Section 10

The sky is dark and cloudy, rain pouring and lightning striking down. After flying through the air for hours, Sieg begins to falter while gliding. He has surpassed his limit for a very long time, only kept afloat by Ritsuka constantly pumping energy into him. We've long since escaped the danger, but no one can feel at ease. An ally died in the fight and the Director especially has taken that hard. She's trying to act brave but no one is fooled by her performance. We only knew him for about a month, but still…

"Sorry, everyone, but for your safety I'm going to have to land. I can't keep my form up for much longer!", Sieg says as he begins an emergency descent.

"Ah…yeah, do that. I'm close to fainting here myself.", Ritsuka tells Sieg in a labored voice.

Landing in a dense forest, we all hop off and he vanishes from the world.

"I'll set up our tents so we can rest and escape from the rain. We can organize ourselves tomorrow."

Alice materializes the several tents Chaldea brought with and sets them up easily with Mash and Ritsuka's help. We all go into our tents to escape the rain and to relax after a stressful day.

I change out of my Chaldea uniform, but without a change of clothes, I'm only left in my black shirt and underwear. I lay down on the air mattress and close my eyes for a brief moment, letting everything sink in.

Nick was apparently a god of some kind and Altrouge, his daughter, killed him. An entire city turned into vampires and killed each other in only a few minutes, and now we're expected to face a more powerful Altrouge and her guards again. I don't think that's possible in the slightest, we already couldn't win this before…

Alice is a trained assassin, Ritsuka has his summons and now his Servants he contracted with, Mash is a Servant herself, the Director is a powerful mage, but me? I'm useless to them… on that ship, I did nothing of value. I must be deadweight to my own team, I can't even use being a normal human as an excuse since Ritsuka is strong. I'm not good at swordplay, not good enough to fight Servants, I can't use Mystic Eyes very well, and on top of that, they do me nothing but harm. I'm not strong defensively like Mash, I'm not quick like Alice, I'm not a leader like Ritsuka is, I'm not a mage like the Director, and I can't be offensive like the Servants, so what is there for me to do here? Do I even have any sort of purpose in this group?

Before I know it, I begin to quietly sob into the blanket. Everything up until this point has just piled up and I can't take it anymore. I don't know what to do now. I can't fight but I can't run away, so what is there for me now?

At the worst possible time, my tent flap opens and Alice steps in holding a container of rations. I quickly sit up and try to dry my tears but it's far too late. Alice stands there stunned and closes the tent flap. And with her next motion, she sits down and places a hand on my shoulder. "Serena, what's wrong!? Are you hurt?"

"Alice? Am I useful?"

"Huh? Of course, you are.", she responds, confused at the sudden question.

"Useful how?"

"Your Mystic Eyes have helped us before. That's a pretty useful skill. You always keep us upbeat with your personality."

I frown and look down at my lap. "I don't use my Mystic Eyes enough for them to be useful though. I'm still scared of using them unless I absolutely need to."

Alice cups my hand in her own and holds it tight. "I understand, but you will never get better with them until you swallow up all this fear in you. I'm not going to force you to use them all the time and relive those memories, but if you want to get better then you can't be scared of using them."

I silently nod. She's right, I know that, but…jeez I'm such an idiot.

"What brought up this question anyway, Serena?", she asks with a worried look on her face.

"It's because I'm nothing like any of you and frankly, I feel like I'm just holding you all back. I can't fight, I'm not strategic, and I can't be very good support for all of you. I'm not very sure of what to do."

Alice stares at me momentarily, then wraps her arms around me, pulling me into a warm embrace. And unexpectedly, we both fall onto the air mattress as Alice pushes the two of us down. As we both lay down, huddled in a sweet embrace, once silence remains as she strokes my hair in her hand.

"A-Alice!"

Alice smiles and breathes softly. "I really hate seeing you down like this. You're the most important person to me, so hearing you say that you think you're useless upsets me. Even if you are as useless as you say you are, you're still very precious to me. I can tell you're strong, but strength isn't just physical you know?" Alice touches where my heart is, feeling it beat faster and faster. "I believe that your true strength is here. It seems stupid and like a movie, but it's true. You've been through so much for just a normal person, yet you keep moving forward regardless. The Grand Order happened and you were thrust into that position, but you went with it no matter how hard it got. I wouldn't have blamed you if you ran away from the responsibility, but you didn't and you stood strong. Not just anyone can do that, you know?"

"Well, it's not like I had a choice in any of this. If I stayed behind and something happened to any of you, I would never forgive myself."

Alice laughs a little. "At the Association, many people didn't think like that. They'd send out pawns to do their dirty work and if they died then so be it, but no one would have blamed you for staying behind as a normal human. If anything, it's what I like most about you. You're weak, but strong-minded, if that makes sense."

"Alice…thanks. This talk does make me feel just a little better about myself."

Alice smiles a smile that could petrify just about anyone. "It's no problem at all, Serena. If you need anything else, just ask, I'll always be here for you."

Alice goes to stand up but without thinking, I grab her arm and hold her in place.

"Eh, Serena?"

"Wanna stay the night?", I blurt out, still feeling a bit uneasy about everything that has happened today.

Alice blushes like I've never seen her before. I've seen her blush of course, like if we bathe together and she gets red from the heat, but her entire face is now red and I feel like I may have said something wrong.

"Are you sure? I feel like I'm intruding." She meekly responds.

"Yes, I want you to sleep with me tonight. There's more than enough room for us if we squeeze together. I just don't want to be alone right now."

Alice thinks for a moment and then nods her head as she comes to her decision. "Alright then. If you don't mind of course…"

Alice smiles and takes off a few layers of clothes to get comfortable. Now she only wears a black shirt and her tights. She flicks off the lantern and crawls under the blankets with me.

"Hmm, not too much room for me…", Alice says while squirming around. The mattress is meant to be compact so it can only fit one and a half person. But, I do want Alice to sleep with me tonight, so I pull her close into a hug and give her enough room to sleep comfortably by having the two of us cuddle.

"Ah, Serena…"

"Are you too warm?"

"No, I was just surprised, sorry. This feels…nice."

Alice's breathing calms down and she fully snuggles into a spot facing away from me. I turn around as well so we are back to back and shut my eyes. "Goodnight, Alice. Thanks for everything."

"Mhm, goodnight, Serena."

"I believe that is all I have to report to you. Did you get all that, Romani, Da Vinci?"

"Yeah… Director, are you sure you're alright?"

"Whether I'm alright or not doesn't matter. This situation is bad, and I'm not sure if we can win. Is there any way we can terminate this Rayshift and go back to Chaldea for now? We can tackle this Singularity later once we have stronger Servants."

Romani shakes his head. "No, there's no way to force a Rayshift back unless it's completed. Besides, if you did that, Altrouge may just get more powerful than before. It's just not worth it even if I could make it happen."

Olga's heart sinks as she looks at Real of the World which is sitting near her mattress. "I see. So what you're saying is that our Grand Order might just end here?"

"Don't say that!" Da Vinci yells, scaring everyone in the command room. "As long as you are breathing, you can win! After what happened with Lev, you still kept on going, make this the same. No matter the odds, keep fighting until you die. It's the only thing you can do right now."

"…You're right. If we're gonna lose here, I'd rather go down trying than just giving up. I'll do my best for you all.", Olga places her right hand to her face, a red bruise-like mark on it in the shape of a blob.

"Get some sleep, Director. We can all talk tomorrow morning about what to do next."

"Yeah, alright."

The call ends and she gets ready to go to sleep. She lays down on the mattress and shuts her eyes, yet sleep will not come.

"Yeah, right. As if I could sleep right now."

She sits back up and picks up the crimson blade, simply staring at it.

Apparently, the blade was said to be a physical part of the Crimson Moon, in essence she is holding him. "You said you would come back no matter what, but can you really do that?"

Tears begin to form in her eyes as the truth fully sets in. Revival isn't just something anyone can do. Perhaps it is possible for an Ultimate One, but how can she know? What's his plan to do so? Too many unknown factors for the Director to handle and process. Perhaps he was just trying to make her feel better and lied, or maybe he was serious somehow, she just didn't know.

For the first time in a long while, her "Director" self falls apart, and "Olga Marie" is laid bare as she has no strength left. The one person she felt like she could connect to is gone. Combined with the difficult, no, impossible task of taking down this Singularity, she felt like the weight of the world would crush her.

Before she knows it, she's laid down on her mattress again, cradling the Real of The World. Her thoughts are only occupied by one person…

"I'm so lost here, Nick…", she says to the sword as she struggles to fall asleep.

Alice wakes up in a bed that's not her own. Her body is covered in sweat as she notices that I have been cuddling her all night in her sleep, causing the both of us to heat up.

"Jeez, if you wanted to cuddle…", Alice shakes her head and breaks free of my sleeping grasp. Getting off the mattress, she changes into her casual clothes and leaves the tent.

"Hah!"

She hears a swing in the distance. Alice walks through the little forest area and sees the Director swinging around the red blade. Without a word, Alice watches her swing it. Safe to say, her form is sloppy, as if she's never swung a sword in her life. It's as if someone only ever watched movies to learn how to use a greatsword.

It's not as if Alice was an expert with one, she only knows how to use one to barely get by, nowhere near someone who actually knows how to use one, but even she could tell that the Director had no clue what she was doing. But despite this, she continued anyway. Actually, it's not that she didn't know what she was doing, but the sword is far too heavy for her in the first place. It's easy to tell how much she's straining while lifting it. Greatswords at most only weigh five kilograms, and that would be manageable even for someone like Olga Marie, but this wasn't the case with the sword that Nick left her.

The sword falls to the ground and Olga pants over it heavily. I suppose her wearing her full Chaldea uniform isn't helping her case either.

Alice tosses her a water bottle and instead of catching it, it just hits her right arm and falls to the ground, the two just staring at it blankly.

Olga sets the sword down in the grass and picks up the plastic bottle. "How long have you been watching?"

"Long enough to know you need work.", Alice walks over to her and bends down, looking at the sword. "I'm going to be honest with you, Director. The sword doesn't suit you. Not a greatsword at least, maybe a rapier though?"

"I don't intend on using any sort of sword. I thought I could wield Nick's sword in his stead, but it looks like I can't, it's not possible. I will go back to using my runes and spells."

Alice tries to pick up the sword but finds it way heavier than it should be. It's as if she's lifting 45 kilos when the sword only seems to weigh 6. She still lifts it and holds it in front of her, it's a miracle the Director could even swing this thing.

"Hey, Director. I'm sorry…"

Olga makes a sad expression and looks down. "Don't worry about it. He said he'd return to me. I'm not sure if he really can, but I'll believe him. If I don't, what memory will I have of him in the future?"

"So, all this time he really was a vampire, and on top of that was Brunestud of the Crimson Moon himself? How much did you know?"

"Only that he was a vampire, not the part about him being the Moon's TYPE. I wish he would've told me at least that, now I'm not exactly sure what to think."

Alice places her hand on her shoulder. "As you said, he still helped us that whole time, right? If he was truly evil, then we'd be long dead. I'm sure he just didn't want to scare you."

Olga nods and takes the sword out of Alice's hands. "Let's head back. Do you have any bandages that I can wrap this up with?"

We all sit around on the grass, or well, blankets put on the grass as we eat breakfast and plan. Mash's shield is in the middle of the circle we formed and over it is a projected Da Vinci and Romani.

"Okay, so far, you've used Amakusa twice, Sieg twice, and Karna once. That leaves you with three summons left. Not the best situation at hand."

"With three Servants, there's not much we can do… Jeanne, Haydée, and Edmond Dantès are strong, but I'd like Shadow Servants too."

That's when a serious expression crosses Da Vinci's face. "There is a way actually. I didn't tell you the whole truth, Fujimaru. You can surpass eight summons."

This shocks everyone in the group, even the Servants. "What do you mean!? If we knew that before—!"

Mash is cut off.

"Let me explain. The Mystic Code has enough mana in it to summon eight Servants from Chaldea. It's like a battery that only has limited charge, after eight, it's empty. But if you keep summoning, the mana has to come from somewhere, right?"

Ritsuka looks puzzled, unable to grasp what she means. "What are you saying?"

"It will use you. Your nerves will more or less be fried, it will steal your mana, your life energy to keep going. Use it too much after the initial eight and you'll die. I installed it as a failsafe, but I never wanted you to use it. I still don't, of course. But it seems there may be little choice. If you could get your hands on a large mana source, you could refill the eight charges and depending on the size of the mana source, go even further without harm to you. But Altrouge has the Grail, so nothing can be done."

We are all left silent as the news comes out. Ritsuka has essentially been told that he can summon more Servants by killing himself. And of course, that's not an option. So at the end of the day, we're left with only three more summons anyway.

"I'll do it."

"Pardon?"

"If it's all that can be done to win, then I'm willing to push past the eight if it means we can win. You're only talking about if I keep using it all at once, right? If I space it out long enough, I should be fine."

Mash, out of character, begins to scream at him. "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES I'LL LET YOU DO THAT! WE CAN FIND ANOTHER WAY, BUT I WILL NOT LET YOU DIE LIKE THIS!"

We all get startled and fall back a bit. "But, Mash-"

"No. I know you like playing the hero, but you can't just throw your life away!"

"I agree with Mash. Ritsuka, you're still just a kid. I have other solutions too that can win a fight.", Olga says. "If anyone will die, it'll be your senior. You kids still have more to do, and families to get back to, right?"

She looks down at the now bandaged-up sword, covered in white gauze. "I don't plan on dying, but I definitely won't let any of you die."

Edmond Dantès floats out of the ground and laughs, looking right at Ritsuka. "There is no need to throw your life away, Master! After I get my ascension, there will be no worries." He then gains a serious look on his face. "Leave the fighting to us. Remember, if you die or get too weak, us Servants will die too. You 'sacrificing' yourself will only bring ruin to Chaldea as they won't be able to fight back with none of them being Masters. Haydée cannot save you either, even with her healing if you go so far as to destroy your own body from the inside out."

And then Jeanne appears. "And what'll happen to poor Mash? Her power will probably fail and she won't even be able to protect everyone. I've seen people want to be heroes, but fall just as fast as they come. Maybe it will work out for you, but as a normal human, you can't be a superhero."

Ritsuka is left silent and just thinks to himself. "Sorry, that was stupid of me to even ask. Thank you all for stopping me. Yeah, there should be another way."

Da Vinci begins talking again. "As for more of what's to come, you will head to Chateau d'If and help Edmond get his ascension in power. As for what's after that we shall see."

"If we can even get there," Alice says. "It's an island, and we can't swim over."

Edmond looks at her and nods. "Yes, that is so people could not escape. I escaped in a bodybag myself. But fear not, I will carry you all over since I've been gifted the ability of flight. A mere body of water will pose no issue for a Servant like me."

"Isn't it a tourist attraction? What about that?", Alice adds.

Haydée manifests and floats in place near Edmond. "Do not worry about that. I will set up a Bounded Field to keep people away, like a charm spell. No one will bother us there unless our enemies or a powerful magus comes by, then the field can't do much."

"Romani, how much further until we get there?"

"Sieg got you pretty far. I'd estimate half a day more of walking and you'll be there. You should try to get there before the sun falls or else risk an attack."

"That's a relief then. Once we finish eating, we can head out."

After that, we finished eating, talking about random things throughout our meal. No one wanted to bring up the danger potentially up ahead, so we all stayed silent about it and tried to lighten the mood.

Afterwards, we began to walk toward our destination guided by Edmond Dantès.

Chateau d'If, a fortress turned prison. A hell with no escape in the middle of a large body of water like an island. It's no longer a prison and now just a tourist attraction, but back in the day when it was a prison it was hell for those who were poor, and fine for those who were rich. The only person to ever escape was Edmond Dantès himself by sneaking himself into a bodybag and being taken out to the mainland with the people thinking it was a corpse in the bag waiting to be laid to rest.

As I said, it's not a tourist attraction anyone can visit, so it shouldn't be out of repair now and not as bad as it was hundreds of years ago when it housed real prisoners. Still, I wonder how we're going to be able to avoid the public going in. If people can visit, then that means we can't just walk in let alone stay there overnight. I ask the rest of the group and they seem puzzled too, as if they didn't think of this.

"I'll set up a Bounded Field, a charm spell to ward people away. That way, no one will interrupt us unless they too are a mage and can ignore the field with their power. This goes for Altrouge and her guards too if they find us.", Haydée replies. It seems our spellcaster has already had a plan for a while.

"And getting out there will need a boat, which I'm sure there is one we can use.", Alice says. Edmond quickly adds: "I can always fly you over one by one if needed. So a boat, although helpful, isn't needed."

Man, Servants are really helpful, huh? Such a trip would require so much but with them around, we can make it onto the island with no problem.

"What's this place like?", I ask. I've never been to Chateau d'If, nor have done research, so of course I want to know what it looks like.

"Hell itself for the common man. Not the kind of place you want to be in. Where the poor are treated like less than garbage and the rich are still not treated great. It's a death sentence to all that get sent there.", Edmond replies, not looking back at me and continuing his walk.

"Got it, we shouldn't stay longer than we need.", I try to lighten the mood but to no avail.

Jeanne Alter also seems bummed about something. She's oddly quiet and her demeanor seems negative, more than usual at least.

"Jeanne? Something up?", Ritsuka asks while touching her shoulder. She brushes his hand away and steps to the side.

"I don't wish to talk about it. It's just all this prison talk is bringing back bad memories. Push it and I'll torch you."

Instead of looking scared, Ritsuka only looks worried about her. It's normal for her to be mad, but this is more sad than anything, painful even. An event she genuinely doesn't want to think about, yet it's being pushed into her mind with every mention of "prison."

Jeanne d'Arc. How the story normally is is that she was a hero who helped battle in the siege of Orleans, along with many other battles. She claimed to be able to hear the voice of God himself and for that, she was accused of being a witch and burned at the stake, but her faith never faltered. I'm guessing why she gets so upset with prison is that she was held in one for a long while, and during that time she was starved, tortured in various ways, reportedly raped and groped, and treated as subhuman.

I have no idea what kind of life Jeanne Alter had, if any different. But I can understand her feelings if it is the same life. If I were her, I wouldn't want to set foot in a prison at all, or in France again for that matter.

I'm sure everything will work out, somehow. We'll get Edmond powered up, then figure out what to do after that.

"So, what of the city folk? Will they remain vampires?", the vampire pirate asks the princess, who's now all grown up.

"Let them be, they can be used for later. I'll let them wander around for a while and see what happens.", she steps over a corpse who seems to not have been able to even survive the transformation. Her black and red dress is lit up by the sun's rays as she walks through the completely ruined city. It's like an F5 tornado ran through the place.

Altrouge, now of sound mind, has begun to move. Catching up to Chaldea was a goal but for now, all she wanted to do is get used to her new form.

Strout stops while walking and looks to his right. A child stands there amongst the wreckage, somehow surviving the night. And now that the dead have relocated to darker areas, the girl must've thought it was safe to come out, but here she was face to face with one of the strongest Dead Apostles "alive."

Her body and mind freeze. She knows that she can do nothing to the knight. The two stare at each other, not looking away. He looks over to Altrouge and Svelten, seeing them still walking, and he looks back towards the girl.

"If you go straight that way, you can make it to safety. Avoid the dark, child.", he says quietly while pointing behind her. Regardless of whether it's a trap or not, the girl runs off with no other choice, and to her surprise and relief, he never follows. Rizo-Waal Strout allows the child to run off to safety with no issue at all. He walks back behind Altrouge and she turns around to ask:

"What kept you, Strout?"

"Nothing, in particular, Princess. Something caught my eye but it turned out to be just a raccoon.", he responds, with little emotion in his voice.

The three continue to walk through the destruction without care. All they need to do now is to leave the town and attempt to track down Chaldea, but Altrouge has another idea.

"Instead of only just following them, I have another plan."

…

"Very well then, Princess. If that is what you wish, we will follow." Strout replies to her plan. A new destination is set and they will go that way now.

The beginning of the end has started, and nothing can stop it now. With the Holy Grail nearly full, not much is left until Altrouge gets her wish and can finally rise to what she should be, Type Earth is the only concern of Altrouge Brunestud.

Meanwhile, the princess in white sits alone on her throne, not chained up and just staring into a floating blue cube.

"The authorization is set, and the situation is dire enough. With Father gone, I suppose it is my turn to step in."

Arcueid stands up and focuses, with light surrounding her body as she fades in and out of the world.

With Brunestud of the Crimson Moon out of the fight, and Altrouge growing rapidly in power, the only one left is Arcueid Brunestud, the only one who can take on Altrouge Brunestud and win. So, that is what must happen now.

The battle of the Archetypes approaches and no one will be left standing at the end of such a fight.

The next stop for the Archetype is France. Resolved to beat her sister, Arcueid travels time and space to meet her head-on and win before Altrouge can try anything at all. She has been deemed too much of a threat at this point thanks to the Outer God, Nyarlathotep, who is dwelling inside Altrouge, waiting to strike. Can Arcueid win? That, has yet to be seen.

But for now, Arcueid has but one goal in mind, to meet up with Chaldea because where Chaldea is, Altrouge is sure to follow. There is no doubt about that in her mind. The key being the Crimson Moon's sword, which rests in the hands of the Director. Altrouge will follow that and retrieve it for herself. But that sword also acts as a beacon for Arcueid as well, and locating it won't be hard at all.

The pieces are all in place and the board is set. Will this be a checkmate? Or simply just another play? Who knows for sure at this time? All that is certain is that this Singularity is too much for Chaldea to handle as they are now, so a checkmate seems inevitable. That is unless more firepower can be added to their roster.

Next stop for Chaldea… Chateau d'If.