Chapter 8: 'Murica

"The setting of the next Singularity has been determined." Romani informed the assembled Masters as they stood before him in the Central Command Room. "Its location is North America, more specifically 1783, at the end of the Revolutionary War. Right before the birth of the United States."

"America…That's a nation relatively younger than the other ones we've been to." Mash noted as she stood beside Gudao. "They're less noteworthy when it comes to magecraft because of that." She quickly turns to another figure in the room and waves her hands apologetically, "Ah, no offense Mr. Tesla."

"You're not wrong Lady Mash. But for what we lacked in Mystery, we compensated with the definitive power of man and glorious evolution!" The genius inventor proudly exclaimed. Having heard earlier of the Fifth Singularity's destination, he had approached Chaldea's orange haired Master and volunteered to rayshift into the era alongside her.

"Nevertheless, it's undeniable that the United States has had significant historical impacts on the world." Romani continued his explanation, "As a superpower that has birthed its own fair share of Heroic Spirits, it's certain that whatever is happening within the Singularity will not be easy to solve. I want you to proceed with your search carefully."

Wyatt retained the information and mentally filed it away for later, there was still so much he didn't know about this world. He stood alongside the two other Masters, dressed in a custom mystic code crafted by Da Vinci. Following Chaldea's color theme, it's a black and white suit that vaguely looks like sci-fi tactical armor. Being outfitted with many functions, the mystic code acted as a mana battery to compensate for his lack of magic circuits, as a miniature storage space capable of holding small items similar to how Mash's shield does with Holy Grails, and plated with light armoring that granted him a thin layer of protection.

Needless to say, he had been quite impressed when Da Vinci proudly showed him her creation. While he definitely won't be able to combat a servant anytime soon—Not that he ever plans or wants to do so—the suit will no doubt help him in completing the Grand Order.

"If it's the Revolutionary War, then perhaps the enemy is the British?" He proposed to the gathered people. Nearby, the other male Master nodded his head, having come to a similar conclusion.

Romani shook his head in denial, "We can't be sure about that. It's impossible to determine the exact inner going-ons of a Singularity without directly entering it. For all we know, it's just as likely that the Continental Army are our opponents. Don't be hasty to jump to conclusions, but stay wary all the while." He warned them.

Wyatt hears quiet muttering from beside him. Glancing to his side, he sees Gogh whispering something to herself in mute excitement. Feeling his stare, the strange Servant gives him a nervous, shaky smile, "I-I've never been to the United States before and I really want to draw some of scenery from the era b-because I thoughtitwouldbeapleasentexperienceand—" The rest of her speech becomes rapid incessant mumbling as she quickly loses composure.

If you were to ask him what Gogh was like, he'd tell you that she's playful, joyous, gloomy, and painfully depressed all at once. She's quick to change expressions, telling a hearty joke in one moment only to start vigorously doubting herself in another. Her smile was always quivering like it couldn't quite believe itself to be true.

The truth is that he found her unsettling. Her very presence brings chills to his spine and causes a pit to form deep within his stomach. Yet he found her equally attractive at the same time. It's unexplainable, sometimes he found himself just idly observing her, unable to look away. It's like tearing your eyes away from a gruesome death scene, you want to shy away, but instead find yourself mesmerized in the horror of it all.

They had escorted the new Servant throughout Chaldea as she looked around with intrigued sparkling eyes, leading her to her own personal room and concluding the tour. Da Vinci then eagerly approached the odd Servant and began asking her an onslaught of inquiries (Though she did so far more politely than she did with him, Wyatt had mentally grumbled to himself). In the end, the genius somehow managed to convince Gogh to hesitantly agree with being studied.

Through this process they learned much about Foreigners as a whole. The existence of Outer Gods, beings beyond the boundaries of the universe and outside the common sense of man, greatly concerned him. To learn that the Servant he summoned could potentially herald the arrival of or even house an Evil God had made him curse his horrendous luck.

This was when his doubts began.

Common sense told him that the simplest solution would be to simply cut the problem off at the root, by removing the Servant that's causing it. Experience told him that the simplest answer wasn't always the easiest or the best one to take. He was no heartless monster, he had learned much long ago understood that ethics kept the sane man balanced. Luckily for him, there were others who had equal say in the decision.

An impromptu meeting between Romani, Da Vinci, Gudao, Gudako, and himself was held. After catching the other two Masters up to speed, they spent a great length of time discussing the situation. While the three adults were unsure of how to proceed, the teen Masters vehemently argued on the behalf of Gogh, pleading her innocence and persuading them to grant her a chance. The final decision concluded with all of them agreeing to let the Foreigner Servant act however she wished freely, but kept under careful watch.

And it so happened that he was to be her warden. His new duty entails him consistently interacting with his Servant and monitoring for any abnormalities she may display. Which was just a fancier way of telling him to talk and socialize with Gogh.

So he did. He swallowed his aversion and spoke to her, he learned of her interests, he memorized her quirks, and he discovered more about the Servant known as Van Gogh. She told him her strange jokes, he watched as she skillfully painted the various scenery of Chaldea, and together they occupied each other's time. And it's through this frequent interaction that he saw it.

"EvenifthefieldwasdrenchedinbloodandgutsthenIamsurethatitwillbenoproblemformetodraw—"

Insanity.

He's seen the eyes of the deranged before. Hell, he's even joined their ranks a few times. So it was no surprise to him when Da Vinci had informed him that the Foreigner Servant's Saint Graph was twisted beyond belief. Hints of the illustrious painter Van Gogh, who's maddened mind drove him to end his own life. Traces of smudged divinity, marking the lineage of someone descending from the gods of before. Bits of voided space warped within of itself, something that truly doesn't exist within the boundaries of reason. A patchwork of debauched inner workings that makes up the vessel and container of the petite Servant, which begs the question. Who is the Foreigner proclaiming themselves as Van Gogh?

Unfortunately, there was no definite way to tell and the truth wouldn't be coming out any time soon. He had brought up the topic once to the ginger Servant, as he sat nearby within her room, watching the careful strokes of her brush flow over the incomplete canvas like swirling water on the surface of a pond.

Her reaction was…something.

Her steady hand falters and a misshapen line is struck across the canvas. She slowly turns to face Wyatt and gives him a strained, crazed grin. The atmosphere becomes heavy as sky blue eyes darken with the storm of growing madness.

"W-Who am I? I'm Van Gogh of course." Her words come out unsteady and weak, like as if she was on the verge of collapsing, "That's what V-Van Gogh would say right? I like painting and I like sunflowers. Van Gogh likes those as well right? T-Then I must be Gogh."

Her body quivers and her unsteady smile twitches. The grip on the paintbrush within her hand tightens and the wooden handle creaks, threatening to snap under the applied pressure.

"Gogh is Gogh. I am Gogh. It's my name. There's nothing wrong with that r-right?!"

Short bursts of sickening giggles escapes from the Servant as she despairingly stares into Wyatt's surprised eyes. Lines of paint run down the painting behind her like the trickling blood of bloody wounds, damaging the unfinished art and obscuring the image. Small giggles descend into full-blown demented laughter that wrack her petite body, her eyes clouded by the fog of madness gaze at him with fervent distraught.

"I'm Vincent Van Gogh!"

The experience was enlightening, to say the least.

Having decided to refrain from bringing up the subject for the foreseeable future, he spent the next few days warily tip-toeing around Gogh and carefully choosing his wording in fear of setting off another bout of insanity. And so they returned to their regular routine, with Gogh acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever occurred in the first place.

Wyatt wasn't ignorant, it was very apparent that his Servant is affiliated by some sort of identity crisis that induces madness within her. He's found a trigger for it and finding a solution would be a great next step. But how would he approach this? Could a cure be created? Is there a treatment or item that can mitigate the effect? Numerous ideas ran through his head.

The answer is there somewhere, this he knew. Waiting to be found and utilized, it's only a matter of time and effort. He'll bring it up with Romani and Da Vinci; bounce some of the ideas off of them.

'The uncertainty of self, how…hilarious…Surely, it must be mocking me.'

But right now, the survival of humanity must take priority.

"There'll be periods of rest within the Singularity, so you'll get a chance to paint whatever you see." He offhandedly mentioned; interrupting the short Servant's flustered ranting. "But place the mission first and foremost before anything else. Can't exactly paint anything if the world is going to ruin around us."

Elation fills her face and fuels her smile, "Hehehe. W-Will do, Master. I can't wait…"

"Ahem." Romani gently coughs into his hand, regaining the attention of everyone present, "We'll be starting the Rayshift soon. Everyone, start your preparations and get into position." Finishing the statement, the doctor walks away in the direction of the Control Room.

Mechanical whirls sounded around them as six Klein Coffins rose from the depths of the surrounding shallow pool of water. With a click and a hiss, the glass casing of the coffins slid open, allowing the entry of someone.

They had salvaged whatever they could from Incident Zero. The explosion had been catastrophic and the death count even more so. Of those forty-six Master Candidates who were at the very origin of the planned sabotage, none had even the tiniest sliver of a chance of escaping.

Some were found blown to bits, their organs smeared across the room like spilled tomato sauce. Others were discovered as smoking charred corpses, their features burnt away to the extent of being unrecognizable. Eighteen Master Candidates were found locked within their coffins, critically injured and unconscious. Their coffins were recovered and the remaining Master Candidates were immediately placed under cryofreeze until everything settled down.

Well, that was the original plan.

It was worse than they thought. Suspended on the thin line between life and death, it was determined that it would only take seconds for them to succumb to their grievous wounds and pass on to the great beyond. To unfreeze them now would be just as good as signing their death warrants. The coffins were stored away somewhere in Chaldea and safekept until a solution could be found. Their lives couldn't be saved, not yet. Death loomed over them like a terrible net, and a single step is all it takes for them to be caught.

He truly envied them.

The three Masters and their Servants got into position, each strolling up to an individual coffin. Climbing into the narrow space and turning around with his back to the metal wall, Wyatt stands and watches as the glass covering of the coffin slid back into place.

[Unsummon Program, start.]

His eyes fall shut as Chaldea's announcement system begins to drone. The sound of his own heartbeat rang in his ears as nervous energy ran through his body. He takes a deep breath and forcibly calms himself, counting as the seconds ticked by. The hum of the coffin intensifies as the system kicks into high gear.

[Spiritron Conversion, start.]

The tingling began at the soles of his feet and the tips of his fingers, slowly spreading across the surface of his skin. The sensation of slight weightlessness follows; it feels like every single one of his molecules was gradually ascending, being softly pulled away from his flesh.

[Rayshift starting in 3, 2, 1…]

The sounds of the outside become muffled as mana fills the coffin and trickles across his body like a running faucet, but with a reversed flow. Soon, what starts as a tiny rivulet progresses into a rapid stream of roaring mana enveloping his figure. The feeling was close to that of being suspended in a raging river washing over him, not strong enough to overwhelm, but with enough force to press against him. From behind his eyelids, Wyatt could make out the distant glow of a dot of faint light.

[All procedures cleared.]

For a single moment, everything slows down. Time comes to a crawl. Thought becomes drawn out. Sound dulls into a quiet whimper. For a single moment, there is absolute silence.

[Grand Order, commencing operation.]

The distant pinprick of light expands into a gigantic ring of white that surges over him, consuming his vision for a split second and propelling him into a vortex of whirling mana. Noise and light returns with a vengeance, exploding into a harsh cacophony of deafening whines and swirling colors. Greater than a raging river; he was caught in a whirlpool of unbelievably might trying to violently fling him around, but all the while being pulled beneath the surface by some unseen power. Like the flash of a camera, the center of the vortex booms with a thunderous force of radiance that engulfs the entirety of Wyatt.

And so it began.

"Vitals are stable. Rayshift is a success. The Masters have entered the Fifth Singularity." A Chaldean staff member reported from where she sat at her control station among the others.

Romani nods back to her in response and issues a command to the Control Room, "Continue with standard procedure. Search the singularity for abnormalities and report any detected. I'll try to open a link to the Masters' communicators." He began adjusting and inputting different commands into the control station in front of him.

"A third Master and a new Singularity. How intriguing. I wonder how it's going to turn out?" Da Vinci mused to herself from where she stood beside the seated Romani.

"Let's hope that it's for the better."

A.D.1783 North American Myth War: E Pluribus Unum

His first sensation was that of falling.

His eyes snapped open to the feel of a cool breeze slapping across his face and the rushing wind roaring in his ears. His first sight was that of the brown grass and rough dirt swiftly approaching face as he freefall head first towards the ground, albeit only from a few feet high.

Acting on impulse, Wyatt turned his body in the air in order to shift into a roll, but the ground was too close and the fall was too fast. Bracing himself, the air is pushed out of his lungs as he collides against the compact ground with a heavy thud. Thankfully the mystic code he wore absorbed most of the impact, allowing him to get up and—

A second smaller body then fell on top of his, knocking him back onto the dirt floor and further driving the breath out of his body.

"Please get off of me." Wyatt groans from his downed position. A nervous feminine giggle in response was all he needed to know who he became a cushion for.

"Hehehe. S-Sorry Master." The ginger-haired Servant mumbles as she shifts into a seated position on his back and carefully gets up.

Standing up and brushing off the dirt, Wyatt got a clear view of exactly where he landed. He stood on top of a short hill overlooking brown grassy plains that expanded beyond the horizon. The tallgrass that reached to his knees fluttered in the small, soft breeze that blew over the wide open plains. Fluffy, fat clouds slowly rolled through the azure sky above him without a care in the world. Glancing at the position of the sun overhead, he deduced that it's a few hours after noon.

The gigantic right of light was still present, twisting the clouds around it and hanging up far beyond his reach.

"Mr. Wyatt! Over here!"

Mash waved up at him from the foot of the hill, dressed in her battle attire and equipped with her large shield. The two other Masters and Tesla stood around her, curiously inspecting the surrounding environment that they rayshifted to. Together with Gogh, he treks down the hill and joins with the rest of the group.

"Is the experience usually that rough every time?" He asks as he nears the group.

"Eh? What's rough?" A slight expression of confusion flits across Mash's face at the strange question.

"Rayshifting. It really felt like I was going to die there, with all the tugging and tossing happening."

Having overheard the small conversation, Gudao pauses in his observing of the area and turns to face Wyatt with an expression of confusion similar to one Mash wore, "What do you mean? Rayshifting isn't like that. Usually we just close our eyes, see some flashing lights, and open them to find ourselves in the singularity."

"That's strange, the transition wasn't—"

A small series of beeps interrupts his sentence. A small window of static opens in the air in front of everyone, hovering off of the ground. A warbling voice emits from the floating screen, gradually becoming steadier with every word.

"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Is the connection working?"

"We hear you loud and clear doc." Gudako replies.

The static clears up, revealing the live feed of a sitting Romani with a relieved look on his face, "Oh good, you've all made it safely. What's the current situation right now?"

"We seem to be in the middle of a large plains area with nothing in sight. Currently, time in the singularity is somewhere in the afternoon, perhaps one o'clock or two o'clock." Wyatt informed the doctor.

"I see. Finding a town might be a good idea right now. Gathering some information on the Singularity before—Wait." There was a pause in the doctor's suggestion as something caught his attention, "A crazy amount of magical signatures detected! They're coming from the east and west!"

"Those are…!" Staring to the west, Tesla's eyes widened as he caught sight of something approaching.

Following the gaze of her Servant, Gudako leans forward and squints her eyes. Straining to see what the enhanced sight of Tesla saw, the female Master manages to make out a mass amount of blue, white, and red approaching into view.

"Woah! They're all Babbages! It's a whole ton of robots!" She cries out in shock as the mechanical army marches onwards, heading straight at them with synchronized steps.

"This side's pretty strange as well!" Gudao cries back as he and Mash gazed at the giant wave of dust rolling rapidly towards their position from the east, "An army of soldiers are incoming!"

Barbaric shouts of bloodlust echoed through the plains as a line of horse-riding warriors emerged from the cloud of dust, violently waving their spears and swords. Garbed in chainmail and linen, their horses shook the ground as they charged and crushed all that got in the way underfoot. A second row of horse riders then emerged, followed by a third, a fourth, a fifth, and so on. Countless lines of cavalry continue to break free from the cloud, relentlessly adding to the already vast numbers of hollering soldiers.

"Not good! You have to get out of there! We'll assess the situation later—"

"I'm afraid that's improbable at this point. We've been pincered between two armies only seconds away from meeting." Tesla instantly rebutted Romani's statement.

The heavy footfalls of metallic clunking signaled the arrival of the closer infantry. Glowing red lenses acting as the eyes of the mechanical automatons assess the group from a distance. Coming to a halting stop, a single mechanical automaton from the front row hums with a deep robotic voice, "Unknown Servants detected."

"Uh, perhaps they're friendly?! Yeah, let's try diplomacy—"

"Engaging detention protocol. Switching to non-lethal attacks. Do not resist."

Lifting their gun arms in synchronized union, the machines opened fire, shooting out a hailstorm of magical energy condensed into bullets.

Dashing forward without hesitation, Mash throws up her shield, protecting the gathered group behind her. Like tennis balls smacking off of a solid wall, the onslaught of bullets strike against the Shielder's defense and ricochets off in many dizzying directions.

The growl of thunder crackles as Tesla lifts his armored gauntlet. Fierce lightning arcs around the tips of his fingers and across the length of his arm as the genius points an outstretched palm at the back of Mash's figure.

"Hmph."

The air screeches as a gigantic thunderbolt discharges from Tesla's raised hand, traveling faster than the blink of an eye. Seconds away from striking the back of the Demi-Servant, the bolt takes an abrupt curve around her and flies onwards toward the attacking enemies. The resulting, deafening explosion shakes the earth and craters the ground.

""UUUUURAAAAAAHHHHH!""

War bellows and stampeding hooves resounded from the opposing side as the warrior riders quickly enclosed upon their position.

"Gogh!"

The called Servant moved as Wyatt's shout reached her ears. With a quick flourish and swipe of her large sunflower brush, she splatters a stroke of orange paint across the front line of horse riders. Those stained by the paint scream out in pain as the substance burns through their armor and flesh, causing both rider and mount to collapse onto the dirt floor as they suffer a slow death.

BANG

A bullet tore through the head of another charging warrior, turning it into a spray of blood and gore. Brain bits and flesh chunks flew everywhere as the headless body slumped off the horse, falling lifelessly to the ground. The smoking barrel of the handgun held by Wyatt burned red hot as he switched aim to another target.

'Blue, Flat, Loose.'

More gunshots were fired in quick succession, tearing through the armor and muscle of those shot like a needle piercing a flimsy sheet of paper. A rune drawn into the grip of the gun faintly glows as it absorbs the backlash of Aspect Radiation. He might not be capable of standing up to a Servant, but with his expertise in thaumatology and the custom handgun that he built with the aid of Da Vinci, he's capable of handling anything lesser.

Bullets flew around chaotically, lighting rained down from the heavens, and paint mixed in with the seeping of blood. They fought an arduous battle for several minutes, holding back the two tides that threatened to capsize them. But the longer the skirmish went on, the more hopeless the situation seemed. Trapped in a sea of flesh and steel, the two sides left no opening to exploit and no exit to escape from. Inch by inch, the endless armies marches forward, closing in on the group from all sides.

"BRAHMASTRA!"

An enormous wheel of violently spinning energy cleaves through the two armies in a single blow, splitting the earth and scorching all that got in its way into fine dust, creating a road of ruptured ground. Charging from the rear of the robotic army came a small brigade of American soldiers bearing muskets, to which they began opening fire on the steel infantry. Leading them was a young boy with long orange hair and a stern expression. With a beckoning gesture, the spinning wheel of tremendous power made an U-turn and flew back to him, to which he caught in a single hand; revealing the form of a smoking orange blade.

Wyatt saw as a figure fell from the sky onto the back of a raging warrior, plunging a knife deep into the man's spine. Dark-skinned with white lines running across his face and body, the knife wielding man dashes forward, shoulder tackling another enemy and slashing them into ribbons.

He tenses as another figure materializes beside him; a short blonde man wearing a western cowboy attire, "Howdy! I see that you're quite the sharpshooter! Let's have a competition, yeah?"

Brandishing a Colt M1877, the smiling man takes aim at the enemy and fans the hammer of the gun, letting loose a barrage of bullets. Each individual shot landed true; piercing each warrior dead center in the forehead.

"We're here to help!" The tribal man shouts, dodging the swing of a sword and swiftly retaliating by slitting the offender's throat, "Our forces are busy distracting the enemy! Follow us!" Sprinting to the side, the two Servants forcibly open a small pathway out by removing all the opposing forces in the way.

Gudao and Gudako lock eyes for the briefest of moments, having wordless conversation before the two of them nodded in agreement, "Let's follow them! Help them clear a path!" Gudako orders, and the Chaldean force moves into action.

The unknown blonde man guns down another pair of armored enemies alongside a mechanized robot before aiming at a roaring horseback warrior charging at him, but before he can pull the trigger, a hole the size of a volleyball is punched through the mounted man's chest, sending the warrior's corpse tumbling off the steed. Turning to face the kill stealer, he finds Wyatt staring back at him with an analyzing gaze.

"I don't have the bonuses of being a Heroic Spirit, so I'll be taking the first point if that's fine with you." The newest Master bluntly asks.

An amused grin made its way onto the cowboy's face, "Haha! That's fine! Just try to keep up!" He chuckles, firing off another shot in tandem with Wyatt's own.

The sounds of war echoes across the plains.

Author's Note:

There you have it! The start of the Fifth Singularity! And don't worry, you'll be seeing SCP elements soon.

Sorry for the slight delay on this chapter. Looking back, I already don't like how the early chapters were written and formatted, so I'll probably be rewriting and tweaking them sometime in the future.

Anyhoo, have questions? Ask them. Have reviews? Write them. Have ants infesting your house and living in your food? I can't really help you with that.

See you in the next chapter.