In Lancer memory, enemies usually didn't play well together. However, after Assassin and Rider were picked off by Lancer and Cu Chulainn respectively, the enemy side seemed to realize that spreading their forces thin was only asking for them to be eliminated one by one. The only silver lining was that, according to their observations, Berserker remained uncontrollable; even in his blackened state, he refused to cooperate with the other Servants. But just as Lancer and Cu were preparing to make their move, the unexpected happened once more.
Archer attacked them from an unknown position. It wasn't just two enemies—it was three!
"Senpai, sorry... I dragged you into this."
"What's this talk about dragging me down? Missing Archer wasn't just your mistake... hiss..."
As Lancer gave a sudden tug, the arrow lodged near Cu Chulainn collarbone was ripped out. Looking at the sealing runes etched into the shaft, Cu couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.
He had taken the hit to protect Lancer, then immediately sealed the mana within the arrow. If the enemy had triggered a "Broken Phantasm," he'd be lucky to escape with half his life—especially since he was currently operating without any support from a Master.
"Looks like we need to rethink the plan... again."
The original plan was for Cu to stall the powerhouse Berserker while Lancer found an opening to take out Lancer. But with Archer joining the fray, the 2v2 became a 3v2, and everything fell apart.
While logic suggested they could try to "base-race" and attack the strongest one, Saber, while the other three were occupied, Cu shut that idea down immediately.
"Something is very wrong with Saber. Her personal output and mana capacity have been buffed to an impossible degree. I've never seen a Servant spam their ultimate Noble Phantasm like that..."
The thought of those dark-red beams of light raining down as if mana were free made him shiver.
Sure, he was a battle maniac, but he wasn't a masochist. If he had Master support, he might give it a shot—after all, Command Spells and a steady mana supply are game-changers—but those were just "ifs." His Master had long since vanished.
"Let's try one more time. If that fails, we'll wait for that 'Chaldea' Servant and Master you mentioned."
"Right."
Unsurprisingly, the final attempt ended in failure. Archer presence made a sneak attack impossible, and while Berserker was a wild card, he would still lash out at anyone nearby once the fighting started. Caught in a three-way pincer, Lancer and Cu couldn't gain an inch.
The encounter with Saber was even worse. A relentless barrage of Excalibur Morgans forced them into a corner where they couldn't even find an opening to counter, eventually forcing a retreat. To make matters more frustrating, Archer appeared again at the end, though he didn't attack; he simply stood there with his arms crossed, watching them coldly as if mocking their futile efforts.
Both Lancer and Cu were fuming. Lancer was somewhat better off, having prepared himself for a grueling struggle—he knew the gap between himself and true legends—but Cu was different. Proud as he was, being beaten twice by the same enemy left his face a mask of cold fury.
And then, things got even more complicated: a massive wave of skeletal monsters began swarming the city...
Olga Marie Animusphere, the legitimate heir of the Animusphere family and the current Lord of the Astronomy Department at the Clock Tower. Currently, however, her most famous title was the Director of the Chaldea Security Organization.
In terms of talent, status, lineage, and personal effort, Olga Marie was at the pinnacle of her peers. Yet, she had one glaring flaw that gnawed at her: despite her excellence in the Department of Evocation—even earning the praise of the Vice-Director, Fiore Forvedge Yggdmillennia—she had failed the Master selection for Chaldea, the very organization her father had founded.
She... lacked the aptitude to be a Master. Her compatibility with Rayshifting was equally abysmal. While this didn't diminish her prestige or her skill as a magus, it was a personal complex she couldn't shake.
This was her father's life's work. After his death, she poured her entire soul into the project, yet she couldn't even participate. It was a bitter pill to swallow.
But a "sudden accident" changed everything. During the disaster at Chaldea, she lost consciousness, and when she woke up, she was standing in a sea of flames.
Looking at the "familiar" inferno, she was stunned for a moment before a surge of joy hit her. She realized she was at the heart of Singularity F—Burning Fuyuki City!
The joy lasted only seconds before the attackers arrived. An endless stream of skeleton soldiers emerged from the fire and rubble.
At first, she didn't worry. These skeletons couldn't survive more than a few hits from her; basic "Gandr" shots were enough to take them down. But as time passed, her expression darkened. Her mana was running low, yet the skeletons showed no sign of thinning out—in fact, their numbers were growing.
After blasting her fifteenth skeleton, she made a decisive move: she turned tail and ran!
Gandr didn't use much mana, but for some reason, all the mystic codes and magical items she usually carried had vanished during the Rayshift. Relying purely on her internal mana wouldn't last long. She was an academic, but she was a combat-oriented magus; she knew fighting these skeletons was a waste of energy when she didn't know what else was out there.
She needed to conserve mana, but she miscalculated one thing: the skeletons looked fragile, but they were incredibly agile. Even with reinforcement magic, she couldn't shake them. The more she ran, the lower her mana dipped, and she hadn't run into a single human soul.
What is going on? If I Rayshifted, where are the other forty-some candidates?
Just then, a strange scraping sound came from ahead. As she rounded a corner, her face turned pale. Directly in front of her was a squad of yellow skeletons led by several strange purple and grey-white ones.
They looked different from the ones in rags... and they looked a lot stronger.
It's over...
In that instant, a wave of pure despair washed over Olga Marie.