Orleans Begins

Ritsuka tried his best to hunt down Mashu, or find something else to occupy his mind, but it was a fruitless endeavour, and so eventually he found that the best thing for him to do was simply to head back to his room, and do some light reading of the starter guide to magecraft that he had been provided to him when he was first contracted to be a Master at Chaldea. Reading through it was very dry, and he got the distinct feeling that whoever had been responsible for writing the guide very much viewed the idea of teaching others as a chore.

He eventually fell asleep about 3 chapters into the fucking tome of a book, and his sleep that night could not accurately be described as restful.

In his dreams, he bore witness to something. Something he didn't properly know how to classify. A woman dressed in black armour that clung to her body, with a cloak that seemed to be burned at the bottom, stood in the middle of a grand and marvellous room like something out of an old European palace. And before his eyes he had watched her before them same magical ritual he was already well acquainted with by now. The summoning of Servants.

But that was just the beginning. At the first woman's command, a rather plump woman dressed in long dark blue and purple robes pushed forwards a catholic priest, dressed fully in his vestments. The priest had almost immediately thrown himself to the floor at the feet of the knightess, begging for mercy, only to be kicked away and **** to stand as flames erupted from beneath him, fully entombing him in a grand pillar of flames.

When the column finally dissipated, nothing was left of the man, his entire body turned to ash and then completely incinerated into nothingness. That was chilling. He had no clue what was going on here, but to watch someone die before him in such a graphic manner was not pleasant whatsoever. It wasn't quite as bad as watching the Director's ****, but Ritsuka hoped it was a good thing that he was still unacquainted with **** enough that watching someone be killed was still horrific to him.

It was at that point when he got his first look at the large multitude of servants that had been summoned, and if this was a proper vision or something and not just his mind conjuring up a random dream from the aether, then Da Vinci's guess about all other servants being summoned as Futa was definitely correct. Including the Knightess and her assistant, there were 8 servants in the room, all of them female, and some of them quite visibly spouting erections at the sight of ****. It was another thing he found truly horrifying that the plump one who she had referred to as Caster had actually fallen to her knees and began to suck off the Knightess' cock while she watched the priest burn.

They were quite the variety. Some taller, some shorter, and their outfits came in all different colours. And yet despite that fact, the Avenger seemed to have some power over them, and none stood forwards to challenge her like Mordred had him. Instead she ordered them forth to exterminate everything they encountered, and each of them practically rushed to comply. It was like she had some sort of spell over them, or otherwise there was something going on he wasn't aware of to make them more willing to just go along with her claiming herself at the head of their hierarchy without anyone actually challenging her.

Whatever the case though, he was awoken moments later by the sensation of something batting at his face. His eyes opened to the sight of Fou standing on his chest, forepaws on his chin, and one was raised to prod at him. "Morning Fou." He commented. Looking around, he was just in time to see the door to his room open up and Mashu step inside.

"Good Morning Sempai." She said immediately, and he said good morning straight back while he waited for Fou to get bored and rush away back out of the door. "Did you not sleep well?" Was he that obvious?

"Just a bad dream. Or at least I hope it was one." He said, standing up and beginning to get ready. He didn't really mind if Mashu saw him. Firstly she was very attractive, secondly she had already seen him butt naked so she wouldn't be seeing anything new. She didn't disappear, just silently watching, so he supposed she wasn't against it either. "How are Mordred and Bradamante? Ready to go?"

"Yes. They both are recovered and ready for duty." Mashu replied, though he saw a slight blush on her face. "They were at breakfast early. Mordred was having a full English, and Bradamante was having Mordred."

"That doesn't surprise me." He said simply as he did up his trousers before her eyes, and began to slide into the shirt that came part and parcel with the Mystic Code outfit he wore. Apparently one of the many mysteries woven into the outfit was one to keep it clean so it could be re-worn every day without issue. "So everything is ready then?"

"Yes Sempai." Mashu said immediately, being almost frighteningly serious as she fixed him with her single exposed eye. "Doctor Roman is prepared to give the briefing at any moment now." She stepped forwards at that, and brushed his hands out of the way so that she could finish clasping together the very top button of his shirt. "There." Her breathing was surprisingly loud and noticeable with her this close to him, her body practically inches from his own. His eyes found themselves drawn to the bright red tie she wore around her throat, until it ran down right over the space where her cleavage would be seen.

"Thank you Mashu. Shall we get going."

"Yes. Lets." She grabbed him, not by the hand, but by the wrist, and almost immediately began to lead him from the room. Fou had apparently been waiting for them on a windowsill, and jumped right from there up onto Mashu's shoulder and settled there instead.

With Mashu's abrupt aggression, they reached the command centre in no time. Dr Roman was of course stood there waiting for them, and greeted them with a smile and a cry of good morning.

"Well, let's get right down to it." The Dr said as they finished with the quick pleasantries and settled into as commanding an appearance as he could manage. Given that it was Romani Archiman, it wasn't very good. "You have a few goals. First of all, the investigation and correction of the singularities. Each of them embodies a critical turning point in the era they have manifested in, and if not for them, we would never have come as far as we have. They are pivotal events in human history. Your mission is to travel to each on, investigate what caused it, figure it out, and then correct the error. Otherwise, 2019 will never come, and humanity will be extinct as of 2018."

"That is your primary objective and the basic principle of the upcoming operation to France." He said, bringing one of his gloved hands up to scratch the back of his head. "The second objective is to investigate the Holy Grail. I'll admit that this is sort of speculation on my part, but after Fuyuki I am almost certain that these singularities are all involved with the grails. The Holy Grail is a powerful relic capable of granting wishes. It is a vessel that can contain tremendous amounts of magical power, and it is clear from... certain discrepancies in the servants summoned by it, that there is something going on with the Grail, and any more that might exist."

"It is my current hypothesis is that Lev Lainur Flauros managed to get his hands on the Grail in some form, and misused its power to his own ends. The simple fact of the matter is that it is impossible to travel through time and change the past, without the power of a grail or equally powerful object. I don't doubt that you will run into information regarding the grail during your investigations of the singularities. Even if you correct history, if you leave behind the grail, then we will be basically be set back to square one. You must either secure the grail, or destroy it."

"Is everything clear?" He asked, face suddenly looking very apprehensive as if he was a child who had been acting in a school play and had finished all of his lines, and was now looking off the stage to the audience to make sure he got it all right.

"Crystal." Ritsuka replied simply, nodding firmly and clasping his hands tightly. Lev Lainur's actions had been unforgivable. There were hundred of people dead or injured thanks to him, and that was just in Chaldea, ignoring the greater effect on the world beyond that had apparently straight up ceased to exist. Beyond the walls of Chaldea, there was no longer a rest of the world. Chaldea was an island in an ocean, and only by solving the singularities could they find their way to shore.

"Great!" He cried with a huge smile. "Then my last words are that you should try to find a leyline once you are in the singularity. We will be able to send supplies to you that way, and you will be able to summon extra servants if you need to."

"Understood." Mashu replied in his place. "We'll try to establish a base camp as soon as we can. What we will need is somewhere safe where we can relax. With a roof. A home to come back to if you will, right Master?" She said, and she turned to him with stars glistening in her eyes.

"Right Mashu." He replied to her, almost just to alleviate the way she was staring at him. "You have a way with words." He ended off with a compliment. Hopefully that would be everything that was needed to keep her from being too put out by everything else going on.

Her smile in response was almost blinding. "That means a lot coming from you. I know I am still an inexperienced servant." She said, head down, and her hands fiddling together with each other. "But I swear you can count on me. I'll give it my all!"

Dr Roman saw this and looked off to the side, one hand coming up to his mouth to cup it as he stage whispered into the air. "To see my Mashu grow up from a serious, quiet and mysterious girl, into such a fine lady."

Ritsuka could only sigh. Was this really the man who was going to be in charge of Chaldea from now on? He would honestly have preferred Da Vinci.

"Alrighty!" Romani sprang back to life. "We have a coffin ready for you this time, so we should be able to make sure the rayshift is as safe as possible. You just need to get down there and we can ship you off back in time. There are seven known singularities, so to start off we've selected the time period with the smallest fluctuations, it should serve as the best practice run we can give you. Good luck." He said, and for a moment, Ritsuka actually did see a spark there, just a tiny flicker of a man who could be a truly worthy leader. And then it was gone.

With nothing else to do, he and Mashu both headed down for the Rayshifting Room.

The coffin was a cramped thing of metal, well deserving of the name. It reminded him a little of the plugs used in a mecha anime he had watched once upon a time, though it was considerably less spacious. The cylinder of metal was jutting out of the floor of the room, open and waiting for him to get inside.

As the coffin door slid shut behind him, he tried as best he could to calm his nerves, and it was only a few moments later that a robotic female voice began to speak.

"Unsummon Program Start"

"Spiritron Conversion Start"

"Rayshift starting in 3, 2, 1..."

"All Procedures Cleared"

"Grand Order Commencing Operation"

And like that he was gone.