That rage, useless. All is vanity, indeed. One Flauros, a.k.a. Lev Lainur, was fuming over the situation as a summons reached him. Your engagements with Chaldea will end. Return to the Temple immediately for new assignments.

So that was it. There was no need to consider further. It wasn't as though their kind had a proclivity to fixate on subgoals like humans.

l

"Bearer of the curse, seek mis-" The voice cut off as Edmond Dantes shot flames of vengeance in its general direction. But only as long as the furious sound lasted.

"-ery, for misery will lead you to greater, stronger souls."

"Who are you, and how did you accost me on my way to the Throne?" the Count of Monte Cristo demanded angrily.

"I'm just a passing-by Mage of Flowers, Lady Aval-"

"Ah, right. Merlin. No, don't bother pretending, I've heard about you from the Master of Chaldea. So what errand did you get sent out on?"

"That's pretty rude," the elegant woman cloaked in white and petals showed herself directly. "I was about to do you an immense favor, give you a great proposition, , a-"

"Just make the offer," the Avenger grumbled overtly. "And quit the mental tricks while you're at it, they might distract me from hearing you clearly."

"You should consider a long-term contract with Chaldea."

"No."

"Are you sure? You know that being on the Throne doesn't make you any freer, or safer, than you were before, on the Throne. And your 'quality of life' sucks there."

"Maybe you magi could speak straight for once?"

Merlin shrugged. "As an Avenger, what do you think eternity is like for your class? Are you that eager to return to burning with rage in a frozen land where there is not even the dream of vengeance?"

Realizing what she was referring to, his eyes narrowed. "It wasn't any better outside."

"Not in your most recent circumstances, true. But there are better alternatives here."

"Like what you're offering, I suppose." His skepticism remained undiluted. Perhaps the other Merlin would have said the same things, but a succubus who unapologetically tried to use a charm as their opener didn't ring of honest dealing.

"Yes. Changes are possible as long as you are a 'going concern' so to speak. At the very least you'll have an outlet for all that anger when work comes in."

"You still haven't given me a job description," Dantes pointed out.

"Ah yes. Well there's a bit of a back door into Chaldea in that their Grail System uses a Holy Grail, which can be accessed from outside their protection. As has happened already."

"If that's what you wanted from me, it already got cut out, so I can't help cover any back doors."

"Already ahead of you; we have some Grail fragments which come from Chaldea's own Grail and also have a connection to you."

"That's rather convenient," the Avenger frowned with some suspicion.

"They come from one Matou I think you are acquainted with. Though they were fused with her body, that wasn't much of a complication after she, well, died. Essentially, you should be 'closer' to Chaldea's side than anyone trying to reach it by using a Grail that isn't as related to theirs."

l

(Gilgamesh and Sasaku's Room)

"You're late," Gilgamesh grumbled as the door to the room opened smoothly.

"I don't think any times were specified," Sasaku replied while walking in and looking around, the latter presumably out of habit since it was after all her room. "But you're earlier than I expected."

"Well, one of my scheduled sparring partners just blew it off."

"Hmm, Sasaki Kojirou by any chance? He apparently decided to go on an unbroken vigil while Gudao was out. Oh yeah, the Master's back now and being debriefed."

After closing the door behind her with a thought, the Ruler thought for a moment and sat down at the low table between the door and where the Archer she was conversing with was stretching on their bed. "It seems like someone's found a way to poke though the Separation Order. Since every Chaldea has to have some form of Grail system this is going to be a vulnerability for, well anyone really, but doubly so with integrated Grail fragments like our Masters."

"What are you doing? Come over here," Gilgamesh waved the girl over towards him. "It can't be a trivial attack path, otherwise they would have simply killed every Master."

"It isn't likely to have been their first try, but probably was their easiest one. Unfortunately, now they know it can work, which means they can try to find ways to do it without needing to get lucky with the circumstances."

Sighing in exasperation as Sasaku quietly sat on the nearest edge of the bed, the man reached out and pulled her over towards him. "Now you've got me thinking of work and I've forgotten everything else. I just got here."

"Hmm yeah, that all kicked off right as you were summoned, not a great introduction to Chaldea. There's usually a lot less of people being threatened from inside our metaphysical walls."

"Just - just shut up for a bit." Gilgamesh furrowed his brow, thinking about anything new that he had just now been able to 'remember' thanks to the latest event. "Ok, though I really didn't want to, bring out your wand, I'll try and ask around if you'll cooperate with one thing..."

"It's a wonder that she can sleep so agreeably," Gilgamesh mused while patting her head gently.

"Isn't that simply because you're much bigger?" a passing-by homunculus answered the Servant easily.

"Eh, I wonder if it's that simple," the Archer replied without thinking.

"Well, as far as we can tell, all our cats assume people are cats, even though they clearly know dogs and goats aren't cats."

"Uh, I see," Gilgamesh was abruptly returned to the present context after having left his unconscious wife to take a stroll in Chaldea while processing the earlier conversations held through Ruby's communications system.

"It doesn't really help their instincts that the corridors have no real ledges they can get on or nooks they can go into. Though... they can always go into one of the halls anyway," the homunculus continued on blithely.

"Of course," he replied noncommittally. Though the cat had been first to intrude on his thoughts, it had only wanted to take a nap, unlike the woman who he suspected had been 'sent' in some way to check out what he was up to.

"Nnn... hm?" Sitting up in her bed, Sasaku stretched and patted herself down experimentally.

"You could have just asked me if he did anything," a hanging-out-nearby Ruby mumbled with an air of disinterest.

"Oh, no I knew that wasn't on the cards, I was just wondering what that was you used, is that what the kids nowadays call getting 'roofied' or something? Not that I didn't know you had a lot shady stuff back there."

"Didn't work very well on you though, unsurprisingly," the wand seemed to take its contractor's passive Skill that eroded status effects personally.

"Please tell me you weren't injecting Chloe with weird things while she was still a magical girl."

"..."

"O~k~. Moving on, I guess I better go see what Gil's friends had to say about all this."

"He went off by himself. Somewhere, he didn't say. I doubt he expected you back so soon, after all."

"No worries," Sasaku jumped to her feet. "I'm sure a helpful homunculus will be able to lead me to him."

"Not that it really matters, but how did you know the boy was just going to wander off? He that much of a hard worker?"

"Huh? Well I suppose so. Anyway did you really think he'd, uh how to put this..." She thought for a moment. "The uniform thing is a big turn-off for him." Sasaku toyed with the ribbon part holding the collar of the top closed.

"Right. So it's best you talk to him and see what made it through, I can't record those type of conference calls."

l

(da Vinci's Workshop)

"No, that's not possible," Gudako was replying to da Vinci's inquiry as the Rider slowly skated around her with a scanning Mystic Code in hand. "The Grail fragments are bonded before we were even 'alive' so to speak, by now if we died they'd go with our souls into void space or wherever."

"So even recovering them is impossible, let alone removal," Doru frowned from nearby. His expertise was, of course, called upon for this question. "Doesn't that mean the Four Houses can only bring out a fixed number of homunculi Masters, if they require a limited resource like Fuyuki Grail fragments?"

"Yeah, it does," Gudao nodded. "That's why the Mages Association was more focused on making sure this version of the Grail System was limited in terms of human Masters."

"Since we have some other Grail fragments now, could we integrate them into our Grail System and then withdraw them later to use? Ship of Theseus and all that," da Vinci proposed.

"That's ... plausible. I suppose Emet would know more about how the System would handle such an operation," Gudako mused. "But that's beside the point right now."

"Is this a good time?" Sasaku entered the Workshop abruptly. "I have some good news and some 'uh huh' news."

"I wasn't expecting you back that quickly," Doru raised an eyebrow, recalling the circumstances of the Servant's earlier departure. "But let's have that news."

"It seems this latest attack has gotten the attention of the... actually we need a consistent way to refer to them come to think of it, let's go with Void Support Group, or VSG for short. So the VSG has identified the attack as something the mastermind's side can do to every single Chaldea, and deployed a countermeasure which works on a similar scale."

"Ok, so I take it that's the good news," da Vinci muttered. "Go on."

"Right. Well the thing is their countermeasure is effectively the same across all Chaldeas so once the mastermind figures out this is a viable attack path, and then works out a way around or through their countermeasure, they'll be able to hit all of us again."

"That buys us some time, then - is what I assume you're getting at," Gudao shrugged. "Because if each of us individually creates our own defense, the enemy would have to crack them one by one."

'Gudako thought for a bit before frowning. "Problem there is that convergent evolution works against us, everyone finding and picking the best solution will all be in line for round number two. I don't suppose you can discuss this with them."

"Sorry, passing information doesn't allow for that, we would probably only get replies back from people using the same path we are, but not necessarily those going other ways - and there's no good estimates on how many Chaldeas are out there, since even trying to ping them doesn't work like you'd expect."

l

(Training Grounds)

"Hmm..." Shiki quickly parried the first slash, but had to quickly move out of the way of a second arriving in the same tempo since she had only one knife at a time. "Think I'm getting the hang of this."

A set of fresh kitchen knives appeared in Tamamo Cat's paws like steel talismans that reflected the light like razor-sharp mirrors. "Dodge this, woof !"

In a flash, Shiki threw her knife at Cat aiming center-mass.

Without missing a beat, Cat sharply bent to the side while throwing in return.

Dropping to a crouch to protect herself from the metal now whizzing overhead, Shiki sprang back up and sent another knife at Cat's leg while pre-emptively moving to the side.

Dramatically taking a one-leg stance as the knife went under her, Cat sent a her next volley in a stream tracking the Assassin, while then 'falling' away from another knife.

"Hmm, that's a good trick," Chloe noted from the sidelines. "Though Cat's fighting style is so instinctive it's really hard to deliberately practice... still, you can definitely feel the tension in the air somehow."

(?)

Ah, this isn't good. Even though the Separation Order touches Void Space all along its boundary, there's still other ways in that don't pass through controlled channels like the Rayshift or summoning corridors.

In the odd void of space within the Realm of Chaldea, a sudden burst of blue flame announced the arrival of a new entity.

Hmm, and who is this who comes to my door?

"I'm the Count- no wait, I've been promoted to King of the Cavern now. But please, call me Edmond Dantes; an Avenger who has gone past love and hate to guard this back door."

I'm quite sorry, King of the Cavern, but I hope you'll understand that I'm currently disinclined to have strangers on my threshold at the moment.

"No, I've already been hired for the position, so I'm not a stranger."

Please leave.

"You'll have to make me - oh I see, this is like a surprise evaluation, isn't it? Very well, let's 'throw down' as they say," the Cavern king chuckled. "I did need to trial these augmentations to my Spirit Origin."

I don't understand what you're getting at, but if you continue to brandish that flame at me, I will have to eject you back into Void Space.

"Who are you anyway? I was expecting to meet the Masters of Chaldea."

Oh, I'm no one special. But you need to leave. Now.

"Alright, I'm ready for my final interview !"

And in that moment - Edmond Dantes found himself expelled into Void Space.

"Oh my goodness, that's amazing !" Merlin couldn't help but laugh aloud as the feed showed a Heroic Spirit being thrown out of Chaldea with an indignant expression on his face. "Damn, what did those homunculi come up with, were we worrying for nothing?"

"I don't think so, at least not deliberately," the Caster Gilgamesh near to the succubus interrupted her entertainment at their newly-hired Avenger's unexpected expulsion. "If they knew about it, the attack wouldn't have succeeded in the first place."

"I see what's happening," a hooded Assassin shared with the group. "The attack was more subtle than a Servant, so it didn't trigger their firewall, so to speak."

"If that's the case, then we can't avoid getting involved more directly," the other Merlin concluded. "Though I guess by talking to your younger version we already were, even if we didn't tell them the details."

"It made sense not to broadcast it," Zelretch reminded the incubus. "Otherwise the enemy would immediately know to target the weakness of our 'bouncer'."

"A more subtle solution, then." A Caster in white spoke into the resulting quiet. "I can arrange for Edmond Dantes to be summoned into Chaldea, piggy-backing on some other summon, but ensure the summon doesn't finish normally so that he is instead only abstractly summoned and can fulfill his role."

"If anyone can handle the details of summonings, it would be you," Gilgamesh smiled as a sudden thought came to him. "Actually, I might have an idea for a custom summoning to run by you. You see, normally Divine Spirits need some sort of vessel to manifest in, and ..."

l

Notes:

Proto-Merlin was probably using her charm magecraft to test Dantes' ability, it wouldn't make sense to recruit him to guard against mental interference if he himself was not extremely resistant to it. It's probably why the other Merlin, who had a better connection to Chaldea as he's from their branch, didn't do it.