It was worse than he even imagined.
In a dark, isolated space, illuminated by only points of multicolored lights in the sky, there stood a wooden chair. Its appearance alone suggested extravagance, and imbued the area with a conspicuous gravity.
A man that looked to be in his 50s or 60s leaned back in the seat, causing the seat to creak loudly.
"This axis… the lines… it has gotten even worse…" He mumbled out loud. "First the possibility of that damn spider waking up, and now this? It's over a hundred years too early to even hope for them to overcome such a trial."
"And yet despite that there still isn't enough of a reason for you to interfere." a youthful sounding voice called out from behind the old man. The old man turned his head to acknowledge the voice.
There wasn't a person standing behind the old man's chair. Instead, there was a small wooden table of similar gravitas to the chair.
On top sat a very old telephone, the kind that looked like a table lamp at first glance.
But one could quickly see it had a conical speaker instead of a light, with a similarly conical microphone mounted to its shaft.
The phone looked as if it was crafted from a precious sapphire, giving it a mystical feel. That made it fit in perfectly with the rest of this room.
"This wasn't something either of us could foresee." The youthful voice came from the phone's speaker. "Those two worlds are now bound by a small string of fate. All thanks to that foolish goddess." the voice on the phone continued. "So perhaps, by that small string of fate, it allowed this evil to take root. A one in a million chance. But then again, anything is possible in the Kaleidoscope."
The old man grunted as he turned his attention back to a book levitating in front of him. He watched as the book inscribed multifarious information in real time. Thousands, nay, tens of thousands of pages were born and erased in the mere span of seconds.
Despite this, the book never changed in thickness, staying at the size of a standard encyclopedia.
"The last thing we need is that timeline producing a Singularity." The old man finally responded. "If Prelati ever found themselves in such a distorted moment in time, the havoc they could wreak might be irreversible."
The two fell silent for a moment. Both pondered on all the few cards they had left to play. Each scenario they imagined, it would all crumble into something far worse. All they could do now…
Was to play their ace.
"... Why don't you send him into that world?" the voice on the telephone asked.
"Hmmm." Zelretch's eyes narrowed as he listened to the phone's advice. "I have done my best to not interact with that timeline. I have only sent a fraction of my power to help the star gazers on their long journey. To suddenly bring him here… that's very risky."
"That is true, but in matters such as these, he is the most qualified, is he not?" The voice pressed on. "As long as you commit yourself to staying on the sidelines, only sending him to that world, we won't have to worry about the world being locked into the worst path."
The old man leaned back once more, stroking his white beard. "We have already sent our protagonist over to that world though."
"You know as well as I that stories can have more than one protagonist." The voice countered. The old man took a deep sigh— and then his lips twisted into a smile. His hand waved over the floating book, causing its pages to rapidly turn.
Not even a second later, the book stopped, revealing the picture of an average looking boy with black hair.
"Very well. Then let this alternative telling begin."
Flat Escardos was on top of the world. Coming to America had been such a treat. He couldn't believe that El-Melloi the Second gave him this chance after all the blustering he did about how dangerous it was. What a silly man he was sometimes.
On Flat's wrist was a small steampunk styled watch. To anyone else, the clock wouldn't register as anything special, but to Flat, it was the most special thing in the world. After all, this watch was his Servant.
A Berserker Jack the Ripper that could take the form of anything people suspected Jack the Ripper might have been. That was so cool! He could only imagine what the other Servants would be like!
He sat on the bed of the motel room he was renting. The room was barely lit, and it had an old and claustrophobic feel to it, but none of that bothered Flat. Instead, he looked at the analog clock hanging on the wall, comparing it to the wristwatch.
"That's amazing though. You match the time perfectly." Flat observed as he complimented his Servant.
"Never let it be said an English gentleman is not punctual." Jack commented, a hint of pride in his voice. He quickly added an addendum. "At least, that would be true if I actually was a gentleman."
"Wow, so even gentlemen can be serial killers, huh?" Flat stated bluntly, causing Jack to go silent. Perhaps he was offended that Flat believed gentlemen could be serial killers, perhaps he was rethinking his stance on life.
However, before anything else could come of the conversation, something else caught Flat's attention. He stood up suddenly, as if he felt something go down his spine. Without a word, he went to the bathroom, plugged up the sink and began to fill it with water.
"What are you doing?"
Flat dipped his fingers in the water while answering the Heroic Wristwatch's question. "Don't you feel anything?"
"Mrgh…"
The sounds of Jack choking on his words mixed with the squeaking of the mirror. Flat ran his wet fingers over the mirror, drawing a very simple magic circle.
"Two conspicuous sources of magical noise, heading southward." The magus explained as he finished his magical circle. Jack responded in a somewhat embarrassed tone.
"... It's not something I'm proud of, but I'm a much better killer than magus. My inclination for magecraft would increase if I were to take the form of a mage, but attempting to sense abnormalities of mana while in this form is an impossible task."
"Oh, so if you transformed into a radar dish, your sensing powers might get better!"
"...Are you really a magus from the Clock Tower?"
Ignoring Jack's doubts, Flat casually and artistically moved his finger until he completed the magic circle. Under his breath, an incantation left his lips… and the water in the sink changed.
A series of ripples disturbed the water's surface, changing the image in the water. Now, instead of Flat's reflection, an image of a desert appeared in the water. The wristwatch's hands ticked at the sight.
"What is this?" Jack asked, dumbfounded.
"Some people are using familiars to monitor the desert, so I'm just taking a little peek," Flat replied nonchalantly.
"...What?"
"I can't send out a familiar now, it wouldn't make it in time," Flat explained offhand.
Although Jack admitted his prowess in the field of magecraft was very poor, he had some essential knowledge downloaded from the Holy Grail system. From that knowledge, Jack understood that "taking a peek at someone else's familiar" was no trivial feat.
Coming to the Holy Grail War as a tourist, or interfering in the spells of a Master magus that was actually fighting in the war was something no sane person would do. If Flat was new to magecraft, it would explain why the boy thought to do this.
But he obviously wasn't.
And if doing something as sneaking a peek through someone else's familiar were so easy, would it not mean the collapse of this entire system that ran on familiars?
As doubts swirled in his head, Jack spoke.
"Can you really do something like that? No, I mean, even if it were possible… isn't it risky? If they trace it, our location could be compromised."
"Mmm, I did it in a way that I wouldn't be found out… though I can't say for sure that we won't be detected. The Professor wouldn't be able to, but he'd probably have a hunch and hunt me down later… oh, but someone of Luvia-chan's level might just cause an energy backflow and blow up this entire motel…"
Murmuring some rather unsettling things, the young man refocused and kept talking.
"Well, if they do find us out, I'll just apologize as hard as I can!"
An icy wind buffeted Jack's heart, and he muttered to himself as Flat laughed innocently. It wasn't completely accurate, but it was still a sentence that, just a bit, described the essence of his Master.
"I'm terrified that you'll still be saying such things after you've killed someone."
As Jack mumbled to himself, Flat's eyes kept watching the water. He could see a green haired figure in the distance, waiting quietly. The simple white cloth they wore, the strangely beautiful and majestic figure they had. There was no doubt about it. That was a Servant.
Opposing him was a golden man floating in the air. His regal presence could be felt, even through the water. Not that Flat seemed to notice it. He instead was more focused on the upcoming fight, his excitement filling the air.
Suddenly, Flat's suddenly focused on a small detail in the water. It was something in the far corner, away from the main view of the familiar's gaze. He leaned in a little close, trying to catch a better look at the vision the water showed him. After a few seconds, he reached in the water, pulling the plug and draining all the water.
"Can you become a car, Berserker?" Flat asked as he suddenly rushed towards the motel door.
"... No." Jack answered. Due to the way his power worked, the items he could change into could only be something people believed to be Jack the Ripper. And while many novels did portray Jack the Ripper as a person possessed by a cursed item, cars were not commonplace enough back in his time. "Where are we going?"
"Oh! Sorry!" Flat laughed as he flew out the motel door, only stopping to close it behind him before he ran off as fast as he could. "We're headed to the desert!"
Jack went silent for a few seconds as he processed his Master's words. "Do you have to see the fight in person?" He asked. That seemed to be very strange, but frankly, he had only been with Flat for a few hours and could tell he was very strange.
"Oh, no, nothing like that!" Flat laughed as he ran towards the desert. "I just saw something really interesting in the desert!"
Jack waited for Flat to elaborate. A few seconds passed before Jack realized Flat was too focused on running. He made a sound similar to one clearing their throat to catch his Master's attention. "So what did you see?"
"Oh, sorry!" Flat only grinned wider as he kept running. "Someone just manifested out of thin air in the desert!"
Deep in a forest, the trees stood over the land like silent sentinels over the land. Their full green crowns barely allowed the light to filter to the ground below. Despite the dim lighting, the beautiful and peaceful scenery would lull anyone into a sense of peace.
That would lead them to their deaths.
His legs screamed out for rest as he ran through the forest. His lungs burned, trying to fill themselves with air. Fujimaru Ritsuka's entire body screamed for rest. That was the one thing he couldn't do though.
Not with a hungry monster chasing him down.
"WHY DID YOU CONVINCE ME TO DO THIS?!" a panicked voice cried out next to him. Ritsuka ignored the complaining of his blonde Servant. He instead focused on the floor, making sure to not trip over any roots. "DON'T IGNORE ME, MASTER!"
"You know why we did this Jason!" Ritsuka yelled back as he took a leap over a root. "We're the best bait for that monster! Now keep running unless you want 'bait' to change to 'meal'!"
Jason gritted his teeth as he kept running. In any other situation, he probably should have been carrying his Master, but the boy was keeping pace with him pretty well. Besides, it was way too much damn work to do that! He was the captain of the Argo, dammit, not an errand boy!
He looked over his shoulder to keep track of the monster.
That was a mistake.
He could see the unholy amalgamation of lizard and snake rushing at them at full force. Its muscular lizard body was far behind them, and didn't seem like it would catch up to them. That mattered very little with the long snake neck whipping forward and snapping at them.
The 'Slizard', a name coined by Ritsuka, didn't seem to be a very powerful creature. Sure, it could beat any ordinary creature in a fight, and a human was no match for it. But the way it hid itself away when anything remotely powerful entered the forest implied either cowardice or intelligence. Perhaps both.
And when it hid itself, it seemed near impossible to find. So there was only one solution to this… and Jason hated every step of it.
"Jason, watch out!" Ritsuka suddenly called out. Jason turned, about to bark about not giving him orders. However, right at that moment, the captain of the Argo ran face first into a branch.
Ritsuka watched as Jason flipped through the air several times before landing hard on his back. A large, red mark was plastered across his face.
In any other situation, the Master of Chaldea would be doing everything in his power to not laugh at the living cartoon that played out in front of him. Right now though, his adrenaline was running way too high.
Ritsuka grabbed Jason's hand and roughly yanked him onto his feet.
"Come on, we have to go!" He shouted as he took off running, dragging Jason behind him.
"GAAAAH! Not so hard, you asshole!" Jason shouted back.
"I'm far gentler than that slizard's jaws!"
"That name is still stupid!"
The two charged for the forest's exit as they bickered. More and more sunlight streamed through the trees as they reached the forest's edge.
At the sight of the light, Jason began to run again, soon overtaking and outrunning Ritsuka. With one final leap, the two made it out of the forest and into the open grass plain.
At the last second the slizard struck with the speed of a viper. Its elongated neck rapidly and violently wrapped around the Master and Servant, pinning them before they could even hit the ground. It tightened its neck's grip, causing the two to cry out in pain.
If it was just a little more intelligent, it could probably have noticed that its prey wasn't afraid. However, its instincts alone couldn't warn it about the truth.
This was all just a trap for it.
"Get it, Heracles!" Ritsuka shouted out at the top of his lungs. An earthshaking roar responded in kind.
The Slizard's head shot up, realizing that something dangerous was approaching. It turned to run away back into the forest with its prey. However, something held it back. No matter how frantically it tried to make it into the woods, it just couldn't get away.
The trapped Master and Servant only had matching grins on their faces. They could see what was holding down the monster.
A mountain of a man had the monster's tail between his monster crushing hands. The man looked as if he was carved from stone. Despite being smaller than the monster, his mere presence felt as if it could swallow the monster whole.
It was Greece's greatest hero, Heracles.
With a roar, Heracles began to spin around. His sheer strength dragged the monster along. In just a few seconds, he was spinning so fast the monster was lifted off the ground.
Ritsuka and Jason could feel the monster's grip loosening as Heracles spun it around. It didn't take long until it was loose enough that the two were thrown out of the monster's neck and into the sky.
The two flew as free as birds. However, they couldn't overcome the oppression known as gravity. They fell towards the earth like lightning cast out of heaven.
A green blur leapt into the air, gently catching Fujimaru Ritsuka.
"Thanks Atalante." Ritsuka smiled at the lion eared hunter. She gave a soft smile back, before the two of them turned their attention to Jason.
"ATALANTE, WHY?!" Jason screamed as he fell to the ground. He crashed into the earth, creating a small crater around him. The impact caused him to cough before he flopped on his side, unmoving.
Atalante landed gracefully next to Jason. Ritsuka went to go on the ground, but he noticed Atalante wasn't letting him go. Shaking his head, he decided to try to get comfortable in her arms. It wasn't like he could fight against her strength anyways.
"If you were carrying Master like a proper Servant, I would have caught you as well." Atalante commented dryly. Jason didn't respond to that, instead choosing to lay still as Medea Lily healed him.
Finally, Atalante let Ritsuka out of her arms. When both his feet touched the ground, Ritsuka looked over to Heracles. It was always awe inspiring to see the man fight.
"Hey Jason, get up, you're gonna miss the best part." Ritsuka commented. Jason groaned as he sat up, his bones cracking loudly as he did.
Still, despite all that, Jason still had a smile on his face. After all, he got to watch his best friend show off.
Heracles slammed the monster on the ground like it was a ragdoll. Over and over again, he smashed it. The monster was unable to fight back. It could only accept its fate as Heracles used it to flatten the land.
Soon, the monster disintegrated in Heracles's grip, turning into golden dust. The dust was blown away by the wind, leaving no trace that it ever existed behind.
Heracles growled and whipped his head over towards the group behind him. His eyes were still filled with madness. He was still lost within his own battle frenzy, ready to throw down at a moment's notice.
There was no fear from the group seeing this. Instead of panicking, or trying some convoluted plan to calm Heracles down, Ritsuka and Jason simply gave him a thumbs up and a wide smile.
Heracles stared at the gesture, unblinking and unmoving. Eventually though, he raised one of his mighty hands and gave them a thumbs up back. Perhaps he smiled as well, but if he did, it was too small to make out.
"Well, I think that was it for this Singularity!" Ritsuka called out, dusting his hands dramatically. "Honestly, that went a lot better than I expected."
"Right? Right?" Jason said as he finally stood up. "That's the power of my Argonauts!" He let out a hearty laugh as he bragged. "You don't need anyone else while we're around!"
"Well, maybe I should just bring you all to everything." Ritsuka teased.
"A-ah, no, no. It's not very heroic of us to take all the glory from everyone else, you know?" Jason backpedaled immediately, causing Atalante to roll her eyes.
"Of course, of course." Ritsuka humored his friend as he put his hands behind his head. "Well, I'm exhausted. Let's head back to Chaldea."
Thankfully for Ritsuka, the Singularity was the last thing he had to deal with that day. After reporting to Goredolf and Da Vinci, he headed to his room. He made sure to tell Mash goodnight on the way, along with any other Servant he met along the way.
But finally, after a long day, he could rest.
He absentmindedly prepared for bed, next to no thoughts passing through his mind as he showered and brushed his teeth. Tomorrow could bring about anything, so he was making sure to rest his mind so he wouldn't be caught off guard.
After he finished with his hygiene, he did a round around his room. He habitually checked under his bed, making sure no Servant was hiding under there. Thankfully, it was clear. He checked around a few more hiding spots, finding them to be empty.
At this point, if a Servant evaded his patrol of the room, they earned the right to do whatever it was they snuck in here to do. That's how he felt anyway.
Now that he felt secure in his own room, Ritsuka changed into his pajamas. They were a nice, basic black, nothing too fancy. Just the way he liked it.
Finally, he could rest.
Ritsuka climbed into his bed, getting comfortable on its soft surface. The warm blanket relaxed his body, and the soft pillow carried his worries away. With a tired sigh, Ritsuka finally closed his eyes.
Suddenly, his bed vanished.
It was replaced by something rough and coarse. It was getting everywhere, in fact. Opening his eyes, Ritsuka saw he was no longer on his bed. In fact, he was no longer in his room.
Instead, he was laying in the sand, the night sky stretching out above him. Ritsuka sat up quickly, his eyes darting around. Everywhere he looked, he saw nothing but sand. Miles of nothing but sand.
Then, his eyes found something else.
In the distance, a red star hovered in the sky. The clouds gathered around it, and red lightning shot from those clouds.
Below it, a golden light shined brightly. Everywhere the light touched plants rapidly grew, bringing more life in the desert than it ever had in the centuries it existed.
Ritsuka's eyes widened at the sight. Both of these things were not new to him. He'd seen them both before separately. The red star could only be Gilgamesh, the first and most powerful hero. The golden glow, Enkidu.
Both extremely powerful, both able to turn the tide in an instant. Ritsuka could only feel a pit growing in his stomach as he realized these two awesome powers were about to clash.
"Enuma-" the two heroes chanted, their powers reaching their absolute peak.
"Oh motherfu-" Ritsuka could only watch as the two powers were about to be unleashed.
"ELISH!"
