"What a terrible showing, I suppose my lot is to be constantly burned - literally and otherwise - and get thrashed by Chaldeans trying to fix Singularities," Jeanne d'Arc (Alter) grumbled while being treated by Nursery Rhyme and Sasaku. Apparently being "defeated" and physically removed from the hall was sufficient to break the compulsion on her.
"I don't think your story will just loop like that," Rhyme said consolingly. "But we do have to get out of here."
"Isn't this the famous prison that people don't get to leave?" Jeanne asked sarcastically. "Or well, maybe one person might. Huh... well it fits there's only one Master this time, but still."
"That's not a major problem," Gudao nodded, noticing that the Count seemed to have a similar idea. "If we can resolve this Event, and all the better before it grows into a full Singularity, the prison itself will disappear."
"That should be rather straightforward then," the Dragon Witch answered him while tracing a triangle in the air with a finger. "There should be three Avengers here supporting the Prison. Given more time, I expect there would be more but somehow you've again managed to steal a march."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," the Master frowned. "It wasn't a matter of detecting this Event, I was actually pulled in. If you asked me, having to deal with seven enemies, but with the both of us, would actually be preferable."
"A quick one," Rhyme added. "Are you still holding up the prison, or does leaving that hall end the connection?"
"How would I know?" Jeanne retorted. "I don't get my strength back though, so..."
"Something to worry about later," the Count broke in. "Remember that time is eating away at the Master."
"Is it really a good idea to head back to that hall?" Jeanne asked warily as the group were retracing their steps. "You don't know what might happen next time."
"Luckily I agree that we shouldn't go in," Gudao shrugged. "But after our experience at the earlier tower, it seemed like a good idea to start planting flags around, so to speak." As the group traveled through the alternatively winding and sharply turning corridors, Rhyme and Sasaku were pausing to add various magical markings on the floor and wall.
"After all, you have to dismantle the place, not just escape, I suppose?" the Count asked rhetorically with an approving expression.
"I hope that wouldn't be literally necessary," Sasaku muttered. "Servants supporting the prison or not, it'll come down to the Grail. But prisons are the sort of place where the wardens are supposed to hold great advantages over the prisoners, so it would be good to salami slice their territory so to speak."
"By the way," Gudao asked after a moment. "I noticed you don't transform to fight."
"Hmm, yes. I can't do something convenient like that because I'm not a magical girl," the Ruler replied casually.
"That's what I was thinking too," the Master shrugged. "Oh well I guess you look quite different from who we have in Chaldea, but your energy signature is consistent."
"My boss sent me over here from the Mooncell," Sasaku explained simply. "Though she doesn't know me, the Mooncell has records of Nursery Rhyme so I know of her. First time we've been able to work together obviously; I was only summoned at the Moon after the series of Grail Wars where she was active."
"Is your Earth one of those dying out due to the flow of environmental mana failing?" Gudao recalled hearing about it from a certain Nameless Servant who also hailed from the, or at least a, Mooncell.
"Yes. My current form is, however, composed of spiritrons rather than pseudo-spiritrons because the former is quite accessible here. That said, the distinction is rather academic since it is hardly possible for any substantial engagement to take place between us. One could say that to us, what you call spiritrons are actually the pseudo."
"Because the Mooncell's perception and records cause its internal reality to be dominant, right?"
"Just so. Similar really to the World Egg theory, except instead of a Reality Marble, you have the Mooncell's Serial Phantasm. It even has branching phenomena and, of course, pruning. However, we do maintain a record of Human History, so it isn't a Singularity cause."
"So instead of looking out from a simulation at a dying Earth, you're actually looking 'into' a simulation of a dying Earth? Can you just add resources to run the Mooncell since those are from 'outside' as well?"
"Even if it's something as presumably "scientific" like computation, Mystery-based processes can just ignore issues like conservation of energy, so we don't really need anything. Because the pseudo-spiritrons and the like are now the replacement for the standard, we effectively generate our own mana to run the Mooncell the way you expect the Earth to generate its mana budget."
Gudao took a moment to process this. "Doesn't that mean that you're essentially already self-sufficient, even from the Human Order?"
"Oh no, that wouldn't make sense because of the World System's priorities. Even if to us it is just a simulation, the majority of humans are on Earth, so we have to keep that going. We can prune things in the Serial Phantasm, but that doesn't allow us to prevent ourselves from being pruned by the World System."
"While I'm sure that is very important, we seem to have an issue coming up," Jeanne interrupted them as the sound of heavy footsteps in sync could be heard from around the curvature of the passageway.
"Hmm," Gudao recognized the soldiers as they came into view. "Boudica's ambaxtoi. I suppose it isn't surprising they would show up here."
"What, you frequently meet Celtic warlords' chosen infantry?" Sasaku commented while loosing a flight of iron spears at the formation. However, the soldiers smoothly raised their bossed oval shields to absorb the attack, apparently without lasting harm.
"I thought heavy iron javelins were supposed to stick in shields and make them unwieldy or even go through lighter ones," Gudao noted.
"Your attack power is pretty low, huh?" Jeanne remarked in a detached tone, distracted by Nursery Rhyme doing some sort of spin-based dance. "Caster, maybe you should cast something-"
"Spin, spin, spin !"
"I think she is casting," the Master shrugged. "Ruler, try shooting their feet."
"It would help if the two avatars of vengeance could vengeance up some enemies," Sasaku grumbled while changing tactics as suggested, causing the front two ranks of enemies to move into a denser formation to cover their whole height.
"Here goes my serious attack," Rhyme proclaimed excitedly. "(Northern Cross) !"
Several spheres of concentrated magical energy seemed to fall from the ceiling, passing energy between one another in a loop that devastated the enemy phalanx. Not long after the vanguard was annihilated, the rear ranks broke formation to charge forward as their fallen comrades evaporated into loose spiritrons.
Sasaku immediately threw spears at their feet as Rhyme continued her spell, "Here's a southern cross too !"
"That special attack borrows the power of starlight," was all Rhyme would explain of her powerful spell.
"It's a good thing you could upcast it to take out the second half of them too," Sasaku said appreciatively.
"That's because of our growing Territory advantage," Rhyme reminded her. "Still, I wouldn't want to bet on endlessly destroying these summons directly being a winning strategy."
"It's Boudica, isn't it?" Gudao sounded tired. "I'm pretty sure those are copies of her bodyguard unit. Which means she wouldn't send them out peacemeal unless there was a way to pull out more."
"Well she wasn't weakened as much as I was, before," Jeanne shook her head. "Then again the Count here seems to be less than half of his former strength."
"I got stabbed by someone with (Mystic Eyes of Death Perception)," said Count frowned.
"You don't seem to have died."
"That's not necessarily a great outcome."
"Well if the two of you were at full strength, I wouldn't be able to keep up with four Servants," the Master pointed out. "Somehow we're getting along with a Caster being our heavy hitter which I wouldn't normally expect."
"My skillset isn't that well suited for small unit tactics," Sasaku apologized. "All I can say is that my Master didn't think there would be another major crisis so soon after the Veiber incident. Well even in that case there are Top Servants who simply specialize better for combat."
"Isn't this in `the past' for you though?"
"No, because timelines with the Mooncell in this state deviate from ones which spawn Chaldeas further back than that, so we're independent. And even if your future might turn out like our present, that isn't yet determined since we're obviously still living it."
"While this is fascinating," Jeanne interrupted them impatiently, "We need to stop the source of those soldiers. I doubt Rhyme can simply bulldoze them without limit."
"That's true, but at the same time there's the possibility the soldiers are being used because Boudica herself is just a conduit of sorts. It would make a lot of sense if the mastermind didn't want to rely on your combat ability but rather, uh well... hmm..." Rhyme trailed off thoughtfully.
"Shouldn't we be pushing forward to fight as few soldiers as possible?" the Count asked her.
"Well it's a good time for me to regain a focus point," Rhyme corrected him. "If we can stall them long enough for that we will be much more efficient."
"I see, so each time you Refocus you can cast (Northern Cross) again?" Sasaku asked her colleague.
"Exactly. And for maximum efficiency, upcasting that when the enemies are grouped up."
As the group with the Master of Chaldea approached the first hall, it was clear that something was different from their previous visit, almost as though that section of the prison had rearranged itself to now lead to a different hall.
"You three try to push that group back into the hall," Gudao directed. "If there's any more inside, it would be ideal if Rhyme could handle them as well in a single cast."
"Well you're the boss," Jeanne mumbled. "I should have enough energy for this bit anyway."
"Since you're pretty sure that killing an Avenger in their hall will cause some sort of chain reaction, you're the last one I need to warn about it," Gudao continued to Nursery Rhyme, who just nodded.
"Ok, go for it !"
Raising a hand, Sasaku shot spears up towards the ceiling where they splintered into a rain of shards that fell on the approaching Celtic elite warriors and more importantly littered the ground. Jeanne unfurled her banner and, stepping forward, sprayed a gout of flame towards the line that prompted the enemies to try and pull back.
Acting to herd them back rather than directly on the offensive, the Count moved from one side to the other, poking at the edges of their formation so that the whole group was still able to pull back cohesively. Which in this case meant they stayed in their dense formation while being pushed backwards.
"There's that second group you expected," Rhyme reported from her slightly elevated pre-cast position.
"Is Boudica far enough away to avoid getting waxed by that?"
"I can't see her among them."
"Great."
"(Northern Cross) !"
As the destructive power of Rhyme's spell descended on the front group, their reinforcements hurriedly stopped to avoid being caught in their fellows' demise. However, that wouldn't help them because:
"And the Southern Cross !"
"No. The impregnable wall ! (Chariot of Boudica) !"
"Wait, I thought Celtic war chariots were rather light things," Nursery Rhyme complained as the defensive Noble Phantasm rushed forward from Boudica and canceled out the second stage of the Caster's spell.
"Tsk. Fine. By my Command Spell." Gudao guessed that between the summons and the Avenger's Noble Phantasm use, there was an opportunity and quickly used one of his Seals. "Rhyme !"
"Break through them, (Endless Cocytus) !" Brimming with magical energy, Rhyme descended with a concentrated blast that traveled right into the center of the enemy formation, frosting over the ground and sending soldiers flying in its wake like a bowling ball though pins.
"Jeanne, now's our chance," Sasaku commented while a small forest of spears started to sprout next to her.
Wordlessly, the Dragon Witch flung an expanding cone of flame out towards the breach in Boudica's shield wall as Sasaku shot though the burning cloud.
"(Sword of Boudica)" The calm counterattack caught and shattered the various now-glowing spears as they emerged from the flames. Tilting her head to the side, Sasaku caught the Count's eye. They shared a quick nod.
"Cover me please," the Ruler asked the Avenger next to her who had clearly used up most of her energy reserves. "Rhyme, stop them."
"Right." Recalling that Boudica's bodyguard would probably throw themselves in the way of any attacks, the Caster quickly thought of the best counter with the energy she still had from Gudao's supercharge. "Freeze, (Absolute Zero) !"
Sasaku pointed her sword as if to oppose Boudica's across the frozen black ash-streaked desert between them. By her estimation, Boudica could not easily defend against her low-cost spears without resorting to something disproportionate, even if each time the Avenger could pretty much disintegrate any individual spear that actually threatened her.
But that wasn't even it. The Count quickly flickered away to one side and then around the soldiers sprawled on the ground, many of whom were also partially frozen to the icy ground.
"Can you dodge all these spears?" Sasaku asked no one in particular while switching to a steady stream of missile attacks.
Sneering, Boudica quickly started deflecting spears with her clearly discolored Sword of Unpromised Victory, concentrating her ranged deflections only to those that would otherwise slip through. With the defensive benefit effect of her Chariot, she was able to hold her own, but not attack back.
Rather than rush in, the Count waited patiently for his chance. Or perhaps he was waiting on Sasaku's timing as it didn't seem feasible to try and get in while Boudica was not only going strong, but when disrupting her would result in them both being skewered.
Seconds slowly passed by as Rhyme used her smaller spells to dispatch fallen soldiers to ensure they wouldn't be able to return to the fight when her freezing spells started to wear off.
There. Sasaku had briefly left a small gap in her attack tempo. And again. Ok, on the next one !
Following the timing precisely, the Count quickly maneuvered behind the tired Boudica and tried to choke her out, non-lethally of course. But right as he expected her to go limp, he felt instead a sharp piercing pain before realizing that the other Avenger had run herself and him through with her weapon.
"Fuck off Chaldeans," Boudica cursed while the Count loosed his grip on her and staggered backwards. "Humanity ill needs a savior such as you."
"Oh no ! We need to get out of here !" Sasaku shouted to her comrade on the other side of the hall who was looking down on the fallen Boudica, rather than his own wound, in surprise. "Hurry !"
The hall started to shake as the stench of rotting started to filter from somewhere. As the Chaldeans rushed over to the exit, the heavy doors started to close on them.
"Not getting trapped here !" Thinking quickly, Jeanne used her banner to wedge one of the doors open as everyone else hurriedly ran though. "Count, where are you?"
Stumbling towards the exit as though the miasma was suffocating him, and perhaps it was, the Count was clearly not making his usual speed. "He's not going to make it," Gudao said hurriedly to Sasaku and Rhyme.
"Go !" Rhyme pulled out her spellbook and deftly flipped to some entry known to her. "It won't hold for long, but (Nursery Rhyme) !"
The effects of her namesake Noble Phantasm blew out towards the Count, clearing a corridor that Sasaku dashed down, quickly reaching and grabbing old of the Avenger. "Got you."
"Hurry it up," Jeanne groaned from just outside the hall as her banner started to creak alarmingly.
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(Back in Chaldea)
"Unfortunately, I think the issue is that we have an implicit assumption that deterrence is here and triggering a first strike is here," Sasaku held up one hand and then the other as if marking off points on an invisible axis. "We have an issue if it's more like this" She crossed her arms at the wrist.
"That's not the case," Gudako corrected her. "We're actually unsure if it is the first case or the second case. At least our response to the latter is straightforward."
"Ah."
"Sounds like `Our Lady' is of the second mind," Siegfried commented.
"Well humans have a long history of mistreating one another the moment one side thinks they have an upper hand. And they're very good at succumbing to their own delusions of greatness," the Ruler shrugged. "Well properly speaking I don't necessarily know the humanity you're dealing with but since the records don't suggest they are any better, and magi society even worse, they won't tolerate your independence."
"Exactly," Doru said. "There's precious little reason to believe they recognize us as having the potential, let alone right for self-determination. Not like they are consistent on giving one another that level of consideration."
"It's the classic story, yes? First it's 'let us deal shrewdly with them', then it's labor camps, then it's 'no straw but make as many bricks' then they're trying to drive you into the Sea of Reeds. Not that I think the Clock Tower would somehow get the Germans to drive Leopards into the Einzbern Estate, but..."
"Well that would pose a trivial threat," Gudako waved the rhetorical hypothetical away. "At this point, any mundane force short of, actually possibly including literal nuclear weapons, wouldn't crack Chaldea. The unknown number and types of magecrafts, relics and other conceptual weapons they might have is. In all likelihood they will assume the ability to do away with us, and they are probably right."
"I don't know that we're entirely unable to deter them though. At the very least we should have a credible capability," Sasaku mused.
"Hmm?" a couple of them wondered.
"This one's more for the Masters to ask about, but I believe between Chaldea's grid and eight Command Seals, the (Sword of Rupture) might be on the table as a true last resort backstop. Given that figures like the Wizard Marshall can confirm for them we have these elements, even a 'demonstration' might not be necessary. Oh but don't expect me to be able to sweet-talk him into farming materials with that power."
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Notes:
Yes, the correspondence between each Avenger and what is going on in Chaldea is basically way too conveniently timed, I know - but the latter discussions have been going on for some time, even if it was off-screen, such that a lot of people have already reached entrenched views on the situation.
Nursery Rhyme's spells (here) come from what you see in Rom/Ram's skills in Neptunia games (they're caster type).
I noticed that there's Chaldea (singular) and Chaldeas (plural) while CHALDEAS is actually something else as well. All I'll say right now is that these versions of Chaldea actually don't have a CHALDEAS system, I checked and indeed it's consistent that there's never one referenced here. As a side note, I think CHALDEAS runs off electricity, but these versions of Chaldea actually run most of their internal economy off magical energy (their internal resource unit of account is the Quantum Piece, QP, after all) because they have Blade Generators. This is why they were doing things like selling magical energy to the Edelfelts in return for cash.