"Are you okay, Mash?" Ritsuka walked over to her, but stopped a few steps short, out of breath, and keeled over.
"Senpai?!"
The Caster walked over to him and flicked him on the forehead, causing him to fall down. "Before you check your Servant, you should check yourself first. You're the anchor here, not us."
"Ritsuka, are you okay?" Olga walked over to him. "You used too much energy. I can;t believe you'd be so reckless like this. We should find someplace to rest."
Ritsuka took a deep breath. He felt tired and dizzy for a moment. They're right, he expended more energy in that fight than he more likely had left to spare in order to execute his plan. "I'm fine. I'm fine."
Caster took one of Ritsuka's arm over his shoulder. "Heh, it seems like I found a reckless Master. Let's go to my camp, it's over one of the leylines so you should recover quickly there."
"Ah, please let me carry Senpai! You've already helped us so much." Mash asked the Caster.
"Nah. This is fine. You're also at your limit, aren't you, young lady."
"Ghh!" Mash felt the pain of her muscles crying out. "How did you know?"
Caster smiled wistfully, as if remembering a time long past when he used to do the same thing. He would fight until he would pass out from exhaustion, but until the point, the adrenaline rush would mask the pain of his muscles crying out for mercy from him. "Been there, done that."
Olga walked beside them. "Thank you for your assistance, Caster."
Caster nodded in acknowledgement to the girl who spoke up to him. He could tell she was sizing him up, trying to figure out his identity, and his true strength. She was more aware than the two other humans. "How about you, lady? Are you okay?"
She nodded. "Yeah. I'm okay. I'm a mage, so I can handle myself better than the two of them."
The four of them walked to a nearby broken building that had a roof and a burning campfire at the center. It did not look like much but there were protective runes everywhere, as well as a secured leyline. It seems like this place has become Caster's atelier, a place where he could rest and gain power. Olga thought it would make sense as a Servant with no Master, he needed a way to replenish his magical energy, but she would not have thought it would be somewhere like this: A basically open field, with only a roof to guard overhead.
"Alright, make yourselves at home. I'm sure you have questions but haste makes waste and all of that." Caster placed Ritsuka to lean by the wall while he stretched.
Dr. Romani's hologram entered the conversation. "Great work, everyone! Oh, yeah, I guess I should thank Caster the most."
Caster, however, shrugged as he passed around some fruits to the three. "I've had my fill of thanks- Wait, you weren't here a second ago."
Olga stepped forward. "This is Romani Archaman. For now, he's our technical advisor… Even if he hasn't actually done anything useful."
The doctor looked sad. "Ouch. Harsh, but fair. Anyway, you seem to be over a leyline, so I can send over supplies. I'm sending over a spare stamina ampoule for Ritsuka, too."
Ritsuka took another deep breath. His vision straightened. "I'm alright now, thanks."
"Ah, that's good, Senpai. Are you hungry?" Mash offered him a ration, a snack bar.
"Yeah, I am a bit hungry. An apple wasn't really enough."
The Caster scoffed. "Well, excuse me, princess."
"Oh, I didn't mean to be rude." Ritsuka immediately backpedaled.
"I'm just messin' with you." Caster smiled.
"Ah, Senpai, did you see me fight?" Mash asked, suddenly being excited. "When I traced circles with my shoes, it made fire after a while!"
Ritsuka nodded. "I think that was my idea."
Mash nodded. "It worked really well!"
"It took a lot of magical energy to pull off. Usually, I inscribe runes by myself onto runestones in order to store them, but this time I had to form a remote connection between me and you in order to make the runes you wrote on the ground activatable by me." Caster explained. "I wrote an indentation of the rune on your shoes. I'm actually surprised it worked."
"Wait, it wasn't sure to work?!" Ritsuka exclaimed.
"Well, yeah."
"Then why did you go along with it?!"
He shrugged. "I thought it would be funny if it didn't work. I guess it was funny that it did work, too."
Olga sat down next to Ritsuka and Mash. "So, what do you think of that Servant?"
"He's very strange, that's for sure, but we can trust him." Ritsuka answered. Mash nodded.
"I felt it too, Senpai. We can trust him."
The director sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't, since I find no other choice either. Whatever the circumstances, we need information."
Ritsuka nodded. "Yeah. Despite how eccentric he seems to be, he's our best shot at fixing this Singularity, director."
She cleared her throat. "Ehem, Caster, is it okay if I ask you some questions?"
Caster took a bite of one of the apples. "Shoot."
"You were part of the Fuyuki Holy Grail War, correct? And judging by the other Servants, you were the sole survivor?"
He nodded. "By sole survivor, that means I didn't lose. Yeah, that's correct."
"So what happened after that?" She asked him.
Caster checked the perimeter to see if anyone was around. When he was satisfied the area was safe, he sat by the fire. "I have no idea how it happened either, but in the middle of the Holy Grail War, I got a bad feeling. After that, everything changed."
"Something even a Caster can't explain?" Romani asked.
"Yeah. I tried to divine what happened but I kept coming up blank. Even so, I acted as if the Holy Grail War was still ongoing. Good that I did, because Saber restarted the Holy Grail War… Under a different set of rules."
"What do you mean? The Fuyuki Holy Grail War has defined rules, does it not?" The doctor was checking the available data.
"Did you see Assassin and Lancer? Those are the new rules. Saber restarted the Holy Grail War, and she defeated Archer, Lancer, Rider, Assassin, and Berserker."
Ritsuka raised an eyebrow, "But they didn't disappear? When we defeated them, they disappeared."
Caster nodded. "Right, but that wasn't the strangest part of it. It's that this city became barren. The humans disappeared, and the monsters you've seen started popping up like maggots. Not only that but the Servants Saber defeated became like those Shadow Servants."
"I see." Mash spoke.
"Then since you're the only one that has yet to be defeated…" Ritsuka began.
"Got it in one. I'm the last Servant in Saber's way, which means they're coming for me too."
"So you helped us for your own benefit." Olga concluded.
"Hey, it's not like you guys don't get a good deal out of this." Caster defended himself.
"True. Our forces together are stronger, and Servants become stronger with Masters." The doctor spoke. Olga nodded. She could not really argue with the logic.
"So you want us to help in defeating Saber? And you think that will solve this problem?" She asked.
"Yeah. I think that's it. Even with all of these anomalies, the center of this whole mess is still a Holy Grail War, and our best shot at fixing it is forcing it to complete." The Caster stretched his body. "So, what do you say? I say we're both getting a good deal."
"Well, what do you think, Director?" Ritsuka asked. "I think it's worth a shot."
"I think so too, Director." The Demi-Servant agreed. "I think he's trustworthy."
"How about you, Romani?"
"Me? Well, uh… He's strong. Stronger than our forces right now." He analyzed the Servant's stats. "In fact he could defeat us right now, but he hasn't. That fact alone is proof that he is definitely on our side."
Olga nodded. It seems all of them reached the same conclusion. Something in this Singularity is the cause of humanity's disappearance, and it is without a doubt beyond their capabilities to solve, or even investigate if the battle with Assassin and Lancer are to be taken into account. Not only that,but Caster is the only other source of information on this Singularity, atop of the fact that his strength eclipses theirs. It would be a relationship benefitting their side much more than it would benefit Caster.
"Alright, it's a deal, Caster. We'll work together." She finally spoke after a bit of deliberation.
"Cool." Caster smiled. "Man, I hate being Caster. If I was summoned as Lancer, I cou;d've killed Saber already."
"You don't like being a Caster? What do you mean?" Ritsuka asked. Mash turned to him.
"It's been known to happen, Senpai." She explained. "Caster here must be one of the top Servants, with the attributes of multiple Classes."
"Right, that's enough of that. Even I don't want constant ego stroking." He stood up. "You're from Chaldea, you say? That's all I need to know. I'm guessing that kid over there is my Master." He looked at Olga. "You don't have the aptitude to be a Master, but your magic circuits are phenomenal. You sure you're not cursed or something?"
"Oh, shut up." Olga crossed her arms and huffed.
Ritsuka and Mash made 'No' signs until Caster noticed them. When he did, he nodded in understanding.
"Sorry, sorry. Guess it was a touchy subject. Anywho, I think we should discuss strategy. Saber is our target, and she's guarding the Greater Grail."
Romani piped in. "I'm guessing that's the massive magical energy signal I'm picking up."
"Got that right. Now that we've defeated Lancer and Assassin, all that's left is Saber, Berserker, and Archer."
"Are they strong?" Ritsuka asked.
"Berserker is. He's so strong even Saber had trouble defeating him. However, he mostly keeps to himself, so we can ignore him." Caster sighed, seemingly frustrated that he couldn't beat Berserker on his own as his current state. "Archer is someone I can defeat on my own. Finally, we have Saber. The strongest one. But I'm confident we can find a way to defeat her together. I can use my Noble Phantasm against her."
Mash looked downcast at hearing that.
Olga nodded. "Then we're set. We'll first get rid of Archer, then go to Saber."
"Oh, don't worry, we don't need to find Archer. Archer will find us."
Ritsuka scratched his head. "That's a… good thing?"
"Yeah. It means he gets the first strike, but we get the chance to react first. Not to mention we don't have to expend energy trying to find him." Caster explained. "That should cover everything we need to know. Any questions?"
Ritsuka shook his head. "No, I'm good with that."
"Good. We should start moving as soon as possible."
Romani agreed. "Yeah, the sooner we can resolve this Singularity, the better."
"Great." Caster clapped his hands. "Well, no use standing around here for no reason. Get ready to move!"
The four of them, recharged and refreshed for the journey and battles ahead, left Caster's workshop behind. They walked towards the uncertainty of the future, the dark red sky hanging over them like an omen of their demise. Clouds slowly rolled over the burning hellscape that was Fuyuki City, bringing thunder and lightning with it.
In the shadows, a figure crossed atop buildings in quick succession, holding a bow in hand, tracking the small group. He waited for an opportunity to pull his bow and take them all out in one shot.
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week. I've had quite the tiresome week but here we are with a new chapter of Chaldea Re:, fresh from the oven! So in this chapter, we have some downtime and find a place to rest. In FGO, the best parts for me are the down times, the times where people just talk and do stuff together. Quiet moments make all the difference in the world, and makes epic moments more epic, at least in my opinion. I hope you all enjoy Olga playing a bigger part in the story, because I sure am!
That's it for me. Much love, have a great week ahead!
-BlankSlate2356