>>206956
>>208101
Okay~
Situation is that Elaine and I show up in Roman Gaul, which at this point is still a battleground between the forces of Nero and of the United Roman Empire. This isn't inherently bad or good, the chaos of battle and war makes it more likely for us to encounter hostile forces, but it also means that it'll be harder for either Roman group to notice us in particular. What is inherently bad is that Elaine is here physically. Which means she can't just be rayshifted out back to Chaldea, at least not without some finagling by Roman and Da Vinci. Fortunately, due to our contract she benefits from [Musashi Malfunction] and [I Am Here], so even if Chaldea doesn't help here we can still rely on getting punted to the next singularity when this one is resolved.
Now, Elaine's goal (once she settles down enough to think straight) is to make her way to Ireland before the other Chaldeans get here. As her name should suggest, she's an Irish mage of a rather traditional bent, having been priests of Brigit back in the Pre-Christian days. They lost their AotG magecraft a long time ago, but this presents Elaine with an opportunity to try and gain the favor of the goddess in the here-and-now to get access to that sweet sweet authority shard (since Ireland should also benefit from the general 'Islands retain mystery and other attributes of prior Ages longer than the mainland, and so Brigit is likely still able to exert a limited influence over Ireland). Actually getting there is a bit tricky with the war, but easier than if it wasn't there, since then Lev would have a much easier time finding us once he realizes we're present in this world.
Given the nature of divine spirits, the simple ability to bring information that would otherwise be lost to history about the goddess into the future is likely sufficient for Brigit to bless a descendant of a family she already favors. If she strikes a harder bargain, it’s not ideal but plainly speaking the goddess has little reason not to do it, considering this’ll give her a backdoor into the Age of Man.
On my end, beyond the obligatory “Keep my master alive” goal, I intend to grow my power to better survive the trials ahead. To that end, I have a bit of a hit-list: Tamamo Cat, Stheno, Leonidas, and Elizabeth Báthory. Tamamo Cat can just be consumed wholesale to regain my second tail, Stheno for her divine core and enchanting voice, Leonidas for his Battle Continuation, and Báthory for her Magic Resistance and Territory Creation.
Of course…on doing some math, I’ve learned that there is not, actually, a way to accomplish all this. The 2nd Singularity only takes about 3-6 days, with the 1st Singularity lasting 6 days. Put plainly, there’s not enough time to make it from Gaul, to Britannia, to Hibernia, back to Britannia and then Gaul, and then down Italy to the Shaped Isle.
So what actually happens, is that Elaine and I take a day trekking to Gesoriacum, hypnotize our way onto a merchant ship crossing the Channel, then make our way to Ireland to petition Goddess Brigit. By the time we’re back to Gaul, Chaldea proper should have appeared on the outskirts of Rome. And then by the time we reach the Alps, the Singularity ends and Elaine and I are punted to Okeanos.
Which is…unfortunate.
Anyway, Chaldea at this point isn’t aware of us. Elaine will have tried to contact them initially, but during Fuyuki they’re not in a state to receive any calls. And after that I’ll have convinced Elaine that given her goa of keeping said authority-shard, joining back up with Chaldea might not be in her best interests.
Okeanos isn’t really worth doing much in. Euryale is too critical to the plot and while I can probably take Asterios, against someone actually trying to immediately kill Euryale he’s gonna get a boost. Plus, if I take Euryale’s divine core I’m making myself a valid target for Jason, which is the opposite of desirable. Nonetheless, Elaine gets time to practice her new AotG magecraft, and I can probably rustle up some ghosts to eat. When I’m not cannibilizing the Mini-Tamas.
London…that’s more fruitful.
There’s a gap of about 47 days between the end of Okeanos and the start of London. That gives us plenty of time to work with. Now, most of the Mage’s Association’s heavy hitters are coincidentally absent for this period of time, allowing Barbatos’s plans to go off without a hitch. Even so, the mages present wouldn’t have been slaughtered if they didn’t pose some degree of a threat.
Fortunately, I don’t have to do much to throw things off. As a woman, with a woman for a master, Jack will attack us very soon after our arrival. And unfortunately for Jack, I’m about as bad a foe for her as Jeanne. Maria the Ripper is a NP that manifests as a curse. As Tamamo no Mae, I’m functionally immune to most any curse up to and including “infinite damage” types due to my own mastery of Curse Arts. And being a woman, Jack won’t hesitate to go for a quick kill with her NP.
So when she uses her NP, all I need to do is hit her with Curse: Thunder and then do a funny little bit of shapeshifting (Fox Devil can kiss my ass, I’m not paying royalties), and bite her head off. From Jack, I’ll be taking her Strength, Agility and Endurance parameters, all of her skills except Mental Pollution, and both her Noble Phantasms.
With their attack dog eliminated within the first few days, Paracelsus and Babbage will have to go out and do their own dirty-work a lot more…and since I’ll have Jack’s Information Erasure, they won’t even be able to identify me as the one who killed Jack.
Now, Paracelsus will have to show his face to attack Scotland Yard, and depending on how much of the Clocktower Jack already finished off before my arrival, there as well. Elaine will want to either try to rescue any surviving mages or else scavenge the Clock Tower for mystic codes, and I’ll have the time given the impracticality of trying to force our way to Angreboda. We’ll probably run into Mordred, but I expect that while she won’t be outright hostile, she’s gonna keep us at arm’s length. Elaine doesn’t have Mash’s connection or innocence, nor Ritsuka-chan’s universal comparability. And I’ll probably register a bit too close to Mordred’s mom for her comfort.
Anyway, assuming Paracelsus manages to avoid me till after Chaldea arrives and he doesn’t snatch up whatever he needed from Scotland Yard till he actually needs it…as long as I have a location Paracelsus will appear at, I can take him. I have Jack’s Presence Concealment and Murder on a Misty Night, so I can effectively lay an ambush on Paracelsus at Scotland Yard. Merciful Sky for a 400% attack boost, Eightfold Blessing for free spamming of Curses, and a flurry of Frigid, Fiery and Chaos Heavens plus some Void Clefts and, well…Paracelsus kinda just dies. And from him I can net Item Creation EX, Elemental A+, Philosopher’s Stone A, and his NP.
Now, Chaldea will be aware of us at this point. Romani won’t have picked us up in the Fog, but Mordred will have told the Chaldeans she encountered me (even if all she can say is “a Caster” due to Jack’s Information Erasure) and probably Elaine. It’ll only take a few minutes for Romani to check or seconds for Da Vinci to remember that Elaine is one of the masters whose bodies haven’t been recovered, presumed vaporized. The initial conclusion will be that they have another Olga situation, but the moment they establish contact (even if she’s still hesitant to contact Chaldea, the social isolation of only having her gorgeous wife to talk to will probably compel her to at least talk) they’ll realize that she’s physically present as a living human of the present.
I expect Elaine will explain the situation in general terms, though keeping me in her back-pocket as her trump card. That she’s been in Rome, Okeanos, and of course here. Until now she hasn’t been able to meet up with Chaldea and didn’t contact them, fearing that they might still be compromised. Elaine, being reasonably familiar with Romani, will pre-empt any command from him to aid the rest of Chaldea by stating that she and her servant will do so.
From there things will proceed reasonably similar to canon, but when the other Chaldeans descend to the sewers to fight their way to Angreboda, Elaine and I will remain on the surface, nominally to ensure no unknowns follow them…well, the obvious.
I’ll be hiding under both my shiny new Presence Concealment A+ as well as the unnamed magecraft Tamamo used to hide from the Moon Cell, the latter also covering Elaine. The Chaldeans will prevail over Barbatos, Zolgen will summon Super Tesla, and he’ll make his way to the surface. As he makes his way to the air immediately above Buckingham Palace, Kintoki and Tamamo at 2-tails. They’ll manage to fight Tesla to a stand-still despite the Lightning Fog eating away at their spirit cores, but by the time the Chaldeans reach the surface, Kintoki will be a stiff breeze from death and total exhaustion, and Tamamo also exhausted and damaged even just playing support.
Once the Chaldeans have passed up Perkunas’s Stairway, I’ll have my chance. It’ll only take one curse to take out Kintoki in his fragile state, and with a Command Seal boost from my Master should let me speedblitz my counterpart. She’s 9-times my base parameters, but I’ve consumed two servants and unlike her, I’m not running on fumes. Beyond that, we can both largely shrug off our curses, but she can’t do the same to Paracelsus’ magecraft. And in the end, I have a master, and she doesn’t. When it comes down to it, Elaine and I have it in the bag.
With that done and my raw power magnified 81 times over, and both knowing the coordinates for the next Singularity ahead of time and having experienced the transition between them twice now, I’ll simply transport my Master and I over to America then and there.
[Expand Post]
Here, uh…Elaine probably hitches our wagon to Medb. She’s Irish (ie a Celt) and by Medb’s reckoning a druidess and a priestess of Brigit, useful to have for an aspiring Queen of the Gaels. And, well…Elaine is bi, which makes her vulnerable to Medb. Not as much as if she was a man, but dominant women are a weakness of hers. And as a loyal servant, I’ll naturally go along with my Master’s crush.
Now, there’s three months between the end of London and the start of America, which gives me the opportunity to get used to my new Skills and Noble Phantasms, and build up a number of Elemental (false) familiars. It also gives Elaine time to pick the minds of Medb’s mass produced Druids and fawn over the Queen of Connacht.
Our presence isn’t going to change much. Medb will be pretty quick to dismiss me as another source of soldiers for her army, and Elaine as an adoring handmaid and court druid. We’re not likely to see much action until things start going to hell. When things near their culmination, I expect Medb to send me to fight with Beowulf with the northern army, while she keeps Elaine with her as both insurance and a one woman support-team.
Of course, a single mage isn’t going to change things, and so faced with the risk of her idol dying during Medb’s final fight with Chaldea, Elaine will summon me to her with a command seal…at which point, I’ll obey my master’s order to heal Medb by taking the Grail from Medb, and using its energies to heal her to full. Then weave a spell to pull Elaine along after me the moment Medb dies, and head off to Camelot.
But then, without the Grail, the Singularity itself will rapidly destabilize as Human History begins correcting the irregularities, so Elaine will only have a minute or so to say goodbye.
tbc