11: Hooray for percussive maintenance!

It takes a few minutes to get Cu up to speed on our situation - there's a lot to go through, with Chaldea, Hanam, Mash, Mordred, and myself all having unique problems at the moment.

"Huh. And here I had you mistaken for Saber. You really are the spitting image of your 'father', huh?" Cu says, and Mordred breaks down into the same bout of villainous laughter he did in my previous loop. "Still, to think this place had become a singularity… what a mess."

"And here we are with only one servant on our side with regular access to his Noble Phantasm!" I say with a forced laugh.

"Oi, who said I was on your side?" Caster says, his eyes narrowing.

Shit. He's closer to me than the others. Even though they're all quickly ready for battle-!

"Pfft, I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" He says with a laugh. "No need to get so tense! I mean, the Grail's obviously incredibly cursed, so it's not like there's any point in fighting for it anymore. Besides, I only went along with the summoning because I wanted a good fight in the first place - and in your current situation you guys ain't it."

"Oi, I was seriously preparing myself for death there! That wasn't funny!" I say with a strained smile. "On another note, I keep hearing about this 'Grail' thing, but I'm still pretty clueless about it, beyond the fact that there's a war over it or something. Can someone explain that to me?"

"Well, apparently someone caught the blood of Christ in a cup when he was being executed two thousand years ago, and so the cup became magic or something. For some reason or another, Father had a good number of his knights go out searching for the thing." Mordred says. "Galahad was the one who found it, but it just wound up killing him, so the search was called off."

"Wait, wait wait!" Romani yells, popping in on the holographic communicator again. "I thought Galahad got taken up into heaven, not killed!"

"...Is there a difference?"

""Yes there's a difference!"" Hanam and Romani both yell at him.

...As someone who has both been sent to another world and killed, I can confirm that the two are different.

"Anyway," Cu says, "at some point some mages created a 'Holy Grail' in Fuyuki, which was basically just a wish granting device. It summons seven servants, who fight amongst themselves to claim the thing - thus, 'Holy Grail War'."

"...But why summon them in the first place, though? Does the grail need some kind of weird blood sacrifice to do it's thing?" I say with a raised eyebrow.

"That's because the wish granting isn't actually the purpose of the ritual." Says Romani. "The real goal is to use the disturbance in the fabric of reality created when all seven servants are killed in order to hitch a ride to the Throne of Heroes - and by extension, the Root.

The whole wish-granting aspect is a bit of an unintended side-effect, really. A lot of mana is returned to the grail when each servant dies, and with enough mana all kinds of weird stuff becomes possible. That's actually how command spells work - they throw a bunch of mana at the servant to get them to do something they wouldn't otherwise be able to, or would not want to do."

"Huh. Good to know, I guess." I say. Not really sure what this 'Root' thing is, but that can probably wait. "So, what now? I mean, we're here and all, but it seems things are already wrecked. If the Grail is horribly cursed, we can't use it to repair the timeline, right?"

"Well, there's good news on that front!" says a woman I haven't seen before as she pops into the communication hologram. "We don't need to repair the timeline - to start with, the timeline isn't so fragile that something on this level could actually topple it. Singularities like this would normally be pretty easily cleaned up by the Planet's own defense mechanisms."

"It sure doesn't look like it's cleaning itself up…" I mutter.

"And that is our big clue!" the woman says with a smile. "Sustaining a Singularity like this would take either a particularly unique Noble Phantasm, or-!"

"Enough mana to imitate such an effect!" Mash exclaims. "As expected of the genius Da Vinci-chan, you've already got it figured out!" Eh? Da Vinci? As in the painter? Wasn't he a guy, though?

"Exactly! So, in that case, you won't need to use the Grail. Just removing it from the singularity should be enough - either by destroying it, or just rayshifting it out."

"So I get to pillage Father's treasures again, huh? Nice!" Says Mordred with a grin.

Oi, is this guy really a 'Heroic' Spirit?

"So, eliminate Saber and claim the Grail. How do we do that?" I ask. "If she beat Heracles, then I feel like going into this without a plan will get us killed."

"Hm. Well, first we've got to clean up the extras." Says Cu. "I'm not keen on getting attacked from behind by Lancer when we go to confront her, and Archer will need to be taken out before we can get to the cave where the Grail and Saber are camped out."

"...Who are Lancer and Archer, anyway?" asks Mash. "Do either of you know their true names?"

"Lancer never revealed her true name to my knowledge, but her Mystic Eyes of Petrification make me believe that she is Medusa." Says Hanam.

"...Yeah, that's a bit of a dead giveaway, huh?" I mutter. Ugh, at least I don't have to figure that part out the hard way.

"Archer's a total mystery, though. The bastard keeps pulling out Noble Phantasms that definitely don't belong to him, and he seems to have endless copies of each." Caster complains. "I've had my own foster father's sword fired at me from that bow of his at least three times in this mess of a war!"

"Caladbolg was a prototype to several Holy Swords… could that be-?" Romani asks.

"Nah, It's definitely Caladbolg. I've heard the guy use its true name. And he's also got the Shield of Ajax, and Beowulf's sword, and a whole bunch of other ones." he continues to grumble. "Well, you guys won't have to worry about it. I'll handle him. As long as Saber is busy with you guys, I should be able to finally finish the fight against him."

"That's stupidly risky, though!" I say. "Wouldn't it be better to push our numbers advantage?"

"Sure, but I've been trying to pin this guy down into a proper one-on-one all friggen war! I got summoned because I wanted to fight, and I'm gonna get my fight, dammit!" He says. "I mean, with three servants who have support from a master, you guys should be able to handle her, right? Hell, you've got the guy who killed her in your group, it shouldn't be a huge deal."

"Yeah, but what if Archer beats you and comes after us!?"

Cu laughs. "Kid, I'm the Hound of Ulster. I once held off the whole army of Connacht for three months all on my own! Even if this chump is somehow my better in combat, I can definitely stall him for a day or two."

"Well, before we get to all that, the first thing to deal with is Lancer, right?" asks Romani.

"Nope. The first thing we've got to deal with is… her." He says, pointing at Mash menacingly.

"Wait, I thought you said you were joking about fighting us!" I yell.

"No, that's not the problem, Master." Says Hanam. "The issue is…"

"...That I can't use my Noble Phantasm, right?" Mash concludes with a frown.

"That's probably right, yeah." Says Mordred. "Unless you can activate that shield, you'll just end up annihilated the moment Father gets serious. Plus, considering that Father can freely use his Noble Phantasm and I can't, I'm probably going to need Skull Guy to be doing something other than carrying Master around all fight."

"...So shouldn't you tell her the thing's True Name, then?" I ask. "You know what it is, right?"

"So you noticed, huh? You're actually pretty insightful, huh Master?" He says. Oi, 'actually'? What's that supposed to mean? "Well, I'm not telling. That guy must have had a good reason not to tell her, or he would have done it. I may have only just met shieldy here, but her personality is infinitely preferable to his!"

"Thanks, I think?" Mash says. "Anyway, if Mordred won't tell us, then how..?"

"Hm. Well, it's not the kind of thing that can be taught." Caster says, stroking his chin. "We'll just put you in a situation where you have to use it. So, no hard feelings, but I'm gonna try to kill you now, and I don't want Saber or Assassin to try to help!"

"So you were going to fight us after all!"

A/N:

Late by a day because I wound up really tired yesterday for some reason or another and I do most of my writing in the evening.

Mostly just talking this chapter, but that's how it be sometimes.

Next chapter Friday.

REVIEW RESPONSE CORNER

MrNONAME said:

Now I'm really like this series and patiently wait for you to upload whenever you do but I wanted to know if you uploaded frequently to get the story out faster or to establish a pattern since most other fan fictions take a few months per upload bit are longer. Theses are shorter but more frequent. Works because cliffhangers are also more frequent for bad endings.

I'm trying to make a habit of writing frequently, basically. Furthermore, I have the kind of creeping perfectionist anxiety that hobbles my writing speed the longer I take between chapters. So if I wait more than a few days it usually ends up being the same length but taking much longer to actually write.

Perfectionism may look good in his shiny shoes, but he's a little bit of an asshole, and no one invites him to their pool parties. -zefrank1, An Invocation for Beginnings.

Guest said:

What would Subaru's noble phantasm be

Just summoning the witch of envy would be a cool idea but I feel that the legend would avoid referencing her so would I wonder what it would be since most servants have something flashy to show off and although Impossible invincible hero is cool it wouldn't be flashy.

He's got his authorities, though they may get distorted in various ways due to the misunderstanding of people in Lugnica, depending on when he's summoned. (i.e. if he were summoned before Petelgeuse died, [Invisible Providence] might revert to [Unseen Hand], gaining extra limbs and losing its ability to pass through things.)

Crown of Reaper said:

I just realized something. How would Gilgamesh react to Barusu? He has the smell of the Witch but what does that mean in this world? He smells like envy, like a snake, or what? 'Cause something like that is probably how Gil is going to call Barusu as 'Mongrel' won't suffice.

Not sure yet. I've got... quite a lot of time to decide.

Will there be another summon before Orleans? Will the Regend himself, the saviour of France make an appearance? Dragons a just bigger swallows after all.

Proooobably not just throwing in Kojiro for the meme. His compatability with Subaru doesn't seem too high.

I have been contemplating Beowulf, though. He's one of the few Dragonslayers who doesn't get to be part of the dragonslayer party that is Orleans.

SING MY ANGEL SING said:

I want Juice to be summoned for Orleans and have him and Gilles battle over who loves the better witch.

Now that I think about it, wouldn't Juice be summoned at his prime? So would the Juice before Pandora pulled the ol' switcheroo be his prime? So Subaru would potentially meet the Juice who was sane? That'd be some cool interactions, like Subaru being confused as to who he is, and Juice possibly thanking Subaru for killing him.

Petelgeuse is in a similar situation to Gilles, who can be summoned as his pre-madness and post-madness selves. As for which will appear and when, that's a secret.

Wolfclaw661 said:

Do you think Subaru would have access to some of the spells he cast/created together with Beatrice like Murak or E.M.T and E.M.M. If you argued that it was Beatrice's skill and knowledge that carried those spells which is why Subaru can't use them that would make sense. I'm assuming that since Shamak was the only spell he has casted by himself is why he can only use that one. Thanks for the great chapter.

Correct. He doesn't (yet) know how to cast them without Beako doing the heavy lifting.

Guest said:

So caster Subaru could theoretically lose against a Pionner of the Stars while Foreigner Subaru would just die a lot?

Correct. Though Foreigner Subaru is possible to eliminate nonlethally, while Caster could clairvoyance that shit.

framfrit said:

Not sure about that pruning point i think the comment was referencing how the timelines continue after Subaru's death as its more multiverse travel to a parallel timeline than time travel and ain't that just cheery for certain timelines like the Subaru suicide one in arc 2 and all the fics that have return by death be abused through multi suicide for info gathering.

It's left vague in the source material whether it's time travel or kaleidoscope type travel. Echidna thinks it's the latter, but as far as I can tell that's just her interpretation. For all we know RbD is actually just a weirdly limited/implemented precognition ability.

nanox876 said:

Will they retrieve EMIYA's pendant to summon him later and use his access to Noble Phantasms to serve as catalysts for other servants?

Probably not. Because of the power situation in chaldea, servant summoning isn't something that can happen willy-nilly (also I don't want to bloat the cast too much).

Will all the events (Limited Time/Interludes/etc.) be covered in chapters or will it only be for the important ones while the others are mentioned as Noodle Incidents?

Some. Kara no Kyoukai and Vengeful Demon's Wail will probably be covered; GudaGuda and Moon Goddess will not. They might get omakes if I decide I want to though.

Guest said:

Interesting though you need to sharpen your writing

I don't mind constructive criticism. It helps me get better at writing.

This is not constructive criticism. If you want someone's writing to improve, you've got to give more details than a single word that doesn't even apply literally to writing. If you said something like "improve your pacing", that might help, but "sharpen" does not.