[AAA City Ghost: Welcome, new group member.]
[Golden Spirit Founder: Welcome, new group member.]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: Welcome… hm? Terra? Is this someone from the same world? Demon race… Sarkaz?]
Watching Jie's confused messages appear in the chat, Anthony didn't say anything. He simply sat in silence and began turning over the current situation in his mind.
Kiritsugu Emiya — since he was dead, that placed him after the Fourth War. As for the timeline, it was probably close to the Fifth. More or less human-shaped, at least.
As for Theresa… Anthony didn't have strong feelings about her one way or another. What he was mainly focused on was a single point: what state was she actually in right now — and what were her resurrection conditions?
Surveying the bleak, desolate wasteland of the underworld stretching out before him, Anthony felt a headache coming on. But a moment later, he started typing in the group chat:
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: @Champion of Justice @Terran Demon Spy — welcome to the group, both of you. For details on the situation, please start by reading the group announcement.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Once you've confirmed the announcement, please post your resurrection conditions in the chat. Thank you for your cooperation.]
The murky, defiled sensation of being steeped in black mud for so long — it was gone.
As though some kind of release had finally arrived.
This was Kiritsugu Emiya's first impression as his thoughts gradually gathered themselves back together. And immediately after that came the disoriented process of reclaiming his own consciousness.
Only after a long while did he finally fix his gaze on the vivid blue screen of light that had appeared before him — and notice the pitch-black, near-total void surrounding him on all sides. Almost involuntarily, he sank into thought.
What… was going on right now?
It wasn't until Anthony posted his message in the group chat that Kiritsugu instinctively tapped open the announcement. And in that moment, Kiritsugu became aware of the difference between his current state and what had come before.
At this moment, in the midst of a void that contained almost nothing, only his soul existed within this empty space. Something like gravity seemed to be trying to drag him away — but then, perhaps sensing some irresistible force that would not be denied, that pull stopped. What remained was his soul, persisting intact within this space.
Free of the black mud. Free of everything else.
And yet — everything he had done could not be shed so easily.
Even in death.
He had only come to his senses at the very last moment — and by then, it was already too late to change anything. The sins had been committed. There would not even be a chance for atonement to arrive.
Sinner.
Quite the genuine article, that word.
All of a sudden, Kiritsugu remembered the last words he had heard before he died. Words from Shirou Emiya — that declaration of wanting to become a Champion of Justice.
A fleeting smile crossed his face. Then it faded again, and his thoughts turned to the others.
Illyasviel… Irisviel…
What a long road — and so many mistakes made along the way. He didn't even know how things would unfold for Shirou Emiya from here, or whether some twist of fate awaited him that might cause his life to repeat the same tragedy as his own.
If only there were a chance at atonement.
If only those regrets could somehow be undone.
If only… Shirou's road ahead could be made a little smoother.
But life didn't come with that many "if onlys."
Kiritsugu's lips parted soundlessly. Then he looked at the glowing screen of the group chat announcement — and his eyes filled with a cascade of stunned disbelief.
*Wait — what?!
[Welcome to the Cross-Dimensional Deceased Chat Group, dedicated to the resurrection of its members…]
He had barely finished scanning the entire announcement before Kiritsugu, without a moment's hesitation, followed the instructions in Anthony's message and tapped open his own soul ability tree.
The chaotic spread of the soul ability tree did nothing to scatter his focus. In almost an instant, he had already spotted his target.
— Perfect Resurrection.
He tapped open the resurrection ability. Not a single question mark appeared on it. And in that instant, without a shred of hesitation, he followed Anthony's instructions and sent a screenshot of the screen into the group chat.
What this thing was no longer mattered. What Kiritsugu could feel was that his soul seemed to have been anchored in place by this group chat. In that case, what he needed to do was self-evident.
He only hoped the opportunity would come.
Compared to Kiritsugu, Theresa's situation at this moment was rather more awkward.
To be precise — her soul had been caught at a particularly delicate juncture.
Theresa looked down at her own soul, at the mark running across it as though it had cleaved the very spirit in two. For a moment, she felt a wave of genuine bewilderment rising from the very core of her being.
It was as though two sides were fighting over her soul. Clearly the pull from the void was stronger — visibly so — but the Originium at her side still retained a measure of force.
The whole thing made her current state rather difficult to read.
And the glowing screen that had appeared before her only made it all the more perplexing.
So what was this supposed to be?
A flicker of strangeness crossed Theresa's mind. Then she scrolled upward, skimming through the accumulated messages — spotted the ones from Jie, then the ones from Anthony — and finally navigated to the announcement. Her eyes widened with a flurry of surprise.
Resurrection?
She did have reasons that made resurrection worthwhile.
She hadn't done well enough. That much was clear to her. So — if given another chance, could she do better?
With that thought in mind, she navigated back to the group chat — and immediately saw the messages from everyone inside.
[Golden Spirit Founder: Hm? Does Jie know this new member?]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: Not personally — just had a feeling they might be from the same world. Speaking of which, the new member still hasn't said anything. Have they not figured out the situation yet?]
[Champion of Justice: [Screenshot]]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Not bad — it's been a while since I've seen resurrection conditions this manageable.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: At least compared to a few people in this group who are basically doing hard time, your conditions practically count as charity work.]
[AAA City Ghost: …You know what I'm going to say.]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: Every time I see you two I want to laugh — but then I remember I still haven't resurrected, and somehow I can't anymore.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: @Terran Demon Spy, still there? That's Theresa, right? No need to wonder how I know — I've got a general idea of who everyone in the group is. Still getting your bearings?]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Don't worry. As long as you don't mean any harm, everyone here is pretty friendly. The resurrection matter is something we'll get around to sooner or later. For now — why don't you share your resurrection conditions so we can take a look?]
With the group's mix of curiosity and concern directed her way, Theresa finally gave up trying to puzzle things out on her own.
Well — whatever the case, might as well try, right?
And so Theresa hesitated no further. She tapped open her own soul ability tree, followed the prompts, and sent a screenshot of her resurrection conditions into the group.
Deep within the shattered underworld, Anthony sat on the toilet aboard his soul vessel, scrolling through the messages the two new arrivals had sent.
He grew progressively more silent — and progressively more numb.
Jesus. Something feels off about the dungeons I've been rolling lately. Did I coast too comfortably through the early stages or something?
After chatting with the group for a bit, Anthony pulled up the screenshots Kiritsugu and Theresa had sent through in sequence. Kiritsugu had gone quiet after posting his screenshot — clearly still a bit wary of the whole thing. Not surprising, really.
As for Kiritsugu himself — Anthony didn't feel much like passing judgment. He'd check in on his mental state later when they actually talked. A Kiritsugu close to the time of the Fifth War should still be at least somewhat recognizably human.
And as for Kiritsugu's resurrection conditions — well. Those were rare enough that even Anthony felt a prickle behind the eyes.
Good lord. How long has it been since I've seen conditions at this level?
So clean. So straightforward. Aside from asking for two hundred thousand or so points — which weren't worth that much anymore anyway — the rest was just a handful of miscellaneous materials, and not a single question mark in sight.
As for the materials required — things like Life Crystals — most of them were already sitting in the soul vessel's inventory. The few that weren't, Anthony could fish up right now. He was practically maxed out on Angler levels anyway. Whatever material he needed, he could just set a targeted guaranteed pull and cast away. As long as he knew what he needed, was there anything he couldn't get?
It really had been too long since he'd seen a philanthropist at this level. Anthony was genuinely tearing up a little.
He'd even started wondering whether opening the Journey to the West Underworld dungeon had triggered the ELO matchmaking system, causing it to compensate by handing him an easy-to-clear world.
That thought lasted approximately five seconds before Theresa's resurrection conditions shattered it entirely — and left him seeing black.
The points? A lot, but fine — he could pay.
The intelligence component? He'd have to go into the Originium universe and dig out the information. Fine — he could develop enough to handle it.
And then Anthony got to the last condition on the list.
[Resolve Required Disaster: The Lumberjack]
At that, his vision went completely dark.
Who.
I have to fight the Lumberjack? Are you serious?!
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: No, wait. Hold on a second.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: @Terran Demon Spy — what the hell is this Lumberjack in your resurrection conditions.]
[Golden Spirit Founder: Genuine question — is it really that hard to fight?]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: It's not "really that hard." It's way, way beyond that. And no, is this even the right dungeon to be getting matched with at this stage? I feel like I'd get swept by the Primordial River before I ever stood a chance against that thing.]
As the saying goes — no matter how high you climb, there's always a higher peak.
After unlocking the Journey to the West Underworld hellmode dungeon, Anthony had now opened the door to yet another hellmode dungeon.
Oh, you're awake? Time to go fight the Lumberjack!
The truly maddening thing was — when he traced the logic back — he found it actually made a terrible sort of sense.
The most likely route ran through the Priscilla line. Theresa's resurrection would almost certainly require passing through the Originium Plan and Priscilla. The end result, under layer upon layer of the group chat's strange rulings, was that Theresa's Perfect Resurrection required clearing the Lumberjack first.
But wasn't that thing a multi-dimensional-level civilization? He was supposed to fight the Lumberjack? You might as well call the Primordial River in and have it flush them all down the drain!
[Terran Demon Spy: Will it… be very troublesome?]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: There's definitely no way to deal with it at this stage. Of all the troublesome things to end up with…]
And the payoff wasn't even remotely in sight yet.
[Terran Demon Spy: It's alright. If it's too much trouble, just set it aside for now — I don't mind at all.]
[Terran Demon Spy: Besides, it's not like I have any right to demand that everyone resurrect me, do I?]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: …Thank you for understanding. Let me at least send over the relevant information on your situation, so you can get a better grasp on things.]
And so, with a complicated feeling sitting in his chest, Anthony opened the soul vessel's data control terminal, sorted through the files, and packaged Theresa's relevant information into the group chat.
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: No one gets forgotten. You can count on that.]
Then, pressing his fingers gently against his temple, he added one more line to the group.
[AAA City Ghost: I suddenly feel like things are starting to look a little less optimistic.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: It's not that bad, actually. Even if this dungeon is completely unmanageable right now, at least it isn't urgent.]
[Golden Spirit Founder: @Lord of the Immaculate Throne — so does Anthony have a plan for resolving it?]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: As far as a plan goes — honestly, it's the same approach as always.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: When you're stuck facing something like this, there's nothing to do but focus on developing strength. No other options.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: The good news right now is that while the Lumberjack does need to be dealt with, there's no immediate deadline. In theory we have plenty of time to grow.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: With that in mind, the next priority should probably shift toward Kiritsugu's side.]
After a brief moment of consideration, Anthony made that call.
Nothing to hesitate over. The Minato situation was still one breath short of ready — moving there now would be unstable. Carmen's side needed the slow burn to keep grinding toward the Smoke War before he could act. And his own underworld was completely bottlenecked.
All things considered, the best development opportunity available right now really did seem to be Kiritsugu's side.
First: Kiritsugu was easy to resurrect.
Second: the Nasuverse was absolutely loaded.
Setting aside everything else — just the corrupted Holy Grail sitting in Fuyuki City alone. If he could get his hands on that thing, Anthony would be set. The underworld still had numerous functions crying out to be repaired. And based on what Anthony had figured out about the underworld's current condition over this period — with a Holy Grail, he could repair at least two sections.
Once those two sections were restored, the underworld might recover its most basic operational capacity. At that point, he would have completed the first step of his development. Still a long way from being able to handle the Lumberjack, probably — but at least it would be a first step.
And the most important part: if you told Kiritsugu you wanted to tear that cursed cup apart, he'd be delighted.
With that in mind, Anthony stopped second-guessing himself, and simply tagged Kiritsugu in the group chat.
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: @Champion of Justice — you there?]
[Champion of Justice: …I'm here.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Before we get started, let me ask you a few questions — just to confirm your situation.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: How do you view your past?]
[Champion of Justice: …]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Alright, let me rephrase that as something more concrete — something that's probably about to happen on your end.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: The Fifth Holy Grail War is about to begin.]
[Champion of Justice: ...]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: The Grail hasn't changed. A whole crowd of your old acquaintances are involved. And Illyasviel has entered the War.]
[Champion of Justice: Those people from the Einzberns… no, I have no right to say anything about them either…]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Shirou's in it too.]
[Champion of Justice: ?!]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Oh, and by the way — Shirou Emiya is in a pretty dangerous spot this time around.]
Recalling the Fifth War from memory, even Anthony's eye twitched a little — out of genuine sympathy for the remarkable exploits of a certain young man named Emiya.
If everything followed the animated adaptation's route, Anthony would say Shirou would be fine. According to the various routes — whether Heaven's Feel, Unlimited Blade Works, or the Fate route — the ending was good in each of them.
But unfortunately, Fate/stay night was a visual novel in every sense of the word — and one of the old-school variety, with dozens of death endings and the signature brutal difficulty that era was known for.
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: I'll be straight with you. Shirou Emiya has roughly several dozen ways to die — and the probability is staggeringly high.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: I have no way of knowing, right now, which route he's going to end up on.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Alright — here's my actual question. If you were resurrected, what would you do?]
[Champion of Justice: No matter what — the Holy Grail War must be ended. The Grail must be destroyed.]
[Champion of Justice: And Shirou, Illyasviel… if what you're saying is true, then I cannot bring myself to stand by and watch this happen.]
[Champion of Justice: I have committed more than enough sins in my past. If everything I did has ultimately given rise to something like this in turn… then no one — myself included — can forgive me for that.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Fair enough. At least you have some intention of atoning.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: So — do you want to be resurrected? Or perhaps the better question is… do you want to stop all of this from having to happen — and in doing so, reclaim some of what your choices destroyed?]
[Champion of Justice: …Yes. Without question.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Good. That's all I needed to hear.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Then get ready.]
Anthony closed the group chat and looked out across the underworld's sky — a vast, unbroken grey, with nothing to be seen.
That confirmed Kiritsugu's state of mind. All he could say was — at least this was something worth calling good news.
Anthony didn't mind lending a hand to someone in a moment like this. As long as there was even a sliver of hope for them, and as long as they had the will to save themselves, he was happy to give them a chance. Of course, if someone was truly beyond saving — he wouldn't mind dropping them straight into the brand-new toilet he'd just had installed.
Come to think of it, around the timeframe of the Fifth War in the Nasuverse, there seemed to be quite a few people who had already gone well beyond saving.
Surveying the landscape, Anthony felt nothing but admiration.
Wow. Look at all these people who seem to be voluntarily hurling themselves toward my Origin Furnace and the toilet. What a truly auspicious location!
And so, at last, Anthony typed into the group chat:
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: No need to be so formal. From here on out, we're all in the same group chat — let's get to know each other properly.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Glad to have you. Since we're fellow group members, let's get along like family.]
[Champion of Justice: …Thank you.]
[Champion of Justice: I'm genuinely grateful for everyone's goodwill.]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: Of course — we're all group members, after all.]
[AAA City Ghost: Exactly! So once you've resurrected, are you interested in coming to the city? Joining Lobotomy Corporation — we're seriously short-staffed right now!]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Jesus, Carmen — I haven't even made my move yet and you're already poaching faster than I am. I haven't even recruited any employees — who's the capitalist here, you or me?!]
[AAA City Ghost: So you're admitting you're a capitalist?]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: …]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne has unsent a message.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: Nothing else to say for now — I'm heading out. @Champion of Justice, get ready. I'm on my way.]
[Terran Demon Spy: The atmosphere in this group is… remarkably harmonious.]
[Lord of the Immaculate Throne: If you enjoy it here, feel free to chat as much as you like. As for Kiritsugu — I can still pull him out while the timing's right. But honestly, your situation has me at a complete loss for now… just hang tight and wait.]
[Terran Demon Spy: It's perfectly fine. I don't have anything particularly pressing on my end at the moment either. Waiting like this — and being able to watch everyone chat and pass the time — is already a wonderful surprise I never expected.]
[Terran Demon Spy: I'm already very satisfied.]
Watching everyone in the group trade messages back and forth in lively disorder, Kiritsugu's soul — adrift in that null void of sensation — couldn't help but soften, just a little. A faint trace of warmth stirred in him, unbidden.
Then he let out a long, quiet breath, and looked at the words as they scrolled across the group chat screen.
[Group member Lord of the Immaculate Throne has sent you a World Traversal Request.]
[Accept?]
In that moment, Kiritsugu pressed confirm without a second's hesitation.
Aboard the soul vessel, Anthony lifted his gaze, raised one hand — and the silhouette of a Stand materialized before him.
That same mysterious skin, like the turning of constellations. That same familiar overworked soul.
Stand — Prometheus, reporting in.
Having split off a fragment of his own soul, Anthony's consciousness descended into Prometheus. A smile broke across Prometheus's face.
"Then — let's go."
He said it softly. The next instant, a familiar sensation — like being cracked over the head with something heavy — washed over him, and Anthony's vision instinctively went dark.
Then, indescribable — a meteor born from among the stars, plunging toward the world of the Nasuverse.
Until, once again, a falling star descended into Fuyuki City.
Descender — Prometheus, has entered Fuyuki City.
____
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