Emiya Residence.
As soon as I felt the floor of my home, I quickly felt lightness and freedom. And, influenced by this feeling, my body almost immediately fell onto the familiar sofa. A couple of seconds later, I had a cup of hot coffee in front of me, brought to me by Rea-chan, the only other person here besides Fou, who immediately settled down on my lap.
- "Where is everyone?" I asked Rea-chan, who was standing behind me.
- "Lord Zelretch assured us that everything is fine and the problem has been solved. After that, everyone went back to their business," she replied, to which the vampire simply grinned, as if confirming the truth of her words.
- "Even Grandpa?" I raised an eyebrow.
- "I'm here," he replied for her, appearing behind my other shoulder and glancing at Griselda, who was still standing there. "What about the Beast?"
- "We found common ground," I shrugged, and Griselda nodded briefly.
- "Should I notify the other Servants?" he asked.
- "Yes, but not about that," I shook my head. "I need you and Asako to tell them that they, and you too, should get ready for a vacation in a couple of days. Our trip together, to relax and unwind a little. I'll outline the situation there so I don't have to repeat myself several times."
Grandpa didn't ask any questions and, after taking one last quick look at Griselda, disappeared as quietly as he had appeared. I picked up my cup and took a sip, then looked at Griselda too.
- "Do you need anything?" she asked.
- "Yes, do you need anything?" added Sarra, who had materialized and sprawled on the sofa in a careless pose, like a teenager in her rebellious phase. Seeing this, Griselda's eyebrow twitched, and Fou looked curiously at the newborn Beast. "And keep in mind, I demand compensation for the damage, because you broke that Holy Grail. Without it, I can't use even half of my power."
- "We'll resolve this issue later, I promise, but now let's get back to business," I said. "I want to send you to Tia so that you both go through an adjustment period, because, in my opinion, she is ideal for this."
Tia was ideal for Sarra and Griselda to find at least some semblance of balance between themselves, because I didn't merge them completely, unlike Goetia and me. It was impossible to separate them completely, not in this case, when the nun had no connection to the Root. Sarra would simply have absorbed or subjugated Griselda. So I made them two halves of a whole, where, in order to gain full power, they had to merge, and by mutual consent.
This solved several problems, one of the main ones being the safety of both personalities. The other Beasts would arrive in this world one way or another, and this posed a significant risk to Griselda. Sarah would be able to resist the influence of, say, Kiara, but what about the nun? Hardly.
I believed in her to a certain extent, of course, but not that much.
- "Okay," Griselda replied without hesitation, understanding the necessity of this action.
- "Beast II, right?" Sarra muttered. "Good. She's the most pleasant of the other Beasts."
- "Of course," I smiled, and Fou nodded in agreement and, jumping onto Sarah's shoulder, began to demand affection, as if to introduce himself, which she quickly accepted. "Then I'll send you on your way. And give them my regards."
With a mental command, I created a magic circle beneath them, which quickly transported them to their destination along with Fou. But at the very end, when they had almost disappeared, I noticed a brief glance that Griselda cast in my direction. It was something between doubt and uncertainty, which did not match her temperament at all. However, now was not the time for that.
- "Now it's your turn," I said, looking at Zelretch sitting opposite me, and finished the cup that Rea-chan had refilled. She also offered tea to the guest. "What did you mean when you used the word 'ready'?"
Zelretch scratched his beard, as if thinking about the words.
- "Will Miss Leviathan's presence be acceptable?" he asked suddenly. "I would understand a Servant, but not someone from this world."
- "If necessary, I will leave you, my king," Rea-chan said calmly.
- "No, it's fine. She's already part of the family," I shrugged calmly, which immediately made me feel her gaze on the back of my neck. "So, what's up?"
He nodded, then took the offered tea and took a sip.
- "As you know, you didn't end up here by accident. More accurately, you came all this way, including the part you don't remember," Zelretch began.
- "Yeah. That's some explanation," I chuckled.
- "And, as you know, it was planned by two leaders of Heaven from different worlds."
- "Yeah, yeah. Get to the point."
- "But in this deal, as you probably guessed, I was involved," he continued, and I nodded in agreement. "They needed a suitable version of you, so they turned to me. And, again, as you guessed, it wasn't just like that."
I raised an eyebrow, because that thought hadn't occurred to me. And to be honest, it didn't really matter.
- "Each of them had one... condition," said Zelretch, holding up two fingers. "The first, which was needed by the local version of him, was, let's say, a correction."
- "Correction?"
- "In this world, Trihexa was defeated, yes, but not at all as planned. Virtually every event that you would call a 'story arc' turned out to be much more tragic than it should have been. Slowly but surely, each of you broke down, and part of the Occult Club group, like many other key figures, were already dead by the time of the battle with Trihexa."
- "Wait, wait!" I stopped him and even sat up straight. "What about the reset? Wasn't there supposed to be a reboot, huh? Not that I consider some of them particularly useful, but they were supposed to live to see the key arc, right?"
- "Not a reset, but a copy," Zelretch shook his finger, and I froze, because it was... extremely logical. "Without the current you, this version would have followed the same tragic path that did not suit the leader of Heaven. Adherence to the 'canon' was only a conditional attempt to ensure that those events would not be repeated."
- "Wait a minute!" I jumped up from the sofa. "What about the rule of the plot? Isn't it..."
- "Did you really think that all these changes that your hands had made would not trigger a reboot, if, of course, this 'plot' existed in the first place, huh?" he asked with a smirk on his face, causing my brain to shut down for a few seconds. "In reality, such a thing is extremely rare and can only exist under special circumstances. For example, a constant observer who is also the supreme ruler and creator of the world. And this one, as you understand, does not possess such qualities."
My brain was still rebooting for a while, until, at some point, it finally let go. However, I had more questions.
- "Then how..."
- "The one who gave you the rings in our world helped with that. Through the combined efforts of both of them, as well as Alaya, both local and mine, we managed to restart this world," he continued. "The price for this was a mutually beneficial deal, where the subject was, in fact, you."
I fell onto the sofa and, creating a carafe of coffee, drank it in one gulp, because I needed caffeine to process such information.
- "The current you is not allowing this world to go down the wrong path, where both humanity and the planet as a whole were guaranteed extinction within five years after the victory at Trihexa. And the leader of Heaven was not satisfied with this situation, especially since it was his fault," he said. "If you ever want, I could take you back to your home world, but I warn you, the sight there is not a pleasant one."
I silently absorbed his words, then created another jug and poured it down my throat.
So, all this time, not only Alaya had been lying to me, but also the God of the Bible? It was illogical.
The current me was capable of many things, and allowing this world, which was, in fact, my home, to perish was not one of them. Would I defend it until my last breath? The question remains open, I won't lie, but if the answers were either 'yes' or 'no', I would definitely choose 'yes'.
Why force me to follow a canon that seems to have been loaded into my head in the form of a wiki and false memories? Why continue to imitate the game if the answer was essentially clear anyway, because I would never believe that the local Biblical God himself did not guess my intentions? Why lead me by the hand when I'm already grown up and the path is clear?
Only questions to which I am unlikely to get answers. The entity is not of the caliber from which I could demand them. Or at least, not until it wants to.
- "What kind of deal?" I finally asked. "What did He want from your world?"
Zelretch's lips moved as if savoring the answer between himself and his tongue. It was as if what he wanted to say both delighted and frightened him. HIM, mind you. Only after a short time did his whole face take on a serious expression, as if he had finally decided on the adventure of the century, or perhaps even the millennium.
And the answer I received, in terms of significance and long-term impact, really did correspond to what I had imagined. A single word, the meaning of which was as clear as the message, and which made my face contort with a certain... understanding.
- "Spider."
-0-
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