Hello everyone and welcome back to the start of chapter 77 of the story! Feeling like one of those days to just stay in bed, be lazy and do nothing for the entire evening. But then, even that relaxation starts to feel boring and your mind tells you to do something instead. What a state of being. That's why reading is good, because you are doing nothing and something at the same time.

Anyways, let's start the chapter!

DISCLAIMER: All of the Nasuverse characters belong to Nasu and are property of Type-Moon, withe the exception of the OC's that belong to me, the author


BANG!

"And there goes a few more washed up bottles!" A young blonde gunslinger reloaded his revolver, having killed three enemies with his last bullet on the chamber. "These monsters make perfect targets for a shootin' game, dontcha think?" He asked to a person behind him. The two were standing in the middle of an hostile small village, where it seems their enemy was the entire population of it.

"Does all cowboys only think about showing off their pistol skills to everybody? Mind you, it isn't by no means awful..." An orange haired young man in green custome replied, firing an arrow that hit a celtic soldier in the head that was spying them on the rooftop of a small church at the very end of the village. "But I always prefer my trusty bow and arrows. Everyone fights with the weapon style that suits them best."

"Eh, you betcha!" The gunslinger told him, killing a celtic soldier around the corner in the small space between two buildings without even looking at him. A new group of enemies was arriving to fight the two. "Damn! Never expected to find this many enemies on this small town! It almost looks like we stumbled in one of their nests!"

"The celtic empire really grew as of late!" The green hunter said. "We will need more people to join us if we want to make a stand against them!"

"Well, let's hope those newcomers our chief was keepin' tabs on are willin' to help!" The young gunslinger said, pointing his guns at the enemy. "For now, let's blast up these folks!"


"Master! Master, wake up!"

"M-Mash..."

Waking up, Ritsuka was initially confused by where he was. Until he remembered the motive why he had been kncoked out in the first place.

"Mash-agh!"

"Ah!"

In an abupt and sudden movement, Ritsuka lifted up his torso, accidentally clashing his head with Mash's, who was observing right next to him.

"S-Sorry Mash. Didn't mean to." Ritsuka apologized to his servat as he rubbed his own head.

"N-No problem master. I know." Mash replied, also rubbing her own head, specifically in the area that had been hit.

"Careful you two! Head injuries are no joke!" Nightingale talked to them, standing in front of them alongside Tesla. It seemed they were all inside of a medium-size cavernous prison cell. "Even a small fracture on the cranium can cause some trouble."

"So Edison threw us in here..." Ritsuka speaked after taking a look at the place . "And to think we could have forged an alliance with him originally."

"That's what you get for trying to trust a man like him." Tesla replied, crossing his arms. "There's always a catch with that guy. My fault for not being able to avoid us being put in this situation master." The inventor said to Ritsuka, feeling guilty for not protecting his master and the rest of the party from being imprisoned. "If I had known Edison was the leader of the West side, I would have suggested for a better planning of our meeting with him beforehand."

"You don't need to feel sorry for it Tesla-san!" Mash told him. "None of us knew who the leader of the West army was nor his true intentions. This ain't your fault."

"I'm quite surprised in seeing you are with us as well, mister Tesla." Nightingale talked to him. "Due to the sheer animosity you and Edison seem to have for each other, I thought he'd have you killed or do something way worse after knocking you out."

Tesla looked at the nurse with a gaze of perplexity. "Hell no! He isn't that evil for god's sake! Edison's just a slimy egocentric bastard. He is no barbarian." He said, correcting Nightingale's thoughts on his rival's personality. "Knowing him, the fool decided to keep me alive just to rub all of his victories, creations and his so desired new american empire in my face. Edison can be that assholish."

"How are our possibilities of having an escape attempt?" Ritsuka asked to Mash and the two servants.

Mash frowned sadly. "We've already checked the perimeters within our cell and just the outside of it. And unfortunately..."

Tesla looked at the helter skelters standing just on the outside of their cell. "Our guards are doing an excellent job in watching us over."

" It isn't like we couldn't finish them off." Nightingale said. "We could but the problem is on how it would raise the alarm in this fortress. The moment we'd get out from the cell, the entire headquarters would be on our tail, trying to prevent us from fleeing. And seeing how heavily guarded it is, it would be impossible to get out of here unnoticed." She took her gun out, taking a shot at the jail bars, not doing any damage. "Plus, these bars seem to be strenghten with magecraft, which makes things more difficult."

"So what you're saying is that as of now, our chances to escape are low." Ritsuka wondered, to which both Nightingale and Tesla confirmed. "Well, low doesn't exactly means zero."

"Yep! We can still find a way to escape this!" Mash replied, liking Ritsuka's optimism. "Doctor Romani has tried to contact Peko and Nala. I'm not sure if they could already be fully recovered or even conscious at this point but they are our best chance we have right now."

"If so, then we wait and hope they can get to us." Ritsuka replied. "I know they can."

"Ah, finally you woke up!" A voice sounded, coming from the hallway outside of the cell, alongside the noise of footsteps. "Do you know how many hours you've been sleeping? I thought we had accidentally put you out of comission." Helena appeared before them on yhe other side of the jail bars.

"A pleasure to see you too, Madame Blavatsky." Tesla replied in a sarcastic tone.

"Hey now, it isn't like you guys were feeling like cooperating with us." Helena told them, looking at Tesla. "And I should have known that you two meeting up wouldn't end well."

"As well as you should have known that we wouldn't be foolish enough to accept your leader's condition and true goal!" Nightingale said to the small occultist. "What ever made you think we would allign to a man of such radical objectives?"

"Exactly! We told you what our goal was when we first met. To save humanity and its history." Mash faced Helena. "Why did you still guided us to Edison, knowing that our actual goals differ from one another?"

Helena gave out a small chuckle, closing her eyes briefly. "Simply put, as long as our shared goal of saving America stayed, we could've used that as a glue to unite your group with ours. It would be a sort of temporary alliance that would end when we'd bring defeat to the Celtic Empire."

"So you were planning on using us like useful tools in this war in order to increase the numbers of your side." Tesla concluded, looking at Helena with dissapointment. "That is a low blow. Never I thought you'd allign with Edison's schemes."

"Schemes? None of that actually." Helena replied. "The Presiking really believed that you could help us and become friends and allies till the very end. In retrospective, it's you that could have ended up using us as tools to later discard." She stared at Ritsuka. "Think of it: You could have accepted his terms while pretending you supported his dream of an American global empire, only then to backstab us once we'd all achieve victory in this war." She stared more focusly at the master of humanity who proceeded to stare back at her. "Then my question is, why didn't you opted to go with that? Why you refused?"

Looking at her, Ritsuka went to look at both Nightingale and Tesla before going back to stare at the occultist. "Because, I think your leader isn't the type of man that wouldn't be able to endure such betrayal. Nor he seems like a leader that you can put all your trust in or properly treat all of his own injured man." He answered, looking at Helena in the eyes. "So, interpret this decision of rather being for your Presiking's own sake as well of others."

"For the sake of our leader and others eh?" Helena gave a small smile, liking the sound of the response. "Not a bad take, I'll admit."

"And for someone who told us about the Man of Sin and his dangers, you seem to like to follow a person that promises grandious and beautiful wishes of an utopia." Ritsuka criticized Helena's following and loyalty on Edison.

"Yeah, I know it looks abit hypocrtitical of me when taking that subject into account." Helena admited. "But the Man of Sin is supposed to be someone of a mysterious nature and sinister according to theosophical prespective. And Edison, well..." She smiled nervously to the side. "I bet you know his personality doesn't check those boxes at all."

"Still, you're working for a man who is in one the wrong sides of history here." Tesla told her.

"Come on now. He was one of my friends during my past life. It isn't like I'm going to just shove all that to the side and abandon him like that. Edison might be wrong, but that doesn't necessarily makes him a villain." Helena told him. "Plus, with how wild things in this 'Singularity' I'm sure help will be coming for you." She said in a sort cryptic way before beggining walking away. "That's all I wanted to say! I'll comeback later to see if your minds changed for the better! Bye!"

"Help is coming for us?" Mash thought about Helena's last words before ending her conversation with them. "What did she meant by that."

"I'm sure it's just another one of her habits of speaking in enigmatic ways." Tesla said.

"Enigmatic or not, our priority right now shouldn't be thinking about that but to try and come up with something to exit this place." Nightingale speaked, wanting the group to focus on what was the most important now.

"Same here!" Ritsuka said. "With or without help coming for us, we just can't lay here doing nothing! We got to find a way out of here!" He encouraged more the idea on the party's heads.

"What do you propose for us to do, master?" Mash asked him, seeing Ritsuka knocking his hand on the rock walls of the cell. "W-What are you exactly doing?"

"Trying to see if there's some sort of fake wall or hidden passage. You know, like those in movies." Ritsuka explained to Mash, who reacted with a drop of sweat falling from her head.

"I think it's just you who has seen a lot of movies master." She said.

"However, that wouldn't be unreasonable. I always thought of having a secret lab of mine." Tesla speaked.

"It would have been useful in order to not have your ideas stolen." Nightingale told him. "I bet you curse yourself every now and then for not going forward with that."

"Oh, you have no idea..." Tesla replied to the nurse.

Mash decided to join Ritsuka, knocking and touching the walls as well. "Better try than doing nothing I suppose." She then turned around to whisper something at Ritsuka. "By the way senpai, do you have any movie recommendations?"

Ritsuka chuckled. "I do have some." He looked to the demi-servant. "I can show you some once we finish this Singularity. There's some really cool ones I want you to see. Peko and Nala would love to watch it too."

Mash blushed a bit, smilling. "Right." She nodded, continue to search for an hidden exit alongside Ritsuka while Nightingale and Tesla made sure the helter skelters observing them wouldn't suspect of anything.

"Oh!" Ritsuka suddenly exclaimed, having felt some soft breeze going against his head while leaning against a specific part of the wall.

"Did you found something master?" Mash asked him, going near him.

"Can you feel it Mash?" Ritsuka asked, putting his hand against the breeze. "There's some air coming through here."

Mash did the same with her hand. "I do! It must mean the wall here must be shallow!"

"And there must be a room or hallway on the other side." Ritsuka started to feel the breeze becoming warmer. "See? It's becoming hotter and everything."

"Hotter?" Mash asked confused, staring at the wall, seeing its stone material becoming redder and boiling. That could only mean one thing. "Master get down!" She jumped torwards Ritsuka, pushing him to the side as an explosion blasted out of the wall.

Both Nightingale and Tesla jumped out of the way as they saw the blast coming torwards them. So the blast hit the jaill bars instead, being so strong that it ripped them out and crashed againt the helter skelters that were standing as guards, destroying them.

"Are you alright?" Nightingale asked as the dust from the explosion settled down, with Ritsuka and Mash coughing and waving the dust away from them.

"Y-Yeah!" Mash replied, staring at the nurse. "That was close! The explosion came out of nowhere!"

"Who could have made it?" Tesla wondered. A question that would soon be answer as a small animal came out from a cloud of dust.

"Fou!"

"Fou? You're here?" Mash asked, surprised.

Another two figures came out from the smoke, coughing as well.

"I knew this would make a heck of loud noise!" Peko cleaned his own face. "After this one, you should be prohibited from presenting suggestions!"

"Why the fuss? It worked, didn't it?" Nala coughed a bit, shoving some smoke away. "And look, we found them!" She said with a smile, staring at Ritsuka and Mash.

"Peko! Nala!" Ritsuka exclaimed, overjoyed in seeing them again.

"Ritsuka! Mash! It's great to see you fine!" Peko told them, also happy to be back with the other half of the Chaldea group.

Another figure, a taller one, also appeared from the smoke. "So this are your friends." Geronimo speaked, staring at Ritsuka and Mash before changing his gaze torwards Nightingale and Tesla. "And a few nice additions too."

"You're a servant like us, aren't you?" Tesla asked Geronimo, speculating.

"I am. However, let's postpone the introductions for later!" Geronimo replied. "We have to get out of this place first."

"Did this servant helped you reach here?" Mash asked to the twins after seeing Geronimo.

"Yep! We ended up meeting each other when we where on our way to here." Peko told her.

Nala then spotted Tesla. "Oh? That electrician from London is also here?"

"It's Tesla and I'm an inventor." Tesla corrected the girl, feeling a bit insulted by her innocent mistake altough he tried to disguise it.

"Does that means you are on our side for longer this time?" Peko asked the inventor.

"Correct. There won't be any shortage of mana and time for me like it had happened previously." Tesla said happily. "That and because I have a better master now." He said, staring at Ritsuka.

Peko looked at the master of humanity in surprise, amazed. "Wha- You've summoned Tesla to this Singularity as your servant, Ritsuka?"

"I sure did!" Ritsuka smiled with joy, a bit admired in seeing Peko's reaction to that as if he pulled a great feat.

"Sweet!" Nala exclaimed. "That will help us a lot! Nice one Ritsuka!"

Peko chuckled. "As expected from our leader!"

"Are we ready to go then?" Mash asked, seeing that now they had a giant hole on the wall to get out of the cell.

"Wait a bit!" Nightingale speaked, approaching both Peko and Nala. "I want to check something." The nurse grabbed both kids hands and checked the skin on their arms. "Hmm, this is unexpected. How could have your bodies heal from all those wounds in such short time? Not even in the best of scenarios this should be possible!" She proclaimed, finding the quick healing from Peko and Nala's horrible wounds on their bodies to be both fascinating and a little terryfying. Not even with her mana could make such fast recovery as result.

"Who gives?" Nala took her arm out of Nightingale's grasp. "What matters is that we are all patched up and ready to go!"

"Right. Thanks for healing and taking care of our wounds miss Nightingale." Peko told her as the nurse let her grip go, finishing the inspection.

"Yes...I suppose that's what really matters in the end. To see patients fine." Nightingale said, her mind still wanting to find a logical explanation for how the twins could have been cured from their injuries in only a day and a half.

"Then we all can go!" Ritsuka exclaimed, staring at Geronimo. "Do you happen to know the way out?"

"If one can enter, one can also get out." The native man smiled. "But I think your other friend may be more helpful in that regard."

Saying that, the hologram of Romani appeared. "Me and the staff have already scanned the entire area and located the enemies within it. A path to the way out has already been projected on the map. Just follow it."

"That's great to hear!" Mash said despite not looking thoroughly happy. "But...how will we get to the exit without being spotted?"

"I have to agree with that. A genius always takes calculation of the risks he's about to take, and this one doesn't need a master's degree to see why it's too dangerous to try rushing to the exit without means to hide ourselves." Tesla speaked.

Peko smirked at that. "And? How do you think we got ourselves in here without the alarms sounding off?"

Nala also smirked. "You sillies! Of course we thought about that first! Which is why we present you THIS!" She pointed at Geronimo, who was helding a large green cape in his hands.

"What's that?" Ritsuka asked him.

"A Noble Phantasm that I borrowed from an ally of mine." Geronimo explained. "We can conceal our presence with it as long as we are covered."

"A sort of magic mantle so!" Ritsuka said, impressed. "We can definetly escape more stealthily with that."

Nightingale looked at the size of the cape and then to everyone else in the room. "Is it large enough to cover all of us while walking however?" It was a good question. The cape altough it looked big, it was doubtful that it could coat all of them simultaneously.

"Well, there's only one way to know." Mash replied, looking at the cape.

Ritsuka tried to be positive. "I'm sure we can pull that off!"


On the top of the most interior wall of the fortress, Edison would look at the sunset in the distance, about to go down behind the mountains on the horizon. "Hmmm..."

"Coming up with new ideas of production, Presiking?" Helena arrived, gaining his attention despite the inventor still looking at the sunset.

"Are our prisoners more willingful in cooperating?" He asked to the small occultist.

"Sorry to inform you but that isn't the case." Helena replied. "They'll very hardly join us now that they know of our true goal. A real missed opportunity to make new allies here." She lamented.

Edison shook his head in dissapointment, sighing. "How can they not grasp at the beauty of my dream? How beneficial it would be for everyone? I'm just a simple man who wants to see his nation triumph and do well! Is it that wrong?" He raised up his voice in indignation.

"Certainly not Presiking!" Helena tried to calm his spirit down. "Unfortunately, it isn't everyone who can understand your point of view."

"Of course! That guileful bastard Tesla must be filling up the poor youngsters minds with lies and deception in order to paint me as the big bad guy and him as the hero!" Edison roared at thinking of such thing. "How dare a man be able to use such devious propaganda to fool others?! It's unacceptable!"

"I mean...that doesn't sound to be the case here." Helena said. "Also, I do think Tesla has good reason to hate you."

"How so?" Edison replied. "I let you know that I was always fair with my shareholders and employees! It isn't my fault that I made patent of the inventions first before everyone else!"

Helena sighed. "And I'm sure you gave credit to the people who helped you as well."

"Of course! Or you judge me for a swindler?" Edison said, seeing no wrong in his past actions as an inventor.

"I never said that. I think you should just rest for the rest of today Presiking." Helena suggested to her leader.

The american inventor got himself relaxed, accepting Helena's proposal. "Yeah. Perhaps that's what I need. Wanna drink a cold soda with me?" He asked to Helena, staring at her.

"Eh. Why not?" Helena replied, about to walk away with Edison before stopping in her tracks and gaze her eyes at the terrain near the fortress's entrance. "Huh?"

"Is something the matter?" Edison asked her, wondering why she stopped.

"No. It's nothing. My eyes must be playing tricks on me." Helena speaked, taking off her observation from the place her eyes were aiming at before continuing to follow behind Edison into the inside of the headquarters.

But there was indeed something in that zone. Helena's eyes weren't fooling the servant. It was simply a thing that couldn't almost be spotted with the naked eye. Invisible in presence.

"I'm honestly baffled that this has been working so far." Tesla commented, being under the green cape transparent cover while being at the very end of the walking line.

"The hardest part is at least done." Ritsuka replied, being more in front of the line. "Seeing any enemy nearby?" He asked to Peko and Nala, who where at the front of the line.

Nala took a peek at the outside. "Nope. All clear around here."

"We must have already exited out of the fortress." Peko added.

Mash stared to the ground they were stepping on. "The ground is no more of concrete. And the air is already feeling a lot cooler compared to when we where inside." She said, being behind the two and in front of Ritsuka.

"I hope we can get out of this cape soon. It's a bit hot in here." Ritsuka replied.

"Fou Fou..."

"That and the fact we are literally walking almost glued to one another." Nightingale said behind Ritsuka, mentioning how close they were to each other in order to make a line that could fit all of them under the cape. "Small and hot spaces with many people aren't good. The microorganisms inside the sweat such as germs can easily infect others via respiratory transmission. All of you better be taking a bath after this."

"I'll see if my camp can provide that." Geronimo replied, being behind the nurse and in front of Tesla. "For now, I think the coast's clear. A few more meters and we can get out of the cape. I have some horses in waiting in the periphery." He informed the rest of the party.

And so they moved forward for a few more minutes until they felt it was good enough.

"Alright! Doc, can we take this out?" Ritsuka consulted Romani first.

"It's all safe guys. No threats around." The hologram of Romani replied, having seen no enemy signals in the map.

With that said, the entire group removed the cape above them, now being no longer hidden by its invisible mantle. Looking back, they where some good distance away from the fortress. It would be impossible from the enemies to spot them from there.

"Yeah. We must be in secure with all the lenght between there and here." Peko said, looking now to the scenario in front of the party. "And the horses are in the trees over there." He pointed to the tree line of a forest.

"Does it have enough horses for all of us?" Mash asked to Geronimo.

"There's three of them. I think it is manageable." Geronimo replied, thinking about the distribution of the three horses to the group.

"Come on now!" Nala told them, stepping forward. "Let's go before anything remotely bad hap-"

"Bad new guys!" Romani warned them, interrupting Nala.

"How shocking..." The girl said with a bothered expression.

"I detect a new signal incoming at an high speed torwards you!" Romani informed of the incoming danger.

"Is it a servant?" Peko asked.

"Most surely!" Tesla replied. "Be ready for it!"

"How far are they from us?" Ritsuka asked to Romani who went to check the scanner of the area.

"I'd say approximately three hundread me-"

A loud noise caught the party's attention as they all look forward to see someone landing with great impact on the ground, raising a cloud of dust. Once it cleared off, they all saw the servant who had arrived. And much to their distress, it was Karna. His majestic figure standing in front of the twilight rays of the sun who was now half covered by the mountains in the distance.

"It's him again." Nightingale cleenched her teeth, quickly going for her gun.

"Crap! This isn't good news!" Geronimo cursed. "He's on the way to the horses."

"Oh, you were thinking about escaping?" Karna speaked, seeing the group of fugitives in front of him. "Sorry to inform you, but unfortunately this is the furthest you are going." The lancer servant took out his Vasavi Shakti, summoning it in flames. "But if you decide to turn around and go back to your cell, I'll be gentle to overlook this."

"We ain't going back!" Ritsuka exclaimed to the servant. "Nor ally with you and your leader!"

"We want to save America like you do! But not in the way Edison wants! Can't you see how wrong he is?" Mash tried to make Karna see the error on his leader's thinking. "If you do so, join us or try to change his mind!"

Karna listened it carefully, closing his eyes. "I cannot do that. As a servant, I must not be a betrayer to the one I serve. Coercing me won't result in anything." Burning flames begun to flow on his weapon. "So don't waste both of our times and comply instead. Last warning." He said calmly, yet with a sense of danger being held back.

The fire of Vasavi Shakti seemed familiar to Peko's eyes. "Wait! Those flames...Were have I seen it before?"

"Thinking the same?" Nala asked, noticing the face her brother was doing as he eyes Karna's spear.

"Yeah. Those things look familiar to what we saw when that archer servant was fighting someone." Peko said, remembering of the battle he and his sister saw back then when walking through the woods.

"Then he must have been that dude's opponent." Nala concluded, having taken a guess. "He does look quite powerful." She said, her mind reminding of all those explosions from the fight she witnessed alongside Peko while running away. "If he really was that person back there, then we will be in hot water."

Ritsuka stared at Karna, not abiding to his request. "We deny it then. You'll have to beat us for it." He told, with the entire party getting prepared for combat.

Nala locked her sight on the lancer, summoning her sword. "Well said Ritsuka! Powerful or not, we aren't giving up! We won't let anyone else defeat us again!"

Seeing the people ahead of him deciding to become enemies, Karna simply turned his head slightly to the right, the earing moving along. "Hmm, if that's your choice, fine then. Just don't come to regret it." He declared, making the flames of Vasavi Shakti grow wilder and larger.

"It's insane! His mana power had a burst up!" Romani exclaimed in pure panic. "The levels of magic concentration inside him are quite high! No less expected from one of the Mahbharata protagonists!"

"There was no way to avoid it." Nightingale speaked. "We have to fight him now!"

"At least we must need to found a way to get to the horses and flee!" Tesla commented, looking at Karna's body beggining to get up from the ground. "If we stay here longer, soon he won't be the only enemy we'll have to worry about."

"Proposing to create a distraction instead?" Ritsuka asked the inventor.

"Yes. That would be useful and what we need right now!" Tesla replied.

Geronimo had an idea. "You'll keep him occupied in order for me to pass through and get to the horses!" He presented. "Once I arrive here, you will hop on the horses and bolt into the forest and out of Karna's view."

"That sounds a pretty simplistic plan." Nala replied.

"But it's a plan nontheless." Ritsuka told her before hearing Karna going at their direction, firing a beam from the tip of his spear, forcing Mash to move and put her shield in the air, blocking the attack.

"We shall proceed with it then!" The shielder exclaimed, hardening her legs and arms to withstand the blow.

"Go ahead! We will give you cover!" Nightingale said to Geronimo with the native man nodding before rushing in the direction of the forest.

Seeing that, Karna moved at a speed similar to that of the light, going for a slash on Geronimo's body. His movement ended up being thwarted however by some lightning wires fired at him by Tesla. The inventor fired more thunders at the hindu demi-god who flawlessly dodged every single one of them before turning around and try to throw a spear at Geronimo who already had gained a considerable distance from the battle. And once again, he was immediatly stop by having Nala clash her sword against the tip of his spear before launching it at the native man, creating some sparks and vibrations in the air.

"Woooah!" Nala was blown away a bit by the impact of the weapons collision, landing in the ground some meters away from Karna. "That spear felt like crushing against a massive iron wall!" She said, with her arms even trembling a bit from the strong vibrations of the impact.

"Mana Burst!"

With the red jewel on his chest tinkling, Karna increased his mana capacities, rushing torwards Nala.

"Air Step!"

Nala activated one of her skills, evading the lancer's spear by centimeters.

"The way Karna moves and swings his weapon around is absurd!" Romani commented while watching the fight, his hologram standing next to Ritsuka. "His skill is quite above of that of a normal servant!"

"And we won't stay paralyzed here to admire it!" Ritsuka replied, using one of his Command Seals to boost up the party's strenght. "Hold on until Geronimo gets back with the horses, guys!"

"Understood master!" Mash exclaimed, running past him alongside Peko.

"We'll do our best!" Peko concentrated his mana circuits into his hand, charging it up as he pointed to Karna who was occupied fighting with Nala, Tesla and Nightingale, all at the same time.

"Luminary Route!"

Shooting a powerful light bullet from his finger, Peko was almost able to hit Karna who swinged Vasavi Shakti at the magical bullet in order to not get hit. And right after that, Mash had approached him quickly on his back, throwing her shield at him with the intention of catching Karna by surprise. Yet it failed as the lancer turned around and moved his head to the side, avoiding the sharp parts of the shield.

"What a wasted opportunity." Karna said before descending and dashing torwards Mash who was didn't had her shield returning back to her yet, leaving Mash exposed to the lancer's attack.

"HM!" Seeing that Karna was almost near her, Mash mentalized and prepared herself for the incoming pain. Thankfully, Nightingale intervened by firing a bullet from her gun at the lancer, forcing him to dodge and then guard himself from a kick of the nurse. Despite the looks, Nightingale was quite strong physically like any berserker, giving Karna some struggle before pushing him away with her kick, making the hindu demi-god's feet scrap some earth off the ground. And it wasn't over yet.

"Precise Stroke!"

Jumping in surprise at Karna, Nala powered up her blade with the strong white glow, putting its trajectory at the servant's chest. Initially going out for a block, upon sensing the sheer power that resided within the girl's blade and that singular stroke, Karna opted for a dodged, moving out of the way as Nala made a huge slice on the ground. With some distance created, Karna pointed his spear at Nala and fired a beam at her, coming in such speed that the girl only saw Mash putting herself in front of her and tanking the attack with her shield.

"Nice save Mash!" Nala told behind the shielder.

"Thanks." Mash smiled gently.

"Tesla Coil!"

Bending the electricity around him, Tesla fired the long ray into the sky before dividing into smaller branches of several thunders who all came down on Karna who had to once again block and evade from every simultaneous attack in such perfect coordenance and supreme agility. With the particular thunderstorm dying down, the lancer was then attacked by Peko who swinged his sword at him a few times before being pushed away by Vasavi Shakti and then use it to also slice a bed that Nightingale threw at him in half before dodging from another Peko attack with his sword and reply back by throwing the boy torwards Tesla to catch him.

"You're okay?" Tesla asked to Peko, putting him in the ground.

"Yes. I'm fine, thank you for asking." The boy replied to the inventor as all of the party stared at Karna, still not having a single wound in his body despite of them also not being damaged at all.

"This is being quite hard! He keeps up with whatever attack we throw at him as if he could read our minds!" Nala exclaimed, trying to find any weakness in Karna.

"But taking his status into account, I guess that is to be expected." Ritsuka told, having seen the entire fight and the hindu demi-god's skills in it. "It's hard to believe they are being able to go toe to toe with someone who has such great battle prowess as him."

"I feel like we could spend hours on here trying to hit him and failing to do so." Nightingale speaked, adjusting her sleeves. "What a type of concerning problem. To follow and fight for such foolish leader that it has to be considered an illness!"

Fortunately for the party, the sound of hooves riding on the ground appeared, with Geronimo returning to the scene of the fight with the horses.

"Look! Geronimo has arrived!" Romani exclaimed, seeing the native man approaching. "This is your chance to flee!"

Conjuring a magic circle by moving his long knife, Geronimo summoned the light-brown wolf and increased his size. "Bite him Ga'an!" The native man shouted to the wolf who howled before sprinting torwards Karna, keeping the servant occupied an oppening a small window of space and time for the group to escape.

"Let's go everyone! We have to go for it!" Mash told to the group as the horses stopped near them.

"Hop on!" Geronimo offered his hand to Ritsuka to help him get get up on the native man's horse. Mash, Peko and Nala mounted all the same horse while Nightingale and Tesla mounted the last one. With everyone now riding on a horse, Geronimo gave signal to the animals to start dashing torwards the tree line where the forest started.

"Where are we going?" Ritsuka asked to Geronimo as the horses runned.

"A camp of my resistance a few miles from here! We will be save there!" Geronimo answered.

Meanwhile, Karna had just had enough of the spiritual wolf, obliterating him, being no more occupied with such distractions.

"He defeated Ga'an!" Peko said in alarm. "Now his focus is totally on us!"

"We must keep moving! The tree line is right over there!" Geronimo replied.

Karna pointed Vasavi Shakti at them, beggining to charging up.

"He's planning on bombarding us!" Mash said, looking behind her.

"Avoid that! A serious single direct blow from that weapon can dicimate all of you in an instant!" Romani warned them.

Karna's spear charged more, a mix of hot colours overtaking the weapon's material.

"C'mon horses! Just a bit more!" Nala tried to incitivate the animals, seeing how close they were to the tree line.

"Ah! What I wouldn't gove to have a car instead in a time like this!" Tesla said, also wishing for the horses to go faster.

Karna charged more and more power into Vasavi Shakti, a small sun forming on its tip.

"Let's go! Faster! Faster!" Ritsuka shouted to the horses.

The light of Karna's sun started to illuminate the area, its dooming heat and light shinning on the fleeing party as they were a few meters away from the tree line.

"FASTER! Ritsuka shouted.

Karna charged and charged and then...

"No." He cancelled out the attack all of a sudden. "Killing you is not what I intent to do." Karna said to himself as he saw the party entering the tree line, escaping into the forest. He could still go after them, but their collective effort in the fight against him made the demi-god be merciful enough to give them a chance to flee. "Your strong will as an opposition is noteworthy." He lowered down his spear as the entire sun had now hidden itself behind the mountains. "I believe that an alliance can still be made with you. I'll look forward to next time we meet."


Now in the presence of the moon and the night, the party finally reached to the camp belonging to Geronimo's faction after some hours of riding. The gates were opened to let them and the horses enter, with the soldiers saluting the return of their chief and newcomers.

"Here we are." Geronimo said as he got off his horse alongside Ritsuka.

"This place looks more of a town than a camp." Peko commented, seeing that the area was a bit large and with some residential buildings to be exactly called a camp.

"It's because it is." Geronimo said. "We just decided to turn this place into our center of operations and call it a camp."

"So where are the common people? I only see soldiers here." Tesla speaked as he lended his hand to Nightingale, helping her get off the horse.

"I theorize you advised them to abandon it, am I right?" Nightingale asked to the native man who nodded at her.

"We did. This is the town of Deming. As soon as me and my faction arrived here, we told its people to leave and migrate to another place more to the west, further away from the frontlines of the war." Geronimo explained the town's previous situation to the group.

"How do you knew about us and where were we? Did Peko and Nala told you?" Ritsuka made another question to Geronimo.

"Some of my men gave me intel about your presence here in America. Or 'Singularity' by your own definition." Geronimo replied. "I've been awaiting you, people of Chaldea."

"So you want to help us in saving the United States as well." Mash talked to him. "Altough I presume you want the country to come back to normal instead of expanding it, like Edison wants."

"True. That one but significant difference is what made me create my own side instead of joining Edison." Geronimo responded. "Men like him have their goals be excessive, not grasping the consequences that it would bring the entire world as long as their nation benefits from it."

"Are you the only servant in your faction so far?" Nala asked.

"No. I do have three other Heroic Spirits in my side. Two have been sent to another town some miles from here and the other is in this very camp." Geronimo told them.

"Oh, can we see who it is?" Nala said.

"I was about to get to that." Geronimo looked at Nightingale. "As a nurse, could you check on a patient we have here?"

"That doesn't even need questioning. If there's someone hurt, it's my job to nurse them back to health." Nightingale responded, immediatly accepting Geronimo's request.

"Thank you. Then come with me please." Geronimo told her and the rest of the party. "I'll lead you to him." The native man guided the group inside the small town, directing them torwards a big medical tent, entering and showing Nightingale the patient. "So nurse, do you think you can fix a wound like that?"

Looking at the injured person Geronimo pointed out, Nightingale and rest of the group gasped in shock. The patient in question was a young man with long ginger hair. His torso was all bandaged up, with dark purple stains in the area of his heart. Altough he seemed asleep, his face looked to be suffering.

"What happened to him?" Nightingale went right to the side of the injured man's bed.

"He looks fatally wounded." Tesla observed, staring at the area of his chest.

"Because he was." Geronimo speaked. "A powerful blow that tore apart a huge chunk of his chest. It's a miracle he's still breathing. I think that must be the luck of being Rama."

"Rama? The king of Kosala from one of the hindu epic poems?" Tesla said, recognizing that name.

"That's what I was about to ask." Mash said. "Didn't knew you were into literature Tesla-san."

"I got a copy of the Ramayana as a gift from my time in New York." Tesla explained. "Hindu mythology is a great area of study and interpretation for genius like me. The travel that Madame Blavatsky made to India also helped to increase my intrest for the region. It's shocking to see the avatar of god Vishnu in this state. "

"Do you know what could've caused that?" Ritsuka asked to Geronimo.

"I do. It was from the mythical celtic spear known as Gáe Bolg." The native man answered.

"Gáe Bolg..." Ritsuka thought about that name. "That is..."

"The weapon of Cú Chulainn." Peko concluded the phrase. "We saw what that thing was capable of."

Nala nodded in agreement. " Having witnessed it, it isn't hard to believe that it would be able to cause this sort of damage. Specially in the hands of that asshole."

"Then it's true that the person you fought was really Cú Chulainn?" Mash asked, remembering of the Cú they had met previously in Fuyuki. "It's that I hardly imagine someone like him being so brutal in a fight."

"Well, he was but at the same time he wasn't." Peko responded. "It's a case like Jeanne in France and Artoria Pendragon in London. That Cú is an alter, not the original one."

"Ten times bigger, muscular and impetuous as well." Nala added.

"I see. The Cú Chulainn we have to defeat here is different from the one we met before." Mash slightly lowered her head. "But still, to think a hero like him could have such twisted version is..."

"It's disgusting Mash, I know." Ritsuka said in a serious tone, staring at the injured Rama and imagining Peko and Nala in his place. How much pain this Cú Alter caused them. "It makes me feel the same way!" He said slightly angry, closing his hands into fists.

"I also hate how he is tainting the reputation of the Cú we met." Peko said, recalling the words Cú Alter said to him when they fought each other. "He is a complete far cry from that man we had seen before."

"Hell yeah! We need to give a payback to that bastard and put an end to his empire!" Nala shouted, bumping her fist in the air, wanting to have a rematch against the celtic spearman after the brutal lose she and Peko suffered at his hands.

Peko tried to silence her. "You're speaking too loud in here Nala!"

"Ups! Just wanted to elevate the team's spirit a bit." She smiled clumsly. "Sorry."

Staring at her hand, Mash noticed Nala wasn't wearing her seashell bracelet. "Hm? Nala, where's your-"

"N-Nala..?"

Shifting their gazes at the injured young man, Rama slowly and weakly opened up his red-orange eyes, staring at Nala's direction, observing the young girl.

"N-No...You can't... be him." Rama said, making an effort to speak through the pain as he went back to close his eyes, leaving the entire Chaldea team confused.

"What?" Ritsuka reacted, muddled.

"H-Him?" Nala speaked in puzzlement.

"All of you to the outside!" Nightingale ordered them. "He clearly needs time to rest! I'll see his wounds in the meantime."

"Okay. We will be waiting outside the tent." Geronimo speaked, leaving the tent alongside the rest in order to leave Nightingale alone with Rama. Once outside, the group went back to the question.

"Why did Rama speaked like he knew Nala?" Mash asked, being as confused as the rest.

"I don't know. Perhaps all the pain and damage isn't making him thinking clearly." Peko replied.

"It's surely strange. I don't remember of any characters named 'Nala' in the Ramayana." Tesla said before putting an hand on his chin. "Altough...perhaps there must be some sort of connection."

"I literally just met the guy now!" Nala exclaimed, frenetically scratching her head. "So how does he possibly knows me?!"

"No clue. Unless..." Ritsuka pondered silently for a bit before turning his head to look at the girl with a serious glare and speak. "Nala...are you a guy?"

"E-Eh?! Wh-whaaaaaaaaaaaaa!? I-I'M NOT!" Nala cheeks turned red from full embaressement, touching her own chest to confirm. "A-At least that's what I believe!"

"No, she couldn't be." Peko said. "In the small memories I still retain from our past, I remember of my sister as a girl, so it can't be that."

"Plus Rama also said that Nala couldn't be the person he was referring to." Mash thought. "Yet why did he mistook it in the first place?"

Appearing in holograms, Romani and Da Vinci both looked tremulous.

"Sooo, you tell them or I do?" Romani asked to Da Vinci.

"I think this is a thing that we better be the two of us explaining." Da Vinci replied.

Ritsuka raised an eyebrow at them. "Were you hiding something from us?"

"W-well, not actually, but technically yes but still no and-...Kinda." Romani rubbed the back of his head, looking hesitant.

"What is it?" Peko asked the two.

"About you and your sister's identity." Da Vinci replied, gaining the absolute intrest of the group, caughting them off guard. "At least a theory that we eventually discarted when taking it into consideration."

"But what is it? Spill it out!" Nala said, demanding answers.

"Do you remember how we told you that we didn't found anything that had or mentioned Peko and Nala's names while studying and searching through human history and its cultures?" Da Vinci said.

"Yeah, we do. Why?" Mash speaked.

"In reality, we did found two characters that share your names in other mythologies and cultures." Romani revealed, making the chaldeans eyes all widden in total astonishment. This could be the most crucial clue of all.

"Who!? Who are they!?" Peko asked, being barely unable to contain his curiosity and desire to hear about those two character's identities. Perhaps that would be the key to unlock all of his and Nala's memories as well as their previous background.

"We have to know!" Nala said, having the same need as her sibling.

"They are a minor deity of rural tribes of Estonia and Finland mythology, the god of crops, Pellon Pekko. And the mythological king and ruler of the Nishadha kingdom from the Mahabharata, King Nala." Romani revealed. "Those are the characters you share your names with."

Then, a moment of silence came right after, with the group, specially Peko and Nala, stunned with that piece of information. It was completely out of left field.

"Peko and Nala are..." Ritsuka stared at the two kids in a quiet awe.

"I-I'm a...god?" Peko stared deep into his own hands.

"And I'm a king? From India?" Nala said. It didn't had the results they wanted, only being more confused. "But how does that answers anything? It doesn't make sense!"

"Which is why we discarded that theory in the first place." Da Vinci explained. "It went against the clues we already had about you. Like, how could you two be twins or have past memories involving you both if you came from completely different regions or have memories ?"

"That and how we recently got the image of your father. It's impossible for Pellon Pekko and King Nala to be related in any sort of way. Unless you two are vessels for their Saint Graphs and spirits, it can't make sense!" Romani explained the details more.

"I think I'm beggining to understand." Mash said. "Thinking that their identities could be of those two, it would invalidate the things that we know about Peko and Nala so far such as the identical Magic Crest the two have on their backs and some of the similar physical appearences the two share."

"Thank you for seeing it Mash!" Romani thanked the shielder for comprehending his and Da Vinci's explanation.

"So what you're implying here is...it's just a coincidence that Peko and Nala have the same names as those two characters?" Ritsuka asked to Romani and Da Vinci.

"...Hehe." Da Vinci giggled a bit shyly. "Yeah."

"Screw you!" Nala shouted, midly angred.

"You made us believe for a moment that we would discover who we truly are!" Peko exclaimed, also upset by it.

"Look, I know its infuritating but its just that, a coincidence!" Romani speaked up. "If it truly meant something or had a sort of connection, we would have told you long ago!"

"That still wasn't cool at all." Ritsuka said, also judging Romani and Da Vinci for having acted bad by not telling them about that.

"C'mon now Fujimaru! It isn't uncommon for people to share names with historical figures! I bet there was a japanese samurai named Ritsuka or Fujimaru long ago before you were born!" Romani tried to mollify the mood. "Hell, I bet there was even a historical character with my name! That isn't entirely impossible!"

Mash sighed. "Well, at least we now know why Rama initially mistook Nala for another person."

"That's something, I guess..." Nala replied, crossing her arms while thinking. "That archer guys back in the woods...He also found my name funny. Could he be from the same land as this Rama dude?"

Peko was also having his own thoughts. "Those dreams that I've been having recently...In the snow and with those people...Is it actually Pellon Pekko's memories?"

"Anyways, I think it was a good thing that we got this subject out of the way." Da Vinci talked. "Hope that doubt has been clarified! The only resemblance are the names and that's how equal it gets!"

"Hmm, now I get it. King Nala, the one blessed by the goddess Kali and with incredible talent for cooking without even needing fire or kitchen utensils." Tesla talked, remebering the character he once read about. "His story is one that would recommend reading."

"Talent for cooking huh?" Peko said before smirking. "Yeah. Then Nala definetly isn't him."

"H-Hey you-!" Nala exclaimed in indignation.

"You two don't know who you truly are?" Geronimo asked to the twins, surprised.

"Well, we don't remember very well of our previous life before joining Chaldea." Nala responded.

"It's...a bit of a long story." Peko added.

And just before Nightingale exited the tent after checking Rama's wounds. "The inspection is done."

Geronimo looked back at her. "What is the diagnosis? Can you heal him?"

The nurse moved her head in negative. "Not fully. His heart is completely ripped to pieces, barely standing together. We will need more than a simple healing spell even from me to heal his wounds. The best I can do is to maintain him alive. But I'm concerned by the state of him, if he will be able to survive any longer."

Geronimo lamented sadly. "So Rama is between life and death..." The native man then proceeded to cheer himself up. "I'll see if I can find away to totally heal him nontheless!"

"We'll help you too!" Ritsuka said behind him.

"Oh? I don't even need to ask or anything? You've already decided to join our side?" Geronimo asked to the master of humanity, surprised by his claim.

"Of course we did! You've helped Peko and Nala, bust us out of the West headquarters and have the same pure goal as us." Ritsuka offered his hand to Geronimo. "You can count on us to help! Just like we count on you!"

"We can have more people helping us and vice-versa. It'd be stupid to not accept this deal." Peko commented, also being in favor of joining Geronimo's side.

"The more servants we get, the less harder our job gets." Nala speaked with a smile.

"We thought our alliance here would be with Edison and the West side at first. But now we see that The Resistance are the ones trying to make things right here." Mash commented. "We will gladfully lend you our help, Geronimo-san!"

"You have my approval as well." Nightingale speaked.

"Mines too. Whatever decision my master takes, I shall avaliate it. And this is a good one." Tesla also said.

Chuckling, Geronimo accepted Ritsuka's handshake. "Then it's decided." He smiled, staring at him. "Welcome to The Resitence, people of Chaldea."

"Ok! Now with all that said, you should be getting some sleep." Da Vinci advised the party. "It must have been a tiresome day after all."

"Hummm, yeah. A bed would be good at this hour." Nala replied, stretching her arms. "Me and you on the same room Mash?"

"Like always." Mash giggled.

"In the meantime, me and Da Vinci will study and try to find a way to fully heal Rama from those fatal wounds." Romani speaked. "Have a goodnight everyone!"

Tesla clapped his hands together. "Well then, if you do permit me, I shall built a temporary residence for you to pass the night."

Nightingale however was against that idea. "Working overnight and after a day of fatigue isn't a good idea mister Tesla. One should have proper rest of the body and mind. Also, the work of your construction could be noisy enough to wake up soldiers who need repose."

Tesla reacted a bit perplexed and adrift by the nurse's statement. "B-But I'm a servant! We do not get easily, if even, barely tired the same way an average human does!" He tried to argue. "I promise that the proceedure of my creation will be mostly silent and-"

"Nah. That isn't necessary Tesla." Ritsuka told him. "We can just spend the night in some bedrooms of a motel around here."

The inventor ended up complying. "Fine. It's the master's decision after all."

Peko then stared at Geronimo. "Speaking of which, where is the motel so that we can sleep there?"

"Around the corner to the left and some meters ahead." Geronimo told the boy. "I'll show you." He said, now guiding the party torwards the motel of the town where they would spend the night in.

It was a long day, full of meeting and helping new allies as well as making new enemies, but finally the chaldeans had formed a bond with people they could trust, now staring at the objectives ahead of them if they wanted to clear this Singularity and stop America from being extinguished by the Celtic Empire or turned into a terrifying global nation by the West side. It was truly an all out war, with Chaldea positioned in the middle alongside its allies. The path to retrieve the grail and end this Singularity's conflict, was sure to still be a long one.

To be continued...


And that was it for chapter 77!

Now, a thing that I do want to make clear since I'm the author of this fic. Peko and Nala are NOT Pellon Pekko and King Nala despite sharing the names. Like Da Vinci and Romani said, it's all purely coincidential. Which is funny because, little story time, when I started this fic back in 2022 really at the beggining, I was like: 'hmmm, what are the odds of my two oc protagonists sharing a name with a hero/god/historical figure?' Then I went to search and oh my, there really are two mythological characters named Peko (Pekko) and Nala. What are the chances?Like, even funnier, I choose those two names at random. (Okay, Nala may have been a little of Lion King's influence) but I wasn't expecting at all to have picked names of a Finnish-Estonian god and Hindu king. I choosed those names in the first place because I thought they were short, cute, sweet, easy to pronounce and fitting for the two characters. So yeah, it just happened to have been the biggest of coincidentials there, with the dreams Peko had with the tribe people and the winter stuff being a sort of reference to the deity of Pellon Pekko. (Hell, I might be being a little too honest for my own good here, aren't I?)

The dreams he had with the painter as well as the visions of their father on the other hand, that's all legit and indeed clues and possible pieces of Peko and Nala's past. Just explaining here in order to not get the things of the original plot all too muddy.

Anyways, that's all I wanted to say, and see you next time on chapter 78! Peace!

P.S:

Jack: Oi, Peko! (Gives Peko a heart-shaped box of chocolates) Here, for you!

Peko: Eheh, thanks Jack. (Grabs it) I appreciate-...(Looks inside of the box) Oh. That's...That's a literal heart...

Shingen: At least be grateful that it didn't get any more messed up than that.

Peko (Gulping and accepting the gift): What counts is the intention after all. (Smiles a bit nervously to Jack)

Kagetora (Bursts into the room): Here you are Takeda! It's your turn as the prey now! The tiger of war is ready to show her fangs meeeeooow!

Shingen: DAMMIT! NOT THIS AGAIN!