't seem to mind even if a number of their bones were shattered by the pellets from da Vinci's weapon.
Chloe pulled out her swords, sending one boomeranging to each side, taking out a few skeletons which had been trying a hesitant flanking action. "Rider, I think humanity has given all shotguns a conceptual range penalty."
"I should have known, in that case..." da Vinci went rocketing forward on her roller skates, closing with the enemy before starting to shoot again while dancing nimbly out of their reach.
"I guess (Riding) applies to roller skates nowadays? Marie, hold up for a bit," Gudao asked the other Rider. "Having the use of your Noble Phantasm might be a better option." Nodding, the black-dressed Servant adjusted her hat which had gotten askew when she dodged da Vinci's move-and-shoot maneuver.
Despite the Masters' worries, though, the enemy abruptly broke off their attack. Or rather, the ghosts pulled back, blending in with the gloom and disappearing, while the remaining skeletons continued advancing to their destruction, but were not replaced after that.
"There's a Servant-level signature approaching," da Vinci reported after returning, understanding the beeping coming from one of her Mystic Codes stored in the backpack, which she quickly put back on.
Chloe looked about. "I see them... from the direction of the castle, I think." Everyone turned to that side to face the newcomer.
Making his way to the graveyard at a leisurely stroll that belied the elegant bladed polearm resting across his shoulder, its custodian did not seem surprised, upset or worried about the combat that his presence had just ended. Or, for that matter, about the six Servants who were watching his arrival.
"Normally, I would be pruning," he explained casually, watching as Anne and Mary looked though the broken bits of destroyed skeletons in hopes of finding a lucky Evil Bone (none were in evidence). "But I've been kept occupied of late."
"The weeds do seem to sprung up," Marie commented idly, though keeping her guard up. "I can't imagine you tending to this garden by yourself."
"Even the help is busy today."
"I take it you're not here to fight us then, Vlad ?" While several in the party had already pegged the Servant's identity from having met him in France, Jeanne's (True Name Discernment) provided her sure confirmation of the fact.
"No. I was hoping to tidy up and welcome you, but it seems the local welcoming party has already been tidied up."
"Thanks to us, you mean," Chloe added cheekily. "You didn't seem in any hurry to participate in the festivities."
"Ah, there there many other festivities for which we will all be participating," the unflappable Servant replied evenly. "And I have it by reliable report that Chaldea 'knows how to roll' as the source herself put it."
"We are talking about Elizabeth Bathory right? Do you happen to be related?" Gudako asked before a more focused Gudao added, "She is the one who set all this up?"
"It would seem yes, on all three fronts," Vlad responded, looking over the party with a growing disappointment. "You didn't bring along the red Servant?"
"Ahem?" Chloe inquired, but was immediately denied with a shake of the head.
Gudako poked Sasaku, whose transformation had come undone leaving her back in the usual uniform. "What about this one?"
"Wait, my color is green."
"Definitely not her. I suppose that means she isn't present in your Chaldea. No matter, you can get her off your Friend List before going in." Vlad frowned as everyone's expressions made it evident that the group didn't know what to make of this. "Well, go up anyway. The gatekeeper will have to let you in and fill you in."
His business with the group concluded, the Impaler readied his weapon and walked confidently into the graveyard where the undead had presumably come from to assault the Chaldeans.
"I think I can guess which Servant he might have been looking for, but I can't guess why," Gudao said as the group started towards the castle which loomed ahead of them. "We never summoned Elizabeth, either."
"It couldn't be that I received a message meant for some other Master?" Gudako asked.
"There would be no need to deliver a letter in a Free Quest if she was trying to reach someone in the same Chaldea," Jeanne concluded confidently. "Thus, perhaps the idea was the same as in Italy: she is specifically looking to make links with others."
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(Singing Pumpkin Castle Gates)
"Not quite the gatekeep I expected," Anne commented as the individual on guard came into view, in an eye-catching bright orange dress. "Though for a festive choice, I must approve."
Mary peered cautiously around the gloom surrounding the area. "Chloe, see anything? da Vinci, any readings?" The two reported nothing.
"Well, we might be more at risk inside the castle rather than outside," Marie commented with dark cheer. "Let's say hello."
As the group came into circle of light given off by oddly-bright candles standing on pumpkins outside the gate, its guardian stopped in the middle of her impromptu dance practice. "You're right on time," she greeted them with some relief.
"Indeed," Gudako held out the invitation, but the exchange was forgotten as a sudden whirlwind of a second Servant blasted its way into their midst.
"I knew it- !" Sasaku groaned, having immediately transformed right as her shoulder was seized by a large clawed paw. "Gaps are always... Oh, wait."
"You didn't bring her?!" the apron-kimono combo wearing maid announced with the dramatic tone of a doomsayer. "It's important that you summon the singing Saber to save the season's sanity."
"We don't have her," Gudako replied in a low voice. "Any hints?"
"Hear a helpful hint," the Cat responded. "Find on Friend List."
"No idea how to do that," Gudao told her directly.
"Woof." Almost effortlessly, Tamamo Cat practically yoinked Ruby out of the air with the ease of a cat catching other small fluttering prey. "Being between branches, beacon to beacon."
"Of all the... why didn't you say anything?" At this point, Chloe understood how the enigmatic Friend List worked thanks to the enigmatic Cat's assistance. "You can connect to parallel Rubys though the Second Magic !"
"That's not so easy," the wand responded while staying very still in Cat's paw. "Distances in the Void Space are both complex and imaginary, you know? Even reaching our own Chaldea is hard for Scathach, right?"
"What if the other side set themselves up to use something like (Contact Other Plane), but passively as a semi-permanent beacon inside their Chaldea?" Gudao thought aloud.
"Who would do something like that?" Ruby scoffed. "Ah, wait."
"It makes sense that most versions of me would try it," Sasaku explained in her wand's stead. "So by making contact with at least one, we might be able to access a greater list of friendly Chaldeas in the void."
"Do you happen to have a quiet space we could set up the ritual in?" Marie asked the animal Servant maid politely. "We'll get right on summoning Ne-"
"Shh!" Mata Hari stopped her. "Don't give it away, or the setup won't work. Cat will find you somewhere out of the way, and we'll buy you time."
"I didn't know we were on a doomsday timer," Mary sounded doubtful, but she had not been in France for Chaldea's first experience of an Elizabeth-brand live concert.
"A Servant's hearing, a Master's life," Cat replied while waving everyone over to one of the corridors leading off the main hall. "Don't delay, do diligently !"
"You're a Berserker, aren't you?" Jeanne asked. "I've wondered, but (Madness Enhancement) seems to frequently bestow an odd, if confusing, type on enlightenment on Servants."
"Does Madness Enlightenment enlighten the mad, or madden the sane?"
"What maddens the sane are obscenely obscure kanji puns," Chloe commented after a moment. "That... wasn't on purpose."
"I'll kill her," Tamamo Cat agreed with no one, as they arrived at a small, unoccupied storage room. "Quickly connect, swiftly summon." And with that, she left to attend to some other duty.
"You know, I've heard of the expression 'asking a cat for help,' but... in any case, could you show me the protocol for connecting back to Chaldea? da Vinci?"
"I'd say that was more of a cat asking us for help," Chloe quipped while watching the Rider let down her backpack to take out various items like brushes and some paint. However, da Vinci quickly explained to the group, "Actually, Chloe, you've seen Scathach do it on the other side. I've only really received in Chaldea."
The Archer was taken by surprise, but only for a moment. "I've never set up a beacon as Cat suggested. Seems rather convenient that we're both here for this, then."
"I think that will do it," da Vinci said, looking in approval at the three magic circles laid out in a simple triangle formation. "One communications anchor, one beacon and one summoning circle. It's a good thing you remember the one used to summon Kojirou in the previous war, since I haven't examined the one in Chaldea's Summoning Vault carefully"
"The Chaldea one is integrated into the reinforced vault structure though," Gudao pointed out. "Since it has to handle the inflow from using Saint Quartz-level energies. This is much simpler."
"There's no time like the present to give it a try," Marie added. "One might say we have no time to waste."
Ruby floated over into the setup made for boosting its communications ability before stopping and returning to Sasaku, who was sitting down in the beacon's circle and beginning to power the whole structure. "Something wrong?"
"You need to transform so I can use all my functions at max."
"Ok, there..."
Energized though their link, the wand sprouted a couple of what looked like radio or TV antennae while returning to its position. Everyone waited expectantly for a tense few seconds, watching Ruby almost comically change the angle of the antennae as though trying to pick up a weak signal.
"I think I've found one," Ruby reported at last. "But they are asking for authentication?"
"Huh," muttered da Vinci thoughtfully. "We don't use any protective measure like that, even from inside a hostile Singularity. I need to correct that."
"That's simple enough," Gudako replied with an easy smile born of relief. "Just tell them 'greetings from Chaldea' and see what they say."
" 'The Masters of Chaldea greet you.' was it," Ruby said after a while.
"Great. Ask them if they happen to have her present, and if so, to Rayshift her over to our beacon," Gudao directed the wand. "Obviously, we've prepared enough magical energy for the summoning."
A sudden flash followed, with a crack like thunder as magical energy exploded from the summoning circle, quickly being drawn into a Servant-level vessel. Jeanne, who was strategically positioned between it and the Masters, watched as the usual brightness resolved into a figure she remembered from Italy, complete with luxurious red dress and lyre.
"Umu, I have arrived in your time of need !" the would-be Emperor exclaimed, remembering to strike a brief set of chords on her instrument. "Is the occasion a battle, farming, or perhaps... a performance?"
"Definitely the last one," Mata Hari said, jumping into the situation immediately; apparently she had been waiting nearby for just this occasion. "My apologies, but we have very little time to go over the concert prep and make sure Vlad's work fits correctly. I'll explain on the way, but we need to be quiet about it so Elizabeth doesn't find out."
"Hmm, I think I see what's going on here," commented Marie idly. "Do you need us to stall for time or something?"
"Head over to the dining hall for the reception," Mata Hari said after consulting her mental schedule. "I think we should be ready by the time you had some pre-concert refreshments, so don't rush it, okay?" She and Nero quickly left after that.
"So... what exactly was their plan?" Anne asked curiously as da Vinci and Sasaku started clearing up the magical formations they had laid out. "I get that she also does the singing thing, but how does that 'save' us?"
Nodding, Jeanne explained starting from the most obvious element. "(Imperial Performance) is her somewhat degraded version of (Imperial Privilege), and does what you expect, improves her performances. By having her appear by surprise for a combination concert, if that Servant sticks to Elizabeth, their concert performance will improve. Sound about right?"
"It sure is handy to have Rulers around for such situations," Gudako remarked happily.
"I could go for some food," was all Mary had to say by this point, not interested in concerts or Servant analysis at the moment. "If a Servant invites people across Void Space, they better make it worthwhile."
"I wouldn't be surprised if Elizabeth would expect her singing to be both food and drink, so doubtless we have someone else to thank for this consideration," Gudao shrugged. "Either way, let's not keep them waiting."
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(Singing Pumpkin Castle Dining Hall)
"Welcome, welcome!" Tamamo Cat greeted the group in the same kimono-apron outfit as before. She winkled slyly at the Masters while ushering the group over to a large table that held both food and a number of festive Halloween-themed snacks. "Vlad is double busy preparing, so don't wait. Try anything ! The head chef guarantees amazingness and I've double-checked, woof."
From the entrance of the hall, Chloe could see a red-clad figure ducking out of a small door at the back. "Who might the chef be, another Servant?" she asked Cat.
"Indeed. True Name: nameless? Recommended by Elizabeth herself," Cat answered.
"Recognized someone?" Gudako asked, on the lookout for any Servants they could form a link with.
"No, unless they're a male version of the original Chloe," the Archer said after thinking it over. "If so, it might be best to not get too close, like with me and Illya before."
"You might meet your future self, them their past self," Cat clarified for her. "Or any alternative, or all, the World has trouble tidying places like this."
"Thanks for all the help, Cat," Marie smiled at their latest benefactor. "Or should we call you Tamamo?"
"Cat will do, until the cat is the default," delivered with a wicked grin in turn. "But this Cat only has a brief role today, wan."
"I think our Event's host is here," Jeanne, ever-vigilant, spotted the individual entering from one of the hall's side-entrances wearing a rich and extremely flashy Halloween dress, doubtless for her upcoming concert.
"How are all my deerlets and puppies ? !" Elizabeth wasted no time making her arrival known after spotting the Masters near Jeanne with her banner. "Looking forward to the night's highlight? I sure am !"
There was no immediate response, and Chloe was the first to act, waving excitedly for Elizabeth to come over. "Must've been quite an effort to set it all up?"
"Well," the dragon girl beamed upon finding an enthusiastic fan. "This would be a boring coming-of-age party otherwise, so of course I'd give it my all for the debut. Of course, I had some help, but they seem to be busy backstage...? I'm sure they'll show up soon enough."
Gudao nodded, having taken away something of import from the explanation. "I hope everything goes wonderfully."
"It definitely will !" she grinned enthusiastically. "Legendarily. Look forward to it !"
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(Notes)
If you wondered about the res publica ("Septem") Singularity where they already set up an anchor and a beacon in south Italy, imagine both sides are trying to aim laser pointers at the other while everyone is bouncing about. Since Chaldea wants to conserve magical energy, it will not be running its beacon or looking for incoming communications when there isn't an away team. Unless they realize it is possible for someone else to contact them, then you do both. Thus:
1. Chaldea A runs its beacon, finds (nearby) Chaldea B's beacon and "aims laser pointer" at it.
2. Chaldea B receives communication and can also identify where Chaldea A is by seeing A's beacon.
Obviously bandwidth and signal integrity are both limited, but thems the breaks.