As they escaped from Chaldea in a huge vehicle, they reached stable land from the mountaintop.
"God, we survived," Goredolf said as he sat on the floor with Ritsuka, both of them tired and exhausted from running nonstop.
"Yeah, this was a really close call," Ritsuka said as he leaned against the wall.
"Senpai, Director, here, drink some water," Mashu said, handing water bottles to them.
"Give me that," Goredolf said rudely as he took the bottle from her.
"Thanks, Mashu," Ritsuka said as he took another bottle.
"Guys, this is the Shadow Border. I created it for situations like this," Da Vinci explained.
"But the problem is, the core of the Shadow Border is unfinished. Without the core, the Shadow Border cannot function at full capacity," Holmes added.
"But I don't think the purpose of the Shadow Border is simply transportation. From the texture of the exterior, it looks like it can withstand dimension travel or something similar," Tony observed.
"You figured it out already. Yeah, the Shadow Border is designed to travel through the All-Terrain Void-Transporter," Da Vinci confirmed.
"How about I use Friday to be the core for the Shadow Border?" Tony proposed.
"Well, I had a similar idea. It would be great if you could, Tony," Da Vinci agreed.
"Friday, are you okay with being the core for the Shadow Border?" Tony asked.
"If you wish, boss. I have no problem," Friday replied.
"Okay," Tony said. Suddenly, his suit started to disappear into small particles and was absorbed into his chest.
"What the hell?" All the Chaldea staff members, along with Ritsuka, Mashu, Da Vinci, and Goredolf, shouted in surprise.
"Yo, what happened? I'm sure I used good perfume," Tony said, noticing their shocked expressions.
"Tony, your suit is nanotechnology," Ritsuka said, having seen similar technology in manga and games.
"Kid, you have a good guess. Yeah, it is nanotech," Tony confirmed. He went to the pilot seat, took a chip, and started to install Friday into the Shadow Border.
"Tony, can I learn more about nanotechnology? It could be useful for Ritsuka. I could create a mystic code for him," Da Vinci said.
"Yeah, sure, I can help you with that," Tony said as he finished installing Friday as the core for the Shadow Border.
"We can talk about that later. We still haven't escaped from the enemies," Holmes reminded them.
Suddenly, the Shadow Border jumped from the impact of the rough land route.
"What a jump! That was a slope-crossing impact, wasn't it!?" Goredolf exclaimed, a hidden excitement in his tone.
"Yes, Goofy. Are you a racer like me?" Tony asked.
"Wh-why yes, as a matter of fact. I don't like to brag about it, but I am something of an amateur racer. I'm the sponsor, driver, and strategist, all rolled into one. And don't call me Goofy; I'm Musik the Phoenix, they call me–" Goredolf was interrupted by Holmes.
""Mr. Tony Stark, let me ask you. Who are you? And Ritsuka, tell us everything. Something is missing from the beginning. We never had a Servant like Tony Stark with such genius intelligence and advanced technology. Of course, we could reach his level if we had more geniuses with us. And lastly, where did you get the Holy Grail to summon a Servant, Master Ritsuka Fujimaru?" Holmes said, everyone looking at Tony and Ritsuka for answers.
"So you think I was a spy from the enemy, Durglock," Tony stood up and mocked Holmes with a nickname, knowing history well. Both glared at each other.
Ritsuka stood up and went between them.
"Oh, whoa, stop it, guys. Let me explain." He then explained the dream he had before everything started and how he met a creator of different multiverses and obtained the Holy Grail.
"For real!? D-did you meet a god and he gave you the Holy Grail?" Goredolf was shocked.
"He knows our journey is not over yet, huh," Da Vinci said seriously.
"I see, so a new throne of heroes is created, and Ritsuka can summon them without any problems. But remember, I'm keeping my eyes on you. I don't trust you yet," Holmes said after receiving the report from Ritsuka.
'but seeing Ritsuka trust him like that, I have no choice but believe him and future Marvel heroes servants' he thought
"Another Nick Fury, you can't afford me, Holmes," Tony replied.
"Now then, we're about to reach the ice shelf! From there, we'll head for the coast and the sea beyond!" Holmes announced.
"What do you mean?" Ritsuka asked him.
"Hm? Oh, that's right, you don't know where we are, do you? Well then! Take a look out the window, Fujimaru! It's not every day one gets a chance to see scenery like this!" Holmes said. Ritsuka and Tony looked outside and exclaimed in unison.
"Antarctica!!"
"Damn it, that bastard Tony really cut me in half. I let my guard down and underestimated him," the priest said as he regenerated his body.
"This is my mistake. Now, time for our last job. The Pseudo-Celestial Sphere Chaldeas... the miracle that leads to the Root. The miracle that the Animusphere family wished for and dreamed about for over two millennia..." he said, standing in front of a globe-shaped object in the command room.
"Part of me wishes we didn't have to trample all over this dream, but such is life. It is the job of adults to teach children the harsh truth of reality. Even the tsar fears this celestial sphere. After all, changing the past via Rayshifting is the one threat we can't counter," the priest said with an evil smile, as if he had forgotten Tony's recent beating.
"...So this is Chaldeas. It looks just like an Easter egg... So this is the DEVICE I MUST FREEZE, FATHER?" Anastasia (??) asked him.
"That's right. That is what the tsar wants. You must use your Noble Phantasm to defeat the traitors. You must bury this magnificent crown jewel of humanity yourself, in a coffin of permafrost. What will you do, Your Imperial Highness, Grand Duchess Anastasia?" the priest said.
Then Anastasia (???) used her powers and froze the entire command room with ice.
"Antarctica? We've been in Antarctica this whole time!? But they told me we were on a huge mountain...!" Ritsuka said, his face filled with shock.
""Although many nations have claimed this land as their own, the fact remains that it is the last frontier yet to fall into humanity's grasp. Chaldea was built right in its center, so that no nation could use it for their own ends," Holmes said.
"I don't know who built Chaldea, but I'm sure they didn't want anyone to find out what they were doing. This kind of secrecy reminds me of Hydra. Who knows, Chaldea might be behind everything," Tony said, only to receive serious gazes from Da Vinci and Holmes.
"Oh, come on. I get it," Tony said, shrugging his shoulders and hands.
"It was built on a mountain range hidden by an endless blizzard—or rather, the lingering scent of Mystics—and further reinforced by a Bounded Field," Holmes continued.
"It is the largest, and only, observatory of humanity on the entire planet, its location and secrets concealed from the moment of its creation. That is Chaldea, the Security Organization for the Preservation of Humanity. I suppose I ought to say that it WAS Chaldea. As of now, Chaldea has fallen into the hands of an unknown adversary, one who is trying to shut it down even as we speak," Holmes said, looking at Mashu.
"Trying to shut it down...? Even as we speak?" Mashu asked, feeling as if everything she heard was a lie.
"Correct. I've confirmed that as of twenty seconds ago, all Command Room transmissions have ceased, and all power output has shut down. Chaldeas is no longer operating, either. The air-conditioning has stopped, and the inside temperature has dropped below minus one hundred degrees," Friday reported.
"As loath as I am to say it, we must face the facts: Chaldea is lost. We no longer have any means of taking it back or even returning to it," Holmes said with a sad expression.
Fujimaru kept his head down.
Mashu covered her mouth and said, "Stop it... Please, stop it! I have to go back to Chaldea! Please, let me go back! It hasn't been taken from us yet! I know it hasn't! All my memories of the time I spent with everyone else are there! Nothing can change that! And... and... Doctor Roman's room is still...!" She tried to rush, but Da Vinci stopped her.
"Fou..." Fou jumped in front of her as if to stop her.
"S-stop that! What do you hope to accomplish by going back now!? Go on, youngster, talk some sense into her!" Goredolf shouted, turning to Ritsuka.
"Fujimaru, would you mind holding Mash back from—never mind, there is no need for that," Holmes said.
"Mashu is not a Servant anymore, but if she tries to use Servant power, it will backfire on her. I recommend she not use that power. She is now a normal human," Holmes added.
"...I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, everyone...! (Sob) If only I were a Servant, I would have... saved everything and... Chaldea," Mashu cried.
Tony, who had been listening to everything, went to her and said,
"I know how you feel. In fact, I lost many people who were close to me. But remember, as long as you remember them, they still live in your memories.
Humans will die when they are forgotten, kid.
A person close to me said that when he was on death's door: 'Don't waste your life.'
He saved my life and future.
If you go back to Chaldea and die there, you are wasting your life.
I don't know who Romani is, but do you think that person would want you to die?" Tony said to Mashu and Ritsuka.
Both of them understood his words, and Ritsuka was particularly impressed.
'Don't waste your life'—those words created motivation in Ritsuka Fujimaru's life and might change his future.
"No," Mashu remembered her doctor and nodded.
"Then wait for the time being until we recover our strength," Tony suggested.
"Yes, Mashu. We can contact the Mage Association and get their help, like Da Vinci said," Ritsuka added, moved by Tony's words.
Mashu nodded and sat down, and Da Vinci hugged her tightly. Da Vinci thanked Tony.
"You are really a good speaker, aren't you? Thanks for stopping that young girl," Goredolf said.
"Oh, you have this side too, buddy," Tony said, impressed to see the soft side of the noble mage.
"No-no, just forget everything I said," Goredolf responded.
"Thanks for helping Mashu," Holmes said to Tony.
"It's okay," Tony replied.
Suddenly, Friday said to everyone, "Everyone, can you look outside? Something unbelievable is happening right now."
"Of course... Nevertheless, it IS hard to believe. One could be forgiven for thinking it a bad dream," Holmes said.
"Are those meteoroids!? But we didn't get any reports from Panama!"
"If there were meteoroids too big to burn up in the atmosphere headed this way, we would've heard!"
"And what's with those trajectories!? How can they possibly be falling straight down like that!?" All Chaldea staff members started talking.
'Aliens, huh? Here we go again,' Tony Stark thought to himself.
"An occurrence that defies human understanding, hm?" Holmes said.
"That tells us they cannot be meteoroids. I believe we can rule out debris as well," Da Vinci said.
"Which means this can only be something once relegated to fiction. For example, an invasion from outer space. An alien invasion, in simple words," Tony said.
"You're joking, right? Who could say something like that with a straight face! Tony? I—I mean, that would just be absurd, right? Or what, are you really saying those people were aliens? That they only pretended to be human in order to take over Chaldea? How can—" Goredolf's words were interrupted by Friday.
"My apologies, but please, do be quiet. We're picking up an external transmission. It's using the same frequency you did at Chaldea. Do you want me to answer the call?" Friday said
Tony, Holmes, and Da Vinci looked at each other and nodded.
"...anity. We have a message for all of humanity. This planet will soon be reborn as an old, brand-new world. Human civilization was a mistake. The path of our growth was incorrect. And so I have made my decision. I will revolt against all of human history—Proper Human History. We are about to fill this world with inhuman Mystic secrets. We will restore the Age of Gods. To that end, the gods have descended from a far-off galaxy, and in their wisdom, they have used seven seeds to select new leaders. These leaders will remake this planet as they see fit. And the one who reigns supreme shall be given the right to renew the world itself. The life-forms from Proper Human History will not be permitted to take part in this war, or even to view it from the sidelines. The roots of cosmic fantasy have descended upon us. Trees of creation have sprung up all across the land. Now, all of old humanity's endeavors will be set aside, frozen. Thus shall you atone for your sins. 2019... The year that Proper Human History came to an end. My name is Wodime. Kirschtaria Wodime. On behalf of the seven Crypters, I have a message for those of you who escaped from Chaldea. No, rather, I have a message for the scant few remnants of the human race: WE will be the inheritors of this world's history."
A silence took over the Shadow Border. Everyone was shocked, trying to process everything.
"...Kirschtaria...? That did SOUND like Kirschtaria, but..." Mashu said.
"Kirschtaria Wodime!? The leader of Team A!? Here I was going to take him under my wing, and this is the thanks I get...!?" Goredolf angrily said.
"Crypter...? The end of human history...?" Ritsuka murmured.
"F#k*ng bullshit! Humans have survived every disaster, and now this dumbfuck is saying human history is wrong? There's no way I'll let anyone control humanity's fate. Earth is not some garden for planting seeds," Tony said, pissed off, remembering how in his world, Celestials planted seeds and used humans as batteries.
"I agree with you, Tony," Da Vinci said.
"NOW what is it!?" a Chaldea staff member exclaimed.
"Boss, we're less than two thousand meters away from the coast now, but I'm afraid we've got a little problem to deal with. I'm picking up a TON of Spirit Origin signals up ahead. It's more of the soldiers that attacked Chaldea. Boss, see for yourself! As they say, a picture's worth a thousand words!"
"...! It IS those soldiers that attacked Chaldea...!" Mashu said, standing up with a shocked face.
"H-how can there even be that many!? Dammit! Looks like a whole damn division out there! What the hell is this!?" Goredolf said, shocked.
"Fou, fooou!" Fou was shocked too.
"They're covering the entire coastline..." Fujimaru said looking at a Army
"I think it's time for us to travel to the void," Tony said.
"Wh... what did you just say? You can't mean..." Goredolf said.
"Yes, there's no way our Border here can break through a group like that. If the Shadow Border is damaged, then it's over for us," Da Vinci said.
"Ms. Friday, have you received any response from the American base?" Holmes asked
"I'm afraid to say, we're getting no response from the American base, Mr. Holmes. In fact, according to the sonar, there is nothing to be found anywhere. Surely you can see that yourself. As long as we remain in Antarctica, we have no chance of victory. If the enemy forces who occupied Chaldea catch up to us, we will be quite finished. As Boss said, our only hope for survival is to go through the void," Friday said.
"Guys, aren't we the world's strongest adventurers, right? We just need keep Moving forward like always" Ritsuka said with a smile. And everyone smiled at them.
"Quite right! This is an adventure, and one of the grandest ones imaginable at that. In other words, we will be attempting to travel to a world that exists on the negative vector." Holmes said
"Ms. Friday, we got permission to use the Paper Moon. I will help y-" Holmes began but was interrupted by Friday.
"Mr. Holmes, I have analyzed the Paper Moon. I can operate it," Friday said, shocking everyone except Tony.
"Wow, even I have a hard time understanding it, and for fear of breaking it, I didn't even touch it until now. Now I'm more interested in you, Ms. Friday," Da Vinci said with a shocked and smiling face.
"Ms. Friday, can you let me learn what you analyzed on the Paper Moon later?" Holmes asked.
Tony acted like a proud father.
"Good, Friday. I believe it will aid us in fighting this adversary in the future," Tony said.
"...Understood. Expanding Void-Reality Observation Device: Paper Moon. Expanding logic formula on Shadow Border's external armor. Removing existence verification for Reality Space. Future prediction: hypothetically proving the mirror world plane in twenty seconds. Relaxing space-time friction decompression for 0.6 seconds... Emergency processes, all green. Looking good, Boss, we are ready to go!" Friday said.
"Now then, dear passengers! Your souls will almost leave your body for a moment, but don't worry, you'll be fine! It's just your average out-of-body experience! But if you find yourself saying stuff like 'I-I'm floating?' or 'Is that my own body I'm looking at?' just reach out, grab your body, and hold on for dear life! As long as you do that, you'll come out the other end alive!" Friday said to everyone.
"How is any of that 'fine'!? You just said you're literally going to kill us!" Goredolf screamed at Friday.
"Nnn, fooou," Fou said.
"Tell me, Tony, you guys did a test drive, right? RIGHT?" Goredolf asked.
"Thank you for participating in our first test drive, Goofy," Tony said.
"NOOO!!" Goredolf screamed.
"Senpai...! I still don't understand what's going on. Are you sure about this...!?" Mashu asked.
"Don't think much about it. Sure, I'm sure! Just another day at the office," Ritsuka said.
"Now that's the Fujimaru I know! Then without further ado, let's get started. As an experienced person, I want to say some words to everyone. Can I?" Da Vinci asked Tony, who happily agreed with her.
"Although this Phenomenon Intervention Method we're about to attempt is one of the first Chaldea ever devised, we banned its use because of its extreme difficulty and danger. You know how Rayshifting involves breaking a Master down into Spiritrons and outputting them into space-time as numeric values? Well, this way of traveling through space is the exact opposite. We'll be slipping through a crack in this world into a Sea of Time, completely erasing our existence from reality. We have a lot on our plates right now. An adversary that attacked Chaldea. Those things that fell from space. The Crypters. Like Mash said, we don't know what's going on right now. But one thing we know for sure is that they're all enemies—threats to humanity that even destroyed Chaldea. If we're going to do something about all this, we'll have to start breaking even more forbidden taboos. We are not handing over the future we worked so hard to take back to a bunch of newcomers we don't know the first thing about. So first, we find a way out of this mess. Then, we strike back. Well, let's get going, Master Fujimaru. We have a new weapon, and a new course ahead of us," Da Vinci said.
"Shadow Border, untether from reality. Void Space Dive, Zero Sail: unfurl!" Friday said
Suddenly, the whole Shadow Border was covered in pitch darkness, and it started to dissolve into nothingness. The Shadow Border then entered into void reality, where everything was filled with cold and void.
Ritsuka began a new journey in the void to save human history with new companions. Unknown to him, his path would be filled with innocent blood. Will he keep moving forward by facing problems, or become a lifeless puppet? Only time will tell how he will change and if he will reach his destiny.