Ereshkigal gave Olga Marie a final check as the Reality Marble finished crumbling. The girl was still shaking in her arms, but that was okay. She was shaking. She was physical. The goddess had to effectively pull her soul back together, rebuild the strange not-real body before Olga Marie's meager remaining mana failed to hold her on this plane.
Even as the champion cried into her shoulder, she felt relief wash over her. It wasn't until Olga had spoken that she realized how similar their situations were, how much Olga Marie was like a greener version of herself who needed acceptance, validation, and love, and the world refused to give it to her.
Barely a day into her summoning, and already she had two champions. Ishtar probably would've lost one by now. The goddess let a tone-deaf smirk grace her face for the briefest of seconds.
They huddled together on the cold cement for a few minutes longer, Ereshkigal stroking the girl's hair in silence. The goddess forgot her dignity for the time, giving Olga the support she herself craved when she reached rock bottom in Kur.
It was nice.
But, as time passed and the director pulled herself together, they had to separate. Ereshkigal couldn't say why exactly she felt a little emptier as the hug broke off, but as the warmth of Olga's body left her there was a twinge of melancholy. It passed, as all things did.
Olga stood and stretched out, clutching Ereshkigal's cloak around her. Her eyes stung red with tears shed, and her white hair was tousled beyond easy repair, but after a deep breath and shift in posture, the 'Director of Chaldea' persona took over.
"I'm… sorry you had to see that," she murmured, a blush evident on her cheeks.
Ereshkigal flashed her a gentle smile. "You may lean on my shoulder any time, Olga Marie. I am a reliable goddess, suitable to be depended on in any way you need. Do not think I would abandon my charges."
"Right, right," she tried to wave it off, but a smile tugged at her lips as well. "Either way, we are not finished here. Have you heard from Ritsuka or Mash?"
"Now that you mention it, no. Not since we started fighting Archer."
"Hmm…" Olga brought a finger to her chin in thought. "Could you message them? I haven't heard from Romani, either."
"Of cou-"
A black and red explosion interrupted her, ripping through the mountain above them and screaming through the sky. The beam of darkness travelled well into the atmosphere, splitting clouds before it finally dissipated.
"THOSE IDIOTS!"
Goddess and director sprinted up the stairway towards the mismatched battle, swearing about optimistic, inexperienced morons the entire way.
Ereshkigal left Olga in her dust long before she reached the cavern's entrance. The director stepped into the maw of darkness, wary of the uneasy stillness. She had felt Eresh drawing at her depleted mana for a brief moment, but after another beam of black split the sky the drain stopped. The director initially feared the goddess's demise, but the link itself was still in place.
'Lancer? What's your status?'
No response. Olga, under less adrenaline, might've felt offended or blown off, but she wasn't foolish enough to think the goddess meant to ignore her.
That is, until she entered the threshold. Beyond the ruined exterior, the cavern opened up to something far larger than Olga would ever call natural. The stone exuded dark magic, chilling Olga's sense, but her hope returned as she took in the tableau before her.
Mash held Ritsuka in one arm, her shield with the other. The evidence of battle was clear for all to see; around the Shielder's defence, the earth was scarred deeply. Only the area she inhabited held on, raised more than a foot above the eroded, charred aftereffect of her opponent's strikes. Ritsuka, although there was fresh blood over his chest, still held on. Each breath visibly pained him, but he still looked significantly better than the fight against Berserker. His eyes flickered over to her and he smiled, a sight so contrary to his condition that Olga had to stifle a moment of confusion. He tried to wave, but only managed to vaguely motion to her with his… single command seal.
Olga Marie suddenly felt very, very uncomfortable with her earlier decision to force him to use one on Ereshkigal.
"... the Grand Order is just a futile dream. You're only delaying the inevitable."
'How does she..?'
The dark knight kneeling before Ereshkigal, skewered from all sides, could only be Saber. Her blonde hair, so close to white, fell loose and bloodstained over her shoulders. Yellow eyes met Ereshkigal's red, frosty with disdain but not quite catching fire.
She painted the very picture of a defeated king who refused to yield. Much like Archer before her, her gauntleted right hand gripped her cursed sword, even though three spears punctured the joints of that arm alone. The Saber couldn't move, held in place by Kur's stakes. But she still spoke as the undisputed king.
"Without me, you may have been correct. But I am Chaldea's Goddess of Victory. I will not fail the responsibility that I have taken on."
Saber coughed blood, painting her slight smile crimson. "... you took on that responsibility willingly? Fool."
As the knight started fading, Ereshkigal spoke once more. "Your Archer, Shirou, requested that I tell you that he apologizes for failing you. I… hope you can find each other in the afterlife."
"What… what a foolish man he was…" Saber breathed, her voice barely a whisper. Her form shimmered. "He should've abandoned me when he had the chance…"
Ereshkigal frowned, her grip on her spear lessening ever-so-slightly. "Don't ask so easily to be left alone."
"A king must always be alone," Saber countered, her voice ragged but firm. A beat of silence, then, "Although, I must admit… having a familiar peer like him at my side was… nice."
"Don't take them for granted, King," Ereshkigal said. The Saber hummed some non-committal reply, refusing to meet the goddess's eyes until a moment before her body finished its deconstruction. Olga saw something silent pass between the two Servants, something she couldn't quite translate, but she could see Ereshkigal's warm smile and tired eyes watching as the Saber vanished, and that told her enough.
"Confirmed…" Mash stated with an air of caution, "Saber is eliminated, and the Grail retrieved. I… think we won?" Everyone held their positions for just a beat longer before the full weight of the statement hit them.
Mash and Ritsuka relaxed a moment before Olga and Ereshkigal, creating an obvious distinction between 'those who fought Archer' and 'those who didn't.' No Reality Marble consumed them post-mortem, though, and when the golden light of the Grail flickered into existence everyone present breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ereshkigal, you're amazing! That was… you saved us!" Ritsuka exclaimed, running up to the goddess with Mash in tow.
Ereshkigal, who had taken it upon herself to retrieve the Grail, flinched at the sudden praise. The golden light of the object she clutched to her chest did nothing to hide the redness of her cheeks. "W-well, of course, I'm a goddess, after all! Y-you… you two had her distracted, anyways, so it was easy to swoop in and… well, I mean-"
"Lady Ereshkigal, if I may…" Mash interrupted, an action so out-of-character Olga blinked twice in show. "Thank you very much. As we've discussed before, I'm still new at this… would you be willing to help me train?"
Ereshkigal raised her chin and let out a haughty laugh. "Of course, Mash. This goddess will help you hone your skills, have I not said as much already? Also, as, umm, tribute, let's say, I'm going to… take some of this mana, if that's okay."
Ereshkigal had already begun draining the Grail before anyone could stop her. If Olga's own condition was any indication, Ereshkigal must've been famished for mana. She didn't blame her.
"Well, you'll have time to train soon! We'll also get you connected to the mana link, well… Da Vinci says we can start the process now!" a familiar, staticky voice chimed in.
"Dr. Roman! You're back!" Ritsuka exclaimed into his communicator.
"Whatever was blocking us seems to have been dealt with. We can rayshift you out anytime. I'm just upset that I can't see your smiling faces."
Ritsuka let out half a cheer, the latter part lost to a wince of pain. Mash sent him a warm smile. Ereshkigal let out a quiet sigh of relief and watched the two share a moment of bliss.
Olga didn't even realize how much stress and adrenaline she had been running on for the past day until she relaxed for a moment and her legs nearly gave out under her. That might have also been to bruises, but she was in so much pain from having her mana drained to near exhaustion to really question what exactly was hurting her at the moment.
She missed the worried glance Ereshkigal shot her way, and how the goddess opened her mouth as if to say something only to find no words would form.
But something was still on her mind. "Grand Order… That Servant said 'Grand Order,' right?"
Ereshkigal nodded. "What of it?"
"It's just…" Olga trailed off. "The only people who know that operation name are related to Chaldea."
Ritsuka raised an eyebrow. "Never even heard of it. Mash?"
Mash shook her head. "I didn't say it."
Olga hummed. She had entertained the idea of the attack on Chaldea being an inside job, but the mention of the Grand Order all but confirmed it. She'd have to be careful upon her return, but now was not the time. "No matter, then. While I do plan on berating you for stupidly assaulting the enemy headquarters on your own-"
Ritsuka held his hands up. "In my defense, my telepathic link to Ereshkigal was severed for a substantial amount of time."
Olga grit her teeth to hold back a tongue lashing. How infuriating this Master could be… "That aside, even if you should've waited because your contract with her hadn't been broken, I guess you did well. And here I was, planning on praising you even more highly… Actually, wait. Mash, you did great. Good job keeping this idiot alive."
"Oh, no, I just… thank you, Director," Mash stammered. An uncertain comfort fell between the two, something Olga Marie would admit she never expected to feel around Mash. Maybe… maybe she should talk to the Demi-Servant a bit more.
She took some time to consider which words to say in what order, but her attempt at connection was interrupted by slow, methodical clapping.
Ereshkigal felt him cross the threshold. The alien storm of his magical energy twisted her stomach and threw it into a pit of dread. His presence dragged her limbs downwards, the weight of her body amplified tenfold under the sheer gravity of evil suffocating the cavern.
The demon in a top hat clapped, each strike of hand on hand like a snapping bone, and each snap dragging a wince out of the goddess. A gnawing darkness at the back of her mind told her that she knew this corruption from somewhere.
"... Lev?"
Memories of stories were starting to resurface. Lev, Lev, that was… a name Olga muttered often while Ereshkigal pieced her spirit back together. But that wasn't the first time she heard it, that was in front of the campfire in Babylon.
"Professor Lev!"
That was Ritsuka. She'd heard that exact name from him before, with much more animosity. He… was going to do something. He was an enemy of Chaldea. She knew that. Then why..?
"Lev!"
Why did Olga Marie sound like she just reunited with an old friend?
Why was she running towards him?! The goddess barely had the presence of mind to hide two Gallu spirits in the director's shadow before her vision twisted.
A wave of vertigo spun her world as Ereshkigal tried to make sense of the dissonance. She knew Lev was evil. His presence was so inhuman, so anomalous that there was not other truth. But Ritsuka was smiling, and Olga was running to greet him! Mash… Mash seemed confused, vaguely cautious, but… she was always cautious, wasn't she? That came with being a Shielder, right?
Was this a normal kind of corruption for the human world? She'd only met three 'humans' directly, and only one of them was truly human, so she might just be missing the experience to make such a call…
'I must be wrong…'
Her senses screamed in opposition, banging at the door to her mind with frantic urgency.
Ereshkigal focused on Olga's voice in an attempt to push down her resistance. She listened to the girl say how hard it all was, how much she went through, and in the corner of her eye the goddess saw Lev grin and it wasn't right. There was something minute off about it, like the motion started with the skin on his cheeks rather than the muscles themselves but no one saw it how did no one else see it?
She blinked. Hundreds of red eyes blinked back.
But his form was human, and the red eyes didn't exist. His eyes were on her now, though, and her blood ran cold as she felt him analyze her. Olga was beaming, motioning her to come forward. Maybe she just needed to get closer, to get used to the feeling, then her muscles wouldn't feel like jelly...
"Olga summoned you?" Every hair on the back of her neck stood on end as Lev spoke, his voice a deep mockery of humanity. Every inflection was just a little off, like an actor cold-reading a script in an empty room. When she didn't respond, he continued unabated. "How surprising. She's so utterly useless in that regard. Who are you, Servant?"
For a brief moment she broke out of the haze, and her eyes burned gold. "Do not call my champion 'useless,' Lev," she spat.
"No, Ereshkigal, it's alright! He's right!" Why was she still so elated? Why was she just accepting this? "I was useless and weak, but I summoned you, so it's changed now! Lev, see? I'm her cha-"
"Ereshkigal, hmm? Sumerian Goddess of the Underworld… Ah, yes. So many things make sense now." The goddess's human muscles tensed, an impending call to action looming over her. "You're not a known element in the FATE system, so I take it you were summoned with a catalyst?" He snapped his fingers. The Grail, forgotten in Ereshkigal's hands, teleported to him. Her stomach dropped as she realized, even though she had been draining mana that whole time, she still knew she couldn't fight him if she needed to.
"The lost spirit of a dead Olga Marie Animusphere would be the perfect catalyst for you, reaper."
Ereshkigal had to stand there, gritting her teeth, and Lev revealed everything. She had to stand there as he revealed his betrayal, gloating and reveling in the horrified faces of the humans who trusted him as the image of a world incinerated appeared behind him. She had to stand there as Lev told Olga that the goddess who called her 'champion' knew she was dead the entire time and didn't say anything.
She had to turn away in shame as Olga asked her if it was true.
Lev lurched back and cackled, a disgusting pseudo-laugh like a man being choked. "How quaint. What did I tell you about trusting people, Olga? The only person you can rely on is yourself… and you can't even do that, can you?"
Her dignity as a goddess screamed at her to kill Lev where he stood for his slander against her champion. Her basic morals seethed as she realized Lev must have systematically destroyed Olga's self-esteem over many years and ripped away her pillars of support. She would kill him. She would drag him into the depths of the Abyss and hold his head under the water until he faded into oblivion. Ereshkigal would be Lev's reckoning.
But as she was now, if she moved, everyone would die. Her primal instincts begged her to run back to the safety Kur, the nervous energy causing her to grasp and relax her hands over and over again. Every time she breathed the stench of corrupt mana made her want to gag. Even as Lev continued to tear down Olga Marie, Ereshkigal couldn't do anything without endangering all of them.
Why did she have to be so useless? Here she was, the self-proclaimed Goddess of Victory, and she couldn't even move!
'Ishtar would've already killed him.'
An oppressive wave of dread washed over Ereshkigal and the world seemed to slow down around her. Lev's hand rose, the Grail's magic tinting his fingertips. He was about to snap his fingers. The goddess's gut wrenched, but she didn't know why, she didn't know what the spell was but she needed to save Olga. Ereshkigal threw the full vestiges of her Authority into a mental command: 'Olga, come to my side! NOW!'
Olga's body moved on her command, but it came too late. Lev's fingers snapped and the director no longer had purchase on the earth, her spiritual body floating into the air under Lev's magic.
'Lev betrayed us…'
Olga felt her body moving in two directions. Magic played tug-of-way with her, but eventually Chadea's gravity pulled her in.
'I'm dead…'
Lev's twisted smile and wild eyes watched her ascend. Looking now, his disgusting nature was so apparent.
'I'm dead, and Ereshkigal knew, and she didn't tell me.'
The goddess's cloak felt heavy on her shoulders. It was suffocating, stifling. It was too hot. She needed to get it off, but she couldn't move like she wanted to, she couldn't move at all. She could only float. The orange glow of an incinerated world loomed.
"You'll experience the pain of dying over and over again!"
Lev's voice hit her, so different from the man she knew, sadistic and cruel, celebrating her… infinite deaths?
Dying? The pain of dying, over and over again…
'No…'
Torture.
'I'll never be able to pass on? I'll just… suffer, endlessly? Die again and again and again and again and again and again… I lived my whole life suffering, trying to live up to what people wanted from me, having them give up on me over and over and over… and now I don't even get to rest in peace?! I don't...'
A wave of icy terror drained the energy from her. The heavy cloak of the goddess that she wanted to rip off… warmed her. She remembered the cool comfort of Ereshkigal's embrace. The whispered comforts. The gentleness of the Mistress of the Underworld.
'… I'll never get to experience that again?'
Something Ereshkigal said previously echoed in her mind. "Of course physical reinforcement would fail, you're-"
That line played over in her head. When she tried to jump the crevice in Fuyuki proper, her reinforcement failed. Ereshkigal tried to berate her, but it sounded like… she choked on something?
It sounded like a mage about to break a non-disclosure geass.
'She tried to tell me…'
The sun grew ever closer.
'She wanted to warn me.'
The panic set in.
"N-NOOOOO!"
Olga heard her own scream in third-person. 'This can't be the end! How can this be my fate?! I had… I was just praised for my efforts for the first time! The world is in danger! I'm the director of Chaldea, the last line of defense for the world, and I can't… I can't disappear here!" She struggled, pulling and twisting in Lev's magical grasp, but there was no purchase, no way for her to correct her trajectory, only the inevitable incineration of her soul.
'She said my Chaldea would save the world!' Olga felt the tears burning at the side of her eyes, the fear choking any physical voice she had. She tried to scream again, but the soundless air scratched her throat like shards of glass. She wanted to sob, but all she could do was let the tears fall down her face and be evaporated by the heat of Chaldeas.
'Why? Why am I floating towards an eternity of torture? Why did Lev sabotage us, betray me?! Why… why didn't I see it coming?! Fuck, what could I have done differently?! I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to… it doesn't even matter, does it? I'm already dead."
She felt the heat of the incinerated world sear her skin. She couldn't even see the cavern past the portal Lev opened any more. Olga stopped struggling and let herself go limp.
Even so, resigned frustration burned within her. 'And here I was thinking something might actually go right for me for once. I'd just found a… friend who's willing to support me. Fujimaru and Mash are green, but, well… I really thought we had something for a little bit there. I really thought Chaldea had some fighting change. I thought…. I thought that maybe I could turn my life around.' She let out a sigh, the orange globe barely a foot from her now. 'And right when I finally found someone who would tell me that everything will be alright…'
'It will be alright, Olga.'
A familiar voice brushed her mind. The weight of Ereshkigal's cloak tightened around her, wrapped itself snugly around her body and over her face, and she felt it pull her back, away from her eternal torture. The cool fabric squeezed, but all she could see was darkness. In that darkness, a glint of metal.
'I've got you, Champion. Just rest now.'
The world turned white as snow in all directions, and Olga felt herself slipping into a slumber. Even as the exhaustion washed over her, relief brought a smile to her face. 'Thank you, Ereshkigal.'
'Of course. I'm your Goddess of Victory, after all,' she heard, Ereshskigal's voice holding no undue pride. Beneath the caring tone, wrath stirred. 'I'll tell you all about this one when you wake.'
Olga's cage shrank as it floated back to Ereshkigal, finally landing in her palm the size of an amulet. The girl's tiny blue soul flickered and burned, but it was safe in Ereshkigal's care. The cage disappeared in a flash of maroon and reappeared chained around the goddess's neck.
She turned her golden eyes back to the culprit. Lev returned her glare, unfazed.
She would faze him. She would crush his bones to dust, incinerate his body, and drown his soul in the Abyss.
"Hmm," Lev hummed, "Not sure why you would waste your energy on her, but-"
"Doctor," Ereshkigal growled, her Authority leaking out. Frosty maroon and black fog pooled around her, chilling the scorched earth of the cavern. "My connection to the mana link is stable now, correct?"
The icy tendrils reached Ritsuka and Mash. Both noticeably stiffened as the temperature dropped around them, goosebumps covering them in an instant. The cold of Kur crawled further out, now focused on the only untouched living creature in the room. Mash and Ritsuka had her blessing; death's frostbite wouldn't take them. Lev, however... Romani's voice came in over the radio. "R-right. You're good to go."
Every inch of shadow in the cavern roiled to life. Dozens of pairs, hundreds of pairs of red eyes shot open, all focused on a single being. Cages erupted from the abyss, the walls, the earth, each containing the blue flame of a soul. The cavern of the Greater Grail morphed and groaned as Kur itself manifested within it.
Lev glanced around, smoothly stepping out of the way of a tendril of her Authority. "Ah. Seems I've struck a nerve." Gallû spirits ripped out of the darkness, swarming as pure waves of blackness across the space, only to evaporate as they got too close. Still, Lev was unmoved. "I'd love to stick around and play, but I really must be going."
"No. You will lay down and die like the dog you are."
Lev hummed a laugh. "This singularity is hanging on by a thread because of that idiotic Saber." As if in emphasis, the world itself shook. Fissures split open the earth, but Ereshkigal didn't care. She could hear Romani speaking frantically, and Mash talking back, but it didn't matter.
Fools. Every one of them. Humans of this era didn't even begin to comprehend the powers of the divine.
Ereshkigal stabbed her flaming spear into the ground. The earth swallowed it greedily, and from the point of impact glowing lines of mana sprouted, weaving outwards like magical circuits. Stakes of red metal clawed their way through the rock, stitching the fissures together and holding them there. Larger cages reached the cave's roof, holding up a majority of the structure. The world still groaned and shook, but Ereshkigal would not let it interrupt her purpose by doing something so weak as falling apart.
Lev furrowed his brows. "You're impressive, goddess, holding a singularity together. However, I fear I must take my leave. We will fight, eventually. When the king wills it so."
"Lady Ereshkigal, we have to go!" Mash yelled.
Lev had the audacity to laugh at her. "Burn like the wastepaper you are. I hope you enjoy the feeling of holding together a dying world, goddess. It will be good practice for the future."
The image of Chaldea closed behind him, and with a bright flash of light, Lev disappeared.
Only to crash back to the dirt seconds later, bound by one of her cages.
"What the hell?!" he growled from the dirt. The goddess lifted herself into the air and floated towards him.
"No one leaves my domain without my permission."
Meslamtaea before her appeared in a flash of sunlight, the enormous spear of light and dark bound together by a ring of silver steel.
She threw it into the air, where it held like the celestial body it represented. Before the first sparks graced its blades, three new spears of fire found their home in Lev's body.
His eyes widened as Ereshkigal twisted one of the blades herself, the glare of a goddess of death inches from his own eyes. She smirked down at him; the shock in his eyes told her that he didn't even see her move.
"My heel is the wrath of Kur itself, mongrel."
Her heel slammed into the ground, a resounding snap of finality. .A sharp crack resounded through the chamber. The world shook. The goddess heard the humans behind her frantically planning their escape, but none of them realized what was actually happening. Mash grabbed Ritsuka and jumped away from them, probably acting on instinct as the oppressive power of her Authority grew to a suffocating level. The world wasn't trembling as it was before, not like an earthquake, but something akin to a deathrattle.
This wasn't the singularity failing. This was her power.
For a brief second, the world froze.
The floor beneath them gave way. Everyone in the cavern of the Greater Grail began to fall. Ereshkigal spared some spirits to assist Ritsuka and Mash, but her focus never left the inhuman creature before her.
The Sun's Authority began glowing. Orange and red flames sparked at its tips, crawling down towards the hilt and igniting into a roaring artificial sun.
"Appear, oh scorching shrine…"
The heat of Meslamatea burnt her skin, but it didn't matter. Golden bars flashed into existence and slammed into Lev's falling figure, taking away chunks of his burnt body with each strike.
Closer, closer, the Abyss drew near. Ereshkigal righted herself with a burst of mana and rammed into Lev with another spear, this time holding onto him.
He was an abomination. The antithesis to everything her divine stature represented. Someone who administers death as a game, who tortures others for his own amusement… She could not let him live.
"Reflect on your behavior…"
"I'd rather not." Lev's skin ripped apart, the false body falling like a molted husk as something monstrous tore itself free. Blackened flesh spread outwards, some lashing at her as disgusting tentacles and others reaching outwards for some kind of hold. Ereshkigal pushed herself away from the creature before it could catch her, but it just kept growing.
But as this monstrous mass grew, Ereshkigal felt a terrible sense of doubt encroach through her hatred. The pillar… The Demon God Pillar. That's what it was. She remembered now. She was punching above her weight class, but it didn't matter.
She was too close to the looming mass to change now. Dozens, hundreds of spears and cages materialized around it, puncturing its flesh and eyes.
Hundreds of red eyes fixed on the blonde goddess, each representing a demon's power, each sending a shiver through her soul. An inhuman, guttural screech shook the world, and the following pressure building up in the pillar's being choked the air out of her lungs.
She pumped more mana into Meslamtaea, even as she felt it burning away her own body. There was no other choice. She had to kill it before it killed her.
"Kur Ki Gal Ir-"
"Ereshkigal, by my command seal I order you! Return to us!"
Her prey in her grasp, yards from the Abyss… and she reappeared next to Ritsuka and Mash. There was just enough time for her to see the red-eyed being blink away before she experienced rayshifting for the first time.
Just enough time to let the fury of failure set in.
Ereshkigal hit the ruined Chaldean floor screaming in rage. "I HAD HIM! YOU INSOLENT FOOL, I-"
"Senpai!"
Mash's scream silenced the goddess. Her burning anger froze as she turned to see Ritsuka pass out in Mash's arms.
"Fujimaru!"
Romani nodded to Ereshkigal as she left the infirmary. Ritsuka was making up for nearly a day of denying himself the rest a wound like his deserved, and checking on him had once again reminded her of that. The doctor said he would wake up soon, and she wouldn't rush that. Ereshkigal knew patience like the back of her hand. She considered again making a fruit basket for him; scouring Chaldea's kitchen for the produce was an easy enough task if she could get Da Vinci's approval, but she had no ways of acquiring a (non-cage-like) basket or a ribbon to put on it. That was the pain of living, she supposed, absently gazing out over the snow-covered region.
It didn't snow in the underworld. Maybe she would make a snowman today. Ereshkigal wanted to be excited, but her mood remained the gloomy mess it had been since returning from Fuyuki. Her rage at Lev still smoldered, drawing away the energy she could've spent on frolicking in the overworld. It didn't help that she got berated for using 'WAY too much mana' and for 'drawing into the reserves Chaldea needs to run basic life support.'
No one told her she was sharing it! How was she supposed to know it also powered Chaldea? Did people not realize that she had to be told things to know them? Geez!
But that was okay. Everyone was alive, and that's what mattered.
She looked down at her necklace, Olga Marie's cage. Maybe not alive, but…
'You doing okay, Olga?'
The spirit's flame twitched. The silence stretched on for a long while, long enough for two Chaldea employees to walk by and raise their eyebrows as she stared at her own chest. 'Yeah,' the quiet voice came, 'A little better, at least.'
'Good, I'm glad. This goddess will…' She trailed off, pretending to be unsure of which turn to take in Chaldea's labyrinth. Even as the Mistress of the Underworld, there was so little she could truly promise the dead, least of all acceptance of their condition. All she could do was be there, providing a faint warmth in the bitter cold. 'This goddess will be here.'
Little comforts, Ereshkigal knew, as the sliding door to Olga Marie's former room opened for her. She couldn't provide the heat of the sun to her domain, but she could design ornate cages akin to luxurious mansions. She couldn't bring Olga back to life, but… she could let the girl occupy her room. Little comforts, a touch of familiarity.
The old Ereshkigal would be praising herself for such an ingenious idea, but the old Ereshkigal couldn't talk to her spirits. The new Ereshkigal, faced with Olga's melancholy, couldn't shake the nauseating realization that, for all she tried to do for her subjects, none of it really mattered.
What did being surrounded by the belongings of her life matter to Olga if she couldn't do anything with them? What did the battered stuffed dog in the corner mean if she couldn't hold it close? Did sitting in front of the mirror she used to get ready every day just add to the torture of being dead?
Was Ereshkigal's decision to take this soul under her wing worse than just letting her pass on?
At some point, the goddess moved to the bed. She didn't know when exactly, just that one moment she was staring at her reflection, and the next she was staring at the ceiling fan. The cage that pulled at her neck now crushed her chest, her breaths coming shallow and quick under the pressure.
Why did one soul weigh so much more than her entire kingdom?
The fan spun, and spun, and spun, but it didn't provide the answer she craved. It's endless creaking provided the hypnotic lull that dragged her further inwards.
She knew how to get an answer, of course. Ereshkigal could just ask, but each time she brushed up against the mental link, worry clawed her stomach. If she, a goddess, asked Olga for her equal opinion, where did that leave her status of queen? She had one soul to her name. If Olga…
If Olga, someone she wanted to call a friend, told her she wanted to move on, what could Ereshkigal say to that? What could she say that wouldn't lord her Authority like Ishtar?
… she wanted to keep Olga's soul as some kind of pet. Who was she kidding? There was no justification for a goddess being so terribly selfish. It wasn't within her duties to care for deceased souls anymore. Kur only existed when she willed it to, and not nearly to the same extent it once did.
Olga Marie was her Kur, now. She was the queen's only subject. So… she should be granted a voice.
Ereshkigal bit back her apprehension, even as her limbs turned to jelly in protest. 'Olga?'
The fan creaked, creaked, creaked, each tiny squeal signalling the agonizing passing of another second. She didn't look at the tiny blue flame on her chest. Memories of the nightmarish cold of loneliness chewed at the back of her mind, a storm of blackness ready to break in the moment she was left alone again. She grit her teeth. Ereshkigal was a benevolent queen. She had to offer the choice.
'I'm listening, Eresh. What is it?'
Eresh. She called her Eresh. That was… new. That was nice. It was warm, so warm, so nice, but it was too warm. The same warmth was too much, a sudden hot flash of anxiety wracking her body. An overwhelming fear of unavoidable loss assaulted the goddess, but she pushed through it.
'Do you want me to let your soul pass on?'
Silence hung in the air, further intensifying Ereshkigal's personal gravity. Lying in the bed, waiting to be rejected, turned away from, left behind, it physically hurt her. The longer the quiet reigned, the longer she remained uncertain. The longer she thought that, maybe, someone would see some worth in sticking around a gloomy, worthless goddess like her. Uncertainty brought her the faintest sliver of hope, presenting it to her like a ritual dagger prepared to drive into her own flesh if she trusted it too much. Then she handed Olga the same weapon she gave Ishtar and Nergal, and now she had to turn around and wait to be stabbed in the back and left for dead.
Olga Marie didn't respond for three minutes and twelve seconds, exactly. Finally, a familiar exasperated sigh sounded in Ereshkigal's mind. 'I'm your champion, aren't I? I want to see this through, even if I'm just… watching.'
Ereshkigal chuckled lightly as relief flooded her body. A giddy energy washed over her- she felt like jumping, twirling, cheering, but of course she wouldn't do that. Just thinking it was enough for her. Tears danced at the sides of her eyes, but she pushed them back down.
Ereshkigal had never had someone offer themselves up as her champion before. Only one other time had she ever experienced such happiness, and she thanked the Throne for not stealing the memory of her contract from her.
'I'll be sure to put on a show worthy of my champion, then,' she assured.
A comfortable silence fell between them, a welcome change from the previous dread. Ereshkigal felt a touch of warmth tickle her consciousness as their spirits brushed against each other, both relishing the connection.
Olga Marie's voice tickled the back of her mind as the goddess dozed, barely a mental whisper. '... Did you really mean it?'
'Mean what, Champion?'
'My Chaldea… Do you really think it's able to save the world?'
Ereshkigal smiled, breaking the sleepy fog she had allowed to fall over her. This was reassurance she could provide. 'Of course, Olga. You're an immensely talented human worthy of mountains of praise for what you created here. You've seen it, right? The determination in everyone's eyes? The will to fight in each and every one of your operatives? You kept them together for three years, through all the trials and assaults they faced, and now they're rebuilding with purpose. I can promise you…' she trailed off, waiting for the Throne to restrict her words. It didn't. 'I can promise you, this Grand Order you created will repair the seven singularities, and restore the foundation of humanity, and I will be by your side the entire time. You have this goddess's word.'
'Thank you, Ereshkigal,' Olga breathed alongside a sigh of relief. 'For everything.'
END OF ARC 1: THE WEIGHT OF ONE SOUL
A/N: So. That's Fuyuki. What'd you think?
This entire story started because I thought of the scene of Ereshkigal pulling Olga into one of her cages, and I'm really, really happy that I got this far. I'd like to give a huge thanks to TungstenCat and Pallan Minerva for helping out with this chapter, without them I would've posted the binge-written-in-one-sitting-at-4am version of this chapter and... well, that wouldn't have been anywhere near the quality I wanted.
I'm making a bold assumption that most people reading this at least vaguely enjoy Ereshkigal as a character, so if you're looking for a prime Ereshkigal fic, the previously mentioned TungstenCat's Mysterious Divine Wine is the fic for you. It focuses on Ereshkigal and Ishtar attempting to make amends after millennia, and it's sweet, heartfelt, and very, very well-written.
Some housekeeping: The Orleans arc is outlined and ready to rumble, but I'm going to be changing a bit in the way I write it. Fuyuki was very much linear, without skipping much content at all. I won't be writing Orleans going over every event in the singularity as meticulously. I'll also be deviating a bit from canon, because, well... Orleans was kinda bad, and I want to write something that's actually interesting.
That's it from me, stay tuned for more!
Endy