#fe plot

Once the elevator doors opened, you were automatically in for another surprise.

A young woman stood in front of the elevator, accompanied by...

Little, weird ghost beings? If you recalled the wall painting from before, they looked exactly the same. It was a peculiar sight for sure, but you focused back on the woman.

Her orange, short hair was in stark contrast to her otherwise rather turquoise getup. It could be overall described as something that arabian dancers would wear, silky and full of jingling bits here and there. Furthermore, unlike Maat, she had dark skin and her green eyes looked blankly at you.

Politely, she bowed down and the Medjeds followed her example.

“... Welcome. I am Rashida. I will attend to all domestic affairs along with the Medjeds here. Please, do call for us if you need anything.”

Her voice sounded stoic and devoid of life. As she straightened herself back into a proper posture, she gestured to the Medjed besides her, which held onto a lot of keys. Or at least, you think it’s holding onto it, as they were all laid on the white blanket it wore.

“Please line up. I will give you your keys now. Afterwards, you are free to explore the facility to your own leisure. I hope you will enjoy your time here.”

Enjoying their times here? With the threat of a mutual killing game looming over their heads? It felt so wrong, but at the same time, you got the feeling as if this Rashida woman truly meant what she said.

Either way, you all do as you are told, getting your keys and while that happened, Rashida was kind enough to let you know which class you belong to. Guess Maat’s funny “search for your own rooms” game will not play out, huh?

(Small mercies, you guessed.)

When everyone had their keys, Rashida bowed down again.

“I wish you all a good day.”

And with that, she turned around and went away, the hoards of Medjeds following her.

Truth be told, you felt overwhelmed by all the information you just got. It was a lot to take in, but for now, it seemed like as if you got some time to process everything.

Everything begins now.

“So, let’s just cut to the chase and talk about the differences between a normal Holy Grail War and our super-duper Phenomenal Holy Grail War! For once, there are 21 participants in total! That’s really a lot, but hey, the more the merrier, am I right?”

“Another major difference would be that you all were fused together with your servants.”

... Say what?

“Right now, you are masters, but also demi-servants. You can change into your servant form at any time, but I would advise against using it carelessly. After all, not only can you maintain your servant form for three minutes at most before you’re forced to change back, you should keep your servant’s identity a secret for as long as you can or else, others can take advantages of the known weaknesses of your hero and thus, eliminate you all too easily! That would be pretty boring, right?”

Boring wouldn’t be a word you’d use right now, but it’s not like as if you could say anything right now.

“In your rooms, we also prepared a scroll for you - there, you will get to know which servant you actually summoned! As for your classes, they will be known to everyone - because you will receive keys for your rooms shortly and they will display the icon for your class! All you need to do is to compare them to the signs we set up on your doors and then bam, you found your new forever home!”

Maat let out a sigh, deflating a bit into his throne.

“Phew, I’m beat, explaining so much is suuuuuch a bother...”

“Then allow me to explain the rest.”

“Eh, really? Oh, that’s so kind of--”

“As if! KAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA!”

Silence filled the room for a moment. Maat pouted and crossed his arms before his chest, looking like a child that got pranked on.

“You’re a meanie, Anubis.”

“Hmmm... I guess I should mention that by battle royale, I mean that this is a mutual killing game. Murder your enemies to get your hands on the holy grail war. It’s either kill or be killed! Eat or be eaten! There’s no inbetween!”

“Now that I think about it, I didn’t get to our rules yet, did I? Oh, but I’m really too tired for this... I’m really glad we have them in your guidebooks, so please be so kind and read them up on your own!”

At this point, the young man got up from his seat and stretched himself out, letting out a quiet yawn.

“Now, it’s time for you to descend to the next floor! I wish you all good luck! It’s time for me to go to bed, because working overtime is really exhausting, you know? Toodles~!”

And with that, he seemed to murmur something else underneath his breath, before he vanished into a sudden beam of light. As your eyes adjusted themselves again, Anubis piped up.

“It’s time for you to get on our elevator. If you don’t want to get hurt, get out of the middle of the room as fast as you can, kakaka!"

With a swift move of his cane, the ground started to tremble all of the sudden. Those of you who happened to be in the middle of the room felt how the floor underneath you began to... ascend? Thus, you hurried to the side.

And moments later, something... akin to an elevator stood in the middle of the room. It seemed to be made out of stone only, but it was still moving surprisingly smoothly. As the doors opened, you could see that there was enough space to fit everyone in at once.

Anubis cackling let your refocus your attention back on said... what did he say about himself, a familiar? Or something like that. Anubis seemed gleeful enough and then suddenly--

Wait, was he just turning upfront? And... Oh my god, he came out of the wall, didn’t he? A black-ish sort of aura accompanied Anubis, who - thankfully - only got out of the wall with his upper body.

“Now then, what are you foolish masters waiting for? Get on in, we don’t have all the time in the world! I want to see all the brutality and blood that comes with the Holy Grail War, so you better not disappoint! KAKAKAKAKA!”

As you stared at this new sign on your hand in bemusement, Maat laughed almost innocently at your surprised reactions.

“Haha, I’m so glad we decided to go for this route instead of letting you debate over your Command Spells right when you were waking up!”

“While Supervisor Maat is busy absorbing your surprise like a sponge, I will help just a little bit with explanations - those Command Spells you have are divided into three sections. If you issue a command, one of them disappears and you don’t want to use all of them. After all, once all command spells are used up, you’re automatically disqualified from the war!”

“Oh and before you get the bright idea to use them all at once to get out of here - well, I won’t stop you from doing so if you don’t mind leaving this place in a body bag.”

“Sheesh, there was no need to say it that harshly... but yup, forfeiting the war is not possible! You are required to fight against each other, but you won’t have to do it on your own for the time being!”

What did he mean by that? Weren’t battle royales supposed to be everyone for themselves?

“You were all divided into three factions - Cyan, Magenta and Yellow! Your command spells indicate with their color in which faction you belong! Oh and as for which classes you have--”

“You didn’t explain what classes even are yet, Supervisor Maat.”

“Huh, eh? I didn’t? Really?”

The purple-haired man blinked for a moment, then rubbed the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.

“Oh, haha, whoops! Okay, so you can’t just summon heroic spirits all nilly-willy - you summon them into classes! Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, Berserker - these are the seven classes that you choose from to summon your servant in. Each of them have their pros and contras - and I’ll just refer to the guidebook I mentioned before! This is getting long enough as it is already.”

Masters? The What-Now War? What did any of that even mean?

Your confusion was clearly apparent on your face, because Maat chuckled lightly in response to your reactions. Despite talking about some kind of war that you were dragged into without your knowledge, he seemed to be pretty easy-going about this whole thing.

“Right, right, you don’t know anything about the other side of this world, don’t you? You never had a reason to believe that magic actually exist.”

What?

“Yes, you heard me right! Magic exists! Well, probably not how you imagine it to be and today’s magic isn’t even called magic, but who cares about details right now? All you need for the moment is the general idea!”

Wasn’t he the one who said that he would explain everything?

“In fact, I think I’ll leave it up to you to read everything up in your handy guidebooks that were left in your new rooms! I’m only going to explain the basics of basics, because otherwise, we’d be stuck here for hours and I’m not really in the mood for it.”

Thanks. What a courteous caretaker he was.

“So, what exactly is a Holy Grail War? That’s easy - it’s a deathly fight for the holy grail, an all-wishing device! For that, usually seven masters and servants are gathered together, participating in a battle royale until the last pair stands! Before I go into the differences of a normal Holy Grail War and this one, it’d be good to tell you what masters and servants even are, hm?”

He clapped his hands, his smile bright as he continued with his explanations.

“To make it simple, masters usually command their servants in battle - and the latters are heroes of the past! Famous heroes like Heracles or King Arthur can respond to your calls for the hope of fulfilling their own wishes that they couldn’t achieve in their past lives!”

“While we’re at it, I guess I can lift my cloaking magic - take a good look at your right hand now, everyone!”

As he murmured something underneath his breath, you casted a look down on your hand--

The moment these ominous words left the painting’s mouth, a sudden beam of light blinded you. Reeling back, you blinked a few times, before your eyes readjusted themselves. As you gaze towards the spot from where this light had suddenly appeared, your eyes linger on a person that hadn’t been here a moment ago.

It was an average-sized male human with messy, purple hair that reached down his chin. Only parts of it were tied back into a bun, but quite frankly, that’s the only part that looks off if you account for his entire appearance. He wore an outfit that resembled those of high status back in ancient egypt and although he wasn’t wearing much altogether (what with his arms and most of his upper body being blatantly exposed), one could easily tell that all of it was high-quality; not to mention all the golden accessories that he was wearing in the midst of purple and white. Whenever he made even the slightest of movements, they jangled along.

His violet eyes were trained on the group in its entirety and he gave you all a smile - and albeit it looked innocent enough, you couldn’t help but be unnerved by it anyway.

“Hello everyone! Sorry to make you wait for so long, but you know how it is with last minute adjustments! Whenever you’re trying to make everything go even better, you suddenly stumble upon one obstacle after another, keeping you busy, busy, busy--!”

“Supervisor Maat, don’t go off on a tangent now.”

“Eeeeeh? Why not, Anubis? Will one or two more minutes make that much of a difference?”

“We’re already behind the schedule, so it would be unwise to delay the inevitable any longer. Then again, I’m just a familiar, so ultimately, I don’t really care! Kakakakaka!”

“Uwaaaahhhh, why are you being so mean? Saying that you don’t care and all... I have feelings too, you know? ... But I guess you’re right, I can always complain to Rashida later, can’t I? Okay then!”

After that banter was over, Maat returned his attention back to the students.

“Uh, where was I again? Oh right, I need to explain everything now, don’t I? Well, not everything, but you get what I mean, don’t you?”

Sounding awfully chipper, the man called Maat got seated on the sole chair in this room, crossing his legs as he put his head on the back of his hand. You know, the one that arrogant kings - or well, in this case, pharaoh -, would do.

“Let me formally welcome and congratulate you, young Masters! As of today, you are official participants of the Phenomenal Holy Grail War!”

Although you might not have any means to tell how much time has exactly passed since your awakening, you can at least make an estimated guess - it couldn’t have been more than 2 hours. After all, despite the room being so vast, there was ultimately nothing that you could be done in here. Thus, you either kept to yourself, investigated what little the room had to offer or conversed with your fellow teenagers. By now, everyone found out through one way or another that they were all students of Hope’s Peak Academy. It seemed to be the only thing that connected you all, but it did not hold any answers to your questions.

You wondered how long you were supposed to abide your time in this dusty room, before a screeching cackling echoed through the room. This certainly gave you a good scare and you frantically look around to find the source of this unpleasant laughter - but aside from you students, no one else seemed to be in the room.

However, as you stared at the vague direction of where the source should be coming from, you’re staring at a certain part of the wall painting that adorned this otherwise bland room - it was the one with the humanoid jackal leading several Medjeds into the sun.

Some of you noticed that something changed about it, but you couldn’t exactly tell what was off to begin with--

Before you registered some movements coming from the jackal-human drawing itself. It shook slightly, before it threw its head back (or well, to the side, as ancient egyptian depicitions tended to be sideways) and roared with laughter.

“KAKAKAKAKAKAKA, you fools aren’t the sharpest tools in the box, huh?!”

Dumbfounded, you simply stared at the wall painting, asking yourself whether you were starting to hallucinate or not. However, you weren’t granted any moment to compose yourself, as the drawing continued to talk.

“Really now, it was such a bother to stay still for so long, but it was worth it just for your stupid mugs! Kakaka!”

It snickered into its hand, giving you all a mischievous grin - one that doesn’t bode well for anyone who gazes upon it.

“Oh I’m sure you’re all confused - and unfortunately for you, you’re going to get even more bamboozled! So strap in, mortals, because you’re about to learn in which mess you’ve gotten yourself into, kakakakakaka!”

As you get up, you immediately realize that you’re still quite wobbly on your feet. You might stumble, you might fall, but that is alright - as long as you stand up again, you have a feeling that you’re going to be okay.

Once you’ve stabilized yourself, you finally proceed to take a look around you. To your bemusement, you don’t seem to be the only one here; overall, you spot 20 other people in this dusty room, all in a similar state of confusion and grogginess as you were in. The only similarity that you could notice inbetween everyone and yourself was that you were all quite young.

Aside from those other individuals, the room was rather bare - though you do note the paintings on the walls that are to the liking of what you would expect from Ancient Egypt. There was also a single chair at the back, contrasting its surroundings with its elegance rather intensively.

As your gaze wanders around, it falls back on the ground - and you cannot help but gawk at the complicated magic circle that fills out a good portion of the room.