Fate/ConQUEST

[Bird of Hermes]

5 & 6. We may not have another shot at getting a look at the bigger plot surrounding Lestari for some time, considering that it's war time and all, and it's one of the most intriguing mysteries so curious to have some clues from the lady detective... !

+1

[Spartacus]

Year: 2022
Location: El-Dorado Base, Cusco, Peru, El-Dorado
Daytime: Day

Lestari Elliwyn
Health: Great
Magical Energy: Poor



When I heard the class Ruler, the first thing that came to my mind is they know more than anyone in this war. She did say that there is no Grail giving them information but they are still unique Servants regardless, there is no harm to ask my circumstances to her.

For some reason, I am capable of dreaming of the Servants' pasts. Not just those who contracted with me, even enemy Servants like Nobunaga.

And then there is that mysterious woman’s voice that somehow sounds familiar to me.

“Ruler, I have two questions. Do you have any idea about my ability to dream of the Servants and a woman’s voice the King and I only heard?”

“Dream and a woman’s voice?” Ruler raised her eyebrow, “No, but can you tell me more in detail about them?”

It seems that she has no clue as expected, but she is interested in the topic and might be able to give some insight.

“I am capable of dreaming of the Servants’ past that I have made connection with. I know it is not unusual in regard to Master-Servant relationships, but not only I didn’t share my dream with my Servants just like how it is supposed to be in normal circumstances, I am even capable of seeing the enemy's dream. And it’s inconsistent, some shows dreams from distant past, some shows their experience of this war. It does help me to gain more information to my advantage but…”

“Only the Master experienced a dream, inconsistency, even an enemy’s…” Ruler put her right fist below her chin, “continue.”

“For the second question, it is something very recent. The King who has been cooperative with us and capable of excusing Magellan’s presence, suddenly changes in demeanor the moment he hears it, he becomes impulsive. The thing is, only he and I heard that voice, he even calls the voice ‘mother’ but that doesn’t add up.”

“Impulse...!” Ruler seemingly noticed something, “But why doesn't?”

“If he really heard the voice of his mother, I shouldn’t recognize that voice. I don’t know where, but I’m sure I have heard this woman before, because it felt familiar to me. And I doubt the voice I heard belonged to a mother of a Heroic Spirit that I don’t know the True Name of.”

Speaking of, El-Dorado Caster promised Miss Fujimaru the King and his own True Name in exchange for their cooperation. I wonder if he will let me hear it too.

“Voice… this is...”

Ruler lifted her hand from below her chin to cover her mouth and her eyes looked down to the ground. She then looks at me, avert her eyes, releases her covering hand and gives a self assuring nod.

“I did say we aren’t being provided information by the Holy Grail, but we do have one objective implanted in our head. We know for sure there is an entity we must defeat.” She frowns and her eyes full of conviction.

“Because of the urgency of the time, all of us Rulers summoned in the Middle East. The first Servant we fought, the Servant Avenger - Hind bint Utbah, had similar symptoms with the King. She heard a voice belong to her loved ones, and she went berserk. She becomes impulsive and tried to murder many innocent lives with her Noble Phantasm, so we are forced to kill her. That happens to many Servants we came across. And all of them at some point mutters a name.

“Yidhra. And I learn that the name belongs to a fictional demon god that is not so different from the infamous Lovecraftian mythos, no, an imitation of it. One of her monikers, the Dream Witch, fits with your irregular dreaming ability.”

“...”

Yidhra… before coming to Fuyuki, I have researched Holy Grail Wars including many mythology, but never crossed my mind that Lovecraftian mythos might be involved. In the first place, it was never a myth to begin with. Myths in a way are similar to religion, they are formed together alongside the culture and belief they take place in. Meanwhile, Lovecraftian mythos are purely fictional that came from the mind of many individuals, even if the reader is captivated by one of its stories, nobody would believe it exists, especially not in the skeptical modern world. The only thing remotely myth-like is the existence of deities that are far beyond human, but even then, no myth god is portrayed in a way the Lovecraftian deities do.

However, whether it is possible or not, the fact is the name Yidhra has been shouted many times in this war. And if all my power is connected to her, that would mean...

(I’m your sorcery trait, let’s go with that!)

(My time becomes limited as a side effect of forceful manifestation...)

(Farewell, Lestari.)

(Next time you see me…)

(Make sure to defeat me mercilessly…)

“No way…”

This makes my head hurt so bad my legs almost collapsed. I took a deep breath to calm myself and hoped for Laetitia to stabilize my mind.

She might suddenly pop into my head a few days ago and then go away, but she has never done anything bad to me. If she really is a Lovecraftian-like existence, my body should turn weird already, those stories work like a Demon Possession after all. And I have seen someone that made a contract with a Demon, that woman has horns and everything.

I’m not even growing crazy, if anything, since I met Assassin and the others, things have become less stressful than before. I don’t need to be wary all the time from surprise attacks by professional killers.

“This can’t be...”

But I can’t be in denial, everything indicates that Dream Shroud is deeply connected to this Yidhra, she might be Yidhra herself. Her last word even basically confirms it.

Sooner or later, we will meet Dream Shroud again.

“Miss Lestari, don’t tell me... you have contacted Yidhra before...?” Ruler stumped for a second, her pupils shrinking as her eyelids widened.

I looked away, trying to search for the courage to be honest.

“I haven’t told the others yet about her, because honestly, I thought I’m simply imagining it. But yes, high chance I have.”

Ruler shook my shoulder and her voice turned hoarse. It was so sudden that I am startled by her change of behavior.

“Then, I advise you to not abuse that power again!! We need to check if there is something wrong with your body and mind. Are there any changes in your psychology?! Oh no, we don’t have a doctor Servant, I can’t do any of those!” She bites the nail of her thumb in frustration.

“Hey calm down, you are the one that has an extreme spike in your emotion more than me. Look, I don’t have tentacles, become cannibals or anything, so I should be okay for now.” I say that half-jokingly, because God Almighty forbids, no cosmetic can help me to hide those.

“This is not a joke! Have you seen all of those Servants I am talking about? Tentacles would be better, they no longer listen to reason!”

I do think Ruler has a point, perhaps right now there is no change in me, but we can’t be so sure about the next. However, there is also a question of how to not use it. I always dreamed of the Servants whenever I sleep, reaching the door world with the Servant names on them, and not sleeping is simply suicidal. Same with the ability to see other people’s health and magical energy, all of them are instantaneous and I have no control of them.

No, rather than having no control, it is simply natural for me to be able to do it.



“I’m not a doctor, but I am able to listen to someone's emotions more than any psychology doctorates.” Bell who has been quiet in his spirit form butting in. This time, he doesn't need to talk with his broadcast Noble Phantasm as he simply ‘walks’ into here, even if he is in spirit form.

“...Professor.” Ruler calmed down the moment she saw Bell.

“Master, If you don’t mind?”

“Go ahead.” I toned down my Laetitia that have been protecting me from Bell’s waves.

He doesn't materialize physically, but as his Master and Ruler being a fellow Servant, we can tell what he is currently doing. He sent a small wave directly to my mind and heart, perhaps to check my inner body’s reaction toward it.

“I can tell from her heartbeats and her brainwaves, other than she constantly tries not to lash out under pressure and having terrible commentary to people around her, she is in a healthy condition.”

It follows the same principle with what I do to check the leyline of Cusco. By sending my electricity to the Earth, I can pinpoint where the magical energy located and flows because I know the behavior of magical energy in relation with electricity. But this time, it is a sound wave and a human body instead.

And he is capable of reading someone’s mind like an open book if he decided to focus on them. Though, I imagine Magellan can bypass it with her luck altering Skill. Once again I forgot that Magellan is the most famous Servant in our group.

“I appreciate the back up, but what do you mean by terrible commentary?!”

“Do you really want me to say it?”

“It’s a rhetoric...”

“So do mine.”

Bell is a massive mistake. I forgot now I can’t keep things solely to myself.

“I heard that too, you know?”

“Aah...” This is a bigger problem more than I imagined…

“Ruler,” Bell turns toward Ruler.

“I don’t know about this demon controlling behind the scene. But as you can see, Master is the type of person that has control over herself if she downplays her own misery. Your reaction is natural, but you should try to understand the best way to approach her. Panicking is the last thing you want to see her to be in.” He says so as he has been listening to my thoughts like a book.

“Understand...? No, I see… if Professor said so, I must introspect myself.” Ruler listened to Bell’s words as she has been silent all this time, it seems that she respected him considerably. She then takes a deep breath and releases it to relieve herself. “Thank you.”

“...You are welcome.” He says politely, but there is also a slight lag in him as he doesn't really understand Ruler’s behavior.

Ruler and Bell.

If I think about it, Ruler has been unknowingly spying SFA for years now. Even if they never met, I can see that Ruler learns a lot about what kind of person Bell actually is. Perhaps he saw his good side as a person and a man of science. I have read articles about him, he is a kind person that has tried to help the deaf to be able to return to society.

In turn, she is practically unknown to Bell. Not only she is the most mysterious Ruler in the war, but she has also been sabotaging them without any trace at all. For all they know, the audible world has been conquered by Bell, yet their plan has been leaked to her for years. Even if he is impressed with her ability, that doesn't change the fact he must be wary of her.

However...

“Professor, there is something I want to ask you,” Her voice is in clarity, just like a student asking their teacher a question. “I think it is time for you to make your true allegiance clear.”

The air between them tensed, this time, it is Bell the one turned silent. “...”

And I know where this will be going.

“Wait, Ruler. Bell has been fighting for us all this time.”

“He told it himself that his true allegiance isn’t with SFA but with Leader, no, with Walt Disney. Sooner or later, our group will directly clash with him, Bell can't oppose SFA without betraying him this time. If we let him in, he will continue reporting every move to him. There are more than twenty Machine Lords left, even my power can’t handle that many.”

“He simply needs time to think, I’m sure soon he will understand.”

“Time is merciless. Many dreams... have been put to an end simply because they don’t have enough, because they missed their momentum and opportunity.” she paused from the second line, biting her own lips. “You should know that more than anyone.”

Those words struck at my chest. As a magus, I have seen many families fall as their crests started to rot, like Zouken and my grandpa. At some point, a magus will change their objective from reaching the Root to preserving their magecraft, such as the research for immortality.

And I remember many times that I was desperately running for my life and hoping for my magical energy to recharge, counting every second of it. I remember how my little sister died before my magical energy to fire a spell recharged. I remember how Leader threatened the murder of many soldiers all around South America within a very little amount of time.

Time, unlike power and fortune, can’t be bought back. Those who are capable of taming it in the magical world are Magicians beyond the most talented magi’s grasp.

“Master, no, Lestari. Ruler is correct. And if I must choose, I’m really sorry, but I will fight for Leader.”

His answer pains me, “but why? Is there anything of us that doesn’t satisfy you?” I tried to deal with this calmly.

“It’s a simple matter,” he shakes his head. “Bond.”

“What… bond?” I am at a loss of words.

“Just like what Ruler has said, time is priceless. I have been together with Leader all this time, for long we have been working together for what we believed in… That man was deeply hurt when Benjamin decided to leave us. Compared to you who I only met personally for a day, it is logical that the former weighs more.”

He continues, “it doesn’t make any sense, isn’t it? So far, from what you have seen, Leader and SFA are murderous devil incarnates. We are heartless, how could we value the same thing as yours? The same sentimental thing? But it has always been that way, good people murder good people, that just how war is. And that is what makes it ugly. Goodwill perverted by unescapable circumstances, good men being forced to be sinners. Soon, my old friend and the people that share the same dream with me will murder each other in cold blood.” His tone didn’t change, but the fact how wordy it is coming from someone usually speaks with a few words like him speaks a lot.

“Bell...”

His reasoning is simple, and something that I can understand easily. Too easy that I can’t wrap my head around it as there is no real answer for something so mundane. Friendship, he can’t betray a friend. And the man decided to approach something so emotionally driven with logical thinking, he is a walking contradiction.

A human being.

“True peace is a fairy tale, something impossible to gain. If killing each other is inevitable, then, at least Leader can make an Aesop out of it. Ending war forever, that's what Leader is going to do in this fight.”

He has declared that he will no longer avoid tragedy so long he can achieve a utopia. That he is willing to help Leader to brainwash people if that means people no longer die unnecessarily. If that means freeing people from this endless shackle, he is going to rob humanity’s freedom.

“Giving up because it is impossible to do, how unscientist-like. You sure you are not going to change your mind?” Ruler cuts.

“That’s my final decision.”

Listening to that, Ruler closes her eyes in regret. “That’s a shame, I was hoping for a man that changed humanity will not side with someone that clearly attempted a genocide.”

Her wings expand and revving violently as her Agility parameter rapidly raises, it gives an illusion that the wing expressed the owner’s state of mind.

No matter how much she respects him, Bell holds a determination that clashes with ours. She is ready as a Ruler to fight him.

“But at least, we don’t need to fight. That will be a waste of energy as I can’t see myself winning against both of you. Not to mention there are many Servants here.” Bell in response, do the unthinkable.

He used his remaining hand to vibrate in high frequency, and put it on his own head.

“Consider this a token of thanks for saving Leader from the point of no return.”

“Wait-”, “stop!” Both of us try to reach him futilely as we know what he is trying to do.

“We will meet again, Lestari and Ruler. As a Servant Caster of SFA.”

In a single touch, his helmet burst from the powerful shock wave generated from his hand, and soon his entire body disappeared into countless lights. The body he used to accompany us for a day has now gone into nothingness.

And I felt my connection with Bell has gone. He is no longer my Servant...

“Until the end, he kept his promise. That body of his never does anything directly harmful to me.”

This is the first betrayal I experienced as a Master. Yet, rather than anger toward him, I can only feel disappointed in myself that I am unable to help him find an answer he is desperately searching for.

He is simply cornered from a choice with no clear answer.

“You liar… if you really want to be logical, fighting all of us to wear us down is the most optimal thing to do.” Ruler says as her voice almost cracks.

Despite the fact that she is the one that cornered him, she is the one crushed from the event the most.

wise-up!

Because the Bond between Lestari and Bell is not enough, Bell has left the party.

[Spartacus]

Year: 2022
Location: El-Dorado Base, Cusco, Peru, El-Dorado
Daytime: Day

Lestari Elliwyn
Health: Great
Magical Energy: Poor



“...We are going to discuss SFA's plan on the base in 15 minutes. Take a rest, have a nice chat, just relax.”

Ruler turns around and dematerializes, she is visibly upset. Despite her being the one asking him to make a choice, she has a tiny hope that Bell will choose us over Leader.

Deep down I also see this coming after knowing the full extent of his abilities. His Noble Phantasm allows him to have multiple bodies at once and use them as terminals, which explains why Bell easily joins our group.

“Yeah…”

I can’t blame his decision, nor am I in the position for it.

I understand how it’s hard to choose a side after being hunted for 5 years by the Factions. Many things are full of up and down, in my case, I can’t see the favorable side of any of the Factions enough to compensate for their bad side. Simply fighting for a cause doesn’t convince me, because their method to achieve it is far from justified, yet the world wants me to choose. In the end, I’m still aimlessly searching for answers and hopelessly trying to understand the motive behind the Factions.

In a way, someone that is able to give a resolved answer like Bell is far more admirable than me.

“The least I can do for him is to give it my all. At the very least, in this fight, I will be resolute! I know you hear me, Bell!”

I said that out loud in front of the destroyed Machine Lord to psyche myself, some of the soldiers lounging around look at me funny, piss off.

Nuclear meltdowns or not, whether if he is justified, attempting a genocide willingly without remorse, and for the sake of spite can’t be right. Same with El-Dorado and their excuse on causing many deaths of innocents from their earlier expansions. Same with New Japan and the Upper Belts.

And taking advantage of my runaway status, simulating that day by causing confusion to these desperate people.

I will defeat Leader.

Choice!

Lestari have the time to spent her free time before the meeting started, what should she do?
1. Talk to Miss Fujimaru and Lancelot. (This open the choice to unlock QBA Format)
2. Discuss El-Dorado Faction with El-Dorado Caster, El-Dorado Assassin, and the King. (Unlock ???)
3. Discuss SFA Archer (Pecos Bill) with Benjamin Franklin. (Unlock ???)
4. Calm Assassin and Kenshin about their feeling of failure. (Unlock ???)
5. Take a quick nap (recharge a minuscule of your Health and Magical Energy, enter your dreaming ability).
6. Writes-in!

[Bird of Hermes]

Tricky one!

After Bell ;-; I want to build a rapport with our team but I can’t pick as to who of yet. I’m currently between 2, 3 and 4

[SleepMode]

​2

[Ayr]

3. Discuss SFA Archer (Pecos Bill) with Benjamin Franklin.

[zikari8]

4

[King Prussia]

4. Bell left because our bond with him wasn't strong enough, and now Kenshin and Assassin are going through a crisis of faith. Making sure that our servants are not morally down before such an important battle is as much of a priority as having a good plan, otherwise it feels like running into a 'your resolve wasn't strong enough' defeat.

[34]

4

;-;

[SaberBlue]

Have been thinking on this one, in the end I think the friends we already have are more important 4

[Spartacus]

Year: 2022
Location: El-Dorado Base, Cusco, Peru, El-Dorado
Daytime: Day

Lestari Elliwyn
Health: Great
Magical Energy: Poor



I decided to spend my time with my Servants because I need to tell them what happened to Bell. Both Assassin and Kenshin have been down since the battle is over from the fact that we were never able to survive without help. If we are going to defeat Leader, we need everything at our disposal to do so, including confidence.

That said, I don’t know where they are currently located.

“...”

I keep walking around the base searching for them, which makes me once again looking at destroyed infrastructures. As I search, the reality around me becomes much more clear. Bandages, the smell of blood, an unnerving combination of silence and hectic as many wounded soldiers are currently transported by frantic medics. I see some people with covered faces and more than a dozen body bags lined around. The Body bags, in particular, some aren't shaped like a human body at all.

And on those body bags, I saw the priest from the ran down church that Magellan exploded from a side effect of weird physics earlier, I believe his name is Juan(?). Whatever his name is, I think he is currently giving a prayer to the dead.

I’m glad he is safe, I hope the rest of the church residents like the elderly and the kids are safe too.

But still...

If a battle with statistically few casualties like this is already unbearable to see, I can’t imagine what kind of horrific scenery the front line looks like. I wonder how it feels to be a military commander like Kenshin, she must have seen this scenery a lot. And does she get used to it?

Is getting used to it a good thing?

You think I'm stupid?! I know you and that conquistador over there is the reason we are observable the moment I learn her True Name!

The King's words flash through my mind.

I should have known doing this will result in casualty, I thought that soldiers should be prepared for this the moment they decided to be an instrument to take lives. But no matter how I see it, they too are people.

I must not deny their humanity, because the moment I do, that means admitting that the people who tried to take my life are in the right.

But if we want to unite the world, we need to defeat all the Factions and cause armed intervention in the process- which means the deaths of combatants are simply unavoidable.

Ah, I don’t understand anymore...

I wonder if Bell is here, can he provide me with answers right now?

“Master! Over here!”

I heard a familiar voice over a building on the east. There, Assassin waves her hand while Kenshin is currently sitting next to her.



“Everyone, where is Magellan?” I ask.

“Ruler dragged her away a few minutes ago, she says Magellan should prioritize replenishing her Magical Energy and feed her five breads at once.” Explain Kenshin who I noticed didn’t wear her armor and only wore the warlord-style clothes underneath it.

And I guess it makes sense. Obviously we want to use Magellan’s Noble Phantasms to warp us to the enemy, which means she needs every energy she can get. Good luck and work hard, Magellan.

“She seems really familiar with Sir Magellan…” says Assassin with a noticeably annoyed tone, which gives me an urge to tease her again.

“Oho-” I stopped. She is currently feeling down, I shouldn’t tease her from something she is insecure about… “Anyway, come to think of it, she is overly familiar with me too. Why is that?” I said so to distract myself.

“Not sure.” Says both, and Tsuru, who I noticed currently here as she is in her sword form.

But I did find that Assassin raised a good question. Ruler is too friendly to me and Magellan.

I understand if she wanted to align herself with us because we both want to stop SFA from the genocide attempt and brainwashing plan. But the way she acts around me is too personal and caring, like when she angrily told me to stop using Dream Shroud’s powers. I don't think that's how a professional relation works at all. I suppose she is familiar with Magellan as she is the spy behind the phone gifted by Priest Juan a day ago, but I don’t think I ever touch that thing.

Wait, if the phone came from Priest Juan, does that mean Ruler has relations with the Church? I mean, Rulers most of the time are Saints and other holy people in Holy Grail Wars, but this one doesn’t dress like a pious. Maybe, Patron Saint of Spy, is that even a thing? Can people like Sherlock Holmes be a Ruler?

That reminds me, Bell said about a female Saint currently controlling the Church as one of the four Rulers, and Ruler mentions she was summoned with all of them in the Middle East in the past. I suppose she can ask a favor of her on delivering the smartphone. But I wonder why she decided to work alone now.

Ruler is filled with mystery, but I know that she is a genuinely good-hearted person.

I want to believe that.

“You guys have eaten yet? Those sandwiches are pretty awesome for a ration.”

“Yeah, we have eaten many, but eating one more will make me hate it,” says Assassin as she pressed her belly, which didn’t change from overeating at all. It must be nice being a Servant, you don’t need to care about getting fat.

“It would be great if they have a much better drink than this one,” says Kenshin as she drinks canned alcohol, “the pisco sour drink from that cafe was great. Ah, I forgot to buy some for all of you. I’m sorry...”

“Ahahaha, don’t think much of it. I’m not really into alcohol anyway. But I suppose I will take all of you to my favorite coffee shop sometimes. It is so good compared to my mom’s niche shop.”

I never noticed until now, but Kenshin is really into drinking. Assassin doesn’t give a picky eater vibe, but even she can get sick over something. When they speak about their preference like this, it makes me realize that behind the figure of a hero, they are still a human being.

Just like Bell.

“You are into coffee? It must be nice if we have them back then, recon will be easier.” Assassin asks.

“Kinda? My mum owned a coffee shop too, so naturally, I was able to taste above average blends all the time.” I explain it to her, which I got overboard.

“And as a dumb kid I’m extremely eager to beat my peers, so I often force myself to wake up to study and drinks mum’s coffee almost every night. She becomes so worried about it, she bans me from drinking her own coffee for some time. I said, 'aren’t you supposed to be an Asian?’, and she said ‘if you are dead, you can not get an A’ and I was absolutely silenced. Back then, I thought that was the most flawless logic imaginable, not that it stopped me from stocking dozens of canned coffee in our fridge. Ah, my sister is too British though, she drinks tea all the time, seems like most of my father’s genes passed on to her. At some point she jokingly asked me to help her with ‘beating the legendary biscuit dunking world record’ with my magecraft, I mean, I can and am thrilled to do it, but I can’t risk the Elliwyn mystery from something so silly. She is such a sweet kid, and she also has very-very pretty eyes. And then there is Canda, Karissa, Lior, and Urelle which-”

Listening to that, the two smiles.

“I can tell you love them so much.” says Assassin, in a rare non-mocking tone.

“You know, you have always been distant despite being my Master. I don’t need to share a dream with you, that’s not necessary. I simply would love to listen more about your life.” says Kenshin, and Tsuru in her sword form gives a ‘nod.’

“Ahaha… this is embarrassing. I’ll tell you guys the story about my friends another time.”

Now they pointed that out to me, I become too aware of it and my face turns slightly red. I come here to give support to them, but instead, they are the one that comforts me. Geez, these guys are...

I suppose continuing will be alright then.

“Everyone, Bell has defected from us. The odds against us become bigger now,” everyone frowns their eyebrows in response.

“Just when I thought our forces dwarfs theirs,” Assassin sighed.

“That’s kind of expected, even if unfortunate,” says Kenshin in response. “He has been visibly disillusioned from how dishonest people fight in a war, I can see why he supports the idea of eradicating war by any means necessary.”

When Kenshin said that, it almost sounds like she agrees with him.

“Even if I have enough energy to hold Recursion in the next battle, hacking that many complex machines are impossible. SFA as an Upper Belt is beyond us, heck, even El-Dorado at their full strength will kick our ass. Perhaps all of you are correct, that we are weakling without any power to uphold our cause.”

The two Japanese generals averted their eyes and clenched their teeth. They are still in self-doubt after our numerous less than stellar performances.

We are up against one of the world’s strongest, SFA, the Faction credited to have the most powerful army in the world. What can a bunch of four girls that barely have anything in common with each other do against that? Frankly, I want to run away to the sea just like back then.

But even so-

“But even so, I still want to stop Leader. His brainwashing Noble Phantasm Bell speaks of is against what I am fighting for. And we can’t just leave everything to chance alone, we are going to survive and win the next fight with our own strength.”

It is not impossible, I refuse to believe that.

And they shouldn’t too.

“And I want both of you, as commanders, to give opinions and inputs about my proposal.”

I write my plan on the dirt to make sure Bell can’t listen to our conversation. He can’t listen to everyone’s thoughts from afar, if so, he should be able to listen to everyone's plan, locate where the El-Dorado Servants are hiding these past years and win the war already.

“Master, this is…!”

The two war generals were surprised, but then they decided to analyze it completely.

“Don’t hold back, right now both of you are my advisors.”

When I say that, they look at each other in surprise, and smile. Kenshin, in particular, has a smile I never saw she has before.

“We really wouldn’t hold back.”

“Actually, go easy on me…” I gulped.

They decided to tear down every single error they can find and almost made me cry.

Bond Up!

Your Bond with Assassin has reached level 4!
Assassin’s Special Event has been unlocked!

Your Bond with Uesugi Kenshin has reached level 3!

Wise-up!

You unlocked Military Tactics: Operation ZD!

From now on, whenever there is a battle, Operation ZD is available as a choice.

(its effects are currently unknown.)

* * *

Meanwhile, Ruler and Magellan are currently preparing for the next big move.

“Wait, wait, anymore than this and I- omph!”

“Eat! More! Bread! We need you at your bestest form possible!” says Ruler as she force fed many bread to Magellan’s mouth using her high Agility.

“Ad tis rhet, ai wil’ grhu fet an’ sleg’sh!”

wise-up!

Ferdinand Magellan
Health: Great
Magical Energy: Good ---> Great

[Spartacus]

Year: 2022
Location: El-Dorado Base, Cusco, Peru, El-Dorado
Daytime: Day

Lestari Elliwyn
Health: Great
Magical Energy: Poor



I am currently in El-Dorado’s briefing room once again. The meeting time should be right now but not everyone is here yet. Besides me, only the King and his soldiers were present and busy preparing for the meeting. He ordered his soldiers to prepare everything we needed like chairs, monitors and other paperwork that I don’t really have a good look at what it is about.

“Crap. This is bad...”

I have been taking advantage of people who want to use my abilities for their benefit to survive, so being useless like this makes me nervous. But El-Dorado Caster said the best thing I can do to help is to not waste my magical energy for something trivial when my Recursion can be used to stop a Machine Lord.

“Miss Master, just sit here for the time being. Leave it to us, we need your combat potential.” so he says. I do insist on sending Assassin and Kenshin to help them, since I don’t think logistics will deplete their energy at all.

So here I am, sitting on a chair all alone. My heart beats faster knowing that right now I’m full of openings in a base filled with potential enemies.



However, that feeling of anxiety ended as soon as a silver-haired dandy man in his twenty - Benjamin Franklin, entered the room. He walks quietly as he is accompanied with a loud grazing screech between metal and marble. It is a sound made from SFA Archer's massive and armored body he dragged effortlessly behind him.

And as he continues, his eyes meet with the King. The King straightens his eyes, and so does Benjamin, it is clear that the two still have bad blood with each other.

The soldiers, who had been working earnestly, stopped. All eyes, ruffle and tense, were focused on his lone figure.

Some of them intentionally let very loud clicking sounds, to make sure he knows that his presence was not welcomed here and never will be.

“Scum…”

One man opened his mouth, and the others soon followed.

“SFA SCUM!!”

“I WILL KILL YOU!!”

One by one, they started to chant in unison. Differ from the chants Shingen does to increase his troops' morale, these sounds spiteful. A spite forged from years of hatred and suffering, Benjamin being the first leader of SFA, can be seen as the source from a certain point of view.

Their disdainful voices drown the entire room for a sole purpose to choke a lone man in humiliation.

“...” Benjamin Franklin continued to drag Archer and put him on the nearest wall, silently. Not uncare about their shouts, but trying as hard as he can to ignore.

Something like this… it doesn’t feel right with me… especially that he has slowed down SFA’s attack for a long time.

“Silence!” the King slams his lance to the ground with enough force to make my heart jump and silences the rest of the soldiers. “All of you making me lose face.”



“If you have the energy and time to be loud, you can salvage the machines just fine, right?”

El-Dorado Assassin comes in and he waves off his right hand to the soldiers, in hope they are smart enough to get a clue. They look at each other confusedly, until El-Dorado Assassin frowns his eyebrows. One person lets out one last loud click before leaving the room.

After only the Servants and I left, he then lightly pat Benjamin’s back.

“Why are you coming here alone? I told you to wait,” he says as he let out a small laugh.

“For an Assassin, your pace is too slow,” Benjamin says jokingly, he hasn’t lost his composure.

“Well, like the young Miss, I’m a waiting-type.”

“She is rocket fast, though.”

“...that’s an exception.”

After confirming that Benjamin Franklin doesn’t need his moral backup, he decided to face the King. He once again tensed his eyebrow, clearly expressing his disapproval and disappointment. Unlike with the former, it is apparent that he is more critical toward his former teammate and his leader.

“I leave them a little bit and now they turn into apes. Explain this to me, Lancer.”

“Give me some slacks, they seen too much football.”

“You can watch football in a Singularity?” says El-Dorado Assassin in an ambiguous tone that can be taken as sarcasm and sincerity.

“Regardless, I hope they can behave in the next fight. We need Franklin’s power if we want to win, I can’t let my long-awaited opportunity to fail just because some people can’t let go of their ego for a moment. You are chosen to be a king not because we fear you, but because we were believed that you are the most suited to lead, being an Inca king and all. If you can’t even discipline some men, I will contest that position again.”

“Letting go… You used to be the maddest among us.” Surprisingly, the King didn’t mind the last lines and was more concerned on the first two.

I started to see what kind of relationship these two have. Despite the King being the boss of this Faction, El-Dorado Assassin functions as some sort of ombudsman or inspector general to give him honest opinions, which the King is more than willing to consider. A very different relationship he has with El-Dorado Caster, who is more or less a yes-man.



“Sorry for the wait.” Says Ruler as she enters the room alongside Magellan, the latter looks very weary and lets her tongue out. Then, the Chaldea groups and the others followed shortly.

“Good work!” I said that as I pat Magellan’s back lightly.

“Lestari-chan, I’ll tell you this. I will not do this again the next time we need more magical energy, even if a country will fall.”

“Right, right.” Knowing her, she might really do it.

“Seems all of us are ready.” Confirming everyone important is here, Ruler puts her hand on a laptop that has been prepared by the soldiers and already linked to a projector, and bright lines shine through her right arm and sleeve. A data sending window pops out and copies all the data she needs, all of this is done exactly within 1 second, she then removes her hand from the laptop after confirming the process has been done.

The projector then shows a very detailed map, Pentagon’s. It tells many info from the basic ones like the name of the room and their functions, such as ‘Sentinels Factory’, ‘M.L. Development’, ‘Archer’s Control’, ‘Mission Control’. ‘Walt’s Workshop’ and ‘Bell’s Workshop’. There are also profiles of Servants, complete with their True Names, such as ‘Walt Disney’, ‘Bulltop Stormalong’ and ‘Pecos Bill’, and including the other two which True Name has been listed as ‘Joe Magarac’ and ‘John Henry’ but their appearance listed as ‘unknown’, these two are Servants that I never encountered. There is also information such as where the cameras and turrets are located, the number of robots stationed there, and other security systems in great detail.

Besides Bell, both Walt Disney, Joe Magarac, and John Henry listed under the class Caster, complete with their Skills. They really didn’t lie about being a Faction of weakling...

“Amazing…” mutters Assassin.

“This is all from my super-competent spying works and additional information from Mr. Benjamin and El-Dorado Assassin~!” She says smugly.

“Ah, Mr. Benjamin, if you please.” She suddenly ‘generates’ a device that appears to look like a flying drone with four legs on them from her hand and flies them up high.

“Of course.” Benjamin Franklin then puts his arm upward and aims to it, then mutters his very mundane sounding Noble Phantasm, ”

Thunderbolt

Captured Lightning of the Gods.

”

A lightning javelin strikes the drone-like device, and from the four legs, electricity spreads throughout the base into a cage-like shape. It creates a very loud and zapping sound that alarmed the human instinct to not get close to it more than 10 meters. It obviously looks powerful enough to kill an elephant in a single contact.

“This is SFA’s true creation. A device to maintain my Noble Phantasm into a massive electrical field that is capable to block out Bell’s radio waves.” He says that solemnly and looks at Archer’s body once again, seemingly conflicted whatever to feel proud or disappointed. As a magus that controls electricity, I can see how he managed to evade SFA’s search for years with this machine.

And more importantly, the zapping sounds are so loud, that our voices are filtered out from the outside.

Wise-up!

Item Construction: B

A Caster-class Skill. It is the Skill to manufacture magical items, from implements of war to items for daily use. Also, this Skill requires time to gather components and manufacture items. Benjamin Franklin is capable of crafting minor Conceptual Weapons and highly sophisticated Mystic Codes with numerous complex functions.

The drones Ruler generated from her hand is one of such creation.

Thunderbolt

Captured Lightning of the Gods

Anti-Mountain
Rank: B+

The crystallisation of the feat of being struck by lightning and capturing it, paving the way for mankind to wield what was once exclusive to the Gods themselves. Lightning then was an omen of disaster and capable of only destruction and has materialised as thus in this Noble Phantasm.

By reaching out to the sky and calling out the True Name, an oversized javelin made entirely of electricity approximately three meters in length is forged. Upon throwing the weapon releases a large lightning strike at the enemy. Requiring the power of lightning, the attack cannot be used at full power indoors, but still displays overwhelming power in such a state. Outside, lightning can be gathered to charge the weapon by raising it towards the sky, doubling its potential power.


*Special credit to Bird of Hermes as the original creator of the sheet.

“With this, we can freely talk about our plan,” says Ruler. “As you can see from this map, we have full knowledge of SFA’s Pentagon. So on this front, there should be no problem.”

“Can I ask a question?” speaks Kenshin.

“Go ahead.” Ruler gives a small nod.

“I assume we are going to warp with Magellan to the Pentagon and attack them head-on. That is fine, but how can we guarantee Leader will be there? Considering that Bell is at least aware we are going to try to stop Leader’s brainwashing Noble Phantasm, there is a high chance he will evacuate Leader as a priority.”

“That man betrays you? Fool, from the very start he can’t be trusted,” says the King toward our group.

“...” I can only frown and stay silent from his remark.

But Kenshin didn’t let that slide, “do you have something worthwhile to say?”

“That's a good question,” cuts Benjamin Franklin. “Leader will be there, because the tool necessary to complete his Noble Phantasm can only be found there.”

“What makes you confident about that? Can’t they just make a new one somewhere else?” Ask Kenshin.

“Because I’m the creator of that tool. It was created using my knowledge as a Founding Father, encompassing all US’ scientific knowledge. Which means only I can build it, not even Bell can do that.”

wise-up!

Founding Father (Wisdom): A+

A skill possessed by those who founded the United States, with each one possessing a unique variant. Benjamin is capable of using any skill from American Heroic Spirits excluding those inherent to the body (such as Divinity) at proficiency of A~B Rank, he can only use a few at the same time – it allows for significantly enhanced combat prowess at close and long range. Even though as one of the last ‘Renaissance Men’ to give him a wide variety of skills, he primarily he uses the Shapeshift skill continually to maintain appearance to a more modern and ‘Cool’ visage that (he believes) will be popular with the ladies of the new age and vary it to the person he’s trying to woo. It doesn’t help that his true form is that of a wrinkly old and obese man.

“I can attest to that. They are still trying to reverse engineer many of Benjamin’s creations left in the US until today. Well, mostly because I and the young miss sabotage their attempt. And we work really hard to make sure they fail on replicating Leader’s equipment.” El-Dorado Assassin lets out a sigh and instinctively rotates his head around, letting everyone know that is a massive headache of a task.

“The fight this time will be a race against time, for both of us,” says Ruler.

“We both know that if we want to defeat each other, we need to both act fast and cautiously. SFA’s winning condition will be the completion of Leader’s Noble Phantasm. And stopping him will be harder as time goes on, as the enemies we are going to fight keep increasing the longer we wait,” she says as she points out to a picture of SFA Rider, or Bulltop Stormalong as the profile below says his True Name.

I think the name Bulltop Stormalong is as obscure as Pecos Bill, it is still a mystery how such names are capable to rival heroes of mythology like Lancelot.

“This man is still on the way to us, if they continue as they planned, he will reach the Americas within 12 hours. That’s a lot of time and all, but the biggest unknown factor is this man.”



The screen changes and shows blurry photos of a black-haired young man clad in equally jet black armor. Even if the pictures are unclear and didn't really show the man's face, I can see this man carrying a natural charisma a single man should ever have. But most importantly, the photo shows he is walking in Cusco and the US.

Unlike the rest of SFA, he doesn’t look mechanized at all, he looks like an honest knight from medieval time, even if his lavish armor is anything but.

"black armor...?" mutters El-Dorado Caster.

“I know for a fact he is European Confederation Lancer and the head of the Spain coalition, but his interference in the West War wasn’t calculated at all. I’m sorry that I am too naive to realize the other Upper Belts will violate their own treaty like this.” Ruler bites her lower lip.

Lancer of Spain... that’s mean, he is Magellan’s comrade. Former.

“Regardless… This man might be the reason why they have access to the warping ability that Miss Magellan has. Considering this man is from Spain, many legends about explorations came from it, the possibility of some other Servants having similar ability is far from zero. And the only reason he hasn’t done it again is the same with us, he needs a large amount of magical energy to use it, plus his own ideal. At least, that’s what I got from listening to their conversation a while back.”

“Someone with the same ability as Magellan...” Kenshin mutters. We all knows that Magellan's warping ability is the only edge we have over the rest of the world, but now, someone also has access to that very same cheat ability...

As Ruler continues her speech, a slight beeping sound can be heard from Magellan’s pocket, it is the smartphone Ruler gave to her.

“Ah, a message,” says Magellan. I got curious and checked what it was about.

It says: I purposefully left the fact that you met him in Cusco and got your mouth sealed from a Geass, we don’t want the rest to make a fuss when we have another important matter, thank me later - Ruler.

“You have a lot of explanation to give,” I say.

“I swear I will explain it to you if I can do it in the first place!!”

“Ahahaha.” Ruler lets out a chuckle, knowing what she had done to Magellan. “Ahem, sorry, ignore that.”

“Lady Ruler, if I may ask.” the King is uncharacteristically polite and raises his hand, I still can’t have a read to his behavior at all. “Leader’s True Name, Walt Disney… who is he? What makes that name so dangerous and has such powerful machines in his disposal?”

Ruler opened her mouth and froze, “you don’t know who Walt Disney is?”

This one is easy to read though, I can hear her heart screeching ‘are you an idiot?’ from that expression. But she then closes her mouth with her hand and nods several times, “no, no, it makes sense that you don’t know the name. It will be weirder if some ancient kings like you know him. He is a young Heroic Spirit after all. Yes.”

“Well, to answer the question, he is an animator. A cartoonist.” says Ruler flatly.

“Cartoonist… What?” an understandable reaction from the King.

“It’s hard to explain what kind of Servant he is. If one asks, ‘is he a dangerous Servant or not?’ My answer will be ‘Yesn’t.’ So it will be easier for us to talk about his Noble Phantasm.” She tries to not let out a chuckle again, fully aware that she just uses a modern slang toward a king of all people.

“Continue.” the King listens.

“The sci-fi robots and Machine Lords, the true True Name of SFA Servants, and his brainwashing endgame, all of those lies with that Noble Phantasm -

Readvent of Legends

Timeless Tales That Transcends The River of Time.

And the key to understanding its true nature is SFA Archer’s True Name - Pecos Bill.”

As she said that, everyone looks at Benjamin Franklin’s direction, who is currently taking care of Pecos Bill’s unconscious body.

Yes, unconscious body, because he is not a robot like the rest of the machines. Benjamin took off Pecos' half-broken helmet to reveal a human face inside, bloodied from Kenshin’s direct attack.

“William Rufus Shafter, an officer of the highest caliber the US can offer, that’s his True Name until 2,5 years ago.”

“William…?” I’m lost at words because, even after I researched many figures in preparation for a Holy Grail War, I never heard of this name.

“You don’t know him, right? That’s understandable, because nobody in their right mind would think to summon a Heroic Spirit this young… But he is the closest ‘Pecos Bill’ we have, because ‘Pecos Bill’ is simply a dream we - Americans, have. He is someone that didn’t exist. Yet, he keeps trying to be the ideal ‘Pecos Bill’ regardless of the situation, he is just an earnest man that wants to protect his country. And not only him, the man you know as SFA Rider, he was formerly known as Zachary Taylor, one of the US Presidents. And even if Bell, Joe, and John don't change their True Name, they were all once idealists just like the rest.” When Benjamin said that, he averts his eyes in regret.

SFA Rider, Zachary Taylor… The names Joe Magarac and John Henry, both are figures of American tales like Pecos Bill and Bulltop Stormalong. I know for a fact that their legend is about crafting steels and ore. This explains how SFA is capable of creating powerful war machines en masse.

“This story is similar with some of Chaldea’s Servants. Pseu- no, that’s different. Phantom, we have some being that not worthy to be a Heroic Spirit ended up fused with a small-time Heroic Spirit to manifest. There is also Scheherezade's storytelling power. Is this such a case?” ask Miss Fujimaru as she gives us a new insight.

Benjamin gives a confirming nod as an answer. “With Readvent of Legends, we are slowly capable of strengthening our Servants and fielding robot armies, turning William and Zachary to be closer with Pecos Bill and Stormalong of the legend. But even so, that isn't enough for us to compete. We still lose, and I honestly don’t know what to do at that point, everyone is confused and angry, we are breaking apart...”

His voice almost cracks.

“Until Bell gains the intel that all Servants from Greece have been wiped out… Just like everything in this war, it all changes with the Greece Raid.”

The event that changes how this war works, 4 years ago, Greece Raid.

From what I heard from Magellan about the raid, it is the origin of how European Confederation is formed and eventually all the Factions follow their footstep. Many European Servants teaming up in hope to defeat the unfairly powerful Greek Servants, and it ends up with an overwhelming victory for EC.

Of course, some Servants were able to survive the initial raid, but eventually, all Servants of Greece were hunted down and completely wiped out, and the rest of the major myths followed suit. It seems that the last of Greece was slain around 2,5 years ago, coinciding with SFA’s bombardment toward El-Dorado Base.

That event changes the state of the entire world into what we have now, a 21st century French Revolution.

“I understand the importance of Greece Raid to the creation of Factions, we follow EC’s footstep too. But how does that have anything to do with SFA's sudden power boost?” ask the King to Benjamin.

“Upon learning they all wiped out, Walt decided to ride on the mystery and fame of Greek mythology and he then fused it with the rest of SFA. He strengthens the mystery of the myth with his Noble Phantasm as much as he can, that’s where Archer’s trojan-like appearance and Tuscarora’s adamas-level hardness came from, and the origin of Machine Lord’s is simply an imitation of Talos. Of course, strengthening the myths means the rest of the myths we don’t want got strengthened too, and that would do more harm than good if we strengthen Natives myths that have opposing Servants around at the time, but that is not a problem with Greece being wiped out.”

That fits all the puzzle about the weirdly Greek myth-like appearance from some of SFA’s. And Adamas, the hardest substance ever on Earth originated from Greek myth, used to forge various weapons of heroes and gods such as the infamous Harpe and sickle of Cronus, and the material used to build Tartarus. Zeta’s black diamond materials being tied with Adamas is a move magi would try, but even so, replicating its hardness to be this literal should be near impossible, even for Servants' standard…

“But that’s not all, Walt became more hateful as the war dragged on, and many of SFA Servants refused to do his inhumane tactics including William. So Walt uses his Noble Phantasm to completely change many of SFA Servants’ personalities, turning William into the coldblooded Archer we know today. The rest were turned into Machine Lords against their will by taking their entire Saint Graphs, including some of the Natives and El-Dorado’s Servants. Only I was spared from it because of my

Lightning Conductor

And We Touch the Realm of Gods

to overrides Readvent. But the rest wasn’t as lucky as me.”

Wise-up!

Lightning Conductor

And We Touch the Realm of Gods

Anti-Mystery
Rank: C-

The crystallisation of the feat of being struck by lightning and proving it to be nothing more than electricity – although still dangerous. To do so, Benjamin made a kite to conducted electricity from a thundercloud to charge a special jar that he had prepared. Thus Conducting Lightning was immortalised as a Noble Phantasm. The Noble Phantasm is a conceptual ability of bringing "Gods to mortal understanding" where he generates a bounded field where magecraft and mystery is suppressed. All magecraft and interfering mystery will be reduced in effectiveness. A final note is that Noble Phantasms high in mystery such as Excalibur and God Hand will be interfered by Lightning Conductor and have a chance to outright fail depending on a LCK check from Benjamin. Purely mechanical Noble Phantasms or with very little mystery such as God Force will be unaffected.

Due to being summoned in an ill-fitting class, this Noble Phantasm is reduced in effectiveness as opposing attacks are merely weakened and not nullified.

How Machine Lords capable of achieving Servant-level strength reminds me of Nobunaga’s AI clone back in New Japan. By using a Saint Graph as a basis, it is possible to create what is essentially a mechanized Servant. Of course, Nobunaga has access to Holy Grail which allows her to create a new Saint Graph, but SFA didn’t have that luxury and decided to use existing Heroic Spirits’ Saint Graphs as cores instead.

Such a fearsome Noble Phantasm, I can’t grasp the limit of what it is capable to do. So far, it is capable of strengthening a Servant, potentially weakening and strengthening entire mythology, changing someone's personality, creating war machines that beyond Servants’ strength, and it should be capable of brainwashing the entire world.

It’s too versatile and infinite.

“Hmm… Readvent of Legends...” I put my fist in front of my mouth.

"I always thought that Machine Lords and other giant robots SFA have are ridiculous. I can accept the smaller and human-sized one because this past decade US scholars have developed robots with humanoid shapes, many have thoughts for military applications from those robots. But something that massive should be broken apart by the law of physics. If they want something big, a brick with wheels and turrets achieve more with less costs. But there is one thing I forgot to account for, science Servant, by definition of being a Servant, is a magical being through and through. They operate with mystery more than the law of physics. So turns out they are not scientific at all, they ride along with Talos’ fame… This also explains why the robots can hurt a Servant."

I mumbled to myself, and Miss Fujimaru looked at me with her mouth and eyes slightly opened wide.

“Umm?”

“If we have someone like you on Chaldea, I think Da Vinci-chan can take a rest and relax.” She says that with stars on her eyes.

“C-can, we just move on? I understand what his Noble Phantasm is capable of doing, but since we are going to stop it, we need to know how!” h-how embarrassing!

“Despite having all of those, it has one main weakness: time.” Ruler takes the lead again.

The screen transitioned from showing war information to a broadcasting website, and then a very catchy theme that I have heard kicks in…

This is the saga of a hero of the sea, saving the world every day, you can see!

His name is Capt' Gigan! Caaaptaaaain Gigan!

There is robot trouble! It's time to rumble!

Caaaptaaaain Gigan!

Fighting against the dark overlord! That is the Mastermind of Evil!

And his equally evil minions! Trojan Billy - the sniper and Joshua - the blacksmith!

It's time to-

It is an opening of a familiar cartoon that I have seen a glimpse of during our briefing and being played in a cafe at Cusco. In this episode, it shows the titular hero, a giant naval captain, fighting alone for the sake of the world to stop an invasion from a powerful empire with their robot army. His body is full of wounds, but he continues moving forward and defeats the sniper to confront the helmet-wearing mastermind.

And as we finished watching, I can say it is a surprisingly well-written episode. I can understand clearly the motivation and plots despite never watching the rest of the series.

But what is apparent after learning Leader’s True Name is the giant hero called Captain Gigan clearly alludes to SFA Rider.

The evil sniper called Trojan Billy clearly alludes to SFA Archer.

The blacksmith called Joshua alludes to the unseen Joe Magarac and John Henry.

And the helmet mastermind clearly means Bell…

“As you can see, the media needed to perform Readvent is unsurprisingly, a cartoon. These entire 5 years Leader has dedicated himself to this franchise, it is now a juggernaut with billions of fans. A calculately made franchise that is capable of ingratiating most viewers' hearts regardless of the age range, telling a story about the ugliness of war we currently experiencing at this very day. It even serves as a criticism toward SFA’s own military protocol, as it boldly depicts what appears to be an SFA allusion as the bad side despite being a show from the US, not knowing they want to be seen as evil in the first place. Conflate both real events, sci-fi, American telltale, and sprinkles of Greek myths into the franchise masterfully, and now we have the SFA we currently fight.” Ruler continues.

"But it doesn't make sense, it is only a made up connection..." I say.

"Have you looked at the Faction we are at right now, El-Dorado? Have you seen anything that may look like the actual El Hombre Dorado of the Muisca? The West War as a whole is built from deception."

When she said El Dorado, a Columbian myth that has been evolved to be a myth about a city of gold hidden in the entire Americas, I put my fist in front of my mouth.

"The real legend doesn't matter…! His movie about Greek myth only follows the basic premise and does its own thing."

"bull's eye. This is Walt Disney we are talking about, his movie is much more remembered by the people than any of the myths and fairy tales he decided to adapt. Many people thought that his movies are faithful to the source material too, no, many people thought that his movies are the original stories. Readvent of Legends is not a Noble Phantasm to strengthen, weaken or brainwash, it is far from that. It is a Noble Phantasm that is capable of manipulating people’s perception toward existing mystery and fame. Perhaps, it is the most suitable ability a Servant can have for this dragged out war."

I can see how Disney's fame turned into such a Noble Phantasm, but it is still hard to believe...

"I still can't wrap my head around the fact that a legendary animator of all people is the genocidal Leader. It just doesn't make sense."

"Even if we can't believe it, the fact is, Leader is Disney. Unless Mr. Benjamin lied to us, which I believe is extremely unlikely."

"Miss Elliwyn. Believe me, I am much more shocked that Walt turns into a monster like that than you do. It pains me to accept that he is the same man I once laughed together with."

Ruler continues, “As we speak, he is currently racing with time to make the conclusion of the saga as a special movie. The attack just now is simply him gathering real materials for this movie to ingrained with, the real battle with Leader just started now. Once he releases the show online, the entire world will be his. And with his skills as the most legendary animator and SFA’s equipment, I believe we only have 12 hours from now.”

*New Objective: 12 Hours remaining until Leader finished his Noble Phantasm.

She takes a deep breath and takes out her flat cap from her head.

And bows.

“Everyone, I know many of you are once mortal enemies, that you have mixed feelings about standing together side by side in this very room and in this very time. But right now, the entire world is in danger, and I’m unable to stop it alone. I believe if we try to work together, to patch things together, we can move forwards toward ‘the world of unity’ Miss Lestari speaks of. Even if it small, both Mr. Benjamin and El-Dorado Assassin capable of working together is proof that we are capable of achieving it.”

When she said that, my eyes opened wide.

“I’m asking for your cooperation not as a Ruler that governs all of you, but as a human being that lived at this very moment in this world. Please, lend me all of your strength!”

Everyone looks at those standing in front of them, and at those standing on their right, on their left, and on their back.

Some have excited looks.

Some have smiles plastered in their faces.

Some have blazing determination reflected on their eyes.

But some raise their hand and speak with honesty...

“I’m really sorry, but we aren’t going to participate on this one.”

"Ruler-san, I also have something to say."

[Spartacus]

SFA's profile has been updated.

Thank you for bearing with the lack of choices these past updates.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

[Spartacus]

Objective:12 Hours remaining until Leader finished his Noble Phantasm.

Year: 2022
Location: El-Dorado Base, Cusco, Peru, El-Dorado
Daytime: Day

Lestari Elliwyn
Health: Great
Magical Energy: Poor

“I’m really sorry, but we aren’t going to participate on this one.”

“Ruler-san, I also have something to say.”

The ones that have objection toward the attack are Miss Fujimaru and Magellan, which by extension, Lancelot. Both of them raised their hand, but while the former looks guilty, Magellan is carefree as usual.

“I already expect you will have something against this, Miss Magellan.” It seems that Ruler has anticipated the latter, even if it doesn’t make her less annoyed, “but I didn’t expect the people from Chaldea will too.”

All eyes went straight to Miss Fujimaru, and Lancelot instinctively put his body in front of his Master.



“This attack toward SFA’s Pentagon... there will be civilians involved, right?” she asked.

“Unfortunately, even if we employ robots so our citizens will not die in vain, we still need people to maintain them.” It was Benjamin Franklin that answered her. Of everyone involved, I imagine he is the one that understands the most about the possible casualties this attack might cause. This might risk the lives he swore to protect, but he also can’t let the current SFA to run rampant and taint its name any further.

“...I simply can’t do that, I can’t bring myself to take lives, my entire life was spent to protect them. So... suddenly to process about wars and meltdowns and the likes, that people willingly take others it just… I know people are in danger and this Leader’s Noble Phantasm must be stopped no matter what… But, after years imagining what the modern world is like, thinking that we are protecting what we absolutely must protect, and now I might take those very same lives...” she grips her arm frustratedly.

She looks at me, and smiles weakly.

“Miss Lestari, back then you call me, a ‘hero’ right? What I do may look heroic to most people, and I’m happy that Chaldea’s effort is recognized by everyone, but I’m far from that. I go around Singularities simply because that's the only thing I can and know to do. I’m not the Director, I never have the resolve to save the world.”

“That...! I’m sorry… I don’t know...”

“Mm, it’s not like you are doing it out of malice.”

Her words make me angry with myself. I should be the one that understands the most how it feels for the world to decide who you are without your concern. In a desperate attempt to search for people that didn’t see me that way, the story of the selfless hero with a pitiful magical energy reserve from Chaldea is exactly what I needed to cling on. In doing so, I selfishly decided that ‘the hero of Chaldea’ is who ‘Fujimaru Ritsuka’ is.

I was unknowingly doing the same thing toward her. And yet, despite denying being a hero, she can easily forgive me?



“About mine’s.” Magellan interrupts, “I have no qualm to attack Pentagon or whatever, but I don’t want to do it if El-Dorado Lancer comes with us. We can’t guarantee he will not go berserk again like with SFA Archer.”

“As expected.” Ruler lets out a sigh.

“Conquistador, what did you just say?” the King once again didn’t take this kindly.

She ignores him and continues to explain her reasoning, “our group’s goal is to unite the world. I dunno how, but it certainly will not make a good PR being associated with an unstable king that may commit a massacre out of anger.”

“I tolerate you because I value Caster’s words, but I can’t stand being criticized from the hypocrites that wiped out my descendants.”

“Yeah yeah, that doesn’t change the fact my words are correct.”

“...bastard.”

Both Magellan and the King glared at each other. The former pointed her ornamented gun to his head, while the latter ready to hurl his spear straight to her chest. It seems that just like history when the natives and the Europeans first met, these two can’t fight side by side for long.

“Oi, Lady Fer-” El-Dorado Caster was about to intervene, but El-Dorado Assassin stopped him by holding his shoulder. “Wait.”



“Now now, this is way too intense. The last thing we want is to reduce our combat power within ourselves.” Ruler stood between them, with a barrier wrapping her entire body, her Endurance parameter is on its strongest. It is clear that she is confident the two will be unable to scratch her. “I know Miss Magellan will be against it so I already prepared a solution for this one. And thankfully, this can be applied to Chaldea’s problem too. Everyone, take a look at this maps and images captured by one of Mr. Benjamin’s drones.”

She then brings back the map of the West War on the screen. This time, it shows red icons representing SFA forces that are currently in Central America in real time, and more waves are tailing behind them, perhaps around hundreds. Among the images shown, there is a skygrasper-sized machine similar in design with Zeta, another Machine Lord is on the way. It is clear that soon they will enter El-Dorado’s territory.

“Remember that SFA was originally going to attack within 24 hours. They are not going to cancel their attacks, since returning to the US will take the same amount of time too, and with this, they will try to exhaust us and split our forces. Intercepting them means we will play to their trap, but it is true that we can’t just let them ravage the cities and let people die in vain.”

She takes a deep breath as she visibly tired, “King of El-Dorado, I hope you are not offended by this. But I have observed that you heard a voice that may belong to a coward demon that perpetrated this mess. Right now, you are in no condition to launch this attack without risking our chance of victory.”

“-!!!” He realizes something, “I heard my mother’s voices a few times...”

“Yes, it is common that she be heard in a voice belonging to a loved one. So far that’s the only info I know for certain about Yidhra.”

“It is a voice too that gives me the suggestion to create a Singularity with the Reservoir and my Noble Phantasm... If what you are saying about a demon is true. Then all this time, I have been…” The King stares at his bare hands and loses his strength, no longer has the will to confront Magellan.

If there is a demon behind the scenes controlling his actions, that means everything he achieved and struggled has been according to this demon’s will. He was never fully in control of the events. On one hand, he can offhandedly say ‘I was not the one that was responsible’ and be relieved. On the other hand, this hurts his pride as a king as it implies all of his decisions are made by someone else.

And as if she has dealt with a royalty before, Ruler knows how to deal with it.

“But right now, that’s not what's important. All of those negative feelings you feel, channel it as a fuel to protect the people you had been fighting for. Remember what you should prioritize, the eradication of your enemy, or is it the success of the operation? I’m sure a king of the Inca that utilizes an effective network like you knows about management more than me. Because the Original- I mean, I myself is really bad at it, in fact.”

“But...” And gives him the motivation he needs. “No, you and the Master are correct, I should be better than this. My frustration shouldn’t cloud my judgement over what is best for my people...”

I was surprised that he calmed down, and so does Magellan and El-Dorado Caster.

She then turns to Miss Fujimaru.

“Chaldeans, it’s not like you lack the resolve, but it just your resolve lies in different things. I wouldn’t ask you to participate in the attack, but you have no problem defending civilian lives, right? Chaldea has been humanity’s vanguard for so long, if about protecting lives, I don’t think any of us qualified more than you two.”

“Protecting human lives… Yes, we will do that! I have no problem doing it, you too, right, Lancelot?” Miss Fujimaru's eyes reignited.

“It is our usual routine, of course I can.”

Ruler let out another big sigh to relief herself, happy that all of this internal strife is now over, for real this time.

“Great, it has been decided then! The King, Miss Fujimaru, and Sir Lancelot will be on the defending side. While the rest will participate in the attack. Other than the capabilities behind the mystery-enhanced John Henry and Joe Magarac, we have all the information we can get for this attack. The only thing we need to decide is when we are going to warp to Pentagon. I hope no one has anythi-”



“Umm, I also have something to suggest.” I put my hand on the air innocently.

Ruler’s eyes are goggling.

Her eyebrows are up high.

And her mouth opened wide.

“aaaaaAAAAA-” s-she starts to screech and rip her own hairs out!

“TO SUGGEST! I just have an idea, I’m not complaining!”

“AAAAAAAn idea...?”

“Yes, yes, an idea.”

“Like, I’m not the one doing everything and all thinking by myself?”

“Yes!” I instinctively look at Benjamin Franklin and El-Dorado Assassin, it is clear that the two offended from Ruler’s remark. “Oi, oi, oi.”

“Miss Lestari, are you a goddess?” her eyes turn bright and glittery, “so what is this curious suggestion you have?”

“Well, listen, it is called Operation ZD and we kinda need the King’s chain...”

“Operation… ZD…? Eh?” she is bewildered and once again raises her eyebrow, “that sounds really tryhard.”

Ok, this girl wants war.

“I don’t want to hear that from you, Miss ‘cool lines’.”

* * *

Assassin's Special Event.

For a few minutes I explained what kind of an idea ‘Operation ZD’ was with the help of Kenshin and Assassin. My totally pragmatic naming sense being criticized aside, I was surprised that my plan is well-received by many.

Now the meeting ended, and everyone started to prepare what they must do. For the El-Dorado Servants, they need to relay the info to the soldiers and prepare vehicles for the King and the Chaldeans to intercept the attacking machines. For Benjamin Franklin, his loyal soldiers in Washington DC are waiting for his return.

“Well, I can go anytime.” Magellan dropped her body to the floor and took a relaxed nap.

“Only Chaldea and us are in urgent need of Magical Energy, but Chaldea didn’t hook themselves with the Reservoir so their charge-rate is almost nonexistent. So it is up to our choice when we are going to attack.” explains Kenshin as she takes a seat herself.

The only problem with waiting for our Magical Energy to recharge is the enemy’s rank will increase just like Ruler has explained earlier. While the number of the Machine Lords I can hack increases if I have more energy, I doubt they will just sit idly without making a countermeasure against me, especially considering how much Leader put weight on making sure I was out of the equation.

And to charge efficiently I need to rest my body and soul, that’s mean to sleep. Which means I will access Dream Shroud’s dreaming ability again, something that now I am aware has an unknown risk to rely on.

“They really like to put heavy pressure in our group, huh?” says Magellan half jokingly while pointlessly staring at the ceiling.

“Well, ZD is entirely our idea, so I really-really wanted to do this right.”



“To do things right...” Assassin repeated my words to herself, and stayed silent in deep thoughts for a while, “...”

“Assassin?” I asked her what’s wrong.

She repeatedly looked at me and the others and hid her mouth with her scarf.

“Masanari.”

“Umm?”

“Hattori Masanari, that’s my True Name.”

Assassin’s True Name… a ninja of the famous Hattori clan.

“My name sounds the same with my father’s, but it is made of different kan-. Whatever, you can call me Masanari junior or Masanari II, whichever works.”

“Hattori Masanari… that’s-” Kenshin was shocked as she instinctively put her gloves in her face.

“Unlike the great people who participated in this war, I’m only qualified as a Servant in relation with my father, the famous Oni Hanzo. Unlike him, I’m documented as a failure successor, if people even want to remember me. As you can see, I’m the least person you want to put your faith into.”

She smiles in self-mocking, and then bits her lips.

“I told that Alejandro person about doing things right, but that mostly because his rash action reminds me of myself. So I tried my best to prove myself that I’m not a failure…” her mouth starts to bleed, “But I keep trying and trying, the time with Shingen, those Riders, Lancelot and the robots, yet the only thing I achieve is realizing that I really am an incompetent trash that doesn’t belong here!”

Her eyes were shaking, and her face turned slightly red. She doesn't want and can’t see us in the face, because compared to her, Magellan and Kenshin truly are great people. If the repeated defeat we have been through has made even Kenshin to doubt herself, so then, what does that make her?

“I thought that if we want to do this right, we need to know the full extent of each other's abilities. That’s why I reveal mine...”

I can tell that she doesn't want to reveal her True Name to all of us. To most Servants, revealing their True Names to their enemies means their defeat, but to her, she can’t keep her pride toward her allies with a shameful name attached.

I don’t know what the name Masanari II signifies and frankly, I never heard of the name.

“I don’t know what kind of wrong choice you had made in the past, but I know this for certain-”

If it was not Assassin, someone might not even fare with Lancelot for a few minutes.

If it was not Assassin, no one can infiltrate El-Dorado Base.

If it was not Assassin, we don’t have the one day advantage before Bell sabotages all of us.

If it was not Assassin, I would be Nobunaga’s dog.

If it was not Assassin, I would still be alone.

I don’t care about what Masanari II has done in the past, but I do know what Assassin has done for me. And those aren’t disappointing.

“W-what are you doing?!” I put myself closer to her and breached her personal space.

“You had done the right thing this time. With this, I can utilize you better than before, thank you.“

I warped her entire body with mine, and gripped her strongly but gently to not crush her. My arms caressed her beautiful long hair and stroked her back. I learned this from someone she admires, so I consider this as an ‘indirect hug’ with that someone.

I put my arms on her shoulders and separate us so we can clearly see each other’s face, so she can see my grinning and confident expression.

“So I will count on you again in the next battle, our reliable Assassin.”

Wise up!

Assassin's True Name has been updated.

Decisive Choice!

12 Hours remaining until Leader finished his Noble Phantasm.

The counterattack against SFA will commence shortly! Should Lestari and co. take a rest to recharge their Magical Energy? Be aware that resting means entering Yidhra’s dreaming ability.

1] Yes. If so, how long? (Due to hooking yourself to local Leyline and your Servant to Mana Reservoir, Every 1 hour of rest means +3 to your Magical Energy and Health. Remember that every status represents around 6 amount of her circuits (Lestari has 40 at maximum, meaning under Poor, she currently has 12))
2] No.

[Bird of Hermes]

9 hours, that’ll fill us up almost full.

[King Prussia]

Oh boy, we're going to spend nearly ten hours in an Outer God's realm aren't we ? Well, it's not like we can have Lestari running tired and with her mana depleted during an ongoing war, so... ?
9 hours it is for me too !

[zikari8]

1) 9 Hours 20 Minutes

[SleepMode]

​9hr & 20min

[SaberBlue]

9 hour 20 min

[Spartacus]

Year: 2022
Location: Pentagon, Washington DC, US, SFA



Alexander Graham Bell is currently in the special room to spy all spoken conversations in the world.

Though Bell is one of those odd scientist-type Caster, he still functions largely the same with magus Servants, which he at his best being utilized inside his own ‘Workshop’, or in his case- laboratory. If about networking and information gathering, even the old weak SFA was always on the top of all Factions and never doubted themself in that department. Yet he, who had earned the title ‘The Greatest Spy’ in this war and robbed the world of their privacy, finally doubted his own audial and information warfare security.

Because the unknown Ruler has been spying on SFA for years, the young girl possesses an ability that surpasses his.

He right now can’t put his mind on spying the whole world, and with Benjamin’s gadgets on the allied enemies’ side, there is no point to try to spy them. What he currently puts his mind on is to figure out how Ruler is capable to gain much insider info, even if El-Dorado Assassin is able to infiltrate their rank, there is some detail that he kept private with Leader such as their plan for Readvent. Ruler simply has information that is not accessible toward non-Servant, it is logical to assume that Ruler has invaded his domain.

So he sent a small wave inside his own room to locate foreign objects, which simply be done by knowing the resistance and behavior of materials toward that specific amount of wave, the same method he did on Lestari 30 minutes ago. And to his disappointment, there is no such thing that can be found in the room.

“...wait.”

However, he realizes there is an object inside that he knows, something he had been scattered around the Americas in the hope to locate Benjamin and El-Dorado that is capable of bypassing his all-hearing Noble Phantasm. His customly created Mystic Code, a highly functional wiretap that surpasses even magecraft. The odd thing is, he has no reason to put this item inside his own room, especially hiding it below the nearest table to the door.

He destroyed the device effortlessly with his hand, then immediately checked the main console used to control his devices and run a deep security analysis of its system.

“...!”

It never occurred to him that a simple backdoor program would be found inside his tightly secured system. But that’s exactly how it can bypass the many defenses he has put to resist against native curses and Magecrafts.

“This is too mundane…”

How could they spy on him using something so basic? What kind of Servants Ruler supposed to be?

And for the first time since working on aeronautics, he was filled with extreme determination for discoveries. He is deeply impressed with Ruler’s capability, despite how much hell he has seen in this war, never his networking ability be challenged to such a degree; which is exactly why he doesn't want to lose a battle of information to her as an academic and inventor.

He must know everything, including his own failing.

“Bell System: began searching our own data used these past 2,5 years, finds which information has been accessed by the backdoor,” the machinery arounds him begins using its full capacity and roars loudly. “Ruler, who are you?”

Bell has decided to give his all in this fight.

* * *

Objective:12 Hours remaining until Leader finished his Noble Phantasm.

Year: 2022
Location: ???
Daytime: Day

Lestari Elliwyn
Health: Great
Magical Energy: Poor

intermission

“I should apologize to Ruler for this…”

Decided that we need as much magical energy as I can for the upcoming battle, I rest myself to sleep. I felt guilty to Ruler after she warned me to not use any power that has something to do with Dream Shroud again, but sleeping is simply a biological need. Keep forcing my body to operate and it will not be a demon god that's going to kill me, but nature itself. And there is a limit to how much Laetitia can keep me healthy, it's just a simple spell to control my bioelectricity in a precise manner after all.

Then the same scenery I see whenever I sleep happens.

I continue to dive through my mind and I feel that I become as small as an atom. My now helpless and fragile body drifts off through a river of memories, a mixture of happiness, sadness, pride, hurts, cherished and forgotten; memories of many kinds and origins. And these rivers endlessly spread at all directions, with doors waiting at the end of every horizon, like an infinitely branching planet-sized tree.

I think this is those ‘stairs to dreamland’ that featured in those stories, but it still felt unreal that those made-up myths are real to some degree.

“There is no such thing as enough homework, huh?” I borrow many of Canda’s classics and anthropology books for research, but those creepy mythos seem something Karissa would like to read, if only I consider those too.

I suppose I can access the Servants’ dream and hopefully gain an advantage from those dreams. But why is the dream so inconsistent anyway? Sometimes they show their tragic pasts, sometimes they show something much more recent, sometimes they show both, next time I will dream of them having dinner. As if Dream Shroud only wants to show me something specific to me.

“I have more than enough time to dream about the opened doors, but the unknown risk…”

I mean, is entering this place already count as using its power? I suppose if we can make an analogy here, I boot up a phone but have not used any of the apps at all, does that count as ‘using my phone’?

What happens if there is no dream unlocked and I visit this place? Will I simply come here without doing anything? That will be very unfair but we are talking about some mastermind here, of course she will play dirty. Or will I just sleep normally? If that is the case, that means the only way to resist this power is to use it whenever I can...

Why give me dreaming power and see through others’ status anyway? Give me something much more direct like Zeus’ lightning or something, goddammit.

“…”

There are many doors with the name of Servants engraved in them as always, some are newer additions like El-Dorado Assassin or updated with their True Name such as William Rufus Shafter, replacing the SFA Archer label from yesterday. It seems that El-Dorado Caster’s is unlocked, I still wonder what kind of Caster is incapable to do magecraft or something that achieves the same thing, Zouken’s class system doesn’t make any damn sense.

Despite revealing her True Name just now, there is still no door belonging to Assassin or Hattori Masanari II. Strangely enough, just like Assassin, there is no door with Ruler engraved in it too. And there is also a door without a name from yesterday, once again I sensed a strong familiarity from it. Yet at the same time, the door is locked, powerfully so as it seems it has many padlocks on the other side of the door.

But most importantly, Bell’s. I need to know about him. He is the most connected with Leader which means his memory would be the most valuable for the next attack, but he is also once one of us even if only briefly, and I do not give up on people that I consider as my own.

“It is still locked, after all…”

Is the requirement to unlock a door really random? Then, what’s the purpose to show a quantified Bond between me and the Servants?

I really really need to figure out how all of this works.

Choice!

Lestari is in a mysterious world shrouded by countless dreams, most likely created by Yidhra. She has decided to sleep for 9 hours and 20 minutes, meaning she has enough time to do two actions below.
1] El-Dorado Caster's dream.
2] I don't care about the lack of doors. I want to dream about Assassin's.
3] Call out Dream Shroud, she might be here.
4] I think we shouldn't dream any, it seems risky.

* * *

Location: Cusco, Peru, El-Dorado




Having nothing to do, Ruler decided to look around the city of Cusco with a bag of sandwiches. Free time is a joyous occasion, but it is also true being left at her own device troubles her. Because the moment she wakes up in this world, she already has a clear purpose, that is her duty as a Ruler.

So she can only wander aimlessly, munch her food and stare at everything that caught her interest, which is so many.

(This doesn’t feel bad at all, I wonder if this is how being in Miss Magellan’s group felt.) she chuckles as she browses around a shop that sells brightly colored textiles.

And speaking of having a purpose, there is another person who has a purpose in their entire life.

“Hey, Ruler!” Fujimaru Ritsuka waves her hand on the nearest street, with her knight Lancelot carries a pink shopping bag full of souvenirs. "You don't get sick of those sandwiches?"

The defending group that consists of the Chaldeans and the King will intercept a Machine Lord shortly, right now the King is preparing his army and vehicles for the attack, so until then the two must wait and decide to relax themselves.

“Miss Fujimaru, Sir Lancelot, good to see you two. Yeah, I kinda do, but I too need my maximum Magical Energy,” her eyes naturally peek at their grocery as she munches. “That’s a lot.”

“Ah…” realizing she will be in trouble, she instinctively put her hand behind her head, “there are so many things I haven’t seen, so I got carried away...”

“I’m not gonna help you make excuses with Da Vinci, you know how strict she is in terms of our budgets.”

“H-hey, don’t be like that!”

Ruler laughs looking at their antics.

“Ruler there is something I would like to ask, if you don’t mind,” Fujimaru Ritsuka stopped being silly and became diplomatic. “Can I ask you about your True Name? It will help us if we encounter a version of you in a Singularity.”

“Ah, don’t bother.”

She was not expecting such an answer coming from someone as friendly as Ruler, yet she witnessed the brightest smile a Servant had since the Servant Shielder in her memory.

“I suppose this might be pedantic, but I don’t have one. There is no such thing as another me, even if there is.”