Ill-fated promise or not, life goes on. Hours become days, become an entire week before I finally broach the subject to Roman.
"So, just when are we planning on getting to work fixing those singularities?" I ask as we exit the training room following morning calisthenics.
He sighs. "Well, until yesterday we had an excuse not to get to work. But since the first pseudo-generator is complete now, and you're fully healed, we really should start drafting our plan of attack."
"Oh, so they finished that thing already? I thought it was gonna take a lot longer than this!" I reply. "I mean, hooking up the grail in place of an electrical generator seems like the type of thing that would be difficult…"
"Well, the engineers did have to kludge it a bit - but at the end of the day, spending some of the grail's magical output to convert the rest of that output into electricity was apparently pretty simple." He explains.
"Eeeh, so in the end we wished for 'unlimited power' like a bunch of shounen villains, huh?" I joke. "You think Goku will come after us?"
"No, 'Chaldea' isn't the mangled name of something edible, so we're probably fine…" Roman says with a laugh. "Anyway, we should have enough gas to support an additional Servant in combat, assuming it's not someone ludicrously powerful and famous again."
"Oi, you're gonna raise a flag, you know!"
"Relax, relax! If we do summon someone else on Mordred's level, they can just tag in and out. It'll be fine!" He chuckles.
Another thought comes to mind. "By the way, considering the Fuyuki Grail supported seven servants, are you sure that one is our limit?"
The doctor sighs. "Unfortunately, converting between magical energy and electricity is pretty inefficient. If we were designing the system from the ground up with a Holy Grail in mind, we wouldn't have done something like that in the first place, but…"
"...But Chaldea didn't have such an item when it was being built, so most of the tech uses electricity, right?" I conclude. Well, it's a pain, but it can't be helped. It's not like we've got the capacity to redesign the entire facility here and now; not with things the way they are.
"That's exactly right." He confirms, and we walk a few more seconds before he sighs and returns to our first subject. "Well, the power issues aside, the truth remains that we're as ready as we'll ever be to start taking on the new singularities, so I should probably talk to the director about holding a meeting over it."
"...I'll miss you, Doctor. Don't worry, Mash-tan and I will start planning your funeral right away."
"Hey! My odds of surviving are at least eighty percent!"
***
Luckily, Roman didn't have his head bitten off, so we were able to meet in the briefing room a few hours later. Incidentally, said room has been largely cleared of rubble thanks to the Servants' efforts - if I hadn't seen it prior, I wouldn't be able to tell there was an explosion here.
Speaking of disasters, I haven't seen the Director since that embarrassing conversation a week ago. Frankly speaking, she looks like hell - dark circles are visible under her bloodshot eyes, and her posture is horribly slumped compared to the proud woman who had stood in this same room not two weeks ago.
Still, as the last of the remaining staff file into the room, she manages to straighten herself up a bit, and the briefing begins.
"As you're all aware, our situation is dire." Olga Marie begins, her voice a little hoarse. "Apart from the people in this building, every last human being on the planet appears to have been incinerated. We've received some response from the Wandering Sea, but that could just be noise… regardless, they aren't in any position to offer us aid. In total, we have thirty-four staff members and three Servants currently alive. Of that number, eleven staff and one Servant are still recovering from injuries. Of the forty-eight master candidates, only one is not stuck in cryo-sleep. All told, we have a near-impossible task in front of us."
She breathes in. "Seven additional Singularities formed in the wake of Singularity F. Each of them dwarfs Fuyuki in scale and severity. Most of them appear to encompass entire nations within their borders. As such, even resolving a single one of these is an effort that may take several months. Furthermore, according to SHEBA's calculations, if things aren't resolved by January of 2017 it will be too late. In short, every member of staff will need to push themselves to their absolute limits in order for us to even stand a chance."
She draws another breath in, straightening her back to her full height, and thrusts her hand forward. "But, even so! Even so, Chaldea shall fulfil its purpose! We will restore the Human Order's existence! For the sake of all life on the planet, past, present and future, we will not let these so-called 'Demon Gods' fulfil their objective! The mission title [First Order], used for the Fuyuki Singularity, is hereby scrapped. From here on out, Chaldea's mission shall be titled [Grand Order]! In the name of the magical world's highest order, we will reclaim our future!"
***
One thing leads to another, and pretty soon I find myself being led to one of those damn [Coffins] again. Don't think about being cut in half, don't think about what would have happened if you'd been frozen in the first loop, don't think about all the things that could go wrong!
"You look pretty uncomfortable, Subaru-kun." Says Roman with a small smile.
"Of course I'm uncomfortable!" I yell. "Who the hell names a life-support system a 'coffin', huh!? Not to mention, everyone who was in one at the start of the last Singularity is a popsicle right now!"
"Yeah, the naming of these things is a bit weird, but I promise, they're perfectly safe! In fact, the whole purpose of the coffin is to prevent Masters from getting sucked somewhere else during the rayshift. If you'd been in one of these to start with, Archer probably wouldn't have been able to suck you into his Reality Marble, you know?" The doctor replies, and I feel another spark of loathing towards Flauros ignite in my heart. That bastard, even after Cu killed him he didn't stop causing problems for me, huh?
"Hurry up and let me in! Hey, how do you open this?" I say, running to the anti-ambush device and prompting a chuckle.
He shows me a button on the side, and I climb into the cockpit-like construction. As I confirm the presence of an emergency release switch, the glass in front of me closes, and the Director's face pops up on a mounted screen.
"As I said before, there are seven singularities - for this mission, we'll be rayshifting you to the one with the least fluctuation compared to the others. Hopefully, this means it'll be the least difficult to deal with, but obviously we've got no way of knowing that for sure." Olga explains. "For the record, this one seems to be in France, A.D. 1431 - just after the death of Jeanne d'Arc. It's encompassing the whole country, so this one may take a while to wrap up."
An entire country in the same state as Fuyuki? I sure hope we find someone who knows what's going on fast, or I'm gonna die of smoke inhalation...
"As before, your objective is to cripple the Holy Grail - or whatever other weird trick they've got propping up the Singularity - by any means necessary. Of course, since there's no way to be certain of where our target is, you're going to have an awful lot of leeway, but for our first goal, I'm ordering you to locate a leyline."
Crap. "Are we gonna be having communication problems again?" I ask, cringing.
"No, all our signs are suggesting that comms will be stable. However, establishing a magic circle will allow us to transfer supplies back and forth from the Singularity - allowing us to supply you with any needed supplies." She replies with a small smile. "Furthermore, it'll let us call up another Servant to help deal with whatever opposition you face there."
"Speaking of that, why aren't we just summoning em' now? Do we not have enough power?" Mordred's voice emanates from the speakers. So there's an audio link between coffins, huh? That's useful.
"Summoning on-site gives us some distinct advantages. Firstly, it'll give us better odds of summoning someone tied to the location. If we can get someone like Charlemagne or Napoleon to show up, that might just win us the singularity on the spot. Secondly, it'll make it easier for the planet to pull strings in our favor - it probably wasn't a coincidence that Mordred was summoned in a Singularity where Arthur was the main opponent." The Director says, nodding to herself. "Lastly, it'll make sure we get someone who can enter the Singularity properly. We've confirmed that neither of our current servants will have trouble rayshifting there, but if we were to summon, say, King Charles VII, who should be alive in that era, we'd be unable to send him along with you. Worst case, we could summon someone who's been manifested as an enemy servant within the singularity, and the Chaldean version could end up being overwritten by a servant who wants you all dead."
...Yeah, I could see how that would be a bit of a disaster. Well, it'll probably be fine - after all, considering how big France is, we'll probably have plenty of time to hunt down a leyline before enemies can find us.
Wait, did I just raise a flag…?
"All three of you - good luck, and don't die. We're counting on you. Humanity, is counting on you." She says, and draws herself up to her full height. "Begin rayshift! Grand Order… commence!"
And the world melts into a tunnel of blue light.
***
The tunnel of light dissipates. For an instant, I stumble as my feet impact something solid, vegetation crunching gently beneath my feet-!
"...therefore, there is no end to this world's madness!" a voice shouts, tinged with glee.
-and then, the ground gives way, and I barely have time to fill my lungs with air as my body is swallowed up by an endless expanse of deep black water.