AN: The two genders for Ritsuka Fujimaru are mostly based off of their movies and anime series.
"Rayshift is in operation. Brace yourself." Romani Archaman announced the two masters. The orange-haired female was Gudako, the gacha-obsessed master with an addiction to saint quartz. The other master was Gudao, a male with black hair and the more serious of the two masters. Though both were dedicated to saving humanity, it was well known that Gudao was the responsible one and Gudako had...a FGO player mindset. No one questioned her true motives, since she was a respectable master when the situation called for it.
"Safeties for rayshift to Medieval England are complete. Six individuals are registered and ready to proceed." A Chaldea operator updated.
The people being prepared for teleportation were the two masters and four servants. Mash would always support her senpai through the thicks and thins of life. She was followed by Saber Artoria Pendragon, Archer Emiya, and Berserker Hercules. Artoria was insistent on coming because the Singularity was taking place near the final days of her deceased nation. Emiya was dragged along by Artoria and the masters for his diverse prowess- it's his cooking, can't really hide that fact. Finally, Hercules came along because of Gudako's suggestion for obvious (FGO gamer) reasons. A 10 bond Hercules could solo carry any battle.
Leonardo Da Vinci called out the group to ensure they were well-equipped for their new mission. The participants all nodded before they were consumed by light and teleported to the Singularity.
In a flash, they regained their senses in the grasslands directly outside of Camelot. The condition of the castle and the settlements visible to their eyes were horribly damaged. Corpses of soldiers and civilians, both fresh and rotten, littered the land. The sound of battle echoed across the landscape. Things grew worse when they noticed the large pillar of ominous black light piercing and cracking the sky; the light seemed to be destroying the very fabric of reality.
"This is horrible." Artoria materialized everyone's thoughts on the scene that lay around them. Gudao couldn't handle the gore and puked, while the other master held out pretty well. Emiya comforted Gudao by patting his back. Artoria and Hercules scanned their surroundings for danger.
"Are you seeing this Doctor?" Gudako asked through her communications device. Romani Archaman and Da Vinci both affirmed the scene.
Their communications were interrupted by a group of soldiers ornamenting Mordred's mark. The soldiers' eyes widened when they saw Artoria and drew their blades.
"There's the heinous dead king! Kill her and her foul followers!" A soldier pointed at Artoria and called his peers to arms.
"I shall handle this, Mast-" Artoria was about to charge in for battle, but Hercules took the lead with a roar.
"Get them Hercules!" Gudako sternly ordered. "I need my saint quartz."
"-ers." Artoria slowly finished, surprised by Berserker's sudden intrusion. It was too late though, the soldiers were all knocked out. Sadly, Gudako didn't find any quartz from the short battle.
*tsk*
The King of Knights ignored her master's displeasure and shook one of the soldiers awake.
"You will tell me what has transpired to my nation." She ordered the injured man.
"As if I will say anything to you, fiend." She spat back. His voice was coated in sickening venom and hatred. "You will never dethrone King Mordred."
Hearing the name of the Knight of Treachery, Artoria gritted her teeth. "What has that traitorous knight done to my land?" She continued to demand.
The soldier replied by spitting her in the face. "Go to hell."
She threw the man onto the ground and wiped away the fluids with her arm. From her sense and bias, Mordred had caused the destruction before them. Somehow, her past self in this timeline failed to defeat the tool of Morgan. If that was so, then she would finish the deed.
"Artoria are you alright?" Gudao asked, concerned about her mental health.
The king dismissed his worries with a shake of her head. The male master tried to verify her wellbeing, but footsteps were heard in a nearby ruined resident house. Merlin burst forth from the wooden door.
"Thank goodness you arrived." He exclaimed in joy. Ever since Bedivere summoned Artoria Alter, his mana supply was cut off. He was left without any mana to use his magecraft and had to hide from Mordred's supporters. He may be corrupted with command seals, but none of the commands erased the information he had gained from the grail nor did they stop him from seeking help from Chaldea. His excitement was cut short when Emiya fired an arrow between his legs.
"Master, do not be fooled. I could feel the corruption radiating from this Merlin's body." Archer swiftly declared. "He must be a perverted servant summoned by the false grail."
"Isn't he always a pervert?" Gudako rubbed her chin before snapping her fingers. "Oh well. He will be a great source for quartz."
The berserker servant heeded his master's words and raised his weapon to strike. On the other hand, Merlin fell on his ass and tried to back pedal away. His demise was stopped by Artoria's request to question him.
"Before you do that, do you have something to break my contract?" Merlin hesitantly asked. Gudao, who recovered from his sickness, glanced at Emiya and the archer servant produced Rule Breaker.
After the deed was done, Merlin was free of those command seals and he explained the chaos that had befallen this land to the best of his knowledge. Artoria refused to accept the very idea of Mordred possessing the qualities of a king. It went against her entire perception of her clone created by Morgan. The disastrous fate of Bedivere was as equally as baffling. The others took in the information in stride.
"Mordred's deviation from the original timeline could be the origins of the singularity." Archer commented on Merlin's summary. Dr. Roman agreed with the statement, though debates were held on how the deviation came to be.
"Then to resolve this mess, we must defeat Morgan's child." Artoria argued to the group.
Archer shook his head. He knew of Artoria's apparent denial of Mordred's existence due to their unique background. "I know you dislike the circumstances, but Mordred is not the threat. Bedivere is."
"Ummm, Emiya-senpai. I think my father is more of a threat right now." Mash joined in.
"Why is that?" Archer questioned. Mash pointed to her side to reveal a pissed off Lancelot with an army and flags bearing Mordred's mark. The group's eyes followed Mash's finger and knew the bad situation they were in. Everyone, excluding Gudako and Berserker, the former who had a creepy smirk and kept repeating the phrase 'saint quartz'.
The battle ended by a full buster Hercules combo crashing down on Lancelot. The defeated knight had no choice but to submit himself to the explanations provided by the Chaldea intruders. They spoke of their mission, while the King of Knights interjected to tell the tale of their fate in the original timeline. At first, he was doubtful and his mindset changed when he saw the resemblance Mash had with his son, Galahad.
Having gained his trust, the Chaldea group was led into Camolet's walls. Artoria was reluctantly forced to cover her face so that the survivors of Gawain's coup and zombie hordes would not be alarmed. Merlin also faced the same treatment for the same reason.
"Why should I hide my face from my subjects?!" Artoria argued to her knight of another world.
"It is for your and the people's safety." Lancelot refuted as he bowed his head. "This is not the world you had claimed to experience, nor am I the same knight that had served you. Please, accept this as a necessity."
Persuaded by her masters, she agreed to don the mask. Lancelot told his story during their walk to the castle's throne room that had been converted to a war room. Once again, Artoria was shell shocked to hear that Gawain had staged a coup with support of the clergy and Merlin. Merlin profusely apologized and rationalized that he was being forced into that role when Artoria gave him the stink eye.
Gawain was later killed by Lancelot in their duel to end the conflict. Gareth was struck by grief by his death and avoided Lancelot ever since then.
Their walk proved to worsen the perception they held on the situation. They saw the wounded soldiers swarming the floors and crying children starving for food. The coup and subsequent slaughter of the religious faction of Camelot had disrupted the plans to siege the land from the undead horde. The wounded only increased when the hordes reached the defenses. The only saving grace was that the numbers of corrupted soldiers had significantly declined when the two armies collided. The endless horde became finite in the many days of battle that followed. Soon, little to no undead presented a threat.
The knights were nonetheless grateful for whoever reduced the enemy forces. Many lives were spared from the grim death of being eaten alive. Even so, the aftermath left the majority of Britain homeless, starved, and wounded. The horde polluted the waters and defiled the land of its natural resources.
Excluding Mordred who was crowned as king, only three members of the Knight of the Round Table remained: Lancelot, Gareth, and Tristan. An invitation for a meeting was sent out to the other two knights. Gareth would have ignored Lancelot's requests, however the unique presence of Chaldea convinced her to participate. Tristan was already present in the war room when the group arrived.
The masters also met Kenelm, a man who looked like a carbon copy of Archer in medieval robes. He introduced himself to be King Mordred's personal advisor. Gudako nogged the red servant and quipped on how the man's E rank luck had acquired a new victim. Archer responded by fisting the female master's noggin.
Artoria was expecting to see Mordred sitting arrogantly on the throne. Imagine her surprise when the throne was left empty. She brought up the topic of Mordred's absence, which was filled in by Kenelm. Only he, Merlin, and Morgan knew of Mordred's destination after her escape. However, her prolonged disappearance birthed fears in Kenelm and the knights' minds.
Artoria never once wished for the death of her most loyal knight. The singularity was Bedivere's doing, yet she could do him harm. She didn't voice her complaints nor jest on Mordred's possible act of abandonment of Camelot. For if she did, she would be mocking the misery of the people who Bedivere had wronged. Gudao noticed her strife and opened the option of her staying behind in Camelot. Of course, she rejected the offer. Bedivere was her knight; he had done everything in her name so it was her duty to halt his madness. It was also getting quite difficult to uphold her bias on the Mordred of this timeline. Maybe she could find a form of kinship between her clone that was not possible before this Singularity.
Their next plan of action was to stop the calamity at its source; the knights and Kenelm would assist Chaldea in destroying the pillar. Order would be retained by the aristocrats that had escaped the massacre led by Gawain, the current leader being a baron (Chapter 4).
On their journey, they never anticipated a path of rotten corpses leading to a cave entrance on the side of a mountain. The bodies piled high as trees and Lancelot was convinced that it was the act of their mysterious benefactor.
Kenelm voiced out his hypothesis of Mordred being responsible for the large deduction of undead numbers. His fear was visualized when he saw Mordred's dismembered arm at the entrance of the cave. Puddles of blood were visible across the grassland where the supposed battle had occurred. A specific large pool of purple blood contained a dress and armor, but no corpse. It was as if the body had melted into liquid.
No matter where they looked, besides Mordred's arm, no other fresh bodies were present. Gudao had to stop himself from having a repeat of when they first arrived into this era. The arm, armor and all, was cleanly sliced off like a knife through butter. The armor Mordred wore was different from the Mordred in Chaldea. It was made of a black alloy and red veins ran through the armor; it held more shaped edges than the original, screaming pain and death to anyone unfortunate enough to get stabbed by the armored limb. Gareth carefully retrieved the limb, avoiding the sharp edges and spikes of the plates that covered it.
Before the group could calm themselves to enter the natural formation, the ground shook. Mash noticed the pillar piercing the sky disappearing along with the cracks it created. A sense of urgency erupted in the group and they raced into the cave. A journey of blood acted as their guide to their destination.
At the end of the tunnel, an opening revealed the truth of what had transpired. In the center of the room, knelt Mordred.
The knights of this era were devastated and could not bear to witness the ravaged body of Mordred. They had once more failed to protect their king. Kenelm fell to his knees; his eyes were unblinking and unmoving as he shed flows of tears that streamed down his quivering jaws.
Through the comms, Da Vinci clasped her hands around her mouth and gasped, while Dr. Roman sadly stared at the live-feed. Even the positive Gudako looked away at the sight, a deep guilt eating away her insides. Mordred, a lone mortal without help from the Counter Force, had stopped a Singularity. Chaldea was too late to save her.
Archer, staring at Mordred's butchered body, was reminded of his past when he too died for a similar cause. Though his death was quick and simple, Mordred's was not. Mash hid behind Berserker, away from the gruesome sight. The big man, Hercules, prayed for Mordred's happiness in the afterlife. The biggest reaction came from Artoria.
She slowly approached Mordred, never blinking and wavering. Mordred's entire being was littered with scars and deep flesh wounds. Her left arm was completely gone and so was the lower limb of her right arm, the missing piece in Gareth's arms. Everything was made worse by the site of the black Excalibur protruding through the fallen king's chest region. The blade was so deeply implanted that the rain-guard had embedded itself into Mordred's flesh. A sickly viscous flow of blood dripped from the tip of the hilt. The pain must have been horrendous and the blood lost should be colossal.
Yet, here Mordred knelt. Her eyes were clouded, but there was a smile across her face. She was, through all that pain, at peace. Artoria shook her head to rid herself of the haunting imagery imprinted by her observations. Her eyes landed on Caliburn a few feet away from Mordred. She picked it up and felt the saliva mixed in blood on its hilt. She glanced at the pedestal that held the holy grail. A slit of the size for Calibrun's blade was also present near the grail. It was obvious what had happened.
Artoria could no longer reject the truth. A deep feeling of respect and guilt was swirling within her; respect for the Knight of Treachery for all the knight had accomplished and suffered to achieve it; guilt for never believing that Mordred could change for the better.
The period of grief was broken when a strange remark was spoken by Dr. Roman. "The singularity hasn't ended yet."
Every person in the vicinity heard his declaration.
"What!?" Artoria was the first to voice her shock. "Didn't Mordred stop the calamity?"
Frustration was felt through the comms as neither Da Vinci nor Dr. Roman knew the answer. However, someone else did know the answer.
"Mordred is still alive." Archer boldly claimed. A second stream of shock ran through the group. "She must have deviated from the original timeline long before Bedivere got his hands on the false grail."
The Counter Guardian rubbed his chin and continued. "This would explain why we were propelled into this era at a much later date. I hypothesize that this era is an anomaly constructed by the repeated corrections by the timeline. Initially, Mordred's deviations were minuscule, perhaps differences in food preferences. When the timeline tries to correct itself, it does so without erasing Mordred's memories. In this way, the timeline is fixed, but the end results lead to a greater divergence."
"I see...The CounterForce will only see the effects, but not the cause. The timeline would be permanently rewritten without a reaction from the CounterForce and history is forever changed." Dr. Roman added to the observation.
Emiya nodded. "The only reason the CounterForce is able to realize this anomaly is the coincidental irruption of the false grail wielded by Bedivere."
The red servant paused and faced everyone. "We are never here to stop Bedivere."
He looked Artoria in the eyes. "From the very beginning, we are tasked to kill Mordred. At this moment, the anomaly is at its weakest and the CounterForce took the opportunity to remove it. For the Singularity to still be active meant that Mordred still lives."
Artoria trembled at the revelation. "The very world is against Mordred from doing what is right?"
"No!" Lancelot burst forward with his weapon drawn. His fellow knights did the same. "We will never allow you to do this. King Mordred had suffered enough."
"I am sorry...It must be done to save humanity from extinction." Gudao was hesitant in his words, but his intentions were clear. The rest of Chaldea prepare for battle.
All of Chaldea except Artoria. She could not comprehend the news presented to her. Mordred, for all of her faults, tried to do good. Yet, the world denied her that chance in life. Was it so wrong for a knight to better herself...to save Camelot from ruination? Was she wrong about Mordred?...She didn't know anymore.
The screams between the two sides grew heated. There was no right or wrong in this conflict. Both had reasons grounded in rationality and one side would be victorious. The clash was inevitable in the minds of the fighters.
"QUIET!" Kenelm demanded at the top of his lungs. Silence washed over the area as everyone's attention was directed towards him. "The king is talking."
Artoria's eyes widened even further. She turned to Mordred and could see her mouth moving, though slightly. In the absolute silence that reigned the cave, her voice was barely audible.
"It...is...al...right." Mordred's clouded eyes that could not see, yet it pierced into Artoria's soul. "I...am...rea...dy...to...die...for...hu...man...ity."
The knights of this era did the only thing they could. They bowed their heads to pay respects to their king...To Mordred's sacrifice. Tears were dripping from Gareth's eyes.
The Chaldea lowered their weapons and followed the knights' lead when they saw Artoria walk closer to Mordred.
"Don't...cry...for...me." Mordred slowly mumbled. Salty water was indeed leaking from her eyes without Artoria noticing.
"I...am...truly...ha...ppy...you...be...hap..py...too." Mordred's smile grew wider
Artoria grabbed the corrupted Excalibur. "I am proud of you, son." And pulled it out. Mordred's blood spewed into Artoria's clothes.
The corruption was purified by her touch. She arched the blade back to prepare a swing.
"I am so proud of you." She swung Excalibur.
Mordred's body went limp as her corpse fell from its knelt position.
