Chapter 277: C Saber
What did Ritsuka see in the instant she sank into Cthulhu's nightmare?
Nothing.
The vast wilderness was a blank field of white, like a canvas from which a painter had erased the image itself. The red haired girl in her white uniform stood within that empty world, seeing nothing and feeling nothing. The only sound that reached her was the tearing silence born from overwhelming emptiness.
Loss.
Pain.
The moment she deliberately gazed upon a Great Old One, the moment she chose to descend into that nightmare, Ritsuka had already steeled herself for terror. She had been ready to face demons and hell, ready to endure pain, ready to endure torment.
But she had not prepared herself to face loneliness.
In the end, what people feared most was never demons. Never hell. Never pain or suffering.
It was this.
This cold, blank solitude.
Perhaps the world after the incineration of human order would look like this as well.
The flow of time within dreams and reality was, of course, not the same. The scale at which consciousness experienced change could stretch into absurd lengths. Within the nightmare ruled by Cthulhu, a single instant could become a thousand years, ten thousand years, even eternity itself.
Ritsuka did not know how long she could endure.
But she did know one thing.
If this continued, then even if she woke in reality, the loneliness of such endless time would drive her mad.
Perhaps that was why those who gazed directly upon Cthulhu lost their reason.
Not everyone who looked upon an Evil God received a gift of knowledge.
Nor did every Great Old One generously bestow truth from beyond the universe upon those who witnessed them.
At that moment, Ritsuka felt fear.
Fear and dread.
She had prepared herself for death, yet loneliness was something even harder to endure than death.
And then, at that very moment, she heard something.
Or perhaps, more accurately, she sensed it.
She heard the voices of Martha and Mashu. In her mind, she saw the Dragon Taming Saint clench her fists and summon the dragons she had subdued from the heavens. She saw Mashu standing before her, shield in hand, firmly and unflinchingly guarding the front.
And not only that.
She also saw France beyond R'lyeh.
She saw heroes fighting across the wilderness.
She saw the black and white Saints raising their banners in the countryside.
She saw the people of France gathering once more.
She saw Siegfried and the dragon slaying demonic sword in his hands. She saw Fafnir, the Evil Dragon, almost competitively slaughtering enemies alongside him.
Queen Marie.
Mozart.
Charles.
No, what Ritsuka saw was not merely the heroes.
The French people rallying beneath the banners of the Saint and the Witch were clutching weapons of their own. Behind Siegfried and Fafnir, there were also ordinary villagers carrying iron farm tools. Under Queen Marie's encouragement, the residents of the cities had stepped out of their shelters.
Loneliness?
Not at all.
This was indeed Cthulhu's nightmare, but no matter when or where, Fujimaru Ritsuka had never been fighting alone.
There were people standing beside her against the terror rising from the deep sea.
There were people standing beside her against the loneliness that would follow the coming end.
And if she was not fighting alone,
if others were resisting beside her,
then how could she possibly be lonely?
Yes.
Just as Rowe had touched humanity's will to resist the apocalypse and seized that burning defiance in his hand to forge it into a blade, Ritsuka now touched it as well.
And compared to Rowe, compared to this Saint who had appeared as a Heroic Spirit, as a figure from the past, as a savior beyond ordinary human life, Fujimaru Ritsuka felt it even more vividly.
Rowe had grasped the wills of heroes.
But in Ritsuka's perception,
the wishes of ordinary people were closer.
Clearer.
Realer.
It was not because of power.
Nor because of perspective.
It was simply because of who she was.
Ritsuka was also one of the ordinary.
She was no different from the countless people standing behind the heroes.
She was simply an ordinary girl.
Rowe could have felt it too.
But he had not reached for it.
Because he knew that this was what Ritsuka herself had to do.
And now Ritsuka understood it.
Was this an epic of heroes?
No.
This was an epic of the people.
An epic of humanity itself.
History did not exist only in the hands of a chosen few.
The Heroic Spirits, manifested as heroic forms, were shadows left behind by the past.
Those endless ordinary people were the true existence of the present.
And so...
Ritsuka broke free from loneliness.
She broke free from the nightmare.
And in that moment she reached out her hand and met Rowe's in a high five.
It was a high five between saviors.
But it was not merely an exchange between one person and another.
It was the convergence of past and present.
The meeting of heroes and the ordinary.
Brilliant light bloomed.
R'lyeh shook and trembled.
As Rowe hurled the holy sword into Cthulhu's body, and as the edge of that holy sword manifested to nail the colossal Lord of Slumber in place, the power of the Great Old One worshipped as the Lord of R'lyeh and Dweller in the Abyss began to collapse and contract without end.
Without Cthulhu's support, R'lyeh, which had already sunk into nightmare, was naturally destined to crumble.
"Ritsuka, are you all right!?"
The voice in her ear pulled Ritsuka back from the collapsing ruins of the deep sea civilization. She drew her gaze away from the abyss like cracks appearing at the edge of the world.
Communication with Chaldea had been restored.
Romani Archaman's voice was tense.
"The Singularity has disappeared. You have to return immediately, or the corrective force of the era will erase you completely."
The Singularity had not disappeared.
Romani Archaman, or rather Solomon, could sense that clearly.
It simply had not been restored.
Yet at the same time, the disaster it had inflicted upon human order was also fading away.
The reason a Singularity harmed human order at all was because its emergence violently twisted the flow of later history and drove it completely into a dead end.
But now, that Singularity had been anchored by something.
It had not vanished, yet it would no longer distort or destroy human order on such a catastrophic scale.
Even so, the corrective force of the era would still reject what did not belong to that age.
The King of Magecraft, who had once mastered the entire system of Western mystery and manipulated the laws of the world through magic, understood that principle better than anyone.
"Prepare yourselves."
This time, it was Da Vinci's voice.
She gave Ritsuka and Mashu no time to hesitate.
"The spiritron transfer sequence is already running. The route back is open."
Light shone over Ritsuka and Mashu almost at once.
These were the anchor points embedded in their uniforms and combat suits, the devices that made return to Chaldea possible, transcending both time and space.
"Senpai..."
"Mashu, we did it."
Ritsuka nodded to Mashu. Mashu, face serious, returned the nod. Then Ritsuka looked toward Martha.
The tamed Evil Dragon coiled behind the Saint, swaying within the R'lyeh that was now collapsing all around them. The dependents of the Evil God, and the lesser dependents beneath them, had already long since vanished.
The twisted streets looked like bubbles on the verge of bursting.
Martha, however, only smiled, sacred and heroic all at once.
"Well done, little ones."
"Go back to your own era without worry."
"Who knows. We may meet again very soon."
"Mm."
Ritsuka nodded, then lifted her head again.
High above, before the massive and grotesque form of Cthulhu, which was now slowly fading and dispersing, Rowe looked down as well.
Their eyes met.
The handsome, refined man gave a small nod.
The light surrounding Ritsuka and Mashu brightened, swirling and flashing.
Then they vanished.
Rowe disappeared with them.
He intended to fix Cthulhu deep within the heart of the Singularity itself, using that Great Old One as a nail to pin the path of the Singularity in place. It would no longer be repaired, but it would also no longer disrupt human order itself.
To do that, he had to descend with it into the depths of the Singularity.
"Ah. They've all left, haven't they?"
Martha looked out over the vast city as it twisted, collapsed, and faded from existence, and let out a soft sigh.
"But it looks like you were a step too late, weren't you?"
"Tch. Didn't you fail to truly meet him too?"
The reply came with unmistakable irritation.
A lithe huntress with long emerald hair, the ends of it fading into a dry yellow shade, stepped onto the wet street. Her crimson lips parted slightly, revealing a glimpse of sharp fangs.
"But I fought alongside him, didn't I?" Martha replied smugly. "My distance from the Lord is still closer."
Atalanta snorted but said nothing more.
She looked at Martha, who was clearly pleased with herself.
And in her golden, beast like eyes there was the faintest trace of disdain.
Did that woman really think she had won?
That closeness was only temporary.
It was true that, compared to her, Martha as a Saint stood closer to Rowe, who had descended in the role of the Son of God. But that was only true in this era.
And what came next...
"The path to Chaldea has already fallen within the range of my arrows."
From the beginning, Atalanta had never intended to compete with Martha over victory in this Singularity.
She knew perfectly well that she could not compare to the Dragon Taming Saint in that regard.
Long before now, she had already set her sights on the human order defense organization known as Chaldea.
"Rowe will definitely go there too."
...
"Welcome back. Good work."
When Ritsuka opened her eyes, she was greeted by Romani Archaman's relieved voice, and by the sight of Da Vinci standing nearby with a porcelain cup in hand.
Ritsuka paused.
She exchanged a look with Mashu beside her.
Then both girls smiled.
"Yes. We're back."
"Fou."
"All right, all right, I'm not ignoring you."
Romani helplessly caught Fou after the small white beast leaped straight at his face.
"You did great too, Fou."
"Fou!"
At once the little creature began waving its limbs proudly.
"In any case, success is still success." Da Vinci walked over with a smile. "You two have already grown into people who can stand on their own."
"That's only natural."
Ritsuka nodded lightly.
After all, that growth had been bought with the Director's death.
"I won't let anyone else die again."
The girl's voice rang clearly through the command room, her gaze unwavering.
Mashu also took a deep breath and nodded.
"Senpai, I'll do my best too."
Romani, who had no idea that the person Ritsuka meant was him, smiled as well and exchanged a relieved look with Da Vinci.
"Wait."
Da Vinci suddenly spoke.
"Did either of you touch the spiritron transfer device just now?"
Ritsuka and Mashu froze, unable to follow her meaning right away.
Only Romani turned at once.
He looked at the spiritron transfer device, which should already have been completely shut down. Yet at the edge of the metal capsule, a faint light still remained.
That was not the afterglow left by Ritsuka and Mashu's return.
It was the sort of phenomenon that would only appear after a second activation.
And from the edge of it, a fragment of red holy shroud fluttered down.
"That guy is here."
Da Vinci tilted her head and looked at Romani.
As expected.
Romani's expression went from stunned, to shocked, to rigid and pale in rapid succession.
The speed of the transformation could have rivaled stage magic.
"Did he come straight to Chaldea?" Da Vinci asked, taking another sip of coffee, clearly enjoying herself a little too much.
After finally processing what she was seeing, Ritsuka's eyes widened.
"Lord Rowe is here?!"
...
"Lord Rowe, when did you arrive?"
Elsewhere in Chaldea, inside the staff dormitory, in the room Acting Director Romani Archaman had prepared for the Heroic Spirit who had appeared so suddenly, a girl with brilliant golden hair slowly opened her sky blue eyes and looked toward the figure now standing outside the door.
Her pretty face brightened with unmistakable joy.
She rose at once and bounced toward him, lifting her face up with vivid red lips slightly parted.
"I came over after dealing with that big fellow, Cthulhu."
Rowe was no longer dressed in the simple close fitting robe of a Saint.
Now he wore modern casual clothes.
He looked at the girl in front of him.
The girl who had once called herself Saber before Ritsuka and the others.
At this moment she was no longer wearing that youthful interstellar swordswoman attire from before.
Now she wore a round black hat, a black magus robe, and beneath it a white uniform that traced the lines of her petite but graceful body. The hem draped low at her back, gathering near her shoulder blades, while beneath the flare of her neat, shapely hips stretched long legs wrapped in black stockings.
The same appearance.
The same vessel.
But the consciousness within was no longer the same one that had spoken to Ritsuka.
That Saber had already returned to the Origin Universe. Her appearance here had only been to guide another version of herself.
Or rather, another aspect.
The girl now standing before him was exactly that.
Artoria, born in a dead Lostbelt and raised as a magus.
"I've kept you waiting."
.....
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