"So," Gudao spoke up first as the trio eyed Chaldea's newest member. "I take it you're a Lancer?"
This seemed to amuse the man who, after respectfully removing his helmet, simply tapped the edge of his shield in response, finding that answer enough.
"The mark of the heavy infantry is their shield," Sasaku was pushed into the role of explaining. "But, uh, usually people focus on weapons, huh?"
"So following the usual naming scheme, it should be knight-class... Shielder, right?" Gudako suggested.
"Really?" Gudao said. "I mean do Archers use arches?"
"Well, between the lonchophoroi, sarrisaphoroi, thorakitai, thureophoroi, peltasts, leukaspides, chalkaspides, argyraspides and whatnot, who doesn't love occasionally awkward equipment-based naming conventions? Those last five are all shield-types, by the way. But... Heroic Spirits of the shield, huh?" the group's Ruler noted doubtfully. "Though rare, shield- or barrier-based Noble Phantasms do exist."
"Those schemes makes sense in context," Agesipolis commented for the Masters' benefit.
"Anyway, I'm wondering what the readings say." Gudako had wandered over to consider more important matters: according to the ones monitoring the equipment, the Chamber's magical energy levels had dropped right as Agesipolis had manifested. "Hmm, interesting. Between these two summonings, da Vinci will have a lot to chew on.
"Since the two of you are acquainted, why don't you take him to see her," Gudao finally concluded. "Let's get reconnected and close out this summoning session."
"We have quite an odd mix of Servants, huh?" Gudako commented to her partner after the two Servants had left for da Vinci's Workshop. "Still no Lancer."
"Hmm, well let's see the breakdown. Chaldea's roster right now looks like..."
Two Sabers: Kojirou, Artoria.
Three Archers: Chloe, Blackbeard, Euryale.
No Lancers.
Three Riders: da Vinci, Marie, Anne & Mary
One Assassin: Stheno
One Caster: Scathach
Two Berserkers: Kiyohime and Asterios
Four Rulers: Jeanne, Martha, Georgios, Sasaku
One "Shielder": Agesipolis III
"... in any case, our actual conceptual or rather matchup-coverage is what matters, and that is harder to determine. Like, if we hadn't been told by Ruby, who would imagine that Chloe can basically manhandle any opposing magical girl-type Servants?"
Gudako couldn't but agree; likelihood of encountering specifically magical girl-type Servants aside, most of their thoughts on Chaldea's capabilities focused on making sure they were aware of any potential gaps. Such weaknesses were harder for a potential enemy to exploit when pitted against a prepared group of Chaldean Servants. Thus, it was important to properly integrate any successful summon into their fighting force.
"Though both Scathach and Martha do well in matchups against Divine, I'd prefer to have the option of Medusa's falx, if only we could summon her. Working around Scathach's Caster statistics is troublesome, and Martha probably has quite a few Divine targets that would be a bad matchup for her, to say the least."
"The Church's Sacraments are effective on all Saint-types, making a Servant like the previous War's Amakusa Shirou Tokisada a problem, since we do tend to rely on Jeanne and Georgios defensively. But Jeanne in particular is so capable against a very wide array of potential threat-types though..."
"I see you're considering strategy again," Artoria commented, having come by to see, but also having missed, the new ally. The news had certainly spread quickly. "Merlin always did warn me that well-laid plans tend to never be as well-laid as we think. But anyway he seemed to improvise far too much as well."
"We were also thinking about the whole catalysts deal, and do you have any idea why using Avalon summoned you who hadn't received it yet?" Gudao was now reminded of their earlier disappointment at Cat's bell not having worked. True, it wasn't as much of a letdown as Agesipolis had been a delight, but perhaps they had been a little to willing to assume the Berserker's enigmatic words had a straightforward interpretation.
"Unfortunately I haven't learned enough about magecraft; I know, Merlin and all, but in matters like this I know just about zero," the Saber replied with a shrug. "I've been wondering greatly about the stories from the Tohsaka side about Gilgamesh and the snake-skin used to summon that kid - it's not dissimilar in a sense."
"And Rin summoned the schoolgirl Chloe instead of the older original one we met in the proto-Singularity as well. That's particularly odd since Chloe's an alternate branch Illya, and the World didn't like them coming too close to one another, but she got summoned instead." Gudako, interested in all the various Servants and understandably so given her role in Chaldea, had taken to her studies of the Servant summoning system quite seriously.
"Well in my War, Alexandros at least was about right, since he took over the League of Corinth at about twenty."
"It couldn't be that the power level limiter on summons that Chaldea uses makes us systematically get younger variants, since they would normally have lower levels than their 'prime' recorded versions?" Gudao speculated. "We only really have two data points. Kojirou thinks Chloe isn't overly changed from the previous war. But Sasaku is stronger, statistic-wise anyway, than before due to being in a Ruler class container rather than a Caster one. I guess neither really tells us much."
"There's also Ruby," Gudako added. "Though I do wonder if that's more of a side-grade. The spears, which don't work when transformed, seem better offensively."
"I wonder if we should take Berserkers like Kiyohime along to try summoning next time it comes up on the schedule. Or perhaps take some of the cats?" Gudao still had the day's failure on mind. "Or Fou. Maybe if he had some time to charge up beforehand."
"There's something about that beast that seems familiar, and not just because there were still some Phantasmals back in my day," Artoria said with a thoughtful frown. "Why he can even power up Servants is maybe something to look into?"
"Well Fou, like our equipment for observing parallel worlds and the like came via Zelretch, and it's not wise to look too much into that. We tried, of course: nothing. Obviously Fou in particular is likely from someone else, Zelretch was just front-running for whoever those people are since of his Tohsaka connection. And we now know he already planned for Ruby."
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(Seminar Room)
"Right, I think that's everyone present," the day's instructor declared after shaking hands with the last person to join the group. With their link via the System, identifying anyone similarly linked was practically an unconscious process. It was for that reason that she also paused to lay her usual red eyes on the two humans, Iri and Matthew, who were part of the group.
"Everyone here should already have some basic ability to access the System," Emet began in a matter-of-fact manner, given that of course those in Chaldea had been chosen for their positions. Besides the two children, no other humans were present at such a low-level class which was listed as a refresher but really that bit was a convenient excuse to pitch something at their level.
"The most direct method to send requests to the System is in principle a simple Spell: humans have taken to calling requesting 'prayer' due to the use of verbal and somatic components to improve resonance." Bringing her hands together, the homunculus muttered, "Let us begin to build," as a small ball of fire curled into a sphere appeared in front of her with a flickering light, disappearing soon after.
"Critically, requesting is low-energy because the System processes and performs the requested action. Thus it allows one with proficiency, and access of course, to perform Mysteries beyond their magic circuit capabilities, much like a Formalcraft ritual using environmental mana. However, unlike it, the System cannot handle any request that involves spells it doesn't have. Conversely, unlike a a Magic Crest, you cannot access spells that are 'within' the System unless you already know them separately. Hmm?"
Someone, namely Matthew, had raised a hand at this point. "If you already know the spell, why does the System need to have it as well?"
"The System itself can be thought of as another magus with magic circuits. It can, for example, use Bless at a much higher level than you, but in cases such as magecraft research, you have to be very careful with what you request. Us in the Four Houses can try to 'write' in each step but some others don't want to do this, so they have to rely on what spells are there. Again, even if they know that Bless is included in the System, they have to also learn our specific version to be able to request it."
"How is something written in, it isn't a big spellbook, of course?"
Emet chuckled at the thought. "Indeed it isn't, though we do use both physical and digital storage media as a backup. There needs to be sufficient people linked to the System who know said spell and can share it within the System when you want to use it. This is part of why the Information Sharing protocol exists, we can essentially teach 'one another' until said threshold has been safely passed."
"But if we can't link into the System, how does requesting work?" This one was from Iri who had been taking notes up to this point.
"It's the same." Emet took a moment to gather her thoughts, "A request is a spell, but it isn't the spell you are asking for; you are not transferring your act of will to the System, rather you ask the System to perform its own act of will. Since will all learn Bless in the same manner, when you learn it, that naturally comes with the whole protocol of requesting Bless. It's because we learn it in that same form that this works at all and, unsurprisingly, if you learned it from us, you'd get that exact version. Your act of will is therefore actually 'to make a request for Bless, with certain parameters' and the System's is 'to use Bless, according to the provided parameters' see?"
"Isn't the main difference in being unable to search the System?" someone asked from the other side of the room.
"Hmm, that's true. It would come down to using the backup paper or database systems since receiving information from the System isn't easy without a link. But returning to the specifics of the System's activation, we need to cover the details of Chaldea's magic circuits." She took a moment to sketch a diagram of the usual human, or perhaps homunculus, version. "Magic circuits as observed physically are an expression of a more fundamental part of one's Soul. Thus, it is not possible to simply remove them surgically."
Emet glanced at Matthew for a moment and added, "Obviously the Matou methodology involves both aspects, which is why it does allow one to 'gain' magic circuits from a Phantasmal. Regardless, Chaldea is similar; physical circuits as engraved or etched in various places are intrinsically linked to the System's soul, which is to say an offshoot of the Realm. This is why protective cutoffs as well as systems involving capacitors, mana prisms and Saint Quartz are employed regularly; instability in the System is extremely dangerous, to say the least."
"Is there a reason why they're called cutoffs when normally physical connection points are disconnected to begin with?"
She shrugged. "Half historical, the feature was only developed a couple years after the circuits were. The other half is procedural, 'disconnect by default' is a passive measure, cutoffs are an active one, the reverse of lockout-tagout pretty much. The counterpart of cutoffs is that enabling a connection is a permit-required action, so the System won't 'take' a circuit otherwise and automatically disconnects under various conditions. By design back to the first Fuyuki example, the System is capable of very high output, we simply find that sacrificing the flexibility of direct application acceptable for the safety and stability gains."
...
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"Ahem," commented Martha from the doorway after showing up at the scheduled endtime and waiting for a bit longer. "Excuse me, but you seem to be running over a tad."
Emet just shook her head at the Servant, though she seemed amused at the need for a reminder. "Appointments to keep? We'll end here."
Iri watched in surprise as those around simply began putting their things away and leaving. "Er, you don't do homework?"
This time Emet was surprised. Perhaps more confused. "You need to practice. Um, right..."
"Don't worry about that," Martha ventured with a grin. "I know someone who'll be all over that."
"I'll take your word on it, then." The homunculus didn't seem interested in the subject.
"By the way, I do hope you lot weren't actually trying to copy the Church, since the Sacraments are more than praying for miracles," the Servant prodded her.
"Hu hu," chuckling, Emet snapped her fingers and caught a black spear that popped into existence for her. "Imagine us trying to convince a literal saint that this was the, what was it, Lonche Longinou?"
"Lancea Longini?" Martha frowned for reasons not expanded upon because the two children were looking rather lost.
"You know how it goes," Emet smiled at the young pair while returning the spear to its place. "I'm told that nowadays having ranks in Divinity is actually a liability."
"Servants against gods will always be a terrible matchup for the former," Martha shook her head while ushering Iri and Matthew out.
"Human perception is quite malleable. You should play some Shin Megami Tensei one of these days."
"I didn't understand like... half of that class," Iri said in a subdued tone. "Are those really just the basics?"
For some reason, Millia had apparently dropped by near the end of the seminar, and overheard the question. "Sort of. Previously, the Einzbern used a reverse-type magic crest. Rather than constantly adding to it, those ones can be split to make copies, which are readily received by any compatible homunculus. However, it doesn't quite fill the requirements for the Emiya method of magecraft used by the Four Houses and critically, isn't easy to add more information to. Probably by design."
"Still seems handy to be able to start magecraft that way," Matthew observed.
"Oh it helps, but not as much as linking to the System does. If anything, that's what our current iterations focus on."
"Is it possible to learn such this power?"
"Alas, if only." Millia looked at Martha who was walking ahead distracted by her own thoughts, before returning to her human companion. "Linking into the system allows for... a reverse-immortality option."
"Heh, reverse how?" Martha caught the end of that, which caught her attention in turn.
"You know the trope, immortal beings that eventually tire of watching everyone else die. Being represented in the System means you still die, technically speaking? But to everyone else you're still there. Present. As in: can be conversed with through the System like messaging someone else. Obviously though, System representations can be cloned, and someone moving between Fuyuki and Chaldea might be physically in one but is represented in both Systems. Alive or dead. A little odd, you can end up 'meeting' a year-ago version of yourself. Heroic Spirits probably wouldn't find that unusual."
"How does that do anything for you, though?"
"Who am I?" Millia raised an eyebrow as though Martha's question was absurd. "I said reverse, so yes, it means I die 'to myself' but not to everyone else. And there's a lot more of them than the one of me, so it's pretty successful on the whole."
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(Cafeteria)
"Thanks for the assist," Siegfried commented to Emet as they shared drinks in the cafeteria. "We're really not well equipped to bring up children. Human children, that is."
"Unfortunately, it matters now," she agreed with him after a moment. "Come to think of which, I heard that in the previous war Sasaku taught the Four Houses what is now called the Emiya method, which was what? A Servant-level system of magecraft?"
"Yes and no," the supposed leader of homunculi mused. "Now, she did transfer a magic circuit of hers to Sakura via the latter's Matou magecraft. So Sakura wasn't taught in the conventional sense. But even that isn't it."
"Then why the name?"
"You're a field expert but not historian, I suppose. To some extent, our current system was invented by Shirou. While Our Lady was a Caster, she didn't have an actual system of magecraft, but was making one from the ground up for her then-Master. The magic circuit was a key to the Realm, but there was no greater underlying structure since (Realm Creation) was just a variant of the standard Caster-class Skill. In short, a lot of the things which were 'passed down' to us from Emiya were technically taught to him by Sasaku, but really he created them. Ah, not like the Foundation is based on a lie or anything though, just that the original Servant didn't have it systematized in any useful or transferable form."
"... wait, so then it actually is like the Church's Sacraments then; we're following teachings from... but no, she's actually here now." As Siegfried had already surmised, Emet while actively pushing forward on developing the Foundation of the Four Houses' Systems, did not particularly pursue the historical or philosophical underpinnings.
"Most of it is a modification of standard systems. That's why most standard Spells and even accessing the System use either of 'Let us begin to build,' or 'This is a day of judgement,' as an Incantation if we even use Verbal components; the part of the process that carries meaning specific to each Spell is actually the act of will." Siegfried leaned back in his chair, suddenly recalling his drink. "And for the other part, you know."
"The System itself acts as an outer world, and rather than a spoken Incantation, the request process does this directly to the System? So that's why the Separation Order works."
"Indeed, Chaldea currently sits in its own little, separate one might say, world. Thus, the Incineration of Human History doesn't reach us, much like how all the surrounding Void Space is not destroyed either."
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(Library)
Man's life of 50 years under the heaven is nothing compared to the age of this world. Life's but a fleeting dream, an illusion. Is there anything that comes to life and exists forever?
.
"I see, so Oda Nobunaga is currently a god at the Kenkun Shrine. That is rather interesting..." Gudako, like Chloe if in a different manner, was preparing for a possible confrontation with the famous warlord. "That seems somewhat ironic."
"One might think so," the historian magus from Japan replied. Her family had encountered the Four Houses via the Tohsaka's links. They had thoughts regarding the possibility of deliberately creating new records in the Throne of Heroes, for example to bring about a Heroic Spirit - summonable as a Servant, of course - that sought after a path to the Root. Said hero would then potentially be able to jump them ahead in the process, since it might be able to access information from branches where there had been success. "But since we now know that the period had actual entities like gods and demons involved, one who had such success then would of course end up joining their ranks."
"That's one way to look at it, I suppose." The Master didn't sound very convinced. "Well, do you have any, uh, old miscellaneous stories and the like about him? Ruler's first few searches didn't seem to find the one Chloe fought in the previous War, so we're lacking coverage somewhere. There's actually an odd proliferation of female Nobunagas for whatever reason, we couldn't work it out."
"I can't just walk out and look in a library, you know?" the human replied. "And that's without odd alternate scenarios which we obviously wouldn't see in records here. Our branch might have a very atypical Nobunaga, after all. A few branches actually have a male Artoria, after all."
"Right. Okay, anything good on Agesipolis?"
"No, based off that I doubt he would be recorded on the Throne, to be honest. 'Variant' is unlikely to explain it."
"Very good." Gudako paused to reconsider her wording. "Well, it was about what I expected. By the way, I asked for you and there are Skills allowing for Servants to improve, or at least evolve, conceptually. Without those, any development is essentially like for mortals: lost on death. da Vinci thinks that it is possible to have the Grail System compile together and 'cache' some sort of differential file to allow resummoning without such loss. The biggest issue is that if your resummon is not the exact variant of the first one you summoned, the results would be... unpredictable."
"But you resummoned Chloe, didn't you?"
"Yes, with a catalyst for that purpose from a different Chloe. Wouldn't count on reliability."
"I see. I wish I could have had more for you about Nobunaga, but we only harvested so much data before losing... access."
"You were a great help, Anaz." Concluding her investigation, Gudako turned to leave.
"... by the way."
"Yes?"
"I've heard that when one of your people dies, they don't disappear from the System." Anaz didn't add anything further to that, but the Master knew exactly what she was getting at.
"Pretty much exactly true," she replied simply. "Those of us with relatively weaker magic circuits have fainter representations, but it still stays."
"Thanks. I, uh, didn't mean to pry."
"Uhm." Gudako looked around at the room which was only occupied by the two of them. "If you happen to need another assistant, just ask. Your work is important to our future."
"If you keep me this busy I might need to," Anaz said after a moment. "I'll get back on that search for Tamamo Cat."
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Notes:
The five shields referenced are the thureos (oval shield), pelte (small circular or crescent shield) and white-, bronze-, gold-shields (pike formations, from various Macedonian and Successor State militaries)