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Lancer Artoria's words hit the white space like a stone into still water.
Before anyone present could respond, the chat got there first.
[Chat]: ???
[Chat]: ???
[Chat]: ???
[Confused]: wait, there's genuinely no way to brute-force destroy this maze?
[Trying_Anyway]: let's try it. it's free.
[Bad_Feeling]: why do I have a bad feeling about where this is going
[Observation]: the more I watch, the more I think Maverick and Saber Artoria are kind of useless in this specific situation
[Response]: Holy Sword warning.JPG
Most of the chat was question marks. The rest was the specific quiet of people waiting to find out if their suspicion was correct.
In the white space, Maverick and A-bro had both processed Lancer Artoria's opening statement. The excited expressions came from understanding the first part — a solution existed. The apprehension came from understanding that Lancer was delivering it with the expression of someone reading a will.
A-bro's face said: explain the cost.
Lancer Artoria brushed her hair back. Composed. The particular composure of someone who had already decided.
"My Noble Phantasm — Rhongomyniad, the Lance That Shines at the End. Its true form is the Pillar of the End: a tower of starlight that fixes the surface of the world, bound into the shape of a spear by thirteen restraints. It is both a Holy Lance and a storm anchor that pins the stars in place." She looked at the white walls around them. "If I release its true name, it transforms into a tower connecting the inner layer of the world and the outer. In other words — I can open a door."
[Chat]: wait
[Parsing]: so the maze can't be destroyed, but she can create an exit that bypasses the maze entirely
[Simpler_Version]: she opens a door to the space between worlds, then from there they exit back to the real world
[Getting_It]: like an anywhere-door. into the sea, then from the sea back to land.
[Excited]: that's incredible. the Lancer class Artoria has a mount AND a Noble Phantasm that can punch a hole in the structure of reality—
[Still_Watching_Her_Face]: she still looks like she's going to her death. why does she still look like that.
In response to A-bro's searching look, Lancer Artoria stated the cost.
"Don't look at me like that, Master."
She said it gently. Not deflecting — settling him.
"I'm a shadow of the past. Something that shouldn't exist in the present world. But you—" A brief pause, and something in her expression that was almost fond. "You have a brighter future. So smile. I love seeing you smile."
She straightened.
"The Noble Phantasm itself is the Pillar of the End. Opening the door releases it at full output. In this enclosed space, the energy discharged in that moment will vaporize everyone present — there's no way around the physics of it." Her eyes moved to Saber Artoria. "Which is why I need you to move at the same time. When I release, you strike me with your Noble Phantasm. A portion of the impact cancels. The window that creates — ten seconds, maybe less — should be enough for Rider to get everyone out using his mobility."
The white space was very quiet.
"Two Servants will be lost," Lancer said. "But every Master escapes. And Rider remains with combat capability." She looked at Rider. "We've only known each other for a short time. But I believe you won't target the two Masters who've already lost their Servants. So — please protect them."
Silence.
Then A-bro, wearing the face of a middle-aged man because that's what Emiya Kiritsugu looked like, started crying like someone who hadn't cried in years and had been reminded why.
He was trying very hard not to and failing completely.
[Chat]: oh no
[Chat]: oh no oh no oh no
[Devastated]: she's sacrificing herself so everyone can escape
[Also_Devastated]: she gave up the Holy Grail. she gave up her own survival. for people she's known for one session.
[Crying]: my tears had JUST stopped. from the Artoria backstory. they had JUST stopped.
[Demanding]: Maverick say something. MAVERICK SAY SOMETHING.
[Also_Demanding]: Rider think of something. RIDER DO SOMETHING.
[Can't_Watch]: it's 2 AM and I'm crying in my room because of a video game. I need to evaluate my choices.
[Can't_Stop_Watching]: I also cannot stop watching.
Saber Artoria had gone uncharacteristically silent.
She didn't refuse. Maverick looked at her and saw it — the calculation she'd run, the same one everyone else had: this was better than complete elimination. Masters escape. One Servant survives with fighting capability. The war continues.
There was nothing to complain about.
She simply didn't like it.
And then Rider stepped forward.
He didn't ask permission. He spoke to his Master first, head lowered.
"Master. Forgive my selfishness. I can't stay silent any longer." He raised his head. "I want to reveal my True Name. And use my Noble Phantasm."
A-bro's partner looked at him for a moment — this Servant she'd found at a dragon pulse ley line through a random summon, who had never broken the partnership, who had just saved two Masters who weren't his responsibility. She straightened.
"Lift your head, Rider. You have nothing to apologize for. If anything, I've asked too much of you — making you hide your name this long for my sake." She nodded once. "Go ahead."
"Thank you, my Master."
The three of them — A-bro still wiping his face, Maverick not looking directly at anything in particular, the girl steady — were watching Servants who were, technically speaking, game-generated NPCs. Code. Data. Characters rendered in real time by a server running Max's engine.
None of them were thinking about that right now.
Rider raised his right hand.
Spiritual light gathered. A round shield materialized — not a weapon, a world, the surface inscribed with oceans and coastlines and sky rendered in miniature, the sea currents of a god circling its exterior with the weight of something that had never been entirely contained.
"My True Name is Achilles."
[Chat]: ...
[Chat]: ACHILLES
[Recognizing]: son of the sea-goddess Thetis and the hero Peleus. greatest warrior of the Trojan War. the hero Theseus used a thread to escape the labyrinth—
[Connecting]: THESEUS AND ACHILLES ARE BOTH GREEK HEROES
[More_Connecting]: the wool thread that let Theseus escape the labyrinth — Achilles doesn't have the thread, but he has a shield made by the same gods who defined the world the labyrinth operates in—
[Holding_Breath]: keep going. keep going.
"Son of the goddess Thetis and the hero Peleus. A great hero of Greece." His voice was level — the tone of someone stating facts that had been true for three thousand years and would remain true. "This shield is one of my Noble Phantasms. Its name is Akhilleus Kosmos — the Small World Encompassing the Azure Sky. Crafted by Hephaestus, god of the forge. It projects the world as I see it within its face, with the sea god's currents encircling the exterior."
He looked around the white space.
"To be an enemy of this shield is to be an enemy of the world. When activated, it can withstand Anti-Fortress and Anti-Country Noble Phantasms." A pause. "It can only be used once. But once is enough."
He looked at Lancer Artoria directly.
"Activate your Noble Phantasm. I'll activate mine at the same moment. The shield will absorb the Pillar of the End's output — not indefinitely, but for ten seconds. Ten seconds is enough for the teleportation to complete. No one gets sacrificed."
The white space held the statement.
"Upon the name of Achilles." His voice didn't rise, didn't perform. It was simply certain. "I will not allow anyone here to be sacrificed before my eyes."
[Chat]: ...
[Chat]: ...
[Slowly]: he just— with his own True Name as the guarantee—
[Feeling_It]: "I will not allow anyone here to be sacrificed before my eyes."
[Completely_Done]: I was crying about Lancer Artoria and now I'm crying about Achilles and it's 2 AM and I have work tomorrow
[Also_Done]: same
[Same]: same
[Count]: how many of us are crying right now
[Answering]: all of us. all of us are crying right now.
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