Chapter Twenty-Five

Fuyuki Singularity

"Lily…Lily." said a familiar voice as the pseudo servant tossed and turned in her sleep. "...Lily, someone's trying to steal your food."

"I'll fucking kill them!" Lily yelled as she quickly woke up from her sleep. Upon being awake so soon felt a wave of heat hitting her body. She looked around to see that she was in a burned-down building with fire spreading around the area. "...What the fuck?"

"Good, you're awake," Artoria said as she appeared on her shoulder. "Was beginning to think you wouldn't wake up."

"I feel like I was thrown around like a rag doll," She said before pulling herself up from the ground. "What the hell happened? The last thing I remember was seeing the demon god pillar unleash an attack, and then everything went dark."

"Halphas rayshifted you along with the others to a singularity," Artoria answered as she motions for Lily to look up. Looking up she saw that the sky was covered with dark-colored clouds and a large circle that was revealed in the middle of the night sky. "Singularities are unobservable regions that do not exist within human history."

"Meaning?"

"Think of them as alternate worlds of alternate history. If Halphas can create something like this, then that must mean Goetia is gaining his strength back."

"Didn't you say that there wasn't that much magic in this world?"

"There isn't, but I never said that there weren't any items in this world that give off magic."

"So basically Goetia has the power to create stuff like this now?"

"Either that or he's been doing research on humans with reality-bending quirks. And if he can do something like this, then so do the demon god pillars." She said as Lily began to make her way out of the building and began to walk down the streets of the ruined city she was in.

"Swell, as if this job wasn't hard enough," Lily said as she scanned the area while walking. "How long have I been out?"

"If I had to guess. I say you've been out for about an hour, give or take. Right now, you're in Fuyuki city, Japan. 2004 A.D. This is the city where the holy grail war took place." She answered as she looked around the city. "But something seems off about this place."

"Like this city was hit by a bomb or something?" Lily asked as she pulled out her phone to contact Mina or Mineta.

"Well, yes…but something else," Artoria said before vanishing back inside Lily. "I'll do my best to help, but you need to be on guard and find your classmates."

"That's the plan," Lily said before hearing static on the other end of the call. "Dammit, there goes my plan on trying to contact Mina and Mineta."

"Makes sense, seeing how we're cut off from your world."

"You think the others are okay?" Lily asked as she summoned her sword into her hand while scanning the area.

"Mina, Mineta, and Kaminari should be fine. The others…I don't know. We're in a place where you all have never been before. So it's kind of hard to tell if they survive this or not."

"Thanks for the boost of confidence in my classmates." She said only to pause as her ears twitched upon hearing the sounds of metal footsteps heading toward her. The pseudo servant squinted her eyes to see who it was in front of her as she noticed a dark figure making its way down the street Lily was on. The moment the figure was close to the flames off to the side as she saw the figure had on black armor with a sword in one hand and a head in the other.

"Keep a level head from what you're about to see," Artoria said as Lily was about to ask her what she meant, only for her question to be answered as she noticed what the knight was dragging. Looking down, she saw that the head belonged to Koda.

"...Shit, this went from zero to a hundred real quick." She said before noticing the knight in armor stopped upon seeing her. "...Please tell me you know who that guy is because I'm pretty sure he's not a knight of the round table."

"He is. Or at least this version of him isn't part of the knights of the round table." Artoria said as the knight threw the head off to the side.

"Meaning?"

"A servant can be summoned into a different class depending on what has happened in their past lives. The throne of Heroes can record both good and bad things that left a mark on human history. That man right there is Lancelot as a berserker. Tormented after what happened that led to the downfall of King Arthur and the knights of the round table, he fell into madness which in turn caused him to be summoned into the berserker class."

"...I know you told me both your story and the real story of King Arthur, but don't take offense to this…you guys make a fuck ton of horrible mistakes."

"Noted, but I would focus on surviving rather than on my past mistakes." She said as Lily noticed Berserker letting our primal roar before charging at Lily. Within seconds, the mad knight appeared in front of her as he brought a metal pole down upon her, only for the bunny girl to quickly bring her sword up and block it. Upon blocking it, the force behind it caused the ground to crack as she was struggling to hold her ground. The magic circuits in her arms lit up as she quickly pushed Berserker away and countered with a barrage of quick jabs with her sword, only for the mad knight to block all of them before parrying one of her strikes and counters by hitting her in the face with his weapon.

Lily quickly brought her sword up to block the attack but was sent flying off into the side of the wall next to them. She was dazed because her head collided with the wall but quickly recovered as she ducked underneath Berserker's strike as he instantly shattered the wall into pieces. She quickly barrels roll off to the side to get some distance between her and the berserker servant. Berserker was about to close the distance between him and Lily, only for him to hear something being crushed. Looking down he saw red color gemstones underneath his foot. The stone that he crushed and the ones surrounding him started to glow bright rather quickly before creating a huge explosion underneath him as he was engulfed in it.

"Don't think that's enough to stop him," Artoria said as she and Lily noticed the mad knight quickly jumped out of the explosion and descended towards her. As he was coming down towards her, Lily reached into her tail and threw three purple-colored gemstones at the mad knight. The moment he made contact with the gemstones, a sphere was created around him as he was created around the berserker as he crashed onto the ground. "Though that might."

"At least my magecraft works on the bastard," Lily said before jumping back from the knight as she brought her sword up. As her sword was brought up, purplish-black particles of magic started to gather into the sword before changing her stance and charging at Berserker in an attempt to impale him in the head. The moment she was a few steps close to him, the knight's body gave off a dark glow as he let out a primal roar. The dome that she created around Lancelot shattered around him due to the force behind his roar. He soon locked onto Lily as he reached behind himself and pulled out a submachine gun. "Oh shit!"

"Arrrrrrttttthhuuurrrrrrr!" He yelled before taking aim and firing upon the grand servant. Lily didn't have time to evade Lancelot's attack as she used her sword to block some of the bullets but felt them pierced through her body that wasn't covered in armor. She quickly backs away from the berserker as she deflected the bullets as best as she could. The moment she could get some distance away from him, she quickly took cover behind a wrecked car.

"You could've warned me that he can use firearms!" Lily yelled while wincing from the pain she felt in her right arm, left leg, and abdomen.

"It's not like I can read his mind seeing how he's a servant. So knowing what weapons he has makes it difficult. Though I'm a bit surprised that he would have a weapon like that hidden away."

"Fan-fucking-tastic. As if this wasn't going to be a pain in the ass of a fight." Lily said as she felt her injuries heal up as the bullets inside her fell out of her body. "Thank god for Avalon's healing factor, but even with that taking him down is going to be a problem." She said before pulling her head off to the side of the car to see Lancelot continuing his assault on the car with his submachine gun. Lily pulled her head back around the car, just as a bullet shot passed her face. "I fucking hate guns. How much ammunition does one gun have?"

"You can thank his noble phantasm for that. Anything he puts his hands on, it becomes a weapon for him to use."

"So basically he has unlimited ammunition with that gun," Lily asked as the magic circuits in her legs lit up before she quickly darted to the side. Lancelot saw her move from behind the car as he continued to fire at her. The bunny girl continued to move off to the left of Lancelot, she soon charged forward as she deflected and dodge the bullets coming at her. Once she was close to the berserker, she quickly sliced the submachine gun in half. The moment Lancelot dropped the remains of his gun, Lily quickly spun around to the right and quickly delivered a horizontal cut to his chest. She soon brought her sword up to deliver a vertical uppercut to his chest again, then another horizontal cut to the berserker's helmet. Lancelot staggered backward from the triple attack for a moment before countering with a strong kick to Lily's stomach. Her eyes widened upon being kicked as she was sent flying off into the distance before crashing into a truck. The moment she hit the truck, she bounced off it and fell to the ground. The pseudo servant staggered to her feet for a moment before holding her stomach, vomiting the content that she had eaten, and soon tumbles over to the side in pain. "I-I fucking h-hate berserkers…"

"Arrrrrrttttthhuuurrrrrrr!" Lancelot yelled as he quickly charged at the downed pseudo servant. Lily saw the mad knight heading towards her as she reached into her tail and tossed another purple gemstone at him. The berserker smashed the gemstone into pieces with his fist, only for small swords made out of magic to appear around him and pierced his body in vital areas before exploding.

"Since when can you make gemstones like that?" Artoria asked as she notice a smirk appear on Lily's face

"Remember those prototype gemstones I made that you said would be dangerous to use? Well, I kept some just in case for emergencies like this." She said before pulling herself back onto her feet. She soon took notice of the cloud of dust vanishing from the explosion she made to see Lancelot was still standing, though there were dents and holes made in his armor. "So he's more acceptable to magic attacks than physical attacks."

"That would mean his resistance to magic is low," Artoria said as Berserker raised his hand into the air. The moment he did this, magic surged from his surroundings and into his hand. Within a few seconds, a sword appeared in his hand.

"That's not good," Lily said before noticing Lancelot vanished from her sight. She quickly looked around to see where he was, only for her ears to pick up him yelling from above. "Yep, not good at all!" She yelled before jumping back to avoid the blade. Upon making contact with the ground, the concrete broke as it caused Lily to be pushed back even more. With the help of her flight quirk, she was able to recover from the force behind the attack. But the moment she did, Lancelot appeared in front of her in an instant as he delivered a deep gash to the side of her abdomen. She winced from the pain she felt as blood leaked out, the mad knight soon delivered flurries of strikes, jabs, and piercing attacks by his sword and the chains coming from his armor.

The pseudo servant did her best to parry Lancelot's attacks, but most of his attacks that she couldn't avoid pierced her body as blood splattered around the area they were in as they moved around avoiding, countering, and landing vital strikes on each other. Just as she was backing away to escape the dust cloud, the mad knight quickly closed the distance between the two as he brought his sword down upon Lily, only for the bunny girl to quickly bring her sword up to block the oncoming attack. The force behind the berserker's attack caused the dust cloud to vanish and the ground to crack like before.

"Arrrrrrttttthhuuurrrrrrr!"

"Will you shut the hell up and stop calling me that!?" Lily yelled as she felt Lancelot pushing her back.

"In fairness, you house the soul of a version of King Arthur," Artoria said as Lily pushed Lancelot's sword away as she backed away from the mad knight. Lily rolled her eyes at Artoria's comment before jumping out of the way of the charging knight. In retaliation, she threw six red colored gemstones at him from behind. The moment the berserker turned around, the gemstones embedded into his armor. The mad knight looked down at the gemstones before looking up at Lily who raised her hand at him.

"I was saving them for emergencies like fighting against All Might, but you forced my hand on this one," Lily said before snapping her fingers. The moment she did that, the gemstones started to glow before setting off a chain of explosions within Lancelot's armor. The explosions caused Lancelot to yell in pain as he was engulfed in the explosion and a cloud of smoke was created. "Please tell me that it was enough to kill him?"

"Given who the heroic spirit is, not likely," Artoria answered as the mad knight burst out of the cloud of smoke and charged at Lily with the intent to impale her with his sword. Lily quickly brought her sword up as she parried the attack to the side as Lancelot charged through a couple of destroyed buildings. "By yourself, you can't take him on at your current level. But with some assistance, you can beat him."

"In case you haven't noticed, I can't find anyone else around at the moment." She said before turning around and seeing Lancelot pull himself up and charge at her again. Just as he was about to bring his sword down upon Lily, a burst of azure color flames erupted from the side causing the mad night to scream in pain as he was sent tumbling to the side. This took her by surprise and she was about to look to where the flames came from but felt someone grab her from behind and pull her down into a cosmic-looking portal. Within a matter of seconds, she found herself in a different area and away from the berserker. Before she could do or say anything, she felt herself tackled to the ground. Looking down upon herself she noticed that it was Mina that was the cause of it as a smile appeared on the bunny girl's face.

"Okay, I was not expecting you to appear out of nowhere like that," Lily said as she pulled herself up a bit while trying to get Mina to release her hold on her. "C-Can't breathe!"

"Oh crap! Sorry!" Mina said as she released her hold on Lily. "But holy crap you have no idea how long I've been trying to find you and the others."

"I kind of figured. Am I the only one you were able to find?"

"You're the only one I was able to find. Mainly because of the sound of explosions you were making while fighting that knight in black armor." Mina said as she looked around. "Where in the world are we? I asked Kama, but she doesn't know much about this place."

"The demon god pillar created a singularity and trapped us in here," Lily answered as she noticed Mina's confused expression. "Think of them as parallel universes where history is altered."

"Wait so we're in another world!?"

"Seems like it from what Artoria told me. And it seems Halphas is planning on keeping us here until we're killed off by the monsters, servants, or something else."

"S-So how do we get out of this place, because I prefer not to spend the rest of my life in a place like this…especially when they're skeletons, killer servants, and not having internet access."

"Yeah, I found out I can't use the device Artemis gave us to call you or Mineta. As for how to get out, my hunch is that we need to find Halphas and kill him…problem is I have no idea where he is. So I think we should be more focused on trying to find our classmates...or at least hope they're alive after what I ended up running into."

"What do you mean?"

"...Yeah…Koda's dead." Lily said as Mina's eyes widened in shock upon hearing this. "The servant I was fighting got to him when I woke up and was trying to get my bearings straight after the demon god pillar teleported us here."

"That's horrible." She said while covering her mouth along with holding back her sensation to cry. "W-Wait, maybe you can use that gemstone to bring him back…right?"

"Much as I would love to, I can't bring him back to life. The problem is that he was decapitated, and I don't know where he tossed the body. And seeing how it's been more than an hour from the pale color of his head that the berserker had, it would be too late for him to be saved."

"So…he can't be saved."

"I'm sorry, but my magecraft skills aren't great. I can use a gemstone to heal them on the spot from fatal or minor injuries, but I can't bring them back from the dead if there's nothing to bring them back in…Sorry."

"Oh…I see…It's fine." Mina said as Lily noticed Mina's disgruntled and disappointed expression on her face.

"I know this is a lot to process, but we need to find the others as soon as possible so that what happens to Kouda doesn't happen to our classmates."

"R-Right," Mina said as she clapped her face in an attempt to focus. "Okay…so any ideas on where to start looking? Because so far I have no idea."

"Well if there's one thing I learned during my time on the streets, always scout out the area you're in from the high place. So we should look for a stable building to survey the area." Lily said before hearing something being fired off in the distance. Both she and MIna turn around to see a pillar of purple lightning shooting off into the sky. "Or we could just go to that location where that beam of lightning is coming from."

"You don't think that attack belongs to Kaminari…do you?"

"Unless you know someone in our class with lightning powers. I'm gonna place my bet on Kaminari." Lily said before staggering to her feet. "You've been practicing increasing your body's ability with your magic circuits, right?" She asked as Mina nodded. "Good, then it's time for a bit of a test run."