16th Day of the Second Moon

Sortiara

The organization and apparent efficiency raised my spirits as I followed the officer and some of his men through the gates of the city. While the humans of Tristan's fucked up world were certainly stronger than most people back on Earth would be, they weren't mages, and none of the people I'd run into thus far was a servant, of that I was certain. Even if something were to go wrong, breaking away would be simple.

Not that I expected such a thing to be needed in this case.

Undoubtedly, this empire was modeled after ancient China. What era I couldn't say, but everything, from the people, to the weapons and armor, and now to the buildings of the city indicated as much. That could mean only one of two things: someone from the Spiral Manor was in charge of this empire, or, ideally, Johnathan himself.

The thought of seeing Johnathan again sent a jolt running down my spine. The last time I'd seen him had been… messy… and it's not like we had any contact afterwards. What I'd say to him now, after all this time and all that's changed, I-

I rapidly shut down that train of thought. Yes, there was certainly… things… to be discussed, but that could come later. Would have to come later. If anyone else knew just how great a threat Tristan was, it would be Johnathan. That, and even now there wasn't anyone else I'd worked better with, from a magus standpoint. There was simply no way he'd turn down the offer to work together, at least until Tristan was dealt with. I was certain of that much.

Even if it's just someone else from the Spiral Manor, certainly Johnathan would have worked with and told them about Tristan. They would have to see how working together, even if just temporarily, was the correct course of action to take...

It didn't take long to reach the biggest building in the city. That it would be where both the territory control spire, and where the governing of the city took place, was without question. The territory had only been taken a few days ago, and while I couldn't understand a word from the patrol group escorting me, or anyone else within the city walls, the fact they were escorting me here was a good sign; the odds of a proper local government structure being this coordinated with the obviously professional military force patrolling the territory, and the military encampment just outside the city's walls, were so low that the ruler of the empire had to still be here, directly overseeing things.

Entering the building part of the escort peeled off, turning back the way we came. All things considered, it was likely they were returning back to the encampment. Seems I'd lucked out leaving the western front to Saber and racing back to the north the moment the map showed a new empire bordering mine; the army, and with it the ruler of this empire, seemed set to leave soon, if not later today.

After climbing some stairs and walking down corridors the group escorting me came to a stop outside a large set of doors. The head of the group knocked, or rather pounded, on the doors, and after a moment of silence a shout came back through the doors.

"You may enter."

A shout I could understand… That signaled one of two things behind the door: a master, or a servant.

The head of the group spoke to the remaining few patrol soldiers something I couldn't understand, and within a moment it was just the two of us standing before the set of doors. Then, the remaining soldier pushed the doors open, and for the first time in a while, I came face to face with-

"What the actual fuck is this?!"

The soldier jumped in fright from the outburst and shouted something, lowering his spear right at me, but I could barely even process it. All my focus, all my senses, were focused on what was in front of me.

Or rather who was sitting at the desk only some feet away from me.

Glancing up from whatever he was working on at the desk was Tristan. At least, I thought it was Tristan. He looked like Nathan thought, but… even younger. A few years younger than Nathan had back when I'd first met him in the Holy Grail War. He looked like… like he was in high school!

I could only stand there, looking on in shock and horror, time moving at a snail's pace, as the look of surprise on Nath- Tristan's face morphed into a smile, then a grin.

Finally… there came the laughter.

"Oh, this is truly just too good to be happenstance! This has to be a work of fate itself" the boy looking like a young Nathan couldn't stop laughing. "Sortiara, darling, it's been a while! Tell me, what do you think?!"

"What do I think about what" I couldn't contain the shock or anger I felt as time returned to a normal pace and the laughter echoed in my head. "What I think about this fucked up world you've created?! What I think about how bullshit it is that you, of all people, are at my border?! About how you look like a fucking child?!"

"The last one, primarily" he snickered as his laughter died out and he seemingly wiped a tear from his eye. "But really, you don't like this world? Aren't having fun?"

"No, I'm not having fun! This is a war, not a game, you sick fuck!"

"Oh, my dear, how have you not learned this lesson by now" he simply sighed. "War is a game. Inherently. So is life, which is what this is. What this all is: life!"

"This is nothing more than one of your fucking delusions, and you know it!"

Tristan, I was certain this was truly him unfortunately, simply raised a single eyebrow. Then he turned to the soldier, who had been glancing back and forth between the two of us, clearly unsure of what to say or do in response to what had just occurred, but still had his spear levelled at my chest.

"Excellent work, Guo Ping. I received your message just yesterday, and you are right, this is another emperor. You have done well in escorting her here safely. You may lower your spear and return to the camp."

The soldier began to speak a few words in response, but Tristan merely waved his hand and immediately, the soldier fell silent.

"Thank you for your concern, but there is nothing to fear. I will be fine, and besides, I'm sure there are things the two of us will need to discuss, in privacy. You are dismissed."

While the soldier still looked slightly shaken up from the previous events, he returned his spear to his side, bowed in respect to Tristan, and left the room, closing the doors behind him. After a few seconds of listening to the sound of footsteps slowly fading away, the sound suddenly cut off completely, and I saw the flash of green light as a hexagonal pattern briefly appeared on the doors before disappearing. Turning back around to face Tristan he let out a slight grin.

"And now, privacy" he explained. "I assume you're not going to try and attack me again, like the last time?"

"Would it work even if I tried" I growled.

"No, it wouldn't" Tristan let out a slight sigh. "Oh, come now, don't look so glum. I know we're not on the best of terms, but this is truly a great opportunity for you!"

"Yeah" I scoffed. "Why should I believe a single word out of your mouth?!"

"You shouldn't. Not fully, at any rate. We both know I'm not above lying, and that even when I'm being honest with what I say I'm likely lying by omission. But… we also know each other, at least to the extent that we can work together and not be suspicious of immediately being backstabbed. We're both not stupid enough to believe that an alliance between us would last forever, but at least until the final seven masters should be possible, no?"

"Really? You want to work together" I was extremely suspicious by this bit of news. "Why?"

"Because a war is much harder to win when going at it alone. Now, while I have no doubt I could win this all on my own, it just makes things all the more time consuming…"

"…And the real reason?"

"You don't get to leave this room alive if you refuse, and I really don't want to make you my first kill simply because you had the stupidity to walk into enemy territory and willingly have yourself be brought before me out of arrogance that you could get yourself out of any situation not involving a servant."

"It's almost like you forget I have command spells…"

"It's almost like you think my magecraft can't protect me from you calling your servant to your side."

"You're not powerful enough to beat a servant in combat."

"You're right, I'm not. My magecraft capabilities are so non-existent that, even with my mystic code, powerful as it is, my magecraft is effectively little more than parlor tricks. In prolonged combat, even you'd overcome me, and rather swiftly at that. However… running away is certainly something I'm proficient at, and surely you've realized by now that the people of this world can, with numbers, overpower even the greatest of servants. Think your servant can overpower my entire army, with only you as backup?"

"…"

"…That's what I thought" Tristan grinned. "Glad we understand each other."

"Still not going to work with you though."

"Of course not. Why would you, when you don't even know the truth about anything?"

Silence filled the room as Tristan didn't even bother to look at me, instead having returned his attention back to whatever it was that was sitting on his desk. Immediately I wanted to dismiss this as nothing more than just Tristan being Tristan, but something in the way he said that made me hold my tongue.

"In fact…"

A green flash of light lit up the room for a singular moment, before disappearing.

"You can leave, if you're not interested" Tristan still didn't even bother to look up as he spoke. "No trap, no tricks, the soldiers won't try to stop you or anything. If you're not interested in learning the truth, you're not interested. I can't force you to join me, and killing you in this way would be so boring, it's not even worth it. I'll invade you and defeat you on the field of battle."

"…You're lying, as always."

"No, I'm not" he shook his head. "But obviously you won't believe me, as is the correct decision to make, and so I've been working on this since the moment I got the message yesterday, just in case the ruler being escorted here was someone I wished to work with."

"…That being…?"

"You're a magus, no" Tristan finally looked up as he tossed a roll of paper towards me. "Surely you recognize what this is."

Never dropping my glare at him, I slowly opened the roll of paper, and understanding hit me instantly.

"A Geis scroll… Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"Impressed by some paper and ink? No, I wouldn't dare imagine you being impressed by such a thing. But consider reading it over and seeing if the terms are agreeable, why don't you?"

"No point" I shook my head. "You don't have a magic crest; there's nothing to bind you to this."

"You would be correct, were this a basic Self-Geis scroll, as so commonly used between magi. This, however, will work on me, as it binds not a magic crest, but a soul. Oh, and before you comment, yes, despite who I am and all I've done, I do indeed have one of those."

"How is it supposed to bind a soul?"

"In practice it's not different than binding a magic crest; both are unique creations of magical origins, to varying degrees. In a similar nature that a Geis can be infused to a body, mind, or magical crest, it can also be infused into a soul."

"Ok, but how did you learn how to do such a thing?"

"Who's to say? Certainly not me, seeing as you haven't signed the contract. Of course, this infusing into the soul business will go both ways: this is a Geis scroll, not a Self-Geis scroll. You will also be bound to the terms, and if you think the result of breaking a typical Geis is horrific, I assure you, you don't know the meaning of the word horrific."

"…"

"…The choice is yours, of course. You have until I declare war on you to make your decision, though as to how long that is, I can't say; my desires are ever shifting, and boredom drives me to seek amusement, as I'm sure you're well aware."

"Ugh, just give me a moment to read this shit, why don't you?!"

…The structure wasn't any different than other Geis scrolls, at least. But it was long. Stupidly long. Tristan had clearly put a lot of thought into this, for the sheer number of apparent loopholes to either end of the agreement, many of which I'd have never even thought possible as a loophole, were covered in extreme detail… However, at the end of it all, the agreement was a simple one.

"I won't lie to you, and you agree to work with me, up till the final seven masters" Tristan spoke up again as I finished reading and spotted the lines on which we were to sign. "As I'm sure you noticed, that even includes by omission; from the moment the agreement is set, I cannot lie to you, for the rest of our lives. No longer will you have to second guess every word I say, or their meaning. The truth, full truth, and nothing but the truth."

"And in return I work with you until only seven masters remain" I raised an eyebrow as I glanced at him, still holding the contract.

"Until only seven masters remain, yes."

"…Even with the loopholes covered on my end, this doesn't seem equal. You're giving up far more, aren't you?"

"Wouldn't I have to, for this offer to appear genuine?"

"…You would, yes… Or rather, you'd have to give the appearance you are. You believe you can win this no problem, even if you can't lie to me and I become one of your opponents again at the final seven."

"I believe I can win even if you turn me down now. This is simply insurance for… other things…"

"That doesn't sound suspicious at all…"

"Sign it, and you'll learn, provided you care to ask. Of course, I plan to offer the same deal to Johnathan when I meet him, regardless of what you do."

"…"

"…"

"…Fine…"

"Hmm?"

"Fine" I shouted. "I agree to the terms! Not like I can beat you on my own anyways; I'm not stupid enough to believe you won't invade the moment I return to my own territory."

"Smart girl" Tristan grinned, and I couldn't help but feel slightly disgusted as I looked away and back to the contract in my hand. "Then you know what you need to do…"

"Need to give me something to sign with" I huffed.

"Well, I can't really toss this quill all that well, so you're going to have to come here and get it" Tristan laughed, holding out the quill with an outstretched hand.

Hesitantly, I walked over and went to take the quill. As I reached out to grab it, Tristan suddenly pulled it back and lunged across the desk, grabbing hold of my outstretched arm.

"What the-"

The surroundings shifted instantly, and the next thing I knew we were both standing in a dark room.

"Fucking let go of me" I shouted, shoving him away as he continued to laugh. "What the fuck did you do?! Where are we?!"

"Relax, relax" Tristan tried to stop his laughing as the lights came on and I got my first look at the new surroundings. "You're not in danger or anything, I promise!"

"Fat fucking chance I'm believing that! Where the fuck did you take me?!"

"Back to the Moon Cell, of course. I told you I was going to start being honest with you, didn't I?"

"What do you mean back to the Moon Cell?! We were already in the Moon Cell! On the Moon Cell, whatever!"

The rage within my died a bit when Tristan, now back to his adult self, simply stood there, looking at me, and didn't respond.

"…Weren't we" I asked, doubt now starting to form.

"That's… a complex question to answer" Tristan spoke without a hint of amusement or fuckery in his voice. "One that I will answer, I assure you, but first, we should start the tour. There is much for you to see, and while I'm fairly sure neither of us were at risk of dying to a third party anytime soon, this is technically cheating, so… try to make this quick."

"No! I'm not going anywhere with you, or trusting a single word you say until you sign-"

It was only then that I realized I was no longer holding the Geis scroll.

"What did you do with it" I demanded.

"I did nothing with it, or to it" Tristan shrugged. "I told you my magecraft was little more than parlor tricks; what's more basic than an illusion? I simply needed some way for you to get within arm's reach. I can only bring myself and whatever I'm holding on to, after all."

"…"

"Look, I'm not going to kill you, harm you, whatever to you here, because that would go against the entire point of the game" Tristan sighed. "I said I was going to tell you the truth, and I am. Showing you will simply help with my explanations and give you the evidence that, let's be real, you're going to need to believe a single word I say. So, all that being said, can we begin the tour?"

"…Ugh, fine! God I fucking hate you…"

"Excellent" Tristan grinned. "System, give me some music!"

"Now playing: Locus."

"This way please" Tristan took the lead as the door slid open, revealing a simple, bare hallway as some music began playing. "As for your question, technically yes, we were in the Moon Cell. However, that is a different part of the Moon Cell; the far side, or dark side of the moon cell, if you would."

"And this is, what, the light side" I scoffed.

"To continue with the light/dark analogy, then yes, this would be" Tristan nodded. "I call this the Moon Cell proper, seeing as it is where the records of the Moon Cell, SERAPH, and all my work and stuff exist. It's also where you all came in, and where the world governments broke into and the Moon Cell War happened."

"But your war isn't happening here? Why?"

"Because the only war the Moon Cell can hold is one for ownership of the Moon Cell, and no fucking way was I going to give up control over the Moon Cell" Tristan laughed. "Over my dead body!"

"Then how- …What the…"

I lost the ability to speak as we walked through the door at the end of the hallway and ended up on a catwalk overlooking what I could only call a hangar. Except this hangar wasn't full of planes, but statues. Rowes upon rows of statues, of all different sizes and figures and weaponry.

"What… what is all this…" I muttered as I turned to look at Tristan.

"Our initial work, once the Moon Cell had been secured and I'd managed to summon Administrator. Of course, you know him as-"

"Daedalus, yeah, I can tell those are his creations. But this… this is an entire army!"

"This is but one small fraction of the army" Tristan corrected. "There are thousands of hangars, and many of them have much stronger creations. Of course, I'm not using any of them throughout the course of the war; wouldn't be much point in the game if I was going to cheat in such a fashion."

"Then what's the point of… of all of this?"

"They're for defending the Moon Cell. The Moon Cell had its own defenses, but they proved… inadequate. Decent enough as practice dummies to ensure quality control, but I certainly wouldn't trust them to properly defend the Moon Cell from a real threat. There's only one defense mechanism that still exist for the Moon Cell, and it's one that can't be removed, sadly."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Uh, no…" Tristan gave me a weird look. "You have to understand, I control the Moon Cell, I don't rule the Moon Cell. Yes, I can access the records, and the SERAPH program, and do a whole bunch of things within it, and to it, but the caveat to all that is that I cannot threaten the Moon Cell itself. Even with the regalia in hand, the Moon Cell maintains a will of its own, in a sense, and I can't disrupt its functions without it turning hostile to me."

"…What happens if you try?"

"Simply put, I'm dead" Tristan laughed. "In greater detail, the Moon Cell would summon as many Heroic Spirits as it needed to eliminate the threat, and all servants summoned from the records of the Moon Cell, including Administrator, would turn on me. This army isn't meant to try and take down the Moon Cell, or gain complete dominion over it. It's exclusively for defending against any outside threat that manages to breach and gain access."

"…I see…"

"Returning to the original question though" Tristan continued as he took off walking again, forcing me to follow and continue with the tour, "whatever you want to call this side of the Moon Cell, engaging the SERAPH program and running a Holy Grail War would only start a war for the regalia of the Moon Cell, in other words ownership of it. To run a Holy Grail War proper, one that could grant wishes, in needs to be conducted in a place where the magical energy of servants isn't tied to the Moon Cell, so that it can be siphoned by, or into, a Holy Grail. As such, the dark side of the Moon Cell is the only place it can be done, due to its unique property."

"…That being…?"

"Why, it's imaginary number space, my dear! Or as you might know it, void space" Tristan smiled as we entered another hangar.

"T-That's not possible though! We'd all be dead if that was the case!"

"Only if we were conducting it within the void space itself, and even then, not technically. Imaginary number space is inherently non-hostile to reality; nothing would exist anywhere otherwise. It's safe to observe too, but all you'd see are rainbows made by the magecraft or technology enabling you to observe it, and everyone would see the rainbows differently. Where it would become lethal is if multiple people could see the same rainbows, which, to run a fair game, would have to happen; everyone would need to see the same things the same way to have the same information and have no cheating occur. As such, it can't be held within imaginary number space as is."

"So how are you doing it?!"

"Simple… or so I would say, but it really wasn't" Tristan laughed, then sighed. "First step was to make part of the dark side, far side, whatever, of the Moon Cell observable. In doing so, the creation of an imaginary trench, basically a landmass, becomes possible. Now, that still leaves a couple issues… For one, imaginary number space is still the territory of nil, and as such no intelligent life can exist there, even with a landmass formed. The second issue, is, again, the need for everyone to be able to see the same thing, which is lethal in imaginary number space. Thankfully, this is where Administrator comes in, and manages to resolve both these glaring issues!"

"How does Daedalus manage to…" I began to speak, but as I did so I came to a realization all my own. "…The labyrinth…"

"Clever girl" Tristan grinned. "Indeed, the labyrinth was the answer, but in a rather unique way. You see, even if we made that pocket of landmass safe for intelligent life to exist in, the altering of imaginary numbers would mean that sight through light would be impossible. Effectively you'd need to be able to navigate through heat and sound, and humans aren't all that great at doing so innately. However, the labyrinth is a special reality marble with two distinct properties: it can be made to be infinitely sustainable by providing it with a source of mana other than Administrator himself, and rather than overwrite a surface world with one's inner world, it sits below the surface world and anchors itself to any and all layers. As such, once we created an imaginary trench, we used the labyrinth as an anchoring tool, sending it using the power of the Moon Cell into the far side, and attaching it to the imaginary trench as an anchor. This ensured two things: so long as the landmass remained observable, we'd never lose it within void space, and a stable connection by which to reach it, as-"

"As the Moon Cell itself provided the magical energy needed to sustain it, and not Daedalus…"

"Precisely" Tristan nodded. "From that point, we just needed to slowly expand the labyrinth, ensuring the Moon Cell could continue to sustain it, and form a… let's call it a pocket, around the landmass. This was done by expanding the landmass into the size we'd need to properly replicate the world, then expanding the labyrinth to encompass the landmass like a shell, effectively creating a pocket of imaginary number space within imaginary number space. From there Administrator went in and modified the imaginary number space, artificially reducing the size of the landmass by creating, effectively, what you would have been seeing as the sky back in the war, but, importantly, not eliminating that chunk of landmass, as that would have caused that part of the labyrinth to collapse."

"So, what you're saying is… the sky is just modified land to function as the sky, and the labyrinth is anchored to it?"

"Or the sky is anchored to the labyrinth, yes. However you wish to put it" Tristan nodded.

"Ok… doesn't that still leave the issue of navigation though, as the space was modified?"

"Only if you don't change it to real space, it does."

"I'm sorry, you're implying you did what?!"

"Not implying. I did that" Tristan grinned. "With this."

Tristan wagged a book back and forth; the mystic code he'd carried with him last year when he was in my office.

"So yeah, there you have it. My war is being fought in a pocket of real space within the imaginary number space of the Moon Cell. As to whether or not it has its own imaginary number space, I have no clue; never bothered to look into that" Tristan shrugged. "As for why everything looks as it does, well, in the same way we powered the labyrinth back in the war in America, we simply ran SERAPH through the labyrinth. That's what enabled the world to be generated to look certain ways through the control spires, and have all the people, and have the teleportation portals, so on and so forth."

"That's… You're insane…"

"Thank you! It's nice to have you recognize my genius! Ah, but we have reached the end of this section of hangars! Now to show you some real impressive shit!"

Tristan laughed as we emerged from the hangar and… were standing on what I could only describe as a digital data cube. No, really, the entire space looked like something right out of a sci-fi movie: different shades of blue contained within black lines, creating shapes and providing a base to stand on. Bubbles floated around in the open space, as if they were caught up in currents of water. If it weren't for the fact I was breathing, I would have thought the entire place was submerged in water.

"I present to you SERAPH, otherwise known as Serial Phantasm" Tristan grinned, spreading his arms out wide and doing a small twirl, "in its raw, unmodified form! Welcome, Sortiara, to the digital sea of the moon!"

"Digital… sea…" was all I could utter as I looked around, dazed.

It was undeniably a good descriptor for it. Yes, a digital sea… that was exactly where I found myself now.

"This is what greeted us when we arrived to the Moon Cell all those years ago" the pomp and circus in Tristan's voice had disappeared, replaced with an almost melancholic tone. "An endless expanse of blue, unable to be modified or altered."

"…Compared to how it looked when we started your war, this is so vastly different… why?"

"Because I hold the regalia of the Moon Cell. With it, I control SERAPH, and part of that is it's shaping. In other words, I am the sculptor of the digital sea."

As if to prove the point, Tristan held out his right hand. Within a matter of seconds the scenery of the digital sea faded away, and I found myself standing in a grand colosseum.

"What do you think? Impressive, isn't it" Tristan asked, though it didn't seem directed at me at all. "Though if Rome isn't quite your aesthetic, we could always try feudal Japan."

Another moment passed, and the colosseum was gone. Instead, I now found myself standing beside Tristan on a dirt path. Pink petals drifted in the slight breeze as they were pulled off the branches of the cherry blossoms. Down the path before us lay a small bridge to provide access over the river that snaked its way through the domain.

"Each space is uniquely modifiable to be whatever the regalia owner desires" Tristan explained, resuming our walk as he started down the path. "Each space is connected by warp points, masked as whatever would fit the surroundings. You could walk for an hour, and travel across the entire world, geographically speaking. Or you could accurately recreate an entire city as it was, according to the records of the Moon Cell. That is how it's able to generate all of this, after all; quickly pulling from the records and modifying the data of the digital sea. There truly is nothing quite like it anywhere else, I suspect."

"And this is how we're able to shape the replica of Earth your war takes place on? We're just using SERAPH to modify the territorial pocket?"

"Quite right you are" Tristan nodded as we crossed the bridge, arriving at a small looking shrine. "The control spires are just access nodes by which one can call upon the power of the Moon Cell regalia, my regalia, albeit in a very limited capacity. It makes you a limited ruler of the Moon Cell, within the confined space of your territory."

"And the teleporters we have access to, they're based on the warp points that connect the different zones here, weren't they?"

"Very perceptive" Tristan grinned, "and you're correct, they are. Modified to appear anywhere within your territory, and go beyond just the neighboring zones, thanks to Administrator's work."

Pushing open the door at the back of the shrine, we stepped out of the building modeled off of feudal Japan, and into a very sterile looking corridor.

"Tour is almost over, I promise" Tristan laughed. "Just need to show you one last thing. Fortunately, it isn't far; just down this corridor, turn right, and then at the end of that corridor it's the final door on the left."

"What makes this so important, for you to save it till the end of this tour of yours?"

"You'll see" he chuckled, which immediately set me on edge.

The room we ended up in, however, didn't appear to be anything special. It was a small, circular space, with the only thing of note within being some kind of terminal thing in the center. One after the other the lights in the room flicked on, and Tristan walked over to the terminal and placed a hand on it, causing it to hum to life.

"What… is that" I asked as a lone, glowing strand of light shot up from the terminal.

"That… is a timeline" Tristan simply stated. "Specifically, our timeline. Come, take a look for yourself."

"You've mapped out… our timeline…" I hesitantly stepped forward as Tristan started to manipulate the strand of light by pulling at it.

"Technically, the Moon Cell mapped out or timeline. It's been around for millions of years, if not billions, recording everything. This is just the recording saved as a single strand. Makes it far easier to view, see?"

Peering at the portion of the light strand Tristan had zoomed into, I saw the interior of Johnathan's old home. The living room with the couches where we sat, much younger, and across the table from us-

"This was the first night we-"

"Yes, it was" Tristan laughed a little off to my side as I watched myself stand up and start shouting at Johnathan.

Watching it back now, I waned to die a little inside; I looked unhinged. I could only be thankful that there currently wasn't any audio, likely due to Tristan disabling it somehow.

"How much... can you see? How far can you go back?"

"Everything, and everything. There is no secret that the Moon Cell can't uncover. No magecraft or magic that can block its scans. If it existed on Earth, or even before it in the same space Earth now occupies, the Moon Cell has a record of it."

"…That's how you got the invitations out then… The protective spells of the Clock Tower and the Pit wouldn't have worked because you knew where they were from the records…"

"The illusionary spells, yes. The mental manipulation spells though, to compel non-magi to stay away? That required my own magecraft to counter. Thankfully, I had my mystic code."

"…That's... impressive, but… why is this so important to show me?"

"Because it prepares you for this."

Suddenly, a whole mass of strains of light burst forth from the terminal, startling me to the point to took a swift few steps back, out of reflex. They shuffled and twisted about, moving together to where there were three main groups, and then two individual strands.

"What is all... Are these-"

"This is my latest work" Tristan grinned. "I didn't map out our timeline, no. What I did do, however, is map out all of these timelines. Care to take a peek at parallel worlds? I tell you, there's no words to describe the feelings of it, the experience of glimpsing what one should never have access to."

"Parallel… worlds…"

"Broadly speaking, they can be divided into three main groups. I call these groups the following: the Fuyuki Grail War timelines, the Great War timelines, and the Moon Cell timelines. Care to learn the difference?"

Stunned wouldn't even come close to describing it. I'd seen plenty in my life, magecraft related and not, that I'd considered absurd or phenomenal. But this…? Records of parallel worlds…? It… it just… It shouldn't have been possible! Couldn't have been possible! Tristan was an ordinary human! He commanded no magecraft! Hell, even the best magi in the world couldn't do this! Not even magic would be capable of such a feat! So how?! How did Tristan of all people-

"I'll take the silence as a yes. I would like to first start by directing your attention to these gold rings you'll see binding the strands of time to their groups. These are what I call time locks. In effect, these are events that are set in stone and must occur, no matter what happens prior within the timeline. To use the Fuyuki Grail War timelines as an example, Gilgamesh must begin the separation of humanity from the gods, Olympus and the Olympian gods must fall, Camelot must fall, and, for some reason, the church representative within the fifth Fuyuki Grail War, a man by the name of Kotomine Kirei, must die. To use Camelot as a further example, no matter how good or bad King Arthur does in maintaining Camelot, the timeline will always correct itself somewhere to enforce Camelot's fall. From what I have observed, there is not a single timeline within the Fuyuki Grail War timelines where Camelot manages to survive, and I have observed a lot of timelines."

"…Ok… I think… I think I'm following" I spoke slowly, trying to snap back to my senses as I took in all the different strands of time. "Then, what differentiates the groups?"

"Well… good question. Let's start with the Great War timelines. For the most part, time remains the same. Gilgamesh does his thing, Olympus falls, Camelot falls, the Fuyuki system gets established… The first difference, the first new time lock, comes during the second world war. In this version of the third Fuyuki Grail War, two major differences occur. First, the Einzberns, rather than summoning the servant Avenger, summon instead the servant Ruler. This change would prevent the corruption of the Greater Grail, thus leaving it pure, unlike how it was for either our timeline, or the timelines of the Fuyuki Grail War. The second difference is that, at the end of the war, a magus by the name of Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia, with the help of the nazis, extracted the greater grail from Japan, and later betraying the nazis, brought it over to Romania, which, as I'm sure you know-"

"Is their home base" I concluded. "So basically, the Great War timelines are the timelines where the Yggdmillennia clan is competent?"

"Only if you consider the extraction to Romania as the only criteria for competence" Tristan laughed. "He would then go on to host the Great Grail War in Romania 60 years later, and that war would be fought between two teams of sever servants, with a Ruler servant being summoned by the grail to arbitrate. It's quite interesting to watch, actually: despite the fact the war has such vastly different circumstances, the magi fight it in mostly the same boneheaded way as I've personally experienced, or seen in the other timelines. How is it that, no matter the timeline, no magus seems capable of grasping how to fight a grail war competently? Truly, a mystery only the root could answer..."

"…I take it that means Darnic and his clan don't win" I commented, ignoring the typical jabs at magi that Tristan loved to take.

"Oh, hells no! Well, at least Darnic has never won, from what I've seen. On a rare occasion someone from his team wins, but the vast majority of the wins in that war go to a homunculus, of all things. If you could even consider his fate at the end of it a victory… I certainly don't envy him…"

"A homunculus wins… never mind. And the third cluster?"

"What I call the Moon Cell timelines. These are the timelines where the Moon Cell exist, much like in ours. In those timelines, magecraft starts dying out in the 1970s due to declining mana levels globally. By the year 2030, all magecraft has perished from the Earth. Instead, Holy Grail Wars are fought within the Moon Cell, specifically the light side of the Moon Cell. The prize, naturally, is the Moon Cell regalia, rather than the typical wish one would be granted by the holy grail. As for the events within, I don't know. I've never observed any wars fought within other Moon Cells; trying to hack into one, even from the safety of my own, is not a risk I'm willing to take, at least currently. Point is though, they suffered the same fate you magi are facing in our timeline, just a lot sooner. Oh, and just something interesting I thought I'd share: despite the fact that the presence of the Moon Cell, in any timeline, means that the Crimson Moon has no presence, timelines with the Moon Cell still contain vampires! No idea how or why, but they do! It's a very bizarre contradiction, and I can't figure out the cause as to why it exist!"

"…While all that is… certainly something… This doesn't add up though. If all these time locks and events of yours are true, then… how could our timeline fit into any of them? We have a Moon Cell thing, obviously, but… the Fuyuki Grail War continued to the fifth one, and mana didn't start running out in the 70s…?"

"You're right, and that's what this timeline is" Tristan pulled up one of the two individual strands outside of the groups. "Our timeline, where bits and pieces of both the Fuyuki Grail War timelines, and the Moon Cell timelines, exist, yet also contain elements that shouldn't exist in either. A fourth cluster may exist for timelines such as ours, but… I've yet to reach any. One would think parallel worlds that more closely mirror our own would be easiest to observe and record, but alas, they have proven to be most elusive, should they exist in the first place. It had been… rather vexing, originally. Now though..."

"What?"

"Well... this last timeline here... changes things..."

Tristan pushed the other timelines out of the way, and dragged the last timeline front and center of the terminal projection.

"The point of this tour; what I really wanted you to see" Tristan continued. "To understand. My most current focus. Tell me, Sortiara… are you aware of the pruning theoretical phenomenon?"

"…You're talking about the theory from the Pit? I'm aware of it; the Institute has magi previously tied to the Pit. But… it's just a theory. Very few magi outside the Pit subscribe to it, and it's never been-"

"…"

"…Show me."

"…Behold, Sortiara, a suspended timeline."

What I witnessed could only be described as abhorrent. The entire world, devoid of life. Devoid of sound. Devoid of color. A white, barren landscape… Simply… nothing…

"What... what happened here…?"

"I don't know. I'm unable to observe beyond the point of the Earth being bleached. How it came to be is anyone's guess."

"So this... is a pruned timeline...?"

"Originally, I thought so to. I instead call it now a suspended timeline, because of these."

Zooming out to a view of the plant from space, on the surface of the bleached Earth I could see what appeared to be four different storm systems brewing violently.

"When the first probe reached this timeline, there were seven storms brewing, though the Earth was just as bleached" Tristan continued. "For a long time, we couldn't get past the storms, but a few days ago… we made our big breakthrough, though only four pockets remained. As for what we observed, and the data we collected from within the storms… Watch the recordings, examine the data spreads, and tell me your own conclusion."

Stepping aside, Tristan beckoned me up to the terminal. To take control. To ensure that I saw the full picture, not just what he wanted me to see.

What those recordings showed me… What all the different data points and reports on them pointed to…

"They're… not of the same time…" I eventually muttered. "Not even of the same world… What… what are these things Tristan?!"

"… I have taken to calling them Lostbelts, after what those in the Pit who believe in the pruning phenomena have theoretically considered to be possible in terms of existence. From what you have now witnessed, as I have witnessed-"

"The magi of the Pit were right… Timelines… entire timelines can be pruned; erased from existence! But then how are they there, Tristan?! How are they fading from a bleached copy of the Earth is they were pruned away!"

"…I called this timeline a suspended timeline, rather than a pruned timeline, because those seven storms don't represent timelines being pruned. They represent already pruned timelines attempting to revive themselves; attempting to override a valid timeline and gain a second chance at existence. Timelines, Sortiara, are capable of invading one another, to the point of overwriting them. To what capacity I cannot say, and it perhaps should have been evident from the fact I could probe them and record them, but… well, this confirms it, no?"

"I... Wait, but you said there were seven at the start! What happened to the other ones?! Why can't you collect data from the ones that are gone by just going further back in time?!"

"Because time is suspended. We can't send probes further back in time because this is the only point of time that exist for that timeline. It sounds impossible for that to be the case, but it is; time isn't flowing outside of the storms, only within them. So yeah, I can't get data from the storm pockets that have been eliminated. I wish I could. As for what happened to them, I don't know either? Remember the giant trees you saw in the storm pockets? From what I can gather, they're anchors for the invading timelines, and so long as they stand, the timelines can spread out, eventually covering the entire Earth and becoming the new official timeline. Now, in pure theory, I have to imagine that when two of the timelines collide, there will be conflict, and ultimately only one will persist while the other one gets consumed, as in erased again. However, I say in pure theory because we have never observed any of the storms coming into contact with one another. As such, the only way I could see the invading timelines being pruned again currently is that, somehow, someone or something from the bleached Earth's timeline is capable of punching through the storm veils, and is fighting back. Again, just a theory of mine, but I just can't see it being anything else, considering the invading timelines have never once met each other since we began observing this timeline."

"...What... the fuck..."

I had to sit down just to avoid falling over, my legs were shaking so badly. My mind was racing, struggling to digest all of this shit, yes, but more so because...

What is Tristan really trying to get at here...?

With Tristan, nothing was ever as it seemed. Nothing was ever so straightforward. That what he showed me was a fabrication, or a lie... no, it wasn't, I was certain of that. But there was a point to him showing me all of this in the order he did. To make what came next all the more believable, yes, but beyond that...

"A fourth cluster may exist... It had been rather vexing..."

Oh... my god... But it can't-! He thinks-!

"We're... a Lostbelt..."

"Not quite the conclusion I was looking for, but close enough" Tristan sounded amused as he shut the terminal off. "A Lostbelt? No... at least not yet. I find it very hard to imagine we'd be here, participating in a grail war, if we had indeed been pruned, and you have to be pruned away first to become a Lostbelt. But... as to if we're on the track to being pruned away or not? It's possible, I'd argue. After all, despite all this time, I've yet to find a single timeline that matches our own, and in comparison to the others we are a mass of contradictions that shatter time locks. Time locks that should have forced corrections."

"Then this war-... No... It's not even that you don't care... That this war of yours could drive us further towards pruning... you embrace it. You don't mind if this leads to the world ending!"

"I wouldn't say that. I don't want to be pruned away, you know, which would happen if this timeline is pruned. But if it were to happen as a result of my actions, well... there's always a risk in experimenting with the unknown, isn't there?"

"Like hell I could ever work with you then" I shouted, springing back to my feet. "You have to be stopped, at all costs!"

"Yes, from your standpoint I'm sure I do, which is precisely why you must work with me, at least for some time. After all... you can't stop me, not on your own, and you can't stop me if you're dead, can you?"

"..."

"..."

"...Fine, I'll work with you, for now" I growled. "If only so I can wipe that stupid smirk off your face myself."

"Looking forward to it."

"Until there are seven masters remaining, you said?!"

"Oh, that was all a lie, naturally" Tristan laughed. "You're free to betray me whenever you wish, and think you have the power to kill me. Naturally, that does me you can expect to hear plenty of half-truths and lies all the while, but while I'm still in the spirit of being honest... ask away?"

"Ask what?!"

"Anything you like! One question, and no matter what it is, I will answer it truthfully."

"Like I-"

"Yes, yes, you don't believe me, I'm well aware" Tristan rolled his eyes. "But even if you think I'm lying to you, and will lie to you when I answer, isn't it better to get a lie ruled out over nothing? This is your only opportunity, so think carefully about what you wish-"

"Your mystic code."

"-to ask- huh?"

Tristan gave me a quizzical look, as if he'd been caught off guard.

Good! Serves you right, you smug prick!

"Your mystic code, what is it? That's what's protecting you, and enabling you to use some magecraft, despite you not being a magus. What is it?"

Tristan simply stared at me in silence for a moment. Then another. Finally, after blinking a couple of times, a smile began to creep across his face.

"A good question" Tristan laughed. "Of all the things to ask me, you ask about my source of power; how I'm able to do all of this! How very like you! Very well then!"

All of this? As in the terminal and the war, not just magecraft? What does he-

Holding up the book he always carried with him, Tristan grinned with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"You, my dear, are staring at the only complete collection of Thoth's knowledge and magical theories; written works that not even those of the Pit have managed to uncover and hide away from the rest of the world. My mystic code is none other than the only genuine Book of Thoth."


A/N

Don't even know what to say at this point... I got frustrated, burnt out, and gave up on writing for the past few months, simple as that. Honestly, a part of me genuinely thought I'd never come back to this. So much time had passed, I still didn't quite know how I wanted this part to go, I'd moved on to new things in my other areas of interest, school had started up again... I truly thought this work was dead.

...And then I saw in my recommended feed on YouTube the 2023 memorial video for FGO, and gave it a watch. Not for the first time, mind you; I'd seen it when it was first uploaded to YouTube and didn't really think much about it. But when I watched it again a couple nights ago... I realized something about it that I hadn't before. The video wasn't a love letter to the fans of Fate, much as they may have enjoyed it. Really, what that video was, was a love letter to the source material; a love letter to the myths, legends, stories, and history that Fate pulls from. And that realization... sparked something in me.

I have my problems with Fate, as I've made you all well aware by now, I'm sure, in my A/Ns. But I can't deny that, underneath all the problems I have with the IP, I see it. I see that underlying love for the source material it draws upon. The same love I share, that keeps me hooked on the IP, despite all it's flaws.

So here I am, once again. I don't know how long this new spark will burn for; if it will blaze or die out with a whimper. I don't know if I'll ever finish this work; years upon years of writing remains, at this rate. Maybe my ideas will ultimately forever remain just in my head. I make no promises on any of that anymore; would be far from fair for me to do so at this point. But what I can say, at least for now, is that I'm back to writing. Back with a newfound spark and desire to write.

Back to remembering why I love this IP, it's god damn INFURIATING SYSTEMS and all!

So... here's to this part, and whatever parts happen to come next!

Hope you enjoy