Fate Val Grand Order: The Dark Saint Saga

by Alas29

Ritsuka Fujimaru was just a normal person some months ago and now he's fighting to save humanity by traveling through history. Not only that but he also encounters two kids who want to know the reason they can't remember anything of their lifes, who they are and how did they end up far from home . An alternative version of FGO Observer on Timeless Temple.

114. Bottled Bitterness

Hello everybody and welcome back to the start of chapter 114 of the story!

And I have to say...that the umbrella is the most flawed invention ever made. We all know its purpose is to avoid people from getting wet in rainy days. And if it's on a day where there's no wind or the rain's precipitation is low? It most surely can do the job. But on a day where its rainning with more intensity and there's wind blowing? Good luck not getting your entire pants wet! In that situation, the umbrella barely changes a thing, like it only prevents the rain from hitting your head and upper part of the torso while any part of the body from the waist down gets basically fucked. So when are we finally going to have umbrellas that actually do an efficient of avoiding humans from getting wet on rainy days?

Forget about flying cars! Getting umbrellas like that will be the true mark of the future age!

With all that said, let's go!

DISCLAIMER: All of 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

---

"It would be wise of you to rather not attempt resisting nor fight! We've got you surrounded!"

Lancelot proclaimed as he and his own battallion had formed a barrier around the party and the entranc of the Atlas Institute, having set and prepare the ambush for the time the chaldeans and allies would once exit from the entrance, putting them in a difficult situation.

"Looks like we've been found!" Ritsuka exclaimed as he and the entire group prepared for battle.

"But how?! We were sure we weren't being followed!" Nala brought out her sword. She had believed that on all their way to the Atlas Institute, there was no one on their tail chasing them, the appearence of Lancelot's troops coming rather as unexpected.

"They've killed the sphinxes as well!" Peko spotted the dead corpses of the mythological creatures lying around the institute's entrance. "They must have killed them and awaited for us to come out while we were having our conversation with Holmes!"

Catching the familliar voice, Lancelot reacted with bafflement once he saw Peko was there in the middle as well. "The Young Prince here? But how? You should be at the Holy City!" The Knight of the Lake said in initial surpise before letting out a frustrated breath. "Then it seems the incursion of The Blight on the Holy City ended up being more consequential than I thought." Lancelot had already been noticed of that event yesterday during his expedition and chase for the chaldeans on the desert. If he wasn't already miles away from the kingdom when that happened and when he got the news, the knight would've surely turned around and head back to Camelot in order to check out on the well-being of his king and companions.

"Going after us, Lancelot? Guess the Lion King and the rest of you found out it wouldn't be as easy to get rid of us as you might have thought!" Bedivere confronted Lancelot, gaining the specific attention of the Knight of the Lake who looked back at him.

"And I see that Tristan's statement about your envolvement with the king's enemies was indeed true, Bedivere." Lancelot gave a sort of painful look to the Knight of Loyalty. "Why are you doing this, Bedivere? What moved you to betray our king? You, who were supposed to be one of His Majesty's closest knights!"

"I could say the same thing about you, Lancelot!" Bedivere talked back, matching the other knight's sense of dissapointment. "Or can you stare me in the eyes and tell me with a straight face that every genocide the Lion King, you and all of the other knights preformed in this Singularity is totally of righteous nature? That you can't feel any guilt weighing down on your counsciousness as more innocent lives are whiped away like they were mere scraps?"

"..." Lancelot's eyes narrowed a bit, the Knight of the Lake not having a quick verbal comeback for that.

"And I never did betrayed my king! Because deep down, the Lion King's actions are of someone that could never be of my king!" Bedivere raised up his voice. "And what about you, Lancelot? Aren't you tired of seeing all that happen while being complicit to it? Don't you also think that there is something wrong with the person supposed to be our 'king'? If you were candidly a knight with honour and values, you'd have taken the right decision a long time ago!"

"Silence, traitor!" Lancelot shouted, Bedivere's words causing some provocation. "Your disloyalty to His Majesty won't be tolerated furthermore!"

"Says the once unfaithful..." Bedivere muttered, recalling the whole affair Lancelot had as the lover of Guinevere, the wife of their king. But a part of him could understand that the Knight of the Lake was mostly looking to amend for that deep error, perhaps being the main factor why he was even siding with the Lion King. Eitherway, he took out his sword as Lancelot begun to approach them with his troops.

"I will make sure that your group perishes here and bring back the Young Prince to the Holy City!" Lancelot got off from his horse as he lead his men, getting closer to the party. Arondight already in hand.

Peko summoned his own sword as reaction. "Sorry! Don't have intentions of going back!"

"And as if we're just gonna watch that happen!" Nala added, also with her weapon brandished. "He just returned to us an hour ago! So don't think we're going to let you take my brother away again!"

"Get ready for what's about to come guys!" Ritsuka warned the party, positioning his body ready for battle.

"Just him and a bunch of soldier knights. Nothing that we cannot take care of!" Touta grabbed his bow and arrow while Sanzang entered in a martial art pose besides him.

"Sir Lancelot always striked me as a charming individual. A shame that the same cannot be said to his deplorable acts!" The lady monk said, manuseating her staff. "Let's put some sense into him by the way of my teachings!"

"Since when did your teachings revolved around violence?" Touta said with a weird look.

"..." Arthur remained silent, aware that Lancelot had not noticed him yet. The King of Knights wondered what type of person this universe Knight of the Lake was. As far as the appearences went, this Lancelot and the one from his Camelot looked very simillar.

"Lancelot..." As Mash stared at the knight in purple armour making his way to them, the mere sight of him seemed to displease her. As if he was a bit of an eyesore to the shielder. A sentiment that didn't came necessarily from Mash's heart but from Galahad inside, fusing his feeling with her. Seeing the Knight of the Lake's face, it made them felt no other thing than shame and a certain disdain. "Tsk!"

Moving his hand, Ritsuka prepared to give ther orders. "Alright everyone! Upon my command you'll-" And then Mash walked right past him, just heading away from the party and into Lancelot alone. "E-Eh? Mash?"

"Don't worry about this, master." Mash said, her hairline covering her eyes as she speaked with little to no emotion. "Let me handle him."

Ritsuka reacted with some surprise to that. "U-Uhmm...Sure?"

"I think I never saw Mash this serious before!" Nala commented, also surprised by the shielder's sudden action.

So was Peko. "Should we let her fight Lancelot on her own? He's a knight of the Round Table after all!"

Ritsuka gave some thought to it. One side of him wasn't pretty sure if he should let Mash have a solo fight against Lancelot. But he and been through many though challenged together with Mash. He could surely give his demi-servant the vote of trust. "Let's see what happens. If things take an hard turn for Mash, we will come in to help her. For now, focus on Lancelot's men!"

"Aye aye captain!"

"Got it, Ritsuka!"

Both Nala and Peko agreed with the leader's decision.

"Altough I do wonder why she's looking so serious all of a sudden..." Ritsuka tried to understand the unexpected change on Mash's demeanor and behaviour as he saw her heading torwards Lancelot.

Arthur however, seemed to know, looking at Mash and visualizing Galahad in her place. "Hmm, I might have the answer for that."

Finishing of going down the dune, Lancelot slightly raised an eyebrow as he saw the lone Mash heading torwards him, her shield firmly maintained on her right hand and an unfriendly glare torwards the knight.

"Hm? Why is this young girl eyeing me with such aversion? Did we even met before?" As Lancelot was wondering why he was receiving such sharp glare from Mash, he noticed the shield on her head. "But what in- That shield is..." Having a quick memory of a young knight passing through his mind, Lancelot closed his eyes for a second by reflex. "No...It cannot be him. You are not him." Looking somewhat troubled, the knight shook his head as he tried to disperse that image away. "You're not!"

"..." Without replying, Mash continue to approach Lancelot with each step taken in the sand, maintaining her serious face.

Wanting to keep his duty of serving the Lion King and succeeding the task she gave to him, Lancelot tried to not let his own mind get in the way now, pointing his sword at Mash as the two got closer. "I, Sir Lancelot, Knight of the Lake and proud member of the Round Table, hereby declare you to meet your own end by my-eugh!?"

But as he was way too occupied and absorved on giving his knightly speech, Mash quickly approached him and with a fellow swing from her shield, hit the knight right in the chest with a strenght that meant to hurt, throwing Lancelot's body into the air before falling some meters away in the sand.

The entire battalion of soldier knights got into alarm and panic as they saw their captain being thrown away like that.

"S-Sir Lancelot!"

"Is the Sir okay?!"

"What the hell?! That shielder girl hit Sir Lancelot as if he was made of paper!"

Even Mash's own team and party was astonished.

"W-Wow!" Ritsuka said in almost disbilief on how clean Mash's blow was. "It was..."

"Where did she got all that strength?" Peko questioned. Having fought Lancelot before, the boy was well aware of the knight's capabilities. "To get Lancelot hit by surprise it would be one chance in a million!"

"Wohooo! Way to go Mash!" Nala meanwhile cheered for her friend.

Recovering from the hit, Lancelot got back onto his feet. "Ghg!" He wasn't expecting on the enemy that had a frame like her to have such quick and strong blow. But he could tell that there was something behind that hit. Some sort of anger.

"Stop talking." Mash said, still facing Lancelot with a face of scorn. "It only makes you sound even more embaressing for such a 'prestigious' knight."

"The young lady speaks as if I wronged her! When I never even saw you before! Where is such dislike coming from exactly?" Not understanding why for the hate, Lancelot just put that thought in the back of his head for now. "If it is for the mere fact I am a knight of the Lion King, then I'm sorry for being a knight who is honoring the code of loyalty to his liege and his orders!" Lancelot exclaimed, proceeding to give a command to his men to act. "Attack!"

Mash immediatly went to clash with Lancelot, her shield hitting strong against Lancelot's sword as the batallion of the Knight of the Lake went to deal with the party.

"Here they come!" Ritsuka and the group saw all of the soldier knights heading torwards them to battle. "Let's get done with this!"

The battle had started, the waves of soldier knights coming at them in a rush to attack. But the group was well prepared even if largely outnumbered.

"Get my back!" Nala told briefly to Peko before rushing to the front.

"Count on it!" Peko nodded as he gave support to his sister who sprinted to the soldier knights upfront, slicing down the first three.

"Air Step!"

Then, Nala proceeded to jump above the soldier knights, landing her foot on one's helmet before starting to hop around from helmet to helmet like a nimble bunny, avoiding the attacks of the bewildered enemies.

"Luminary Route!"

And from behind, Peko aided her, firing one of his light bullets that zigzagged through the opponents bodies, putting them one by one alongside Nala. The boy didn't took much long to also go up ahead and joing his sister in the direct combat, swinging his sword at the enemies. Finally being back together, the twins seemed to be performing like a dream duo, their attacks and movements being well coordinated with one another. A visible happiness in each one's face.

And they weren't the only duo performing well.

"Argh!"

"You damn-egh!"

Dealing with other group of enemies, Bedivere and Arthur were doing it so perfectly. The Knight of Loyalty and King of Knights barely breaking a sweat, with Arthur being skilled enough in his swordsmanship to deal with five soldier knight all at once.

"King Arthur is quite the notable swordsman!" Bedivere praised Arthur's abilities after bringing down another soldier knight. Just like his own king, Artoria, Arthur's style of sword was an identical one to one.

"Eh, thank you! Sir Bedivere is also quite the sharp knight!" Arthur complimented the knight back before feeling an enemy trying to sneak on him, skillfuly turning around and parrying the attack, finishing that soldier knight.

Bedivere for his own part put down another enemy before taking a step back to visualize all of the incoming enemies on his field of vision, his and Arthur's back being turned to each other as both now stayed close, surrounded by another wave of soldier knights. "Hmm, they sure give a good fight. Does King Arthur need any help to defeat half of them?"

"Appreciate it but I'll pass. Each one deals with each half of them respectively." Arthur replied, his eyes still focused on the enemies in front of him.

Same for Bedivere. "Understood. I shall not dissapoint!"

And on the other front, Ritsuka was helping out Sanzang and Touta against the other wave of soldier knights.

"Ggh!" The master of humanity, upon reinforcing his arms with a magecraft spell, use them to hold against the axe of a soldier knight in front of him, struggling to prevent the weapon from going down on his head.

"Ghgrrr! Stupid criminal! Stop resi-agh!"

Thankfully for Ritsuka, Touta fired an arrow right on the zone of the soldier knight's neck with Sanzang coming in right after, kicking the enemy in the chest, sending him away from Ritsuka.

"Great job in holding him back! Keep it like that!" Touta made a thumbs up to Ritsuka quickly before going back to concentrate on the fight happening around them.

"This feels like a good excercise, doesn't it? Nothing like having your own life on the line to feel alive!" Sanzang said with a smile, seemingly not taking the situation that seriously, sticking her staff on the ground and kicking away three soldier knights. "I know Sun Wukong would be loving this practice!"

Ritsuka smiled a bit sheepishly to her, fighting for his life there. "Y-Yeah! I can imagine it..."

"Fou! Fou!" Fou appeared behind Ritsuka's shoulder, prompting him to get up.

"I know! I know!" Ritsuka sighed, getting up on his feet while Sanzang and Touta were knocking down the soldier knights. "You don't have to tell me little guy!"

"Eternal Arms Mastery!"

While everyone else in the party was fighting off the soldier knights, Mash had just blocked a blunt hit from Lancelot's Arondight, continuing her solo fight with the Knight of the Lake.

"Yah!" Resisting to the strenght of the impact while sparks flew, Mash was eventually able to shove away Lancelot's sword, gaining an opening to attack. Lancelot reacted fast, dodging the first blow and defending the second one before shielding himself against the third hit that made his feet drag on the ground forcefully, sending him a few meters back as he had sustained the attack.

Not wanting to give him any chance, Mash already threw her shield at Lancelot, the Knight of the Lake having quick reflexes to deflect the shield away. But that didn't stopped the shielder who runned torwards him, attempting to deliver a punch. Lancelot dodged it, counter-attacking with an attack aimed at Mash who also evaded it in return.

Despite the shield being her major and only weapon of combat, that didn't meant the demi-servant did not knew other ways of fighting, having received a special training program of hand-to-hand combat every week ever since she got to leave her bedroom and explore Chaldea for the first time. She was well versed on the fighting style, proceeding to grab Lancelot's arm before dealing a sharp kick to his stomach.

Without the shield, Mash knew she had to move with more precision and agility, coming to find a small breach on the Knight of the Lake's right side, going to attack from there. Lancelot tried to swing his sword at her, only to see Mash use her foot to stop the knight's hands and therefore Arondight, before taking the chance to deal a karate chop on Lancelot's neck.

"Ggh!" Seeing that the enemy was getting the upper hand in the fight, Lancelot had to act fast. Quickly, he grabbed Mash's hand that had hit him and threw the shielder away, sending her rolling a bit on the sandy ground but right next to her shield. The Knight of the Lake runned to land a blow on his enemy who was still trying to get up on her feet. Yet, Mash managed to grabbed up her shield on time and defend herself from the sword that went down from above.

The battle between the two was looking fierce and close.

On the other hand, the rest of the party was managing to diminuish the number of soldier knights, sending more and more down by the second.

"Ah!" Ritsuka jumped forward to a soldier knight, delivering an hard punch on the face that left the enemy on knockout. It made Ritsuka smile out from a bit of pride before shaking his hands immensely, feeling the pain of having punched pure metal. "One more to the list!" He said after being done with the ache on his hand. He then proceeded to stare at the following soldier knights with a smirk. "Alright! Who's next?"

And as he had finished from saying that, one of the sphynxes that was apparently dead until that point appeared behind Ritsuka, jumping above him and landing right on top of the soldier knights, much to their fright.

"Great! Thank goodness my magic can reach this far!"

"Eh? It speaked?" Ritsuka looked at it confused as the other members of the party noticed the creature.

"One of the sphynxes is alive?!" Bedivere said in bewilderment.

Nala was about to come in help. "Back away from it! Quick, Ritsuka!"

"Wait wait wait! I'm not here to harm you! I too want to help!" The large sphynx explained a bit clumsly, the voice sounding very familiar.

"Uh? But this voice is..." Peko thought he had heard it somewhere before.

"Nitocris! It's you!" Ritsuka exclaimed, guessing the voice behind the posessed sphynx that it seemed to be the egyptian's servant work. "Why are you even taking control over a sphynx to help us anyway?"

"I cannot explain now!" Nitocris said through the sphynx. "I'll save it for the aftermath when there's no more soldiers trying to kill you!"

Ritsuka smiled. "It sure is nice to see you again...Somewhat."

And the battle continued, but not for too long as the last of the soldier knights were being defeated, the aid of Nitocris by the control of a sphynx making it faster.

"Alright! That must have been the last one!" Ritsuka stated as he saw that there wasn't more enemies around. Yet he noticed that Mash and Lancelot's battle was still going on. "But they're still fighting..." Altough Ritsuka now wanted to aid Mash with the assistance of everybody, he saw that the shielder was handing the confront rather well, able to fight with the Knight of the Lake almost on equal.

"But Mash is surely giving Lancelot a run for his money!" Nala replied, seeing Mash managing to block the hits and counter-attack Lancelot, being almost in an equal footing.

"Mash seems to be fighting with 'something more' than she usually does." Peko observed. "Did knowing the identity of the Heroic Spirit triggered something in her?"

Arthur chuckled to the comment. "Well, you could say that."

Ritsuka stared to the King of Knights. "Hm? Why?"

"It is a detail that if you have some knowledge about the arthurian myths and the Round Table, it suddenly becomes easy to understand why lady Mash is fighting Lancelot so fervently." Bedivere speaked, looking to the fight happening a bit away from them.

Defending from another blow, Mash lifted uo her leg and tried to aim the kick torwards Lancelot's left. The Knight of the Lake managed to tilt his head in time, the heel scrapping off some bits of his hair before Lancelot swinged Arondight torwards Mash's shield, gaining some space for a second or two before blocking two incoming hits from the shielder. Mash then spinned her body, rotating the shield with her, passing mere centimeters from the Knight of the Lake's face, proceeding to close her left free hand into a fist and throwing a punch at Lancelot, ending up hitting a debrie of the temple ruins behind him instead of the knight's face, the violence of the punch being enough to crack the material.

"She's really giving all!" Lancelot exclaimed to himself as a drop of sweat fell from his face, a bit dumbfounded at the physical strenght of the seemingly sweet looking girl.

"There is a connection Galahad, the Heroic Spirit within Mash, to Lancelot." Bedivere speaked to the group as they observed the fight. "A very deep connection."

Acting fast, Lancelot pushed Mash away, thrusting his foot on her stomach, forcing some coughs out of Mash. Despite that, her performance did not faltered, still fighting toe to toe against Lancelot. After a few misses and more blocks to the Knight of the Lake attacks, Mash awaited for the perfect opportunity. And as Lancelot prepared to deal another blow, that's when Mash reacted. Moving her shield, she put enough force in it to clash Arondight's away, finding the weak spot and catching Lancelot off guard.

"What?! It's as if she was already familiar with my entire fighting style!" Lancelot cleenched his teeth as he saw Mash about to bash him strongly with her shield in slow motion. Her face making him remember of the young knight again. "I-It can't be that-egh!" In a small moment of deconcentration, Lancelot's face and entire torso ended up being smashed by the sheer metal of Mash's shield, sending him all the way crashing through some of the institute's ruins lying around.

Ritsuka, Peko and Nala all watched it in amazement, without words to say as Bedivere was still speaking.

"You see, the thing is..."

Seeing Lancelot down and trying to get up, Mash now begun to walk torwards him with more calm, as if she didn't had intent to fight him anymore. Like that anger inside her had finally been subdued and satisfied.

"Lancelot is Galahad's-"

Seeing the enemy approaching, Lancelot stared in confusion as he saw Mash unsummoning her shield as she got closer to him. He wondered what could she possibly do next. "That shield you carry...it used to be from the Round Table."

Crouching down to stare right into the level of the Knight of the Lake's eyes, the displeased expression on the shielder dissapeared, turning into a joyful smile. Having helped Galahad out on delivering some good 'justice' on Lancelot, Mash knew just the trick that would make the knight lose the fight. "Eh. It's good to see you still remember." Her smile grew brighter and happily, closing her eyes. "Dad."

A loud thump sounded as Lancelot's simply dropped Arondight into the ground from his hand, a face full of shock and bewilderment, unable to explain what exactly he was feeling throguh his body right now. "T-That...I...I'm sorry...A kind of pain just went through my heart." He said, the emotional damage Mash dealt on him having been super effective.

Stunted temporarily and clearly losing, Lancelot gave a look to the battlefield in general, seein all of his entire batallion down and defeated in the ground, with Mash's group standing victorious in the middle. It was there his eyes spotted Arthur, the impostor of the Lion King. "You are...!" Not knowing how to comment the appearence of the King of Knights. Yet, Lancelot had no doubt that he was the person that saved him and his troops at the time from when the Knight of the Lake was sent out to investigate The Blight for the first time. For an impostor, Arthur really made Lancelot feel like he was seeing his beloved king again despite the obvious and observable differences.

Looking back at Lancelot, Arthur gave him a cautious glare. "So? What is it going to be, Sir Lancelot?" He questioned the Knight of the Lake who was completly outnumbered and would have to possibly fight all of the enemies alone with no backup. Realizing that and that he had also been bested by the young lady of the shield that was somehow his son and a near copy of his king, Lancelot ended up sighing in defeat. "I yield."

---

With the small conflict over and Lancelot having decided to surrender, the group was now all reunited at the Atlas Institute's entrance alongside the giant sphynx Nitocris was posessing and the defeated Lancelot that altough unrestrained, knew better than try to fight alone against a group of servants that had good chances of beating him if he tried something, Mash keeping a close eye on him.

"Leigheas."

Casting his curative spell, Peko made sure that everyone's fatigue and injuries, even if small, would be healed and fixed, restouring the stamina and energy of the group.

"Work done!" Peko said with a smile. "How are you all feeling now?"

"Like new!" Ritsuka replied, moving and excercising his arm a bit. "Thanks Peko!"

Meanwhile, Nala was speaking "So the guy inside of you is the son of Lancelot here?"

"Yes. Galahad is Lancelot's child." Mash replied. "It was a thing I already knew ever since I've read the arthurian tales. The moment I got to know his identity, I realized that would make me also related to Lancelot in some type of way." She said, staring to the Knight of the Lake on her side. "Hence why Galahad's anger was also my anger when we both laid eyes on him."

"So, basically, you just gave your own dad a beating." Nala speaked, finding it somewhat funny.

"Sorry Nala, but this poor excuse of a knight could barely be considered my dad." Mash replied, being so brutal yet sounding so normal with a simple smile on her face.

"Eugh!" Lancelot felt it to the core.

"If anything, I do comprehend Galahad's sentiment fully. I'd be full of shame if my father was an unloyal knight and womanizer too." Mash doubled down despite still sounding so kind and affectionate.

""Eek!" That one really hurt Lancelot the most. Despite not being technically his son, Galahad's spirit resided within Mash, therefore what she was saying about him much likely being Galahad's own thoughts on the Knight of the Lake. A dissapointment for his son and, to some extent, 'daughter' that he had only met literal minutes ago.

Even the whole group was feeling bad for Lancelot.

"Eish! I think we're witnessing a murder here!" Ritsuka commented.

"The fact she can say all those things with that face is pretty scary..." Peko said, never having expected Mash to have this side of hers.

Arthur approached the shielder. "Galah- I mean, Mash. Give Sir Lancelot some rest now. He got the point across. I'm sure he has long been aware and regretful of the mistakes he has commited." He told her to go easy on the Knight of the Lake before looking to the knight himself with a smile. "Eh. Who could have thought? You and the Lancelot from my world appear to be exactly the same and done the exact same things. You both could even swatch places that I think no one would notice!"

"..." Lancelot did not replied immediatly, being with a bit of an addled face instead, not understanding why would the King of Knights smile to him. "Why is he speaking with joy about me and his Lancelot being the same? Wouldn't that mean he also had an affair with his king's wife? Why would he refer to such shameless knight like his Lancelot and myself with such respect and kindness?" But upon looking at Arthur again, Lancelot saw again the reflection of his own king, making him now see why. "Ah, I get it. So you also chose to forgive your own Lancelot..."

"Any contact with Doctor Romani yet, Ritsuka?" Peko asked to his friend as the master of humanity was trying to enter in contact with Chaldea.

"No unfortunately. The communications in the desert still sucks." Ritsuka replied a bit frustrated as he wasn't being able to set a connection to Chaldea.

"What will we be telling him once he can finally call us?" Nala asked to the team. "We discovered quite the lot of things, but Holmes told us to keep some of them secret from doctor."

"One of them being to not even mention that we found Holmes in the Atlas Institute." Mash added, joining the rest of her team. "I wonder why he speaked with some distrust about Doctor Romani, wanting to keep the fact we discovered his involvement in the Holy Grail War alongside the first director of Chaldea, concealed from him as well."

"Well, he's a detective, isn't he? He must be suspicious of many things all the time then." Nala told her, trying to come with a reason for Holmes skepticism of Romani.

"But its Sherlock Holmes we're talking about! The world's greatest detective! He wouldn't suspect of things so randomly!" Mash argued, believing that the detective had clearly some reason for that. "Could it be...that Doctor is hiding something more from us?"

"Well, eitherway, I think we can fulfill Holmes request of keeping himself and that Holy Grail war information a secret from him." Peko speaked, thinking that it would perhaps be for the best to follow.

"Yeah. Specially when First Hassan told us to not mention a thing about Atlas Institute but we still ended up sharing that with doc." Ritsuka reminded it to both Mash and Nala. "It was clear that the presence of Atlas Institute itself should never be known to him. So I also say to keep those details away from Romani. Plus, we can still tell him about the other things we discovered inside there. Like the Lion King's plan!"

"The identity of the Heroic Spirit inside me." Mash added.

"And the ancient document that can lead to mine and Nala's past." Peko said, happily going to grab the document inside his prince vestement...until his smile dissapeared. "N-No...It can't be!"

"What's wrong Peko?" Mash asked, seeing the look of despair in the boy's face as he was rummaging the pockets of his own clothes.

Pulling an embaressed face, Peko eyed all of his team. "The document...I think I lost it."

"WHAT?!"

"FOU?!"

All of the rest shouted in disbilief.

"But how could you have losted it?!" Ritsuka asked, incredulous.

"Did it perhaps fell from your pockets during the battle?" Mash pondered.

Nala was beyond upset. "I knew it! I knew I should've been the one guarding that-"

"Eh!" Peko then smugged mischiveously. "You thought so!" He said, taking out the ancient document from one of his clothes inner pockets.

It immediatly calmed down the rest of the team.

"Phew! It was a pretty big scare you played on us right here." Ritsuka said, his heart calming down a bit.

"Surely! I really believed in it for a quick second." Mash added.

Peko for his own part chuckled smuggly. "Hm hm hm. This is for mocking my looks back there. Don't ever call me puny again."

"You're an idiot!" Nala squabbled, not having liked the prank Peko pulled on them.

"And you're stupid." Peko replied back, the twins about to begin a squabble.

Fortunately, Mash was there to calm them down. "Please, let's not start bickering now."

Meanwhile, Ritsuka went to speak with the giant sphynx that Nitocris was currently posessing. "And what about you Nitocris? Why did you, in a sort of way, came here to help us?" He asked her. "Also, it's good to finally see you, somewhat."

The sphynx move its head down in order to speak torwards Ritsuka. "First of all, it is also great to see all of you again!" Nitocris speaked. And despite not being visible, the group could feel the happiness in her voice. "And secondly, we also meet again, Arthur Pendragon. Didn't expect we would see each other again, specially with you by the chaldeans side." The sphynx's face turned around to stare at the King of Knights.

"Could say the same to thee, Lady priestess, Nitocris." Arthur politely bowed to Nitocris.

"Eh? You knew each other already?" Bedivere asked surprised to Arthur.

"Yes. I was planning to tell you this at some point, but I've already been to the Sun King's kingdom before at an earlier point, seeking an audience with the Sun King himself. Hence why me and priestess Nitocris are no strangers to one another." Arthur revealed to the party of his visit to Ozymandias kingom before.

"Then you must already know the Sun King himself." Touta replied before looking up to the sphynx. "I wonder what's happening in there for his priestess to come here locate us."

With the whole party also wanting to know the motive, Nitocris spilled it out. "I've searched you in order to get your help. You see, ever since the sandworm that roamed this desert, Olgoi-Khorkhoi, died hours ago, the Sun King begun to behave...a bit differently." She said, not knowing yet how to exactly explain that part.

"Behaving a bit differently?" Ritsuka raised an eyebrow.

"How different? What do you mean by that?" Sanzang asked to Nitocris, wanting a more elaborate answer.

"Well, the Sun King seems to have nurtured a type of apprehension within him after witnessing Olgoi-Khorkhoi's corpse." Nitocris begun to explain fully. "He begun to mutter to himself, reflecting on what he should do. I think a fearul concern was installed within king Ozymandias heart, his face and attittude becoming serious and ruminative. Specially when staring to the Holy Grail at his hands. I tried to talk with him, ask what the Sun King is thinking about but he always seems to ignore me."

"For Ozymandias to ignore his loyal and trusted advisor...Yeah. Something mustn't be right." Peko commented, thinking that something bad could be happening in the kingdom of the desert.

"But it's not all." Nitocris said, having more to tell. "Just some hours ago, king Ozymandias shared with me that he was considering a full-on evacutaion of all the inhabitants of the kingdom and that he would execute that order soon!" She finally told the critical part. "I felt that could be nothing more than a bad omen! It was what made me search for you! I fear that my pharaoh is about to do something very drastic!"

"A full-on evacuation of the sun kingdom?!" Mash exclaimed in shock, being as surprised as the entirety of the group.

"But why would he do that?" Sanzang asked to Nitocris.

"With Olgoi-Khorkhoi gone, one if not the main system of defense from his kingdom exists no more." Arthur begun to ponder. "And if the news about The Blight's attack has reached the sun kingdom, it's no wonder why king Ozymandias might be ordering an evacuation of his people. He fears that his kingdom will logically be be the next one targetted in the line."

"It's exactly that! Normally, I consider that to be a very noble and exemplary attitude of a pharaoh like the Sun King to do! Yet, I dread that he has a plan that can unintentionally cause more harm than good! It is a bad omen I feel!" Nitocris replied, stating how she was afraid of what Ozymandias could end up doing to himself. "Normally, I hate having to do these things on his back and speak to you in secret! But if I don't do it, Ozymandias might end up dooming himself! So please, I beg you to Ra! Come to our kingdom and help me talk things out with my king!"

"That request of help sounds genuine from your part." Bedivere said. "If so, I believe you aren't trying to set us up."

"Don't worry, Nitocris! We'll go to help you!" Ritsuka said to her, immediatly up to offer help.

"That's a relief to hear! Thank you so much!" Nitocris replied happily.

"It couldn't be that the Sun King saw that giant worm dead and begun to get nervous to that point." Nala commented, remembering of their meeting with Ozymandias when the team went to the sun kingdom for the first time during their first days here in the Singularity. "I perceived he'd kept a more composed posture despite that."

"I'd say it is understandable. Ozymandias must fear for his people safety with everything that happened yesterday." Peko replied, thinking the Sun King's reaction to it could be justified. "Despite of that, we were already planning on doing a second visit to the sun kingdom because of the document. Now we know we have to go there necessarily!"

"But from where we currently are, the travel to the sun kingdom would take us a long time to reach it still today." Bedivere speaked, aware of the hours that they would spent wandering from their position to the sun kingdom. "And we also have walked many miles today to reach to the Atlas Institute. I say it would be for the best if we took the rest of the day to rest and then head to the sun kingdom tomorrow."

"Hmm, I'm not sure about that. What if something happens in the sun kingdom in the meantime?" Mash asks, unsure if they could rest for the day with the possibility of the sun kingdom being in danger.

Also in doubt, Ritsuka stared to the sphynx. "Hey, Nitocris. You don't mind waiting a day for us to come help you?"

"Not at all! I understand your position! As long as you appear tomorrow I have no problems!" Nitocris said, okay with the party having a rest for the remaining time of today. "With that said, I got to share what I wanted with you in time! My magic will soon leave this creature's body, ending our conversation. Take care and make sure to arrive to the sun kingdom tomorrow! I'll continue to watch over king Ozyimandias!" And like she said, Nitocris magic left the sphynx body, letting now the deceased creature fall on the ground, almost on top of the party.

"Waah! Couldn't she had placed it a bit more away from us if this would happen!?" Touta shouted, having just got scared.

"Soooorryyyyyyy..." The faint voice of Nitocris could be heard in the distance before fading.

"Then, where will we spent this night?" Mash questioned the group. "Any ideas?"

"The Atlas Institute entrance is already right next here!" Sanzang was the first one to give a suggestion. "I sure do love to walk a lot, but with a nice place to stay right besides us, I think it spares us from the extra hours of more walking."

"For one of those rare times, I do agree with you." Touta said to his 'mentor'.

"Yeah. We could spent the night here." Nala also agreed with the monk's suggestion. "The only problem is..." The girl then gave a doubtful look to Lancelot who was with the group. Not only him but also all of his men that were still on the ground, unconsious. What exactly could they do with them since Lancelot had apparently not shown any sign of resistance.

However, Arthur seemed to have another idea in mind. "Do not worry about Sir Lancelot. I'm sure that after all of this, he can finally decide which side he will be joining in." The King of Knights turned around to stare at the Knight of the Lake. "You have always doubted the Lion King, haven't you?"

Slightly amazed by the correct guess, Lancelot couldn't help but see how well Arthur seemed to read him. Or maybe he made it obvious. Eitherway, the knight ended up kneeling out of respect for the person that had the same identity as his king. "Do pardon me, Your Majesty. For I realized the wrongful path me and my companions were trailing on this Singularity."

A bit surprised, Arthur couldn't help but let out a smile while sighing as Bedivere behind him only sighed, bringing a hand to his head. No matter if Arthur Pendragon would tell to these knights of the Round Table that despite being the same legend but not their king Arthur, the two knights so far still ended up treating him as such when meeting for the first time. "Please, do get up, Sir Lancelot. If I'm not your actual king, there's no need to adress me like I was."

Lancelot got back on his feet so. "Pardon then. I let the emotions get the best of me. But you're indeed right. Ever since almost the beggining, from the moment the Holy Land was conquered by us and reformed to the Holy City, I always felt something wrong in our king. The Lion King." The Knight of the Lake then gazed at the entire group. "I know you have already walked a lot today, but I can guide you to a better place to stay for tonight. It is also not too far from here."

Mash eyes him with suspicion. "Really?"

"I swear. For my already damaged integrity as a knight." Lancelot speaked with tranquility, wanting to be on peaceful terms with the party and gain their trust. "Do follow me. There's even a thing that I want to show you to the place I'm guiding you."

---

"This entire camp is yours?" Ritsuka asked with some admiration as he and the group walked through a camp full of tents, being led through it by Lancelot, having arrived at dusk.

"And this people..." Mash saw a good number of normal people walking through the camp, looking well and alive. "They are all refugees. You...You brought them here?"

"When did you start doing that?" Nala asked to the Knight of the Lake.

"Some months ago. During one of my expeditions on the desert, I ended up discovering an specific area that Olgoi-Khorkhoi wouldn't go to, being only one of the few safe spaces in the desert besides the sun kingdom." Lancelot begin to tell how he created this camp. "When I and my men realized it, we made sure to settle up a camp as a sort of operations base here in the desert. But it would not be to service the Lion King. Instead, I decided that this would be turn into a refugee camp as well. When finding any group of refugees stranded on the wastelands, either me or my men, to always guide and shelter the refugee groups here, where they can at least feel safe. I was able to recruit many soldier knights that decided to no longer follow orders from the Holy City, not agreeing with the Lion King's vision and ways of rulling as well."

"Eh. I knew there was some good in you ever since my time as captive." Peko told to Lancelot, remembering of the Knight of the Lake being one of the more kindest knights to him alongside Gawain, even if the times they would see each other were few due to Lancelot's duties.

"Well. I wanted to set the things right." Lancelot replied, showing a weak smile. "What I thought to be right."

Looking at him, Mash felt her soul waver a bit. Perhaps Galahad had judged his father too harshly. "I suppose you're doing that so." The shielder muttered, looking sideways.

"Heh. It didn't changed a bit." Arthur said, liking the way things were looking around the camp. "It's good to see it still standing."

"Hm? So King Arthur has already been secretly here?" Lancelot looked at the King of Knights in mild surprise.

"During my search for information about this Singularity and its Lion King, I've went to explore many places, this refugee camp ending up being one of them." Arthur answered, oculting the fact he was searching a Beast from Lancelot, feeling that he didn't need to know it. "It made me see that the Knight of the Lake of this timeline was one with conviction and good sense to do what is right."

"If only the rest of the Round Table could also see the errors they did and the suffering they brought..." Bedivere lamented a bit, wishing that all the rest of their companions could have made the same realization as Lancelot did. But he proceeded to smile to his companion after that. "Still, it is good to know not all the knights have decided to follow the Lion King blindly. Despite of the flaws you commited on your past life, I'm happy that deep down, you have a good heart, Lancelot."

"You could say I learned from others." Lancelot replied back, mentioning the trademark compassion trait that Bedivere was known for during their times as knights on the original Camelot.

"Okay. Can we speed up a bit?" Mash told them, the soul inside her quavering again. "Where is your tent anyways?"

"A bit more down the road up ahead." Lancelot responded. "We're almost there."

"Hey Peko." Ritsuka called the boy next to him. "When did you got that cool motorcycle? I also wanted one!" He said, Peko having shown the group his mana infused technological vehicle to the group during their travel from the Atlas Institute to the refugee camp.

"Yeah! Why did you got all the cool stuff?" Nala replied, feeling jealous.

"I literally just got only a motorcycle." Peko said with a deadpan smile. "But it's pretty cool, isn't it? It was Da Vinci's gift to me..." Peko said that part a bit down, sad that he would never be able to thank her for giving him such dispositive. He pushed it to the side however, not wanting that to bring his mood down. "Just you all wait until I learn to do tricks with it!"

"Pff! You can just admit you're a slow runner." Nala joked at him.

"I'm not a slow runner!" Peko replied back.

"With that motorcycle you sure aren't." Nala said with poutty lips. "But then again, I'd ran faster than that thing while sleeping."

"Oh yeah? Wanna bet it?"

"I sure do. But I think we all know who the loser would be."

"Careful, sis! Karma is a thing y'know?"

"Foou..." Fou just shook his head in embaressment while Ritsuka and Mash just accepted the two getting into another squabble.

Ritsuka then remembered of something. "I wonder if we are able to contact the doctor now."

"Oh! Good suggestion master! Perhaps we can have a better chance of contacting Chaldea now that we aren't more on the desert's center." Mash replied, proceeding to establish communication and attempting to contact Romani.

And thankfully, it worked. The hologram of Doctor Romani appearing to them.

"Ah! Finally! Was already getting worried that something happened to you!" Romani told to team, some hours having passed since they last had communications. "Anyways, do tell me what did you found inside Atl- Peko!? You're alive!" Romani exclaimed in surprising delight as he noticed the boy amongst them.

"Good to see you again doctor!" Peko greeted Romani gleefuly. "And as you can see, I'm fine as ever!"

"Oh thank god for that! I feared that we would never see you again!" Romani said with a giant happy smile on his face. "I sware Peko, that if I was there I would give you one of the strongest hugs imaginable!"

"Uhmm...ehehe, thanks." Peko giggled a bit nervously, not expecting that the emotional response of Romani over discovering Peko was now back with the team would be THAT emotional.

"Hm, who is this new person here? He sure does sound and acts lively." Arthur commented, observing the hologram of Romani.

"An energetic guy from the future that spouts funny nonsense." Sanzang told him, thinking of Romani like that. "In other words, good company!" She said while doing an ok hand sign.

Romani ended up gazing at the King of Knights after hearing his voice. "WHA- Wait a minute! Ain't this servant here..." Looking at the information the monitors of his computer were giving him, Romani's face went on full bewilderment. "H-He's Arthur Pendragon!? You met with another version of the king of Britain?!"

"Yep! And he's our ally now!" Nala said. "Pretty neat, wouldn't you say?"

"Oh boy if it ain't! Now we have really great chances of putting an end to the Lion King!" Romani replied.

"I commend your excitment but do please keep your spirits moderated." Arthur adviced the doctor. "With my help or not, we can never underestimate an adversary like the Lion King and her knights."

"Wow! Spoke like a true king even!" Romani said, noticing now the scenario the party was in. "Hey. You aren't in the middle of the desert anymore. Where are you now exactly?"

"A camp of refugees that I built alongside my men." Lancelot responded to Romani, appearing behind his hologram.

"L-Lancelot? You're with the Knight of the Lake?" Romani said, dumbfounded. "But isn't he one of the knights and our enemy?"

"Well, I think that's a story we can resume shortly for you." Ritsuka said to Romani.

"As we were leaving the Atlas Institute, Lancelot and his men were waiting in order to do an ambush." Mash told to the doctor. "However, we ended up defeating him and his troops and in return, Lancelot guided us to his refugee camp where we will spend the night."

Romani nodded his head, having followed all of it. "Got it. By the way, what did you discovered on the Atlas Institute?" Romani asked to the Chaldea team. "Important answers I'm sure. Anything about Solo-"

"I think you will have to guard that conversation for later." Lancelot told to Romani, interrupting him as the group arrived to a big tent. "We're here. And so, I will show you somebody that was eager to see you."

"Somebody eager to see us?" Ritsuka said.

"Please don't tell me it's another version of Arthur or Artoria Pendragon." Nala said, feeling that she had seen her fair share of King of Knights.

As they all entered the bit tent that belonged to the Knight of the Lake, they all saw loads of paper and cardboard mockups scattered across the interior. Maps on the big table at the center with barrels and boxes also around.

"This tent looks a bit messy if I'm being honest." Peko said, looking to the state of it.

"And these mockups..." Mash stared at them, reflecting their appearence. "They seem familiar."

Suddenly all of them heard a yawn coming from the left side of the tent, spotting a couch lying just behind some pile of boxes.

"Uff! It was surely a good nap I had now! If only I didn't had some guests coming over."

The moment the voice speaked, the sound of it, made the entire Chaldea team's hearts stop for a moment.

"I-I can't be the only one to recognize that voice, am I?" Nala asked to the rest of the team.

"No. I also recognize it too." Ritsuka said, his eyes filled with incredulity. "That voice is-"

"But oh well, since it's you bambini that are coming here..."

Getting up from the couch, a woman walked and appeared from behind the pile of boxes, revealing herself to the party.

"Then I don't mind being awake for the reunion." Da Vinci said happily, appearing alive and well right in front of them.

"DA VINCI!"

The chaldeans shouted in unison, never having expected that this was what Lancelot wanted to show them. Their friend and companion had actually survived.

"Y-You're alive...!" Ritsuka said as tears almost came to his eyes, utterly delighted. "You're alive, Da Vinci!"

The italian inventor giggled. "Of course I am. Taking out the page from another famous genius inventor, geniuses always find a way out of a problem."

Romani felt he was entering into pure elation. "Da Vinci! You're alive! She's alive! She's alive everybody! I cannot believe it! Can't this day get any better? I wished to-..." Noticing how he was being overreactive by the silent and judgemental stares that everyone was giving him inside the tent, Romani calmed himself down, got composed and coughed. "I mean, yeah. I already knew Da Vinci was alive. Just didn't want to spoil the surprise for you." He said, crossing his arms while trying to sound relaxed and disinterested.

"But...I cannot understand." Mash was trying to comprehend how Da Vinci was alive. "We saw Da Vinci sacrifice herself against Lancelot and the vehicle explode into pieces! How did Da Vinci-san survived?"

Hearing that question, Da Vinci eyed to Lancelot with one eye close and a natural smile. "Care to do the honors of explaining it, knight gentleman?"

Blushing a bit, Lancelot tried to explain how Da Vinci survived. "After our clash back in that day, Lady Da Vinci had actually survived to the impact that took a good portion of my batallion out. Not wanting a lady with such beautiful body-hum, I mean..."

"You're truly hopeless..." Mash eyed him with slight disgust and dismay.

"Not wanting such wonded lady to be left to die, I ended up saving her and bring Lady Da Vinci here to my camp so that her wounds could be healed." Lancelot explained how Da Vinci had survived, having saved her himself.

"And ever since then, as I waited for my wounds to heal, I decided to keep a low tab and remain here in the refugee camp to understand more of this Singularity. Lancelot has acted as my informant during all this time. And in exchange, I give him some of my knowledge about art and painting of The Renaissance as well as possible theories about the Lion King." Da Vinci added the rest of the explanation, proceeding to look at Peko. "I was wondering when would you be able to break free from the Holy City, Peko. So? Liked my gift to you? What was your thoughts on Árma Hermes?"

Chuckling joyfully for finding out Da Vinci was still alive, Peko had nothing but praises to give her. "I may owe you my life for that. Without it, I don't know if I would have been able to escape from there. It was the best gift you could have ever give me. Thanks, Da Vinci."

Giggling, the italian inventor patted the boy's head. "You're welcome and glad you liked it. Made by the finest!"

"Welcome back on board, Da Vinci!" Nala told her. "To think that we got to recover you two back on the same day when we for a moment thought to have lost you forever...Never could I see that coming." She said, deeply happy that not only she got to reunite with her brother again but that Da Vinci wasn't lost forever as they had thought for so long.

"And just like that, we're back up and in full strenght!" Romani said with joy

"Oh, you never change, do you Roman?" Da Vinci giggled with amusement, having missed the doctor's silliness. "And I hope you've been doing well, Nala."

Nala nodded her head in response. "I sure am!"

Da Vinci then stared to the rest of the party. "And I see you've also made new allies along the way." The italian inventor said while looking at them before focusing on Bedivere. "Altough of you I already knew of, 'Lucius'."

"It is a pleasure seeing that you're actually alive, lady Da Vinci." Bedivere made a knightly bow to her.

Da Vinci then stared to both Sanzang and Touta. "I had already heard about you two before. Xuanzang Sanzang from the famous 'Journey to the West' and Tawara Touta, legendary warrior from the Heian period, known for having slayed Taira no Masakado."

"Ah! Another appreciator of my journeys!" Sanzang removed her buddhist monk hat to briefly greet Da Vinci. "I see that my teachings have a worldwide appeal!"

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well." Touta told to Da Vinci. "So even someone from a far place such as Italy as heard about me. But I'd say a person like you must known a lot about a little bit of everything."

"Wrong you are not." Da Vinci replied before seeing the last one that still hadn't been introduced to her. "And you are the so called 'imposter', king Arthur Pendragon."

"I'd figure my simple disguise would not pass as effectively on someone's keen observation such as Lady Da Vinci." Arthur replied, greeting her by doing a knightly bow as well out of noble principles.

"It all became obvious when I saw a person in a yellow rain coat walking in the middle of the camp with Lancelot arriving shortly after, introducing me to the topic of an 'imposter' of the Lion King." Da Vinci said, having figured out that question of the imposter a long time ago. "Who else could be except an alternative version of Artoria Pendragon?" Having finished from doing the reunion and introduction to the new allies, Da Vinci decided to go forward to the next topics. "But anyways, you've been to Atlas Institute recently, have you not? Do tell us then what you found there."

"Oh right! We were about to speak on that!" Romani speaked, staring to the Chaldea team. "So, discovered anything important on your visit to Atlas Institute?"

"We did find many vital information. The type you want to listen it carefully." Mash replied, proceeding to tell the findings the group did in there, with Ritsuka, Peko and Nala also speaking about it.

The team shared to Romani and Da Vinci how they ended up reuniting with Peko there and meeting with Arthur for the first time. Then, they proceeded to tell them about the existence of TRI-HERMES and the secrets that it told to the group. The ones about the identity of the Heroic Spirit that resided within Mash being that of a knight of a Round Table, Galahad, the ancient document that could give a huge intel and reveal about Peko and Nala's past, the truth of the Lion King's ultimate plan, the Beast class and the trio of Beasts that were suspected to be currently in the Singularity working together, Arthur hunting one of them, and the possibilities of Man of Sin being a Beast as well as The Blight's true nature.

But anything about Holmes presence there or the secret about Chaldea and the history of Romani's participation on the Holy Grail war alongside first director, Marisbury Animusphere, was kept secret from both Romani and Da Vinci, doing as the detective had told them to do. They even talked about Nitocris requesnting their help about a possible dire situation rising on the sun kingdom due to Ozymandias. But the ones that were told to be kept secret were indeed kept secret.

After all was finally explained and cleared out, Romani and Da Vinci's main concern laid on the obvious: The presence of three Beasts.

"Beast VI/L, Beast VI/R and Beast 0/XIII. That is no matter of joke." Da Vinci said with seriousness. Both she and Romani have heard and studied the Beast class before. "If that what you told us is true, then perhaps defeating the Lion King won't be enough to resolve the problem of this Singularity as that trio of Beasts might plunge it into more trouble and instability."

"If even a single one of them decides to show up, we can be really in trouble!" Romani said with apprehension. "We would need to have to pull the mightiest of extra efforts and some to defeat a Beast. And Man of Sin being possible one?...Honestly, with the explanation you gave of The Blight, it doesn't sound that far-fetched."

"A type of dark magic that can corrupt people by infecting their souls like a virus." Da Vinci put a hand on her chin, pensatively. "Yes, that would be how I'd describe it. And as Beasts are beings born of sin, with The Blight capable to corrode a person with it, it leaves no doubt that whoever is behind The Blight is a Beast!"

"And Man of Sin could be our main suspect here. It is all themathically connected for such individual to not be!" Romani added, he and Da Vinci also being of the opinion that such mysterious individual was indeed a Beast, namely, the one behind The Blight.

"While we suspected that such mysterious figure with that name could be one, I'm worry that this Singularity might soon evolve into something out of proportion." Da Vinci said, not liking that there seemed to be Beasts nearby, plotting something behind the curtains.

"Worry not, Lady Da Vinci, Mr Romani!" Arthur told them with a unwavering posture. "If one tries to appear, I'll make sure to deal with it as a grand candidate of the Saber class!" The King of Knights then looked to the other servants in the tent. "We all will!" He proclaimed, also aware that the Grand Assassin, First Hassan, was here in this Singularity as well, being a huge boost of strenght if the Beasts did decided to appear.

"Well, having Arthur Pendragon telling us that does sound reassuring." Romani replied. "Anyways, you finally discovered the Heroic Spirit that was in you, Mash."

The shielder smiled to Romani. "I did, Doctor. Galahad, the Knight of Heaven." She out a hand on her own chest. "Never I thought that a famous Knight of the Roundtable would one day be the reason why I keep living."

"And so, did you feel any changes on your body upon discovering it?" Da Vinci asked, wanting to know if after learning about Galahahd, Mash was noticing any difference or not.

"Well, I still do look the same and nothing seemed to have changed. It appears learning about Galahad's identity wasn't even enough to unlock my Noble Phantasm at true potential. There's clearly one more step missing torwards there." Mash said, despite not sounding sad about it. "Yet, I feel like a chapter about my life will be concluding with that."

Both Romani and Da Vinci stared at Mash with pride, happy to see how far she had gone since her first years as a subject.

"And now about you two, Peko, Nala." Romani looked to the twins.

So did Da Vinci. "That ancient document paper you have. Is it true that it is of a language never seen before?" She asked them. "May I see it?"

"Sure." Peko took out the document from his pocket and handed it to Da Vinci for her to see.

"Feels warm." The italian inventor was fascinated by how old the texture looked as well as the symbol looking letters that were in there, forming the text. "Not even the greatest of paleographs would be able to decipher this. It is truly ancient like you said!"

"Lemme see it." Romani asked her and Da Vinci did it so, showing him the calligraphy of the document. Yet, Romani seemed to have immediatly been absorved by it, staring deeply not only at the piece of paper but also to the stamp signature of the crown symbol with four pointers around it. How it made his mind simply look to go in shutdown.

"Doc?" Ritsuka asked as Romani wouldn't break eye contact from the document.

"Is he trying to figure out a possible translation for it?" Mash questioned. "Humm...Doctor, are you okay?"

"..."

"Doctor! We're talking with you!" Peko also tried to call Romani's attention.

"Hellooooo? Earth calling Doctor Romani back!" Nala tried as well, already getting impatient at seeing Romani not responding.

"Roman!" Frustrated and slightly annoyed, Da Vinci almost yelled out Romani's name, being enough to break him free from whatever state of hypnosis he was in. "Have you gone deaf by any chance?"

"Hum?! Wha- M-Me?!" Romani said clumsly, seemingly having been caught off guard. "I-I was just trying to figure out what these letters and symbols in the document mean!"

"And so? Did you figured it out?" Da Vinci questioned him.

"Not really. This writing system is of one I have never seen before, not even in the world of magecraft." Romani replied, having almost no clue. "Altough it does seem it could have been an inspiration or inspired in the sumerian language."

"We had already reached to that conclusion before." Peko replied. "That and that this writting might be the language the people of mine and Nala's homeland speak and use."

"We were already considering visiting the sun kingdom to see if Ozymandias and Nitocris can give us any intel about it since they also lived simultaneously with the cultures of Mesopotamia." Mash told to Da Vinci and Romani. "And now that Nitocris appeared telling us everything about the current situation happening on the sun kingdom, it is surely important to go there again!"

Da Vinci approved the idea. "That isn't badly thought. Perhaps someone as ancient as those two can indeed recognize the language in this document as perhaps one of the many long forgotten in sand." The italian inventor then went to the next topic. "And finally, the end goal of the Lion King through the usage of Rhongomyniad."

"The Tower at the Ends of the World." Romani said, having read about the divine lance before. "So she plans to ascend the small population of inhabitants of the Holy City to 'heaven' with her where they can live forever as mere beings with limited freedom. What a way to actually show it as 'dystopian' instead! And to think that until now I failed to notice how Rhongomyniad was being used as an anchor to pin the entire space of this Singularity from the very beggining!"

"And when fully powered, she will sacrifice the entire land and everyone in order for the Holy City to travel through the outer layers of the planet Earth in order to live forever in a small gated 'paradise'." Da Vinci said, not liking the sound of it. "Lancelot had already informed me of the Lion King's plan before. But now I can fully confirm that is indeed her plan! Honestly, such plan seems way too out of character for someone who is supposed to be an Arthur Pendragon. Her personality and nature...sounds off."

"You're not the only one. I too have the same suspicion about the Lion King." Arthur told her. "Altough I and her had possibly came to a point were we would have done of anything save Camelot from perishing, we would never reach to these extreme points of genociding innocent and wanting to restrain the freedom from our people as much as possible. Something is definetly wrong with this king Arthur."

Thinking about it, Da Vinci made the following question. "Say, to those that had already seen and been with the Lion King, have you noticed something unnatural in her personality?"

"Unnatural you say." Touta said thinking about the question before staring to Sanzang. "She did striked as a bit odd during our stay there, didn't she, Sanzang?"

"I could always tell there was something off with her at that moment on every day we would meet." Sanzang replied, recounting a bit of her and Touta stay on the Holy City. "Those eyes of hers. Always feeling cold and devoided of emotion, as if the Lion King never had felt any of it before. Unable to get angry, upset, sad, happy. Just a bland face of emotionless." The lady monk proceeded to look at Arthur. "But with this version of king Arthur here, we can see that he's more alive, responsive and expressive. And if he and the Lion King are supposed to be the same legend but of different genders, then what changed exactly on Artoria Pendragon? I believe that the knights of the Round Table that decided to follow her did it because of their loyalty with the Artoria Pendragon they once knew, much likely unaware of the change."

"It was told that our king was unable to comprehend human emotion back in the day." Bedivere replied, remembering of his time with Artoria during their first lives. "And being sincere, as more years gone by, the more phlegmatic the king would get. However she had always have the ability to smile even if it became rare as the time passed by. The king could still feel an iota for her people. But the Lion King? The more I hear and see the attrocities, the more I realize that compassion has been long dead for her." The Knight of Loyalty then turned to Lancelot. "Also, the king would always stay young and juvenile up until her death, never aging. The same case doesn't seem to be it for the Lion King who is clearly mature and adult. When the king summoned all of you, Lancelot, was she still in her youthful appearence?"

"No, she was not." Lancelot replied. "When me and the others were summoned by the Lion King, she already had the aspect she has now."

"To have changed to a ruthless stoic person..." Ritsuka pondered a bit in his head. "Could it be that maybe, Solomon or the Man of Sin had a hand in it? That they might had corrupted your king into becoming the Lion King?"

"That wouldn't sound impossible to have happened." Romani told him. "But I think if that was the case, she wouldn't want to perserver a small fraction of humanity since it would go against Solomon's plan and perhaps Man of Sin intentions as well from what we theorize of him being a Beast."

"True. I believe that neither those two have nothing to do with the king's actual state of mind and personality." Lancelot said, having other suspect in mind. "If anything, it could very well be Agravain that is controlling her behind the scenes to act as his puppet." The Knight of the Lake thought, being always suspicious of the Lion King's right hand man. He thought that the possibility of Agravain manipulating the Lion King as some kind of proxy to do what he wanted, could very well be real.

Peko then remembered something, having also been with the Lion King these past few weeks. "Wait! I have a detail about the Lion King that can clearly tell us she has become a different person from the Artoria Pendragon you used to know!"

"Thank god you do. It would feel kinda weird that you spent literally days on her castle and never got to speak with her or notice a detail about her." Nala told to her brother.

Peko looked at Bedivere. "During one of her conferences with the other knights, the Lion King came to know of your betrayal through Tristan. However, shortly after it ended, the Lion King showed doubt and confusion, her mind aloof. She...She didn't knew who you are, Bedivere."

"...What?" Bedivere reacted with some shock as he heard what Peko said. "The Lion King, doesn't know me?"

Even Lancelot was surprised. "But that's impossible...how could she not to? Even if changed, she's still the person who once was our king. How could she forget any of us, specially you, one of the knights that have been with the king for the longest time?"

"Then I guess that indeed pretty confirms it." Arthur said. "The king you once knew has trully become someone else entirely. A different being all together."

"Is it because she didn't summoned Bedivere that she doesn't remember him? Or is the opposite?" Mash wondered. "Does that mean, she isn't aware of Galahad as well?"

"But what exactly changed her to that? That's the question." Nala said, knowing that there was still a missing link here.

"Rhongomyniad." Da Vinci answered briefly before coming to elaborate it. "Rhongomyniad was one of the two sacred weapons king Arthur posessed in his tales, with Rhongomyniad being a Divine Construct, a nature too powerful for one handle it normally. If this Lion King, is an Artoria Pendragon that has lost Excalibur forever, she would see no choice but to use Rhongomyniad which while making her lose her eternal youth, it kept her alive way after original Camelot having fell with a pseudo immortality." She theorized. "However, having long lost Excaliburn and possibly Avalon's protection with it, Artoria Pendragon became too exposed to the divine mana of Rhogomyniad for a very long time, eventually altering her psyche throughout the ages she has been wandering, alive."

"..." Despite hearing it with silence, Bedivere slowly realized that if this was indeed most likelt the case than all of this Singularity...was his fault.

"And so, Artoria Pendragon, instead of becoming an Heroic Spirit, became something else entirely." Da Vinci said, thinking the others had already figured it out already.

"A Divine Spirit. A goddess basically!" Romani guessed it. "She and Rhongomyniad have become one in the same, chained to one another!" The doctor bit his nails. "This is bad! Even if Solomon and Man of Sin are defeated, the Lion King will become a threat to humanity if left alive! Defeating her here and stopping her plans, if of huge importance!"

"How about we send Lancelot to assassinate her?" Nala proposed. "I mean, if he's one of her knights, he could get close enough to-"

"I'm unable to directly harm the Lion King." Lancelot immediatly shut down the girl's idea. "Due to the Gifts she has given us, all of us knights deal no absolute damage to her. It would be pointless."

"Oh well, at least it was an idea." Nala sighed, seeing how fast it was discarded.

"Then we have to do what I already was pedicting: make an alliance with Ozymandias and the sun kingdom as a whole in order to join forces against the Lion King." Ritsuka spelled out to the entire party.

"Hmm, I dunno, Fujimaru. That could be a bit risky." Romani told him, unsure if Ozymandias would be the type of king to accept it.

"But what if Nitocris did told us was true, then he is afraid of his people's well-being." Peko told to the doctor. "We were already requested by her to be there. If we are able to understand what's happening to Ozymandias, I think he would be okay with accepting an alliance that would protect his kingdom from eventually being attacked by the Holy City."

"In other words, it can work." Mash added.

"Having speaked with the Sun King before, while a tad arrogant and stubborn, he is not dim-witted and understands the implications at hand." Arthur told to the party. "I think we can have enough substance to make him want an alliance with us."

"Yes. King Ozymandias can be seen as a bit of simple-minded when it becomes to protect his people." Lancelot speaked. "I believe we can convince him of an alliance indeed."

"We aren't asking for your opinion." Mash said coldly to Lancelot, making him comically weep.

"I'm trying to make up for my mistakes here..." Lancelot said, teary-eyed.

"However, with a group this big, I believe there won't be a need for all of us to be going." Bedivere told them. "Therefore, I will return back to the hidden village in the mountains to inform Cursed Arm and the others of the alliance we're going to make with Ozymandias for the final battle."

"I'll go with you as well." Touta told to the Knight of Loyalty, also choosing to not go to the sun kingdom. "I hope you don't mind having some company along the way. Going from the desert to the mountains while alone could be a bit dangerous with all of the monsters and possible threats roaming around."

Bedivere smiled to the bowman. "I appreciate it, Touta."

"Oh, what's this? Touta willing to become other people travelling companions? If that ain't the disciple taking his mentor's footsteps!" Sanzang smiled torwards Touta, emotional. "How far you have come! You make me so proud, Touta!"

"Eh. I'd say that spending all this time with you, that attitude might be finally rubbing on me." He said with a smile to Sanzang. "Ot maybe I just gave up and decided to give in..."

"Take care along the road, both of you." Arthur told the two, proceeding to stare at Bedivere. "We will see each other again in the hidden village once we came back with the negotiations of the alliance done."

"We will, my kin-uhm! King Arthur." Bedivere said, almost accidentaly adressing Arthur as his king again.

"Then it is all set! The rest of you will all journey to the sun kingdom in order to resolve the problem it might be having and strike an alliance with Ozymandias!" Romani stated to everyone else in the tent. "Fujimaru, are you ready?"

Ritsuka nodded his head. "I am doc!" He then looked to his team, all truly back together after so long. "And you, guys?"

"Ready for it, master!" Mash responded, with Peko, Nala and Da Vinci agreeing.

"Fou fou!"

"Alright then!" Ritsuka exclaimed. "Next stop: the sun kingdom!"

To be continued...

---

And that was it for chapter 114!

Gonna be honest, it became longer than I was expecting xD

Now, Da Vinci is alive (because of course she is, the plot of FGO so demanded it and the mother of the group couldn't be gone at this late point in the story. We all have to thank Lancelot for being such a womani-ahem, gentleman for having saved her)

But yeah, just like every dead-beat dad, Lancelot got beatten after all those years of not paying child support. But I can understand that. In the Middle Ages it probably wasn't cheap as well. My guy just wanted to have some nice fields in Normandy and retire while possibly reading what would be the equivelent of playboy magazines in the 5th-6th century. Truly a misunderstood dad with a bitter son/daughter. But he's sure trying his best.

Anyways, that's all I wanted to say, and see you next time on chapter 115! Peace!

P.S:

WARNING! WARNING! CONTAINMENT BREACH! CONTAINMENT BREACH! ALL OF CHALDEA STAFF HEAD TO THE PANIC ROOM!

Ritsuka (Arriving to the Command Room of Novum Chaldea): W-What's happening?!

Sion: She escaped the ice cube!

Ritsuka: What?!

Da Vinci: We're trying to locate her, but no signs of her so far!

Ritsuka: How can that be? We're just in early November yet!

Goredolf: Fujimaru, you naive youngster! Aren't you aware of the power of this monster yet?! The closer we get to that time of year, the more she-

Nero (Appearing behind them, menacingly): Padoru...Padoru...