Purity is there. A fragile flower, white and radiant, shining brighter than the sun and the stars. Gleaming, gorgeous without compare - and then, a flash. The sharp sting of metal. Deep burgundy splatters across the petals of the flower. A blade divides it in half, spilling out the rot within, and with the eyes of a righteous judge, the ████'s boot crushes the fallen lily into the dirt.
"You wretched… Ingrates…" Chevalier d'Eon mutters, and her body dissolves into golden dust, leaving a wide-eyed Merry d'Lyon behind, still gripping the rapier that slew the Berserk Saber.
Her hand falls slack, and the rapier slips from her grip, clattering to the ground. She heaves a deep breath - and then another, and another, growing quicker and quicker. I've got all kinds of questions rolling around in my head - so by the time I realize Merry is hyperventilating, I just barely have enough time to catch her as she passes out.
Fortunately, there's more than one source around able to answer my total confusion - so after laying Merry safely on a bed in the abandoned manor we've been using as a base, I turn my attention to a certain Clock Tower Professor.
***
"The Watcher class?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. "That's… one of the really out-there Extra Classes, right?"
"That's right." He nods. "Although even that might be an understatement. Extra Servants like [Shielder] or [Ruler] look normal in comparison. I can't say with confidence that it's the most bizarre extra class, but I can't think of anything that competes at the moment."
"I get that it's weird - but what does it do exactly? It's got… something to do with Pseudo-Servants and Demi-Servants, right?" I press, trying to bring us back to the topic at hand.
"...There's some loose approximation of correctness there, if only by way of analogy." Professor Velvet says evenly. "To summarize… the [Watcher] Class's purpose is to 'watch' the transformation of his master into 'a living heroic spirit'. Possibly, in some cases, the end result might resemble a Pseudo-Servant or a Demi-Servant - but that's pretty much the most I can say about it. Kongming isn't even sure if there's a single record on the Throne of that process actually reaching its end."
I can't help but grimace. "A living heroic spirit, huh?" From every impression I've gotten of Merry up to this point, that's just about the last thing she wants. "But putting that aside, have you got any idea who this Watcher might be? What kind of person even qualifies for a class like that - famous mentors, or something?"
The professor shakes his head. "No, it's nothing that simple. The type of being that could qualify for the Watcher class would have to be an edge case just as severe. Hero, anti-hero, god, demon, elemental, vampire… it couldn't be any of those things. Or at least, not 'just' one of those things."
My wrist communicator beeps, and Doctor Roman appears. "I can provide a bit on this- we hadn't picked up any readings before, but - well, whatever happened to that girl when she killed Berserk Saber, we managed to get a brief scan of her Servant." He grimaces. "Well, that being said, it doesn't look like good news. I'll send it over now."
The display changes - oi, [Fallen God]? That skill alone makes this obvious bad news!
"Tch." Professor Velvet shakes his head. "With skills like that… And taking into account the girl's appearance, Watcher's Identity is pretty obvious."
"[The Evil God of the Reef] - is what we're calling him for now." Doctor Roman says. "He's not really one of them, considering his true origins, but the fact remains that it's against best practices to directly name any of the beings who resemble the writings of Howard Phillips Lovecraft."
"A Sumerian god who ought to have faded from existence, only to have his legend preserved as a demon, and then a sea monster from the stars… that'd qualify, alright. That level of distortion is just perfect for the Watcher class." The Professor sighs. "It's all coming together, but the picture isn't pretty."
He takes a puff of his cigar, and continues.
"Merry. Spelled as the English emotion, with two Rs - that's not a French name. The French form of Saint Mary's name is Marie, as you're no doubt aware. Why? It could have been that she was from an English family, but that seems unlikely. She hasn't got the appearance of someone whose gene pool has seen much mixture from out of town. No, she's got the 'Innsmouth look'. And if Lovecraft is to be believed, that sort of influence runs deep - who else do we know with a face like hers?"
"...Chlodovech." I mutter, as I start to see exactly where he's going with this. "And his grandfather, the guy he probably inherited his face from, was Merovech, right? So the reason that the Quinotaur is so weak compared to the typical Divine Beast is… probably because it never existed in the first place. Merovech's true father was the [Evil God of the Reef]."
"It makes a strange sort of sense. France was never a nation known for its aquatic prowess, so the story of its descent from a god of the Sea was strange. But before medieval etymological misinterpretations, the [Evil God of the Reef] was a god of the weather and the harvest.. The fish aspects were added later." Doctor Roman says.
"...Ugh. In the end, though, all this amounts to is a big question mark, right? We still don't know what Watcher wants, so we're back to square one in determining whether Merry can be trusted." I groan. "Fine, whatever. We haven't got time to waste going in circles. What else have we got to go through?"
"There's Fafnir, but I need one more piece of evidence before I'm comfortable putting forward my current theory." Professor Velvet says.
"On our end… Director Animusphere is looking quite a bit better today, but she's busy going through Chaldea's records for some reason, so she can't handle communication right now." Romani says. "More importantly, the Middle Eastern and Roman singularities are continuing to diverge from their original values."
"Oh, there was something like that, wasn't there?" I mutter.
"Hey, I'm not the Director, so don't go using that gag on me." He deadpans.
"But with that in mind, can I actually have a look at the values for the Roman divergence? I just had a reminder of something recently." I ask.
"...What do you even think you'll get out of them?" He mutters. "Aren't you just a first year Clock Tower student?"
He sends the data to my communicator anyway, and I scroll through them with a frown on my face. Yeah, it looks like I was right.
"I'm a high-school dropout too!" I reply, closing the data reader and flashing a thumbs up.
"You can't read it and you just did it to annoy me!?" Romani gives the perfect Romani response.
"-Anyway, the incineration in Rome has been reduced to almost nothing, but that 'almost nothing' is burning its way forward in time faster than the other singularities." I say. Well, I may have dropped out, but I spent eight loops learning theoretical physics after all. "Considering this is Rome we're talking about… everything about it screams of one of Atlas's Seven Superweapons. [Powered Armor RESTITVTOR ORBIS], the same weapon used as construction materials for Chlodovech's axe. What a pain in the neck.."
"You can read it after all!? What kind of High School dropout are you!?"
"I'm a High School dropout with a Theoretical Physics degree and training at Atlas Academy!" I say with a thumbs up.
"Anyway, that means - oh crap!" Romani suddenly tears his attention away to look at something else. "Subaru, you guys need to head east right away! Mash's group has almost reached Lyon, but they've encountered enemies! They're being attacked by Berserk Avenger!
…I knew I was forgetting something.