A.N. I'm just going to warn you. Some of you will be upset about a reveal/plot twist. I'm not planning on changing it. Just because you are the hero or protagonist does not mean you always win.

Checklist 14: Save Your Superior!

While Shirou ignored the outside world to mourn, others didn't have the luxury.

Romani Archaman was one such.

"No," he whispered as his friend Lev Lainur declared that he had killed Olga, planting the bomb beneath her feet. "No, that can't be."

Lev had been Olga's friend for years. Ever since they first met here in Chaldea, Lev and Olga had struck up a friendship like the one that Roman and Lev had cultivated.

But Lev's words made too much sense. Fit the facts too well, Roman concluded even as he felt sick to the stomach.

They had never found a trace of Lev. Yet they had found at least blood smears of Olga's body. And the bomb in the command center had been smaller than the one planted to hit the Masters.

Another thing was that TRIMEGISTUS had been constantly reporting some strange yet consistent readings on Olga. Readings that didn't make sense for a living body to have. He had just guessed that it was just damage or sabotage and would get around to it once the Rayshift was over. Wasn't like he could force a recall on the director without getting into trouble.

Yet even then, Olga didn't even have a body to transfer back to here in Chaldea. And now he knew it wasn't kidnapped. It was dead and gone in tiny, not even finger sized, pieces.

And Olga couldn't be inside a Rayshift. Shirou's Rayshift test had results that simply didn't make sense but Olga's flat out said that she simply couldn't do it.

While the thoughts scurried like hamsters in Roman's head, something happened outside.

Roman didn't have the senses to detect magecraft. He didn't even have magic circuits. He did have some medical devices and tools that Atlas had developed and sold to Chaldea but he had no way to use healing magecraft without getting a magus to do it. He could teach the theory if he needed to but this body couldn't do the implementation of Mysteries.

But you didn't need to have magic circuits to see a link in space and across time appear in both the hologram and in the room beyond the glass in front of him.

Gasps were heard all around as Chaldea faced the magnitude of what had just happened.

Lev Lainur had just done the impossible with the Holy Grail. He had linked two different places, separated in time by over a decade, going from a Singularity into the present.

And now he was blaming Olga for CHALDEAS's condition. Saying that the victory of Chaldea here was responsible for the First Order. That Olga was the threat to mankind.

If Roman trusted Lev right now, he might have believed it.

Except…

Except Lev had never acted like this.

Seconds later, Roman's mind kicked in and added logic to his feelings. Lev had the Grail right now. Not Olga.

Restoring humanity could be something Lev might be able to accomplish with the Grail. But with how he was using that power, it was looking like Lev was working against restoring humanity's future.

"Don't- Don't be absurd!" Olga yelled, wheeling on Lev and point at him challengingly. "I'm not responsible! I didn't fail! I'm not dead!"

Roman admitted that Olga was partly right. She hadn't failed. She had found the source of the Singularity and eliminated it.

Now if only she didn't sound like she was petulantly denying it, it might actually be convincing.

"Who are you? And what have you done to my CHALDEAS!" she continued, stomping up to Lev to stare him angrily in the face.

"I am Lev Lainur Flauros," Lev said, looking rather annoyed. "And CHALDEAS isn't 'yours'."

Roman gasped. No way. He knew that name, Flauros. But it couldn't be.

That was impossible. He knew that it couldn't be possible. Surely Flauros and the others must be dead by now.

That would mean something that couldn't be true. He knew it to be false.

Must be another seeking to use that name. It was the only thing that made sense.

"Honestly," Lev said, shaking his head as if he was struck with an annoying thing that he wished he could disbelieve. "What an annoying girl you are!"

Olga recoiled, looking like she had just been slapped across the face by a dear friend.

Her look of shock and betrayal was only eclipsed by fear when she started to rise into the air, obviously not under her own power.

"What? Something's pulling-" she gasped, body twitching but not doing anything even as she started flying backwards towards the portal through time. "My body-! "

"I told you," Roman shuddered at the malicious glee his friend was showing, looking like something Roman had only seen in the most unrepentant of criminals. "This place is now connected with Chaldea. I could just kill you now, but there is no grace to that."

"Instead, I will grant your final wish." Roman watched in horror as the evil smile on Lev's face grew even wider until it was almost inhuman. "Go ahead and lay hands on your treasure! Benevolence from my part!"

"What-What do you mean? My treasure?" Olga was still struggling as she screamed, sweat beading onto her face as her already white skin paled to an unbelievable shade. "You mean CHALDEAS? No, please stop! Not CHALDEAS! It's a high-density body of data! A dimensional anomaly!"

"Yesss!" Lev hissed in fiendish glee like a diabolical child pulling off the wings of an insect. "No different from a black hole! Or perhaps a sun. Either way, a human touching it would experience a hellish disintegration on the molecular level. By all means, have a taste of infinite! Living! Death!"

"No! No, no!" Olga screamed as her twitches redoubled. But she was now crossing over between areas, traveling from the past into the present. "Someone help me! Help! I-I don't want to die here!"

Roman could hear her scream even as he could see her body appear in the Central area, still in mid-air. At this distance, he couldn't see her twitching. But she was still floating towards CHALDEAS. Her speed decreasing as she protested and screamed and pleaded, trying to oppose her death sentence.

Roman could only watch, as she got closer and closer, each agonizing foot taking longer to cross as her pleas increased in fervor and desperation, yet still trapped in an inescapable grasp.

Why?

Why, Lev?

What could possibly be worth betraying mankind? What could make killing Olga Marie, your friend, worth this!

"Nooo! Stop! I haven't even accomplished anything yet! I've never been praised by anyone! No, no, no!"

As Olga's screams hit a new high note, the window between the command center and the chamber cracked.

Roman's eyes widened as the control room's magically reinforced, bullet-proof glass window cracked and the cracks spread farther and farther, racing across the transparent barrier.

Amazing! He didn't know that Olga could crack or shatter glass with just her voice!

It did explain why his ears always hurt after she screamed at him though.

Now if only she hadn't revealed this talent in her last moments of life…

Think of the YouTube videos she could have starred in.

Amidst the ridiculous thoughts, a flurry of movement out of the corner of his eye and the sound of two crashes drew Roman's attention away from Olga.

And towards the red and white-haired tanned man throwing a third Noble Phantasm at the window, cracking the glass like a spider web starting from where the sword had landed. A fourth Noble Phantasm appeared from mid-air, landing in the man's empty hand.

Oh, it wasn't Olga. It was just Shirou throwing four weak Noble Phantasm swords at the barrier. That made much more sense than Olga's voice being able to crack glass.

Roman's eyes drifted back to Olga, watching her last moments as she continued her horrifying descent into an eternal dying hell. For the sake of Marisbury, he would watch Olga's final moments.

He had to say in the privacy of his thoughts, it was honestly a little bit relieving that Olga didn't have a voice that could crack glass. He wouldn't need to check his eardrums for damage. The windows on the other hand, would be extremely expensive to replace after being hit by Noble Phantasms thrown by a normal human-

Wait, what!

Amidst Shirou's grief, a sound was heard.

It wasn't the loudest sound. Nor was it a soft sound.

But it was a series of words that Shirou knew. Words that neither his conscious nor subconscious could choose to ignore.

Shirou heard someone asking for help and his dream wouldn't let him ignore that.

When he looked up, and listened, getting a grasp on what was going on, Shirou knew he had to act.

Olga Marie Animusphere was in danger and needed help. Or she would die.

And Shirou would never refuse that call to action, to save someone.

So, while everyone else was still paralyzed by surprise, shock, and betrayal, Shirou stood up.

Shirou's mind shunted his emotions aside as he started to think and walk away from his chair on the bottom level of the command center.

Saber was dead. He had just watched a version of her die in front of him. But she would want him to live his dream and save the person in front of him if she was here.

And yes, his boss, Lev Lainur, the head of the engineers and technicians, had just betrayed him and everyone else in Chaldea.

Unimportant. The additional feelings of grief, pain, and betrayal will interfere with saving the director.

The impossibility of forcing a bridge between the past and present.

Surprise was not a good emotion on the battlefield. Accept what was and move on.

Olga Marie was already dead.

Impossible. Her body may have been destroyed but if that was the case, who was the one that had been giving orders to Chaldea? Who had been trying to persuade him that his Saber was the one responsible for the Singularity?

No, Olga Animusphere was alive. She was breathing, speaking, moving, thinking, and living.

Therefore, she must be alive. In at least one sense of the word.

And she was about to die.

She was calling for help.

That was what was important. Everything else that interfered with saving Olga Marie Animusphere must be cast aside for now.

So Shirou cast aside all of his emotions in order to let his mind work unimpeded and furiously.

Options, options, options. He needed options.

He couldn't let Marie Olga Animusphere hit CHALDEAS. That sounded like it killed anyone who tried. Infinite living death sounded like it was something that Shirou wouldn't wish on, well, even Gilgamesh and Kirei really.

What tools did Shirou have?

He had weapons. He had some shields and armor too.

None would stop Olga from hitting Chaldeas.

Rule Breaker?

Shirou didn't know what the anti-thaumatology Noble Phantasm would do if it hit CHALDEAS.

It would almost certainly kill Shirou for getting that close. But more importantly, would it erase CHALDEAS?

Shirou didn't know. It was one of Chaldea's greatest works. A model of the earth by means of Gaia itself, so if there was anything mystical whose existence would overpower the C rank Noble Phantasm, CHALDEAS would be it.

So best leave that option as a last resort. If he tried it and it failed, he wouldn't have any alternatives left.

If it worked, then Animusphere was saved. Not that Shirou would ever know as he probably would be touching CHALDEAS and would either spend the next eternity dying or caught in the release of a massive amount of magical energy, which would probably be just as lethal if in a less painful and eternal fashion.

In other words, too low of a probability to succeed at saving Olga. Likely to kill her as well.

What if Rule Breaker was used on Olga?

Olga's current body was made of Spiritrons, acting as her body until the Rayshift was over. It was created out of Spiritrons by magecraft in a process not unlike that of making a familiar.

But Rule Breaker returned any life form created out of magic to a state prior to its creation.

Shirou guessed that if these artificial Spiritron familiar bodies were hit with Rule Breaker, the body would be destroyed.

Maybe the spirit would be sent back to Olga's original body, but…

Olga's body was gone. Shirou had no clue where or even if it was in condition to take her spirit back.

Lacking a good way to use Rule Breaker, Shirou's most potent anti-magecraft weapon, Shirou was forced to conclude that it was unacceptable except for a last resort.

Could anything immobilize Animusphere? Keep her from hitting CHALDEAS?

Shirou had a Black Key that could work but they required a distinct shadow.

And the CHALDEAS's chamber had too many bright lights on top of thousands of glowing segments, not to mention CHALDEAS itself. The shadow of a floating woman 10 meters up in the air would be so indistinct that the Black Key wouldn't be able to bind her even if he turned off 90% of all the lights.

Shirou raced through his other weapons and tactics but found nothing.

No other options to save Animusphere here.

So, if Shirou couldn't mess with things on this side of the portal-

-he'd just have to mess with the magus invoking the Mystery that was propelling Olga to CHALDEAS.

Given an option that might work, Shirou focused on what he could do to Lev Lainur.

First, most magi lost control of their Mystery if they were attacked or killed, the flow of prana cutting off.

Shirou quickly rejected the idea of going through the portal to fight Lev in melee. It would take too long to get to the portal and then fight in melee with Lev. By the time he arrived at Lev's location, Olga would already be dead.

He had to go with ranged options.

He could project a bow and arrow, but Lev was acting like he was someone else. Like he was possessed or that someone or something else was in control of his body or had been pretending to be him.

And Shirou knew there had been a demon in Chaldea.

Demons, from what Shirou knew, didn't fall to normal weapons easily.

Shirou didn't have a good Mystic Code arrow to use that might be lethal or painful enough. One that could immobilize, yes, but that wasn't what he looking for.

Immobilizing Lev's body wouldn't stop the spell or save Olga.

Next option.

What other long ranged options did he have-

-ah. Those might work.

He hoped. He wasn't sure what things a demon could do but at the very least, this method should be able to hurt Lev or interrupt his line of sight.

Shirou reviewed his plan.

First obstacle. The window. It hadn't even shattered when the bombs went off so Shirou doubted that it would be easy to break.

Criteria made. Weapons browsed. Weapon selected. Probability of success? Good.

Shirou briefly considered analyzing the window to figure out what it was made of so he could craft a specific sword to cut through the material, but figured that it would take longer to analyze and produce a counter to the window than it would be to just project what he was planning to.

Could always analyze and forge a counter to cut through the glass-like substance as a back-up plan.

Second obstacle. Animusphere and the portal were high off the ground.

Strategy selected. Short bursts of mid-air movement available. Need to move fast though, so Reinforcement is recommended.

Third obstacle, interfering with the hostile.

Weapons selected.

Back-up plans already formed.

Fourth obstacle, getting Olga away from CHALDEAS.

If timed right, the only problem would be if he defaulted to his last resort of using Rule Breaker on CHALDEAS.

In that case, all he could do was hope that CHALDEAS became non-lethal before Olga hit it because every other option to stop her movement would have already failed.

Fifth obstacle, not dying from the fall.

Reinforcement is not ideal. Would not save Olga's life if she doesn't have her own reinforcement applied.

Application of Reinforcement onto her? Bad idea. Using a spell directly on another magus typically resulted in the magus rejecting it and it turning into a contest of power.

Which Shirou would lose against the scion of an ancient line of magi.

Alternative: Variation of mid-air strategy? Acceptable.

By the time Shirou crossed the last few steps and reached the end of the bottom floor in the control room, Shirou had a plan all mapped out and weapons selected and ready to be traced from his Reality Marble.

He had grown a lot from when he had been involved in the Fifth Grail War.

Why, he had a plan that didn't limit itself to only the desired end goal.

With a mutter of "Trace On," for each Noble Phantasm, Shirou, one by one, projected, stepped forward, and threw a copy of a sword, a nameless weak Noble Phantasm from Gilgamesh's treasury, as if he were throwing a javelin into the glass-like window separating the Control Room from CHALDEAS's room. He repeated it three times, each sword striking dead on, cracking the almost impervious window in a formation like a square, a sword stuck fast into every corner.

The other people were turning to face Shirou now, their senses detecting the surge of magical energy as the weak Noble Phantasms came into existence.

But shock and surprise were slowing them down. Kept them from reacting fast enough, whether to help or to interfere.

After the fourth and last sword, Shirou rapidly took four steps back to where he had started his projections. Once in place, Shirou crouched down, using half-forgotten memories from P.E. a decade ago to use the back of the stairs he was up against like a kickpad.

Shirou carefully exhaled everything in his lungs before drawing in a deep breath, watching the room through the glass carefully, ignoring whatever the magi in this room were doing and saying even as some of them started rising from their chairs.

With a concise "Trace On." Shirou reinforced his body before kicking off in a full sprint towards the recently cracked segment of window, ignoring the squawks as the magi reacted to his burst of speed.

At the ideal spot, Shirou jumped, breaking through the enchanted barrier in a shower of shards, arms crossed in front of his face to protect his eyes and ears.

But breaking through the glass had slowed him down, causing his arc to be inadequate to reach the director who had recently emerged from the hole between Singularity F and Chaldea.

So Shirou used a trick he had developed against one female Dead Apostle who had taunted him by using a broomstick to fly while raining curses and spells down on him.

He projected one of the Sverd i Fjell, the 10-meter-tall bronze monument swords in Norway, right under his feet, while his body sailed through the air.

While the sword monument was easy enough to copy and project, the trick to using them hadn't been as easy. In fact, the injury from landing wrong had done more damage to him than the Dead Apostle had over the entire fight.

Rin had laughed in his bandaged, nearly mummified face for an entire minute when she had found out that he had hurt himself worse in the fall than the flying Dead Apostle had.

And then Rin had gasped out 'Why didn't you just shoot her?', before falling to the ground in a second wave of laughter. She then ignored his protests that the Apostle was moving and reacting too fast to be shot in favor of laughing at him.

But the incident had taught Shirou something. He needed an option to move mid-air and the only one he had needed work. But if Shirou had any virtues, it was insistent practice.

He practiced after getting released from the hospital and Rin's sniggering care. He must have projected that sword over 200 times until he learned how to project the large sword in just the right position under his feet and to time the jump just right to maximize his ability to move mid-air.

Using that hard and painfully won experience (he was lucky that his nose hadn't been broken to the point that it couldn't be fixed anymore), Shirou kicked off the conjured sword, accelerating it to terminal velocity before dismissing it right before the large sword could hit the floor.

No sense in making a mess of things that he would have to clean up.

But here and now, those practice sessions and painful landings paid off.

Shirou's right arm caught Olga Marie around the waist as she approached CHALDEAS, crying for help all the way.

Unfortunately, all the collision did was yank his arm as he spun around Olga Marie, who still was held fast by Lev's Mystery in an implacable approach towards certain doom and a horrible way to die.

Shirou had expected that.

Mysteries tried to disregard physics. If it said to move at this speed towards something, it would move at that speed towards something, regardless of how much was pulled. Although energy usage would climb as the weight increased, the spell would still go on.

So Shirou projected one of the two swords he had prepared, ready to be traced from Unlimited Blade Works.

An exploding sword. Part of a Mystic code of an enchanted suit of armor set to detonate if sufficient damage was received.

It hadn't taken much work for Shirou to disassociate the sword from the armor so that it could be projected on its own.

If Shirou was lucky, the Mystery that Lev was using depended on the victim being in eyesight. And the explosion of fire and smoke that this sword would cause should interrupt the demon's vision. If not, then if the explosion sufficiently distracted him or even killed him, then the Mystery would fade.

And being in an explosion was slightly distracting. Shirou had been near enough to be intimately familiar with that tidbit.

As the Mystic Code dropped into his free hand, Shirou threw it with all the strength he had back through the portal to Lev.

The sword cut through the air like a silver bullet, a flash of light, as it left Chaldea.

And it landed in Fuyuki right on top of Lainur before exploding, sending a shockwave of sound through both the cavern of the Greater Grail and Chaldea's center as a ball of fire centered on Shirou's boss.

Who probably had been dismissed from being Shirou's boss after being reported dead. And who certainly would be fired after trying to kill Chaldea's director.

Sadly, as the fire faded, Lev was still standing there, looking annoyed like he had just been rudely given his dismissal notice.

But damage wise, his clothes didn't even have a scorch mark, a scratch, or even a hint of ash on them. As if the exploding weapon hadn't affected him at all.

"Shirou Emiya," Lev growled. "Nothing but a tool and a weapon. I even used mental interference magecraft to reinforce the order to die by the very bomb I gave you to plant in the power plant. Why are you fighting- "

Oh, Shirou realized as he started to tune out the remainder of Lev's words. So that is why I didn't remember part of the previous week and how Fou moved so fast that day. I didn't black out, nor is the Phantasmal Beast that fast. I was hypnotized.

I was the bomber. The memories of doing it were simply covered up or erased, like an Enforcer hiding the secret of magecraft.

Which meant that his mind could have some commands in it to continue working for Lev in his evil endeavor. Shirou was compromised, unable to trust his mind or body, especially his memories.

But the words made sense. His memories had some gaps. The bomber had been quick and used only a few efficient motions similar to how Shirou would have done them. Lev was now an enemy of Chaldea and humanity. One of Shirou's missing memories had been in the middle of a conversation with Lev. And unnaturally, Shirou hadn't even been concerned about missing spans of time despite being awake during them. The facts simply aligned.

Shirou's body had been used to help murder the engineers of Chaldea.

Shirou's throat suddenly tasted of bile but Shirou pushed the sensation aside.

Rin had always said that he should improve his defenses against the more subtle uses of magecraft. He should have listened. Should have been more suspicious. Should have been better prepared.

However, he would have to take care of that later. Probably should also get rid of any remaining influences on his mind by someone else while he was at it. Before he devastated Chaldea again would be nice.

Most importantly, he had a person to save and a back-up plan to implement right now. He could worry about what he had done under another's control at a later date.

But just in case there was another order laid into his suppressed memories, Shirou was going to go all out in this back-up plan, leaving nothing for him to attack anyone else with. He couldn't hurt anyone if he had too little Od to fight after all.

So Shirou would pour as much energy as he could into his most powerful sword, the second sword he had prepared to trace.

Judging the concept of creation.

Selection. Judgment. The symbol of chivalry and kingly authority. Holy.

Hypothesizing the basic structure.

The structure was a sword, although etched and carved to shine in a royal court. It's physical strength and endurance compromised for the enhancement of its beauty. The red and blue jewels in particular made for nice touches on the completed sword.

This was a sword that was only fit to rest in the scabbard of a king.

Duplicating the composition material.

In spite of being a special alloy of steel, the sword was more magic wearing a dress of physical iron, carbon, and gold than enchanted steel. The hilt was ornate, taking the gold melted and forged to look stunning; the outermost layer of the hilt colored to better match the colors of its wielder.

Imitating the skill of its making.

Made by the Fae, its makers were both Earth's most skilled and oddest smiths.

Sympathizing with the experience of its growth.

Magic, genuine magic, a type only available to Gaia's fairies and not mortal magecraft, through processes Shirou still didn't fully understand, had been both woven and forged, but almost a form of actually growing into the completed work.

And after them, mortal smiths had taken the sword and adjusted it for a new wielder.

Reproducing the accumulated years.

The sword had waited patiently for an entire generation, judging and denying all who had come forth to prove their worth.

Until a certain someone had lain hands on the hilt.

Excelling every manufacturing process.

He wanted this sword to be perfect. To be worthy of being Saber's favored sword.

And just as he had thought all those many years ago when he had projected his first Noble Phantasm, this body was a Magic Circuit specialized for this purpose. To reproduce this special sword!

Caliburn. The Golden Sword of Compelled Victory.

Olga, amidst her tears and cries for help, squawked as she felt a Noble Phantasm form beside her. "What!"

"What?!" Roman yelled, his fellow staff also turning stunned for a second time in less than a minute. "How is that even possible!?"

Shirou could see Mash, inside the Singularity and holding back Ritsuka from running after Olga, take on a poleaxed look as her jaw dropped, eyes widened, and her grip went slack.

Not that Ritsuka took advantage of it to break free as he was too busy gawking at Lev who had just ignored a sword that turned into a fireball.

What could Ritsuka do against someone who had ignored a person-sized fireball?

But Shirou still ignored them all, focused only on Lev and himself, uniting them in a form of Zen, into a unity that only existed between target and archer.

Caliburn was his best chance of either killing or wounding Lev or the demon who was possessing his form.

And while the spellcaster's understanding of Fae magic and forging was decent, enough to make it cost a seventh less than the original amount of prana he had needed when he had first traced the Sword of Selection, the Noble Phantasm still needed a lot of power to be strong.

So Shirou maximized his prana output, pouring as much as his 27 circuits could handle into the sword. With this sword and his weak prana reserve, it would be best to just use one shot.

One shot that would count. One shot that could make a difference.

Taking a last good look at Lev, Shirou swung around to Olga's back, almost hugging her from behind in order to grip Caliburn with both hands as the beautiful sword was supposed to be used.

"Sword of Selection, grant me your power!" Shirou prayed. He was going all out in this and while his power would never compare with Arturia's, he wasn't going to skimp with anything that belonged to her. And here, that meant giving the full chant for this Noble Phantasm. "Cleave the wicked, Caliburn!"

Shirou brought the glowing sword's tip down. Straight at Lev Flauros.

Who certainly did not look happy to see it.

Either that or he just realized that Shirou had been ignoring his speech about how Shirou was a petty annoyance and a fool. Shirou was used to such speeches. After all, he had received so many of them.

Olga was wide-eyed as she saw the absolutely gorgeous blue, white, and gold sword fire a beam of golden light back through the portal she had been thrown through.

She was close enough for her to see the strange characters scratched onto the sword that resembled runes but didn't match a single rune of the several runic languages she knew.

She was close enough to recognize the feeling and pressure of a Noble Phantasm like Saber's Excalibur, Caster's Wicker man, and Mash's Lord Chaldeas.

She was close enough to Shirou Emiya- whose arms were still encircled around her waist! When was he going to let go! - to feel the torrent of magical power flowing through him and into the sword.

Although it felt more like a stream of sharp but molten metal than any of the other elements she had felt over her years of learning and using magecraft.

The man must have a rare element. Uncommon, but as a group, rare elements were slightly more common than an Average One despite any individual rare element being much harder to find.

But most amazing to her, was the fact that she was close enough to Shirou Emiya to feel if he was a Heroic Spirit.

He wasn't.

He was just a technician with a Noble Phantasm.

But most of all, she was close enough for the brief burst of light blasting from less than 20 centimeters from her face to blind her.

She couldn't help the cry of pain as the light pressed into her eyes, causing her to automatically snap her eyelids shut in an effort to keep the pain out.

But she felt something.

She felt the pressure around her body, forcing her to move at a set velocity, overpowering both gravity and air drag, which pressure was also forcefully holding her in one position and ignoring her struggles to move or even tremble, but leaving her mouth and lungs free to scream her last words, abate.

Or to put it more simply, she regained control and started to fall.

Olga snapped her eyes open, still unable to see anything but the afterimage of that beam of light, as she realized that no longer was she headed to an eternal death by merging with CHALDEAS.

Instead she was going to die from a broken neck by falling 15 meters to the ground!

Oh wait, she was already dead. That was the expected result of having her body destroyed.

But she was still going to die a second time by falling to her death!

She screamed, her lungs not composed of flesh and blood but instead spiritrons, forcing out the sound.

But the unbelievable cad behind her, was still holding onto her waist! When was he going to let go! His lineage didn't qualify him to touch her! Especially around t-t-there!

Only for the situation to turn worse.

His arms ran up her sides!

His hands ran over her breasts!

He-! He just-! He was-!

CAD! BEAST! BLEEDER! BLIGHTER! PERVERT! ROTTER! SCOUNDREL! VERMIN! DEVIANT! DEPRAVED!CHURL! DEGENERATE! DEBAUCHEE! PERVERTIEREN! идиот! извращенец ! ползать!

Olga would've slapped him if his arms weren't under her armpits and keeping her from twisting around to give him his justly deserved punishment!

If Olga had been paying more attention to the surroundings rather than the fact that Emiya had just got copped a feel, she would have noticed that Shirou had vertically bounced twice. Both times kicking off of another large sword that he projected just under his feet mid-air, bleeding off momentum before landing both of them safely on the ground.

The arms running up her torso had been because of Emiya stopping at each sword while she had kept on falling until his arms caught her and stopped her fall.

She also would have noticed, after the golden light had poured through the rift in time and space, that the portal had snapped shut.

Instead, she was screaming as many words as she knew in as many languages as she knew over what Shirou had just unwittingly done to her.

And then Shirou let go of her.

And with her feet on the ground, the first thing she did was turn around and slap him in the face with her full strength.

The guy must have been made of steel, because his head barely turned.

And her hand hurt. A lot.

So she slapped him with her other hand.

She might not have been in a rational mind at the moment.

Meanwhile, well for a given term of 'meanwhile' as meanwhile doesn't cover acting simultaneously in two different periods of time, Fuyuki was almost quiet.

The 'almost' coming from the rumbling of rocks above as the cavern decided that it had enough photon beams, giant burning wooden men, holes in time and space, and that they really shouldn't all be happening underground.

But despite the cracking and groaning of rocks above, nothing was falling.

Yet.

"My liege," Mash muttered without even realizing what she was saying as she sank down to her knees.

To Ritsuka, who was standing to the other side of her after she had pulled him back from chasing after Olga, it looked like Mash was completely unaware of what she was doing.

Not that Ritsuka was any different.

He was standing there, jaw agape as he had watched the older Japanese man collide mid-air with the director, swing around her, throw a sword at the traitor that had exploded into a fireball before pulling out of thin air, the most beautiful sword Ritsuka had ever seen. Then he used it to fire off an energy beam, of all things, at Mr. Lainur!

When he had signed his signature on the contract from Chaldea's recruiter, he hadn't expected to walk into a Shonen anime!

Now he just stood there, slack-jawed as he stared at the portal which had just snapped shut.

"ARGH!" came the sudden sound from where the bright beam of light had impacted.

Apparently, Lev Lainur Flauros had survived the blast.

But as Ritsuka's eyes automatically turned to look, it looked like the man shouldn't have.

Mr. Lainur's face was peeling like it had slept in a furnace overnight, a hole through his chest and his clothes while his hat was nowhere to be seen. All over his body, sullen red burn marks showed through, including where his long hair had once been.

All in all, he looked more like a burned corpse used for a horror film than a living person.

And yet, he could still talk.

"YOU INSOLENT CURS!" the moving corpse roared as it somehow took a step forward.

HOW? HOW?

It didn't even have an intact spine anymore! Ritsuka could see the back of the cave through the hole where the rest of the torso should be! How could it possibly walk?

"I DIDN'T KILL ALL OF YOU OUTRIGHT AS I SHOULD HAVE!" the dead man yelled but he didn't even have the lungs to do that! "I SHOULD HAVE KILLED THAT MINION OF THE COUNTER FORCE RATHER THAN USE HIM!"

Ritsuka stepped back, frightened.

This was worse than a horror movie. Less terrifying background music but more feeling of 'oh my gosh, we're going to die, we're going to die, we're going to die!'

What could he do about it?! The former man had just survived a huge laser beam! Was there anything that Ritsuka could do when compared to an almost chest sized laser beam?! Would leading the dead man to Berserker work? Set the terrifying, overpowered giant against the man who would not die?

Ritsuka looked up at the man who had betrayed Chaldea and wondered what he could do.

Lev Flauros looked down on the two humans beneath him and felt rage. Tumultuous, boiling rage.

Mash was terrified but she drew courage and determination to defend Ritsuka from one she had once called ally.

And using those two resources, the girl picked up her shield and dashed.

Halting a few steps ahead of Ritsuka, she gritted her teeth and raised her shield.

Then slammed it down hard to the ground in a gesture of defiance. A declaration that humanity was not dead yet.

And out of all things that happened, the Tyrant of Knights blasting her Noble Phantasm willy-nilly, a giant Wicker-Man walking around until it was set on fire, and a technician shooting a beam attack from the future, the cave decided that it was Mash slamming her shield down onto the ground that was the feather on the camel's back.

All three people in the cavern paused their stand-off to look up as they heard and saw the mountain start to fall upon their heads.

"It looks like this Singularity has had enough," Lev Lainur Flauros said, his voice full of malice and irritation, yet inhumanely calm.

Not to worry though, Ritsuka and Mash were feeling enough fear to cover his quota too.

"Mash, can you use your Noble Phantasm to protect us?" Ritsuka asked in a whisper as he watched the rocks fall.

"Yes, but no," she whispered back. "I can keep the rocks from crushing us, but I can't get us air to breathe after being buried."

"Cursed Saber and her Master," Lev growled, his voice taking on frustration and annoyance. "Even after your demises, you're still causing me trouble here. If she had just obeyed and taken the Holy Grail-!"

Lev stopped as a rock fell where he had been standing.

"Farewell, Romani, Mash and Candidate #48. I have other things to do, more important than enjoying bringing your demise. Enjoy your swallowing by the dimensional warp-!"

The man's speech ended as another rock nearly fell on him again, forcing him to disappear in a burst of light before it hit.

Meanwhile, Mash had just pulled Ritsuka out of the way of a falling boulder the size of a car. Hearing the groan and rumble of the roof as the cracks became wider and the boulders larger, Ritsuka made a snap decision.

"Do it, Mash!" Ritsuka yelled as he watched another boulder, larger than the first, fall towards them.

"Lord-" Mash began.

But before she could even finish her word, the ground beneath their feet split in twain.

Ritsuka stumbled, his body falling away from the girl that called him her 'Senpai' even as she did likewise.

Struck by fear, he reached out his hand towards her.

"Mash!" he cried.

"Senpai!" Ritsuka could see one of her hands leave her shield to grab at him.

The two hands reached, and missed before trying again. Both Ritsuka and Mash strained and twisted, trying to catch hold. And this time, they caught and clung to each other, finding comfort and stability in a collapsing world by the grip of another's hand.

With a yank of her arm, Ritsuka felt Mash pull him to her, her armored body catching his involuntary mid-air full body tackle.

He clung to her, fear of the falling ceiling overcoming his sense of propriety.

It helped that the closer they were to each other, the better her large shield could cover them.

In Mash's mind, the thought that 'at least I wouldn't die alone' wouldn't leave. A guilty pleasure and happiness right now. Even so, she knew that she should wish that Ritsuka wouldn't die with her.

Actually, she found in a moment of introspection as she felt smaller pebbles and rocks bounce off her shield. She did wish that Ritsuka wouldn't die with her. The problem was she was just too happy that she wouldn't die alone to feel it strongly enough-

The sensation of a yank from inside her belly button grabbed her attention as she felt time and space both stretch and compress simultaneously.

A Rayshift!

Mash's eyes widened in relief and her smile broke free as colors and lights streamed past her in the experience unique to this form of time travel.

They were saved! She and her Master wouldn't die!

Then in a jerk that Mash didn't remember, she was lying on the ground on top of a cold, flat surface in the present time of Chaldea.

Mash just blinked at the wall in her prone position, stomach on the ground her head on top of her arm.

Senpai.

Her eyes snapped fully open and she twisted her head around, worried that her Master might not be here.

Only to sigh in relief at finding him curled up right next to her, his body on its side like he had fallen over from a sitting position.

Mash got to her feet, shaking and trembling.

She must be tired from all fighting she had done. She had poured so much of her magical reserves into combat and her Noble Phantasm that her body was shaking.

She tottered the step over between her and him and collapsed to her knees in an almost seiza position.

One hand drifted over him, hesitating as she wondered where she should check.

Was he alive? Was he dead?

Finally falling to his throat and the vein there, Mash waited, her own heart beat pounding in her ears.

And she felt a slow heartbeat pump in his neck.

Mash bonelessly relaxed, her last worry assuaged.

Senpai was alright.

She looked down at him, eyes studying his sleeping face.

It was cute. And it was fascinating how he slept. But it was interesting how whenever she found her Senpai, he was always sleeping on the hard, cold floor.

And yet, he was the only one Mash had ever seen sleep. Just like earlier today when Fou found him on the ground in the upper floors after his first Spiritron Dive. Or just after the Rayshift when a stray pair of skeletons attacked while he was unaware of the world around him.

His eyes were closed, hiding his emotions and thoughts. And his face was relaxed and lightly breathing, showing a vulnerability that was different from his confusion that had lasted throughout the Singularity.

It wasn't different from how he slept before, an almost textbook sleep pattern. But now that she knew him better, it was amazing just how much he looked different without his animating spirit and resolute yet patient eyes displaying his emotions for everyone to see.

Ritsuka breathed in, his chest slightly expanding. Then a pause and he breathed out.

It was novel and interesting, Mash discovered. That a person could look so different asleep than how they were awake. Who knew that being bereft of an animating intelligence could change a person's appearance so much?

After watching a few iterations of breathing, Mash looked up and around the room, her post-Rayshift sleepiness causing her to yawn widely.

Senpai must have been overtaken by it as well, Mash sleepily concluded. He started the Rayshift tired from the new strain of his first Spiritron Dive and the Singularity had been much more exciting, yet draining than the simulations she had been through. Only natural for him to be tired.

Mash yawned again, this one lasting a while.

She didn't think that they were going to do a mission debrief. Olga had just died so no one would be there to do it.

Maybe she could go sleep for a bit. Her room was a fair distance away, but she doubted that they would be holding a debrief any time soon.

She could go take a brief nap, right?

Mash blinked languidly. That sounded good. Olga was probably dead so she couldn't hold a debrief. Which meant that she didn't need to be down here.

Mash drowsily clambered to her feet and reflexively glanced down at Ritsuka, who was still fast asleep on the hard ground.

Actually, Senpai was Japanese and he slept on straw mats, the Japanese carpet, or so he had said after she had found him when asleep on the upper levels. And if he was sleeping here, the ground must be more comfortable than she had thought.

She had thought it much too hard to sleep on. But if Ritsuka was doing it, then it must be better than she had thought.

Maybe she could try sleeping on a hard floor, just to check it out? After all, if Senpai was sleeping so peacefully, it couldn't be all that bad.

And it was far closer than her bed, Mash thought as she yawned and did a little stretch.

Mind made up, Mash laid down about three feet opposite her Master, one arm becoming her pillow. She looked one last time at his sleeping face.

Then she closed her eyes and was fast asleep.

Roman was up and out of his seat, running for the door the second after Shirou had managed to force Flauros to close the portal.

The door opened at his approach, which was fortunate because Roman had no intention to stop.

Nearly running into the wall as he turned, the doctor raced to the staging area.

He didn't know what he could do to help, but he was a doctor. He had given his oath to help and heal people.

Even if Chaldea didn't have a spare puppet body. Even if they didn't have anything to help her. Not even the Coffins could help as Olga didn't have a body to put into them.

Roman's mind raced almost as fast as his feet.

He couldn't use drugs, he couldn't use medicine, he couldn't use acupuncture, if he had a magus on hand, then he could maybe use magecraft but the kind of magecraft required was almost on the level of the Third Magic.

But they didn't have any Einzbern here. Without one of their homunculi, they couldn't accomplish a feat nearly on the verge of True Magic.

Roman searched through his mind and memories, memorized facts and theories, knowledge and tools, for anything.

Unfortunately, anything that could help required resources that he simply didn't have at the moment. Chaldea's resources were vast and widespread, but they couldn't store everything. Several rare artifacts weren't released from the Clock Tower or Atlas or the Wandering Sea or even the Church. And private collectors or high-ranking magi weren't inclined to give up their treasures just because an organization with bottomless pockets wanted a sample.

And then there were people like the Einzbern whose prices for their goods were simply too high for Chaldea to view as worth the expense or effort.

But right now, Roman almost wished that they had paid the Einzbern their ridiculous price, whatever it was, for one of their premium homunculi. Wishcraft, the Einzbern ability to manifest a magical effect without knowledge of the mystery or meeting all the previous requirements by instead substituting a large amount of magical energy, would go a long way right now.

But no, no Wishcraft. Roman would have to do with what he had.

And given that he was going to be working on a Spiritron body, that meant that he had to use Atlas's technology.

Roman wondered if any of the stuff he had in his pockets could help. Nothing there could really keep a spiritual body from dying. Freeze one, yes. Stop a biological body from continuing to die, definitely. Heal wounds, he had at least five different devices.

But stop the death of one that had no physical body and stabilize it? No. The closest tool that would meet that parameter was a few floors away, near the Summoning Experiment Chamber in fact. And its back-up was in storage even further away.

But by the time he could get it down here, Olga would already be long gone.

Roman knew then that what he was doing was pointless. He couldn't save Olga. He didn't have any of the specialized equipment to capture her soul or contain it. He could repair it, but what could stop death from claiming its due?

Roman's mind popped up with several things that could, but none of them would work now or on Olga in her current state.

Roman took his frantic worry and channeled it into his legs.

The only thing I can do now, he thought as he turned the corner to the main chamber of Chaldea, his lungs burning from the exertion of the sprint, is to help her pass on as peacefully as possible.

Shirou didn't know what to do.

Animusphere had been ranting at him for several minutes now. About how he didn't meet the criteria for what he had done to her. Sounded like she was one of the people who would complain about their own rescue if it didn't meet their liking.

But that was acceptable. She had been saved and her angry words helped keep his mind off of things.

Things like Arturia and her Alter's demise. Or how he had been the bomber. Or that Lev, his boss had become possessed and betrayed them all and how he, Shirou, hadn't noticed. How his neglect of his defenses against mental interference had led him to kill his coworkers.

Unfortunately, Olga Marie Animusphere was on her third round of repeating herself.

"-the offense of w-where you TOUCHED ME should have you fired! No hanged, then fired!" She ranted. "And before you think that you are getting off lightly" the word was hissed in offended dignity, anger, and with a fire in her eyes. "I mean it literally!"

Yep, she definitely was one of the types that complained about him not riding in on a white horse.

Meh, Shirou didn't do it for her gratitude. He did it because she needed help. If she chose to give gratitude, it was just polite of her. If she didn't, then did it change anything?

Well, Shirou's opinion of her would change to her being more like Rin but that wouldn't change his actions.

Shirou would never regret saving anyone.

"Terminating Rayshift Unsummon Program," An impartial female voice came over the facility intercom. "Spiritron Conversion Reversed. Rayshift Returning in 3, 2, 1. First Order concluding operation."

"Is there anything you would like to say in your defense!" Olga yelled into Shirou's face.

Shirou thought for a moment.

"Just glad to see you alive, Director," Shirou said simply. He was out of prana and would barely be able to squeeze out a tracing of a normal sword right now. He didn't have drops left to spare after using those drops to bring Olga to the ground. But Olga was alive now so that was good and outweighed everything else.

"Of course, you are!" Olga flipped her hands up and stormed away a few steps before turning around to point at him. "But don't think that will expressing sentiments of-"

She stopped suddenly. Shirou's eyes refocused onto the white-haired woman.

Her feet were glowing.

And as Shirou watched, the edges of her shoes started to vanish into that glow.

"What is happening?" Olga yelled staring down at her feet. Her forehead started to sweat, beads of condensation forming. "Lev, what- "

She broke off, obviously disconcerted by the betrayal of her closest advisor.

"What do I do? What do I do? What is happening?" She panicked, trying to back away from her own feet, and falling to ground. She stared in fascinated horror at the disappearing edges of her shoes which was now working its way into her toes.

Shirou was frozen. He had never seen anyone just start vanishing like this before. He had seen Servants die but they just started glowing all over before shimmering out of existence. They didn't die like this, starting to disappear at the farthest reaches and then working their way in.

"My feet! What is happening to my feet?" the woman panicked before reaching out one hand towards them.

But the fingertips were glowing the same white glow as her feet now.

"No!" She screamed, backing away but there was no point. She was disappearing. She couldn't escape herself "No, I can't die yet! I can't die!"

"Someone help me!" She yelled, suddenly looking up at Shirou. He could see her widened eyes. She was afraid. She was dying.

But Shirou didn't know what to do. There was no one he could defeat to save her. He didn't know of any medical procedure to save her. He didn't even know that a human could vanish like this.

If she was a Servant, he could try to make a contract with her but she wasn't. She was human, just like him.

"I, I…" Shirou stammered eyes flicking about.

There had to be something! There had to be something he could do.

But there was nothing. The room was bare, CHALDEAS floating in its apparatus, its red glow shining and declaring that something was still wrong.

Shirou could already guess at that. He didn't need a giant red glowing ball to tell him.

"Director!" Roman yelled, puffing and panting as he staggered into the large room. "Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay, Roman?" She screamed at him. "I'm disappearing! I'm disappearing!"

"Already?" The doctor said in surprise. "Listen, if you want to say or do anything, start reinforcing your own existence! It will help you last longer if you use your own prana."

Olga concentrated, a crease in her manicured eyebrows brow forming.

But it was working, Shirou saw with hope. Her feet were reforming from out of the white glow.

But she was still glowing.

The doctor hurried over to Olga, his breathing labored.

He must have run all the way down here.

Shirou rushed over as well.

"Anything I can do to help?" Shirou asked immediately, taking a knee next to the doctor.

"Do you have anything that can host a soul?" Roman asked immediately. "A puppet body, or a doll or anything? Preferably on you?"

Shirou blinked. That sounded suspiciously like what Illya had tried to do to him when she had kidnapped him back in the 5th Grail War.

"No," Shirou said. He didn't have anything like that.

The doctor cursed. "Then, no you can't. The best we can do is try and catch her soul but the Rayshift Experiment Chamber is too far from here for us to get the tools from there to here."

"What if we brought her there while having someone bring it here and we met in the middle?" Shirou asked, getting ready to run.

"Still too long," the long-haired man said as he pulled out some strange devices from his large coat pockets. "Even if she manages to keep this up long enough, by the time we made it half-way, her existence will have been rejected too much."

"Rejection?" Olga asked before her eyes widened. "You mean Gaia is rejecting me?"

"Yes," Roman said distractedly, fiddling around with one smooth and black device before laying it on Olga's stomach. "Hold that there, it should make you more comfortable. The Rayshift just concluded so the Spiritron familiar is breaking apart without the Evocation-Invocation Engine running. The main reason you haven't disappeared yet is because CHALDEAS provides a covering field around Chaldea so Gaia isn't quite so quick to reject you. But just because it is much slower to recognize or reject unnatural things doesn't mean that it won't. It just takes longer. If we could establish a field to reject Gaia's influence then we could possibly keep you alive for a time. But the workshops won't let a foreign spirit entity enter in and Da Vinci is in the middle of a delicate repair. Can't disturb her without setting off a potentially catastrophic reaction. Besides, the Bounded Fields layered throughout Chaldea wouldn't let her teleport here even if we could contact her."

Shirou's mind raced.

Gaia's rejection was what was killing Olga. Shirou didn't know of anything that could stop it.

Except…

"Contact her!" Olga ordered, her voice holding a bit of panic.

"I tried," Roman shook his head. "Her communicator is off. And she works better on her own without people to distract her and vice versa so I don't have anyone near her that I could tell to go get her."

"Then what are you going to do?" Olga asked desperately.

"What I can," Roman said grimly as he pressed buttons on another device. "I'm going to do my best to make sure that you die as peacefully as possible."

"No," Olga gasped, her body flaring in white light as her control slipped. "There must be something!"

"What if you had a space separate from Gaia?" Shirou asked.

He knew what he was asking. He knew that he was risking his life and freedom as well as his home and his friends.

But if it was to save someone, then he would do it with no regrets.

Roman paused, before turning around to face Shirou.

"You have such a spell?" Roman asked, a light of hope flickering to life in his eyes.

"Yes," Shirou said simply. "I have a Reality Marble."

Olga gasped at the admittance and her extremities and hair flared again, the white light indicating that she had momentarily stopped reinforcing her existence.

Roman himself gaped for a second before asking. "Hostile to life, amiable, or foreign?"

"Um," Shirou thought back to his Reality Marble.

From what he felt of it, it wasn't exactly friendly to life as nothing could grow there. But it felt like it could allow life to exist there. As long as you didn't need water or food but there was air and sky and it wouldn't kill you unless you did something to hurt yourself.

"Allows life but not able to sustain it," Shirou decided.

"Does it have breathable air?" Roman asked, his hands getting busy pulling a disk-like black, grey, white and blue object out of a pocket. "Is it dangerous to an unusual degree? Like surprises, strange relationship to rules of reality like the flow of time, bottomless ledges that you could fall from, innocuous things becoming dangerous or requiring certain rituals to access parts?"

"Yes. Not unless she does something stupid or dangerous like pick up the wrong weapon. No to all of those," Shirou answered in order.

Shirou had seen cursed weapons before, blades doomed to take their wielder's life. They were still swords so he had copied them without being able to stop himself. He didn't plan on using one but he couldn't get rid of them.

As long as Olga didn't pick up one of those weapons, she should be fine.

"Then just give me a minute and keep on reinforcing yourself. It'll take some time to adjust these tools," the doctor said to Olga as his gaze dropped to the disk in his hands. "They are meant to pull people through textures of Gaia or layers of reality in case a Rayshift or experiment went wrong and someone ended up out of phase with the human layer. It'll take some time to repurpose it to shove you into an internal texture."

The doctor fell silent as he concentrated on what he was doing.

"You can't be serious!" Olga finally found her voice. Fortunately, she still was reinforcing herself. "You can't just have a Reality Marble! They are a step away from True Magic. No way a young clan of magi could make such a thing!"

"I've been working on developing it for a decade now," Shirou admitted. "It started sometime around the Fifth Grail War and I've been working on refining it since me and – I discovered it."

He cut himself off from mentioning Rin's participation. He probably shouldn't tell Animusphere, one of the Lords of the Clock Tower, that one of their most talented and up and coming members had been participating and conducting illegal research into Reality Marbles.

Rin would scream and choke him until he was blue in the face if he did.

Though, come to think of it, she would probably try to see how many Gandr she could shoot at him as punishment for even revealing that he had a Reality Marble.

Eh, he'll take care of it when the time comes. He couldn't have just sat by and let a woman die.

Though he didn't expect Rin or Saber to forgive him even if he told them that.

Roman was busy fiddling with the inside of the foreign device he had in his hand. Shirou had never seen anything like it.

"Still," Olga was shaking her head in disbelief and rejection. "What you are saying is impossible. The number of successful human attempts at Reality Marbles are ridiculously low. You shouldn't be able to complete one even in a decade of work."

Shirou just shrugged. He knew the odds as well. Rin had looked them up and told him.

Still amazed him sometimes that he had surpassed them. He wasn't that good of a magus.

Actually, he was pretty bad at being a magus. Both in terms of learning magecraft and acting like a magus.

Maybe that had been a factor in how he managed to make part of his soul into a Reality Marble? It would be ironic if having the attitude and beliefs of a magus precluded one from achieving one of their greatest achievements.

"Also, how is this even possible?" Olga turned to Roman. "How could a Reality Marble inside a person even be able to contain another person?"

"It is a Mystery," Roman said almost flippantly with his mind focused on the tool in his hands. "And the proximity to True Magic means that with a little luck, we can do things that humanity can't understand."

It was hard to argue against that. It didn't need to make sense, it just needed to work. Shirou didn't care how it worked, only that it saved Olga.

"Okay," Roman sighed as he finished jury rigging the device. The Texture Shifter had one objective and that was to reunite a soul with the human plane of Gaia. It was meant for use when a Rayshift went astray and left a soul somewhere other than its body. But if Roman's slap-dash modifications worked, it should instead push a soul somewhere else.

It was a good thing he knew so much about modern magecraft, Reality Marbles, and ancient magic despite not having magic circuits. If he didn't know what he knew…

Well, that would be a different problem. For now, he had an experimental operation to do.

"What we're going to do is try to shift Olga's existence from this plane of reality into your Reality Marble," Roman said to his assistant and patient. Shirou's brown eyes and Olga's orange eyes met his, determination and resolution in the first while fear dominated the second. "Again, I'm not sure how this will work. No one has ever done anything like this, at least not that I know of. So, if you die mid-way, I apologize. Fortunately, you are already dying so all that changes is how you die."

Olga did not look comforted.

"What do you need us to do?" Shirou asked.

Roman almost bit his lip.

"For you, nothing. I just need you to do not open your circuits and reject her as she travels into your Reality Marble. If you try to resist the intrusion, this will get much more difficult. So, hold back and do nothing," Roman told the technician who nodded in acceptance before taking a more comfortable seating position on the ground.

Then Roman turned to Olga who was bravely holding back her fear. "For you, director, I need you to make your reinforcement as steady as possible. If it spikes high, you might not reach the Reality Marble. If it spikes low, you might skip past it. Find a stable degree that you can maintain under stress and keep it there. As long as it is stable, the device might be able to compensate."

"I don't like your conditional qualifiers, Romani," Olga growled. "Am I going to live or not?"

"I don't know," Roman ran a hand through his hair nervously. "As I said, I am going off guesswork here. I don't know if Shirou's Reality Marble will reject you at the boundaries or not. I don't know if the device will push you out of this texture of Gaia or where you will land. I don't know if the device will revert to its original purpose and pull you back to here mid-way through. I don't even know if it will kill Shirou or not. I think it might work but I don't even know enough to tell you if this has even a one percent chance of success or survival."

Olga's mouth trembled.

"Let's do it," Shirou said determinedly. "One percent or not, that is still better than someone dying."

"All right," Roman exhaled before shaking himself. Now was not the time for second thoughts. Not with a centimeter of Olga's hair having already vanished.

"Okay, hold this, both of you," Roman said as he put the device onto Olga's forehead before shifting her so that her head was on Shirou's lap. "Lay your hands on the disk."

Olga was still quietly trembling, her desire to live conflicting with her sense of propriety. But she did as instructed, raising both of her hands to land on the disk while Shirou brought his physical hands to do the same.

The disk was barely large enough for all of their hands to fit on, Roman's hand hovering over the start button included.

"Starting procedure," Roman said, a drop of sweat beading down his face.

Roman hit the button and withdrew his hand.

He didn't have the ability to sense magic or magecraft. He didn't know how it was going. But it was his only option.

His only other one was to give up and watch Olga die. And as Marisbury's friend and as a doctor who had sworn the Hippocratic Oath, he couldn't do that so easily.

In this battle against death, he had only one option left. And it was a gamble.

But if the patients agreed to it, then his ethics were fulfilled and he could operate.

For a long second, nothing happened.

And then Olga started to vanish, her entire body breaking apart into streams of white that flowed into Shirou's stomach.

Roman swallowed as the white light started to prismatically bend, casting out a rainbow of color amidst the white light of Olga's soul.

Was it working?

This was harder than medical school, Roman felt. At least there he could look up previous medical treatments, read textbooks, watch videos and documentaries about the human body and talk to experienced professionals. Here, he was going off of guesswork, abstract theory, and a prayer. Which reminded him…

Roman started praying, mumbled words to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, falling out of his mouth.

If you were to later ask Roman what he was praying for at that moment, he couldn't tell you. He just remembered the feeling of fear, panic and worry dominating his emotional landscape. Had he done his best? Was there something else he could have done?

Was this the start of the death of humanity?

Olga's transformed body flew into Shirou's stomach, the streams of white vanishing.

Roman noted that Shirou had his jaw set and clenched. In addition, his body language was extremely tense but despite his obvious efforts, the man was minutely trembling.

Roman watched as the last wisp of multi-colored white was absorbed into Shirou's body, the Texture Shifter floating above his lap where Olga's body had been.

A pause.

The disk fell to Shirou's lap. Shirou didn't die.

"Phew," Roman exhaled, relaxing his entire body.

"AAARGGH!" Shirou yelled, face contorting in pain. "That hurt!"

"Really?" Roman asked, blinking and slightly worried. He didn't know if pain was a good thing or a bad thing. "Where did it hurt? And how bad was it?"

"It felt like I was giving birth in reverse!" Shirou grimaced, gasping a little.

"Uhhh," Roman said, blinking in a momentary confusion. "So, your hips and stomach? Is that where? Do your magic circuits feel bloated?"

Don't look at him like that! Roman hadn't delivered a baby before. It was rather rare in Chaldea for people to go for live births. As in, no one ever had during his entire time here.

"No, not quite. More of extreme pain everywhere," Shirou trailed off, collapsing and lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling. "I've obviously never given birth but it certainly felt like how it sounded that one time a baby decided to come out in the middle of a battle. That wasn't a fun part to be fighting at the front door while yelling instructions at the father and mother on the couch."

Roman was reminded that Shirou was one of the people here with actual combat experience. Possibly the only one remaining after Lev's sabotage.

"Well," Roman thought out loud. "The pain makes sense. I mean, you just took a person into yourself, no way that could be painless."

"I hadn't noticed," Shirou commented sarcastically. "I only saw and felt a person move through me. Who knew that it would be painless?"

"Sorry," Roman apologized, a nervous smile falling onto his lips. "I guess pain would have been a reaction I should have expected, huh?"

"It would have been nice to know beforehand," Shirou grumbled, still not moving. He was plainly exhausted from using the Noble Phantasm Caliburn against Lev.

"Well, no harm, no foul?" Roman said as he got to his feet, wincing. His knees and legs felt like they had been pricked with pins and needles. "All is forgiven?"

"Lots of pain," Shirou disagreed from his laid-out posture. "Certainly felt like harm."

Roman winced. Looking back on it, maybe he should have put some more thought into how the participants would feel.

Thinking of it, how would Olga have felt? If Shirou had compared it to giving birth in reverse…

"Oh, Olga is going to kill me," Roman muttered under his breath, dreading the reaction when Olga was let out of the Reality Marble into a puppet body.

"Dr. Roman," Tom said from the Command Center, his colored image popping out of Roman's communicator. "The 48th Master and Mash Kyrielight have successfully returned. Readings indicate that they are stable, distortion values minimal but they are rather low on Od reserves."

"Got it," Roman breathed in relief. The two were safely back. He hadn't been too sure of their safe return as Chaldea had never recalled a person from a Singularity before. Then again, Chaldea hadn't even found a Singularity before this one as far as Roman knew.

But if they could safely return from Singularities, then everything was alright.

Or was it?

"I'll check them out. Give them a check-up and all," Roman decided as he started looking around for where they had left the two remaining members of the Master teams. "Tom, finish the final procedures for me if you would. Oh, and tell Da Vinci to come here as soon as you can reach her. I'd like her to undo Lev's brainwashing on Shirou and check everyone over before anything bad can happen."

"Worse than what already happened?" Tom asked, raising an eyebrow, referring to the devastation among the geniuses that Olga had employed as part of her Chaldea.

"Yeah," Roman heavily replied as he found the pair, remembering the destruction that had littered this room. It didn't look it anymore, but for someone who remembered clearing the room and sliding 46 Masters into cryopreservation…

It was all too easy to remember.

"Understood," the physically large man said, nodding once, before the hologram shut off.

Roman started towards the collapsed bodies of Mash and Ritsuka until Shirou spoke.

"Doctor?" Shirou asked, his voice weary. "Did we save her?"

Roman hesitated.

Had they saved Olga? He honestly didn't know. Olga had disappeared and it certainly had been a different type of disappearing than when Gaia had started rejecting her.

But did she enter Shirou's Reality Marble or some plane of existence where Gaia wasn't rejecting her? Or was she even now being rejected and her spirit moving onto the afterlife?

Roman didn't know.

But if he had to guess-

"I think so," the Jew tentatively said before some instinct told him to look back.

The Japanese man was smiling. A big, bright, brilliant smile. As if his life's mission was complete and he had found it incredibly fulfilling.

Roman wondered why. Why was Shirou smiling so happily despite feeling intense amounts of pain earlier?

But that could be a matter for another day, Roman decided as he hurried over to check on the ones who had saved humanity and conquered Singularity F. Right now, he had to make sure that Mash was alright. That she hadn't lost her life or power when returning from the Singularity as a Demi-Servant.

He didn't think she had but his worry was gnawing at him to check and see for himself.

There is just one thing that bothers me, Roman thought as started fussing over the unmoving girl. Why did that Saber mention the Grand Order and deliver it to those three as a charge? We were operating under the First Order, not the Grand Order. And why those three?

Mash, Shirou and Ritsuka. The only commonality is that all three of them have experience as a Master and contributed to her defeat.

And are we truly done? Humanity still can't be found, not past 2019 or in the past either. Lev is still out there too. Roman thought as he glanced up at the glowing red globe in the center of the room. He was counting Mash's heartbeats, relieved that he could still feel them, that Mash was alive. And we haven't been contacted by anyone else despite being out of contact for several days now. Someone, the UN, the Mages Association, somebody should have sent someone to check up on us. If they haven't or can't…

Then something is wrong. And we'll have to fix it.

Or is it too late already?

Olga Marie looked around at Shirou Emiya's Reality Marble.

A graveyard of swords in a brown wasteland with about two dozen gigantic gears in the sky.

Standing up from where she had emerged into this internal texture, Olga could see further.

And all she saw was an almost infinite collection of swords, lances, bows, arrows, and dozens of other types of weapons. Also, a suit of armor lay over there and there might be more hidden among the rest.

And in the horizon, is that an oasis of green and blue?

She shakes her head. The heat must be getting to her. The entire Reality Marble is one gigantic wasteland with a dim sun and clouds overhead. There is a hill with few beautiful swords, weapons and a suit of blue and steel armor as well as a black full body suit of armor on the opposite side of the hill from the blue armor. At the peak was two swords, one a familiar black and red blade and the other a beautiful golden and blue Noble Phantasm that Shirou had used to stop Lev. Given that it is the only hill in this Reality Marble, both the hill and the stuff on it must have some special meaning.

Unlike Earth, a Reality Marble does not need to be diverse in topography. In fact, it was more likely for it be uniform if she remembered the Clock Tower's theoretical primer on Reality Marbles correctly. The result of a human mind and soul being infinitely inferior to Gaia's.

There is no way that there could be distant greenery. The heat must be playing mirages on her.

Speaking of the heat, she wishes that she hadn't worn her coat. It's too hot here!

But she is Olga Marie Animusphere, Lord of the Animusphere family and Director of Chaldea! She will not succumb to the heat! She will not be showing weakness when Lev comes and-!

She collapsed to the ground at her feet and sobs. Lev. Lev betrayed her.

Lev. The one man and friend she could trust and depend on. The only one who took saving humanity as seriously as she did.

And he betrayed her. Tried to kill her. Tried to force her to become one with CHALDEA, a fate worse than death.

No, Lev did kill her. Destroyed her body with his bomb. Cost her her Chaldea, her lordship, everything.

Lev.

Lev, WHY!?

She howls her grief into the unforgiving wasteland and sobs, feeling the tears and sweat trickle down her face, a bit of snot running from her nose.

She wishes she has ice-cream. It would make her feel better. And make the heat more bearable.

But Lev had even removed her ability to eat her secret stash of Cappanari ice-cream that she kept hidden in her room's refrigerator.

She was dead and she couldn't ever leave this place.

She is dead and will be alone forever.

No one will ever value her.

No one ever will compliment her.

She is alone.

A.N. Poor Olga. This might be a fate worse than death to be honest.

Isolation in a place that has no human company. Being powerless and alone when she was only recently betrayed by her best friend?

Having no chocolate ice-cream!?

Okay, the last might not be a fate worse than death (because an inability to have chocolate ice-cream is implied by the condition of death), but on top of everything else…

Oh, and people, don't get upset at Olga for caring more about Shirou feeling her up instead of saving her life. It is in character for her. Not to mention she just got bad news of someone's passing.

Her own.

Most people tend to react rather poorly to that…

A.N. 2 This is it. The reason why I had Shirou stuck in Chaldea. To hit Flauros with Caliburn in the face. I had planned that all the way from the beginning.

As I wrote this chapter until I split it into two, I realized that I could have used Shirou as a sleeper agent hypnotized into bombing Chaldea. So, some rewriting later (the changes have already been applied to previous chapters) and now Shirou's low resistance to mental magecraft has him as an unwitting bomber. As to why he doesn't join or obey Lev Lainur, it is because that wasn't what he was compelled/ordered to do. He was only forced into planting the bomb in the room with the other engineers and then the compulsion was reinforced in chapter 1 to have Shirou down there as well as to reinforce the loss of remembrance about what he had done. And the way I see it, Flauros had the time, power, and ability to overcome an unsuspecting Shirou's magical defenses. Like say, if Flauros and Shirou had the occasional interaction and Shirou relaxed his guard in familiar territory and around familiar faces. Or if Flauros had unrestricted access to the facility but potentially not the spare time in which to sneak down to a place while no one was there.

Anyway, back to hitting Flauros with Caliburn to the face (for some odd reason I really like that term, 'hitting Flauros with Caliburn to the face'). If Shirou had been deployed to Singularity F, he wouldn't have had the strength to do it, much less intercept Olga.

He would worn himself out against both Saber and Archer. Probably run out of Od or gotten knocked out against Saber.

Yes, Shirou is powerful. Yes, he has multiple Noble Phantasms.

No, he doesn't have Servant level mana or endurance. He barely has average magus level Od reserves. With Reinforcement acting as a multiplier, he might have low Servant level strength and agility.

And fighting against Shadow Archer and Saber Alter would result in him not being in good enough condition to fight Lev. And to be honest, Flauros is a foe outside of Fate Shirou's ability to solo even if he was fresh (or any other Shirou for that matter). And Mash isn't experienced enough to change the equation significantly yet.

And then there is the list of the Noble Phantasms I could have Shirou use. Anything else would be difficult for Shirou to create off the cuff and still be potent enough to even hurt Flauros.

Gae Bolg? Flauros isn't exactly human so losing his heart would be more of an inconvenience than life-threatening.

Medusa's chains? Nope. Too weak against Flauros. Pass.

Berserker's sword? Sorry, can't really see it being effective for the same reason as Gae Bolg. More annoying than useful.

Archer's weapons? Maybe, but Shirou is from Fate route. All he got from Archer was a bit of advice and Kanshou and Bakuya. (And annoyance. Can't forget that.) And Shirou doesn't know enough about his foe to create a weapon strong enough to beat Flauros yet. He would need a pinnacle of specialized weaponry to even hurt Flauros without it being a Noble Phantasm.

Excalibur? Too expensive for Shirou to project. And he isn't skilled enough yet to project a hollow image of it. Yes, he has a decade of practice. Still not enough skill to compensate for his lack of power, which lack of power means that trying would almost kill himself. Not to mention, it is generally agreed that Shirou can't project or copy Excalibur without something weird going on or dying just after making it. I bypassed it last chapter by having Saber Alter allow Shirou to replicate Excalibur Morgan into his Reality Marble (it was subtly hinted at but focusing on it would be a distraction from the events of these chapters) but even trying to use it would still be enough to kill Shirou after firing off one blast if he had only his reserves.

Avalon? Um, it restores the user to health. It also has the limit that if the body is completely obliterated, it can't regenerate it even if it was functioning at full capacity. And its defensive option was expensive for Saber, let alone Shirou.

An alternative usage is to put a copy of Avalon inside Olga when she was thrown against CHALDEAS. But contact with CHALDEAS means that you are dying for eternity. Regenerating while that goes on… that'll just make her death more painful as she heals all the damage done to her. And that would continue for all eternity. It sounds like something Prometheus could tell you about as he had an eagle rip out his liver every day only for it to grow back again. It would be more merciful to mercy kill Olga before she could hit CHALDEAS.

If she used Avalon's shelter function, remember doing so was expensive for Saber. How much more so for Olga, who has mana reserves much smaller than Saber? And keep in mind, it would be cheap for Lev to throw Olga at CHALDEAS again. Not so for Olga to invoke Avalon again.

Besides, Shirou can't project it right now and there isn't a current link to Saber for either Shirou or Olga Marie.

Next weapon, Monohashi Zao, Assassin's sword? Nope, too weak. Excellent for swordsmanship and cutting swallows of varying sizes (including all varieties of African, Asian, or European swallows), but not well suited against Flauros's Mysteries right now.

Gilgamesh's armory? Shirou only got a few weapons from it. I would estimate that this Shirou has under 60 Noble Phantasms in Unlimited Blade Works as opposed to either UBW route or Heaven's Feel route Shirou. Known Noble Phantasms are:

Durandal: eternally sharp and holds three miracles. Could work… Except Flauros has enough power to rip holes through time and space and that was before he had a Holy Grail which right now, he is the closest person to. What would be to stop him from just trying to kill Olga again? Another Durandal? Aren't you running low on energy Shirou?

And Shirou's Durandal projection is a rank lower in comparison to the original so the miracles are probably weaker too. And it would take a lot of power to kill Flauros, possibly more than Durandal possesses, even if it was the original.

Herpe: immortal killing weapon. Could help against Flauros. Except, it wouldn't save Olga. Make Flauros mad, yes. Cause him to turn full demon and kill everyone there? Yes. Save Olga? No. Just the manner of death changes. At least, she doesn't die for eternity. Just flat out murdered in Fuyuki along with everyone else. Chaldea lost, Masters dead, world's over.

Dainsleif: cursed sword that brings ruin to its possessor. I don't think this will help unless Shirou gives it to Flauros. And Flauros isn't holding an idiot ball. Thinks that Chaldea can't win, yes, toying with them for his own amusement, yes. Idiot? No.

Houtengeki: a halberd, useful in battle. Not quite so against demons and magecraft

Gram: Basically, another Caliburn, but with dragon-slaying. Also known as Balmung, according to the visual novel's Weapon Menu. Could help Shirou kill Saber Alter, but not so good against Flauros.

Rule Breaker? Now here is something potentially useful…

Against Flauros? Sorry Shirou, Flauros is too powerful to be dispelled like that, even if you did hit him with it. And you might just force him out of his human guise, which would make the situation even worse. But it would dispel the portal to Chaldea and release Olga. Before the enraged Flauros decides to attack. Result: Total Party Wipe Out. Chaldea never makes it to the first Singularity, the War of Evil Dragons.

Against Saber Alter? Would probably revert her back to her normal Saber form instead of Saber Alter. Shirou might be able to get the Command Seals for her. But I don't think Saber believes in letting herself be stabbed with a Noble Phantasm dagger when she could cut you in half with her two-handed sword or blast her enemy to pieces in a beam of light. Also, Shirou nearly killed himself in Heaven's Feel trying to beat her in a sword fight and he was part demi-servant there (Archer's arm). And Mash isn't skilled enough yet to really help in a fight against Arturia. And Saber Alter's Magic Resistance means that Caster can't use magecraft as a distraction as nothing less than full power in an attempt to kill her would work. Furthermore, it also isn't in Caster's character to hold back against a foe he has to kill. Caster's objective is to win the Grail War, not restore the Singularity, so he sees no point in holding back against Saber.

Also, Chaldea doesn't know about Lev. They think he is dead. And the few who know, think that the demon who planted the bombs is still in Chaldea. No one is expecting Flauros to be in Fuyuki. So, they will get blindsided by a fight after the Grail War finishes and everyone is already exhausted. If they knew about Lev, they might hold back some reserves for fighting him but they don't know. And I'm not going to make them act like they do know for no reason.

Against Olga? Congratulations Shirou. While getting rid of the spell forcing her to go to CHALDEAS, you just dispelled the familiar body made of spiritrons. Olga is dead now.

Against CHALDEAS? ARE YOU STUPID! THAT WILL JUST MAKE IT SO THAT CHALDEA IS NO LONGER SEPARATED FROM THE INCINERATION OF HUMANITY! YOU JUST KILLED EVERYONE IN CHALDEA! (And sadly, this is the most likely option for Shirou if he tried to save Olga. He doesn't know what the effect would be, but it couldn't be worse than Olga dying a painful death for eternity, right? (Facepalm.)) The other option is that CHALDEAS is simply too powerful for a C rank Noble Phantasm to overcome, even if it does have an advantage against it. So Shirou now is breaking apart and dying for eternity alongside Olga. If I were writing a tragedy, I might go for that option.

Caliburn? Well, Shirou would like to use this sword, so it is in character. But after Shirou fought his way through Archer and Saber and is exhausted, he won't be able to use it to the best he could.

So, the best this Shirou could do if in Fuyuki is use Rule Breaker on Saber Alter and then have her and Caster attack Flauros. Who then slaughters them all, as ha ha, guess who is worn out from a Grail War and who isn't? 4 vs 1 works better if the 4 aren't low on strength and the one is more powerful than any single servant. Also, it doesn't help that if either Saber or Caster dies, both die since the other is the 'winner' of the Grail War.

Finally, it is not in character for them to do so. Shirou would try to use Rule Breaker. But once Caster understood what Shirou was trying, he would rebel (remember, Lancer didn't like treachery from his Master in Fate Stay Night so why would he be okay with it here?), resulting in 2 vs 1 vs 1 fight until Shirou manages to hit one of the Servants with Rule Breaker. And even then, both Caster and Saber Alter would be very angry with Shirou for him seeking to ruin their duel for the Holy Grail. And Ritsuka, Mash, and Olga would rather carry through with their promise with Caster to help him win the Grail War rather than capture Saber Alter. They don't have any attachments to her. Why would they care if Shirou wants to capture Saber Alter? It is a very risky tactic with no gain to them.

Finally, they didn't know about Flauros until he revealed himself. They wouldn't use a tactic that assumes another foe beyond Saber Alter, the final boss. They have no reason to suspect it in Fuyuki. Saber Alter does, but she wouldn't say. It would detract from the final battle of the 5th Grail War and that is her concern. To use the Grail to save her kingdom (I presume? Alter doesn't ever say what her goal for the Grail is.)

So, I have to balance a thin line between strong enough to oppose Flauros yet not so strong that he decides to fight seriously while keeping everyone in character.

And then it occurred to me, what if instead of having them beat Flauros, what if Shirou attacked from across the portal? And that was how the plot for this story was planned out from the very first chapter.

A.N.3 And the climax of the story is over! All that is left is the falling action, the conclusion and the set-up for the next Singularity's story.

That being said, now is the time to reveal the change points in the story.

First off, the story didn't have very much change as Olga is rather stubborn and Shirou could only affect Singularity F by his words.

But the change started by Olga, Ritsuka and Mash's first destination be the Tohsaka Manor (where they find Olga). There, they converse with a hologram of Shirou Emiya out in the open. Where a certain hawk-eyed Archer who can count the bolts on a bridge from the top of a skyscraper could see from his position on the mountain.

The next change was where they went next. Fuyuki Civic Center/Fuyuki Memorial Park. The second of the four places where the Grail could manifest. In canon, they went to the harbor before heading to the approximate place of the Church. This changed what Saber Alter and Archer thought about the Chaldeans. If they had gone to the port, then Saber Alter would conclude that they are still looking for the distortion and possibly not go for the Greater Grail. In this story, due to the change of destinations, Saber Alter concluded that they were searching for the Grail. And since her goal was to have the Grail by winning the Grail War, she concluded that she needed to prepare for hostile action before the Chaldean group met Caster.

So, in this story, she gave orders to Archer to prepare a plan to redeploy Berserker to the front of her cave in order to keep both Caster and the Demi-Servant out. Before then, she wanted Caster to come to her. She wanted to win fair and square and to do that, she needed to beat the other last remaining Servant who had been dodging her. In canon, she did that by leaving the Grail unguarded. This time, because there was another force, Saber concluded that she should get someone else (Berserker) to deal with the interlopers so she can prepare for her duel with Caster.

After that, the break at Homurahara Academy instead of inside the cave system resulted in Archer getting enough time to prepare the cave entrance to put the Madness Enhanced but uncontrollable Berserker in. But when he left to go lure Berserker in, he had to do preparation because Berserker was much faster than him. Therefore, Archer needed to prepare tricks, cheats and shortcuts to outrun Berserker. Which took a fair bit of time before he actually encountered Berserker, time that Chaldea accidentally used to wander into the cave during the window that Archer was gone.

Saber Alter had thought that Chaldea would either die to her Shadow Servants or investigate the Church, actions which would buy her more time that Archer needed. Instead, Caster got involved and directed them to the Greater Grail right away.

After that, the story went parallel to canon. Saber Alter refused to not be competitive or to just give up. The wielder of the Ever-Victorious Sword is not one to give up as she doesn't like losing (a rare occurrence for her), nor does she like breaking her word. And giving the Grail up to Chaldea would feel like that to her without having a proper fight for the Grail, which she committed to doing. Her blackening didn't help as the main thing that could have stopped her from doing that, her morals, were altered. The other candidate for causing her to do that, her love and affection for Shirou, isn't there as she hadn't been Shirou Emiya's Servant for even 24 hours by the time the Singularity started and wiped Shirou Emiya out of existence. So sorry, no easy/quick redemption in this story.

And to tell the truth, Saber Alter is a very hard character to grasp. She has the same ideal as Saber (source: Fate Grand Order bond profile entries). But she has different morals, methods, and fewer restraints as well as a preference for being heartless while in pursuit of the same ideals, which includes chivalry. Very difficult personality to grasp. Lots of writer's block while trying to write her. (Good thing FGO Epic of Remnant come out as I was writing this chapter.)

P.S. No, Chaldea does not know about the Incineration of Humanity. Lev was going to tell them as he bragged and mocked but then Shirou hit him with a Noble Phantasm. Lev got infuriated and decided to not mock and before he could get serious, time ran out on the Singularity so everyone had to leave. He could have killed Mash and Ritsuka but dying in a temporal and spatial collapse sounds unpleasant so Lev had the natural desire to not suffer that in exchange for some anger venting.

And thanks to shadyxlr and Eiskralle1 for beta reading this chapter. They caught several mistakes that I wouldn't have noticed.