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Three hints this time.
[Hint: You have been eliminated by player "EatUrDadLmao."]
[Hint: In multiplayer mode, you may fly to any location on the map to gather supplies before the countdown expires.]
[Hint: Servant summoning must be completed before the Holy Grail War begins. It cannot be performed after the war has started.]
Maverick read all three with the resigned focus of a man reviewing an after-action report on a battle he'd already lost.
The game had also, helpfully, queued up a death replay. 360-degree, no blind spots, full slow-motion. He watched his character step off the shuttle bus, take exactly one breath of night air, and then get shot through the skull by someone who had clearly been crouched on a rooftop across the street for a while.
The username EatUrDadLmao appeared in red text above the shooter's head.
[Chat]: GO HOME MAVERICK
[Newcomer]: wait why is the screen black, what game is this even
[Veteran]: he's been getting killed repeatedly for like an hour, welcome
[Newcomer]: that tracks
[Analyzing]: okay hold on — whoever that was went straight to Fuyuki without looting first. Different characters might have different spawn points? Or they just knew the map already?
[More_Analysis]: and they were already positioned, they weren't reacting — they knew where arrivals land
[Defending_Maverick]: honestly? getting sniped the second you step off a plane with zero warning is not a skill issue, that's just a bad spawn
[Kind]: Maverick's deaths this session have ranged from completely avoidable to genuinely unfair, this one was unfair
[Losing_Bet]: I bet ten bucks he'd get first-killed and I won but I don't even feel good about it
[Fishing_Guy]: I'd feel good about it. thirty pound bass energy.
Maverick exhaled. Looked at the hints. Looked at the death replay one more time. The rooftop shooter had good positioning, clean aim, and had apparently decided that waiting at the arrival zone was a legitimate strategy. It was annoying. It was also, if he was being honest, smart.
He pulled up the map. White dots scattered across it — supply locations, side objectives, places he could have visited before going straight to Fuyuki. He'd skipped all of them. The shooter, apparently, had not.
The chat was pulling in two directions simultaneously: half of them telling him to keep grinding multiplayer, the other half pointing at the elephant in the room.
[Reasonable]: Maverick just accept the old man's offer and summon a Servant already
[Agreeing]: you've been playing assassin solo for like six rounds, get backup
[Cautious]: but the old man HIT him with a statue last time he went in there
[Fair_Point]: that's fair, the relationship is complicated
[Diplomatic]: maybe don't try to hypnotize him this time
Maverick didn't want to give the white-haired elder the satisfaction. That was the honest answer. The man had crushed him with a stone statue and worn an extremely slight expression of contempt while doing it, and something about that had stuck. But the hints were right, the chat was right, and Maverick was self-aware enough to recognize when pride was actively working against him.
He respawned in the snow. Walked to the church. Pushed the door open.
The elder was exactly where he always was, beneath the statue, patient as the building itself.
Maverick walked up to him. Opened the dialogue box.
Selected option one: [Then let's begin.]
Something shifted in the old man's expression — barely perceptible, a fraction of a degree less frost. Not warmth, exactly. Just the specific non-expression of someone who had expected to be insulted and had been mildly surprised not to be.
He reached behind him and produced a box. Set it on the altar. Opened it.
Inside, resting on dark cloth, was a scabbard — blue and gold, old in the way that very important things got old, worn smooth at the edges by centuries of significance rather than use.
"Our Einzbern," the elder said, "has expended considerable resources to recover this relic. The lost scabbard of Arthur — King of Knights." His voice carried the specific cadence of someone reciting something they had said many times but still meant. "With it, you will be able to summon Arthur himself. The strongest Saber-class Servant. With him at your side, this Holy Grail War will be within your grasp."
"...Saber?" Maverick said.
The elder's expression moved through several things quickly. He settled on something that was technically patience but felt adjacent to resignation.
"You have done no preparation whatsoever," he said. It wasn't a question.
"Correct."
"Then listen carefully." The elder straightened. "This concerns your survival. And the success of our Einzbern's centuries-long ambition."
What followed was the most information Maverick had received in a single sitting since he'd passed his driver's test.
The Holy Grail War: seven Mages, each bonded to a Servant — a Heroic Spirit summoned from humanity's collective history and mythology, drawn forward through time by a Holy Relic connected to them in life. Seven pairs. Last one standing claims the Grail. Simple enough on the surface.
But the Servants weren't summoned as themselves, exactly. They came through a Class system — a framework that shaped and partially constrained them, amplifying certain traits while limiting others.
The elder walked through each Class with the efficiency of someone who had explained this before and expected to not repeat it:
Saber — the strongest overall stat distribution of any Class. Highest magic resistance. The benchmark everything else was measured against.
Lancer — highest agility of the seven Classes. Exceptional martial skill. Built to close distance and end fights quickly.
Archer — unique among the Classes for Independent Action, an ability that let an Archer continue operating for up to three days after their Master's death. The only Class that didn't fully depend on its Mage for survival.
Caster — weak in direct combat, but capable of establishing territorial workshops that turned the local environment into an advantage. A siege unit. Dangerous in the right terrain, manageable in the wrong one.
Rider — required a Servant with riding experience, and came with Phantasmal Beasts or legendary mounts as part of the package. Mobility and scale.
Assassin — drawn exclusively from the nineteen Hassan-i-Sabbah cult members, each possessing Presence Concealment. Built to kill Masters directly rather than engage Servants.
Berserker — summoned with a madness enhancement applied at the moment of calling. Sanity sacrificed for raw power. Used to amplify Servants who had exceptional Noble Phantasms but lower baseline combat stats.
The chat had been building pressure through all of this and finally released it:
[Reading]: THE CLASSES ARE REAL, THEY KEPT THE ACTUAL FATE LORE
[Excited]: SABER ARCHER LANCER RIDER CASTER ASSASSIN BERSERKER
[Lore_Nerd]: Independent Action on Archer, Presence Concealment on Assassin, they got it right
[Downloading]: I was already downloading but I'm downloading faster now somehow
[Confused_But_Intrigued]: I don't know any of this but the old man's voice makes me feel like I should
[Practical]: Maverick pick Berserker, Berserker is strongest
[Counter]: don't listen to that, skip the scabbard and find a different relic, summon literally anyone else
[History_Fan]: can you summon historical figures?? I want Washington
[More_History]: I want Lincoln
[Chaos]: I want the guy who invented the McRib
The elder finished his explanation and looked at Maverick with the expression of someone who had just delivered a lecture and was assessing whether any of it had landed.
"Each of you also possesses three Command Seals," he added, gesturing to the back of Maverick's right hand.
Maverick looked down.
Three crimson markings, geometric and vivid, stood out against the skin of his hand like they'd always been there.
[Chat]: COMMAND SEALS
[Chat]: THE MARKINGS ARE BEAUTIFUL
[Tattoo_Idea]: the game dev needs to sell matching tattoo stickers immediately
[Business_Idea]: this is a billion dollar idea someone write this down
[Lore_Check]: Command Seals — three uses, each one forces a Servant to obey a command they might refuse otherwise. Once used, gone permanently.
[Implications]: so you can force your Servant to do literally anything three times
[Other_Implications]: the game dev gave us a mechanic to force people to do things against their will and put it in the first tutorial
[Analysis]: this game has the freedom of an open-world RPG but with actual consequence systems
[Suspicious]: does anyone else feel like the hints and the Command Seals and the Suggestion ability are all pointing in a very specific direction
[Agreement]: the dev is saying something with all these "force compliance" mechanics
[Chaos]: pass it on: the dev has a very specific personality
[More_Chaos]: PASS IT ON: THE DEV HAS THOUGHTS
[Maximum_Chaos]: OKAY MAVERICK IS IMPOTENT
"I saw that last one," Maverick said flatly. "Chat. We are not doing this."
[Chat]: WE'RE DOING THIS
[Chat]: THE DEV IS IMPOTENT
[Chat]: PASS IT ON
"I am going to mute this stream," Maverick said, with zero intention of doing so. "I am genuinely considering it."
He looked back down at the Command Seals on his hand. Three uses. Force any command. No exceptions.
He looked at the scabbard.
He looked at the elder, who was watching him with the expression of a man who had been waiting for centuries and could wait a few more minutes.
"Alright," Maverick said. "Tell me about Arthur."
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