99: The Final Arrivals

"-So that's my excuse. I had your situation kind of tangled up in my head with that girl's, and I said some really cruel things as a result. I'm very sorry!" I finish my apology with a bow.

"Mmmm… fine. Not everyone gets tutored in social grace like me," Elizabeth says with some hesitation - oi, wait, you clearly didn't learn anything in those classes, right!? "I'll forgive you for being socially stupid! Besides," she continues, glancing away and blushing a little. "Y-you're the first person to… say they were my fan. So I'll forgive you! Just this once!"

…Dammit. I'm gonna have to clear that one up too, huh? "S-sorry. That was a lie, I just wanted to try to break Phantom's charm on you. I… I'm not actually your fan or anything." I say cringing.

"E-eh?' She freezes, and it looks like tears are welling up in her eyes-

"It's no use acting tsundere now, Subaru," Amadeus says. Wait, just what are you saying you bastard-!?

"Oh, so that's how it was!" Elizabeth, of course, buys it completely. "You know Fishie, you won't be able to get a job as my manager unless you're honest with yourself."

"When was it decided that I wanted-?!"

My complaints are cut off completely as we exit the tunnels, and I once again breathe the fresh night air. Something's not right. Something's definitely off about this situation. And that something is-

"Wait, where is everyone?" Mozart sent a familiar to alert them, so shouldn't we have run into them by now-?

"Oh, I actually just dismissed it once we were out of range," he says blithely. "I figured we could handle a weakling like the Phantom on our own."

My jaw drops. "What, you mean you didn't tell anyone!?"

"I already got yelled at by Maria once today. I may be a pervert, but I can only enjoy so much verbal abuse!" Amadeus continues, "Let's keep this our little secret, okay?"

"You're just going to get us in more trouble!" Elizabeth shouts - right, come to think of it, she's due for a scolding too, huh?

"Not if we don't get-!" He starts.

"Ahem." Jeanne coughs, and all three of us idiots freeze in terror.

"It was all Elizabeth's fault!" Mozart shouts.

"It was all Mozart's fault!" I shout.

"It was all Fishie's fault!" Elizabeth shouts.

"I see!" Jeanne smiles sweetly, but somehow I hallucinate a menacing purple rumbling behind her. "How about all three of you sit down and listen to big sis for a moment!"

A short tongue lashing later, we return to the Maison Aux Piliers - but any hope of me getting some rest tonight is swiftly dispatched.

"Sorry to disturb your- oh, nevermind you're not sleeping." Doctor Romani says as my communicator beeps to life. "What are you still doing up, though- he what? With just Mozart!? Why didn't you say something sooner?" Naturally he immediately gets sidetracked chattering with the other staff.

"Why are you calling, Doctor?" I ask, rubbing my eyes with some grogginess. "It all went well, so I was about to get some sleep-"

"No time, I'm afraid," He responds. "Merry just contacted us. Chlodovech and one unknown Servant have been sighted."

Another? Who… "Shit, is she still summoning more!?" I groan. "Alright, tell her to follow the plan, we're going after Orleans."

It's fine. Even if unexpected things happen, Kongming's plan should be flawless. Chlodovech hitting Merry and Siegfried is the ideal scenario, him gone, the only known obstacle is Prelati's sea monster, which he won't be able to summon until he gets his hands on the grail.

But despite that, I've still got an uneasy feeling. "...Doctor, what else haven't you told me? What had you distracted enough that you missed our fight with Phantom?"

"I was trying not to worry you with it, since it's happening back here," He says with a sigh. "...Someone accessed Chaldea's Spirit Origin archive without permission earlier tonight, and the summoning system was utilized shortly thereafter. The whole facility's on high alert right now."

"...Shit." I mutter. An unauthorized summoning could only be insubordination of the highest kind. The director had been pretty damn clear - Chaldea only had UN approval to summon seven servants; that's why she wouldn't let me resummon Hanam after Fuyuki. But now, considering everyone else was still summoned…

"Yeah. Hassan-i-Sabbah has been summoned to Chaldea," Romani confirms, "and we have no idea where he is."

With no answers to that ominous mystery forthcoming, the only path available is to wake everyone up and prepare to head towards Orleans.

And with that, comes a destined third meeting.

"So," Says Ahab, a smirk on his face. "Thou hast returned at last, boy."

"Yeah," I say with a small sigh. "It was a bit awful, but I'm here. I found your whale, by the way."

"Hah! Now there be some good news at last! What form has she taken, this time?" He asks.

"Ah it's… kind of indescribable, to be honest. Prelati mixed a bunch of things in with it when he finally summoned it for real, so it's at least got the qualities of a lovecraftian horror and Demon Pillar, in addition to being a whale," I say. "You'll know it when you see the horrifying sea monster emerge from the sky."

"...Like that, I suppose?" he asks, pointing towards the horizon. "However… that be no sea monster."

And in the distance, taller than any mountain, I see it descend.

The key ingredients were a simple matter. Putting aside the hundreds of innocent lives, and a few spirit origins included on a whim, the most important ingredients were twofold

The first, the Evil God of the Abyss. A being from outside reality, with no basis therein. It was the progenitor of the sea demons utilized by Gilles de Rai and Francois Prelati, that which lay dead and dreaming within the depths of the Sunken Spiral City That Did Not Exist.

The principle of this ingredient was [Nonexistence].

The second, Demon God Bael. One of the seventy-two Demon Pillars, capable of endless propagation in service of their goal to incinerate all of humanity. One of the nine pillars that administrate the Spy Satellite in the Temple of Time.

The principle of this ingredient was [Propagation].

Both were miles beyond any other ingredient, even Gluttony's White Whale, in their conceptual weight. However, [Propagation] and [Nonexistence] reached an equilibrium, weakening each other, allowing the other ingredients, primarily the White Whale, to play a role in the final product.

However, that was all before the last ingredient was added. The Witch Factor of Ley Batenkaitos. [Gluttony]. A fragment of a [Beast of Another World].

The capacity for [Propagation], and a rationalization for [Nonexistence]. This foreign element provided both, and so the monster summoned by Prelati's wish was stabilized, and a new horror was brought forth, capable of drawing on the might of all three without compromise.

And so, what descends from that rippling alien sky is no mere sea monster. What emerges, as though rising from a star-filled sea, is a towering cityscape of spiraling black stone. A hideous, mind-bending construction of cyclopean arches and non-euclidean geometry. The Sunken Spiral City, which Francois Prelati only touched upon in dreams, thrusts its way into reality like a railway spike driven into the brain of the world.

The sound follows. A rising, clamorous crashing and howling that carries all the way to Paris, sending a shiver down the spine of Natsuki Subaru, and a shudder through his brain, as the lightless vaults and portals deep within that sunken city crash open, and endless horrors pour forth.

Merry d'Lyon

Stick to the plan and everything will work out - that's easy to say, but…

"...This is too much for me." That's my honest sentiment, as he approaches.

I can barely look at him, after all. Nobility beyond nobility, so far above my station that every part of my soul is screaming at me. Why am I here? Why am I, of all people, here?

I'm sorry, Monsieur Subaru. I know you put such great trust in me, but I can't possibly understand that.

"Alright, brats, let's make this quick." King Clovis I says, hefting the enormous axe onto his shoulder, a sharp-toothed grin visible. "Hey, girl, that face of yours - are you one of my descendants or something?"

{Tell him the truth, Merovech,} Watcher whispers. {Put the boy in his place.}

Shut up. I'm not that person. "I am… told as much, your Majesty," I say instead.

"Haha! At least you know how to give a bit of respect!" He barks a laugh.

"There were a few people in this region, with faces like that, some three hundred years from now," A more subdued voice says, and my attention is finally drawn to him. He doesn't stand out much - a man with white hair and icy blue eyes, wearing a long black coat with a red cravat. He doesn't stand out until those empty eyes meet my own, and he speaks once more. "They were all criminals, though. So I killed them."

Terror. Sheer terror seizes me. Worse, far worse than the King. As his eyes lock with mine, I understand that this man is Death himself. This is the man who will kill me. I understand that instinctively.

And so, fear prompts what bravery could not. "[Frankreich Über Alles]!" I shout, and King Clovis's axe is mine.

"Wha-?" The first king of France says, and then Siegfried is next to him, sword awash with green light.

I see him dodge backwards, just barely ducking under Siegfried's slash, as he roars his Noble Phantasm's name. "[Quino-!"

"[Bal-" Siegfried raises his own to respond.

"-taurus]!" King Clovis concludes, and an enormous steel bull with three horns erupts into reality in a burst of water and steam-

-mung]!" Siegfried finishes, and a blast of energy pours forth from his blade, meeting the monster in midair, driving it back, and finally annihilating the beast in its entirety.

And King Clovis-

{Behind you!} Watcher shouts, and I just barely turn and raise the axe in time-

The white-haired man's blade slices through it like butter, and I fall backwards, his slash just barely missing me.

"That won't protect you," He explains, grinning. "That axe, the embodiment of the French Monarchy, will serve no use against the blade which ended it forever."

…What?

"Merry, don't freeze!" Siegfried, shouts, turning back-

"Who are you fighting, brat!?" King Clovis says, lunging at him with a bloodstained trident, torn from the brow of his slain bull.

I don't understand. I don't understand. I thought Monsieur Subaru said that France still existed, in the future. So then, this man- "You're lying! You must be!"

"I'm not," He says with the same cold-eyed smile. "I'll show you, the same way I showed your descendants." Shadowy hands gather in the night air, gripping me, dragging me towards him.

"[La Mort-"

Thunder rings out, and in a flash of light, the limbs gripping me disintegrate.

"Ooh la la!" A masculine voice calls, and my would-be killer's eyes go wide. "You're looking energetic today, Monsieur de Paris! But I have to ask-"

He lands in the ground between us, a bearded man wearing a massive tricorn hat, his scarf fluttering in the wind. And then, with a roguish grin, and a wink directed towards me, he continues. "-Just who do you think you're executing, without your Emperor's permission?"

In 1815, it had taken the best seamen at Napoleon's disposal three days for a one-way trip from Elba to France. Taking into account that a round trip would be necessary, Waver Velvet had estimated it would take at the very least six days for the Count of Monte Cristo to retrieve the Emperor.

-However, the seamen selected by Napoleon in 1815 had been chosen for loyalty first. They had needed to dodge any other boats that might appear along their trip. They were not Servants.

And perhaps most importantly, none of those sailors was Edmond Dantes.

-Exactly when he is most needed, at the end of everything, Napoleon Bonaparte arrives in France, three days early.