When Ritsuka opened her eyes, the first thing she did was to observe her surroundings only to find out that she was standing on a devastated grassland. As far as her eyes could see, there was no sign of vegetation or life in the area. There was no sign of civilization either, which made Ritsuka wonder what kind of isolated place she had arrived at.

She then looked up at the sky to see dark clouds covering it, hiding the sun away. Even though it was supposed to be morning, not even a single sunray managed to pass through the clouds, making the place darker and murkier than it already is.

In the last singularity, during their stay in one of the local villages, she had heard from Bedivere about how Britain was once victim of a war, causing the land to become impoverished, making it difficult for crops to be raised.

It was in his words the darkest age of Britain and even after Artoria became a king, the situation never improved over the years until the disaster that was known as the Battle of Camlann happened.

But as she looked at the desolated area, she couldn't help but think that it was as if a disaster had struck the place like a tornado, if not a supernatural event. However, there was something else which caught her attention, sending her shivers down her spine as fear slowly crawled up to her.

It's that she was all alone.

"Mash, where are you?" She said as she looked at her surroundings once again and she could feel her hands shaking when she saw that she was really all alone.

With her breathing starting to become more erratic, Ritsuka closed her eyes before she focused her senses into her command seal and tried to find a connection with her Servants, be it Mash or the other knights of the Round Table.

But when she found nothing, her body grew cold.

"This isn't good... Was there a problem with the Rayshift?" She muttered under her breath before she quickly decided to make contact with Chaldea. But before she could do that, she blinked her eyes in surprise when they reached her first.

[Fujimaru, are you alright?]

Ritsuka's eyes brightened when she heard the familiar voice of their resident doctor, causing her to smile in relief that the connection was established.

"Doctor, it's good to hear your voice! But what happened to Mash and the others? They aren't with me right now, are they alright?" She said, a bit worried about their own situation.

[Senpai, we're fine.] Ritsuka found herself surprised once more when she heard Mash's voice coming from the transmission.

"Mash!"

[It's great to hear that you are unhurt. The thing is that for some unknown reasons, the Rayshift didn't function for all the Servants, so we're stuck in Chaldea. Da Vinci is trying to figure out the cause right now, but we don't know when she'll manage to find something. I'm really sorry, Senpai. Even though I'm supposed to be your Servant, I can't do anything...]

Hearing the remorseful voice of her friend, Ritsuka felt a bit bad before she shook her head and tried to lighten up both hers and Mash's mood.

"It's fine, Mash, it's not your fault so you don't have to blame yourself. For now, let's just trust our perverted genius and hope that she'll find something soon."

[Yes, I understand... Please be safe, Senpai.]

"You too… Alright, Doctor, what should I do now?" She then asked, wanting some direction as it would help her focus her mind once she was given a goal, silently hoping that it would help ease the feeling of loneliness she was beginning to feel.

[I would like to say to head to a leyline and summon a Servant to support you, but without Mash's shield to act as a catalyst, it's going to be hard. For now, your highest priority is to survive until Da Vinci manages to resolve our current issue.]

"Understood."

[Excuse me, may I speak for a moment?]

[Ah, King Arthur, of course. Please go ahead.]

[Master, I apologize for not being by your side at this moment. As a knight, but most of all your servant, I have failed my duties.]

"No, it's fine, you don't have to apologize. It's something out of our control so there's nothing we can do about it."

[Thank you for your consideration. Now, what I wanted to say is that you should head to my hometown, Master.]

"Your hometown?"

[Yes. According to your coordinates, you should be a few hours away from my hometown. Hopefully, if nothing happened over there, you will be able to meet my younger self as well as my foster family. Once you meet up with them, please ask them to contact Merlin. I'm sure that this man may... be able to enlighten us on the current situation in the country.] Ritsuka tilted her head in confusion when she heard a pause coming from Artoria, as well as a gagging sound after she mentioned Merlin.

And while she knew a bit from Merlin, being a legendary figure in the Arthurian myth, she was a bit perplexed by her instructions.

"But are you sure I can just pop over there and ask them to do this? Won't they be suspicious of me?" She said as she looked at herself, especially at her clothes.

If there is something that she learned from her previous adventures, especially in the earliest eras, it's that her Mystic Code made her stand out as she received strange looks more than she liked.

[You won't have to worry about negotiation, I will do them myself. I firmly believe that Ector and Merlin will trust my words if I were to explain them myself.]

"I see. I'll leave it to you then. So, in which direction is that village of yours?"

[From where you are, please walk towards the southwest.]

"Okay."

With a nod, Ritsuka took a deep breath then walked away from where she had appeared, ready to fulfill her current objective.

[Master, you're walking in the opposite direction.]

"Oh..."

"Damn it! Why the heck do we have to be stuck here while Master is out there all alone?!"

"I understand your frustration, Sir Mordred, but there is nothing we can do for the moment, so please calm down."

"Shut up, you honor student! Don't tell me what to do!"

Artoria let out a glance at Mordred screaming at Bedivere before she let out a sigh, but she decided to say nothing as she understood her frustration, a feeling that was shared by all the Servants in the room.

She then turned back her attention to the monitor, watching her Master walk across the desolated meadow alone.

"Is there something on your mind, my King?"

"Sir Gawain... I was just hoping that nothing would happen to our Master while on her way. After all, bandits and wars were commonplace during those dark times and it would be bad if she were to encounter one of those cases without any protections..." Artoria started to say to her nephew until she stopped when she heard an alarm going off.

"Fujimaru, be careful! We detected something coming to your location! It looks like an armed group… an army? In any case, they don't look friendly at all!"

"Senpai, please run away as quickly as you can!"

"My king... is that what they call in modern terms 'jinx'?" Gawain could only say as he looked at the monitor in worry while Artoria just placed her palms over her face.

When she heard Romani and Mash's warning, Ritsuka immediately bolted as she ran as fast as she could.

If it was a single soldier or beast, she knew that she could escape by knocking it out with a Gandr. However, against an entire group, it was something impossible for her. The only thing she could do now, aside from running, was hoping that she managed to reach the village before they got up to her.

And soon enough, as she ran, she saw a huge dust cloud in the distance behind her, making her grit her teeth.

'Will I really manage to reach Artoria's hometown in time?' She couldn't help but think before she turned her gaze back to the front, and she blinked in shock when she suddenly saw two individuals on her path as they weren't present a moment prior.

'Who? Since when? Are they hostile or...'

As various questions popped in her mind, she tripped on her own feet, making her widen her eyes in fear. She then closed them, preparing herself to fall on the ground and hurt herself in the process, but she then blinked when she found herself in someone's arms and not on the ground.

She slowly opened her eyes only to see the face of one of the individuals who stood on her way. It was a young man with brown hair about her age, dressed in black armor adorned with a white cape.

"Are you alright?" Ritsuka could only slowly nod when she heard his question, causing him to smile before he placed her on the ground before he looked in the direction of the army.

"It's just as you said, the Saxons are coming for us."

"Of course, I don't think I ever lied to you, did I?" Ritsuka flinched slightly when she suddenly heard Artoria's voice coming from behind her, causing her to turn around only to see a beautiful and smiling white-haired woman, floating on a staff.

"Alright, let's take care of this quickly."

"Do your best~"

"Wait?! Aren't you going to help him?" Ritsuka couldn't help but ask when she saw the woman happily seeing her companion off.

"Ah, don't worry about him. It's not a problem for him. After all, he's the strongest." The woman started to say as she fondly looked at her companion, causing Ritsuka to do the same as they saw him hold out his hand in the air.

And in the next moment, she widened her eyes when an interdimensional vortex surged outward from Kay's feet from which numerous blue swords erupted.

"Arcane arts…"

At the young man's words, the swords that were all floating in the sky all flew into his palm as if merging into one sword which he held firmly.

"Astrorum Gladius!" He shouted as he swung the sword with Ritsuka quickly shielding her eyes as he unleashed a huge blast of light in the direction of the army, momentarily blinding her.

And when she felt it was over, she let down her arms and widened her eyes when she saw no trace of an army in the horizon, leaving her dumbfounded for a moment.

[Senpai, what happened? The army suddenly disappeared from our monitor out of a sudden... Wait, who are those two with you?]

Ritsuka heard Mash ask through a transmission, but before she could say anything, she was interrupted by a passionate cry of joy.

[OOOOOOHHHHH!!!! Hey, look! It's MagiMari! Here, Leonardo, I told you she was real and not some I.A!! But why is she… I see, she must have traveled back in time in order to save Fujimaru! As expected from MagiMari, she doesn't do things half-heartedly!]

Ignoring Romani's shout full of passion, Ritsuka looked up at her rescuers who were seemingly amused by the doctor.

"Excuse, you two are…"

"Hm? Oh yeah, we didn't introduce ourselves, did we? My name is Kay, I'm just your local and average knight. And this is…"

"Hi, I'm Merlin, your adorable and lovely big sister!"

At her introduction, a silence befall on the meadow as Ritsuka was puzzled, having heard from Artoria that Merlin was a man and not a woman. She couldn't hear anything either from Chaldea, which made her guess that they were as perplexed as she was. But the one who broke the silence was...

[NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO–]

"I love these cries filled with despair."

"Of course, you do."