3 Humanity's Last Master

Central Antarctica,

Chaldea,

"Get your ass to the control room, Romani."

Al kicked an orange haired man off a bed, slightly grinning when he comically hit the floor and turned over, rubbing his head as he winced in pain.

"It wouldn't kill you to be a little more gentle." 'Romani' Romani Archaman, was a thinly built tall man with fluffy orange hair tied up in a ponytail. Looking around the room he was in one would notice more than just a few empty pudding cups, it appeared that he'd been enjoying himself by himself.

"I'm the very embodiment of gentleness, you're just blind to the truth." Al shrugged his hand with closed eyes, visibly amused by the strange encounter... he'd done something he often did even if it could get him fired.

Romani Archaman, was the head of Chaldea's Medical Department and by all means and purposes, his commanding officer.. not that that stopped him from messing around with the older man.. His prowess in his field was undeniable though and his warm, easygoing demeanour made it so he had no trouble getting along with people.

"Is the Sun rising from the West?!" Romani jumped to his feet at Al's proclamation, exaggeratedly running outside to confirm the Sun's location, "Has hell frozen over?!" He looked around before realising he had no way of checking that and gave up on his 'mission'.

"Senior Doctor watching internet idols, it's almost like you're asking for some stupid 21'st century scandal."

Romani paled and ran back into the room, attempting to separate Al from his personal laptop but failing.. Something strange considering the latter had only one arm to work with yet expertly dodged the doctor, going through his browser history, "Magi Mari... Jesus, what?"

"My dignity! Noooooo!" The orange haired medical officer lunged at his subordinate, knocking him over and retrieving his laptop before holding it close to his chest as if it was a babe, "It's safe, it's alright."

"..." Al who'd been knocked over could only deadpan at the man's behaviour and held out a finger, firing a bullet of compressed air that knocked the technical gizmo out of his hands and straight to the trash bin.

"H...How could you...." Romani Archaman's soul left his body that day.

Feeling a bit bad, Al walked over to the bin and fished the thing out of the empty bin, putting it on the bed nearby with a small sigh, "Lazy prick."

"Thank you."

"Today's orientation for the newbies, did you forget that?" Al sat down on one of the chairs in the room, staring directly at his fellow doctor who averted his gaze, scratching the back of his head, "There's also a mission I think, what are you doing here?"

"That.... Wait a second.." Roman narrowed his gaze, crossing his arms, "You're supposed to be there too! Director's orders." How come he was here judging him when he was doing the same thing he was?

"I'm not doing the same thing you are."

The answer made Romani wonder if his companion had mind reading powers...

"I don't have mind reading powers."

"Le wot?" Romani gasped, backing away from the raven haired medic 'frightened', "You had superpowers all along?"

".....It's written on your face." Al deadpanned at the man again, facepalming soon after before deciding to just explain, "I'm waiting for the 48th Master Candi-"

He was cut off by the metallic door sliding sideways to reveal two very confused teenagers, "I umm... I was told these were my quarters?" Short unruly black hair, bright blue eyes, a polite demeanour, dressed in the standard Chaldea uniform consisting of a white shirt and black pants held together by a dark belt.

"Him, I was waiting for him." Al gestured to the new arrival with his head, throwing a smug smile Romani's way. The latter had indeed just been lazing about in the room..

"Ah, you're the new Master." The head of the medical department ignored his subordinate's chiding and greeted the new arrival, acknowledging Mash with a small nod of his head, "Don't worry, you're in the right room. No more work retreat for me I guess."

"Just go to some neighbouring country you lazy prick." Al cut him off with a small sneer, standing up to his full height and smiling politely at the young man that had just arrived.

"For someone with several degrees, you're pretty stupid aren't you?" They were on a frozen continent with ice for hundreds upon hundreds of miles..

"I don't wanna hear that from a middle aged slob who has a crush on an internet idol."

"Guha-!" An invisible arrow pierced Romani's heart, making sob in a depressed manner.

"Morning kid, I take it you're the new Master. Good job on getting selected." In contrast with most magi, Al did often genuinely speak what was on his mind and that was something rather easily noticeable coupled with his 'nice' and approachable demeanour.

"I uh.. yes, thank you, Mr..?" Ritsuka Fujimaru nodded hesitantly, somewhat confused, were magus supposed to be like this? He knew in his heart the man wasn't just making pleasantries and seemed to be actually complimenting him... That was strange.

"Just call me A-"

"Alberto Escarra, he's the doctor.... assigned to me. I hope you two can get along, senpai."

Al clenched his heart and stumbled back a step, "Y...You can just call me Al."

"I can't do that Mr. Albe-"

"Please!"

"Just do it, he gets real jumpy when people use his given name." Romani tried to salvage the situation, his hands raised in surrender.

"Damn NEET."

"Excuse me, how come I'm a NEET?! I'm literally your superior officer!"

"I see... the two doctors are getting along as always." A small smile crossed Mash's face as she observed the situation, it wasn't hard to find the two engaging in such conversations. Their friendship was rather well-known among the Chaldea staff.

"This is getting along?" Ritsuka Fujimaru was now more confused than before... Wouldn't they be much more polite to each other then? Though perhaps that was a cultural difference considering the two in front of him were just going by appearance, not even remotely asian.

"Un, yes, they cover for each oth-"

""Mash, Shush!""

Both doctors cut her off in sync, startling the young girl and making her profusely bow her head, "I'm very sorry!"

"Sheesh..." Al let go of Romani, scratching the back of his head, "Now I feel bad..."

"Yeah...." Romani nodded his head with folded arms, "Temporary truce."

"..." Ritsuka's gaze lingered on Al's empty sleeve for a moment or two, he wasn't going to address that.. It would be rude and insensitive, only the polite teenager didn't realise that the doctor hadn't missed the gaze..

Al rubbed his hand on his clothes before clearing his throat and smiling widely, "Well, I hope we can get along. Steer clear of Beryl Gut, he's a creep." He then turned to leave, "But you still have to appear for orientation, explanations can come after."

"Got it."

With that, Al, Ritsuka and Mash left, leaving Romani to his own devices.., "How come you didn't ask me too?" The orange haired man complained to nothing but air.

Walking together meant small talk and Al learnt a number of things, as did Ritsuka Fujimaru.

The black haired teenager wasn't part of the A-Team (Main team for chaldea's missions) but rather was probably brought to complete the roster of 48 Masters, though considering he was among 48 of 7 billion, that was something.

Ritsuka Fujimaru didn't know much about the magical world and had apparently been a civilian recruited from tests guised as blood donations somewhere near his home in the country of Japan. Al learnt that the teenager was a rather sensitive and polite individual who despite being nervous, was strangely confident in that he was almost always sure of what he said.

Apparently his reaction to Al's missing arm was minimal because he was already acquainted with such people, he'd even befriended and accompanied a divorced WW2 veteran till the day he passed away.

The young teen hadn't joined them in the control room.

-

"Everything's normal, no problems with their conditions!"

Al shouted, looking up at Chaldea's commanding officers with a small smile before sending a glare towards Lev who returned the gesture with a savage grin of his own.

"Good luck, kids." He gave the A-Team a small thumbs up, backing away from the 'coffins' they were in.. The coffins were simply devices to ensure their safety during their Rayshift.

'Rayshifts' in essence as Al understood it worked by transferring Spiritrons, spirit particles that made up a being's soul, through time using a recreation of magic. The soul being one of the three elements making up humans, alongside mind and body... The 'coffins' utilised the theory of Schrodinger's Cat and rendered the bodies in the coffins in a state of inexistence while rayshifting projected their spiritrons to another age, another time and established their existence there instead of the current world.

Both bodies were very real though, not simple 'projections' so they were granted no advantages by the process.

It was all rather convoluted stuff that Al had no business parsing, even if he did.. Only to pass the time though.. Still, something unnerved him right now.. He hadn't played the Fate Grand Order games, only watched the Babylonia anime and the movie, most of which he'd forgotten by now.. Most of his current knowledge of the world came from actual research post-reincarnation.

Lev grinning at him didn't help and the subtle gaze he sent towards Olga's feet was enough to tell him something was wrong.... The man had been too reckless in their early encounter, usually preserving his 'amiable nice person' facade... His behaviour today was like something you might have towards a shitty teacher on the last day of school.

Better safe than sorry.

' Structural Analysis.' Magical energy coursed through the medic's body as his circuits flared on, a red network of nerves appeared on his body.. A simple spell to understand the structure of an object or being was what it was but created strain proportional to how intricate said 'object' was.

Running it on the floor gave him a headache that almost made him pass out but it was worth it..., "You son of a bitch.." There was a goddamn bomb right under the director's feet.

'Time Alter.'

A field type magecraft that was built upon centuries of research to modify the flow of time.. Considering it's nature though, even simple spells required insane amounts of magical energy and were better described as rituals... the only instance in which this wasn't the case was one where a person modified their own time instead of others.

He leaned back, utilising the magecraft of a certain mercenary/enforcer he'd encountered during his life and observed for about a minute mid-combat.

'Square Accel.'

In a shocking burst of speed, the magus doctor shot at the Director, Olga Marie Animusphere, alarming everyone around him, the young white haired woman with amber eyes was too stunned to move when she saw him lunge for her.

"Al? What are you-...?!"

Time slowed down for Al as he reached out with his one good hand,

'Reinforcement.'

Another simple spell that did as it's name implied, the effects varied with skill and his skill was anything but subpar.

Just as the ground erupted into flames, throwing bits of metal around, he'd reached his first friend and grabbed her by the shoulder, hurling her away along with himself and putting his back to the explosion which in turn caused bits of shrapnel to tear through his clothes and into his flesh.

"Motherfucker.."

This bloody hurt.

Blood seeped from the fresh wound as chaos erupted all around, columns fell over, as did walls, crushing the few survivors that remained after the initial explosion to death.. The electricity dependent equipment caught fire and another series of explosions erupted from it, killing even more.

"....Al! Al!..." Olga shook his body, frightened and shocked by the sudden events that had transpired before she could even even process them. It didn't help that he was technically lying over, held up by his head against the wall and folded knees, "You're alive right?! W..What just happened?!" Even in such a situation, she seemed to prioritise his condition and ignore the chaos around her.

"Great..going, shake the guy who... to..took an explosion to the back."

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Share thoughts mfs.

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If him using Time Alter, a Emiya bloodline magecraft doesn't give away some info pertaining to his 'cheat', you'll just have to wait for further chapters to expand on it.