Fragments of Chaldea

Arturia just can’t seem to catch a break, can she? To be fair though, this time she handled it much better and didn’t let it get to her. She’s getting much better at letting their words influence her in a positive direction, namely to take a more direct approach to mending the ties with her knights. At least King Hassan took her suggestions to heart as well.

Speaking of badass Hassan, I will admit that his reveal helped spur on the double chapter release… that and, if I’m to finish this thing by Christmas, I have to step up the release schedule somehow. What better way then showing a modified chapter after the assassin in question’s combat style was revealed in game? And quite the animations he has, I’d say.

It seems Lancelot took the madness in relative stride as well. The knights are starting to act like knights? What blasphemy is this? Well honestly, it had to go somewhere since one can only have so much negative stuff happen to them without creating the will to overcome it, especially since they are knights and not your average person. They’re finally becoming more aware of themselves in their fight against this once in a lifetime incident.

So the big thing is I killed off Tota and Sanzang. That means no development for either of them besides their two inserts over the past two chapters. Why would I do that? Well, if you think about it, every path in Fate/Stay Night developed different servants and killed off others in an untimely fashion. How was Caster treated during the Fate route by Gilgamesh? They would also only help to divert attention away from the main focus of this “path”, so their adventure has met an untimely end due to the circumstances involved. Love it or hate it, the path goes on without them this time.

At least Cursed Arm and Arash are getting roughly the same, or better, treatment. Arash gets his first glimpse of being a proper badass bronze. The original story did a lot to make him feel like a true hero with outstanding qualities and capabilities, but I still feel it can be taken a step further… by showing what skills he may have with the arrow. I believe I got that initial point across relatively well, and there’s still more to come.

One last note, Arturia was indeed to clouded in her thoughts of mending the bridges with her knights to realize the implications of the final line. She’s not stupid though, so if you were going to call me out on that, you only have to do what most have probably realized with my fics: Wait and see when the bomb goes off.

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Getting surrounded by children is usually a quick way to have all your thoughts thrown into disarray. It’s almost as effective as being buried in a puddle of kittens/puppies. Gabrielle could have certainly used it as well.

So why does one of Grand Order’s fearless masters have a relatively generic issue of bottling up emotions and having breakdowns in the middle of singularities when no one is looking? Because I hate writing Mary Sues, that’s why, even if the game has essentially set them up to be exactly that. It’s hard to relate to any character with even the smallest bit of magical prowess, but every bit to make them feel more human helps. This is also her first primary singularity. That, coupled with being the vanguard for the Oni Fiasco that incapacitated so many servants at once, would smack the self-confidence of the more emotional master with relative ease. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a plausible breakdown.

If you’re wondering which servants vouched for the two knights, they will be revealed in time, though it should be relatively obvious who it was.

You may feel Dantes got far less damage than Gawain, but it’s not the case; It’s why the Avenger, one of Chaldea’s trump cards, has to be sent back to heal where Gawain was allowed a rare combat management. That, plus the fact it pretty much neutralized two casters from doing anything else for a long period of time, makes in-field repairs a really inefficient idea.

Plus, keeping someone who can move around and attack at the speed of thought is a tad cheezy plot wise.

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An author shouldn’t really have to justify their decisions for a story in progress, but I know some people are going to ask so let’s cut right to the point.

I killed off Sir Tristan rather swiftly, and with what appeared to be a nearly lopsided battle. By the amount of damage he was still able to inflict with a severely diminished blessing and a disabled gift, he could be a serious menace if allowed to escape. The amount of servants taking him on at once also puts him at a disadvantage, yet he was still very capable of killing them all off without his blessing as evidenced by nearly destroying the Chaldean knights. So what happened to even the scales should have been very obvious.

The Count of Monte Cristo happened.

Sending Dantes was more or less a lucky decision by Gudao. The archers aren’t able to hit because of Sir Tristan’s combat abilities, which also make him very much impossible to dodge had Bedivere not landed his debilitating strike since his attack essentially travels at the speed of sound. But Dantes can move at the speed of thought, which is a very dangerous ability for any ranged opponent. He’s essentially the counter to Sir Tristan, who was only finally able to incapacitate him by predicting his movements and creating a localized shock wave.

About Sir Tristan’s design: The most I could ever find was that he uses vacuum based sonic attacks without much description, so pairing that with his bow being a musical instrument, I took a little creative liberty. By playing the instrument, it uses sound waves as the slicing blades, therefore giving his projectiles their invisible nature and swift speed; The blessing only amplified this power. Since it’s a sound wave, it still has to travel in a linear direction but can be redirected by being bounced off walls which is why he’s able to hit targets he can’t see.

Obviously this rescue went smoother than they anticipated, even if several servants receiving injuries: They killed a knight of the round, and that’s not going to go unnoticed in the least. 

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If you’re wondering why chapter titles don’t exist like in Fragments… I was actually going to place all the chapter names when the story was finished. That’s all.

Some people may call foul about Hassan being too trusting after only two days in the village where it took seven in the game. I’d like to remind you that only Bedivere and Mashu were present in the original. There is nearly nine times that amount, which is considerably more manpower and influential considering these are all servants. That’d definitely turn swing opinions for a two lone servants defending a village.

At least the team helped Arturia get herself back together relatively quick. You’ll have to see how well that holds up in the near future.

And of course, things are now looking different from the story. Hundred Face is visiting the Eastern Village? There’s a new southern village requesting aid? Sir Mordred is stuck in the castle? At least Arash still stuck to his support beam/plane trick.

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The real plot changes are starting to show up now. The Lion King is now aware Chaldea is operating against them. Lancelot’s troops got spanked. Da Vinci didn’t use the Orinthopter as a bomb truck. Things are now starting to look different.

It had to happen eventually. Practically all the clues were on the table and several of the servants had realized it already. Whether Arturia truly was in denial will be revealed next chapter, though the presented evidence I gave this chapter should be ambiguous enough for it to go either way for you.

Emiya still not being as snarky or cynical as he usually is, but that’ll change later. Don’t forget he’s also devoted and protective when push comes to shove. It’s clear he’s keeping that promise to Rin in mind, but GARcher will always show his favorite colors when a battle starts… The gate didn’t really count since it was Gawain focused and an obvious massacre/mess.

Bedivere revealed to the crew finally, and already trying to be nice to the other knights. I can’t have all the knights at each other’s throats if we’re to make any progress at all in this fic. Though it is liked sometimes. How many actually thought “hell yea” when Mordred punched Gawain in the face, starting a fight.

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So everything’s finally out in the open and Arturia and her knights realize they’re fighting a nightmare scenario: Themselves with a lack of serious morals.

I don’t really have much to say since the entire battle scene is chaotic, and I hope I portrayed it that way. I did have an issue with Da Vinci just using a flash-bang to get away from the Sir Gawain fight… So I made it far more interesting and reasonable. I also made it more so he has the “invincibility” thing going for him rather than the noble phantasm spam he could pull; That’s more Sir Mordred’s thing in the chapter.

This is where things get noticeably different, but as stated in the prologue, only just enough so it’s not a 100% retelling; It pretty much has to end the same way as the canon chapter after all. But with all the commotion the Chaldean group has just caused, Gawain won’t be able to feasibly hide the knowledge the Chaldean Master had a part in it… 

That said, the masters take action themselves. Classic gandr shots to help counter arrows, and also a re-imagining of how the Order Change ability from the battle suit can fit different combat situations. 

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Well that’s a twist. I suddenly pulled the knights a little closer together? And right before they reach the gate too. Tis’ a shame, really.

The fic is trailing along relatively slowly in my opinion. Mixing the game’s canon with the original scenes really does a number on word count, but thankfully we’re past Camelot’s standard world building and into the actual interesting part starting next chapter. Finally… action and serious drama.

We’ve been going relatively on-track with the canon story, though the changes are starting to be more noticeable. Thanks to the additional break and the lorry taking a little longer to be built, the strike force missed Tristan. Some might be expecting this to be a total difference like in Unlimited Blade Works compared to Haven’s Feel, but I want to remind everyone about my lined opener about timelines and differences located in the prologue: There will be differences, both subtle and great, but ultimately the singularity has the same end goal in order to be completed.

Jeanne pulling that exorcism stuff like she did in Apocrypha. I honestly did find that a tad strange the saint can do exorcisms but figure that’s part of the tale-spinning when you become so famous as a religious figure. The prayer itself I copy/pasta’d from parts of a Rite of Exorcism and slightly modified.

There’s probably been a noticeable lack of serious Arturia interaction compared to her knights. That changes dramatically next chapter. November 21st, same time.

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Ozymandias is prideful and often very unpredictable as stated in the actual Act of Camelot, but in this case he actually prevented his own temper tantrum simply by imagining what might happen to Gudao’s group when they find out the truth of the singularity. Nothing like pampering up the guests to lower their guard a bit so the impact of the truth hits much harder. 

He honestly came off as very generous this chapter, but when Chaldea has been taking care of a counterpart of you, you’d be pretty happy to give some gifts yourself for your ‘subjects’. Ozymandias loves his subjects after all.

The entire Chapter of Grand Order often referred to the Sun King’s territory and area of control. While this was likely just the BC era desert and his area denial to the other factions, I decided to give him something to protect as well. Having a town complex constructed underneath his temple (forming an actual base/town of sorts) was a concept I decided to try in order to make the world a little more lively. It doesn’t need the full fleshing of Camelot to do its job however.

The Orinthopter Sphinx Da Vinci made in the game was considered a buggy… And I’m not squeezing 13 servants plus the masters and Fou into a buggy. So I made it a truck. Not much of a difference honestly but it did take a little more time to construct.

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Not much to say honestly. It was relatively the same as Act I with some minor differences of course. I decreased the number of initial Hassans to make them look more formidable at infiltration (since they required less) and double the amount of Sphinxes Bedivere single-handedly dispatched. Shortened scenes, changed perspectives, etc.

Set more bricks, further the small interactions, etc. Chapter 2 starts getting into the servant interactions now that the usual chaos of singularity landing is over.

The duplicates are practically solved by adding “Sir” to the Lion King Knights. Quick and easy fix for the reader’s sanity.

The hard part is getting the action to flow well with too many servants. This chapter sets the benchmark for how it works out for the most part, but thankfully there will be much more battles involving less servants later. I can’t say too much obviously.

Next chapter with everyone’s favorite Dio- I mean Pharaoh!

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