016 - Now it's time to say goodbye (Part 1)

Olga Marie Animusphere

Given the current circumstances, the sound of clapping hands could only be taken as a horribly distasteful attempt at lightening the mood. Saber of Black may be no more, but the circumstances surrounding the encounter are anything but praiseworthy. The last thing Hak– Fujimaru needs is someone praising the cheerful abandon with which she throws herself into danger.

And yet, as soon as she turns towards the source of the noise, the sharp rebuke she had been about to snap with dies on her lips.

Because the figure slowly making their way towards them is one that she'd recognize anywhere. That green suit only he can pull off without looking ridiculous, that wild mane that would look out of place in any other gentleman, these sharp features that always seem to soften in Olga's presence.

The closest thing to a father Olga has had from even before Father's passing. Oftentimes, the only source of encouragement she could count on, the only source of unconditional support that she could trust beyond all doubt. The last three years might've very well crushed Olga without him on her corner.

"Lev!" She cries happily as a big, relieved smile erases the frown from her face. "You're alright!"

With the urgent chaos of the Singularity and Lev presumed death, Olga had resolved to put him out of her mind until she had the chance to properly grieve his passing. Originally, it was just a practical choice, the right decision to make in the circumstances. But, as strange and unexpected things kept happening one after another, she had somehow allowed herself to forget about him for real.

She firmly rebukes the wave of guilt that washes over her at the thought, getting on her feet to run up to him. This isn't the time for that, he's alright when they expected him to be dead and that's cause enough for celebration, she'll have time to feel guilty once they're back at Chaldea.

"Bravo, heroes of Chaldea, bravo!" Lev speaks up, eyes only sparing a brief glance towards Olga before looking past her at the rest of the group. "Everything might've gone horribly off-script along the way, but you somehow managed to reach the intended ending. Fate is truly ironic sometimes, isn't it?"

"Lev?" Olga's steps hesitate. Her brisk, barely-not-a-sprint, pace slowing down to a slow walk.

"She was on your side, you know? On the side of humanity." Lev continues, sending another brief glance towards Olga and gesturing for her to wait until he's done with a hand. Coming from anyone else, it would've made Oga furious. Coming from Lev, it makes her feel like a child chastised for interrupting the adults' conversation. "Saber was doing her very best to fight the commands binding her, struggling to breath through or find a loophole that would let her fix the Singularity up to the very end. And you killed her."

So the whole incident was enemy action from the very beginning, then. Olga had wondered, upon hearing the recounts from the Red Faction, how an ongoing Holy Grail War, no matter how irregular, could've created a Singularity on its own. The results of a Holy Grail War are a given, of course, since a Wish is such a powerful tool. For it to happen during the ritual though? Outside interference was certainly likely.

And to think Saber of Black was only a victim? Someone bound by the will of the real mastermind, presumably her Master? Well, that's rather unfortunate. The loss of a potential ally in such a wasteful way is always frustrating. Still... given the circumstances, that's about the best they could've—

"And you, Olga." Lev (finally) turns his attention towards her, cutting her inner thoughts as she stands a bit straighter (and preens) under the attention. "My cute, hard-working, useless Olga…"

"L-Lev?"

Hesitation (and insecurity) come back with a vengeance at these words… B-but they make no sense! All through her life, Lev has been the one reliable source of praise and acknowledgement. For him to say such a horrible thing about her… Surely, she must've misheard, r-right?

"You couldn't even die properly, could you?" Lev shakes his head in disappointment, making Olga's heart sink. "I made sure to put the biggest bomb right under your feet, and you somehow managed to… Whatever it is that you did."

"What… What do you mean dying?" Olga finally pauses her steps only a handful of feet from her goal, no longer sure she wants to stand in front of him. Things have taken too many unexpected turns way too fast, she doesn't even know what's going on at all anymore! "I am here, right? That means I survived."

"No, not survive, never survive. Olga, dear, clumsy, slow and most worthless Olga." Lev muses with a warm smile, seemingly taking delight in the way she flinches at every hurtful thing he says about her. "You have no capability for Rayshifting at all, remember? There's no way you could've reached a Singularity… In life."

His gaze becomes something cold and harsh and Olga feels her heart clench as her mind processes the implications behind these words. She wants to deny them, to rage and defy the painful comments, to claim the impossibility of words that could never have come from the one person that always stood by her side. Before she can say anything though, she finds a sudden weight pressing on her shoulders, an overwhelming power wrapping around her and keeping her from moving at all.

"No matter, it's not a big loss." Lev continues in a suddenly bored tone, gesturing up with a hand and causing Olga's body to rise into the air. "I'll simply rectify the mistake on my own."

With a snap of his fingers, he creates a tear in reality revealing a bright red orb at the other side. CHALDEAS, showing the undeniable end of all humanity. He crows and boasts about how they were too late, about the Incineration of Human History that's already taken place right before their very eyes and how Olga would soon join them.

As Olga's body is slowly dragged towards the burning form of CHALDEAS, she feels her heart swell with righteous indignation. She may be shocked and hurt by this sudden betrayal of everything she once thought she could rely on no matter what, there might be a (big) small part of her that insists that there's no point in going on anymore and wants to give up, but there's an enemy in front of her that claims to have already won.

In another time, had things happened differently, Olga might've indeed fallen into despair. She might've struggled in panic and cried pathetically, too hurt by the betrayal and the truth of her own mortality to entertain any other emotion.

But that was before she met the Red Faction. That was before she met Tohsaka-Sensei, aware of the ephemeral truth of her existence yet continuing to fight for humanity no matter what. If a mirage of the Kaleidoscope, a life born of a Singularity and destined to fade with it, can do her best to fight for Human History… What right does Olga have to give up just because she's already dead!?

"Don't…" The forces that grip her body are strong, heavy and relentless. Any other version of Olga Marie Animusphere would find herself helpless to defy them, to break free. But this version of Olga isn't struggling to break free. "Underestimate me!"

"Hm?" Lev hums, eyes that had already dismissed her distractedly turning towards her struggling form. "Did you say something, Olga?"

… Right in time to see one arm break free to aim a thumb-sized teal crystal at him.

Back at her Workshop, Tohsaka-sensei advised against stocking up powerful, single-target gems that would prove mostly ineffective against Servants. The advice was solid and indeed Olga listened to it and heavily favored other, more useful effects for her loadout. But that doesn't mean she doesn't have any such options. That would've been the height of foolishness, when one doesn't know what they're going to encounter in the future.

Not something she borrowed from the older magus' reserves, no. This was an Animusphere special.

"[Glintstone Cometshard!]"

The crystalized memories of strange stars are released in a burst of energy hot enough to burn her hand to the bone in the process. Olga grits her teeth, holding back the instinctive flinch and cry of pain to focus on properly aiming the powerful magecraft. Alien memories born of Foreign logic become destructive energy in contact with Gaia's Texture and are then channeled into specific patterns through formulas recorded within the Animusphere Family Crest to become a focused burst.

A teal comet rushes straight for (Lev's) the traitor's dumb ugly face with a blinding explosion. There, that should do it. Just because magecraft is mostly useless against a Servant, it doesn't mean Olga isn't more than capable of turning some upjumped magus into chunky salsa.

When the smoke caused by the explosions clears up though, Olga's heart sinks. (Lev) the traitor didn't come out unscathed, but he's very much still standing. Half his face is scorched, human skin peeled off to reveal something red and fleshy underneath.

"Oho~!?" He mutters in vaguely amused interest, an eye that's like a red orb with a cross-shaped pupil fixating on her form even as the force pinning her in place strengthens tenfold. "Looks like you were worth something in the end. Congratulations, Olga. Your death won't be utterly pointless."

Then, even as he takes a sadistic delight on slowly levitating her towards the ball of fire, his attention shifts away from her, towards the rest of the group.

"And you, interlopers… Hm?" But whatever he was going to say, he ends up trailing off as he lets out another hum of amused curiosity. "You're stepping forward yourself? Instead of sending out your Servant you're taking the matters into your own hands?"

"As if I'd need Archer for something like this." Tohsaka-sensei's voice comes strong and defiant, but there's an undercurrent of tense wariness. "Anfang."

In spite of having her whole body locked in place by overwhelming forces, Olga is still capable of turning her eyes around. Right on the corner of her sight, she manages to catch sight of Tohsaka-sensei with an arm stretched towards them. On her hand rests that crimson gem from her Workshop, the one emanating an almost tangible bloodlust.

"With blood and rage of ruby red.
Stone is heart, forever fresh."

"A gem that mirrors the characteristic of the mythical beast from whose bones the Gae Bolg series were forged. Impressive for a mortal magus barely trudging along the path set up by their betters, I suppose." (Lev) the monster easily figures out the nature of the gem, not looking worried in the slightest. "But, when compared to the likes of me, the real heirs of magecraft… There's no difference between that and a monkey somehow managing to ape a mageraft effect out of sheer dumb luck. Your efforts are pointless, your achievements are worthless."

"It is not your place to decide my worth, skinwalker." Tohsaka-sensei huffs, her voice slow and deliberate as most of her attention is focused on the spell. "My achievements are judged by my peers alone, and the eternal hope that's Demon Lord Re'em."

"Preserved and waiting in hellish hate
To crush it all, a sea beast's rage!"

"Ne, Olga-chan?" Sensei suddenly calls out to Olga. By now, she's no more than a couple of feets away from the burning CHALDEAS and the heat of the miniature sun on her face is starting to get uncomfortable. "I promised you I would teach you more about gemcraft once the Singularity was solved, didn't I?

"Eh?"

"Do you trust me, Olga-chan?" Sensei continues without waiting for an answer.

"I…"

That's a good question, isn't it? Olga has only known the older magus for a few hours. It doesn't matter (how much she's enjoyed the experience) her personal feelings on the matter. If even someone like Lev who she's known for her entire life can secretly be a dirty traitor, can she really allow herself to trust anyone?

"See you on the other side, Olga-chan." Tohsaka-sensei says gently, almost tenderly, as she tilts her arms slightly to aim straight at Olga. "[Curruid Coinchenn - Heartbeat of the Crunching Deathtusk]"

The cursed gem flies straight towards Olga's heart. For a moment, the same forces keeping her in place struggle against the attack, as if unwilling to surrender their prey. It's all for naught. In a matter of seconds, the forces lose the power struggle and the gem makes her way to Olga. Then through her chest and into her heart, where it explodes into a burst of power.

The last thing Olga sees are countless bone spikes, twisted and sharp like some sort of blood-red thorny plant, erupting from her body. There's no time for pain, just a strangely muted shock at the bizarre sight before the dizziness of blood loss hits her and everything goes black, her eyes closing for the last time…

… And then open again to stare at a familiar ceiling. A ceiling whose design she remembers approving back in the day, when Chaldea's Arctic Base was still being fitted for long-term human habitation. What's she doing in Chaldea's Medical Wing and what the hell is going on?

At least her hand isn't carbonized anymore.

A/N: I considered cutting the chapter before these last few lines and leave you guys hanging until next week, but decided to include them in the end. You may now thank my magnanimousness.

I have no intention of hiding my work behind a pay wall, but I do welcome patrons and donations.

I have a P-treon thing! A Ko-fi account too!

Just add "/Planeshunter" after the dot com and it should take you straight there.

If you have some spare change and feel my work deserves it, please consider throwing it my way. Maybe one day I'll be able to quit my shitty job and do this full time!