Opening

What...IS that? What is this place?

Looks like an operating room and a...corpse of some kind?

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...Yeah. Gotta be what's left of the Master of all the Servants here.

Moriarty called it "Test Subject E"...

I-I'm sorry! I blanked out for a moment. I'll start gathering all the data we can right now!

Good idea. Run all the scans you can. I'll see if I can find any residual magical energy or active spells.

...Don't really think I will, though. Hard to imagine magecraft seeing much use in a modern facil

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Gah! Don't do that! You scared the shit out of me!

...Okay, but I know that expression by now. You're serious, aren't you? Mash, hurry up with those scans!

Right! I need about ten more seconds to get everything here!

Good. Door still works! As soon as Mash is done, we're outta here!

Come on, Fujimaru! You get over here to

You're trying to bring that corpse with us? The hell!? Are you out of your damn mind!? You shouldn't even be touching that!

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Ah...

Senpai!?

A priceless sample, and you just

Screw it. Can't do anything anymore. You feeling okay? Yeah? Good!

Mash, your ten seconds are up! We need to GO!

Right! I have all the data I need! Come on, Master, let's hurry!

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What are you doing, Fujimaru!? Move your ass!

The bonds holding physical matter together in here are coming undone!

I'm also picking up fluctuations in space-time, but this passageway is going to collapse before they even reach us!

Master, Kadoc...I'm sorry, but if we're going to escape, I need to carry you!

Aah! Kyrielight!? (How is she carrying both of us under her arms!?)

Because I'm a Demi-Servant!

P-please don't say that again, Senpai!

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Setting round shield to round board position! Opening thrusters to maximum velocity!

Initiating Ortinax shield rush mode! Please be careful not to bite your tongues!

S-shield rush mode!? And what was that about our toooooongues!?

Well, the important thing is that the three of you made it back safely.

That hour of rest seems to have paid off as well. Now, did you take your Mystic Codes to the cleaners like I told you?

Yes, Director. The Mystic Codes we used in the Singularity are in the lab right now. Thank you for keeping them in good shape.

Excellent answer, Kyrielight. And a good nod on your part too, Fujimaru.

How about you, Kadoc? Did you bring in your Mystic Code like you were supposed to?

...Yeah? I'm not a moron; not about to ignore a direct order from the commander.

Very good. Love that honesty. And to be totally honest myself, I've been nothing but impressed by your performance.

You did an excellent job with this Singularity. Like cake, yes? Thanks to you, it was a piece of cake.

Fujimaru may be a seasoned Master, but deep down, he's still an ordinary civilian, not a mage.

His more softhearted sensibilities have sometimes clashed with my more cold-blooded mage's perspective.

But you've proven useful at reconciling those two perspectives. Very useful to have around.

I hope I can count on your help in the future as well, Zemlupus. Especially since I assume you'd prefer not to wear that collar again if you don't have to.

...

Goredolf. I understand wanting to show your appreciation, but we don't have all day. Come to the point, please?

Oh, yes, of course. Ahem.

Good work, getting back safely from such a large Singularity.

Thanks to your efforts, the Singularity, which we have decided to call "Traum," has disappeared.

It's a great shame that our administrative advisSherlock Holmes, was unable to return with you...

...but I'm sure he'll be back eventually. And when he does, I'm going to give him the grilling of a lifetime.

But we have more pressing concerns right now. We need to discuss the data Kyrielight brought back from Area 51...

I'm speaking, of course, of that mysterious room, and that...thing you found there, Test Subject E.

Da Vinci and the rest of the computer room staff are analyzing it all as we speak.

That includes Sion, Professor, Elron the record keeper, and Marcus the Spiritron engineer, with assistance from Octavia.

They're all working as hard as they can, so they should have a report for us sooner than later.

So we're just, what, on standby until then? Is that why you confiscated our Mystic Codes?

Yes. The ship is airborne and standing by over North America.

We'll be heading to our next objective, the Seventh Lostbelt in the Amazon rainforest...

...after you've all had about forty-eight hours to recuperate.

So we have two days to rest? That will be a huge help.

Senpai and Kadoc both worked very hard down there.

...Yeah, honestly, not my idea of a good time. We could definitely use a break. Especially Fujimaru.

A good meal and a warm bed'll do way more for him than any energy drink.

You mean in terms of bolstering his mental state? Accurate. Summoning Servants requires a great deal of mental energy.

I would therefore like to be certain he gets at least two days off each week.

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Congratulations on completing your mission. I am glad to see you all back safe and sound.

Not to suggest I was ever concerned. If anything, things went largely as I calculated!

...That so?

Guess it doesn't sound like a joke coming from one of Atlas's elite alchemists.

...Does that mean you knew about Holmes, too?

Did you know he was a Disciple of the Foreign God? That Moriarty was going to beat him in that Singularity?

Ah. You certainly do not pull your punches. Or is it bites, as you are a wolf?

At any rate, you are correct. I was certain Holmes was one of the Foreign God's Disciples.

For two reasons: First, the report I saw at the Atlas Institute during the Sixth Singularity.

It said, "Holmes acquired information by synchronizing with Tri-Hermes."

That may not sound like much, but Tri-Hermes is the heart and mind of the entire Atlas Institute.

The sheer volume of information contained within would instantly shatter the Spirit Origin of any ordinary Heroic Spirit attempting to access it.

Sherlock Holmes may have been exceptional, but his storage capacity was still nowhere near that of a Divine Spirit.

There is simply no way a Heroic Spirit of a humanno, a standard Servant, could endure such a thing.

That's...a good point.

I never thought twice about it before because, well, it was Holmes, but...

Second, he, of all people, never once even attempted to contemplate what the Foreign God wants.

He did not think about it because he did not know, but rather because he MUST not know.

A detective who was supposed to reveal the truth was lying about who he himself was.

I cannot speak to how difficult that decision was for Holmes to make...

...but his reasons for making it were abundantly clear.

"If I pursue the answer to this question, I will be destroyed." "For Chaldea's sake, I must not think about this any further."

That was the best, if not the only, way he had to walk that line.

He may have technically been the Foreign God's Disciple, but forgetting that allowed him to be Chaldea's friend and ally.

And that remained true till the very end.

As soon as he realized the truth of who he was, he chose to throw himself over the falls, so he would not become our enemy.

Of course, that still leaves one other question:

When the Foreign God first summoned Holmes, why did a Heroic Spirit of his caliber agree to be her disciple in the first place?

I am still not quite sure of the answer to that myself...

Still, the fact remains that he had no choice but to erase his own memories and disappear before he learned the truth about himself.

At least, so long as he planned on remaining Novum Chaldea's friend.

Anyway, that is the extent of what I was able to figure out. Are you satisfied now, Kadoc Zemlupus?

...So you couldn't trust him as Holmes the Detective, but you did trust him as Chaldea's ally.

Well, if you know all that, do you know what his goal was, too?

If Holmes was one of the Foreign God's Disciples, then why did he originally make contact with Chaldea?

What was it the Foreign God wanted him to do?

Why, to help Chaldea, of course.

Huh?

Though his reasons for doing so differed as a Disciple and after he forgot that facet of himself, he would have taken the same actions in either case.

As the Foreign God's Disciple, his job was to help Chaldea fight the Lostbelts.

That is why the Foreign God did not get rid of him herself; he was doing the job she gave him.

But once the young Professor Moriarty was chosen to be a Disciple, Holmes's days were numbered.

My guess is the Foreign God's command was something along the lines of:

"Help Chaldea until they reach point A, then from point B onward, you are forbidden to help them further."

In this case, point A was probably the Fifth Lostbelt, and point B was everything that came after.

Or, alternatively, it may have been something like:

"Once Chaldea passes point A, destroy them from within."

Either way, that time finally came...

...and he had to choose between Holmes the Disciple and Holmes the administrative advisor to Chaldea.

Ultimately, he went over the falls. He chose to remain Chaldea's administrative advisor.

...That's the part I don't get.

Even if Holmes did have to lose to Moriarty so that Fujimaru's team could defeat him...

...shouldn't he still have come back alive if he wanted to fight against the Foreign God?

I agree, it does not make sense. The Holmes we know would never willingly choose to kill himself.

So that is both the biggest unanswered question, as well as a hint to the Foreign God's true nature.

Holmes must have had no choice but to exit stage left, so to speak. He knew that, even as Chaldea's administrative advisor...

...as long as he was alive, he would have no choice but to obey the Foreign God.

It was unlike an ordinary Servant contract. Something more like a fetish he was helpless to

Sorry to interrupt! Are you all still in the Command Room!?

Y-yes, we are! I'm reluctant to ask, but what is it, Technical Advisor!?

We were just studying Test Subject E when we came across one hell of a bonus!

Apparently, there was an explosive computer virus hidden in the corner of that mysterious lab, and

Oh crap, it's gonna blow up! Here! I'll put it up on the screen there so you guys can see this, too!

D-d-did you say "blow up"!? Wh-what are you talking about!?

D-d-d-don't just let it explode! Cover it up with something and toss it outside!

Ahem. Testing, testing. Can you hear me? Are you getting this?

Oh, that's a good angle. Shame I don't have a chair here, but oh well.

Good day, Chaldeans. Or is it evening now? I'm James Moriarty, notorious evil genius.

If you've opened this file, then I've probably disappeared. What a pity.

So I've taken the liberty of recording this video in case the unthinkable should happen to yours truly.

Now, I'm sure you and I have had our share of trouble by this point, but I'd like you to put all that behind you.

My goal was to save the world, which has proved to be a task Chaldeaor rather, Fujimaru, is unfortunately not up to.

I can save the world far better than he can.

Of that, I amor rather, was, absolutely certain.

To be clear, I am not doing this out of concern for Master Fujimaru.

I probably did not say as much, since I'm a shy fellow at heart, so I'll lay it all out here:

I have no faith in Fujimaru's capabilities whatsoever.

I'm sorry, but would you mind if I burned this file out of our data banks?

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If you are seeing this file, then you must have also acquired information on Test Subject E.

While it should be YOUR job to analyze it and determine what it is, I've decided to be generous and make things a little easier for you.

Test Subject E is not a terrestrial being.

It is the remnants of a being humanity secreted away, probed, and experimented upon in that facility over a hundred years.

I believe its cries of agony as it lay dying are what drew the Foreign God, its compatriot, here...

Unfortunately, I could not determine anything beyond that. I simply lacked the necessary data.

Still, with Trismegistus II on the Storm Border, I'm sure you'll be able to arrive at that answer yourselves.

All right, Chaldea, farewell. I pray that you're able to uncover the truno, on second thought, I don't.

Miracles happen only when they're meant to. Praying to God is for students who forgot to do their homework.

That smug son of a bitch! He just wanted to kick us when we were down!

What a...a terrible professor! I hope he's not a bad influence on you, Master!

I trust Kadoc Zemlupus and Mash Kyrielight have finished voicing their opinions by now?

Ahem. Before I go, let me give you one last bit of helpful advice.

I would hate to leave on so sour, unhelpful a note that Chaldea ultimately declines to summon me.

You should know that you have precious little time left to you.

U-Olga Marie, the Foreign God, is planning to strengthen her Spirit Origin even further.

She means to do so via the Entity of the Outer Realm that sleeps in South America, which is one of Brishsan'sthe Mage's Association's Folklore Department's, Ultimate Taboos.

It is an extraterrestrial being known as ORT; it could be considered a true invader of this world.

And U-Olga Marie plans to merge with it.

Hahahaha, are you surprised? I do hope you're surprised.

Anyway, your deadline fast approaches. You may have defeated me, but you have no time to rest on your laurels.

The moment the Foreign God gets her hands on ORT, humanity has lost.

So if you don't want to see this planet, brimming as it is with possibilities most wicked, split in two, I suggest you hurry.

D-d-did he really say ORT!?

You mean you don't know!? Oh, right. You wouldn't, would you? Dammit!

You didn't grow up hearing ORT would gobble you and your whole house up if you didn't go to sleep when you were told!

Well, I for one, am jealous!

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Hm... How do I...

To put it in terms even you would understand, it's sort of a ghost story of the mage world.

ORT is said to be a monster from outer space that came to South America before the A.D. era began. They say it kills anyone who even gets close to it in an instant.

No mage has ever entered its territory and lived to tell the tale.

And yet, for some reasonmaybe they decided it was too dangerous to be left to its own devices, or perhaps just out of pure academic curiosity...

...a Grand mage and six Brand mages decided to raid its territory in South America back in the sixteenth century.

Oh, in case you don't know, a Grand mage is the very best of the magecraft world. They're monsters, powerful enough to single-handedly rival the might of entire nations.

Brand mages are one level below Grand, but they're still incredibly talented geniuses who are nearly as strong as Grand mages.

So getting seven incredibly powerful mages together for a single expedition was something that had just never been seen before.

In fact, they say the mood at their campsite before they set out wasn't too far off from a festival.

But ultimately...only one mage made it back alive.

"You must not go near that thing yet. There is nothing alive on Earth right now that can match it."

"Wait for the next era. Let us entrust our hopes to the creatures, whatever they may be, which evolve after our extinction."

After he spoke those words, he turned into crystal right before the eyes of everyone who gathered to hear him.

That mage's name was Astea. He was one of the Twelve Lords of the Clock Tower at the time.

The incident is what prompted the dean of the Mage's Association and Clock Tower to dub the monster "ORT."

And ever since, that particular region in South America has been known to be off-limits to all of humankind.

...Though at least, in the pissant mage family I grew up in, this was all just a tall tale.

If Goredolf's reaction is anything to go by, the nobles must have been taught that story as fact, though.

A fact scary enough they apparently used it to threaten kids into behaving.

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Exactly!

No one should ever go near ORT! As they say, wake not a sleeping alien! My old dean once said:

"As long as the planet doesn't scream, ORT will never wake up. It slumbers deep beneath South America."

"So we must make sure to leave it alone. If it stirs, there will be no safe place left on the planet."

That's how scary this monster is! It's even worse news than the Foreign God!

I had no idea a Mystic like that was sleeping in South America. As a captain myself, I can't say I'm not intrigued...

That! That right there! That's the kind of curiosity that nearly destroyed the whole world! Don't you dare indulge it!

I just remembered something. I once read an article about ORT in Chaldea's library.

It said ORT was, at present, the most powerful, unknowable life-form mages had yet discovered.

It's said to be a huge extraterrestrial being which resembles nothing so much as a spider. Its exodermis is supposedly hard, soft, hot, and cold all at once.

It generates energy inside its body using nuclear fusion, transforms any matter it touches into crystal...

...and it's a threat to humanity that won't be comprehensible to human technology until the year A.D. 3000.

Damn, seriously?

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...This is far, FAR beyond anything I calculated.

The Foreign God wants to merge with ORT?

But she is already more than powerful enough already. Why would she undergo such an unnecessary alteration?

...Well, since she also claimed to be president of Earth, I'm guessing she may just be greedy.

This is absurd. If we were to assign a value to Chaldea's present fighting ability, we might say it is level fifty. The Foreign God would already be level one thousand in that case.

There is no need for her to grow yet more powerful. And yet, she wishes to merge with ORT and become, let us say, level ten thousand?

There is such a thing as overpreparing.

At any rate, if Moriarty went to the trouble of leaving us that video, then it is almost certainly true.

Goredolf, Da Vinci. I propose an immediate change of plans.

Though we need to verify that U-Olga Marie is indeed capable of fusing with other life-forms at all...

...her success in doing so with ORT would leave us absolutely no chance of victory.

Not even the sacred sword we have finally finished would be any use against her. The plan we drew up in Britain would be useless.

According to Trismegistus II's prognostications, a threat of that scale has yet to appear on this planet.

There must be some reason the Foreign God has not yet been able to find ORT.

In which case, we do not have a moment to lose.

I am setting the Storm Border's course for the Seventh Lostbelt immediately. We will finish our preparations on the way.

We must find the Foreign God and defeat her before she can merge with ORT!