Hello everyone and welcome back to the start of chapter 65 of the story!
Just drunk coffee for the first time in my life after initially ignoring it. It feels weird but it helps when waking up early in the morning. Gonna get used to it. Also new GUDAGUDA even is here! Time to enjoy another banger! Good luck for everyone's rolls!
With that said, let's get into the chapter!
DISCLAIMER: All the Nasuverse characters belong to Nasu and are property of Type-Moon, with the exception of the OC's that belong to me, the author
"This is it. The secret underground library of the Clock Tower." Romani's eyes laid with astonishment to the giant room in front of the group.
"So huge. How many books and shelves worth of magecraft content must be here?" Ritsuka wondered.
"Thousands? Perhaps even a million. The shelves are quite tall." Mash pondered, figuring that it would be hard to guess the precise number.
"Meaning that our search could take hours here." Nala commented.
"Well, that's why we've brought a larger group this time." Hans told her. "Let's separate into smaller groups. It will make the search easier that way."
"Me and Nala will go searching to the left then." Peko said, agreeing with the small writer idea.
"Mash and I will go right." Ritsuka also said.
"That leaves me, Mordred, Hans and Shakespeare to look around the middle." Jekyll speaked.
"But with you and me having some distance away from those two." Mordred whispered to Jekyll. "I ain't gonna risk an headache."
Unfortunately for her, it seemed Shakespeare had heard her. "Ohohoh, do not bother about us fair young knightess." Shakespeare told. "I warrant you that I also am of the opinion that silence is a utter blessing in order to relish the panorama around one self and recollect the O so vague and intuitive thoughts alike."
Mordred sigh. "Great. I just felt my head cracking from that nonsense bullcrap."
"If so, those thoughts better be about the information we are looking for and not you thinking about the title of your next book." Hans responded to the taller writer.
"Since all of you have already choosened your smaller groups, I'll see if I can scan the overall area and find any books that might contain the Holy Grail War ritual." Romani informed them shortly before everyone separated into smaller groups, each of them going to a different area of the giant library.
"Pheeww. The books that we're looking for could be literally anywhere." Ritsuka whistled, moving is neck upwards to stare at the shelves height.
"I have never been in such library like this one. Not even Chaldea's is this huge." Mash responded, enjoying the place.
"Oh right! I forgot Chaldea had a library of its own." Ritsuka told Mash, going back to remember their base also had one.
"Hm? I tought that you already been there at least once senpai." Mash said, discovering only now that Ritsuka had still to step a foot in there.
"N-No! Erm, you see, I actually thought of going there once and...and...I...kinda forgot the password to enter it." Ritsuka said a tad embaressed, scratching the back of his head.
The shielder couldn't believe it. "Even after I told you repeatedly what the numbers of the password were?"
"With how many things happen in Chaldea, my brain ends up being overloaded and forgetting of some stuff. Sorry." Ritsuka explained to Mash, apologizing.
She however didn't took it badly. "No problem senpai. I'll be sure to give you the password on paper so that you can never forget it again."
"Thanks Mash." Ritsuka smiled, taking out a book from the shelf near him, quickly turning the pages. "Guess it's not this one." He said, putting the book back into the place. "By the way, what books do you read on the library?"
"About the world." Mash responded in a general way.
"The world? Like, everything about it?" Ritsuka asked, trying to see if he could understand Mash's answer.
"A bit of everything else yes. Countries, cultures, continents, nature and etc. I find those things interesting to read." Mash told him. "But if I had to say what books about the world that I love to read the most, I'd say is the ones about historical and mythical figures. To see how every country and region has its own heroes and villains in history. Real people that changed the world for the better or worst. Like Drake-san said, both sides contribute to history, no matter if it's good or evil. It fascinates me how a human can go far by just sheer determination in some books that I read."
"Yeah. I would also hear a lot of my national folklore tales while in elementary school as well some other tales from overseas. It was quite cool to hear about them, don't you think?" Ritsuka asked Mash who nodded.
"Hm hm. I majorily like reading about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table." Mash responded, closing her fist to her own chest. "I might say those are my favourites amongst all of mythical and folkloric books." She then stared at Ritsuka. "What about you senpai? Do you have a favourite historical figure or folk tale of yours too?"
"Well...Of Japan or outside Japan?" Ritsuka asked her.
"It can be both." Mash giggled a bit.
"If it is from Japan, then my pick would be the great warrior and commander of the Minamoto clan, Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune."
"Oh! Ushiwakamaru! I've also read about his life and legend as one of the best samurais in Japan and his feats in the Genpei War of the Heian period. That is a great choice senpai." Mash commented, having already heard about the famous samurai.
"Exactly! He was one of the very first historic figures I've ever learned about. Now, for an historical figure aound the world..." Ritsuka put a finger under his chin, thinking about how many historical figures outside Japan he knew. "There was that king emperor from Europe. What was his name?" He rubbed the forhead. "He also had some sort of group like the Knights of the Round Table. Something like Charles...Charl..."
"Charlemagne and his Twelve Paladins?" Mash said.
"Yeah! That one! Had a book about him and his paladins lying around the house when I took a read some years ago." Ritsuka told her. "His adventures looked cool."
"I still have to read more about them. I barely touched the subject as of yet." Mash said, the two continuing to search for the books that would contain the information they needed. "Thinking better, there's still so many books that I still want to read that it becomes complicated to choose which one to start first."
"How about we two go to the library at Chaldea after finishing this Singularity and pick a new one to read?" Ritsuka shared his idea with Mash, slightly caughting the shielder off guard.
"R-Really?" Mash stuttered, surprise.
"Yep. It has been quite some time since I last read a book. Could be a great opportunity to start reading one again." Ritsuka said with an happy smile. "Do you have any reccomendation in mind, Mash?"
Slowly, Mash moved her lips into forming a small joyous and warm smile. "Well, no reccomendation occurs in my mind at the moment senpai. We'll figure that out later. But for now..." She reached out for his hand, grabbing it. "We need to find another type of book. Shall we?"
Ritsuka's smile increased a bit. "Heh, lead the way Mash."
Nodding, Mash walked in front with Ritsuka accompanying her, the two continuing the search for any book about the Holy Grail War Ritual.
"Hmm, it doesn't look like to be this one too." Nala dropped the book on the floor, joining it to a small pile of books that she had already passed her eyes over. "Found anything yet?" Nala asked to Peko who didn't respond immediatly. "Did you find anything, Peko?" Nala called him out again, still receiving no reply. "Are you even hearing me?" Nala asked, starting to lose her patience. And when no word came back to her, Nala turned around to speak to her brother face to face, seeing him standing near the other shelf of the corridor. "Hello! I'm talking to you!"
"I know! Can't you see when a person is thinking?" Peko turned around, finally giving an answer.
"Thinking or daydreaming?" Nala replied back. "I hope all that silence means you found the information."
"No." Peko responded. "Actually, I'm not even thinking about that."
"What?!" Nala exclaimed shock. "Then what are you thinking on doing instead?"
"That since this library is full of archives and books that belong to a big magic organization, we should be looking for something else here." Peko told her, altough Nala remained confused.
"I'm still not following you." She tilted her head to the side, staring weirdly at her brother.
"This place must have books or archives about magus lineages and families." Peko revealed to his sister. "Let's see if our family's name is in them."
"Not this one. Neither this one. Hmm, doesn't look like it. Nope." Mordred continued to grab and throw away books from the shelves repeatedly and quickly, not bothering to peek into their content. "Damn, this is being a hard finding."
"Maybe if you stopped to carelessly discharge the books as if they were mere tissue paper and instead put some seconds into seeing what they are about we may could have find out it sooner already!" Hans said angrily at Mordred, not liking how the knight wasn't putting much effort into looking for the information as the rest.
"Cool! Want me to also read all of them paragraph by paragraph?" Mordred replied back.
"Please calm down you two! Discussion won't bring us closer to our goal!" Jekyll said, opening his backpack. "How about some tea to calm down?"
"Ah, a exquisite gentleman I see. I would gladly take one if you don't mind." Shakespeare accepted Jekyll's offer, grabbing a cup of tea as the scientist pour the drink into it.
"You cannot be serious..." Mordred said in embaressment and perplexity as she watched the two calmly drinking tea together.
Hans was of the same opinion. "The entire city of London is at stake and you take some time off right now to drink?"
"Its content and taste does well to one's body and mind according to some books I read." Jekyll explained nicely, coming back to sip on the cup.
"Ergh! This view is too much refined even for me." Hans said, about to change is gaze to anything else. And in doing so, he found a message on paper glued to the shelf next to him, much to his bewilderment. "What? Did someone left this here?" He grabbed it, staring at it looker. "It seems recent as well."
Mordred also noticed the paper's presence. "You mean we weren't or aren't the only people who've came here in the meantime? What does it say?"
"To turn our head to the left, where we will see a useful table lying around." Hans read the short message, finding it strange. "What the hell does this-" Moving his head to the left, Hans couldn't believe his eyes when he actually he saw a table to their left, nicely organized and lighted, with an open book opened on top of it. "It can't be..."
"That thing can't be mere coincidence, can it?" Mordred said, being almost as shocked as Hans.
"Did the person who wrote it left it for us perhaps?" Jekyll wondered. "Could it have been Faust perhaps?"
"How so if the secret passage was blocked before we arrived here? That doesn't make sense!" Mordred replied, finding impossible to have been their alchemist ally.
"That passage might have been secret. But that doesn't translate to it being the sole path of access to this library." Shakespeare speaked, finding a reasonable explanation for it.
"But wouldn't there be monsters securing the main entrances to this place? I doubt a magical nerd like him would be able to defeat a lot of enemies all by himself." Mordred replied as Hans walked to the table on the background.
Taking a seat on the chair, Hans stared to the pages of the opened book in front of him. Taking a glance on the lines written in it, the writter stood even more amazed than before. "This is it! We have hit jackpot!"He exclaimed, getting the attention from the other three.
"What is it?" Jekyll asked Hans, standing next to him.
The writer smiled in reaction, showing the pages of the book to them. "All that we needed is here! The subject of the Holy Grail War ritual! All of it is in these pages!"
"And how do you think we're going to find a book like that one in the middle of thousands of them?" Nala asked to Peko as both of them were now searching for a different thing than the rest of their group.
"It must be a book of magus families here somewhere. Of that I'm sure." Peko told her.
"You sure about what?" The voice of Romani sounded near the two as his hologram appeard out of nowhere.
"D-doctor!?" Peko exclaimed in surprise.
"You were hearing us?!" Nala added.
"I definetly heard the part about a magus families book." Romani said with a face of dissaproval. "You aren't searching for info about the Holy Grail War ritual, are you?"
"W-We are! I think you must have misheard it do-" Nala tried to lie to Romani before Peko cut her short.
"Yes. We want to know if a book like that exists on this library." He told the truth to Romani, knowing that the doctor probably wouldn't believe in any lie that they would tell him.
"P-Peko?!" Nala reacted in shock to her brother's decision.
"And why do you want a book like that?" Romani asked, crossing his arms, still with an unhappy expression.
"It was more of my idea really." Peko confessed. "I want to see if our family's name is registered in it. Finsternis, was it? If that ends up being true, than we may get a big clue here."
"What makes you think that? We only know your family's name. That authomatically doesn't mean you two are from a family of mages." Romani told the boy, skeptic.
"And how can you be sure about that?" Peko rised his voice a bit. "This may be the biggest opportunity we might have of knowing more about our family! Our parents!" He then turned his head around to stare at Nala. "You also want to know it, don't you sis?"
"Y-Yeah. I sure do." Nala responded, feeling that Peko was being slightly hectic about the topic.
"Look. It can't be that easy Peko. Even if your family, the Finsternis, were a magus family, how can we be sure that they frequented the Clock Tower or where a high prestige family in the world of magecraft to have their name registered in the archives of this library?" Romani put another problematic question to Peko's reasoning.
The boy still insisted however. "Well, it won't cost us anything if we at least try to see that for ourselves right?"
Romani stood silent for a bit. "Sorry. But I doubt that your family would be in one of those books. If I, with every technology and sources available to me here at Chaldea still wasn't able to find a thing about the Finsternis, do you really think the Clock Tower will have something about them there?"
Peko stood a bit back, feeling that altough harsh, the doctor's words could contain some truth. "Please, doctor..." Peko lowered his head, closing his hand into a fist.
"Peko..." Nala stood next to her sibling, seeing him fighting against the sadness on his own body.
"We need to know. We have the right to know!" Peko said, rising his head again to stare at Romani in the eyes. "Please doctor, I beg you! I'm aware that this is selfish of me doing this, but please just this once!"
Altough fighting against Peko's pleading, Romani didn't last long and something inside made him gave in, exhaling from his mouth. "Fine. I'll see if I can detect a book about magus families in the area."
"Thank you doctor!" Peko replied, smiling to him alongside Nala.
"You're the best doc!" She added.
"Sure. You're just lucky I feel generous today. Don't abuse it further." Romani advised the twins before starting to type on his keyboard.
"Understood. We owe you one." Peko responded.
"A book about magus families. When we should be searching something else..." Romani grumbled, not taking much time to obtain results. "Oh! Would you know? There really is a book like that here."
"Where?" Nala asked him.
Romani then smiled. "About that, good news. It's standing right next to the shelf next to you."
"It isn't this one senpai!" Mash shouted to Ritsuka who was on top of a giant ladder, taking out the books on top of the shelf and throwing them down below for Mash to catch and see them.
"It's already been some minutes and still no luck." Ritsuka sighed, seeing that time was passing and they still hadn't found anything.
"How about you grab that one over there now?" Mash told to Ritsuka, pointing to another book near the master of Chaldea.
"I can try." Ritsuka replied, seeing that the book was a bit further from the ladder. "Will have to stretch my arm however." And in doing it so, Ritsuka was able to grab it. However, there was a problem. The book wouldn't get out from the shelf. "It won't get out. Is it stuck?" Ritsuka thought, trying to pull it out with more strenght.
"Is everything alright up there senpai?" Mash asked, seeing Ritsuka going through some apparent difficulties up there.
"Yeah! Just having a minor inconvenience here!" Ritsuka replied, trying his hardest to take the book out from the shelf. "Come on!" Thankfully, Ritsuka ended up being successful, pulling the book out, altough the object slipped out of the place all at once, making Ritsuka lose his balance and fall from the ladder, about to hit the ground. "Oh crap!"
"Senpai!" Reacting fast, Mash was able to catch him despite of bumping her body against the shelf, making some books falling off in doing it so. "Are you okay?" She asked, putting Ritsuka on the ground.
"Knowing that there is always someone to save me from falling to my death, I sure am." Ritsuka told her, thanking Mash from having saved him from a dangerous fall.
But before the two could talk about something, some alarm sounds suddenly rang on the library, putting both Ritsuka and Mash on guard.
"Looks like we've made too much noise." Mash said, seeing the books on the ground starting to leviate.
"And it surely wasn't a good thing." Ritsuka replied as the now sentient books begun to surround them, being joined by a few more that would get out of the shelves. The defense mechanism of the library had been activated.
"Wow. There really is a lot to read in here." Hans said, closing the book. "I am definetly going to take this one with us so that I can read in your apartment Jekyll." He said to the scientist, decided to take the book and other pieces of paper that also had valuable information with him.
"So we ended our visit here." Jekyll said, looking around the place with a curious smile. "What a shame. I would love to be more time in this library. Seeing what other types of books and subjects they guard here."
"Then become a member of whatever is the organization that owns this place and you can visit here as many times you want." Mordred told him. "Let's warn the others so that we can all-"
The sound of alarms setting off interrupted Mordred as some books started to get out of the shelves by themselves, floating in the air.
"What the hell!?" Mordred exclaimed, summoning her sword. "More of these!"
"It seems we were uncovered! It was only a matter of time!" Shakespeare exclaimed. "Really, what a cliche idea to always be found out on these types of situations!"
"If I didn't want to spend much time in this place before, now I really don't want to! We have to move out of here fast!" Hans told to the three that were with him.
"Understood! Let's reagroup with the rest and get out of here!" Jekyll exclaimed, with him and the others now making their way torwards the library's entrance, hoping to meet with the others of their group there.
"That one?" Peko asked to Romani as his finger targeted a book on a higher shelf.
"Yes. The signal on my monitor says it so." Romani told him. "You know Peko, this thing that you're doing has an high chance of being useless. You and Nala might have come from a family of royals, but that doesn't mean your family were also full of mages."
"And I'll ask you this once again doctor: How do you know?" Peko replied, with Nala jumping high enough to catch the book, remove it and going back to the ground.
"Here we have it!" She said happily, handing it to Peko, clearly showing signs of anticipation and some excitment. "I can't believe we will get to know more about our family!"
"Neither do I." Peko also said with a smile, grabbing the book from Nala and opening it. "Hmm, looks like it's on alphabetical order."
"A book so thick like that one must have thousands of families in there." Nala said, staring at it.
"Well, the most important ones get to have a few more pages about them than the others." Romani told them. "You really sure this is the best time to be doing this?" He asked, still trying to make the two kids to abandon the idea for now.
Peko ignored him however and proceeded to search his family's name in the book. "Let's see. Ainsworth.. Animusphere..."
"Oh! Olga's family right? Her father must be in there." Nala noted, seeing the name Animusphere on the book.
"Remember that you're reading a book that is being updated only up to the late 19th century as per the time period of the Singularity you are in. Neither Olga nor her father are in that book." Romani explained, saying how it would be impossible from the recent members of the Animusphere family being there as of the age they were currently in. "Also, why don't you jump straight to the families that start with the letter F instead of slowing going through all the letters before that one."
"Yeah. Better that way." Peko agreed with Romani's advise, starting to scroll through the pages more quickly. "Aozaki...Crudelis...Dioland...Edelfet...Einzbern...El-Melloi...Fargo..."
"There! We've reached to the families that start with 'Fi-'. " Nala said, with she and Peko now being on the section of the book where they would most likely find their family's name.
"Alright. Finsternis. Let's see if it's-" As Peko was speaking, alarms sounded throughout all of the library, capturing Peko, Nala and Romani's attentions.
"Fu fou! (We were busted!)" Fou appeard out of nowhere behind Nala, much to her astonishment.
"F-Fou?! Since when you slipped to here?" She questioned the small animal.
"The library must have seen us as intruders! We will be having enemies to make us company soon enough!" Romani exclaimed, seeing that the situation had turned dire.
Feeling the same way too and that time was now incredibly running out, Peko started to desperatly trying to find out the name of his family. "Fidorgal. Fijnarmue. Fillaghorsell. Finbulver. Finitura. Finmory. Where is it? It has to be here!"
"Time is running out Peko! You have to go!" Romani told him, wanting the boy to stop being focused on the book.
"Those books are gaining life again!" Nala shouted, seeing manh books being activated in order to attack them as part of the library's security.
"Just give me a few more seconds!" Peko shouted back. "Finrolpher. Finstwart. Where is it!? Why I can't find it!?" Peko's mind was in pure chaos. The dread of not finding the name 'Finsternis' on the book, the pressure of having enemies about to attack them and on top of them and the hurry to find the name in order to get out of there.
"There are no more seconds left! You have to escape from there now!" Romani rised his voice to the boy, giving more of an order than an advise to Peko.
"Wait! I may have not seen it right! The name has to be here somehwere!" Peko replied back, in the verge of losing his posture, stubbornly continuing to search for 'Finsternis' in the book. "Finnernmon! Finnilthos! Finn-"
"PEKO! YOUR FAMILY ISN'T THERE!" Romani yelled at him, losing his patience, seeing that Peko now was only doing a baseless and mindless search that would go nowhere, fulled by the despair inside of him. "As the director of Chaldea, I order you to abandon this place and go back to safety right now!"
Being hugely called out, Peko stares to Romani, his eyes seemingly defeated and lost at the same time. "B-But..."
Jumping in front of him, Nala slashed a book that was about to attack her brother, snapping him out of his current state. "Wake the hell up! Doctor is right! We have to go Peko!" Not even giving him a chance to argue back, Nala grabbed him by the pulse and started to run away from the hostile books, dragging Peko alongside her
"N-Nala!" Being caught off guard by her sister's reaction, Peko inadvertently let the book fall from his hand, leaving it behind, unable to be recovered. "O-Our family...Our family wasn't in there!" Peko told to his sister, a tear of sadness running down from his eye. He thought that he would become closer. That the book would contain a possible answer for many of his questions. Yet, it all revealed to be a waste of time in the end.
"I know." Nala responded, feeling the same pain her brother was feeling, but not letting that get in her way for now as all that they needed to do now was to escape from this place.
"I'm sorry you two..." Romani whispered to himself, understanding Peko's lament and frustration, altough he also needed to have heard the truth in that moment in order to snap his mind out of the book and make him see the rough situation he was now into.
"There are some above us!" Ritsuka yelled, seeing a couple of magic books floating above them as he and Mash were running.
"Take cover master!" The shielder told him, putting her shield above their heads, blocking the projectiles from hurting them.
"These books won't let us escape here for good!" Ritsuka said, seeing how many were after the two.
Turning around the corner, Ritsuka and Mash continued to be chased down by the books, colliding with Peko and Nala who were also running away from their own group of pursuers.
"Oh thank god, you're both fine!" Mash said relieved.
"Likewise!" Nala replied shortly before slashing down some hostile books that where close to them, also hitting some of the books that were following Ritsuka and Mash.
"Run torwards the exit! Mordred and the others must be there!" Romani instrcuted to the group who immediatly did as he said, soon reaching to the entrance gate of the library where the other half of the party was waiting for them.
"Finally! We're all here now!" Mordred exclaimed, seeing them running torwards her.
"Good! Time to speed up the pace!" Hans shouted, ready to leave this place.
"Really?" Nala asked him, turning her head around. "Can't we just stay here and defeat all of these bo-" She then saw thousands and thousands of books joined all together like some type of hive, standing right behind them, still on the pursuit. Nala swallowed her own words. "Forget it!"
In the tunnels, the chase continued, with the group planning to head back to the secret passage that they used before to enter the underground.
"Fou fou!" Fou let out an apprehensive noise, seeing the swarm of books still following them down the hall, being a matter of time until it catched up to them.
"How long until we reach to that damn exit?!" Mordred asked, seeing that they wouldn't be able to keep like this forever.
"A map of this undergorund system would have come in handy!" Jekyll speaked, feeling that they might have taken a wrong turn.
"No worries! I got you covered on that!" Romani told the scientist, having been able to create a map of the underground tunnels they were now in. "You're on the right path! Keep going straight and then turn left!"
"Hope that once we do that the exit will be right in front of us! The books are getting closer to us!" Nala shouted, turning her head around for a moment to see that their enemy horde was still chasing them at an incredible speed.
"I can't afford to lose this information here! It will be worse than having to rewrite an entire page because of a spelling mistake!" Hans said, carryng the book and some pages under his arm.
"The great thing about this job is that it helps me being in shape with all this running!" Ritsuka commented.
And right as they went to the left, they spotted the entrance, or rather now exit, of the secret passage at the end of the hallway. With a bunch of monsters occupying it.
"Please! You must be kidding us!" Ritsuka protested, now having enemies about to surround them on both sides.
"They must have entered here during the time we where at the library!" Mash said.
"Automatas, homunculi and helter skelters?! All of the vermin decided to show up here by the looks of it!" Mordred prepared her sword about to make way by cleaning out the path of the enemies up front.
Jekyll then took out a small flask from his pocket. "I'll help you too!" He said.
"Hey! Don't try to act heroic here! We already have enough fighters!" Mordred scolded Jekyll, not wanting him to risk his own life.
"She's right! Plus, what are you planning to do with that thing?" Nala speaked to Jekyll, asking him about the flask in his hand before also going to clash with some enemies on the front.
"I'll drink the liquid that's inside of it!" Jekyll responded, sure in his own words.
"Erm, and do you know what the possible effects of the liquid might be?" Shakespeare asked to the scientist.
"I don't know exactly. This will be my first time using it." Jekyll responded.
"Doesn't that makes it more dangerous in a situation like this?" Ritsuka questioned him.
Mordred completly agreed with Ritsuka's concern. "Yeah! You might as well be about to drink poison dumbass!" The knight said, having just sliced down an enemy.
"According to my studies and theories, it can cause some discomfort, but not exactly anything poisonous! A chemical potion to enhance one's strenght by letting their darker said take control of the body and mind!" Jekyll explained, insisting on taking the potion.
"How the hell is that supposed to sound better?" Hans said, before rethinking on his own words. "Actually, screw it! As long as it can help us escape I don't really care!"
"Glad you understand ." Jekyll replied, taking out his glasses. "This isn't about me being risking my life! It's about all of us needing to escape from here!" He opened up the flask, about to drink the liquid. "Even if its dark energy ends up overpowering me, I have to make sure you escape!" He then stared at Mordred. "Any problem with that?"
Knowing that the scientist was undoubtedly decided on his choice, she gave up from making him think otherwise. "Fuck it! Yeah, roll with it nerd!"
"Heh. Thank you!" Smiling to her, Jekyll proceeded to swallow the liquid of the flask into his mouth. It didn't even took a second after finishing from driking it, that Jekyll felt his entire body trembling and aching in pain, falling down to his knees. "Kgrgh! Aaaarghagh!"
"Jekyll!" Ritsuka approached him, worried about his condition. "You okay?"
"These groans, shakening, and contortion of the body! Not even the worst of beverages would pull that off of a man!" Shakespeate commented, also a bit concerned with Jekyll's suffering. "Could a sip of tea help ease this abominable pain?"
"Fucking hell!" Mordred clenched her teeth, slicing down other enemies as she was pissed at seeing Jekyll's current state. "I knew it dammit! You shouldn't have-"
"Hehehe..." Then, to everybody's surprise, Jekyll stopped screaming and writhing in pain, his hair having gone messy as well as his clothes, with the scientist laughing all of a sudden.
"J-Jekyll-san? Are you fine?" Mash asked, finding weird how he was now laughing shortly after looking to be in a great pain.
"Hehehehaha... Hahahahahahaha!" Jekyll's laugh increased the volume, growing more madly at each second.
"As he lost it?" Nala asked, now starting to get a bit terrified of Jekyll's unhinged behaviour.
"Hahahahahaha! Ha...ha...ha..." Calming down, a large creepy smile formed on Jekyll's face, the scientist hiding the eyes behind his hands. "Say hello..."
"Huh? Say hello to who?" Ritsuka asked confused.
Without warning, the scientist suddenly got up from the ground. His eyes now shinned of a pure bright red, going along with his psycothic smile and appearence. There was almost no trace of the serene, composed, well-educated and friendly Jekyll that they had known before. As if he the guy they were seeing now was a totally different person.
"SAY HELLO TO MISTER HYDE !" Shouting like a lunatic, 'Hyde' took out a sharp knife from his pocket and crazily attack some enemies in front of him, taking them down, much to everyone's surprise.
"W-What a-" Mordred was almost speechless in what she was seing.
"That is it! This is the other half of from the novel!" Romani exclaimed, knowing who was the 'new' man in front of them. "His darker personality, fully formed by the evil desires that resided within his body! The 'monster' Mr. Hyde!"
"So that's his other personality." Mash commented, watching the Jekyll now transformed into Hyde, fighting like crazy against the enemies.
"Oh! Not having to hold back! Not having to wear masks! Not having to keep my dark thougts a secret!" Hyde said maniacally, slashing down enemies left and right in a frenzy. "I WAS NEVER THIS FREE AND HAPPY BEFORE! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Doesn't it look like to you that he's going a little out of control?" Hans asked to the others, witnessing the insanity of Hyde in first hand.
"That behaviour is almost identical's to that of Jack's." Nala noticed it. "A killer instinct in it."
"Wow! Who knew you could fight like that?" Mordred told to Hyde, still viewing him as Jekyll. "Altough I think those laughs should probably be signs of concern."
"Bad news everyone! That large swarm of books is getting closer to you!" Romani warned them, right in the moment the books showed up around the corner.
"Great! If we don't find a solution fast we will get destroyed on both sides!" Hans said, urging the group to deal with this situation fast.
"Anything that comes to mind master?" Mash asked Ritsuka, who started to look around the environment to see if he could find something useful for them.
"We could...Those pillars!" The master of Chaldea exclaimed, seein a pair of pillars on both sides of the hall in the distance. "We could destroyed them, making a part of the ceilling fall onto the books and create a barrier between us!" He shared his plan to them.
"Are you really going to risk the chances of the entire tunnel collapsing over us?" Hans asked him, not very approving of the idea.
"It's either that or dying!" Ritsuka replied.
"Ah! Such cruel and impending fate that we are about to face. It is in a scenario like this one, where what is the most valuable to a protagonist is his wits to overcome the dangers rather than sheer strenght." Shakespeare speaked, narrating the situation to himself.
"But those pillars are far from us master! We will have to destroy them from long distance or else we will be engulfed by the books!" Mash told Ritsuka, finding a flaw on his plan. Or so she thought, as Ritsuka smirked at her.
"That's why I thought about that part too Mash!" Ritsuka then pointed torwards the pillars. "Peko! Blast those pillars away!"
"..."
"Peko?"
"..."
"Buddy?" Lowering his hand, Ritsuka moved his head to stare at Peko, who had been silent throughout this entire thing. The boy stared at the ground, his face between a sad one or one with no expression at all. What could he be thinking for not having said a word or react to anything that was happening around him? "Peko."
"..."
"Peko! You there? We need you!" Ritsuka grabbed Peko's shoulder, shaking it, finally getting his attention.
"E-Eh? Sorry! What is it Ritsuka?" Peko asked him, his mind coming back to focus on the real scenario that was happening around him.
"I need you to destroy those two pillars over there before those books reach us! We have to be quick!" Ritsuka explained fastly, knowing that he couldn't waste any second with possible thousands of enemies coming after them.
"S-Sure! Leave it to me!" Peko nodded, getting in front of Ritsuka and charging the mana circuits in his arm for a powerful attack. "You better take cover from this!" Peko warned them, the arm now fully charged and glowing white, aiming it at the pillar on the right first. The unrelentless wave of magical books was getting closer to them. Not even a second could be wasted now. Peko had to do it now. "Here goes!" He exclaimed, freeing all of the magical energy stored up in his arm, firing it at the right pillar, completely obliterating it. He then shifted his target to the pillar on the left, destroying it as well. And with that done, a huge part of the ceilling fell right on top of the books.
Luckly,the fallen ceilling only came near to almost fall on Peko and the others too. And like that, they dispatched off the books, hugely improving the situation and turning it on their favour.
"Nice one Peko!" Ritsuka told him once the dust dissipated completely, patting the boy on the back. "Half of the enemies have been dealt with! Now let's take care of the other half!"
"Understood Ritsuka!" Peko nodded his head with a small smile. "I can't be thinking of these things now. Not when I have to help my group! Your head needs to concentrate on the present at the moment Peko! Don't bring the others down!" Peko said, putting himself in check and summoning his sword, ready to fight the remaining enemies alongside the party.
"Hehehehe! Who knew all of this action could be so therapeutic?" Hyde continued to slash maniacally the enemies, being of a great help to the others.
"That one fighting...is it Jekyll?" Peko asked, watching amazed at the fighting prowess of the 'scientist'.
"Yep! Dude wasn't joking when he said he had an ace up is sleeve." Mordred told the boy, slashing an incoming enemy.
"He is looking and behaving differently from the Jekyll I am used to." Peko replied.
"His physical attributes look to have also become almost simillar to those of a servant." Nala added, observing how strong and agile Jekyll had become thanks to the potion he had drunked.
"As long as he is fighting with us and not AGAINST us." Mordred replied. "Now stop making questions and help me in wiping the floor with these monsters Shortie N.2!"
"Transient Wall of Snowflakes!"
Mash casted a spell on her allies. "Hope this helps everyone's defenses!"
Everyone fought and supported the others in the best of their capabilities. But no matter how many monsters they would defeat, there would be always more to replace the ones that had fallen. The wave of enemies didn't seemed to have an end, with the party about to get tired from having to battle non stop against the incoming endless number of opponents.
"Did they brought a whole army to kill us here or what?" Nala yelled defeating another monster. Her body was starting to feel some fatigue in the muscles.
"They just don't stop coming!" Ritsuka saw how they've been fighting for quite some time now. Even with his, Hans and Shakespeare support on the back, it wasn't making the fight go any less quicker or easier.
"Doctor! Could you see how many enemies remain?" Mash requested to Romani, who complied almost immediatly.
"Alright! According to the signals I'm getting from the area around you and the exit...Thrity more enemies!" Romani exclaimed, shouting out the results.
"We still have to defeat thirty more!?" Peko replied in shock.
"We won't be able to keep fighting for that much long!" Hans stated.
Shakespeare however was trying to be more optimistic. "What an utter tomfoolery thing to declare O ! Our bones and muscles that compose us might be giving to the pressure, but my eyes have still not seen one of us reach the point of exhaustion!"
"Hahahaha! All this chaos and energy is perfect! Perfect!" Hyde yelled, killing another enemy violently. "I needed this! I needed this so much-ergh! N-No!" Feeling something inside his body, Hyde's insane smile dissapeard, now having an incredulous and dissapointed face on its place. "Ending...just now? When I was...having the time of my life..." Slowly, Hyde lost all of his strenght and presence, the appearence and normal personality of coming back, with the scientist falling exhausted on the floor. "...Ghg..."
"Jekyll went back to normal!" Mash exclaimed, seeing the scinetist transforming back to his original appearence.
"The effects of that potion must have expired out!" Ritsuka thought.
"Ups! Me and my bad omen tongue." Shakespeare said.
"Kgh! Dammit!" Seeing Jekyll completely weakened and exposed, Mordred hurried up to him, clashing with an enemy right on time before it could attack Jekyll. "You had your minutes of glory! Satisfied idiot?"
"Did I...Did Hyde helped?" Jekyll asked to the knight, recovering from his energy behind her.
"Yes, you helped a lot." Mordred responded, being sincere.
"But the enemies are starting to overpower us!" Peko exclaimed, pushing off an opponent after clashing with it, feeling a sharp pain on his arm. "I'm not sure if we can defeat the rest of them while keeping to fight like this!"
"Overpowering or not, we still have to keep fighting!" Nala said, battling against two enemies at the same time. "We can't be defeated here!"
"Master! Are you hanging well back there?" Mash checked temporarily on Ritsuka, wondering if he was okay.
"Sure! Just keep with your head on the fight Mash! I'm okay!" Ritsuka told her.
"I'm also feeling my strenght startting to deteriorate!" Mash speaked, having some difficulties to fend off an enemy. Her legs could be about to stumble at any moment.
"Okay! Guess they are asking for it!" Mordred rised her voice. "I was saving it for a later occasion but these shitheads really got to bother me already!" Mordred's sword begun to shine a bright red with thunders. Altough a precipitated action, Mordred was sure that would clean the last wave of opponents in no time. The Knight of Treachery was ready to unleash her Noble Phantasm.
"Ah, trample that dow-
But as soon as Mordred was beggining her Noble Phantasm's activation, a flood of dark flames and earth pillars suddenly appeard from the secret passage's exit, taking out everything that was on its way. "What a-"
"Everyone! Look out!" Mash was fast to react, using her shield to protect everyone from the attacks of the flames and pillars. Once it had died out, Mash lowered her shield and fell by one knee into the ground, having used a good amount of stamina to block those hits.
"Are you alright Mash?" Peko asked her, helping the shielder to get back up.
"Y-Yes. Just a bit worned out. That's all." Mash told him.
"Great job on that one Mash!" Nala told her.
"True. You saved our skins for a moment." Ritsuka also thanked her.
"Eh, I just did what was my function as a shielder." Mash replied, then staring at the hallway in front of them, now empty of any monsters.
Instead of talking, the entire group decided to take this chance and runned torwards the exit, finally being on the outside and in the middle of the British Museum's ruins again. Now they took that as an opportunity to rest and recover their breaths for a moment.
"At last! Fresh air!" Nala commented.
"The best air of all!" Ritsuka added.
"But those flames. None of us casted it, did we?" Jekyll asked, having his body laid on the ground by Mordred.
Hans checked the book and pages he had brought with him in an instant before replying. "It certainly wasn't me. Someone else must have used it while standing right on the outside of the passage."
"Well, no shit Sherlock. Of that I think we all figured that out already." Mordred told him before staring back at Jekyll. "You we're wicked back there. In a good way."
Jekyll smiled in response to her. "Thanks."
"Who launched those flames and pillars was probably wanting to help us escape." Peko said, thinking about it
"And there is only one person who we've met in this entire Singularity that could do that sort of spells." Romani told them, resulting on everyone to have the same guess on who was their help.
"So it was him." Mash said.
"Definetly him." Ritsuka replied, thinking about the alchemist. That meant he could be close.
"That must have been enough to get rid of those monster for them."
Roaming the streets alone, Faust had just walked away from the place before anyone of the group could have spotted him, having helped them exiting the underground tunnel without being seen.
"It's true that I could have took that chance to grab the royal twins and vanish with them. But with too many eyes around that would be dangerous." Faust soeaked internally to himself. "As well as that I couldn't let them fend off against the enemies by themselves, risking the possibility of having my targets killed." The alchemist then sat on the paved ground and laid his back against the wall of a house, taking a deep breath and raising his head to the cloudy sky.
"Or perhaps they're just good people who deserve to reach to the end." Faust said, putting an hand on his own head. "What should I do now? Do I really have to betray them? Isn't there any other way of doing this?" He thought, debating with himself. The words from his master were absolute. He couldn't disobey them. "But, if I end up doing it, I'll get possible peace. My chance to atone for everything. Yet, will it justify my actions here in their eyes?"
Faust wasn't sure. For he didn't knew how capable Ritsuka and the others were on forgiveness. How long could he pretend to be on their side? Would he even be capable of backstabbing them when the opportunity occured? "Heh, moral choices. Since when they became so hard to decide?" Grabbing the lucky necklace that Fran had gave him yesterday, Faust got up from the ground, clearing his head. "I'll think better on that later." He said, choosing to abstain from the decision for now. "For now, I'll see where they're going ne-"
"Oh my. What have we here? A small mice spying around?"
Turning around the corner, Faust's entire body paralyzed in a cold shock as he saw the King of Storms herself, Artoria Alter, waiting for him.
"Y-You!?" Faust exclaimed, taking a step back, his mind wondering since when she was here without him noticing her presence, hiddened and hearing him. "How long have you been following me?!"
"Not as long as you have been following your 'allies'." The dark king replied, moving her back away from the wall. "You are a subject of interest to me and my master alike. An scholar alchemist wouldn't surely be pestered in having a dialectic talk with a king I presume."
Quickly, Faust pointed his lamp at Artoria Alter. "I am not interested in whatever you or your master have to offer to me!" He shouted, firing a dark light from his staff torwards the dark king, who easily avoided it and in a blink of an eyes attacked the alchemist, piercing his shoulder with her lance. "Agrgh!"
"How rude and cursory of you. A king is generous enough to be 'polite' and 'reasonable' with you, and in return you try to kill him just like that?" Artoria Alter told Faust, slightly mocking him. "And I thought you alchemists were supposed to have a significant amount of intelligence." She took out the lance from Faust's shoulder, with blood flowing out from the wound and he stumbling on his steps backwards.
"Argh! Can't you see when a person wants to be left alone?" Faust told her, applying pressure on his shoulder, still holding onto his staff.
"Hm? And that makes you right to ignore a king's will and orders? Do you have no respect for authority or you may perhaps be just pure ignorant and stupid?" Artoria Alter speaked, not liking the unwillingness of Faust into cooperate with her. "The words and wishes of the king are always a priority over everyone's else."
"You aren't no king of mine! I don't have to obey your commands!" Faust told her, showing resistance and preparing another attack from his staff. "Go away-agh!"
Unfortunately for the alchemist, Artoria Alter deflected the attack of his staff by hitting hit with her lance, proceeding to punch Faust on the stomach and grab him by the neck, shoving his body agressively into the wall behind him.
"What a puny defiant mage you are proving yourself to be. I thought you would be the type of spilling all out when taking a single punch." Artoria Alter tightened and roughened her grip on the alchemist's throat, forming a malevolent smile on her face. "Do I need to be more severe to you?"
"Oi! Who is making all this noise now!?" A grumpy old man opened his window, having been disturbed during his money counting.
"!" The King of Storms gave a cold, brutal and menacing glare to the old man.
"Ghg! B-Bloody hell!" Intimidated by the stare, the old man shut the window, not wanting to be involved in whatever was happening here.
Taking advantage that Artoria Alter took a brief second to stare to the side, Faust felt her grip soften, and so he hit the elbow of the arm that was grabbing him, freeing himself from the dark king, falling into the ground. But that effort was almost as futile.
"Tsk!" Slightly annoyed by Faust's attempt, she kicked the alchemist in the chest as he was trying to get up and run away. "Do not dare disrespect a king!"
"Uffgh!" Feeling the blow, Faust's body had entirely hit the ground, letting the staff go from his hand. As he tried to grab his weapon again, Artoria Alter stepped on his hand, the strenght put into it being enough to crack some bones. "Aaaarghaah!"
"A lesson for your insubordination." Artoria Alter told him, squeezing more his hand. "Now, answer to my questions if you wish to come out of here alive."
"W-What the hell do you want? I already told you I'm not joining you!" Faust told to Artoria Alter, trying to withstand the pain at the same time.
"Oh no. You are thoroughly mistaken if you think I was searchign you for that, alchemist." Artoria Alter denied Faust's assumption. "Our advances on making you join us was scratched the moment Paracelsus died. What I want to hear from you, is to a different answer."
"What is it?" Faust asked her, his head now being pinned down to the ground by Artoria's Alter other boot.
"Simple. Who do you work for?" Artoria Alter made the answer.
"What?" Faust exclaimed in shock and confusion. "I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"Really? Or perhaps is it your intellect that's getting 'blemish'?" Artoria Alter said, stomping Faust's head, applying more pressure against him.
"Ghrgh!" Blood splatted from his head and mouth, with Faust trying to get out from Artoria Alter's iron boot by using his free arm to grab the heel.
"It is fundamental to never make your liege's patience run out. Things can become unnecessarily filthy." Artoria Alter warned Faust, in position crush his skull at any moment if he happened to not comply.
"I-I may work alone but I am an ally to Chaldea! That's the truth! I have no-aargh!" Faust tried to speak, only for Artoria Alter to apply more pressure into his head.
"Do you take me for a fool? Why would you say you're their ally and yet follow them hiddenly and withtout their knowledge? And above all else, roaming around this Singularity all alone with possible enemies and monsters on your back is just plain stupid and senseless." Artoria Alter could sense the alchemist's lie, knowing he was just trying to hide something that no one knew about him except Faust himself. "You weren't summoned here at random by the Counter Force like the rest of the stray servants. You must have been summoned in a constrasting way. Your source of mana doesn't come from the holy grail. You were summoned by someone else right? Who was it then? Who is your master?" The King of Storms demanded.
"Kkaaagrhaaaaah!" Felling his cranium starting to crack from the strenght of Artoria Alter's boot as well the constant answers she was throwing at him, Faust hit with his fist on the ground. "Get off me!" He yelled, crafting an earth pillar to attack the dark king, who dodged it, but in doing so gave enough space for Faust to get away from her. Quickly grabbing the staff, Faust swinged it torwards Artoria Alter, palnning on landing a fatal blow on the King of Storms. "Take this-"
"Laughable." Artoria Alter said short and simple, overpowering Faust's staff with a clash of her lance, leaving the alchemist opened.
"W-What?" Faust stood in shock. Artoria Alter way of fighting wasn't like Paracelsus. She was a king, a born and trained warrior, made to conquer land and to fight in wars. She was way more experienced in the close combat than the other alchemist could have ever been. In a smooth movement, Artoria Alter pierced Faust's torso with her lance, perforating the wall behind with the tip of her weapon. "Blurghgr!" Faust vomited blood as he saw the great wound on his body, his neck being tightly grabbed by Artoria Alter once again.
"I won't ask this again. Who is your master?" Artoria Alter asked for the last time, slow, threatening and dooming, with the dark king's eyes staring hauntingly at Faust's.
"I..I don't have...a master..." Faust insisted, even with his life hanging by a thread. He was sure that giving another answer, no matter if it was pleasing to Artoria Alter's ears or not, wouldn't change a thing, with the King of Storms seeming to already have decided to kill him there. Faust's fate was sealed. He would perish here, with the critical wound inflicted upon him. There was nothing he could do or nowhere for he to escape.
Genuinely angered but contained, the dark king saw that there was no point in keeping up interrogating Faust. "People like you are what I despise the most in my kingdom. Die." Saying that, Artoria Alter prepared to finish Faust once and for all.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
A sudden enraged scream from nowhere catched Artoria Alter's attention off guard as she stared to the side to spot a furious Frankenstein charging at her with a large circle shaped mace on her hands.
"Great. Another clown to get in my way." Artoria Alter removed her lance from Faust's body, proceeding to clash it against Fran's mace. The King of Storms decided to take some steps back, creating some room between her and the artificial human. "Are you the one who's next up in line to have a taste of my Rhongomyniad?"
"Not if you taste my Clarent first asshole!"
Artoria Alter's eyes widened in surprise, before the dark king mustered a smirk. "Heh. You again, aberration." She said, turning her body around and tanking the violent sprint of her son, Mordred, who clashed against her with all her might, being enough to make Artoria Alter's feet drag on the ground by some meters.
Mordred, the Chaldea group, Jekyll, Hans and Shakespeare all had appeard, having arrived just in time.
"It's her again!" Mash exclaimed, putting her shield into combat mode.
"Finally! I still have to clap her back since the asylum." Nala speaked, also preparing her sword, not forgetting of their small first encounter.
"Fran?! You're here?" Jekyll said in astonishment, surprised by the presence of the artificial girl. "I thought you were in the apartment!"
"And Faust is also here as we suspected." Peko noticed the alchemist's presence as well, not taking much to also observe the terrible state he was currently in. "And he's bleeding! Faust's bleeding a lot!"
"We must tend to his wounds then!" Mash replied, worried.
"On my way!" Ritsuka responded, heading torwards Fran to help her heal and fix Faust's wounds while Mordred and everybody else made sure Artoria Alter wouldn't try to attack him in the meantime.
"I hope you're ready for round two deepshit, because I sure as hell am!" Mordred shouted, and intriging and almost savage smile on her face. She was looking forward to this so much.
And altough feeling somewhat the same thing, Artoria Alter kept reserved and calm. "I lament to inform you aberration, but that fight won't happen now. The conditions have yet to be met."
"Eeh?! What conditions?! Are you afraid of facing me jackass?!" Mordred shouted, enraged.
"Oh, so that's the legendary king of Britain, Arthur Pendragon?" Shakespeare observed Artoria Alter from behind. "I see that someone took very intresting creative liberties here." He smiled with some amusement after saying that remark to himself.
"If I was indeed afraid of facing an enemy, I would no longer be worthy of having the title of king. I just don't see the motive to waste my energy with you right now. Besides being asinine, you are also impatient." Artoria Alter told her child with pure disdain, provoking Mordred even more.
"I'll show you who's the asinine here you cold bitch!" Mordred yelled.
"Please, save your brainless energy for another hour. Or, you could spend it in doing something else." The King of Storm smiled to Mordred, signaling to Faust's damaged body with her eyes.
"What have you done to him? Why were you even attacking him?" Hans questioned the dark king.
"I have no obligation to answer you, peasent. So stay in your place instead of making demands." Artoria Alter told him. "However, I would advise you to better know your alchemist 'ally' before he passes away." She cackled.
"What? What do you mean by that?" Peko asked her.
"Go discover it for yourself." Artoria Alter responded, starting to retreat back into the mist. "As for you, Royal Twins, I am sure sooner or later, you'll flounder upon my master's hands." She speaked to Peko and Nala before changing her gaze to Mash. "I am also be looking forward to see you again, my knight. I will be waiting for all of you next time. Hehehehehe."
"What?" Mash said confused.
"She's truly a dangerous adversary." Peko commented, standing next to Nala.
"WAIT! GET BACK HERE!" Not wanting to let her father escape, Mordred jumped torwards Artoria Alter, in hopes of slashing her down with Clarent. Unfortunately, a thunder from the skies fell into Artoria Alter's lance, and in a bright flash, the dark king had dissapeard. "DAMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Mordred shouted, closing her hand into an agressive fist, her teeth creaking onto each other. The opportunity to have a full battle against the King of Storms was denied to her yet again.
"Hang in there! You have to hold it!"
Hearing the voice from Ritsuka some meters away made Mordred snap out from her fury and immediatly replace her attention on everyone surrounding Faust's injured body. The knight quickly reached there, joining the rest of the party. "How is he?"
"He has lost too much blood! Even after using my healing spells, the wounds haven't fully closed!" Ritsuka told her. Faust's still bleeding!"
"Let's bring him to the apartment quickly! We can finish healing him properly there!" Jekyll told them to which everyone agreed. His house wasn't that far from their current location.
As for Faust, his now weakened mind and vision could barely register what was happening around him.
"...You'll be okay Faust...Just hold...on a bit longer...We...got you Faust...We...got you..."
To be continued...
And that was it for chapter 65!
You know, during the time period I was writting this chapter, I wondered, does Ritsuka, canonically has a phone in the game? Like a mobile phone? I find the thought of this to be funny because, if they have, then what they do with it? Per exemple, who are they gonna call to when all of the people outside of Chaldea are dead? Do they have a phone list of servants? Do the servants have their own phones and phone number or is it something that Gozen decided to transform into copyright infringement, meaning she's the only one who can have a phone? Plus, what would be the point of having a phone in Chaldea where all of the people you are friends and work with are there? Is it to play games? Does Ritsuka play phone games at night? What kind of games does he play? Gacha games? Where they then wish to be the mc of a gacha game with a big harem before going to sl- Okay, I'll stop with the joke now.
So we had Jekyll transforming into his 'bad boy, mentally unstable' phase alter ego, Hyde, Peko getting temporarily sad because the wiki page of the magus families of the Clock Tower completely sucks and needs updating (according to the boy himself) and Faust gets a first hand experience of what it is like to be dominated by a sexy, cold and authoritarian king waifu...shouldn't have said this last part loud.
And now, it has reached that time like always, where we enter the final chapters of a Singularity. That's right! We have now just entered the ending portion of London! Another part of the saga that is now coming to an end. It's becoming an habit at this point. It feels great seeing the story going forward. London will be finished next month, mid-late December by Christmas if nothing bad happens to me. Hope to see you all there!
That's all I wanted to say, and see you next time on chapter 66! Peace!
P.S:
Mash (Seeing servant names on the list for '2023 Santa Claus'): Don Quixote is too small. Moriarty can't be trusted with the role of Santa. William Tell is occupied hunting. Li Shuwen doesn't have beard. Gramps (Hassan) is too scary for the role...I think that leaves us with only one.
Ritsuka: Congratulations Seneca! You won the role of Santa Claus for Christmas 2023!
Seneca (Shaking Ritsuka's hand): That's a pleasure to hear young man. I'll be sure to fulfill my role as greatly as-
Ptolemy (Burts out of the door with a menacing glare): I've heard, that there was happening a contest between old man servants for the role of Santa Claus.
Seneca (Staring menacingly back at Ptolemy): Oh? Sorry to inform you, but that role has already been granted to someone.
Ritsuka (sweating): Am I the only one who is feeling some tension here?
Mash (sweating as well): No senpai. I am feeling that too.