Hello everyone and welcome to the chapter 39 of the story! And to think this fic is some couple of weeks away from doing a year now...

With that said, let's start it!

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


With the last of the enemy pirates defeated, Mash lowered her shield, with the rest of her team and Drake doing the same with their weapons, now having time to breath after fending off an ambush from the enemy.

"Battle engagement over. Enemies have been defeated and area is clear." Mash said, analyzing their situation. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yes. Despite the numbers, those pirates didn't gave us much of a challenge." Peko responded to Mash.

"It means we are getting better at it!" Nala smiled to her brother.

"I guess so." Ritsuka speaked, letting his guard fall off now that the battle was over. "They appeard all too fast. Do you think they were waiting for us?"

"Could be." Drake responded to Ritsuka. "Looked like those scumbags had the trap set already for a long time. But that's not what bothered me more about them."

"There was something else you saw in them captain?" Mash asked to the pirate woman.

"If they were truly pirates then why did their bodies vanished, instead of lying around dead?" Drake said, pointing out the problem.

Ritsuka saw that was a nice observation by Drake's part. "Now thinking about it, their bodies indeed faded when we took them out."

"That's because what you fought weren't actual pirates so to speak." The hologram of appeard. "It was rather spirits. The spiritual and ethereal form of pirates."

"Hum? How's that possible doctor?" Peko asked to Romani. "Does it have to do with this Singularity?"

"You are quite right Peko." Romani told to the boy. "Since this Singularity passes on the Age of Exploration, the grail will use its background and data in order to manifest the concept or spirits of the pirates from this age. So you can guess we will find a lot of these enemies across here."

"So an anomaly to this very own Singularity." Nala said. "Meaning that it won't go away until we fix this, right?"

"You already know the answer to it." Romani responded.

"At least the anomaly on this Singularity doesn't look as damaging as the others from the previous one." Mash speaked, remembering of the huge troubles of the past anomalies in Rome that almost made the Singularity collapse. "Still, having only islands in a vast large ocean, erasing the existence of continents is also a pretty big damage to humanity's history."

"Agreed. That's why the quicker we complete this the better!" Ritsuka told to Mash as well to Peko and Nala.

"By speakin of being quick, let's get out of the forest now." Drake said, pointing to the forest's exit just a few meters away from where they were. "The faster we find a treasure the better. C'mon rookies!" Drake ordered the Chaldea group to follow her, and they did it so.

"Hey, didn't those pirates said something about a king Eric?" Peko told the group, remembering of what the enemies shouted before engaging into the battle.

"I guess that's their leader." Ritsuka said. "The one that the stone tablet was referring to as the Bloodaxe King."

"Most surely that. Wich means he himself mustn't be that far off if we encountered his men at this point." Mash commented, thinking that the leader of those spiritual pirates, King Eric, could be nearby and still on this island.

Because of the king title, Nala thought of something. "Hey! Don't you think..." She stared to Peko, seeing if her brother was having the same thought.

"Nah, not possible. If it was true then those pirates wouldn't make such an effort to try killing us." Peko responded, shutting down any possible suspicions that could correlate him and his sister to that king Eric.

Wanting to start a conversation of her own, Drake looked behind to her new crewmembers. "Tell me guys, do you think this island has a treasure or not?" She asked to the group.

"Hmmm, those pirates we just fought could be protecting something, so it's quite possible that there is treasure here." Mash responded to Drake.

"But aren't they just spirits? Meaning that the treasures they might have aren't actually 'physical' as well?" Peko said, putting the possibility of the treasure's existence into question.

Mash reconsidered after hearing Peko's own opinion about it. "Well, that might also be a possibility."

"Or perhaps the treasure does indeed exist and those spirit pirates were protecting what was theirs before dying." Ritsuka expressed. "That or the treasure might be long gone."

"Oh, so you doubt of the treasure's existence?" Drake said, before looking at Nala who still hadn't betted yet. "What about you girl? Do you believe in the treasure's existence or not?"

Nala rubbed her forhead, thinking deeply about it, or at least trying to. "I don't know really. Is the treasure that important for us?"

"Aye. Gold is what we pirates strive for on these seas. The more a pirate has the more respect they get. Or how do you think I got a crew of that size nowdays?" Drake responded to the girl.

"So you do it for power?" Ritsuka asked to the pirate woman.

"Mmmmm, not entirely. I also do it because it's fun and gets to sustain my life. A life of freedom. Going anywhere I want, do whatever the hell I want." Drake smiled. "Doesn't that sound awsome and flashy to you guys? Plus, it's not like the jewels and relics would be better off in the hands of the stuck-up royals that think it all belongs to them. So I'd say we are actually doing a favour to the world here." She chuckled.

"Navigating the ocean with other people must be nice then." Peko said.

"Exactly! No unjustly laws or strings from monarchs trying to command you. Just you and the mateys." Drake smile grew a bit, now thinking about another thing. "Hey, how about this? If there's indeed a treasure on this island, I ask you to come along with my crew on a worldwide voyage. I can tell that would do good to expand your horizons." Drake said, creating a condition should she win the bet.

That didn't seemed like a bad idea at all to the Chaldea group.

"That sounds wonderful captain. But unfortunately we currently can't due to our main mission." Mash told her.

"Yeah. We have a limited amount of time to save humanity. So as much as we'd love to, we can't do that right now." Ritsuka explained to Drake.

Thankfully, Drake comprehended. "I understand. We can always postpone it to another date after that then. But also, if there is no treasure here on the island, what would be your wish, one that I can grant to you?" Drake said, willing to grant any wish they might have by utilizing the grail.

Peko immediatly wasted no time. "If that's true what you are saying, then...I would wish to find our parents and reunite with them. That's what I want now, more than anything."

"What we want." Nala joined in, having the same desire to meet with their parents. "If you were able to grant that wish captain, we would be very grateful."

Drake saw how the two kids looked sad now. However, she couldn't blame them. "I still don't know the wish capabilities of the grail, but I'll try my best to make sure it becomes true." She then looked to Ritsuka and Mash. "How about yo-"

"The same as Peko and Nala." Ritsuka responded, not waiting for Drake to finish her question. "Right now, I don't have or need any wish of my own."

"Same here." Mash said. "We are okay with ourselves, but if there is one thing we could change, it would be for Peko and Nala to be together with their parents again. They need it more of that wish than us two."

Drake was a bit surprised by the answers of both Ritsuka and Mash. "So you want to say that deep down you don't have any wishes for yerselves?"

Ritsuka nodded his head. "Correct." He then smiled to the two kids. "Their wishes are also mine and Mash's wish."

Peko looked to Ritsuka and Mash, amazed by their answer. Nala felt the same. The twins didn't know exactly what to say. "T-thank you. Both of you." Peko told them, altough feeling that such selfness from them was unecessary.

"Still, don't you really wish anything?" Nala insisted. "No ice cream or other sorts of stuff?"

"Nah. I'm good." Ritsuka responded shortly.

"Me too. You and Peko's wish are greater than anything we could desire right now." Mash told to Nala.

"Phew! Saying such things like that makes my job hard you know?" Drake sighed, voicing her lament.

"What do you mean by that captain?" Ritsuka asked confused.

"Having no wish is the most difficult wish to realize." Drake said to them, only making the group more confused.

"Hum, care to explain?" Nala requested to the pirate woman.

"Easy. As someone who trades things like a merchant, I cannot give you things that you do not want, making my situation more difficult. Therefore, people are always asking something out of me because they have a wish you see? So not having a wish means I can't offer them anything." Drake tried her best to explain, only gaining more weird looks from the group with her convoluted explanation.

"Hope you were drinking too much again captain." Peko said, thinking that such philosophic thought could be only product of excessive drunkness.

"Perhaps there is a perspective we are not seeing it well here." Mash pondered. "Perhaps we-"

Drake immediatly took out her handguns. "Shush! I'm hearing something!" Drake ordered, as they all went quiet. The captain pointed the gun at some random trees in front of her. They were now in a more wide area of the island, putting them more exposed.

"Prepare to fight." Ritsuka told to his team, feeling that an hostile enemy was nearby just like everybody else.

Drake stared some couple of seconds at the pair of trees with caution while aiming her gun at it. That's when her mind maded up. "Gotcha!" She fired her weapon. With the bullet going torwards the pair of trees, a tall muscular man with short brown hair and red eyes, carrying a big axe on his back came out of it, growling madly as he deflected the bullet.

"It's the servant! Everyone be careful!" Mash exclaimed, putting herself with the shield in front of Ritsuka.

Nala dashed forward, being the first to clash with the servant. The strenght of the axe's swing was enough to push the girl away. Right in the next moment, Peko and Drake both fired their own bullets at the servant, with him blocking some of the shoots but not one of Peko's bullets who had changed directions and hit him on the back, causing an angry snarl out of him.

"Yah!" Nala went behind the enemy, taking the chance he wasn't aiming at her to kick him in the head and proceeding to do a cut on the back. The servant swinged his giant axe in response, passing centimeters away from Nala's face, who then tried to kick the servant in the left side of the abdomen but to no effect as he used the axe to block the kick, making a slight cut on Nala's leg in the process. "Kgh!" Nala cleenched her teeth, removing her leg immediatly from the axe and trying to get some distance away from the servant.

Drake shot at the servant's face, taking out some hairs out as it passed nearby to his face. "Crap! I almost got him!" Drake cursed as she drew out her hatchets and went to clash with the enemy, having Peko's help who try to go to the enemy's blind spot and attack him there, only to have the servant blocking his attack. Peko and Drake attacked the enemy simultaneously, with the servant parrying the attacks with the axe and fending off against the two's combo. Eventually, the servant found a small opening on Peko's body and punched the boy's sword, making him lose the posture.

"Damnit!" Peko cursed to himself as his monumentarily helpless state made the servant punch his body, causing the boy to fly away torwards Drake who catched him.

"Ya good?" Drake asked him.

"Y-yeah. Thanks for catching me captain." Peko answered.

"Mash, go help them!" Ritsuka said, seeing the difficulties the three where having against the servant.

"Understood Master!" Mash replied, going to the front in order to aid the rest of her group while Ritsuka would watch it from behind.

"This servant is resilient!" Nala said, clashing her sword with the enemie's axe. "Is he another Berserker?!"

"By the looks of it!" Mash responded, reaching to the fight and bashing her shield against the servant's body who tanked it.

"Why do they always have to be the most difficult?" Nala protested a bit as she was able to deliver a slash on the servant's body, altough it didn't seemed to affect him that much.

"The harder the challenge the more rewarding the treasure!" Drake exclaimed with a smile, not fearing the power of the servant, by the contrary, feeling more invated to fight the opponent. She and the servant traded some attacks, with Drake dodging out of the servant's axe way, giving Peko the chance to attack the enemy.

Soon, he was joined by Mash and Nala, with the three now attacking the viking king at the same time while Drake was more behind, aiming the gun at their enemy.

"A little bit to the right aaand..." Drake fired the bullet but that unfortunately hit on the horns of the servant, not being in the head like Drake wanted. "Damn, we are having short luck here!"

Being extremely cornered, the Berserker servant growled all of a sudden, stunning his opponents that weren't expecting such a reaction. He went to swing his arm violently at Nala, who was able to block it but lose her balance, then give a brutal shoulder load on Mash's shile and finally swinging his axe to Peko who parried it but got sent some meters back.

"Are you all okay?" Ritsuka said, seeing how things weren't going easy for them.

"Still fighting!" Mash responded, throwing her shield at the Berserker.

"Everyone move aside!" Peko yelled, stretching his arm and pointing at the servant. He was about to launch that specific attack.

Ritsuka knew the risks of doing that. "But Peko your a-"

"There's no time for 'buts'! We either defeat him with this or not!" Peko shouted back as the spell on his arm was almost charged.

Drake was astonished by what she was seeing. "What in the he-"

Mash pushed her to the side. "We must move captain!"

Nala also did the same, somewhat trusting in what her brother had in mind. Now there was no one between him and the servant. "Shoot it Peko!"

"Aaah!" Peko released all the magical energy from his arm, resulting in a giant blast that went torwards the berserkerish servant who tried to defend himself with his giant axe. However, the strenght of the beam was so powerful that the servant was pulled away from the place where he stood, hitting with huge bang a giant boulder with a pair of palm trees, resulting in an explosion of dust.

Peko gasped as he kneeled and took some deep breaths, a bit exhausted from the attack he performed.

Nala and everyone else went to check on him instantly. "Peko, are you good?" She asked him, trying to see his arm.

"Y-Yes sis, no problem." Peko said, giving a weak smile. "It isn't hurting as much as the last time."

"Doesn't the nerves still hurt?" Ritsuka asked him.

"Thankfully a lot less now." Despite that, Peko was still grabbing his arm. "That bit of training paid off. Now I can control and keep my mana more steady when releasing spells." He explained.

"That sounds like a very good improvement Peko." Mash said, happy to see Peko bettering his abilities.

"Still, do you think that was enough to finish him?" Nala asked, wondering if their enemy had been defeated by the blast.

"By the looks of it." Drake responded, staring at the place where the servant had been sent to, with the dust settling down and revealing the enemy was no longer there, possibly meaning he has been defeated.

Mash went to check in order to confirm. "Hmm, the servant signals have dissapeard. He's no longer here." She lowered her shield. "The battle is over. Disengaging combat mode."

"Phew! This one was clearly difficult than the previous one!" Drake said with relief, storing back her weapons. "We defeated this crew's leader! You did well for a couple of rookies!"

"But we still had difficulties." Nala told her.

"And? Any other rookie would have died or lost the battle. But neither of that happened, so you did great!" Drake smiled to her.

"Well, that's a nice way to see it." Ritsuka commented.

"The look of that servant...He really lives up to that title of Bloodaxe King" Peko said, visualizing the giant axe the servant had.

"Hm hm. King Eric was known for his brutality with the axe when pillaging villaged as the viking's king." Mash told to the boy.

"Vikings huh? What are they?" Nala asked to the shielder.

But it was Drake who answered instead. "Pirates like us but up in the a north with big muscles and beards. Crazy for fights and blood. Would like to have some of those in my crew."

"That description isn't actually wrong." Ritsuka said, finding fitting Drake's discription of what were vikings.

"But none of that matters for now." Drake said, walking torwards the hole made by Peko's blast. Just on the other side, the pirate woman caught side of an empty pirate ship, moored on the shore. "Now let's see that treasue of ours, shall we?"

"Yes captain!" All the four exclaimed.

"Fou fou!" Even Fou, who had been hidding on Mash's back, had appeard.

"Wha- You were with us this whole time Fou?" Mash questioned the animal.

"Fou!" He responded shortly, sounding like an afirmation.

"You're really sneaky, aren't you?" Nala said, pating the creature's ears.

"There's nothing we can do now, so do come with us Fou." Ritsuka said to the animal.

"Fu fou!" He exclaimed happily.

"But next time just tell us instead of sneaking in, understood?" Peko told him.

"Fou..."


"How much time will it takes us to reach that island?" Ritsuka asked to Drake.

"We've been sailling for nine hours now. The island is said to be at northweast in the journal soooo, a couple more minutes until we reach there." Drake said, checking a journal she had in hand.

"Men, it was a bummer that there was no treasure chest on the ship." Nala said, dissapointed by doing all that fighting just for a tiny journal. "But at least we didn't lost the bet." She smugged at Drake, who was unable to find a treasure on the abandoned ship.

"Just so that you know, I consider this journal to be the treasure, therefore I won the bet." Drake said, making an excuse.

"But weren't you expecting to find literal gold or anything of that type!?" Nala said, perplexed and angry by Drake's way of trying to cheat.

Peko agreed with his sister. "Also, I don't think that has much value has a real treasure."

"What ya talking about boy? This journal right here can sell well if I give it to the right person that is intrested enough to buy it." Drake said, trying to justify the why for the journal being an actual treasure.

"But there's no one besides pirates on this Singularity captain." Mash told her.

"And? I'll sell it when things go back to normal." Drake told them.

"But if that was on the BloodAxe's ship, doesn't that means it dissapears alongside this Singularity since it was written by him or his crew?" Ritsuka put that into question, making Drake lose her smile.

"You really like to ruin my fun, don't ya?" She said with a bothered tone.

"Sorry captain!" They all said.

"Meh, I let that slide. Now warn me when you see glimpses of the next island, understood?" Drake ordered them, making the Chaldea group descend to the deck.

"Does that means we have to go back mooping the floor?" Nala asked, feeling dreaded upon thinking in doing that again.

"It seems so I guess." Peko said, also not being very fan of that idea.

"Hey now, it isn't that bad. In modern society it would be seen as a great act of contribution to keep things clean." Ritsuka said, trying to make the twins look on their task with more positive lenses.

"You say that because you are not the one doing it." Nala said, sulking while looking to the side.

"Still, it's a good activity to keep your locomotor functions working." Mash told to the two kids.

"If you say so..." Peko told her, having his opion about he and Nala's task completely unchanged. Then, a quick shadow flew above him and Peko turned around to see a pair of seagulls flying above the ship.

"Oh, seagulls!"

"Crap, seagulls!"

Mash and Ritsuka exclaimed at the same time, but whereas Mash said with admiration, Ritsuka said with annoyance.

"Why say that senpai? You don't like seagulls?" Mash asked to his master.

"Not at all. They steal people's sandwiches and cause a mess wherever they go." Ritsuka explained.

"Wow, they really sound like a jackass animal then." Nala speaked, hearing about what Ritsuka said.

"There's no way an animal can be that much of an asshole, right?" Peko speaked, not believing that much in what Ritsuka told about the seagulls.

"If I where you, I would hate them even more Peko. Seagulls don't like things to be kept clean." Ritsuka speaked to him.

"W-what do you mean by that?" Peko asked, feeling a little bit scared.

"Seagulls will make sure that the people who try to keep the place clean, will have he hardest time of their lifes. You see the deck Peko? How 'clean' it looks?" Ritsuka stared at Peko, and also Nala, with cold menacing eyes. "Seagulls can ruin all that effort in mere seconds."

Fearing that all their work could go to waste like that, Peko and Nala immediatly went to brush the floor with their mops while looking out for any seagull movement.

"Those things must really be creatures from hell to do that! We must make sure they won't stench this ship by any means Nala!" Peko exclaimed, buying the words from Ritsuka now.

"Understood Peko! We won't let those demons have their way!" Nala exclaimed back to her brother.

"That was a bit scurvy of you Senpai." Mash said to Ritsuka, feeling sorry at seeing both Peko and Nala working harder now.

"But it's true that seagulls are demons Mash!" Ritsuka said to her.

"I doubt it honestly." Mash said.

At the helm of the ship, Drake hummed, enjoying the sea around her. That however came to a stop when the hologram of Doctor Romani appeard. "Hey, I just want to-..." Only seeing Drake in front of him, made the doctor look around. "Where is the rest?"

"Down there on the deck magic man." Drake said, maneuvering on the helm. "Wanted to tell them somethin?"

"Yes. But since you are the captain, I can also tell you this. Currently my monitors are detecting a-"

"A pirate ship?" Drake cut off Romani, using her binoculars to caught sight of a pirate ship in the distance. "Already seeing it. And they don't seem to be coming here to negotiate."

"So that means..."

"A fight is about to take place." Drake smiled, putting the binoculars aside and looking down on the deck. "Get the cannons ready men! Enemy ship on northwest from here!"

"For a large open ocean, there's always seems to be a pirate ship from ten to ten minutes here." Peko said, leting go the mop out of his hand.

"I honestly don't care. As long as we get to avoid this stupid role." Nala said as she summoned her sword. "I'm ready to fight again!"

Right behind them, Mash and Ritsuka had also heard about the pirate ship.

"Ready Mash?" Ritsuka asked her.

"Preparing to engage in combat. Give the orders master!"

"Let's go!"


"And another battle won this day!" Drake laughed as she poured a bottle of rum down her throat, making a short celebration with her crew on the deck.

"We didn't even needed to do that much fighting because of the battle being more ship against ship." Mash said, noting how the fight was more their ship's cannons against the other ship's cannons.

"That spares a lot of energy for us." Peko smiled, happy that this battle didn't last too long or was that difficult.

"Yeah. At least that." Nala responded, looking at her own sword while resting on the ship's border, feeling somewhat bothered and annoyed.

Ritsuka noticed this. "Something's wrong?" He went to ask her, talking lowly so that the rest wouldn't hear them.

"Hmmm, no." Nala responded, not even looking at Ritsuka.

"Lying and acting aren't your strong, aren't they?" He said, detecting her lie that easily.

"Fine, you got me." Nala sighed. "My movements with the sword may be faster, but not stronger." She revealed to Ritsuka.

"How so?" Ritsuka sat next to her, trying to know more about the problem.

"The fight against that servant. All my cuts weren't doing that much damage." Nala told.

"Well, he was a Berserker so it isn't like he was made of paper." Ritsuka said.

"I know but, even in this fight I felt like I had an hard time to cut some cannon balls that where heading torwards us." Nala said, rubbing her neck.

"That was indeed a bit risky." Ritsuka said. "You could have gotten really hurt if you had failed."

Nala lowered her head. "And there's the problem. What good does it make getting faster but not stronger?"

Ritsuka put an hand on her shoulder. "Hey! No trouble okay? I'm sure you'll find a way to corner around that."

A bit to the side, Peko would watch silently the conversation beetween Nala and Ritsuka, hearing about her sister's problems. "..."

"Hey magic man!" Drake called for the hologram of Romani that was still present.

"I'm a doctor but okay, what is it?" Romani answered her calling.

"In all my years of pirate career, I think I've never seen that type of Jolly Roger." Drake told him, referring to the pirate symbol on the flag of the crew they had just fought, not being familiar with it.

"First time seeing it?" Romani asked her.

"Aye. Since you are a man of searching things quickly, can you do a research of that crew's Jolly Roger?" Drake requested to the doctor.

"Yes, I can do that. It will probably take five minutes at most." Romani said, starting to type. "Oh, and great timing! Looks like you're reaching to your next island." Romani informed not only Drake but the rest of the crew as well. They all looked to the left and saw the island appearing on the horizon.

"Great! It was already time!" Drake got up, finishing her bottle of rum. "Prepare the anchor men! We are about to make a stop!" Drake ordered their crew before walking torwards the Chaldea group.

"Same as last time?" Mash asked, guessing that Drake wanted them to join her on exploring the island.

"You bet it!" Drake answered. "Now let's go!"

"Fu?" Fou walked into the group, making a sound that apeard to be a question.

"Yeah. You can also go with us." Drake told to the animal.

"Fu!" Fou jumped up and down happily.


Setting foot on the new island, the Chaldea group and Drake ventured to its interior, waiting to find more clues about the Holy Grail's location if not for the Holy Grail itself.

As they traveled across the territory, the hologram of Da Vinci appeard. "Hold up guys! Me and Romani have detected something that might be of your interest."

"Is it the Holy Grail?" Ritsuka asked, with hope shinning on his eyes.

"That would be way too good but no. It isn't that." Da Vinci shut down that possibility. "A Leyline is near you."

"Oh those! Almost forgot about them." Peko responded, having forgotten about the Leylines existence.

"Are they a treasure or something of huge value to ya?" Drake asked, not knowing what the Chaldea group was exactly talking about.

"They kinda are to us. It isn't something physical but don't worry captain." Mash told to Drake. "It's a simple thing we do that won't take that much time."

"Okay, then let's find those Ley somethings." Drake said, not quite understanding why the people from Chaldea wanted that but deciding to not think to much about it.

Walking more into the forest, Da Vinci's hologram saw that they were reaching to the location. "Alright people you are close. The Leylines are just on the other side of these bushes."

Hearing that, Drake took out her hatchets and cut the bushes. Wich was a good thing to do because on the other side, right in the Leyline's location, there seemed to be a group of hostile skeleton warriors guarding the place.

"You didn't told us there would be enemies." Nala speaked to Da Vinci, feeling the inconvenience of not being aware they would have to fight.

"Ups! Looks like they flew under the radar. My bad!" Da Vinci quickly apologized.

"Alright then! Third fight of the day!" Ritsuka exclaimed. "Ready?"

"As the captain? Always!" Drake responded, heading torwards the skeleton warriors with the trio of Mash, Peko and Nala following her.

The battle itself wasn't too hard. In a couple of minutes all four of them had defeated the enemies with very few effort. It felt more lika an warmup than anything. With the battle and opponents out of the way, Mash put her shield on the floor in order to start establishing contact with the Leyline of this Singularity.

"Starting to establish contact." Mash declared while watching the process alongside the rest.

"Now coming to think of it, France and Rome where very important to the advancements of the human society of nowdays and that's why they were targeted as Singularities since their fall would mean the collapse of all humanity." Peko talked. "But, this Singularity doesn't include a kingdom or an empire, only ocean of small islands. How comes a land of only water be as important as a kingdom or empire?"

"Because the importance here doesn't have to do with the space but with the time." Da Vinci explained to the boy. "More specifically, the Age of Exploration."

"What exactly was that Age of Exploration?" Nala asked to Da Vinci.

"Oh boy, here comes the history lessons again." Ritsuka muttered as he sat on a fallen log, ready to hear the subject like he was back in school.

"The Age of Exploration was an age that begun on 15th century by the portuguese and spanish that ventured across the globe with the goals of finding new land and create new trade routes with the Far East. It went until the 17th century where other european nations like England, France and Netherlands also joined in, making their own empires and routes of trades in other continents. It was also during this period that the Americas where discovered." Da Vinci then looked at Drake. "And the person who is with you, was the very first one to circumnavigate the world...because Magellan wasn't so lucky to finish it."

"Oh yeah, that guy." Drake said, remembering of hearing about how Ferdinand Magellan died in the Philippines while trying to be the first human to do a complete circumnavigation around the world. "It surely must have sucked to be him. But hey, thanks to that, I now came prepared to this voyage. Learning from other's mistakes y'know?"

"So the Age of Exploration was important because...trading and land?" Nala said, trying to see if she got that right.

"Exactly that. Many nations got to knew about each other's existence and make first contact because of that. As well as getting to know new spices or getting them more frequently or abudantly." Mash told to the girl.

"I do remember of having whole classes about Japan's interaction with the european when they first came here." Ritsuka told them "Man, time sure flies."

"Then the Age of Exploration made items and things that were previosuly hard to get more easier?" Peko asked to Da Vinci.

"Yep!" The italian inventor said, proceeding to grab a pepper shaker near her. "Take poer exemple this pepper sha-"

Drake's face and mouth got completely wide at seeing such thing. "What the-?! You're telling me that instrument if full of pepper?! Fucking pepper?!"

"Yes! Wich was possible by many trade routes established during the Age of Exploration." Da Vinci smiled to Drake.

The pirate woman was completely astonished. "Holy hell." She then looked at the Holy Grail in her posession. "Perhaps I should wish for one of those."

Right besides Da Vinci, Romani appeard on the hologram. "Hey Drake, the research of that Jolly Roger you asked me to investigate is complete."

Drake raised an eyebrow with the Chaldea group getting curious as well. "So?"

"It's from a pirate."

"Hmm, never would've reach that conclusion." Drake responded with sarcasm.

"Let me finish first please." Romani told her. "It's not from any common pirate, but yes from a famous one that you had probably have heard about it before."

"Then cut to the chase doc!" Ritsuka demanded, not wanting Romani to create suspense.

"I will okay? That pirate ship and Jolly Roger, it belonged to the famous pirate B-..."

The hologram of Da Vinci and Romani dissapeard, leaving no warning.

"Hello? Doctor? Da Vinci-san? You still there?" Mash tried to communicate back with them.

"Guess we have lost connection." Peko said, not understanding how could that happen.

Nala was also confuse. "But ho-"

Suddenly, the earth started to shake, giving everyone a scare.

"FOU FOU!" Even Fou came out of Mash's shoulder, moving discomposedly due to the tremors.

"A-An earthquake?!" Ritsuka exclaimed, trying to keep his balance and helping Mash to maintain hers to.

But then, the earthquake also stopped shortly after, leaving the Chaldea group and Drake perplexed at what just happened. The holograms of Romani and Da Vinci also hadn't come back.

"We better go back to the ship." Drake said, with a nod of approval from everyone else.

But going back to the ship, they had found another problem. It couldn't leave the shore.

"We're stuck cap'n!" Bombe exclaimed from the deck to the beach below. "No matter if we try to row to the left or to the right, the ship just wont move!"

"Crap! Now we are stuck on this damn island!" Drake cursed, being put in this hard situation all of a sudden.

"What could be the cause of this? The quake. The communications going off. There must be a reason to this." Nala said, trying to think what could be the cause for this.

"A Bounded Field." Mash said. "Yes, it can only be that!" She exclaimed, thinking she had found the answer.

"A Bounded Field?" Ritsuka repeated, not knowing what that was just like the rest. Only Mash knew it.

"A type of magecraft that can affect a whole area by creating a network of magical energy. Its boundaries can separate the outside space from the inside space. Meaning that we are much likely inside of a Bounded Field right now." Mash explained shortly what a Bounded Field was.

"And we won't get out of here until we figured out how to turn it off I suppose." Peko said.

"Yes. The problem is much likely inside the island." Mash told them.

"Then let's go back inside!" Drake said before looking to her ship. "Bombe! You and the rest stay in the ship! Me and the rookies here will see what's the problem!"

"Aye aye cap'n!" The pirate answered.


Doing a research on the interior of the island, the Chaldea group and Drake where looking everywhere to see if they could find anything that might be the cause of the Bounded Field's origin. Unfortuantely, they still couldn't find anything.

"Damnit! There must be something here!" Drake said, checking any bush, tree and rock. "Some kind of lever or that type of stuff."

"Do you guys think it could be the grail?" Nala pondered.

"I doubt it. But if there's something causing this Bounded Field, there certainly is!" Mash responded.

Peko was also searching, brushing off bushes and other things out of the way. "There must be some kind of indication we are not seeing. A signal or- huh?" The boy stopped his action, looking at something in front of him.

"Did you find something Peko?" Ritsuka asked him, with everyone reuniting behind the boy.

"I think I found more than something." Peko responded, moving away the branches and bushes from the way, revealing an enormous and giant mountain with a temple entrance on its base. "This surely wasn't here when we first came."

"How the hell did we miss something that big?" Nala commented, looking at the sheer hight of the mountain.

"Anyway, I bet the answer to that Bounded Field must be inside that temple!" Mash said, going ahead and torwards the entrance. "Let's go!"

With everyone following her, the descended a long staircase until they entered on a enormous chamber of tall and white marble walls.

"What is this place?" Peko looked around the room, noticing the slight echo it created.

"Hmm, by the looks of it, I'd say a maze." Mash responded, giving some light knocks on the marble walls.

"A maze? That means we could be searching in here for hours!" Nala said. "Hope that whatever is causing this is right around the corner."

"This is starting to look just like the videogames I used to play." Ritsuka commented, remembering of found memories. "It's only missing the monsters and traps."

"And it better stay like that honestly." Peko said.

Mash looked to the long and giant hallway ahead of them. "Forward is the only way it seems."

Drake, without thinking, went immediatly on the front. "Then what are we waiting for? The quicker we are solving this the better! Hell, there might also be a treasure in here who knows?" She said, feeling called out to explore this giant labyrinth.

"Go with caution captain!" Mash tried to warn Drake who was already getting far from them, so they started to walk inside the hallway as well.

"She really likes to face danger it seems." Nala said.

"That's pirates for you." Ritsuka told the girl, as they now followed Drake inside the undiscovered and unexplored walls of the giant and mysterious uncharted maze that had appeard out of nowhere, with the objective of finding out what could be causing this Bounded Field to trap them inside the island.

To be continued...


And that's it for chapter 39!

I admit that this chapter was a bit of an hassle to write. Taking out the Eric fight at the beggining I decided to skip or not get too much in detail on the other confronts in this chapter because I felt it wasn't all that necessary to flesh out fights that are just against some random mobs. Just give little details here and there and that's good.

Honestly I really don't have too much to say this time (HOLY FUCK DID YOU GUYS SAW HAKUNO/HAKUNON ON THE ARCADE COLLAB AT THE END!? I'M AHWJQHWDKJBWJFBIFNIEWNFIWNDOWD)

But with all that said, see you next time on chapter 40! Peace!

P.S: Also here's a little fun scenario that I created in my head while writing this chapter. Enjoy.

Peko: Hey Da Vinci, Nemo! Want to play the newest "most generic FPS that you could think off" with me and Nala today?

(Loli) Da Vini: Sure!

Nemo: That does seems a nice idea. (Stares at Nala) But do you promise to not rage quit this time please?

Nala: Pff of course! Also, since when do I rage quit? With games above else! Please, I'm not that mindless.

Later That Day

Nala: DID WE FU*ING LOST AGAIN?! (Punches table and keyboard)

Nemo: There we go again...

Da Vinci: Why did I tought this time it would be different?

Peko: Please sis...Calm down. It's just a game.

Nala: JUST A GAME?! (Proceeds to throw kitty headset into the ground) I'LL TELL YOU WHAT'S JUST A GAME! ME * AND *

(Peko, Da Vinci and Nemo stare in utter horror and shock to the profanities speaked by Nala. Even Peko goes to grab a phone.)

Peko: Hello? Ritsuka? Do you think my sister can attend to anger management classes?