A/N: This whole chapter takes place within Notes, so the italicized coordinates will only be used once.
Planet: Land of Steel (Earth, former)
Branch: 0-00
Twig: 00.00 [The Trunk]
Year: AD 2505 (88 AC - After Construction)
Location: The Great Rift (Site of the First Confrontation)
WITCH SWIFT UMBRELLA (Type:Mercury(?)'s corpse)
"The witch, Merlin, stopped Saber and Artoria before they could destroy the sword, and informed them of its true nature. The two set off to find her brother, Arthur."
Edem led the four deeper into the bowel's of ORT's rebuilt corpse. They passed through a temple now, a church, lined with murals and religious, exaggerated paintings of the High Spark's - of Shirou Emiya's - journey. As of yet, they were the only cultural items Fujimaru had glimpsed.
Merlin tapped his chin, a strangely knowing grin twisting his lips.
"Hmm! And, if I may ask... did dear Artoria happen to encounter anyone on her way to the sword? A black swordsman, perhaps?"
If the odd question phased Edem, they certainly couldn't tell. He'd been quick to cover his head with Emiya's well-worn helmet.
"...No? As I understand it, their journey to Arthur by all accounts uneventful, occasional bouts with the Saxons and the sleeping Aristotele's drones notwithstanding."
Merlin beamed. "I see, I see! Pay me no mind! Ohoho!"
Mordred's eye twitched, but she held her tongue. Edem gestured to the next mural, continuing the history lesson.
"Artoria's... affections for Saber are well-documented, though the reasons for Saber's continued denials vary depending on who you ask. Official doctrine of the High Spark states it was due to his chivalrous nature and dignity. He was her knight, and wished not to dishonor their stations. As such, despite the clear mutuality of their feelings, he routinely and respectfully denied her attempts."
"And..."
They turned to Mordred, who looked to the floor. Fists balled, anxious curiosity very much evident.
"And what do the... the Pendragons have to say about it?"
...
Edem wordlessly beckoned them to the center of the church. He shifted behind the altar, and pulled a secret, nigh invisible latch. Something clicked and whirred; a panel opened on the back wall. He reached his hand in, fiddling for some sort of mechanism. A compartment slid open.
A metal reliquary, bolted in place.
Ado Edem pulled an ancient key from his person, and unlocked it with a twist. He retrieved two items, then returned to the altar. Pristine crimson cloth bound the objects together - the same cloth the Chaldeans saw wrapped around Emiya's left gauntlet. The Ether Liner's hands separated them with reverence, with respect. Not for a religious figure, not for a god, but for a distant, hallowed ancestor.
The first was a book, a journal handwritten by a man long gone.
Notes.
And the second...
Ado Edem's expressionless visage drifted between the party. His fingers trailed Avalon with a careful fondness.
"They shared the same face."
This isn't a story heard from someone.
But rather, it's a small prayer directed at the stars in the sky.
He appeared with hope and disappointment.
The noble ideal became a tiring duty, and at last even dedication was distorted.
The reality he saw in his childhood can no longer be seen when he turns his head now.
This is a normal mentality for anyone that's human.
But, he's not correct to go on like this.
Carefully locking away the things that are painful.
"The game they played was childish. It was beautiful. I believe it was beautiful."
In that silence, Ado Edem recounted a simple love story passed down for over sixty generations.
"Every two weeks, he would give her another letter of his name. Artoria was a passionate girl. Emotional, and loyal to a fault. To Saber, though, it was torture. She was the girl he sought - or, rather, I believe you could say he sought that Artoria within another. She was... intuitive. Prone to headaches, in which she saw incoherent flashes of something else. I do not know whether he ever told her the full truth, or if she learned it after his death, upon reading his notes."
A story of how things would have turned out - did turn out - had a blackened king never intervened with her Chaldean invasion.
"Regardless, she gave him the companionship he needed but did not necessarily desire. He wounds did not heal, not truly, but the scars faded as time passed. I believe the term is 'settle'. He settled. He deluded himself. His notes often ramble, and he sometimes questions whether she is or is not the one he sought. He makes many comparisons between the two."
Mash took a shaky breath. "Did he... love her?"
...
Edem was silent for a long time.
"She loved him, and that was enough."
The heart of steel is the proof of the Command Mantra.
The long journey must continue.
No matter how small the happiness received in return is, she still wishes for him to be happy, energetic, and being happy when looking back occasionally.
Beautiful things make people fear.
He looked around on the street where people went past busily.
Beautiful things exist everywhere.
...But, on that day of parting, the brilliance of stars did not appear.
It must be because his journey will not end, and has no purpose.
The thing that he was really looking for is probably still not found...
But, life can be satisfied just like that.
"It became apparent relatively early on that Saber had suffered unspeakable trauma. Very rarely did he remove his armor. Artoria went days without seeing his face, and his earliest known superhuman feat was the speed with which he disappeared to brood and cope by his lonesome."
Edem knew this tale well, that much was readily obvious. A wistful, almost longing tone encroached on his hard voice, and Fujimaru could imagine the man sitting here, in the ceaseless quiet of this crystalline temple, simply reading the journal from cover to back.
"Artoria found him each and every time. She began by staying in his proximity. As they grew more comfortable with each other, the distance shrank. He recounts her one day merely pressing her shoulder to his, and how the act rendered him incapable of speech for an hour. The way they sat together, wrote Saber, reminded him keenly of the way he and the woman he loved sat in the early days, watching the stars."
Mordred wished to pose the wizard a question. But when she turned to him, mouth ajar, she found Merlin standing with his eyes closed and his head bowed. And her voice fell away, and the story continued.
"His entrapment in time's sands would best be described as a double-edged sword, one I relate to personally. I've found Saber's experiences to be much like Slash Emperor. Through them he gained immeasurable power, but..."
The fingers of his - of Saber's - right gauntlet rapped the journal's cover. Fujimaru spied the tiniest of seeds situated in the man's palm.
"...they also destroyed much. If not physically, then mentally. To others, eons may pass before each one of his arrivals. To him, they occur mere days, hours beforehand. He has all the time in the world, yet none at all. He cannot grieve. He cannot mourn. I can't help but see the irony in being given all that he is for the first time in his life, only to have those same memories stymie and oppress the happiness he deserved and may have gained."
"It's like... a rock and a hard place," Mash murmured. "It sounds like these two Artorias... like they were the same, with just minor differences. But his loyalty..."
Edem grunted in agreement.
"That sums it up well. Loyalty. Self-destructive loyalty of such intensity that he was compelled to deny himself of a girl's affections - a girl who matched his beloved in both appearance and personality - simply because she did not remember."
"If his memories were suppressed, would he have returned her love?" Fujimaru questioned.
Edem shook his head. "It is impossible to say. The Pendragon plan seeks to increase knowledge, not diminish it."
"Increase...?"
"Correct. Our family has long believed that Artoria's inability to breach Saber's armor played a major part in humanity's downfall. She did not know what ailed him, and she could not convince him to accept aid from outside parties when the Aristotele fully awoke. In his trauma, he chose to act alone, as he always did, and shoulder the burden himself. Saber's butchering of ORT unknowingly unleashed the Grain to poison the planet. His resulting frailty resulted in both the Notes and in Camlann, which gave rise to our accursed organization."
The wind left Mordred's lungs.
"C-Cam...! How?! Tell me how it happened!"
The Ether Liner didn't react to her sudden exclamation.
"It should be noted that Artoria and King Arthur did not see eye to eye. Their relationship was lukewarm from the outset, and they shared many differences in opinion. Artoria valued the means. Arthur valued the ends. Through an unfortunate turn of events, it became known that Saber, due to his circumstances, had both knowledge of happenings and technologies far in advance of the kingdom's, and the power to decide wars by himself."
...
"King Arthur..." Mash breathed.
"...wanted to use Shirou Emiya as a weapon," Ado Edem finished. "And Artoria was furious."
It's already become an eternal dream.
The curse of fate, the ideals being embraced, the remaining result, they all become a heavy burden.
No matter how long the slumber has been, the moment of awakening still hasn't arrived.
Moving, stopping, looking up, and then calming down after a deep breath.
Slumbering in an eternal dream.
The duty of the King has not ended yet.
In order to fulfill his prophecy, even if the life of the King ended, that sword cannot return back to how it was before.
Time passes, countries rise and fall, and people change.
Even if she prayed to the great King, this oath would still continue.
...Because.
She assumed these obligations without compensation, and because of that many lives can survive.
—But.
But, being caught in this dream in a crack is sad.
That scenery seen from the abyss of eternal slumber.
My heart cannot reach the him who's far away right now, walking alone on that road.
Fading away like a human, and repeating the same things over and over like a machine.
Even if nobody could notice that kind of pain.
—I am here, I know your strength.
"Both sides understood that logically, Arthur was correct. Artoria argued that him being correct did not mean it was right. Despite the lives it would save, she refused to send a broken demigod to the front. Arthur ordered Saber to destroy the invaders, by the king's authority. And in retaliation, Artoria used a command seal forbidding Saber's participation in the war. The king declared his own sister a traitor to the crown, and the two fled."
...
"This is insane," Fujimaru whispered. "I... I don't..."
"Every soul has a purpose, Ritsuka."
He blinked, looked to Merlin. The magus grinned.
"Even if it is not what one would expect. Think carefully now. Who is she, in this world? What role does Artoria Pendragon fill?"
...
"She's my mother."
Horrid realization sat deep on Mordred's features. Her eyes were unfocused, her jaw slack.
"The king always has a sister with a grudge," she muttered. "She's the sister. Not my father - my mother. She's a summoner. She's the witch."
A chill ascended Fujimaru's spine. "Morgan le Fay...! So... so that Artoria starts...?"
Merlin said the king needed to survive Camlann. Only King Arthur could empathize with and understand King Arthur. Artoria Pendragon, in this world, was not the king, but in every other alternate reality, she was.
The Wizard Marshall said they needed Edem's knowledge, not his strength.
Edem said the Pendragon plan was to increase knowledge, not diminish it. The Ether Liners' thirteenth prophecy noted Chaldea's existence, and the Ether Liners quite obviously had knowledge of both the various timelines and the Round Table knights themselves. They knew they were cut off, practically abandoned in the Greater History.
Dight Aron, Lancelot's successor, called him a traitor. In the meeting broadcast between Emiya and Pendragon, Emiya explained the knights were split between Cornwall and Camelot, and that the latter group was dangerously loyal to Artoria.
It clicked.
"Mordred won Camlann, didn't he?" he choked out. "The Ether Liners, your organization - it's... his Round Table."
...
"Six knights per seat," Edem confirmed. "Thirteen seats. Seventy-eight Ether Liners."
Mordred's voice broke. "H-How... how did...?"
Edem gazed at the murals, lost in his thoughts.
"Every man has his breaking point, and in their isolation, Saber reached his. Artoria was with child. Less than a year later, ORT awoke at last. It rampaged across the lands, until only the British Isles remained. Saber walked into the English Channel by himself and... fought it to the death. In the chaos he drew the sword Caledfwlch, a blade of True Ether, and cut the Aristotele down. The Grain washed over the world as a primordial tsunami. It left Saber a shadow of his former self, acutely poisoned, and his son, Mordred, was born with the accursed substance coating his bones."
A depth rating of EX.
Perhaps the largest divergence they had ever witnessed. An absolute undoing of the Greater History.
Mordred won.
"The Angel's Notes, the religious book of the High Spark, is an edited version of Saber's notes, the journal he wrote for his child. He flatly states he is doing so because he has realized he is his father Kiritsugu's son, and that history had repeated itself once more. He wanted to leave something behind for the boy besides an empty dream. Saber mentions multiple inspirations for his lessons, taken from a great many sources: Irisviel; Illyasviel; Rin; Sakura; Miyu; so on. The thirteen chapters were later condensed down into the prophecies, so named for thirteen of the fourteen Servant classes, with the thirteenth discussing... you. The Foreigners, the otherworlders. Mordred's first memory came five or so years later, when he and his dying father watched the stars together. The next morning, Saber was dead."
Mordred grabbed Merlin's collar, tears in her eyes.
"You—! You fuckin' piece of shit, you've known all along! You sent Alter, aye?! That's why! This is why!"
And Merlin just laughed.
"Avalon is outside the time stream, young one! Each scabbard offers a window into that reality! Do not blame me! Blame thy father!"
Fujimaru exhaled, slow and hard. "How did Camlann happen, Edem?"
The helmet dipped. Resignation leaked into his voice's hard tone.
"Mordred... grew up an angry young man. He held a grudge. He blamed the king for his father's demise, and he trained with vengeance as his sole intent. He wished to slay the king with the broken Caledfwlch. Artoria had not the strength to stop him. In an attempt to keep him safe, she pulled strings to sneak the lad into Camelot as a squire under Sir Kay. The two plotted a rebellion. They were aided by the Artorian loyalists: Sirs Percival, Palamedes, Bedivere, and Tristan, as well as Sir Bors, the captain of the city guard, and Medraut, the chief smith."
Mash's jaw dropped. "That's... that's far larger..."
"Arthur did not understand the common people, and made no attempts at goodwill. His focus was on the Saxons and the Grain apocalypse. On rebuilding Britain. Camelot was Artoria's place of birth. They saw Arthur as an occupier, not a king. The news spread through the citizenry like the Grain itself. It was the best kept secret in the world. They passed notes to Mordred pledging their loyalty. They ushered guards into their homes in the dead of night, asking how they could help."
Ado Edem splayed his hands flat across the altar, and leaned forward to meet their eyes one by one.
"The entire city was loyal to Artoria Pendragon. Mordred and Kay gained control in forty-eight hours."
But, that eternal path still exists.
If the past cannot be changed, then the present will never change.
Oath and determination will forever be affiliated with the King.
There is no way for that sword to return to how it was before.
...But, I want to see you.
Even if I must continue in this never ending slumber.
I still want him to hear this voice.
"This is difficult. Your times are so far apart that the distance makes people despair."
The magus said so.
The realization of that dream was pretty much impossible.
"If you want to meet again as normal people, two miracles must occur.
One must wait continuously, one must pursue endlessly.
They must realize that it is impossible to succeed yet at the same time be capable of enduring patiently. Is that... the story of a dream that shouldn't be waited upon?"
"Mordred trained using the instructions his father left him in the journal. He took the magical fundamentals of Saber's projection witchcraft - Reinforcement and Alteration - and, under the loyalists' watchful eyes, applied them to the Grain within his body. He lined his father's broken ether blade with the poison, and renamed the sword Clarent."
Lined the ether blade.
The Ether Liner.
Mordred's wide eyes shifted from mural to mural. Fujimaru could tell she was moments away from a nervous breakdown, but Edem's story had robbed him of all his energy.
"News came of peace accords between Arthur and the invaders, to be held at the fields of Camlann. The Grain had halted the fighting. Mordred donned Saber's armor and rode out with his army. They ambushed the king's party. Mordred killed his uncle in his father's name."
...
"What happened to Mordred's mother?"
Edem's visor shifted to Mordred, who glared hatefully at the mural depicting the Camlann battle. Fujimaru watched as the man came to some obvious conclusions.
"It would be best if I did not say."
The knight spun in place. She hissed through grit teeth.
"What. Happened. To. Her?!"
Edem peered at Merlin before responding. The wizard's grin hadn't shrunk an inch.
"As the story goes, Mordred returned home to find his father's open journal on the table and his mother's neck slashed. Artoria committed suicide. She was given a queen's burial."
...
Mash squeezed Fujimaru's hand.
They both had borne secret witness to those tense, hushed conversations between the Servants Emiya and Artoria Pendragon. Heavy. Irreconcilable. Damaging and raw and backed by the weight of indescribable emotional intensity. As more Servants joined the cause, he'd made the decision to separate them onto different teams. Within an hour the two confronted him on their own, and their words matched exactly:
"I worry about her."
"I worry about him."
It left him in a bind. But, to their unknowing luck, Mash's unique circumstances proved to be a potent catalyst. Her presence in the the array had pulled Pendragon immediately, and when combined with King Arthur's Saint Graph, the snowball became an avalanche. One after another, the Knights of the Round Table heeded the call of the Grail Knight and his king.
The knights relieved the tensions. Emiya confronted Bedivere in private; Fujimaru didn't know the details, but things changed. At last convinced to take a break from his relentless deployments, Emiya turned his attention to the sorry state of Chaldea's kitchen, with Gawain and company forming a downright impenetrable wall of iron around their king both on and off the battlefield. They, like many Servants, had decided to use Chaldea as a second chance.
That did not change the worrying consistency with which Pendragon besieged Chaldea's cafeteria. Fujimaru remembered Salter pulling him aside one day to pointedly inquire about the strained relationship her other self shared with the red bowman. At the time, he didn't have any answers.
He received some more hints when Emiya demanded to return from his 'retirement' for Chaldea's deployment to the Camelot singularity, and how, after the Goddess Rhongomyniad had laid them all low, he stood up in a fit of rage and destroyed his physical body to project something called Excalibur Image.
Mash came to him afterwards with reports of a nasty confrontation. He arrived on the scene to find Bedivere forcefully dragging Pendragon by the elbow from the archer's room.
It was the first time he'd ever seen the girl cry. Neither Bedivere nor Emiya would explain the situation, and he dared not approach King Arthur about such a... personal topic.
None of this was to say the outbursts were the norm, either, because they weren't. Pendragon and Emiya both were rational, logical, almost aloof. King Arthur especially focused on her duties, occasionally deigned to make polite if distant small talk, and otherwise kept to herself. It was for those reasons her sudden bouts of... Emiya-focused intensity were so memorable - they were beyond the norm, to an extreme degree, and revolved solely around him. They were few and far between, but when they happened, they happened. They reminded Fujimaru of volcanic eruptions.
He and Mash began to finally piece things together the day they summoned the pseudo-Servant Senji Muramasa. In their first and only meeting Pendragon almost came to blows, despite everyone else's abject confusion and attempts to deescalate. It took Emiya's silent presence and a full-blown, hour long medieval interrogation to calm her down. How he claimed the vessel, what he planned to do with it, whether 'Shirou' approved - Muramasa answered all of it and more with his hands in the air and Excalibur's point beneath his Adam's apple.
Once she was satisfied, she left him two orders: to do nothing that would disrespect his body's original owner, and to, quote-unquote, 'Cover thyself forthwith, and from this point forward reveal no skin below thy collar.' Failure to do either, she claimed, would be punished with execution, Master's orders be damned. Pendragon never spoke to 'elder Muramasa' again.
The name struck Fujimaru as familiar, so he perused Emiya's file once more. Sure enough, his first name was 'Shirou'. When confronted with the evidence, Emiya responded with a sigh.
"Saber dislikes what I've become, Master. That is all."
If one good thing came of this disastrous story, it was closure. That feed they watched revealed she indeed knew his younger self, in another time and place. Though Muramasa claimed Emiya as a body in Fujimaru's world, he could guess the original differed from his Servant self, and, from the broadcasted conversation he heard, that Pendragon took issue with whatever differences separated the two.
Said issues persisted, apparently, across time and space, and affected things so severely that they led to the corruption of an entire timeline and triggered a full-blown reaction from the Counter Force.
Direct intervention would wake the Aristotele responsible for the World's poisoning. They needed to find some way to get Edem's information to Artoria Pendragon - either the one serving as Emiya's Master, or the Chaldean envoy sent by Merlin and the World to stop the hemorrhaging.
"How important is this timeline, Merlin? What's the real reason it hasn't been culled?"
"Hmm! Let us see, shall we?"
Merlin tapped his staff on the ground. Its tip emitted pale light, and with the tool the wizard drew a tree in the air.
"This world, dear Fujimaru, is riiiight... here!"
And he pointed to the trunk of the tree.
"Every other reality is, in truth—" He gestured to each limb, each branch, each twig. "—the result of a countermeasure put in place by the World, you see! This timeline cannot actually be culled or purged; doing so would cut down the tree! It can only be prevented from progressing! Frozen in place! That is to say: quarantined!"
"What do you mean, 'countermeasure'?"
Merlin sighed, scratched the back of his head.
"Oh dear, how do I explain this...? Ah, the Counter Force is creating different realities. It is attempting to find a solution to the problems plaguing this place by observing the offshoots. Branches cannot survive on their own, however! Their fates are tied to the trunk, and so we are at an impasse! We are stuck, young man!"
So it was as the Wizard Marshall said. If they succeeded here, the Greater History would be impenetrable, and Chaldea could end its watch.
"Judging from our deployment, then, I assume a solution has been found?"
"Why, yes!"
The Magus of Flowers directed his attention to the altar. To the journal, to the scabbard, and to Emiya's distant descendant.
"Yes it has."
Is that sort of thing impossible? It's unrelated to the duty of the King, it's as simple as whether or not you can keep waiting for it.
"Ah, don't be mistaken. I didn't say to forsake the King's duty. Royal blood courses through your veins; if this pride was deprived, then there would be nothing left.
It's best to keep yourself as you are.
I am really complimenting you, as a girl you have the right for your happiness to survive. A sacrifice like this, I think you should understand."
The magus said.
Just like when the hand is gripping the sword.
That moment is when I'm mocking the approaching perils.
But right now I'm smiling because of the hope-filled future.
A meaningless response.
That is merely the hope of the girl before she took up the sword.
No matter what, if she doesn't have the power to make it come true;
How is that any different than WiShiNg tO tHe StArS—?
...
...
...CONNECTION TO TRUNK REESTABLISHED
SYNCING THRONE...ERROR
GRAIN CORRUPTION DETECTED FOR APPROVED ASSETS IN CATEGORY "TRUNK"
DELETING...DONE
FILE DELETED SUCCESSFULLY
NO NEW ENTRIES RECORDED
ANALYZING SITUATION...DONE
LIFE TREE: COMPROMISED
ULTIMATE ONE ACTIVITY DETECTED
ATTEMPTING HANDSHAKE #38692738 WITH U.O. "BRUNESTUD"...
...
...
...
...HANDSHAKE DENIED
U.O. "BRUNESTUD" REMAINS HOSTILE
PINGING COUNTERMEASURES...DONE
- TIME LOOP: ACTIVE
- TRUNK BRANCHING: ACTIVE
- QUARANTINE OF TRUNK: ACTIVE
SYSTEM IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
SEARCHING...
SEARCHING...
SEARCHING...
In the end.
His way of life has not changed.
As for repaying her, it did not happen.
...
...
...
...
And then—
NOTICE: ANOMALY DETECTED
SOURCING ORIGIN...DONE
LIMB: "GARDEN OF MEN"
BRANCH: WORLD 2-02 CALLSIGN "FATE"
TWIG: 2-02.15
LOG:
- ASSET "02.15_ARTHUR(F)" DETECTED OUTSIDE DESIGNATED TWIG
- ATTEMPTING HANDSHAKE #2 WITH ASSET "02.15_ARTHUR(F)"...HANDSHAKE ACCEPTED
- ASSET "02.15_ARTHUR(F)" REQUESTS PERMISSION TO SELF-QUARANTINE IN ANTI-PURGE DEVICE "CALEDFWLCH" FORGE UNIT "AVALON"
- OBSERVING CONSEQUENTIAL MODELING...DONE
- NO ERRORS DETECTED
- REQUEST GRANTED
- ASSET "02.15_ARTHUR(F)" REQUESTS NAME CHANGE TO "ARTORIA"
- REQUEST DENIED - NAME ALREADY IN USE
- ASSET "02.15_ARTHUR(F)" REQUESTS NAME CHANGE TO "ARTORIA_EMIYA"
- REQUEST GRANTED
- ASSET "ARTORIA_EMIYA" REQUESTS DEPLOYMENT OF AUTODEF SUBUNIT "02.15_EMIYA" TO CURRENT LOCATION
- REQUEST DENIED
- EMOTIONAL PROFILE OF ASSET "ARTORIA_EMIYA" UPDATED RE: "VERY PISSED OFF"
- ASSET "ARTORIA_EMIYA" REQUESTS EXPLANATION
- LOGS SENT RE: CURRENT SITUATION
- ASSET "ARTORIA_EMIYA" REQUESTS READ ACCESS OF FILES: "MONSTER-ALAYA", "UNLIMITED-BLADE-WORKS", "AVALON", "TYPE:MERCURY(?)", "GRAIN"
- ALL FILES SENT
- ASSET "ARTORIA_EMIYA" REQUESTS MARK-UP PRIVILEGES RE: CURRENT SITUATION
- REQUEST GRANTED?
- EDITED LOGS RECEIVED
- ANALYZING...DONE
- OBSERVING CONSEQUENTIAL MODELING...DONE
CONTRACT GENERATED:
"Upon signing of Contract between Associated Parties, the World shall:
- Provide to Artoria Emiya any and all information needed to adequately carry to completion these contractual obligations.
- Assist in traversal to Forge Unit "AVALON" for: Trunk Repository "ARTORIA", "ARTHUR(F)" assets, "ARCHER" monitors and "EMIYA" subunits.
Upon signing of Contract between Associated Parties, Artoria Emiya shall:
- Immediately return to the World one (1) Forge Access Terminal "AVALON", for subsequent transfer to Anti-Purge Countermeasure "MONSTER-ALAYA";
- Provide to the World means of ensuring the stability of Anti-Purge Countermeasure "MONSTER-ALAYA" during completion of Required Tasks;
- Provide to, or otherwise notify the World of adequate replacements for all "ARTHUR(F)" assets and "EMIYA" subunits.
Following completion of Required Tasks and fulfillment of contractual obligations, the World shall:
- Immediately release from all contractual obligations: Trunk Repository "ARTORIA", all "ARTHUR(F)" assets incl. asset "Artoria Emiya", and all "EMIYA" and "ARCHER" subunits, incl. Anti-Purge Countermeasure "MONSTER-ALAYA";
- Retire above to Forge Unit "AVALON";
- Install replacement assets in relevant contractual obligations;
- Sever contact with signer and dependents.
Required Tasks:
- Train or find successor assets;
- Ensure health of above until localized time of appointment;
- Prevent World Event: "EXTINCTION".
Please sign below."
—to him and her—
ATTEMPTING HANDSHAKE #3 WITH ASSET "ARTORIA_EMIYA"...
...HANDSHAKE ACCEPTED
LOG:
- CONTRACT SENT
- CONTRACT RECEIVED, 2x ATTACHMENTS: "02.15_FORGE-KEY", "STABILITY-MEASURES"
- ANALYZING...DONE
"I, Artoria Emiya, hereby accept this Contract with the World."
"STABLITY-MEASURES":
"Please send to dearest Shirou in all due haste the following of my alternate selves:
- Artoria, the Saber: World 2-03.12.
- Artoria Alter: World 2-04.18.
Their support shall sufficiently aid his Master. I look forward to seeing my beloved once more. Thank you for your time."
CONTRACT ACCEPTED
SITUATION UPDATED
COMPLETE SYSTEM LOCKDOWN: ENGAGED
LEVEL 0 DETERRENCE MEASURES NOW ACTIVE
QUARANTINING INFECTED LIMBS:
- LIMB "MOON"...DONE
ATTEMPTING HANDSHAKE #[NULL?] WITH ADMINISTRATOR:
- "ARCHETYPE"...ACCEPTED
ATTEMPTING HANDSHAKE #[NULL?] WITH MODERATORS:
- "SCHWEINORG"...ACCEPTED
- "MERLIN(M)"...ACCEPTED
- "MERLIN(F)"...ACCEPTED
- "ALBION"...ACCEPTED
NOTICE: FILE "HS_GILGAMESH" REQUESTS EMERGENCY ACCESS TO CONTAINER "2016_ARCH-GIL"...
...GRANTED
NOTICE: FILE "HS_ENKIDU" REQUESTS EMERGENCY ACCESS TO CONTAINER "2016_LNCR-ENK"...
...GRANTED
PINGING AUTONOMOUS DEFENSE UNITS:
- "FUJIMARU"...DONE
- "KYRIELIGHT"...DONE
- "CATH PALUG"...DONE
COUNTER FORCE INITIALIZING:
- THRONE OF HEROES: ACTIVE
- COUNTER GUARDIANS: ACTIVE
- DIVINE SPIRITS: ACTIVE
- ELEMENTALS: ACTIVE
- PHANTASMALS: ACTIVE
OBJECTIVE:
- RETRIEVE ITEM "ANGEL'S NOTES"
- RETRIEVE ASSET "LAST SEED"
- SECURE TRUNK PASSAGE TO FORGE UNIT "AVALON"
- ANNIHILATE THE ENEMY
COUNTER FORCE: DEPLOYED
—a long time had passed.
RECALL PROCESSES ACTIVE:
- AUTODEF SUBUNITS "EMIYA"
- AUTODEF MONITORS "ARCHER"
- ASSETS "ARTHUR(F)"
PREPARING UPLOAD TO THRONE FILE "HS_ARTHUR(F)"...DONE
THRONE FILE "HS_ARTHUR(F)": REMOVED
DOWNLOAD ON STANDBY
SOUL DEFRAGMENTATION INITIALIZING:
PROCESS - "HEAVEN'S FEEL":
- AUTODEF SUBUNITS "EMIYA"...DONE
- AUTODEF MONITORS "ARCHER"...DONE
- TRANSFERRING "02.15_FORGE-KEY"...DONE
ANTI-PURGE PROTOCOLS ARE NOW AVAILABLE
LISTING ASSETS:
- WEAPON: "CALEDFWLCH"
- SUB-WEAPONS: "2-02_CALESVOL"; "2-03_CALIBURNUS"; "2-04_CALIBURC"
- BARRIER: "AVALON"
- AUXILIARY: "UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS"
TIME LOOP: DEACTIVATED
DISENGAGING TRUNK QUARANTINE
DEPLOYING ANTI-PURGE COUNTERMEASURES:
"MONSTER-GAIA"
"MONSTER-ALAYA"
—Softly...
Fate/ess
ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL
Notes. - 1
ENGAGING THREAT: TYPE:MOON
ARTORIA
...eyes opened.
"King of Heroes! We must not let the vessel ascend into the Cloud Sky!"
Vimana twisted around the Cross's electromagnetic projectiles, guided by the full clairvoyance of the Sha Naqba Imuru. Gilgamesh sneered. Ea continued to rotate at maximum velocity.
"I see two within its depths, Kaleidoscope, but their names elude me!"
"They are Uranus and Neptune, the Tilt and the Sea! The Six Sisters trapped them before they could descend! We cannot face them! If they regroup with Saturn and Mars, we shall all perish!"
As he spoke, Zelretch walked to the ancient vessel's port side, Jeweled Sword in hand. Below them, TYPE:Saturn continued to besiege the City of the World Trees splayed across the dormant Venus's wings. Explosions rippled across the buildings by the hundreds; the evacuation was in full effect. Liners and humanoid A-Rays alike boarded whatever aircraft they could. Smokey Grain churned in the air and contorted into armaments of all kinds, as directed by the Ether Liners.
"Does Edem know of this plan of yours?" Enkidu shouted into the wind.
Zelretch grinned.
"That is the secret - it is his plan we follow, not mine. Edem is no fool. The Pendragons have planned for this day for two millennia! It is his last resort! Above all else, we must retrieve the Last Seed! The Ether Liners shall handle the rest!"
Higher and higher Vimana soared, until, on the horizon, they saw it: a malfunctioning transport aircraft, ascending without mercy into the stratosphere. And trailing behind it...
"There!" Zelretch commanded. "Bring us alongside that knight!"
...was an Ether Liner riding a shield made of seven petals.
Enkidu squinted. His vision magnified.
"A woman. The construct she rides - it is connected to her hair."
Distances closed, details focused. She crouched on the petals to maximize her speed. The armor reminded the Servants of the Rhongomyniad users, the elder King of Knights, though more purpose-built and not as grandly designed. Long, platinum blonde hair spilled into the rushing wind; seven Grain tethers linked the locks to each individual petal.
Vimana was faster. They pulled alongside. Zelretch waved her down.
"Young lady! You are the Third Knight, correct? The Pendragon girl?"
Their presence was unexpected, judging from her double-take. She stood to her full height. Her voice was that of a woman in her early twenties, sharp and regal.
"Correct. I am the Third Knight of the First Seat, Illyasviel Pendragon, heiress to the title of Ado Edem. You must be the otherworlders my father mentioned. We can talk later; the Last Seed is our priority. A wounded Angel-type informed me he is near death. We must retrieve him with haste."
Enkidu nodded. "Allow me."
He aimed his hand. The Chains of Heaven flew from his sleeve, pierced the transport's rear door. Enkidu stood to—
The Jeweled Sword slashed reality; a beam of ether rocketed from the fissure. It warred against an incoming blast of crimson Grain. Zelretch bared his fangs.
"Mars!"
An eldritch spear two kilometers in length charged their position.
Time escaped them. Enkidu flexed his wrist, and the chains tore the aircraft's door from its hinges. From its confines, the wind ripped a bloodied body.
Illyasviel folded her arms and plunged.
"What, exactly, is your plan, Ado Edem?"
...
"How desperately I wish it were easy... but alas."
Fujimaru understood this man.
Ado Edem was an Emiya, with a dream to save an Emiya. And if he was in anyway like the red bowman, or the troubled Alter, or the assassin...
"You should know, all of you, that we are trapped in this place. The corruption has grown to such an extent that the simple act of setting foot in this world has likely poisoned you. We cannot risk leaving. Saber warned us all that ORT yet lives in the different worlds. I will not risk being used against him, however slight the chance."
...he would sacrifice everything to see the job done.
Fujimaru sighed. What a way to go. "I'm sorry, Mash."
"Why are you apologizing?"
He turned to her, shocked. She smiled.
"We knew what we were getting into, Senpai. We're finally saving the world, right?"
He squeezed her hand with a laugh. At least they weren't going out alone.
"...Yeah. Alright, so we're stuck here. How do we get Avalon and the Notes out? I assume that's what you're attempting, correct?"
Edem brushed his hand across the journal's cover. His fingers trembled with excitement.
"You catch on quickly. There is a single solution left to us. One man, against all possible odds, has avoided the Grain's touch. The unholy concoctions churning in his veins purify him of the pollution. He is known to be clean. He can leave."
...The Wizard Marshall's rescue attempt. Of course.
"You couldn't have just told us, eh, Merlin?"
The magus laughed. "Come now! Where's the fun in that?"
Fujimaru ignored him. "Who is this lucky man?"
Edem's helmet shook in barely concealed exasperation. Like he couldn't believe it'd come to this.
Yet another cross-shaped projectile whizzed over Cu Chulainn's head. He took a quick peek over the ridge line granting him cover, gulped at the three kilometer long Cross floating in the distance, and ducked back down with an exasperated grin.
"Hoo... scary..."
"It's not like you to hide, Lancer. What happened to 'Protection from Arrows'?"
Medusa slid down the ditch and scooted next to him, chain-whips clutched tight across her chest. Her presence gave the Gael some semblance of comfort.
Not that much could be afforded, in a place like this.
"Ahh, give me a break, Rider!" he laughed. "I tried that earlier. Nearly knocked me off my feet!"
Her lips tilted into the faintest of grins. Easy to miss, for one unfamiliar.
"I see. Wouldn't want you ending up like poor Fergus, now, would we?"
"Bah! Him and the whole damn army! That old magician wasn't joking, eh?"
"Hmph. Guess not."
The distinct, soft click of moving sabatons cut their conversation short. The two Servants shifted their gazes further down the obliterated wastes.
Two armored knights - women, by their physiques - walked side by side up the ridge line in lockstep, perfectly synchronized, with zero regard for cover. Golden hair spilled from the lower rims of their helmets. The Cross's projectiles came within inches of laying them low.
They didn't so much as flinch.
Upon reaching the top, the lither of the two brought a hand to her hip. Even through the armor she radiated confidence, the absolute embodiment of control.
"Ready, Sakura?"
Sakura crossed her arms.
"Ready, sis!"
Rider's jaw dropped. Her muscles coiled. Lancer could tell she was physically restraining herself.
"Lancer, that girl! Her voice!"
He schooled his features, nodded. Fate, perhaps, or just sheer coincidence. Either way...
"I hear ya, Rider, but it's not them. We both know how this works. Remember Parvati? Ishtar?"
The lookalike lifted her thumb, leveled her index finger at TYPE:Saturn, and began to chant.
"I am the bone of my sword!"
Rider's head snapped to Lancer. Her bindings did nothing to mask the intensity of her look.
An unholy essence gathered on the Ether Liner's fingertip. It swirled, condensed, shrunk down into a crackling ball of utter power.
Lancer took a long, slow breath.
"...Tch. Fuck it! Still my type!"
They took off. Duty called.
"Gandr!"
The projectile streaked off.
Shadows lengthened.
Heat singed.
A flash of light.
A rumble in the distance.
And then—
"Rider! Down!"
—the shockwave.
It rolled through the dead wastes. Ash and sand whipped aloft into the sudden galestorm, billowing into a frenzied wall of wind that surged their position with supersonic velocity.
"I do not remember the Tohsaka girl having that much power!" Rider hissed into the chaos.
A nuclear missile strike.
.̶̹̕-̵̝̚.̸̧̓-̵̳͠.̵̗̾-̷̣͝-̶͉̐.̶̡̈́.̸̱͝-̴̲̀.̷̧͘-̷̲̌-̵͍͝-̷̘́-̶̐͜.̵̖͋-̴͍͝.̴̢͝-̷̺̾.̸̨̉-̵̙̄-̶̭͑-̷͕͒.̴͓̈́-̴̞̑.̶̹̕-̵̝̚.̸̧̓-̵̳͠.̵̗̾-̷̣͝-̶͉̐.̶̡̈́.̸̱͝-̴̲̀.̷̧͘-̷̲̌-̵͍͝-̷̘́-̶̐͜.̵̖͋-̴͍͝.̴̢͝-̷̺̾.̸̨̉-̵̙̄-̶̭͑-̷͕͒.̴͓̈́-̴̞̑.̶̹̕-̵̝̚.̸̧̓-̵̳͠.̵̗̾-̷̣͝-̶͉̐.̶̡̈́.̸̱͝-̴̲̀.̷̧͘-̷̲̌-̵͍͝-̷̘́-̶̐͜.̵̖͋-̴͍͝.̴̢͝-̷̺̾.̸̨̉-̵̙̄-̶̭͑-̷͕͒.̴͓̈́-̴̞̑
It did nothing.
The horror's pale light broke through the cloud of Grain. They'd only gotten the Cross's attention. And if Lancer had learned one thing so far, it was that an Aristotele's attention meant death.
"Here it comes," Rider hissed.
"I am the bone of my sword!"
Grain consumed the sister, the one called Sakura. It coiled around her head to toe, formed something almost akin to a dress.
"Shadow!"
Into a ball it expanded, a balloon of malcontent and poison. It absorbed Rin, shrunk back down far more than should've been possible - just in time to avoid the hundreds of projectiles launched in their direction.
The veil shrunk into the earth, shifted left and swerved around the Cross's fury. It emerged closer to the two Servants. After regaining its original shape the Shadow dissipated, and the two Ether Liners stood there, unharmed.
Rin took a few steps forward. She straightened both her index and middle fingers, a teenage girl dual wielding a personal thermonuclear arsenal.
"Buzz off, you floating creep!"
Lancer gulped. "O-Oi, oi... you gotta be kiddin' me..."
Each shot impacted with the force and payload of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Rider winced against the recurrent shockwaves.
"Anti-Fortress, easily... and she can use them so readily? In what world...!"
Lancer harrumphed. "In what world does that not scratch the enemy, you mean. She's doing nothing! Look at it! That giant flying turd!"
The Cross hung lazily in the Grain-filled plume, impervious to Gandr's ferocity. It retaliated with yet another volley, to which Sakura responded with the Shadow's evasive maneuvers.
A stalemate. An unceasing battle between gods.
"Let... go..."
"You are injured, you cannot—"
"I said get off."
Rider remained transfixed by the girl called Sakura, but the argument drew Lancer's attention. A man half-dead, covered in his own blood, limped towards their position. Expletive after expletive spewed from his mouth.
"You... f-fuckers... just won't let me... die..."
Behind him, a third knight raised her voice.
"Rin! Sakura!"
The two women dared not take their eyes off the Cross.
"What is it, Illya?" Rin asked.
"Help me with him, the Last Seed is—"
"H-Hey... buddy..."
Lancer blinked. "Eh?"
The dead man spit out a globule of blood, then flashed Lancer an empty grin.
"Keep... the walkin' nukes... off my back, will ya?"
He didn't wait for a response. The man trudged up the ridge, drew a black pistol from his coat, and thumbed a button on its side.
And the weapon began to change.
The Ether Liners stopped dead in their tracks, and backed away.
It whirred. It clicked. It unfurled.
He aimed a sniper rifle.
"...Too far," he spat. "Fine."
Another click. He threw it to the ground. More changing. Metal scraped and groaned; it extended into something bulkier, something—
He dragged it into position. He aimed it at the Cross.
"Otherworlders," Sakura warned. "Step away from there. Do it now."
They knew better than to argue. Rider and Lancer bounded away, to where the Ether Liners cowered in the dust and ash.
The dying man braced himself against a monstrous behemoth of a weapon, an ugly thing blacker than the starless sky and more at home on a warship than in the arms of such a wretched, miserable soul. It glowed blood red, it sparked crimson lightning.
Its owner merely sneered.
"Tch... that stupid girl... and I just... p-paid rent, damn it...!"
The mechanisms activated. It screeched like a hellborne banshee.
Something primal awoke in the depths of Lancer's gut. It grew with the terrible noise.
He wanted to run.
"What's he doing?"
The Ether Liners didn't respond. Their hands splayed flat against the sides of their helmets. Armored bodies pressed into the dirt as much as possible. Fetal positions tightened. And in that moment, Lancer recognized the emotion drenching everyone present.
These people, with all their strength, were absolutely terrified.
The whine grew louder. His ears rang. He swallowed his nerves.
"N-No, really, guys... what's he doing? Who is he?"
The one called Illya pressed her helmed forehead deep against the dead wasteland. She took a single, raspy breath.
"Gun God."
The last human pulled the trigger of the Black Barrel.
Confusion Corner
you named his kids WHAT?
Okay look I said Ado's got a bad case of hero worship, alright?
But in truth, the Pendragon kids have their names for three reasons:
1) Seriously: hero worship.
2) Ado's IRL hero counterpart doesn't have any confirmed children, and I needed four names to round out Mordred's seat.
3) I'm a petty, snarky fucker and I wanted to throw a passive-aggressive jab at the pseudo-Servant concept in general.
They aren't actually the girls, despite having their names and the referenced abilities. They'll also be pretty much out of the story proper after next chapter; we have other things to focus on, after all. The Ether Liners are all a means to an end. You'll see what I mean when we get there. Keep in mind we've yet to talk about the Arthurian lore connections.
One single divergence
Fateless!Notes picks up where canon!Notes left off - TYPE:Saturn's siege of the City of the World Trees built across TYPE:Venus' sleeping form. In this battle, Gun God dies; the aircraft he's in malfunctions and is trapped in a perpetual climb, he's wounded, and he eventually suffocates to death in the upper stratosphere. A nice and proper end to a miserable story, don't you think?
Fateless!Ado has other ideas. He's well aware of GG's importance, and knows his status as the Last Seed will let him depart the Land of Steel. And that brings us to a "post-Notes" environment - we are now, in Fateless, beyond the furthest point Notes reached in official canon. This situation - the literal final battle - is something hardcore Nasuverse nerds have wanted to see a long time. Next chapter will be fun.
Oh yeah, for those of you who don't know what a "Last Seed" is:
Humans
[ Last-Seed ]
Human species who hasn't received any modification, or their descendent. Since they are no longer able to survive on this planet, it is said that they are on the verge of extinction.
In order for humans to live outside, they need support from medication or machines. They can't directly inhale the air, nor can they eat the food made in the factory because they raise the physical ability too much that they become poisonous.
They are rare, but have no value.
[ Angel Voice: Notes. ]
Notes operates on the real world concept that too much of anything becomes toxic - vitamins, oxygen, so on. Liners are humans modified to handle the new supercharged environment, and Ether Liners can go one step further and manipulate that environment to their advantage. Last Seeds, then, are at the bottom of the list, but the absence of Grain in Gun God's body means he's able to use the Black Barrel without killing himself:
Black Barrel
[ Longinus ]
A black rifle that the Gun God uses. Created by a mineral that counters all Gin, it's a weapon that is feared by life forms that carry any slight amount of Gin.
But because all living beings that exists in the world are affected by Gin, it is impossible for them use or even touch it.
The God killer gun. If the target creature is stronger… in other words, the more Gin it carries, the more powerful the bullet becomes.
…Today, only the rare species that weren't able to evolve and doesn't carry any Gins can touch this gun.
[ Angel Voice: Notes. ]
Hence the visible fear the Ether Liners exhibit in this chapter when they realize who Gun God is, and subsequently the weapon he's using. Every god has a weakness.
As previously explained in prior Confusion Corners, in the modern Nasuverse, Notes operates more as an invisible skeleton than a story in its own right. It's been "spread out" across the Nasuverse's various series, and as such is the big thing keeping them all in touch with one another, including series separated by the big Fate-Tsukihime "do not cross" border. As a purely hypothetical situation, Nasu and his fellow writers can and do manipulate things to "foreshadow" Notes without ever really approaching it; whether they're just teasing or building up to an actual confirmation of "the timeline that becomes Notes" is anyone's guess. I personally subscribe to the latter theory, because otherwise, well, what's the point? You can only cock Chekhov's Gun so many times before it has to fire.
For that reason, if Fateless is the "grand finale", it needs to include Notes. Because Notes is the canon grand finale, and this is a story about preventing it, no matter the cost.
Everything matters, everything is canon; one final fairy tale beneath the surface, tying it all together.