Abnormality In Type-Moon: Madness Of Animeverse

"Archer."

Rin Tohsaka stood silent for a while, clearly torn about what to do. After some hesitation, she finally gave the order for Archer to show himself.

The red-coated Archer appeared by her side, his face full of frustration as he stared at Roy.

Who even is this guy?

Why is he always around when something's going down?

"Stop giving me that look," Roy said with a slight smile.

"Let me guess: when Rin summoned you, you told her you had amnesia, and blamed it on a mistake in her summoning?"

"Ugh!"

Archer visibly flinched, his expression growing even more sullen.

Rin, too, was dumbfounded.

"How do you know that?"

Seriously. Did you really get your hands on a script or something?

Roy nodded inwardly. Though the worldlines had been twisted beyond recognition, some things seemed to remain unaffected.

Rin Tohsaka had likely opened the snake skin relic left by Tokiomi just before the start of the Holy Grail War, but for whatever reason, hadn't used it properly, leading to the clock in her house being off and the early summoning of Archer. Archer must've seized the opportunity to claim amnesia and pin the blame on her.

True, some Servants could lose their memories. But no way would it happen for such a minor reason.

"Archer, what's your take on this world?"

Roy didn't dwell on the pair's shock and instead directed his question toward Archer.

"What do you mean?"

Archer folded his arms across his chest, clearly suspicious of Roy.

"I mean, from the perspective of whether 'this world seems normal to you,' do you have any thoughts?"

"…It's clearly not normal."

After a brief silence, Archer reluctantly sighed and spread his hands.

"Because the history you remember is completely different, right?"

"Who are you, exactly?"

"Don't worry about the details. Just think of me as someone who, by chance, got information from a parallel world."

Information from a parallel world?

What kind of half-baked excuse is that?

Archer's face was written with disbelief.

Still, he was quite concerned about the state of this world, so he decided to humor Roy and see where the conversation went.

"Yes, this place is entirely different from the history I know."

Archer's expression grew distant as he recalled, "In the original timeline, during the Fourth Holy Grail War, the black mud carrying all that malice was indeed released, but a man named Kiritsugu Emiya destroyed the Lesser Grail, containing the disaster to a much smaller scale."

"But in this world, it seems someone reached the Holy Grail and wished for the destruction of the world—or maybe just the collapse of human society. Kiritsugu Emiya is nowhere to be found…"

Rin Tohsaka listened intently from the side.

Though the conversation was moving fast, she quickly caught onto the details with her sharp mind.

At the same time, she realized something else.

Archer had never actually lost his memory!

He had lied to her!

And she had fallen for it!

"Indeed, that's the point where this world diverged from the normal timeline."

Roy nodded in agreement.

In this version of events, Kiritsugu Emiya had somehow vanished, and in his place, some lunatic had claimed victory.

Earlier that day, Roy had asked Illyasviel about it, only to find that she had no clue who Kiritsugu Emiya was.

It was entirely possible that Kiritsugu had never participated in the Fourth Holy Grail War at all.

And when Roy thought about it that way, figuring out who had made that apocalyptic wish on the Grail wasn't exactly difficult.

"But do you think the changes in the world are only limited to that?"

Roy suddenly shifted his tone, his words becoming sharper.

"What are you implying?"

Archer squinted as he replied, suspicion deepening.

The group continued making their way toward the corrupted Caster's territory, the hill in the distance growing closer with every step.

"You're not a Servant from the Gaia side; you're a Guardian of the Counter Force, aren't you?"

Roy brought up something that many people tended to overlook.

"Then you should've already figured this out: would the collective will of humanity, Alaya, just sit by and let something as catastrophic as a global reduction in human population happen? The moment it became possible, Alaya should've dispatched someone like you—a Guardian—to stop that lunatic who wished for the world's destruction. Wouldn't it?"

In the world of Fate, the Counter Force worked in many subtle ways.

It could manifest through carefully selected heroic spirits or even ordinary people, pulling them into events just at the right moment to foil some villain's elaborate scheme.

With such a diligent force in play, it didn't make sense for the world to fall apart just from one Holy Grail War.

That simply wasn't reasonable.

Not everyone could resist the interference of the Counter Force.

Even if it didn't react right away, from the moment the black mud appeared to when it swept across the globe took a whole year, and the burning of the world took another. That gave the Counter Force two years to act, more than enough time to implement countermeasures.

Yet, despite that, the world had still devolved into this decaying and pathetic state.

Archer suddenly froze, his whole body tensing up.

Roy's words struck him like a hammer, snapping him out of his shock over the state of the world.

Rin Tohsaka's face also grew more serious than it had ever been.

"As a Guardian of the Counter Force, you should have some inkling of Alaya's intentions, right? 'Intentions' might be the wrong word, but you get what I mean. What do you think? What's the Counter Force's stance on all this?"

Roy's question hit like an arrow.

This was what he wanted to confirm.

The Counter Force had the power to stop the world's collapse, yet it didn't.

It allowed things to spiral to the point where they were now.

Surely preventing humanity's extinction was in Alaya's interest.

And Gaia, the will of the planet, had no reason to interfere.

So why had the Counter Force acted like it didn't exist?

"…I don't know."

Archer's expression darkened.

He was just a hired hand, working for an organization that barely communicated—essentially, a force that handed out orders with no feedback or explanation.

What could he do?

He was just as helpless as anyone else!

"Well, that's disappointing."

Roy sighed.

Still, this was the response he had expected.

After all, even Aozaki Touko had spent ten years searching for answers to these questions without success.

The real issue now was—

Was the destruction of humanity part of the Counter Force's plan?

Or had something managed to tie up the Counter Force's hands?

Either way, the possibilities were grim.

It was clear that the disaster ten years ago held far more secrets than anyone knew.

"We've arrived at Caster's territory."

At the base of the hill, the four of them came to a stop.

Before them spread a sea of grotesque, oceanic creatures as far as the eye could see.

Not only were they horrifying in appearance, but the sheer number was overwhelming. There had to be over a thousand, likely every sea monster summoned in the past decade gathered here.

Just one glance would be enough to make anyone with trypophobia faint.

"This…this is bad!"

Archer's face turned grim.

Meanwhile, behind him, Rin Tohsaka's voice rang out in fury:

"Archer, how dare you lie to me! You're in for it when we get back!"

Archer couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

If he had known this world didn't have an Emiya Shirou, he wouldn't have bothered pretending.

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