Chapter Thirty-Seven
Road to Ascension
Morning arrived within the singularity of Fuyuki. The sky was still covered in a mix of cloud and smoke, the air slightly cold and warm with a mix of something being burned, and the atmosphere was dark, gloomy, and deathly. Yep, just another perfect morning for the students of class 1-A…well almost perfect as the students were currently on the rooftop of the school as Lily was currently making a summoning circle. Off to the side were her classmates who were looking at her with a mix of confusion as to why she was doing this.
"Is there a reason why we're on top of the roof?" Aizawa asked before hearing Lily speak up.
"I know I told the others about this, but the perk of being the host of the divine spirit of the holy lance, lets me summon a servant from the knights of the roundtable." She said which took the students minus the grand servant students by surprise.
"Wait, you can summon someone here to this place!?" Izuku asked. "But I thought we couldn't get help from the outside world?"
"A hero from hero society, no. But a servant from the throne of heroes, that's a different story." Lily answered. "Keep in mind, I can only summon the knights of the roundtable, not any other servants outside of that."
"And you could've done this from the beginning, why?" Bakugo asked as he noticed Lily making the summoning circle and moving to the center of it.
"Because, unlike Artoria who can summon her knights on the spot, I need a leyline to be able to summon them. At least until I'm at the level of her divine spirit level, which I am not."
"And a leyline is?" Aizawa asked.
"It's the magical energy flowing through the earth. Or in this case the singularity. Think of it like a current of water, only instead of water, it's magic in liquid form. In a sense. And thanks to Artemis sending her drones around the singularity, this school just so happens to be on top of a leyline."
"And is it wise to let someone like her have access to that?" Todoroki asked as he winced in slight pain from Lily throwing a small pebble at his head.
"Remember what Artemis said yesterday? If you want to survive this hell hole of an abandoned city, then you need my help along with the others. Or do we need a repeat of what happened when you attacked that corrupted version of Artoria's Saber class?" Lily asked, which caused Todoroki to glare at her. "Yeah, that's what I thought. So shut up and let me do my magic."
"Is it wrong that I'm a bit excited to see how this summoning ritual thing works?" Kaminari asked as Mineta shook his head.
"You're not the only one. I wonder if we're able to do that?" He asked as Artemis appeared next to him.
"At your current level, no. Sorry dear, but like I said yesterday. Lily's the only one with a little bit more experience under her belt." She said as Magni appeared on Kaminari's shoulder.
"Plus she holds the holy spear that ties two realities together. The human world and the reverse world."
"Reverse world?" Tsuyu asked.
"You know the fairy tales of fairies, dragons, and other mythical creatures you used to read in books. That's where they lived from now on once the age of man took over the age of gods."
"If that's true, then how come those monsters we ended up running from are in this place?" Jirou asked.
"Because this singularity was created by Goetia who has the body king of mages," Artemis answered. "With the knowledge of magic from King Solomon, his body, and magic he must've collected during his time on this planet. He can bend the rules of reality to make just about anything happen."
"Artoria said that this villain was defeated by a human from your world? How were they able to do it?" Izuku asked.
"You would have to ask Artoria that question. I wasn't around when Goetia appeared." Artemis said as she looked over at Lily. "I believe she's about to perform the summoning ritual." She said as everyone turned their attention to Lily. The atmosphere around them was calm as Lily summoned a worn-out spear into her hand. Once it was in her hand, she soon implanted it into the ground as the circle lit up.
"You know you can let me do this for you. No need to do this by yourself." Artoria said within Lily's mind as she shook her head.
"You have done a lot for me during the past ten years. Let me do this on my own, please?" Lily asked as a slight chuckle escaped the divine spirit's lips.
"Very well, I will let you do it. But if something goes wrong, I will take over." Artoria said as she watched from the sideline in her mind.
"Heed my words," Lily said as the magic circle lit up even more. "My will creates your body, and your sword protects my destiny. If you heed the King's call, then follow the path and answer me!" She yelled as pillars of light circled her and the ground began to shake a bit. "Seventh heaven clad in great words of stargazers. Come forth, pass on your judgment, and punish my enemies! Knights of the heavenly scales!" Upon saying the last part, the pillars of light gathered upon Lily as she was engulfed in the light. Once she was engulfed in the light, the pillar grew bigger as it caused everyone to close their eyes from the bright light. Within a matter of minutes, the light began to fade as everyone slowly opened their eyes. The moment their vision began to clear up, they saw three people kneeling in front of a staggering Lily who was trying her best to stay standing.
"Servant, Archer. I, Fairy Knight Tristan, have come in response to your summons. I promise to do my best to live up to the title of a knight." Baobhan said before busting out laughing. "Just kidding! What, you expect me to be like the other knights and be proper and classy? Sorry, that's not going to happen, sorry to disappoint you, King. But seeing that you summoned me, let's get along, shall we? I'm a knight in shining armor, after all, right?"
"Knight of the Round Table, Gawain. I look forward to working with you, my King." Gawain said before hearing another voice speak up.
"Fairy Knight Britomart has attended your summons. May there be glory in this adventure." said the fairy dressed in red and white garments. There was a moment of silence hanging in the air before Mina spoke up.
"Wow…Not gonna lie, but the guy in the silver armor is a hottie~"
"He's like a knight in shining armor…if that sort of thing exists," Toru added.
"Dude, check out the hottie with the long silver hair~" Mineta whispered to Kaminari. "Of course, they got nothing on Artemis, but she's still a hottie nonetheless."
"No kidding. The one with the long red hair is a looker too, think she'll be up for going on a date with me?"
"You're a girl now, remember?" Mineta said which caused Kaminari to look over herself for a moment before looking back at Baobhan
"Crap, you're right!" She said before hearing Bakugo speak up.
"Seriously? Only three? For someone who's supposed to be the hero of this planet, you're a disappointment." He said as Lily was about to reply, only for Gawain to speak.
"Watch your tone, brat. You're in the presence of the King of Knights. You should be on your knees and show some respect to someone as great as her."
"W-Wouldn't go that far as to call me great," Lily said while blushing a bit at Gawain's compliment.
"Her? Great? She's nothing more than a villain. A loser villain who's not important." He said, which caused Aizawa to use his scarf to restrain Bakugo as he began to struggle with his capturing scarf. "What the hell!?"
"You have no room to talk. Especially given what happened to Midoriya, Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Todoroki the other day. Or did you forget that?" He asked as Bakugo glared at Aizawa for a moment before looking away. "Do I need to remind you that we need to work together to get out of this place? Did the death of the other students not register in that thick head of yours that this is serious? Do not forget, you and Todoroki are in trouble after this and I'll be sure to do a furrow investigation on you both, but for now, you will work together with Lily until this is over. Do I make myself clear?"
"Tsh, you can't be-"
"Do. I Make. Myself, Clear?" Aizawa asked as he activated his quirk while tightening Bakugo's restraints.
"F-Fine…" Bakugo said before feeling the capturing scarf loosen around him.
"We'll talk more after this but know that you're on thin ice. If you do something that would cause trouble, I will have you expelled from U.A. faster than Kaminari going brain-dead in Ectoplasm's class."
"H-Hey! I take offense to that!" Kaminari said before feeling Mina patting her on the back for comfort.
"Sorry, but Aizawa's right. You do tend to go brain-dead when Mr. Ectoplasm starts going into mathematics in great detail." She said, which caused Kaminari to pout in annoyance.
"Okay, so back to today's topic," Lily said as Gawain turned his attention to the bunny girl. "I would like to thank you all for answering the call of my summons. I know that the other knights might be summoned in different locations outside of this singularity, but that can't be helped. I'm sure they'll come once I summon them again or something. But that will be a later matter, for now, here's the situation we're in. We are currently stuck within a singularity made by the beast known as Goetia. The source behind the singularity is a person known as the Corpse King. From what I have gathered, this being is a pale imitation of me but still packs a hell of a punch for a faker. I will need you three along with the other servants in this singularity to protect them." She said before pointing a finger at the students and teacher of Class 1-A.
"You want us to protect them?" Baobhan said while looking at with slight interest, specifically the grand servants. "Wouldn't the Grand Servants be able to do the protection?"
"They're kind of new to the whole pseudo-servant thing, as am I, but I have some experience under my belt. Which brings me to my other request, I would like for you three to teach them how to fight properly for the next three days."
"Forgive me for speaking out of term my king, but why can't you teach them how to fight?" Britomart asked.
"Normally I would, but I need to undergo a bit of a transition to give us a bit of an edge in the battle we'll soon have with the Corpse King. It will take about three days for my training to be done. Once that's done, we'll make our final preparations before making our final stand against the false King and his corrupted servants. Understood?"
"Yes, my King. We will follow your order without fail." Gawain said before standing up along with the other servants.
"Good, you're free to mingle with my classmates. Chat with them, ask and answer questions, etc, etc. If for some reason they attack you without reason, you're free to retaliate without killing them, and report it to Aizawa." Lily said before pointing at the teacher. "…And I'm referring to Bakugo and Todoroki." She said before walking off into the school. The moment she was inside, Artemis appeared next to her.
"Preparation for your ascension is complete. I have prepared a room for your change." Artemis said before showing her a map of where the room is located. "Be warned, you won't be able to control your power output for some time. Of course, Artoria will assist in repairing the flow of power flowing through your body, but you'll need to be careful when you're fighting other humans and the environment."
"So basically I'll be a waking nuclear bomb of magic?" Lily asked as Artoria nodded. "Swell, as if I didn't have much of a hand of my powers before. Regardless, I'll figure out something with that later. For now, I'll just focus on what needs to be done with myself."
"That's good to hear," Artemis said as they made it to the preparation room. "Just so we're clear, once this change happens, there's no turning back. You'll be set on a different path where you'll lose your mortality. While you can die if you're injured by a weapon or poison to kill a god, normal means of killing humans won't affect you. Are you sure you're okay with this?"
"Are there any other choices that don't involve abandoning the other students?" Lily asked as Artemis paused to calculate any other solutions, only for the machine god to shake her head. "Figured as much, so I don't have much of a choice in this matter."
"Just wanted to make sure you were okay with this decision," Artemis said before entering the room. The moment Lily entered the room, she was greeted with a weird egg-shaped chamber in the center of the room. She stared at it for a good few seconds before looking at Artemis with a raised eyebrow. "Your body will be in a vulnerable state, the chamber will keep you protected as the process will begin." She said as the chamber opened up for her to enter inside. A gulp could be heard coming from the bunny girl as she slowly made her way to the chamber but stopped right in front of it. "You might want to remove your clothes, less you have an extra set lying around somewhere."
"Of course," Lily said before quickly taking off her U.A. uniform and tossing it to the side. Once she is naked, she slowly enters the chamber as it closes behind her. She noticed that a strange liquid was filling up inside the chamber which caused her to be startled a bit from it.
"Don't worry, you won't drown in it. It's mana from the leyline that I'm pouring inside as a means to liquefy Saber's Excalibur for you to absorb. Through fair warning, you will feel a bit sleepy within a matter of seconds."
"Wait what do you-" The moment she felt the liquid reaching her kneecaps, a sense of tiredness quickly hit her as she felt her legs buckle. She soon fell onto the floor with her back against the chamber as she was having trouble keeping her eyes open.
"Just let yourself sleep. It will be all over soon." Artoria said as Lily's vision began to fade in and out of consciousness. It was when the bunny girl was reaching out to touch the doors to the chamber that her vision faded into darkness and fell into slumber.