Extella/Grand Order

Chapter 5: The Beast Within

Road to the Einzbern Manor

It was a quiet walk as Zelretch calmly strode through the woods that lead up to the manor where one Illyasviel von Einzbern would have once waited out the Grail War with her Servant, the Berserker known as Heracles. There were no insects chirping, no rustling of leaves or even a stray burst of dry wind. It felt as if time itself had stopped in this patch of land and only the crunches of his shoes on the dirt, twigs and leaves being the indication that this was not the case.

He had gone alone because he knew that Hakuno, Olga and Mash would need to have any and all obstacles in their way gone when they went to fight Saber. Otherwise, she would just sic Berserker on them and kill all of them in the crossfire. It was a cruel tactic, but a very valid one that would happen. They last thing any of them needed was to be on their last legs while going up against a relatively fresh Servant.

Caster would have to stay behind and deal with Archer. They had history and they would always clash at least two to three separate times before one of them died for one reason or another. Even in the vast and almost infinite universes he had peeked into, this tended to be a constant no matter the type of conflict that they arose into.

So all that was left was him, who was probably the most well suited to hold such a beast off due to his powers as a Dead Apostle Ancestor. He hated that term, alongside the fact that he was one of them due to a stupid mistake he made fighting the Crimson Moon. Yet he still had their superior regeneration, sense of smell, strength and speed. It was why even though he could not see Berserker, yet, he knew that the creature was watching him nearby as he exited the forest proper and looked up at the small mansion which belonged to a family of Homonculi and Humans.

It was in a sad state of being compared to its normal pristine image that it normally presented itself in. Despite the raging inferno going on all around them, part of the Einzbern mansion had been frozen solid into what seemed to be either crystals or ice…or crystals made OF ice. People would do anything, after all, in the name of self-defense. Though considering that the typical defense of the mainline homunculi was their string creation magic and how they could make animals or traps out of them, this was highly unusual.

His steps began to audibly crunch underneath him as he stepped into what was quickly becoming sub-zero temperatures. Thanks to his technical undead status, however, such things rarely bothered him unless he was standing in the middle of a lava filled active volcano. A gentle push of the imposing front doors of the mansion had it tumbling forward and shattering into tiny pieces, almost as if it had been made of fragile glass rather than some of the toughest human and magically enhanced steel in the world.

Continuing on, he found himself in the main foyer area and in the middle, just as the other places, was a little orb of distorted space into which he reached and pulled into himself while letting the memory inside play around him.

Inside the memory

Illysaviel von Einzbern was a bored little Homonculi. Though 'little' was technically inaccurate when it came to her chronological age, her physical age made the term more appropriate. She looked no older than a typical eight to ten year old girl that would be seen at an elementary school even though she had enough knowledge packed into her that she could probably sit comfortably in a German college without much effort.

Her two maids assigned to her, Leysritt and Stella had died days ago to the King of Heroes, sacrificing themselves to allow Berserker and her time to escape a battlefield between them and Saber which he interrupted because he did not want them to 'sully' his 'bride'. Illya was so close to defeating the faker who called himself her father's son as well. Considering that he was already stupid enough to almost die once to Berserker's sword protecting his own servant; 'Who even does that?' She thought to herself; it would not have been hard to repeat this a second time.

Now she was biding her time, waiting for another battle to go underway that her and Berserker could crash into and wipe everyone out at once. Heracles was a Servant among Servants, for sure and as a Berserker class his skill and durability could not be questioned. Yet he was still severely weakened by Gilgamesh and lost half of his twelve lives to him in as many seconds as it took her to simply breathe air.

Now she was left almost alone with nobody to talk to since Berserker's Madness Enhancement left him incapable of doing so and her maids were all but gone. She just walked across the Mansion when she noticed something odd standing in the middle of the entrance.

It was a literal Polar Bear. The kind that was only seen in the documentaries with white fur and everything. It had on a little scarf around its neck and was snoozing comfortably like it had been there all its life.

"Kawaii…." She muttered, the Japanese term for cute subconsciously coming out of her lips as she looked at it. While normally approaching a wild animal was considered a bad idea, she sensed no malicious intent from it. Instead, the bear lifted it head to look at her and then just seemingly plopped back down lazily.

"What should I call you?" she wondered as she walked circles around it. She poked its fur but nothing happened except the bear giving off a huff of air from its nostrils. Though seeing its pure white fur, a name was already coming up on her lips.

"Shirou…" she said, knowing that despite it being her 'brothers' name, it also meant 'white'.

"Shirou, that will be your name. Will you play with me Shirou?" she asked with a glint of excitement in her eyes. Oh the people she could scare silly if she made this her familiar and rode into the battlefield on top of this beauty of a creature.

The bear stared at her with intelligence in its eyes before nodding and placing its head down for her to touch.

She did and the moment her hand touched the crown of its head, knowledge and understanding flowed inside of her. Of what she was now supposed to do, to become. Being more than just a homunculus with a short life span. Being more than the Holy Grail. Yet…

"This is just temporary, I hope you know that." She said to seemingly no one before her and the bear vanished into thin air just as Berserker came charging through the door as the fires of hell seemingly were right behind it.

The winters of permafrost and flame met those fires and turned the mansion into a building of twisted beauty and pain to any that might come across it.

Einzbern Manor, Current

Zelretch hummed to himself as the memory faded, leaving him in the ruined entryway. "Psuedo-Servant Phenomenon, like Mashu. Sakura Matou, Rin Tohsaka, Shirou Emiya and Illyasviel von Einzbern. No doubt others in this timeline that have touched a Holy Grail War or those that were near them for a period of time were also exposed to this as well. The question is…how many and why? That deplorable experiment of the Animusphere's took so many lives and yet it happened so easily here…"

As he stepped back outside, he had to stop his pondering as a black shadow stood in his way at the only entrance back towards the woods. He couldn't even sigh in annoyance as he already knew that this would been happening.

Normally, a Heroic Spirit like Heracles as a Berserker made for a strong and imposing figure, showing off exactly what had made him such a legendary and enduring figure into even modern day times. None of that could be seen in what Zelretch saw. It was just…just a pitch black abomination in roughly the shape of what Berserker had looked like. Two beady red eyes stared down at him while it held the sword slash club like stone weapon it favored.

It really was quite the shocking difference since Zelretch just looked like an old man. A dandy old man, if he did say so himself, but an old man nonetheless. His height and his width were nothing compared to the warped monstrosity that stood in his way, to say nothing of their physical capabilities being in two completely different realms.

To say that by a layman's perspective that he was screwed was an understatement. Berserker was faster and stronger than him, even with his vampiric blood boosting his abilities. He did have an advantage though, one that would hopefully tilt this fight in his favor.

Zelretch was used to fighting when being horribly outmatched by raw power. The Crimson Moon was proof of that. He went toe to toe with him and came out of it with a draw or a victory, depending on who one asked. So he was ready to take advantage of the one thing that separated them; Experience in magic. Heracles had often fought with gods and monsters, but Zelretch was a whole different breed of monster than what the giant had once fought in life.

So he took his chances and stepped forward. That seemed to be the signal Berserker was looking for as before a normal human could blink, his sword was already buried deep into the ground where Zelretch had stood and kicked up a large cloud of powdered snow and dirt. Yet, once it cleared, Zelretch stood just outside of range of the weapon, looking fresh as a daisy as he brushed some of the dirt off his coat.

"Well that wasn't very sportsmanlike of you." He told the behemoth of a Heroic Spirit, who simply roared in anger at not killing this person and tried again, swinging that blade once more.

Yet to the Mad Servant's confusion, the moment it seemed like the blade was about to reduce his opponent to bloody pieces, the foes entire form shimmered and suddenly he was at just beyond the end of the blades path.

"So…this is all I can do, with this much…" Zelretch muttered to himself, which seemed to further annoy Berserker even more.

Thus, a demented game of cat and mouse begun. Zelretch would avoid Berserker's sword by the narrowest of margins, while Berserker himself kept going after him with reckless abandon. The entire courtyard was torn up into chunks and pieces as Zelretch got closer and closer to the mansion, until his back almost hit the crystalline wall of sharp ice that grew out of one side of it.

Berserker roared with triumph as he tried once again to slam his sword down on the pesky intruder, only to growl in frustration as he vanished entirely. The servant had slammed his blade instead into the hard ice and wall, breaking part of the mansion he was supposed to protect and furthering his anger and madness beyond even what the corruption had done to him.

Zelretch, who had leaped into the air, used the shattered ice blocks as stepping stones of single moments, leaping off and kicking them at the Servant of Madness, sharpened ends pointing right at it.

Yet Berserker looked up when he immediately sensed danger and started to swing his blade to protect it. With its enhanced speed and strength, it was a simple enough task to block all of them.

Which left him confused when suddenly one particularly sharp broken pillar had suddenly pierced him from behind, wedging itself into his chest and destroying his heart. He died standing, seemingly lost at this instance.

Zelretch gave a small sigh as he slapped his gloved hands together, both quite numb from touching the permafrost improvised weapon. "Well, I have a few seconds, make it count." He muttered to himself as he kicked one leg right as the elbow joint of Berserker's sword hand. It snapped in two since he was currently expired and unable to move or tighten the grip, making the arm involuntarily drop the sword which Zelretch grabbed with some difficulty.

The moment he did he jumped back when Berserker's eyes glinted red with its new life being used. It howled its displeasure and anger, making the ground shake, the leaves in the trees fall and the glass of the windows in the manor shattering. His arm snapped back into place and it yanked the ice pillar out of his body, smashing it into powdered dust.

Then he turned around at the source of his death and eyes narrowed at seeing his sword in that man's hands. Immediately he used his superior speed to reach out, not to his blade, but to Zelretch himself, intending to snap the vampire in two with bare hands.

In Berserker's point of view that frustrating ability appeared again as his foe appeared to warp out of existence, but this time he was not so easily fooled. He immediately spun around with his arms outstretched in a lariat, getting a satisfying sound of flesh meeting flesh and turned around to see Zelretch had been sent flying several feet into a nearby tree, snapping it in two despite the heavy sword digging into the ground to kill momentum.

On Zelretch's end, pain was coursing through his entire body. He had not used the Kaleidoscope so much since he had fought Type-Moon and his body was suffering for it. Though not enough to accelerate his aging as it did last time, his body was still shaking and shivering, bones creaking and muscles snapping as the vampiric regenerative abilities began to kick in, knitting his body back together, albeit not as quickly as Berserker's own God Hand ability.

He was not a real fighter. He had no A Ranked weapon or ability of his own to pierce through that tough hide. The only thing he could rely on was trickery and subtle movements to try and turn things to his advantage. The ice pillar was one such thing. The Permafrost was made with magic, very strong magic as the cursed flames of Fuyuki were completely ignored. It did not melt and instead seemed to be all the stronger for it.

That was why he used Berserker as an improvised missile of sorts to break chunks of it into pieces, to allow him time to grab the sharpest piece he could and quickly shift behind him to stab him. Now he had the Servants sword in hand, which WOULD break through that skin, but picking the right moment to do it was easier said than done.

Yet Berserker was probably one of the most adaptable Servant's in the Grail War. It was engraved into his legend, after all, with Heracles Twelve Labors. Each one just as grueling as the last and each requiring a tactical mind to overcome before force could be applied. He had also been trained by Chiron, the so called Teacher of Heroes in Greek Mythology. So getting hit was not impossible but rather it was inevitable. Zelretch only had so many uses with the small control of the Kaleidoscope he had gotten back after all.

Yet it brought a smile to the lips of the old man. After all, his last battle had basically forced him into an early retirement. Messing around with mortals across time and space was fun, but so hands-off. He had almost forgotten what a rush it was to be in a fight. He felt like he was so much younger now than he truly was. Though now was not the time to be lost in his own thoughts. He had a battle to win. It would be rather embarrassing all things considered that he would leave things to Hakuno if he had taken all the trouble to recruit him without giving him a way back.

With his body fully repaired, he immediately used the Kaleidoscope to avoid Berserker's follow up attack and instead leaped from tree to tree as best he could with a several ton weapon weighing him down. The thick foliage provided him slight cover which was needed considering the Mad Servant was making new space ripping and tearing through everything behind him.

It would be several minutes before Zelretch had eluded Berserker's sight, causing the Servant to give a roar of frustration. A heavy snort then came from his nostrils as he waited. Even with Madness Enhancement at its maximum ranking, he still had enough sense left to know that eventually, the prey would come back to him. They always did, thinking themselves clever, smarter than he.

A small rustle immediately caught Berserker's attention and he reared a fist back before punching through the bush, tree and everything behind it in one go, turning all of it to fine powder. All, except, for his own sword, which endured the hit without as much as a single crack.

That was when his ears picked up a sound and he turned around to see a giant log being thrown at him which was taken without him moving an inch, the log becoming splinters upon touching him. If this was all his prey could do to try and confound him, then he…

A wet 'shlick' was heard right then and Berserker looked down to see his blade piercing his heart. He died right then and there.

Zelretch stood on the other end of the blade and gave out a small sigh as his small trap worked. Berserker didn't need to fear anything from him save the stolen blade. So it made for a wonderful bait and switch maneuver where with Heracles trying to find him, he wouldn't think to actually believe he would be hiding directly behind the blade once he used his log trap.

Once again, he only had a few minutes before Heracles got back up, angrier than ever, so he yanked the blade out and grabbed an object from inside a small pocket dimension from his Kaleidoscope and jammed it into the flesh where Berserker's chest and heart once laid. Upon immediately pulling his hand back, Zelretch leaped backwards as the hole began to close, the God Hand once more bringing the Servant back to life.

There was no gap of time between Berserker regaining consciousness and attacking this time around. The Servant just twisted his gigantic body in an angle that should have been impossible for someone of his size and girth in an attempt to both grab the sword and squeeze Zelretch to death like a demented stress toy.

The Wizard Marshal however still had a few tricks up his sleeve. He just needed to buy a bit more time, so he went further into the forest and used the Kaleidoscope to put Berserker's sword far, far away from them. It just made the Servant's temper flare even worse than before and the chase had begun anew. Zelretch would give Heracles this much, his boundless energy was probably the worst aspect of him to go up against. Even an Ancestor such as himself would tire out well before this Servant did.

As he led Berserker through this case, he had to occasionally throw a fireball or two at him to make sure the giant of a man didn't get lost. Countless trees were felled, thrown, blown up and burst into bits as they kept going for what felt like well over half an hour, yet in actuality was only about five to seven minutes long. Already, the Vampire was beginning to pant and gasp for breath, which Berserker wanted to capitalize on.

The Servant let out an almighty roar, which was exactly what Zelretch had been waiting for this entire time. "Your outside skin might be tough, but let's see if the inside is just as protected!" he cried out as he did an about face at an inhuman speed, using a nearby tree branch to propel him towards the fallen Heroic Spirit.

Berserker tried to catch him with one hand, which he avoided by placing his own hand on top of his fingers to allow him to flip over. Not one to be outdone, Berserker then tried to catch him with his other hand, only for Zelretch to seemingly kill his momentum on a dime and fell flat to the ground hands first, which he then used to push himself back up.

A snarling giant, eyes even further into madness than normal, glared at him with pure hatred and malice. In return, Zelretch gave a grin and a wink as he shoved his hand right INTO and down Berserker's mouth and throat.

As it turned out, Servants COULD choke, as by reflex the giant's hands went for the throat to make sense of what lodged itself in there. Not even a second later, the giant found itself toppling over, belly up as steam and smoke came out of his various orifices. Eyes, mouth, ears…all of them had a combination of white and black smog going into him.

It was all the old Vampire could do not to grimace as even while dying, Heracles had tried to clamp his teeth down. He would've lost a hand if he didn't use the other to hold the giant's mouth open while he poured intense heat via fire magic inside of him. All things considered, it was a painful and messy death. Though right now Zelretch was more concerned for the fact that even while dead, Heracles' closed jaws were like bear traps to try and pry open. It took what extra strength he had gained from his absorption and vampiric ability to finally pull his hand out.

"Well, at least now I don't have to worry about you anymore after this." The surviving fighter muttered as he turned around and away to seek his companions.

Yet even this was not enough to hold Heracles down. God Hand was still active and once more it regenerated him and now actually did make his organs more resistant to magic. He could literally feel it and he felt cheated.

"Well, three down, the rest to go." He said, not bothering to turn around at this point and instead continued to walk away. In just a few moments, Heracles was up again and leapt in an effort to squish the inhuman thing that had killed it thrice already.

At feeling the shift in the air, Zelretch snapped his fingers and the final part of his plan came together.

After all, this entire battle had been one big distraction for the main event.

Forcing a few usages of God Hand was just the insurance for what he had planned this entire time. Which was why he had placed the true Jeweled Blade inside of Berserker's chest cavity where the beasts heart lied.

It had been absorbing the magic of the Kaleidoscope and its new host, slowly but carefully, building itself up over and over again in small amounts so as to not give up the game.

After getting a mental countdown completed, Zelretch had snapped his fingers, which stopped Berserker in his tracks as the Servant was now much more wary of any other traps the mage had set up after losing three lives now. Which was why the Servant was prepared when he saw his chest beginning to bulge out and tried to rip whatever was inside of him out. The last thing Heracles would see was a bright rainbow colored light shining out of him before his vision was taken away…permanently.

All Zelretch had to do was watch the light show unfurl. He had been filling up his Jeweled Sword with the energy of the Kaleidoscope ever since he first had gotten some control over it back. Little by little, inch by painstaking inch, the in actuality staff had become something akin to a ticking time bomb as he had now put in enough energy to take out Fuyuki in its entirety if he had just set it off there.

Thanks to Berserker's God Hand, however, the energy was contained inside of the Servant. All of its remaining lives were built up and immediately destroyed by the dimensional energy as each time it died the energy had been on a different wavelength which God Hand could not keep up with.

Soon enough, the great hero collapsed in front of Zelretch, a smoking husk of its former self as all of its lives were taken away.

"Just like the Crimson Moon. You succumb to the beast within yourself. Might makes right and all that. You might adapt, but it's much, much slower than if you had been summoned as an Archer or a Saber. Rest now, weary Guardian. Your time is over and there is nothing left for you to protect." He said respectfully as Heracles disappeared in a black light.

All that was left of the battle now was his Jeweled Blade, looking dull as the energy inside of it was depleted.

As he grabbed it, Zelretch began to feel woozy and fell to one knee. "Ah…fuck you age. You never make it any easier for me." He muttered as he had expended far too much energy in this fight. Between multiple uses of the Kaleidoscope and his own magic and vampiric powers, he was almost as helpless as a green as grass mage.

Not for the first time, he was truly beginning to feel how powerless he was in the face of this crisis. Tricking enemies, carefully managing just how much of his powers to use, having to dodge everything on the fly as best he could. If he had been in his younger years this would not have been any kind of an issue, but the curse of the Crimson Moon and his own overuse of his True Magic made him unable to produce the results that he once could do in his sleep.

Using the last of his restored energy, Zelretch opened up one final portal to his 'home' dimension and pulled out a packet of blood that he had gotten from the Mage's Association in exchange for taking on students. Normally he would drink it in a fancy wine glass but beggars could not be choosers at this moment.

His fangs pierced the plastic and soon enough he sucked the blood, full of high quality magical energy from whichever fancy noble had given it up. He hated doing this. He liked to think of himself as a human, but these reminders that he was no longer one irked him to no end. The effectiveness could not be denied though as he immediately felt much of his strength and magical energy return to him. It wouldn't restore the expanded dimensional energy he had used though. That was out of his reach until they restored this issue. All he could do was take what was given and help where he could.

Slowly pushing himself back up, he was forced to stumble again as a different explosion rocked the forest and caught him unawares. "Ah, Caster must be fighting against Archer. I swear, those two always end up duking it out. No matter what dimension or under which Master. It's just inevitable." He said to himself as he began to walk towards the noise.

All the while, his thoughts went inwards, to how this all started and the role he had been forced to play while waiting for Hakuno's arrival after using the portal.

Clocktower, London

11 years ago

"Hmm…what's this? The Fourth Grail War actually had a winner for once?" Zelretch asked with an amused upturn of his lips. Currently he was sitting down on a fancy and plush chair, a glass of wine in hand as he looked at the person sitting across from him.

Marisbury Animusphere was, by all accounts, a very handsome young man. Wavy silver hair, gold eyes, a youthful face and body. He was also much, much younger than he actually was, looking no more than a teenager despite being in his thirties. He was the one who had asked Zelretch to chat and allow him to propose an idea.

"Yes. My Caster and I won the Grail War. I know you already know, so there is no need for false surprise, Kaleidoscope." Marisbury said with just as much amusement in his voice as Zelretch.

Said Kaleidoscope drank the wine and set it down. "So you won and royally pissed off the entire Clock Tower by not activating the Heaven's Feel and instead asked for what amounted to unlimited luck to start up this operation of yours in earnest instead of just as a research facility. Chaldea, correct?" he asked, making sure his facts were straight.

Marisbury chuckled lightly, a melodic voice ringing through the air. "True, true, the Lords were upset, but what I am going to offer them will make up for it and then some. Which is why I invited you here, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. Chaldea Security Organization is just in its infancy after all and if we had a…'stick' to go with the 'carrot', I think that we can bring them in line to the idea." He proposed.

In laymen's terms, what he did was something that not many would have the balls to do. Getting Zelretch to do anything without him trying to screw the other person over, gradual or immediate, took a special kind of stupidity or bravery. Yet here this ordinary man was, asking for what should have been amounted to the impossible.

"Very well, I agree." The Wizard said, shocking Marisbury by not even trying to ask for a counteroffer.

"I'm intrigued. What you're proposing is something that will either save an entire multiverse or end one if it blows up in your face. I can respect that since, according to your words, you want to try to do something similar, yet separate, from what I do. As a mage, I can't help but be intrigued on who would try to do something so close to True Magic outside of the Aozaki." Zelretch explained further.

"Ah, curiosity for the unknown. That sounds more like you." Marisbury said, more to himself than Zelretch, as he calmed down from the near heart attack of getting him to help.

"Well, let's not waste any more time here. I want to see those Clock Tower Lords piss themselves, royally upset Lorelei knowing there is nothing she can do about it and make sure we get to where you have this place by the end of the week." Zelretch declared, placing the drained wine cup down and sitting up.

"Ah, there's nothing better than another person who understands that time is precious." Marisbury stated as he stood up as well to walk out of the room with him.

Chaldea

6 years ago

Quiet hallways loomed across the Chaldea Security Organization. Despite the advanced technology offered, with everyone working at random shifts across the day it was the usual sight to be expected when one came across it. Yet that quiet was disturbed when loud, echoing footsteps carried its noise across with purpose.

For once, there was no smile or expression of amusement on Zelretch's face. It was essentially expressionless, save for narrowed eyes that conveyed a strong sense of anger to it. When he had gained access to all of Chaldea's files, becoming a Co-Founder to the Organization upon making a deal with Marisbury at the Clock Tower, he had gained access to a lot of the knowledge that they had.

Among them was the 'designer baby' project. The Kaleidoscope showed him some of the worst humanity had to offer and how much the Moonlit World in general had to offer. Yet this…this was a special type of disgusting with some of the notes he had come across. Which was why he had originally attempted to stop by Marisbury's office for a private chat with him, only to find he was in one of the labs for an attempt a creating a Demi-Servant, using one of the designer babies made to fuse with a Heroic Spirit to create what was essentially a hybrid.

That was what infuriated Zelretch the most. The amount of lives made and tossed away like it was nothing. It was against what little morals he had left in himself considering everything he had done in his long, long life. If it was willing subjects that was one thing, he had nothing against that, yet these children essentially died without even having lived in the first place. He had run under the assumption that the children he had seen around the base were Homonculi, yet they were living, breathing children with souls.

His strides became longer, faster before eventually breaking into an outright run. The staff members that he had eventually run across gave him a wide berth, knowing if something was making him do this, they wanted absolutely no part of it. Shame that it wouldn't help them regardless as he planned on at least pranking everyone in the building at least once, but he wanted real, proper answers.

As he found the right research room, he opened the door and strode inside to grab Marisbury by the coat, startling the Head Physician Romani Archaman in the process. "WHY?! Why are you doing this!" he demanded, shaking the director whose expression did not change one bit.

"You know exactly why I'm doing this, Kaleidoscope. For the preservation of the Proper Human History." Marisbury explained, which only served to make Zelretch's temper snap.

He tossed Romani, who had grabbed onto his arm in an attempt to stop him, to the side and was about to punch the magus in the face when he finally heard it. The screams that came from the room proper. In the end, he tossed Marisbury against the wall and slammed his fists against the triple magical and physically protected glass and steel separating them from the room where one Mash Kyrielight was undergoing an experiment to fuse a Heroic Spirit with her own soul.

From the heavy light and the screaming, it sounded like it was ironically enough a rousing success. Though the cheer did not last long as whichever Heroic Spirit fused with her was not happy about what happened. Using Mash's body as a puppet, the Heroic Spirit tore through the barriers placed up like so much paper and then broke the reinforced glass mirror.

Zelretch lifted his arms up to protect his face as eye injuries, Apostle Ancestor or not, were the biggest annoyances to heal outside of their brain, heart or spirit. Though as Mash's possessed body passed by him, he could see the girls' head turning towards him and mouthing out the words 'Thank you' before it went to the main target: Marisbury.

She lifted him up easily and was about to rip out his heart, but now the child inside was resisting, not wanting to kill her creator. The Heroic Spirit acknowledged this and chose to become dormant inside of her, in order to preserve her life but he disapproved of everything Marisbury stood for.

Chaldea

5 years ago

Another day, another walk for a debriefing. Zelretch was beginning to get annoyed with all the red tape that had gone on ever since Mash's successful Demi-Servant experiment. Now EVERYONE wanted to be a part of Chaldea and what it stood for. Even the fossils at Atlas got off their asses and gave the organization some of its most powerful equipment. More importantly, they wanted all the credit for it despite barely lifting a finger themselves. Granted, Atlas would definitely get their fair due for how TRISMEGISTUS was given to them, but most of the effort was all Chaldea's.

As he walked towards the Director's office, he passed by Mash, who had been growing up into a wonderful, if sheltered, young girl. Per usual, Fou was with her and she gave him a respectful bow as they passed by. In return he gave her a small smile and a pat on the head. It was all he could do without the major source of his powers. Knowing that it was still gone irked him to no end and that he had to play the long game here.

That was when he suddenly picked up a very faint yet familiar scent that already had him on edge. The scent of fresh blood. The sudden change of his expression would have probably frightened Mash if she had still been there at that moment and he was glad that she had already left the area. Right now his strides became another full out dash not unlike what he had done several years back.

As he opened up the door to Marisbury's office, the scent of blood was overpowering. By the scent of the blood, Zelretch could deduce that he had been dead for just about half an hour at this point. Sighing, he walked over to the chair, where the man sat with the same look on his face and a slightly smoky revolver in one hand. "Of all the methods, you had to pick suicide." He muttered before reaching around the desk and pushing the button to summon medical personnel at Red Alert Level.

Within minutes a full team, led by Romani, had entered the room, only to gasp upon seeing what was inside as well. Romani looked the most shocked out of all of them, which was no surprise considering he had been with Marisbury the longest when it came to Chaldea and the man had shown absolutely no sign of suicidal thoughts or actions. This came out of left field, which made it even more suspicious to anyone with half a mind to actually observe the situation.

Which meant that he was forced to commit suicide by another. Whether by magic or by his own sane state of mind could be debated, but the result was clear as day. "What a waste." He muttered once more as the medical team did what they could for the body.

Both he and Romani shared a singular look between each other and knew what had to be done before flipping on the PA system on Marisbury's desk, one of the few pieces of technology the man allowed himself to learn.

"ATTENTION ALL CHALDEA STAFF MEMBERS. This is Vice Director Zelretch speaking. It…pains me to say this, but as of a scant half hour ago, Director Marisbury Animusphere took his own life. This is not a drill, nor is this one of my pranks. As of this moment, I am going to look at Marisbury's Last Will and execute it to the best of my abilities. Everyone…take the rest of the day off. Some of you might not mourn or grieve, some of you might. Best to let everyone take a day to let this all settle in."

With that, Zelretch shut off the PA system and Romani approached him. They both knew Marisbury well enough to know what was going to happen now. Olga Marie was still in the Clock Tower, training to become a proper Head of the family, albeit that position was quite shaky for her with everything that was going on internally.

After all, when one is competing against someone like Kirschtaria Wodime, widely regaled as a prodigy among prodigies, it was hard to justify any kind of praise for someone else in the same situation when it came to the world of Magi. A lot of people wanted him to become the next head of the Animusphere over the untested Olga Marie despite being Marisbury's blood daughter.

They both carefully moved across the drying pool of blood to look at his desk proper and saw that the bottom drawer was heavily sealed. Zelretch took one step back and let Romani handle it since it was supposed to be only tampered with by the head of Medical upon Marisbury's death. It wasn't long before it was unsealed and within it, a plain envelope was inside containing the Director's final wishes.

As Zelretch cautiously read everything, his eyes eventually closed in frustration over the fact that indeed, Marisbury wanted Olga Marie to head Chaldea, while Wodime was to head the possibility of being a Master Candidate for direct Rayshifting should anything threaten Proper History. Once more, the daughter was to inherit the burdens of the father while the apprentice went on unimpeded to do great things until the call to duty was given. It wasn't like the man wasn't already a staff member, Marisbury made sure to add him to the formal roster of employees after the Grail War, but now he was going to be front and center to the glory that came with preserving humanity and its future.

The bigger issue was that Olga Marie would have to read all of Marisbury's research notes. ALL the notes, including the experiments with the designer babies and how many lives that Chaldea was truly built upon in the chase of such a dream that Marisbury had risked everything, including his own life, to make sure it kept going.

Romani was going to have his work cut out for him keeping a teenage girl as mentally stable as possible and Zelretch already could tell even without the Kaleidoscope that he himself would be making a trip to London soon enough.

Chaldea

1 year ago

It was days like these that made Zelretch wish he could appreciate once more the taste of coffee. Despite having an entire office look like his little interdimensional watching room, it didn't carry the same weight to it when one had a pile of paper as high as their body awaiting signatures. Almost all of which was already signed off on by Olga Marie and now needed his own signature for validation.

To say the girl had taken Marisbury's death badly was an understatement. While shocking, everyone knew that a Magus walked a fine line with death. It was what he had been doing before he died which had shaken her up so badly that it rendered her essentially comatose for three months.

She had been anorexic when he finally saw her that day. Getting fed off an IV drip and Romani constantly checking on her. Pure and primal fear ran deep within her eyes at the merest hint of her door opening. Her pride of being an Animusphere and her tolerance as a human being had been tackled head on and she had been found wanting, it seemed.

She only snapped out of it when she was reminded that her pride as an Animusphere was at stake, yet it left a chip on her shoulder with the depth of the Mariana Trench it felt like for all her self-viewed inadequacies. It was not helped that she was absolutely terrified of Mash, who had only wanted to become a friend of hers since she was the same age. Her father's research notes had completely destroyed any chance of a singular bond forming between them.

Her doubts were further compiled onto when she had caught some of the researchers comparing her to her father and saw how she had fallen far short of the expectations and drive he had when it came to Chaldea. That seemed to have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

She stripped away the terrified young girl who had taken a heavy responsibility far too early into life and became a by the book, no nonsense manager who dictated every iota of what went on in the Antarctic base. She had also almost developed an almost unhealthy obsession with one of the researchers, Lev Lainur which he nipped right in the bud. He took on a more grandfatherly persona and personally tried to help repair the broken shell of a girl she had become, to little success.

She was definitely far better now than she had been several years back when she had first arrived in Chaldea thanks to the help of himself and Romani, but it was still a long road to recovery. In the meantime, as he looked at the papers in front of him, he saw that they were the candidate sheets for viable Masters to do Rayshifting with.

Finally, one of the reasons he had come this far back in the first place was FINALLY set in front of him. He knew that he need only bother with one profile as he signed off on the forty-seven applicants that came before it. Then came the last one on the pile.

"Ritsuka Fujimaru, Age Eighteen, hailing from Fuyuki, Japan. Average quality magical circuits but high Master Aptitude and possible Spiritron Hacker."

He saw the plain and unassuming face that had been brutally wiped out in that fire and stone so long ago it had felt like, yet it never happened here.

Taking out a blank form from his desk, he applied what magic he had on him to make an almost exact copy of Fujimaru's form, but replaced it with an even plainer looking person. One that would not be able to picked out from a crowd if searched for.

"Master Candidate Forty-Eight. Hakuno Kishinami. Born in Fuyuki, Japan. Orphan due to parents dying in an accident. Above Average Magical Circuits, high Master Aptitude and high aptitude towards Spiritron Hacking. To Note: Sponsored by Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg." He read to himself before stamping an approval on it. If that didn't get Olga Marie's attention then nothing would. Fujimaru's profile was unceremoniously burned. If the lad was going to die, Zelretch would at least make sure it was while he was surrounded by friends or family.

Taking the large pile of paper in one hand, he took it and brought it over to Olga Marie's office, where she had been taking a small break by eating some of her favorite dried fruit that she had kept on her person all the time. Upon seeing him enter she had immediately tried to make herself presentable to him and look like a proper Director.

"Wizard Marshal. How can I be of assistance?" she asked, though there was a bit of hidden snark behind it since often many would try their best to NOT have her help on whatever they were working on.

"Here to drop off the Master Candidate forms. Forty-Eight passed, the rest failed for not having enough Magical Circuits to safely sustain having a Servant even if they had a high aptitude for being a Master. Also, call me Zelretch like you used to. We're alone here Olga, no need to put on airs." He informed her.

For once, there was a light in her eye that shone as she puffed her chest out in pride. "It's good to see so many had passed. With this, Humanity's future will definitely be preserved. For the ones that failed, have them sent off to our Sister Branch. They'll put them to work." She ordered as he placed the papers on her desk.

"So…be honest, how are you?" he asked, knowing a bluff from her could be seen a mile away at this point.

That light dimmed slightly as Olga Marie bit her bottom lip, a sign of anxiety as she closed her eyes for a moment, hands clenched shut against the opposite arm. "I'm…trying, to get better. You were right…I do rely too much on Lev at times." She admitted. "However, you have to understand, he seems to be the only one here that listens to me and actually respects me, not including yourself of course." She added in as almost an afterthought.

"That's fine, but there is a line between admiration and being blind for all the faults of the other person. Lev helped a lot, I won't deny that. You have to remember though that he is helping you because of who your father was, not for you yourself." Zelretch reminded her.

"You…you just don't see it. Every time we talk he's so patient, so kind, it's hard not to want to trust him when you can offer an idea and he will take it seriously rather than dismiss it right out of hand." Olga Marie tried to deflect and then attempted to distract herself with the sheets.

'It looks like it's up to you Hakuno from here on in. I've done all that I could to help pave the way until you can wrest back control and allow me use of the Kaleidscope in any kind of format outside of tiny bursts.' Zelretch thought to himself as they continued to make small talk, silently counting down the days until disaster struck.

Present

The forest around him began to thin out as his musings came to a halt. In front of him was the Ryoudou Shrine, a place that was the center of the Fifth Grail War in several timelines thanks to Caster's meddling. The place was a complete and utter disaster, ruined and filled with craters, some of which were still smoking.

As he entered, he saw Caster putting on his robe and Archer vanishing into a golden light, having finally been defeated. Almost immediately the Sage's staff was pointed at him but lowered when the Servant recognized him.

"So, you actually survived against that monster that called itself a Servant. Nice job, Old Man. If I was a Lancer I'd want to have a tussle with you but we both got more important things to worry about." Cu Chulainn stated as they looked towards the direction of the cave that Hakuno, Mash and Olga Marie all headed to.

Having regained his breath, some stamina and energy, Zelretch gave a nod as they both began to run at a sprint. A sprint that became a full on run when they noticed a large burst of black colored magic erupting from the cave. Though try as he might, Zelretch was no Servant and was soon lagging far behind Ireland's Child of Light.

The more important thing was that they were holding on and help in the form of Caster was on the way. He did all that he could and now it was up to those four to complete the mission.

It wasn't just about the usage of the Kaleidoscope anymore for him. It was all the lives lost that came to bring about this moment. More than anything, Zelretch could at least do his part to honor those sacrificed and those that couldn't make it to see things through until the end.

'Just a little longer. Hold out for just a little longer!'

Author's Notes

This chapter. HOLY FUCK THIS CHAPTER. I cannot tell you how many times I script wrote Zelretch and Berserker's fight and how many times I had to scrap it and redo it. Multiple, multiple times I had done this and tried to make it into a believable situation where Zelretch could actually win and still make it seem interesting at the same time.

As for the rest of this delay, it is mostly due to Delight Works constantly releasing Servants that fuck up plot ideas I had in mind and having to constantly rework Hakuno's initial band of Servants. Plus COVID, plus me working in a certain field and panicking. A birth in the family, suffering from not one, but two non-COVID diseases and a bout of major depression due to where I work and how COVID has badly affected it.

He will be getting ten Servants in his first ten roll, I will say this right now. No Extra Classes though (Ruler, Avenger, Moon Cancer, Alter Ego and Foreigner). So he will have a few servants of one class or another.

They will all be Servants from Fate Lore.

Not all are from Grand Order.

One has not even made a proper appearance anywhere outside of a single random sketch I had found delving deep into the wiki for Fate.

At least three are Servants from Events that would have been in later years but I cannot bring myself to wait or have the patience to introduce them so late into the fic as it were.

I have decided to include the erotic parts of this fanfic I had planned for later. Should someone be an asshole and try to get it taken down, I will be cross-posting it on Archive of Our Own the instant it does happen. For now, it's still an FF dot net exclusive thing.

This next chapter will be a LOT easier to come out with as it's just the Caster vs. Archer fight, with my own little spin on it.

Finally…Zelretch himself. I imagine some of you will be wondering if he is out of character in the Flashback I have given about him being in Chaldea a good eleven years before Hakuno had arrived.

You have to remember that doing what he did, he no longer had access to the Kaleidoscope from there on in. For the first time in his near immortal life, Zelretch was vulnerable and it was only peoples fear of him and his 'pranks' that allowed him to fool them for so long.

Give the man an award for acting, as he had to play a lot of different roles that he normally would not have the patience to deal with. Yet also remember that deep down, Zelretch is still holding onto some of his human morals and values. So not everything he did was an act or a bluff.

He WOULD be genuinely angry at the Designer Baby experiment, he WOULD try his best to offer at least a bit of solace to Olga Marie for what she suffered in two different timelines and he WOULD do his best to try and mitigate some unnecessary damage to the organization from all the clout that he could pull.

Please, enjoy this early Christmas Present from me to all of you and let us pray that 2021 doesn't continue to have us mourning more unnecessary deaths and cruelty to our fellow man for the pettiest of reasons.

Wear a Mask, Socially Distance Yourselves, SAVE A LIFE.

You never know the pain that comes from losing something you cared about so preciously until it happens, suddenly and without warning.

It has not happened to me yet with COVID, but I have had something like that happen to me before in the past, twice. I don't wish that kind of pain on anybody.

So buckle up, try to smile and take one step at a time.

I also still don't have a Beta Reader for this. I tried to make sure I caught any inconsistencies but if you see any, I apologize.

If you wish to be a beta reader, please send me a PM with your experience and whether or not you'd be willing to use discord as a medium for directly contacting with concerns or issues or to offer advice.