038 - To Drown the World in Flesh

Olga Marie Animusphere

Their frantic scans on Paris are returning nonsensical results and, for once, Olga doesn't simply mean unbelievable numbers. She means the computers are spitting out literally corrupted data, including but not limited to bizarre format errors and characters that shouldn't exist within their computers in the first place.

Worse still, some of the components are smoking slightly. They are not components that should be smoking at all. They are not components that should be engaged at all.

"Caster?" She asks slowly, in a perfectly even voice that she could never quite manage without the help of a generous heap of self-hypnosis.

"Yes, Lady Director?"

"Why are the eldritch dampeners overheating?"

"I do believe the answer is rather obvious, Lady Director."

"So it's not a malfunction?"

"I'm afraid not, Lady Director."

Olga slumps on her seat, barely holding back a groan of despair in front of her subordinates. It was so very unlikely that Chaldea's cutting-edge magitech would malfunction in such a blatant way but, with the rather destructive sabotage they are still recovering from and everything… Well, a girl can dream.

"An existence outside the domain, just what we needed to complete the picture." She mutters to herself, gritting her teeth and deliberately fueling her irritation until it overwhelms the fear and despair. She doesn't have time to have a breakdown right now. "Roman, what do we actually know of what's going on? I refuse to believe all our devices are compromised."

"A-ah, indeed, Lady Director." Comes Roman's stuttering answer. "It's only our more esoteric or involved probes that are being affected, we still have access to visual data and… My word!"

"We don't have time for dramatics, Roman." She growls in impatience. "Get to the point."

"T– The whole city is covered in tentacles! It's a similar phenomena to the flesh gardens he deployed against the exploration team, but while these seemed to be dedicated to a singular purpose and stopped growing once they achieved it, the mass all over Paris continues to develop without an end in sight, becoming more complex as it grows and attempts to swallow the whole city."

"And, with a Holy Grail providing functionally infinite magical energy, they are not stopping anytime soon." She concludes easily, mind already thrown at a problem that's somehow managed to outrank an invincible evil dragon in the blink of an eye. "Our best bet will be a decapitating strike to retrieve the artifact before the phenomena grows too big to handle."

The very nature of a Singularity makes long-term consequences a bit of a non-issue, but there are exceptions to everything and an eldritch spillage is always a containment priority, for good reason. If the Red Faction had the means to make an awareness of their deeds during Singularity F seep into Proper Human History, she doesn't want to know what a mass of non-euclidean, reality-raping flesh can achieve in similar circumstances.

"Indeed it is. At least—" Roman cuts himself off to examine the screen in front of him more closely and goes very pale. "Oh, crap baskets."

"What now, Roman? What else has gone wrong now?"

Only a whimper answers her demands, causing her to huff and roll her eyes in resignation. Roman had been keeping it together for far too long already anyway, it was about time he had a breakdown of one time or another. She opens her mouth to let out some choice words and verbally lash him back into shape, but someone else cuts her off before she can start.

"What the good doctor is trying to say is that the rate of growth of the phenomena is exponential." Caster speaks up from a console that most definitely shouldn't have access to that information. "If we don't act quickly, it'll hit critical mass and outgrow our ability to destroy it."

"Exponential growth? How's that even possible!?" A Holy Grail has few limitations, but the rate at which it can pump out its otherwise unlimited magical energy is one of them. The rate of growth shouldn't increase. "That runs contrary to all reasonable projections!"

"Outsiders aren't necessarily beholden to the same basic paradigms that rule our reality." Caster points out, making a frustrating amount of sense. "I'll start working on viable explanations, but even an unparalleled genius has limits. I need something that makes sense to use as a starting point, Lady Director."

"Right, understanding the phenomena is not our priority. An Outsider has invaded the Singularity and that can go horribly in so many ways it's not worth listing them all out. Let's get back to the exploration team and give them their new marching orders. That thing needs to go before we run out of time."

It's only her strict upbringing that keeps her from biting her nails in the middle of the command center out of sheer impotent frustration. If she cannot even fulfill her role as guide and tactical command, what's even the point? Maybe she should join the exploration team for the next Singularity?

That's assuming they survive long enough to see the next Singularity, of course. Haku's particular brand of bullshit has achieved the impossible before, but they've just watched her fail horribly. She's still a human of flesh and blood with limits like everyone else.

"Worry not, Lady Director!" Caster calls out with utterly unwarranted cheerfulness. "I'm sure Haku-chan will save the day again!"

"I–Idiot! That's not what I was thinking at all!"

The Dragon Witch

If the useless queen remembered only for cake and dying is good for something, that's providing transportation. Untiring, unfeeling horses made out of spun glass that can gallop at full throttle for as long as needed are a hell of a convenient resource, even if they aren't that suited for actual combat.

While they rode, the Dragon Witch (listened intently) paid half an ear to the Chaldean's reports and kept an eye on what's going on in Paris. She had no idea what half the technical words thrown around even meant, but she could get the gist of it and it certainly fit her own observations.

Gilles had done something stupid that took a lot out of the Grail, to the point where she felt her own connection to it strain for a while. Whatever it was, it caused the arrival of a new presence that was very much not a Servant and she should have no business noticing though her Ruler privileges, but that she can just tell has engulfed the whole city like a smothering blanket all the same.

Also, there's coincidentally a writhing mountain of flesh steadily consuming the city, visible from miles away. That helps put things into perspective.

"It must be the work of [Prelati's Spellbook - Tome of the Spiralling Sunken City]. Strictly speaking, the Noble Phantasm belongs to the Italian cleric and esotericist François Prelati. I can only assume the rather close relationship between him and Gilles allows the latter to somehow wield the book as his own." The (insufferably attractive) redhead whose name (she'd just learned was Haku) she didn't care about explains, eyes intently locked into the bizarre entity. "Just so, there's no way he could use anything from back when he was an active knight in his current state and there's nothing in Bluebeard's legend that could work as a Noble Phantasm. Beyond maybe some sort of chauvinistic rape house that gives him an advantage against women, but I think we all rather prefer the eldritch abomination over that."

"You… How do you even–?" The white-haired girl who seems to permanently live at the edge of a heart attack demands from the other side of their (fascinating) strange communication tool. "Let me guess, something something, Demon Lord Re'em?"

"I'm not sure what you mean with that, Lady Director!" (Haku) The redhead chirps out cheerfully. "But Demon Lord Re'em tends to be the best answer to life's questions in general."

"Nevermind, it's not important." The white haired girl forcefully pushes the conversation forward. "What's important is that [Prelati's Spellbook - Tome of the Spiralling Sunken City] doesn't have any glaring weaknesses we can take advantage of. That means our best bet is to take out the power source. And quickly. The longer that thing feasts on the magical energy from the Grail, the faster it'll continue growing."

"No pressure, huh? And here I always wanted to try some fun with tentacles." (Haku) the redhead groans in dismay. "I swear, if this guy ruins a fetish for me, I'm going to scream."

(Mood kindred!) What a weirdo.

"Right." The Dragon Witch speaks up( sick of getting ignored like last-week's saturday cartoon villain). "We'll reach Paris soon. So what then?"

"Pardon?"

"You are the merry band of misfits coming from faraway lands to save the world, aren't you? That's how heroic tales usually go." The Dragon Witch rolls her eyes, holding back the urge to retch. Even if God doesn't exist, the Dragon Witch is starting to believe that some sort of higher will does. And it has a twisted sense of humor. "To fell the dragon, defeat the witch and set everything straight. Well, that's only two out of three so far, so what then?"

"… Are we going to ignore the fact the witch has seemingly decided to switch sides out of nowhere? Yes? Of course we are." The pink haired menace who's even passing relation would be denied by any self-respecting dragon whines brattily. "Between reformed villains and ascended extras, there's barely any spotlight left for the actual heroines! Life sure is tough for honest and hardworking idols like me."

"Here, Eli-chan." One of the maids( -the one with the big boobs-) reaches with a hand towards the pink menace. "Headpats, headpats…"

"Feels good~" The menace groans pleasedly, immediately relaxing under the touch and very nearly falling off her horse in the process. "You know that's not going to work forever, right?"

"Yes." The maid agrees easily, not stopping her ministrations. "It's working now."

"I hate that it's true, but I love the way you prove it."

"... Right." Taking a cue from the white haired girl, the Dragon Witch forcefully moves the conversation along. Definitively, no self-respecting dragon would ever acknowledge a relation there. "Back to my original question, what's the plan?"

To nobody's surprise, her question is met with a big fat load of nothing. But, then again, they're not that impressive in the first place, aren't they? What's the useless queen going to do? Throw cake at a mountain of fleas and tentacles and hope it catches indigestion? Will the maids clean and tidy it up to death? Will the pink menace yell very loudly until she ruptures its non-existent eardrums?

…It's actually kind of insulting that this ragtag bunch of colorful inepts actually managed to outsmart and outmatch her at every turn.

"Well, it's fortunate that the Lady Director exaggerated a bit about it lacking any glaring weaknesses. I have a couple somethings in my bag of tricks exactly for this situation." (Haku) The redhead speaks up and the Dragon Witch suddenly has a very vivid premonition of (Haku) a redhead dressed like a Norwegian sailor, standing on the prow of a boat and laughing like a maniac as it rams the city-sized abomination. "Admittedly, it's a bit risky, but nothing like—"

"No!" The serious maid cuts her off.
"I don't think that's a good idea." The useless queen objects warily.
"Please don't, Senpai." The shield girl protests meekly.
"Don't even think about it, Fujimaru!" The white-haired girl puts her foot down.
"Hell no!" The Dragon Witch snarls.
"Interesting! Let's do it!"

There's a moment of silence as everyone turns around to stare at the weird one out. From the other side of the communication tool, the clearly insane woman with the staff and the mechanic arm simply shrugs.

"What? I'm curious!"

"Mad science aside, we're not letting Fujimaru anywhere near the action anytime soon." The white haired girl asserts firmly. "At least not as long as we have any other option."

Of course, (Haku) the redhead tries to protest, which only serves to trigger another round of bickering. The Dragon Witch keeps quiet, removing herself from the nonsensical interaction and letting their words fade into the background of her awareness as she sends an evaluating glance towards the pointlessly well-built military commander.

It's all fine and dandy if everything goes as planned, but the Dragon Witch has a feeling things won't be so clean cut. This entire mess practically guarantees a sudden plot twist to render their initial strategy useless. If that happens… She'll have to do something about it herself.

…It's the only way to be sure.

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