It can be said that without its help, saving human order would be completely out of the question.
…Of course, that was in the past.
This Chaldea is different from the one in a normal worldline, so the functions of the globe are naturally different as well.
"We synchronize our own Chaldeas with the giant globes in other worldlines, allowing us to keep track of their progress at all times and decide our next steps based on that."
"And the mission objective is also very simple."
"No matter what method is used, we must make the Chaldeas of other worldlines sense danger, and make the stories of those 'Fujimaru Ritsuka' more exciting."
"Only then will their worlds avoid being pruned."
"You came at just the right time. There's still one worldline that hasn't been interfered with yet… Your mission is to travel to a certain Holy Grail War, change its outcome and future direction, thereby creating a Singularity and drawing that world's Chaldea in to resolve it."
"You don't need to make contact with 'Ritsuka'. Once the Singularity is formed, you can come back!"
"Create a Singularity?" Iori rubbed his chin.
He said he was here to help, but actually doing it sounded pretty troublesome… He knew how to fix Singularities, he'd done it countless times in his past life playing the game, but he was completely unfamiliar with how to create one.
"It's very simple. You just need to make events deviate from the proper course."
Merlin said with a smile. "Generally speaking, the greater the deviation, the larger the Singularity. And to do that, you need to fully use your imagination and disrupt the normal flow of events."
"Imagination?"
"Cause trouble!"
'You say that, and suddenly I'm not sleepy at all!'
The workflow of the behind-the-scenes BOSS version of Chaldea is roughly like this...
First, use the upgraded and modified giant globe to search for "themselves" in parallel worlds, then connect with them to perform data synchronization and backups.
This allows them to secretly grasp the "progress" of other Chaldeas and see whether they're at Human Order Incineration or Human Order Freeze.
Then, based on the specific situation, they assign "main quests" or "side stories" to the other side, ensuring that their story is always filled with "accidents," increasing possibilities and allowing it to be permitted by the universe to continue existing.
According to the experience gained by the "Extra Beast · Gudako" after hundreds of cycles, from Singularity F up through the Fifth Singularity, Chaldea's "story" is always hanging by a thread. It could be judged by the universe as having "no further possibilities" at any moment, resulting in pruning, being forcibly terminated.
However, after reaching the Sixth Singularity (Camelot), "possibility" experiences explosive growth.
From there on, the Seventh and Final Singularities are rarely pruned midway, and usually proceed smoothly into the next stage.
If compared to manga, the Sixth Singularity is like Naruto's Chunin Exams or One Piece's Enies Lobby, pushing the story to its climax. Its "popularity (possibility)" rises dramatically, and its influence lasts for a long time before fading.
Applied to FGO, the influence of the Sixth, Seventh, and Final Singularities can last all the way through Shinjuku, Shimosa, and other Sub-Singularities. During this period, there's no need to worry about the worldline being forcibly terminated.
But after the Sub-Singularities and before Human Order Freeze, there's a very dangerous period of "rapid convergence of possibilities," where the chance of being pruned increases greatly.
Therefore, the BOSS version of Chaldea interferes the most before the Fifth Singularity and after the Sub-Singularities. Merlin calls this span the "danger zone."
Of course, after Human Order Freeze there are also many periods where worldlines are extremely easy to terminate, but that has nothing to do with the current Iori.
Because FGO, like many hot-blooded series, has obvious power inflation in the mid-to-late stages.
Sending someone like Iori, a "standard Servant" or "Phantom Spirit", into the later stages… well, to be honest, he wouldn't be of much use.
That certain Fou spirit may be a "Merlin-with-a-conscience," but when it comes to handling serious business, he's still very reliable.
Since Iori had said he would only "do his best," Merlin naturally wouldn't deliberately send him into Lostbelts full of monsters.
The places he recommended for Iori were after the Sub-Singularities, basically all fairly "standard" Singularities.
Of course, strictly speaking, the Singularity hasn't appeared yet. Iori needs to actively create it first, and then the evolved Chaldeas will transmit the data to their parallel-world counterpart.
That way, the Chaldea of that worldline will "accidentally discover" a fully formed Singularity~
"That's basically it. Do you understand?"
"There's no special trick to what we're doing. No matter what you do, it counts as changing 'history.' But forming a Singularity is very difficult."
"If you can't affect the overall situation, then small changes will be automatically corrected by the corrective force of history."
"It's like Germany attacking France in World War II. As long as 'France surrenders' isn't reversed, then whether resistance lasts forty days or fifty days doesn't make much difference to the course of history."
After saying this, Merlin immediately added, "Of course, you don't need to worry too much."
"This time, you're only going to a fairly lively Holy Grail War. There won't be high-tier Servants or gods appearing."
"The highest combat power will still be within the range of 'standard Servants.' I'm looking forward to your performance."
"Uh, how do I get there?" Iori looked around. "Is there something like a teleportation pod?"
"No need for anything that sci-fi. Since it's a Holy Grail War, of course we use the Heroic Spirit Summoning System!"
Merlin enthusiastically led Iori to the "Cheap Servant Summoning Room." It was a sealed space with no windows.
At the very center of the floor lay a massive cross-shaped shield, surrounded by complex and exquisite magic circle patterns, very familiar to Iori.
This was probably the room used to summon Servants in the game…
However, the one using it now wasn't a Master, and around the "Round Table" that served as the core of the magic circle, there was no sign of that Demi-Servant girl.
"In a moment, you'll stand at the center of the circle. It will automatically upload your body data through reverse summoning."
"This summoning circle is connected to Chaldeas and the Spiritron Calculation Device. When we activate spiritron transfer to reach the target world and use spoofed data to fool the local Greater Grail system, you can impersonate a summoned Servant and directly participate in the war!"
"Alright, step on it now. First, we'll check your class compatibility."
"After all, even Phantom Spirits can borrow the true name of a legitimate Heroic Spirit if the affinity is good enough."
As Merlin spoke, he sat down in front of an old-fashioned computer. Seeing the nostalgic bulky case and amber-colored monitor, Iori felt a moment of disorientation.
"This is…?"
"The most advanced Spiritron Calculation Device. You can think of it as a supercomputer. Forging data and performing spiritron transfers both require massive computational power… What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Iori shook his head and followed instructions, walking to the center of the circle and stepping onto the shield, feeling rather strange.
Back when he played the game, he stood from the "summoner's" perspective. He never imagined that after being reborn, the roles would be reversed…
"By the way, before we start, I need to ask, are you sure you're a Phantom Spirit?"
Merlin put on a very serious expression. "You're not playing games or acting all mysterious, right?"
"Huh?" Iori didn't understand what he meant.
"This has happened before. Some people claimed to be 'Nameless Swordsman,' 'Vengeful Wraith,' or 'Fake Saint,' but after checking, they basically all turned out to be real Heroic Spirits, not Phantom Spirits."
Merlin sighed. "If you're actually a legitimate Heroic Spirit but disguise yourself as a Phantom Spirit, then uncontrollable accidents can happen during data forgery. If the machine breaks, that's a huge pain… Are you sure you're really not a Heroic Spirit, Lord Iori?"
"Don't brush it off with something like amnesia, okay, Chaldea already has more than enough amnesiac riddle-people!"
"Oh, don't worry. I'm definitely not a Heroic Spirit. There's no record of me on the 'Throne.'" Iori was very confident about this.
"That's good. Then we're starting~"
Merlin happily pressed the "universal Enter key," and immediately a dazzling white light enveloped Iori.
At first, Merlin was still smiling, but soon multicolored streams of light erupted from the circle. His expression changed instantly, and when he turned to look at the flood of data appearing on the monitor, he quickly let out a wail, "N-no way! Another liar… Riddle-people, get out of Chaldea!"
Iori couldn't hear his protests anymore, because his own mind was being completely "flooded" by a massive amount of sudden information.
'This is… the essential knowledge injected by the Holy Grail? No, there's also… what is this?!'
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[Art Style Value conversion in progress…]
[Anchoring new worldview]
[Automatic balancing of energy attributes]
[Art Style Value & Mana exchange ratio locked. 1:7]
[Existence mode: Servant Spirit Origin]
[Information factor detected!]
[Judged as a special life form compatible with both "energy & information," possessing a special mechanism that increases energy level through the accumulation of information (fame bonus)]
[Art Style Value adaptive matching...]
[Element extraction...]
[Soul Guardian]
[Dragon-Slaying Legend]
[Hundred Demon Hunt]
[Pacifier of a Chaotic Age]
[Conqueror of the Far East]
[Nation Builder]
[Progenitor of the Samurai]
[Dragon-Soul Sword]
[…Automatic retrieval in progress]
[Spirit Origin locked!]
[Berserker (Saber): Susanoo-no-Mikoto]
[True Name: Aizen Iori]
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Originally a nameless Heroic Spirit, but since the Holy Grail system cannot summon god-tier existences, it instead summoned a nameless Heroic Spirit whose deeds matched those of the war god "Susanoo-no-Mikoto," while his true form remains hidden within the mist…
The contract has changed.
This was an emergency situation. The collected Holy Grail War material didn't seem to mention that even a completed contract could develop problems.
'The cause must be identified!'
Within a towering, majestic castle, a man wearing an elegant white ceremonial outfit, youthful in appearance yet mature in demeanor, hurried down a long corridor.
The castle's servants looked up in surprise at the sight. Their lord, who was usually calm and unflappable no matter the situation, was actually moving in such haste…
However, they were emotionless homunculi, beautiful in appearance but indifferent in feeling. After a glance, they returned to their work.
The man, looking slightly tense, arrived at the highest and most luxurious room in the castle and carefully pushed open the door.
"Phew…"
When he saw the white-haired man seated by the window, draped in luxurious black fur, exuding a melancholic aura even while bathed in gentle moonlight, the lord couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
He had sensed the problem through the Command Seals on his hand, the magical energy channel between "Master" and "Servant" had originally been fully constructed and flowing smoothly, but just moments ago it had suddenly become faint and intermittent, as if something had blocked it.
He could only barely sense that the contract between himself and the Servant still existed.
For a Master, the contract (Command Seals) is the only means of restraining a Servant. If something goes wrong with it, that means the Servant can no longer be controlled, undoubtedly fatal in a Holy Grail War.
Fortunately, after the man entered the room, the contract, which had nearly vanished, stabilized again. It just drew more magical energy than before.
That wasn't a big issue. After all, he was very confident in his "mana reserves." He could support five or six Servants without trouble.
The urgent task was still to figure out what exactly had gone wrong. The Holy Grail War was about to begin, and he couldn't leave any hidden dangers.
"O King, your subject sensed an anomaly and came to receive your guidance. I was too hasty and failed to report in advance, please forgive me."
Though the lord looked young, he was actually nearly a hundred years old. Over a span equivalent to a normal human lifetime, he had climbed to the pinnacle of magi through talent and skill, developing a family that should have declined into a massive power.
By rights, he should have been a very proud man, but at this moment he appeared humble, almost reverent.
After opening the door, he advanced with footsteps so light they were nearly soundless, walking across the luxurious Persian carpet toward the master of this place.
That's right. Although he was the lord and, in theory, the entire castle belonged to him, only this person before him… no one could contest ownership or authority over this land with him.
To enter this room was to enter the other's kingdom. As a subject, he had to maintain proper respect for the "King".
"…It's you."