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It was like the distress call of some large creature attempting opera. Or possibly the creature was the opera. The distinction didn't matter because the result was identical: the entire bathhouse ceased to exist.
Not metaphorically. The walls, ceiling, and floor departed simultaneously, and both Maverick and Dai were delivered into the open air and then back onto the ground with the enthusiasm of a physics system that had never heard of gradual deceleration.
[Chat]: ???
[Chat]: WHAT JUST HAPPENED
[Chat]: WHY IS MAVERICK ON THE GROUND AGAIN
Rising from the rubble: Nero, wrapped in a bath towel, expression elevated with recognition. Across from her, also in a bath towel, a figure slightly taller — different aesthetic, the bearing of someone who had also been singing and also been interrupted and had opinions about this.
"Hmph! You — who are you, to have such a beautiful voice, not inferior to mine?"
Nero straightened.
"Hahaha! Remember this well. I am Elizabeth Bathory, and I never change my name or surname! But rather than asking for someone else's name — considering etiquette, you should introduce yourself first!"
"An oversight. My name is Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus."
"Emperor of Rome." Elizabeth tilted her head. "Then I have been somewhat impolite. However — one thing I cannot concede. My singing is the finest in the entire world. Yours is second."
"Second?!" Nero's expression became magnificent. "How does a mere Blood Countess dare—"
"Come and prove it, if you have the courage."
"Who's afraid of whom!"
[Chat]: NO
[Chat]: STOP THEM
[Chat]: MAVERICK USE YOUR COMMAND SEAL
[Maverick_Update]: he is on the ground and cannot reach them
[Identifying]: Elizabeth Bathory. she is also a singing Servant. that is what that sound was.
[Also_Identifying]: Nero is also a singing Servant. there are now TWO of them. in the same location.
[Math]: one childish babble, one dragon roar, both singing simultaneously in different keys at different tempos, neither acknowledging the other's notes—
[Muting]: I'm already gone
The duet — and that word implies coordination that did not exist — began.
Each Servant sang her own song in her own key at her own tempo, treating the other's contribution as an obstacle to be sung over. The combined output was not 1+1. It was multiplicative. Each voice made the other significantly harder to process.
Maverick's viewer count dropped at a rate that Shark Platform's monitoring team would later describe as "alarming and unprecedented for non-technical reasons."
The platform's on-duty staff, all wearing headphones, made immediate and involuntary physical movements upon receiving the audio feed. Every one of them wished, briefly and sincerely, for the ability to un-hear things.
Most viewers migrated to the other five streams in the league. This brought sudden unexpected traffic to all of them simultaneously, which none of them had prepared for. The biggest beneficiary was David Chen — technical streamer, two months active, usual viewership two or three hundred people, now watching his count climb toward twenty thousand while doing something interesting with a Poseidon's Trident.
David's rise was a recent and specific story. Internet café manager by day, streamer by evening, Holy Grail War had found him three nights ago and he had responded by doing what he always did — meticulous research, systematic analysis, careful preparation. A breakdown video he'd made of the Ashiya Doman Columbus-spam strategy from Maverick's stream had pushed him from a few hundred viewers to 120,000 fans in three days.
He had also done something no other streamer in the league had done: he'd completed enough story mode to unlock Kenneth Archibald as a playable character. The rest of the league had all defaulted to Emiya Kiritsugu. David had chosen Kenneth — the El-Melloi family's representative, a Master who in the original Holy Grail War had commanded sufficient magical resources to function at near-Servant level himself. Nerfed significantly for multiplayer, yes. But his two starting items were still exceptional: the Moon Spirit Elixir for offense and defense, and the Sanji Magic Furnace — which David intended to use to do something large.
The refugee viewers from Maverick's stream loaded into David's room.
[New_Chat]: his count just jumped from 2,000 to 20,000
[Also_New]: Brother Chen what are you DOING with that trident
[Noticing]: he's not playing Kiritsugu. who is that character?
[Answering]: Kenneth Archibald. the technical Master. the one who would have won the original war if he hadn't been double-crossed.
[Watching]: what is that furnace. what is he building.
[Donation]: ["Generous_And_Wealthy" sent a Super Rocket!]
[Chat]: GENEROUS AND WEALTHY
[Chat]: BROTHER CHEN IS DOING SOMETHING BIG
Back in the ruins of the bathhouse: Nero and Elizabeth Bathory were still competing. Maverick and Dai were still on the ground. The duet continued, unimpeded by ceiling or walls, now open to the Fuyuki sky.
Maverick looked at his Command Seals.
Looked at where Nero was standing.
Looked at his supplies: Glock, nine rounds. Clothes pole. Three grenades. No bathhouse walls remaining.
"Dai," he said.
"Yeah."
"Alliance?"
"...Yeah."
"Actual alliance."
"...Yeah."
[Chat]: they are both lying
[Chat]: absolutely both lying
[Chat]: and yet
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