5 Chapter 4: Singularity F
Ugh , my fucking head.
A moment after I regained and saw what was around me. Rubble, burning rubble. I was very, very lucky that no rubble crushed me, the only damage done to me was my back most likely being bruised from getting launched by the explosion.
Oh right, the explosion. I looked a little in front of me, seeing the Director lying on the ground unconscious. That was good, I managed to save her. She was only unconscious from the impact but otherwise unharmed. But just to make sure I activated [Nine Eyes] and used [General Observation] on her.
_____/Status\_________________________
Name: Olga Marie Animusphere
Personal Information:
Species: Human, Magus
Gender: Female
Current Condition: Unconscious, Fine
Parameters:
Strength : F
Endurance : F
Agility : F
Luck : F-
Circuit Quality : EX
Circuit Quantity: E-
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Oh, so general observation does work. I thought it was broken because of Roman. Wait, it's no time to think about this. I gotta drag us to safety. I knelt down and picked up Marie in a princess carry with some difficulty, the black smoke was making it hard to breathe. I looked around my surroundings, unfortunately, the entire floor was yellow, while that did not mean dangerous it meant it had the potential to be. Some spots were orange and red, I avoided those and waded around to reach the exit. But suddenly I heard a pained groan, making my eyes widen I immediately found my way to where I heard it and what I saw made my heart sink.
Mash was getting crushed by rubble and Fou was next to her pawing away at the rubble.
"<< Bulkhead closing in 120 seconds. All Chaldea personnel please evacuate. >>" I heard the announcement and now I had to make a choice to make.
Leave Mash to be crushed under the rubble or leave the burning room.
Gritting my teeth I rushed toward Mash and put Marie down. Seeing me next to her Mash weakly raised her head toward me.
"Senpai...?" I smiled reassuringly at her even though I was shitting bricks.
"Hey Mash, don't worry, I am gonna try to pull you out from there alright? Just hand on tight." Mash grimaced upon hearing this.
"I don't think that's..." I was well aware of what she was talking about. I don't think humans can survive getting their lower halves crushed like a toothpaste tube like that. But I still had to try. Summoning up all the power in my I crouched down and tried to lift the several dozen tons of rock crushing Mash to no avail. After a few more less-than-fruitful tries I finally gave up and collapsed with my back up against the wall next to her.
"Haha... Wow.. I really should have done more squats right?"I let out a self-deprecating laugh as Mash looked distressed.
"Senpai... never mind that, please, you need to run. There isn't much time." I shook my head. I already ran out of time, there was no way I would be able to reach the exit while carrying someone in my hands now. Besides, maybe we have a chance to survive this. The plot has not deviated too much right?
"Sorry, no can do. Leaving pretty girls behind to save my own skin is just not something I am willing to do." Mash was about to retort but she was cut off when the holographic image of Earth turned red followed by another announcement.
"<< Warning all observation staff. Chaldeas' state has changed. Now rewriting Sheba's near-future prediction data. Unable to detect the existence of mankind 100 years in the near-future of Earth. Unable to confirm human survivors. Unable to guarantee mankind's future. >>"
"Well, isn't that ominous?" Compared to my mild reaction Mash panicked.
"Chaldeas...has turned bright red… No, never mind, that—"
"<< Central Area, sealed. 60 seconds till internal containment procedure. >>"
"Whelp, it seems like I can't leave even if I want to now. I guess we are stuck together aren't we Mash?" Saying that I ruffled her hair as she lowered her head probably from mortification.
Why wasn't I panicking right now? Because right now, where I was, was the safest. From where I was standing, a circle around 3 meters from mash was light yellow, the further along it got from mash the closer to red it was. And Mash herself was light yellow too so it meant that we would live.
Something else to note is that when I tried moving my hand away from the director when I went to put down her colour went to orangish red. So my head ran through the possibilities before I tried holding her hand to test my hypothesis and her colours receded down to yellow.
Thank you cheat nine eyes. You are way better than some fraud death eyes.
"<< Coffin Vitals: Masters Baseline not reached. Rayshift requirement not met. Searching for qualifying Master...found. Candidate No. 48, Noah reset as Master. Unsummon Program, start. Spiritron Conversion, start. >>"
"Senpai... can you please hold my hand?" Mash said in a shaky voice and I obliged her, wrapping my hand around hers as she held on tightly. She gave me a grateful gaze as she seemingly prepared for death.
"<< Rayshift starting in 3 2 1 All procedures clear. First Order, commencing operation. >>"
At the same moment, the announcement finished and I felt a warping sensation overcome me making me black out.
▼△▼△▼△▼△▼△▼△▼
"Kyu…. Kyuu Fou… Fou… Fou…" I felt like someone who had been knocked out by Mike Tyson. Is that... Fou tapping my cheek?
"Senpai. Please wake up, Senpai. ...Won't wake up. Maybe I should use the official title… —Master please wake up. If you don't wake up, I will kill you." It was at that moment that my eyes snapped open at the threat. And once I saw the "threat" my brows furrowed.
It was Mash. But she was wearing a skin-tight black and purple armour that resembled an extremely short mini-dress that exposed her butt, emphasized her breasts, while also revealing the lower half of her leotard. There was also a hole that exposed her stomach area. Alongside all that she wore black gauntlets and boots, a garter on her right thigh, and a very large cross-shaped shield she was lifting with seemingly no effort.
At the risk of sounding like a broken alarm being able to spout only one line.
What the fuck.
And.
Who the fuck designed that stupid armour?
A single moment later of looking around gave me yet another question.
Where the fuck was I? Right now I was in the middle of on empty ruins of a street inside the ruins of a smouldering city?
Did I die and go to hell?
Is this hell?
No, I remember this from the game we are still in the tutorial, right?
Wait, why did Mash threaten to kill me?
"Mash, did you say you would kill me just now?" At this Mash became flustered.
"I- I think that came out wrong, I panicked and I am still confused but what I meant was more "You are going to get killed if you keep sleeping." -!" She was going to keep speaking but she was cut off when we both saw the flare in the sky.
Oh dear, that is not a flare at all.
No in fact that looks like a clusterbomb of crimson arrows.
Before I could even react Mash without hesitation positioned herself in front of me with her shield up. And without skipping a beat dozens of crimson arrows landed on our locations, impacting against Mash's shield and creating craters on the ground wherever they landed.
*Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!...*
The onslaught of crimson was basically endless, and I was barely keeping myself from ripping a hole in my pants. On instinct, I activated Nine Eyes and saw that anywhere other than behind Mash was certain death.
To clear my confusion and to try to at least somewhat understand what was going on I used General Observation on Mash.
_____/Status\_________________________
Name: Mash Kyrielight
Personal Information:
Class: Shielder
Species: Demi-Servant, Human
Gender: Female
Current Condition: Good
___/Parameters\___________
Strength : C
Endurance : A
Agility : D
Mana: B
Luck: C
Noble Phantasm: ?
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Yep, that matched pretty well with what I was seeing with my own eyes. I was already aware of this from the game but the girl I saw being being crushed by rubble minutes was now a servant, or at least a demi one.
Soon the onslaught was stopped for some reason I could not decipher but I was glad it was considering the ground around us was just a crater now.
Without being phased too much Mash turned around to meet me with a worried gaze.
"Master, are you okay?"
Words, Noah. Words, you need to use words to speak.
"Yeah, I am, thanks to you at least. But I think we should move away from here now, I don't want to chance being carpet bombed again." Listening to my words Mash nodded and using my Nine Eyes I chose the road with the lightest colour yellow and started running toward it.
Our nice walk did not last long however because now we encountered a group of fucking skeletons armed with cold weapons. As they came into view Mash got into a ready stance and addressed me.
"Master, your orders, please."
"Alright! Mash, mash 'em up real good!" Mash briefly turned her head toward me and looked at me with a blank gaze that screamed "Really?" before nodding and jumping toward the skeletons.
And holy hell was the strong. Just one whack from her shield pulverized any skeleton hit by it into dust. And she was really skilful with it too, like she was already comfortable with using it. Knowing now that the skeletons would be no match for the Mash I instead took to organizing the information in my head.
So, I was rayshifted. That much is apparent. From the information I had gathered up until this point, it seems that I am in one of those anomalies that Chaldea is supposed to prevent.
Second, Mash is some kind of servant, not big news to me since I played the game and she is the servant you start out with.
Third, I am her master. And that means I have the potential to be a master and officially confirms to me that there is no protagonist. So it's my job now to save humanity.
Right, I remember. Humanity has been wiped out. That's the plot of this godforsaken game. And my job is to what I need to do save humanity as a whole.
Fu-
...You know what. No, complaining will do nothing. This absurd situation is my reality now and I just have to take it on the chin. My life and probably the lives of others are in danger. Instead of freaking out at every single thing I should try to make sense of it and freak out when I am not in mortal peril.
Unconsciously my hand went to my pocket but there was nothing there, making me frustrated.
God, I would kill a man for a smoke right now.
At this moment I vaguely remembered a notification popping up as I got blasted by the shockwave of the bomb. Speaking of which I can still feel my bleeding bruised back. It isn't fun.
Anyway, I should check the backlogs.
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[ You have cleared the hidden quest {Save the Director} ]
[Reward: The Lower Direction of the Nine Eyes is unlocked(Black)]
______________________________________
Oh? This thing has quests? Well, at least it seems it will be useful. Now I am glad to have saved the director. Speaking of which... where is she? We should look for her after Mash is done with this horde.
Wanting to make sure I wasn't wrong about nine eyes I checked the black colour description again and I was right.
Black - Do not approach.
If Red is you will probably die then Black is you will definitely die. I could already gather this info from the colourless objects that are colourless but it's helpful regardless.
Continuing on...
...What the hell?
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[ { Fourth Wall (EX) } has resisted the effects of pseudo-spiritron conversion ]
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Correct me if I am wrong but... isn't that literally what Rayshifting is? I cancelled the effects of Rayshifting? How? But then how am I here then?
...Those questions are for later, for when I can actually answer them I guess. So I simply made a mental note of them and looked at the next notification.
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Quest: Singularity F
Description: You have been forcefully transported to the Singularity F located in Fuyuki City, Japan in 2004 AD. As the last master of humanity, you must resolve the singularity and undo the damage caused to human history.
Requirement:
Recover the Holy Grail.
Reward:
-10 Saint Quartz,
-10 Deluxe Competence,
-The Holy Grail
-3 Random Rolls.
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...Wait what the hell do you mean by random rolls?
It seems like I have a long road cut out for me, don't I?
A/N: We have finally been dropped into the first singularity. What did you guys think of the chapter? Did you like it? I would love to hear your thoughts about it.
