"Detection Event. Prepare for Rayshift deployment." da Vinci's voice came over Chaldea's address system, which was surprisingly enough was apparently totally mundane.

"Ah," said Gudao, standing up immediately. "Pretty sure it's just an Event, but Briefing Room, just in case. Might end up upgrading to Singularity-level. Sorry Sieg, duty calls."

"No time for a Trial Quest, huh?" The homunculus just nodded, taking himself out of the conversation as a flurry of activity, mostly people leaving for similar reasons, filled the cafeteria.

"I assume this isn't an imminent threat?" Sasaku asked as the two of them left. The pair were quickly joined by another: two enthusiastic pirates headed to the same destination.

"Likely not," the smaller one said coolly. "Another Event at the bottom of the scale?"

"Likely more interesting than Free Quests bobbing up and disappearing," the much taller one added cheerfully. "Even when not on the seas, adventure is adventure. And loot is loot."

"Even if they lack a Holy Grail and are quite temporary, I hope you take those 'free' expedition efforts seriously," Gudao reminded her. "There are still dangerous enemies, if nothing else. And any Event more than that, even if it isn't yet a full-fledged Singularity."

"Yet?" the Ruler following him asked. "These things grow?"

"Hopefully not," the Master replied seriously. "Despite them being smaller than Singularities, they don't appear to be particularly frequent, which would be expected if they grew or merged to form Singularities. But they frequently have at least a major fragment of a Grail compared to, say, Free Quests; the staff dubbed those that due to lacking any such anchor."

Mary nodded quietly. "Always have our pick of those in Rayshift range."

"Single rather than double party formation, to avoid destabilizing them by accident," Anne grinned. "As Blackbeard might say, they're all on farm status."

The four of them soon joined a few other Servants and Chaldea staff in the Briefing Room, where a connection had been opened to the Control Room, which was apparently where da Vinci was currently stationed, receiving reports from the Observatory.

"Gudako isn't back yet?" someone asked, seeing only one Master was present.

"She just returned," da Vinci informed everyone. "Actually, she has important evidence about the Event, so we'll need to wait for her group to arrive."

"That's unexpected," Scathach said.

"It is and isn't," Gudako sighed while entering the room holding what looked like a normal letter, which she proceeded to pass to her male counterpart. "We're heading into the Alluring Castle Csetje."

"Ah, her." Martha frowned. "Another troublemaker dragon-type."

"We shouldn't get careless just because of the possibility that it's the idol-aspirant Elizabeth Bathory we met during the Wyverns' War Singularity," Georgios admonished her. "It might be a trap by someone like Carmilla, for example."

"It's certainly possible," Artoria spoke up from her corner. "Until we're back in Chaldea, threats can always appear, even without a mastermind planning for it."

"The readings, at least, are encouraging," da Vinci brought the conversation back to concrete data. "Definitely not Singularity level signature, physically smaller too. We're able to scan it with minimal interference, so perhaps the invitation is genuine. Be on your guard, obviously."

After scanning the letter with an increasingly upset look, Gudao handed it over to Marie. "You spent a while with her back in France, does it sound like something that girl would write?"

The Rider took a moment to read before nodding. "Well, something she'd write while trying to be mysterious, I guess. I wouldn't mind dropping by with the team."

Chloe, Anne (and thus Mary) quickly volunteered as well. As usual, Jeanne would also be there on protection duty. "That makes four, I suppose Sasaku will be attending as well, so one more..." Gudako counted off.

"I must admit to being a bit curious," da Vinci said from the Control Room. "Since I only got to see the Dumpling event from here."

"That'll do," Gudao said firmly. "Let's go with Saber, Artoria and Georgios as the standby team."

"Is now a good time to do some Enhancement on the new girl?" Scathach asked after the grouping lists were settled. "I'm hoping she can handle that and Ascension, actually; since the Grail has given her all the usual Ruler privileges."

"That would be handy if so," Martha grumbled. "Quite a lot of materials were wasted because of the troublesome Saint Graph modification rituals."

"Oh yes, I especially want to see what she transforms into," Chloe added enthusiastically, voicing what at least a few people present had been wondering or perhaps worrying about.

"Yeah, transforming..." Gudako looked at her partner Master, who simply shrugged with confidence. "We should try now, so there's time to tweak if necessary before the Rayshift. Keep us posted, da Vinci."

"Will do." The other Servant turned away as one of the operators called her attention over to readings that were coming in. "Hmm, interesting. So it really is about Halloween, then..."

"By the way," Sasaku commented to Gudao as the two Masters brought her over to the location Scathach had rushed ahead to, to prepare for the Enhancement rituals. "If Chaldea and the Clock Tower got into a strategic exchange, wouldn't a million, or millions rather, of people in London perish in such a battle?"

"Hmm?" Not realizing the context of this sudden observation, Gudako raised an eyebrow. "What's all this about?"

Gudao didn't so much as blink. "Wouldn't they count as enemies?"

"The Clock Tower is entirely hidden to them, if anything it would be like the case of human shields. Except those magi wouldn't stoop to such measures - ego more than ethics perhaps. They also wouldn't anticipate the possibility of a bolt from the blue first strike, unless we deliberately sought to demonstrate such a capability."

"Someone better explain before I start worrying," Gudako demanded, stopping in the middle of the corridor.

"As you can see," the other homunculi explained to both of them, "We had slightly different take-aways from the Butcher of Septem incident. Some of us, like my colleague here, were concerned about the risks a corrupted version of Our Lady might cause to Chaldea. Most of the rest were confident that it was simply the delineation of friendly-hostile-neutral."

"Ah." Gudako looked guilty for a moment. "That certainly seems to have resolved the lingering questions. Though I wish you'd done it a bit more tactfully, given that we have no need for conflict with outside magi Houses."

"It will come to us," he shook his head, already anticipating future disappointment. "The situation has changed greatly from the Founding, to the opening of Chaldea, to the Separation Order. It will get out for sure, and regardless of the other side's disposition, in aggregate or in distribution, someone will take the shot. And even defending ourselves will only catalyze everyone else to pile in."

"I should think they will need to keep things under wraps, otherwise the existence of magecraft will become generally known, and the World will probably prune us all," she reminded him.

"True," Sasaku agreed, having had similar discussions with Illyasviel in the previous War. "However, we also, now, have the one thing that they might find irresistible, or unforgivable, is what you were thinking, Gudao?"

"The Separation Order, Rayshift, Grail System and Chaldea in general make for a cookie jar like human children seem to have issues dealing with. Things may not turn into a massive pile in of magi houses trying to take the goods for themselves, but it might. And the greater their ability, or perceived ability, to threaten us, the greater the likelihood someone will try for the grab. Slap one hand down, and it won't be long until they find out what happened to the old Einzbern and we're off to the races."

"Unlike the Singularities though, anyone coming through our front door would have to deal with all the Servants and all of us. Most wars between nations wouldn't have so much firepower on the battlefield. Or would we just enact the Separation Order again?" Gudako sounded doubtful about that last option, with good reason.

"Currently we've got about nine thousand left in the Incinerated human history. Fortunately, the cost of the Separation Order compared to our size actually decreases according to the square-cube law. While our ability to use the Blades is at least able to keep up with the Order's upkeep. Somehow, Gilgamesh knew that this was possible."

"I don't think he knew about the limitations of the Jeweled Swords, but do you mind if I ask how come we have gravity in Chaldea? There's nothing past the edge of the Bounded Field enclosing the Realm, yes?"

"Oh, that's easy enough," Gudako looked amused by the seriousness with which Sasaku asked the question. "It's just part of the rules of the Realm. In other words, 'gravity' is simply like a programmers' magic vector field. I suspect that if you checked, there's no actual curvature of space causing the gravity."

"Hmm, seems to be the case," the Servant verified. "Going by the reality lattice structure the Realm is embedded in. Impressive work."

"Oh, there you are," Scathach commented upon spotting them. "Took your time, didn't you?"

(Enhancement Room)

The Caster brought out a handful of what looked like silvery, glowing, pebbles, handing one over to her Ruler counterpart who looked at them curiously. "We call these embers: obvious reason. They seem able to stabilize the injection of magical energy into Spirit Origins, much like Reinforcement but for Servant vessels."

"You don't eat them," Gudako quickly clarified. "Rather you need to hold it near your heart (Spirit Core) as the energy flows through it and then into you. Scathach basically tunes the flow to make sure there is no chance of damage to your core, and then feeds in energy until the ember burns out, as it were."

"It's the most primary component of Enhancement," Scathach continued, taking out her druid staff and wand while directing Sasaku to the main ritual circle laid out for that purpose. "Actual Ascension is complicated but causes a great deal of disruption, so Servants should be Enhanced up to their available limit before taking such a big jump."

"No time like the present," Ruby fluttered about cheerfully. "Somehow I don't feel like half as ~magical~ as I should, perhaps this will fix that !"

"Perhaps," Gudao frowned at the thought. "If you're a Skill, wouldn't that mean strengthening you would need Scathach's help?"

"I'm afraid that we magical girl-linked beings only improve with the naive hopes and dreams of innocent girls who have yet to suffer what the season's arc will inflict on them..." the wand trailed off purposefully.

"That's unfortunate, since I probably don't qualify as an innocent girl," its magical girl commented dryly, no-selling the rest of Ruby's crude ploy.

"Even if she was made personally by a Magician, I wouldn't want a wand like you've got," Scathach commiserated with the former Caster. "Anyway, I'm about to start the energy flow to you, I trust you know to say something if your core takes damage."

"Since we're doing the whole Enhancement thing, I wonder where Fou has gotten up to?" Gudako asked, wondering if Chaldea's mascot Phantasmal Beast had been in the workshop recently. "Or did he get caught up in the cats' ritual hierarchy duels?"

"I'm pretty sure he's long since established himself as the top cat of Chaldea, not that it matters since he eats Servant food and not normal cat food." Gudao might have been more familiar with the beast's routine due to noticing that it, and many other cats, had apparently taken to Asterios as a popular person to sleep near.

"Oh yeah, those two cats back in Fuyuki, they never did settle things," the fiery-haired Master brought up. "Rather ironic since most of the cats around the Four Houses are actually descended from both of them after the lines of descent mingled for a few generations."

"You mean the two tomcats with a territorial dispute near the Emiya estate?" The Servant remembered it due to the end of the Fifth Grail War being, to her perspective, only a couple days ago. "What pests. Well at least they didn't harm anyone, just made a lot of noise."

"Haha," Gudao laughed upon hearing her unvarnished evaluation of the two patriarchs of Chaldea's feline population. "Well they are rather handy teaching examples, as the children will know. Sometimes I wonder if the Founder got some of her organizational ideas from watching cats."

"That's the first I've heard about cat society being linked to us," Gudako looked confused. "I thought they were just cute analogies for the children."

"I think they show up for the young homunculi," he replied after thinking. "Granted, they mostly hunt solo, but I was thinking about the bit where they sleep together and assign who takes watch."

"Oh, yeah. True enough," she admitted, catching the subtext he was trying to bring up. "Usually the strongest one will be the most alert for threats, in say a litter of kittens for example. But that can't be the reason why most of us sleep communally."

"Obviously not, that just dates back to the Founding. And I guess it's also due to how the Grand Arias work via resonance making being closer more comfortable. So, like cats except replace history with instinct. And... I suppose if a hostile walked into a hall with a hundred of us, twenty would pincushion them with spears before the rest could go for more mundane weapons."

"Which against a Servant-level being would be about as effective as hissing at them."

"That's not the case," Scathach jumped into the conversation without warning. "Those spears are the ones Sasaku left in the Armory when she died, aren't they? Those would be effective against Servants unless they had armor in their Spirit Origin or some special advantage against projectiles from another Servant."

"Huh." Gudako paused to think. "The issue is more about hitting them?"

"Pretty much, yes." Gudao warmed to the subject, perhaps because of his discussions with Siegfried. "In mundane terms, each of those soliferrum are as effective as a tank's APFSDS penetrator. Against anyone with Agility scores like a Servant though, you're generally going to hit only air. That's why the Fate system is so critical despite its many shortcomings; oh we also generally can't Rayshift."

l

(Training Grounds)

"I don't know... that second sword doesn't really work for you," Chloe commented after Mary had been persuaded by Blackbeard to bring out a gunblade she had looted at some point in her history; a weapon combining a heavy shortsword and a double-barreled firearm. "Guess it don't work with your fighting style."

"While the cutlass is one-handed in use, that gunblade is too much for an off-hand weapon. Perhaps if you stuck to parrying with it," Kojirou suggested, having seen the Rider try using her second weapon solo and in a pair. "Maybe still not?"

"The modern age doesn't appreciate the utility of adding guns to everything, huh?" Anne asked Chloe, who had lived in the most current period. "Instead they seem to add everything to guns instead."

"Even when I got hold of it, this thing was impractical," Mary grumbled, though she was still happy to have it. "I already have a nice sword; having a pair of pistols on the side makes more sense than grafting them onto another blade. Even the grip isn't very sound."

"I'm quite sure that the real issue is either the need to use a pair-technique, or perhaps a limitation of the Rider container," Anne consoled her. "Since at my best, beating Blackbeard's effortless Archer-class accuracy seems a stretch too far."

"If only we could do like Euryale with the Dumpling Event and get an Archer container," her partner speculated. "Hah, we're a Riders but with no ship, Blackbeard is an Archer but has a ship. Maybe if we could do something for Halloween."

"Scathach would go wild with the ability to combine different aspects of Skills if we could move around between class containers," Chloe grinned. "Or maybe it wouldn't work out that neatly, the containers are kind of restrictive so you might just end up losing stuff each time you switched."

"Changes tend not to stay when you Rayshift either, unless it's stable enough to take hold in the System. Though, I do wonder why that is," da Vinci joined in while also walking into the Grounds. "Huh, I thought they would have been done by now."

"We are," Chloe shrugged. "Turns out that despite modern media, the legend of the gunblade has not improved it much for Servants."

"Not you, the new girl. I thought they were going to do first Ascension and get it stabilized before we Rayshift for the Event."

"Oh. Oh !" the Archer perked up immediately, before stopping. "I wanted to see that, but Scathach wouldn't even let me into the room when they were in the middle of the initial Enhancement process."

"Hmm, with Halloween coming up and all, I would like to see Mary as a magical girl," Anne teased her smaller half.

"Pass. I don't want to look like a fairy godmother reject."

"I would say that there's all sorts of designs in the current day's range of the genre," the only Servant present with real-world magical girl experience replied seriously. "But... I can guess what a Kaleidostick might come up with. But it's fine if it's someone else!"

"That definitely makes me doubly sure of my 'no' choice."

l

(Enhancement Room)

"It seems rather convenient that these Pieces enable something as groundbreaking as Spirit Origin Ascension," Sasaku commented as Scathach laid out a number of them after consulting some notes that da Vinci made for her regarding what would be appropriate.

"Well, they are like disassociated bits of class containers," the Caster explained after double-checking the odd Pieces were in the correct formation for the tricky ritual they were about to undertake. "If there was a way to make the System generate them, we wouldn't be so dependent on coming across them and hoping they have what a particular Servant needs. Of course, da Vinci is working on something to do exactly that."

"I think class containers are a much more complicated problem than applying jewel magecraft to spiritron containers, but there've been odder analogues, I suppose." Gudako did not sound very convinced of the possibility though.

"Can we get going?" Ruby asked impatiently, fluttering about for emphasis. "Aren't we supposed to be hurrying?"

"Quiet, you." The two Masters took up places near a couple of terminals which had not been used in the previous processes. Gudao looked over at Scathach. "Everything is reading green, should we turn the key?"

"That would be great, sorry it took so long," Scathach started working her runes as a number of capacitors in the room began discharging their stores of magical energy. "Oh, the wand should probably go into Inventory for this process."

"You heard her. Ruby?" Without any complaint, it quickly complied rather than find out what problems delay might cause.

There was a sound like a thunderclap and arcs of magical energy flashing back from Sasaku to the capacitors set under the magic circle. Standing outside, the presiding Caster blinked in confusion as the excess measure of energy rebounded off the other Servant, who had apparently passed the barrier of Ascension with far less energy use than da Vinci had estimated. The Masters quickly took cover in nearby niches as Scathach immediately shut off the system to avoid damaging it.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Sasaku looked about, seeing that the Pieces had been totally consumed. The heavy cloud of liberated magical energy in the air wasn't unusual in Servant Summoning, though explosions were obviously not to be expected. However, looking herself over, not much change was in evidence, which meant... ?

"Seems like da Vinci significantly overestimated the activation energy needed," Scathach replied calmly, looking to the Masters first of all. "The Ascension succeeded, but all the excess magical energy just splashed off you into the environment, is all."

"Minimal loss though," Gudao checked a convenient readout display that da Vinci had installed to help people besides Scathach understand the ritual processes. "Think you beat the automatic safety cutoff."

"Fufu," said Ruby, reappearing to grab the attention of everyone present. "Perhaps it's because Rider had thought you needed to reach the post-Transformation power level, but that's basically a second barrier which is for me to help her cross."

"(Cheerful Model Mystic Code) was unlocked," Gudako suggested. "Though usually even a (Mana Burst) requires the Servant to have the 'mana' to 'burst' so... could you explain that?"

"Easy! I draw in magical energy from parallel worlds. After all, with a Kaleidostick made via the Kaleidoscope, a magical girl can truly make use of magic. Well, actually I am the one to, but who's counting?"

"Terrible sales pitch," Gudao observed. "So you've just always been able to transform her, then?"

"I would imagine not, given that the relevant Skill just unlocked," Sasaku answered in her wand's stead. "I mean, as a person Ruby comes with the base Spirit Origin, but couldn't be activated properly. As she implied, that activation is probably a net gain in energy since Ruby can access functions of the Second Magic."

"Yes, yes. Can we get to the special edition transformation sequence now?"

"I get the feeling that someone like Blackbeard will break down the door any moment now, you'd better hurry," Gudako quipped to overcome a bit of nervousness. "... How does the transforming work, anyway?"

"In the name of Chaldea, I'll punish you (star)~" she tried striking a pose to go with the line, but nothing happened.

"You're not even trying," Ruby said snarkily.

"Really now..." Gudako sighed while watching Sasaku spin the wand around. "This seems mildly inconvenient."

"This is a day of judgment."

"Ruby, set up !"

"Transform !"

"Sasaku, launching !"

"You're a Servant, not a mecha," Gudao commented on the last failed attempt.

"Yeah, I guessed. Ok, that was sort of fun, but anyway I probably just need to do this."

There was a sudden flash of bright darkness, almost like if one had a light shone right into their eyes and blinked as a result. Or perhaps like watching the last bit of light, somehow at its brightest as it was being squeezed out of existence in an eclipse.