"So easy to enter this time…"
In a new world, standing atop a twenty-story building, Daniel Davis gazed down at the neon-lit streets and the bustling flow of people. He found himself lost in thought—it was the first time he had entered a new world so effortlessly, without the need for prior analysis or breakthrough sequences.
"Neon lights… Fuyuki City… Wait a minute, isn't this the so-called peaceful city of Fuyuki, known for its frequent gas explosions?"
"It really is. A Holy Grail War, huh? Judging by the current timeline, this must be the Fourth Holy Grail War."
After checking the date on the internet, Daniel quickly narrowed down the period.
"Let's check out the Tohsaka residence. No, wait. Since I'm in this world, there's one thing I absolutely have to do."
In the timeline of the Fourth Holy Grail War, there was one thing Daniel deemed absolutely necessary—not to become a Master and fight in the war, but to kill that wretched worm. He could do without the Grail, but the old worm had to die, and not just die—he had to be obliterated, leaving no trace behind.
With that in mind, Daniel immediately changed direction. The Tohsaka house could wait—the Matou family came first.
"Let's hope Sakura hasn't been sent there yet."
While Daniel remembered many of the key events in the Holy Grail War, the exact moment Sakura was adopted by the Matous was unclear to him.
BOOM BOOM BOOM.
"What's going on? Did someone beat me to it? Isn't the Holy Grail War supposed to be fought in secret?"
Before he even reached the Matou estate, Daniel heard thunderous explosions in the distance, followed by a towering black light shooting into the sky.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
As he was about to speed up and investigate, he saw flames erupt far off. Without hesitation, he flew into the air and looked into the distance. There, high above the city, was a strange rift pouring out massive amounts of black, viscous fluid. The strange black liquid was fueling the fire below.
"Black mud… So this must be the end of the Holy Grail War."
The black mud, along with the great fire that engulfed Fuyuki City, only appeared at the conclusion of the Fourth Holy Grail War. It was because of this incident that Kiritsugu Emiya ended up adopting Shirou.
Putting everything else aside, Daniel immediately flew toward the source of the black mud.
He arrived at a mountain overlooking the city where the black mud had erupted. Flames had already engulfed much of the ground, and buildings were crumbling. Civilians ran for their lives, but Daniel ignored them—his eyes were locked on the battlefield ahead.
"What the hell is going on… Is this the Heaven's Feel route?"
In front of him were several figures clearly identifiable as Servants—and not just any Servants, but corrupted ones, consumed by the black mud. Only one remained uncorrupted, and he was fighting a losing battle.
Though the corrupted forms were twisted, Daniel still recognized them: Saber Alter, Heracles Alter, Hassan Alter, and even Red Archer Alter. The lone uncorrupted Servant was fiercely holding his ground.
"No Masters anywhere in sight?" Daniel frowned. That was what surprised him the most—there were only Servants present, and no trace of any Masters.
"Hey, what are you doing?! Get out of here before you get yourself killed!"
A young man with short blue hair shouted from a distance. He was a Servant, wielding not a spear but a staff—something resembling a mage's staff, though he fought with it like a spear and cast spells with it too.
"You're… Cú Chulainn?" Daniel asked, recognizing the man. Despite the absence of his iconic spear, his aura and fighting style were unmistakable.
"You're a human?"
Of course, the corrupted Servants also noticed Daniel. One of them—Hassan Alter—charged toward him immediately.
"Look out!" Cú Chulainn shouted a warning. He quickly sketched a rune in the air, summoning a fireball to intercept Hassan. But Hassan's body twisted unnaturally in midair, dodging the fireball and continuing his charge toward Daniel.
BANG!
Just as Hassan was about to strike, Daniel delivered a powerful kick to his chest, launching him dozens of meters away and crashing him into the ground in a cloud of dust.
The unexpected counterattack shocked the surrounding corrupted Servants, giving Cú Chulainn a chance to break free and retreat to Daniel's side.
"You're tougher than you look."
"What the hell is going on here?" Daniel asked.
Nothing was going as expected, and he had no clue how this Holy Grail War had turned so chaotic.
"Now's not the time to explain. We need to get out of here," Cú Chulainn replied quietly as the corrupted Servants began to regroup and move toward them.
"Alright."
Still lacking crucial information, Daniel decided to follow Cú Chulainn's lead.
"Trying to run? Stay right there!"
Red Archer Alter raised his bow and fired a spiral sword—his signature attack.
"Go!"
Cú Chulainn scrawled five runes in the air, summoning five fireballs that collided with the spiral sword in a fiery explosion. The two of them used the moment to escape.
"Good thing she didn't attack. We wouldn't have made it otherwise."
Though he didn't name her, Daniel knew Cú Chulainn was referring to Saber Alter. In her corrupted state, Artoria was immensely powerful. If she had joined the assault, even Cú Chulainn would have fallen.
Same with Red Archer Alter—he only attacked as they fled. If he had fired earlier, Cú Chulainn wouldn't have survived.
"Can you tell me what's going on now?"
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I was summoned into what should have been a normal Holy Grail War—but there was no Master. Then Saber showed up in that altered form and started slaughtering the other Servants. She corrupted them one by one with the black mud."
Cú Chulainn explained that he'd been summoned just a day before Daniel's arrival. Saber had appeared already corrupted, then went on a rampage. Only Cú Chulainn managed to escape the initial onslaught.
"So… she's powered-up threefold? This sounds a lot like a certain someone who soloed a Holy Grail War for his sister."
"You're a Caster-class, right?"
"Yeah. Would've been better if I was Lancer-class. My teacher always said I was third-rate as a mage…"
He began grumbling. Cú Chulainn, the Hound of Ulster, was undoubtedly at his peak in the Lancer class. His teacher was none other than Scáthach. Still, even as a Caster, he relied more on physical combat.
Kind of like a certain someone who kept fighting in melee despite being classified as an Archer.
"You should be glad you weren't summoned as Lancer."
Historically, Lancer-class Servants had terrible luck. Though powerful, they rarely made it to the end.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Cú Chulainn looked confused, and Daniel didn't bother explaining.
"No Master, corrupted Saber, and a desire to destroy Fuyuki… this could be a Singularity."
The situation reminded Daniel of the peculiar time-space Singularities created by Chaldea. If this was one, it explained the lack of structure in the war.
If only the sky had a light band, he could confirm it instantly.
"Could those two be the ones who dropped me here?"
Given how easy it was to enter this world, and the abnormalities of the war, Daniel suspected that Alaya and Gaia—the world's Counter Forces—had discovered his presence.
Unlike other worlds he had visited, like Marvel or Chinese Paladin, the Type-Moon universe had omnipresent will-like entities. These two didn't tolerate outsiders easily.
So far, however, no Guardians had come after him. That likely meant they were observing but not hostile—at least not yet. As long as he didn't try to destroy the world, they wouldn't interfere.
For such world-will entities, maintaining the integrity of the world was priority one. Other things were secondary. If a "stowaway" benefitted the world, they might even be accepted.
In human terms, not all illegal immigrants are deported—those with value often stay.
Still, if you had no value, you were either deported or abandoned.
"Well, no point thinking about them now. First, I need to decide what to do. With all these parallel timelines, I should explore. But first, there's something I must finish."
The multiverse of Marvel was too dangerous to wander into recklessly. Until his strength reached a certain level, he wouldn't touch it.
But the Type-Moon multiverse was more manageable—as long as those two permitted it.
Besides, he was deeply interested in this world's magic, summoning systems, and even the Five True Magics. Not to mention… this world had King Arthur.
"If I want to confirm it's a Singularity, I just need to try leaving Fuyuki."
In a normal world, that wouldn't be a problem. But a Singularity would be surrounded by void.
Sure enough, at the edge of the city, Daniel confirmed that everything beyond was blank space. The civilians, however, didn't seem to notice—many were fleeing the disaster, unaware of the world's true state.
"So, you figured it out," Cú Chulainn said.
"Yeah. All we can do now is wait for Chaldea to show up. You're a Servant—it's fine to tell you."
Summoned Servants were mere aspects of their true selves. Only the Counter Forces could summon the full version. Unless granted permission by Alaya or Gaia, Servants wouldn't remember what happened.
That said, some exceptions existed. King Arthur, summoned multiple times across wars, retained fragments of her memories.
"Human Incineration… So that's what this is."
After hearing Daniel's partial explanation, Cú Chulainn fell silent. He, too, had once been human.
Of course, Daniel didn't reveal everything. He simply told Cú someone was trying to destroy the world.
"They're destroying Fuyuki."
As Daniel and Cú Chulainn hid, the corrupted Servants were going wild. In their twisted forms, they tore through everything in sight. While many civilians had escaped, many more remained trapped.
Neither Daniel nor Cú moved to save them.
Engaging Alter Saber now would be reckless—especially when she was powered by the Grail.
With near-infinite mana at her disposal, she could unleash her Noble Phantasms at will. Even her raw mana output rivaled low-grade Noble Phantasms in destructive power.
Daniel wasn't Mash Kyrielight—he didn't have that shield. In fact, he believed Mash only won in canon because Saber recognized the origin of her shield and who she had fused with.
"These are the original Runes…"
Another reason Daniel didn't act was because he needed time—to stabilize his link to this Singularity and to learn from Cú Chulainn.
This Caster-class Cú Chulainn used the original Runes, taught to him by Scáthach herself.
Daniel had studied Runes across multiple worlds: Kamar-Taj, Asgard, even Harry Potter. But none of them had the complete system.
Odin in Asgard likely had it, but good luck getting him to teach you.
So meeting Cú here was a lucky break. If he ever met Scáthach in the future, even better.
Compared to other magic systems, the original Runes were on another level—higher even than Tongtian Scroll. Just look at Touko Aozaki—merely improving modern Runes had made her a top-tier magus.
Runes were a complete system: attack, defense, healing—you name it. Cú Chulainn had only survived Saber Alter's rampage by using a decoy spell. If he'd been summoned as Lancer, he'd already be corrupted.
Cú taught Daniel freely, holding nothing back. Every Rune he shared would've driven modern magi insane with joy.
To Cú, though, it wasn't a big deal. He'd only learned them because Scáthach had pointed a spear at him and made him.
Of course, Daniel was no ordinary student. Anyone else would've struggled even with Cú's full support. If learning Runes were easy, everyone would do it.
______
(≧◡≦) ♡ Support me and read 20 chapters ahead – patreon.com/Mutter
• Every 100 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter on Saturday.• Every 5 reviews = 1 extra chapter on Saturday.