"So, you came here right after recovering from your injuries? Isn't that a bit too rushed?"
After listening to Lin Qi's story, Jeanne couldn't help but ask, sensing just how much he had struggled alone.
If you're tired, you should rest a bit longer.
Lin Qi shook his head.
"If I don't hurry, there won't be enough time. I might not even have gotten the chance to meet you."
"Besides..."
Lin Qi took a deep breath.
"Only when I was lying injured alone in Chaldea did I truly realize how isolated I was—like the world had abandoned me..."
The small sense of pride he had felt after resolving Singularity F had long since burned away during that time.
"I hate the empty halls of Chaldea."
Lin Qi lowered his eyes, forcing himself not to dwell on those helpless days in Chaldea.
Jeanne's gaze softened, and she tightened her embrace around him slightly.
Having never experienced such loneliness herself, she wasn't sure how to comfort him, but she figured that companionship might be the best solace.
Neither of them spoke further. The small grove was filled only with the chirping of insects and birds, along with the occasional crackling of the fire.
After a while, Jeanne noticed Lin Qi's breathing had steadied.
'Asleep?'
She looked down at his face—the furrowed brows from earlier had relaxed, revealing a peaceful, childlike expression.
"How can I let go when you're like this?"
Feeling her legs growing numb, Jeanne sighed quietly and resigned herself to continuing to stroke Lin Qi's hair.
She could sense the unease in his heart, as well as his desperate reliance on her—someone he had only just met—like she was his lifeline.
'Feels like I'd be condemned if I pulled away now...'
Just then, Lin Qi, already deep in sleep, unconsciously nuzzled closer to her, as if searching for a more comfortable position.
"Mmm..."
Feeling her sacred peaks being rubbed against, Jeanne's cheeks flushed with a suspicious redness.
Unable to help herself, she pinched Lin Qi's face in mild annoyance.
The night passed.
Honestly, it had been so long since he'd slept this well—he even had a dream...?
In the dream, it felt like he was eating jelly, the kind that no matter how much he bit, it wouldn't break—oh, and the jelly also fought back! It even pinched his face, making it hurt!
Still half-asleep, Lin Qi groggily pieced together his thoughts as he slowly opened his heavy eyes.
The familiar scent still lingered around his nose, and the embrace was warm and soft. Right in front of him were two magnificent peaks of "human kindness," so dazzling that just looking at them made him want to take a bite...
Wait, a bite?
Noticing the suspicious stain on the fabric covering those peaks, Lin Qi instantly snapped awake, a terrible suspicion dawning on him.
He followed the curves upward and met a pair of azure-blue eyes filled with a mix of embarrassment and resentment.
...Huh?
Lin Qi's heart sank.
The two of them didn't end up reenacting a cliché anime or novel scene. Instead, they silently got up from the grass, mutually agreeing not to mention the incident again.
But when Lin Qi saw Jeanne quietly cleaning her chest with water, he couldn't help but cover his face in embarrassment.
After fully extinguishing the campfire, the two set off to search for Siegfried's whereabouts.
"By the way, I remember you mentioned you've been here for over a day. Which areas have you already checked?"
Without a map, Jeanne could only confirm their next direction of travel first.
Lin Qi fell silent, then reluctantly admitted:
"...Just here."
"Hmm?"
Jeanne tilted her head in confusion.
"I got lost as soon as I arrived. Wandered around for a whole day and ended up back where I started."
Lin Qi turned his head away, resigned to his fate.
Yep. This was the final straw that had pushed Lin Qi to despair at the very beginning.
Even though he knew time was tight, his poor sense of direction and slight tendency to get lost had inevitably trapped him in a loop.
No choice—without a map, limited supplies, and no support from Chaldea (since there was literally no one left), the so-called "Savior of Humanity" had tripped over the most ridiculous hurdle possible.
"Anyway, I'm hopeless when it comes to navigation. Got any ideas?"
Ignoring Jeanne's strange look, Lin Qi awkwardly changed the subject.
Jeanne suppressed a laugh, barely managing not to burst out on the spot.
"After forming a contract with you, my Spirit Origin has partially recovered. Though I'm not at full strength, my [Revelation] skill is just barely usable now. It should be enough to guide us."
Composing herself, Jeanne clasped her hands in prayer.
Jeanne—or rather, Jeanne d'Arc, the Maid of Orléans—claimed in her youth to have received divine revelations instructing her to lead armies and reclaim French territories occupied by England.
And indeed, after many twists and turns, Jeanne, having secured military authority, led France to numerous victories.
However, her time in the spotlight was short-lived. Thanks to some brilliant decisions by the French, she was eventually captured and executed by burning, marking the end of a legendary yet tragically brief life.
In the original world, Lin Qi's understanding of the historical Jeanne was simple and widely accepted: rather than hearing divine revelations, she was likely a born military strategist, capable of anticipating enemy movements and seizing opportunities.
That was how she achieved so many victories.
Now, though, Lin Qi didn't think so. After all, this was the world of Type-Moon, where God actually existed. Jeanne's military prowess might not have been as high as in actual history—her victories were probably largely thanks to divine intervention.
It was hard not to admit how overpowered the [Revelation] skill was. After just a brief prayer, Jeanne had obtained information about Siegfried's location.
"My [Revelation] skill is weaker now, so the message isn't very clear, but I at least got a general direction. Let's head that way."
Jeanne opened her eyes and pointed into the distance.
"Alright."
Lin Qi nodded, then traced a strange rune in the air with his finger.
"What's that?"
Jeanne watched curiously.
"Rune Magecraft. One of the abilities I inherited from Cú Chulainn. This rune enhances physical abilities and increases movement speed."
"Using it already? Finding Siegfried might take a long time—we might even have to cross all of France. Shouldn't we conserve magical energy?"
Jeanne frowned, offering her suggestion.
"Don't worry. Rune Magecraft doesn't consume much. At my current capacity, I can sustain the enhancement for a long time. Plus, there are runes that can restore magical energy."
"...I see. Rune Magecraft really is convenient!"
Jeanne nodded in realization, gaining a new appreciation for its versatility.
"Mhm."
Only after acquiring this skill did Lin Qi realize just how complex and versatile Rune Magecraft truly was. What was shown in the games was merely the tip of the iceberg.
Unfortunately, since this skill wasn't something Lin Qi had learned or trained himself—rather, inherited from Cú Chulainn—he couldn't fully utilize its potential.
The only exceptions were fire-attribute offensive runes, which aligned with both his and Cú Chulainn's affinities. Those, Lin Qi could wield with relative ease.
After a short while, the completed runes transformed into two beams of light that enveloped Lin Qi and Jeanne.
Feeling their bodies grow stronger and lighter, the two knew the runes had taken effect and simultaneously began their journey.
With their Servant-enhanced physical abilities and the runes' boost, their speed was more than just a little faster. Before long, they had crossed the plains that had taken Lin Qi an entire day to navigate.
In a way, Lin Qi's luck was bizarrely good. These plains were likely one of the last untouched sanctuaries in France at the time. Beyond them, Lin Qi felt like he had returned to the burning ruins of Fuyuki.
This era was set during the Hundred Years' War between England and France. The land was already scarred by conflict—burned villages, ruined cities, and corpses crawling with maggots were a common sight.
While it wasn't as desolate as Fuyuki, where not a single soul remained, the pervasive devastation was somehow even more oppressive.
Neither of them spoke about what they saw along the way. This was simply the reality of war—one Jeanne had witnessed countless times.
Lin Qi, having cleared the Fuyuki Singularity, had developed some immunity to such scenes.
Besides, compared to this, the bigger concern was the changes brought about by Jeanne Alter's manifestation.
Wyverns—creatures that had no business appearing in this era—frequently streaked across the sky, while endless hordes of skeleton soldiers roamed the land. If left unchecked, it wouldn't be long before France was completely depopulated.
"Over there—a few wyverns are attacking a city!"
Jeanne suddenly spoke up.
Several more wyverns soared overhead, heading straight for a mid-sized city. On its walls, soldiers desperately fired arrows and bolts at the incoming creatures.
But wyverns were, after all, draconic beings. Their scales and bones were hardly penetrable by ordinary projectiles. Ignoring the attacks, the wyverns dove onto the walls, swiping soldiers off and sending them plummeting to their deaths.
Even well-trained soldiers stood little chance against wyverns—at best, they could handle skeleton warriors.
Screams and wails filled the city as the elderly, weak, and sick barricaded themselves indoors, trembling and praying for salvation.
—Whoosh!
A fireball the size of a human head suddenly shot up from the ground, arcing through the air before striking one of the circling wyverns.
BOOM!
The explosion engulfed the wyvern in flames, sending it spiraling downward. After a few feeble flaps of its wings, it crashed uncontrollably to the ground.
Rapid, heavy footsteps echoed on the city walls as a figure leaped down, a furled flag-spear aimed straight at the fallen wyvern's neck.
Thud!
The figure landed heavily, the flag-spear piercing straight through the wyvern's neck.
The wyvern's eyes widened as it struggled weakly for a moment before dissolving into gray particles and vanishing.
The figure—Jeanne—let out a sigh of relief, flicking the blood off her flag. The fabric, embroidered with emblems and golden fleurs-de-lis, fluttered in the wind.
The fireball earlier had been Lin Qi's doing, using Rune Magecraft to attack from a distance.
Both of them knew they should have been focusing on finding Siegfried, but when they heard the desperate cries of people under attack, they exchanged a glance and rushed over without hesitation.
After Lin Qi shot down one wyvern with a rune-enhanced fireball, Jeanne accelerated, leaping from the ground onto the city walls before diving straight into the fray to finish off the wounded beast.
Lin Qi's stats were probably still lower than even a half-recovered Jeanne's, but with the boost from his runes, he managed to scale the walls with a couple of jumps.
Standing atop the high city walls, looking down at the devastation below and the rampaging fantastical beasts, Lin Qi felt a strange sense of detachment.
All of this—along with the fact that he had just jumped onto a wall in two steps, something no modern human could do—hammered home the reality that he was truly in a world of fantasy now.
Unlike in Singularity F, where he had relied entirely on Cú Chulainn to carry him, this time, he had to fight on his own.
His fingers traced through the air, runic characters appearing one after another before him.
Rune Magecraft wasn't limited to single-use spells—multiple runes could be combined for greater power.
But unlike Cú Chulainn, who could weave complex rune arrays in an instant, Lin Qi's speed was… lacking, to say the least.
In Servant battles, even Cú Chulainn needed openings to cast runes, preferably with someone covering him.
If Lin Qi were facing a Servant alone, at his current speed, he wouldn't even get the chance to activate basic runes.
Fortunately, the mindless wyverns gave him the time he needed.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—!
A line of fireballs shot out one after another, streaking through the air like machine-gun fire before slamming into the remaining wyverns in the city.
Though Lin Qi's execution was clumsy, the power behind the spells—inherited from Cú Chulainn—was undeniable. After a few volleys, the last two wyverns circling above the city were blasted out of the sky, promptly finished off by Jeanne.
Of course, wyverns weren't complete idiots. One of the stragglers, lurking in the city, had shrewdly set its sights on Lin Qi, who was standing exposed on the wall like a stationary turret.
With a powerful flap of its wings, it charged straight at him.
Did Lin Qi miss such a huge target? Of course not.
Anticipating the attack, he redirected the fireballs hovering beside him, sending them hurtling toward the wyvern.
The beast dodged the first one, but the second slammed into its body, staggering it mid-flight—and that brief stumble was all it took for Lin Qi to unleash a full-on bombardment.
Expressionless, Lin Qi kept conjuring fireballs, pelting the wyvern relentlessly until it was reduced to a charred husk.
This Lin Qi wasn't the same guy who'd been running from skeleton warriors!
With only a handful of wyverns attacking, it didn't take long for the two of them to wipe them all out.
As the dust settled, the soldiers—both those who had hidden and those who had fought—finally dared to show themselves, their faces breaking into relieved smiles.
"To think you could take on those monsters… You're incredible!"
"Where did you come from? You don't look like locals…"
"Wait—look at her face! That's—the Witch! The Avenging Witch!"
"Agh! Don't kill me, don't kill me—!"
The soldiers, who had just been gathering around in cautious gratitude, froze the moment they got a clear look at Jeanne's face. Terror twisted their expressions as they screamed, scrambling away in panic.
They didn't even give the two a chance to speak.
Jeanne watched them flee, her expression dimming.
"You okay?" Lin Qi asked hesitantly.
"It's nothing. I just… don't understand what the other 'me' has done to make them react like this just from seeing my face."
Jeanne shook her head, her eyes clouded with worry.
"What's there to not understand? She's tearing this shithole of a country apart, of course!"
A voice rang out from the sky.
Both of them tensed, snapping their gazes upward as they braced for battle.
A black dot in the sky rapidly expanded before crashing down with earth-shaking force, sending dust and debris flying.
Jeanne swung her flag, deflecting the shattered stones, her eyes locked on the figure emerging from the settling dust.
A surge of dark mana dispersed the remaining haze, revealing the intruder.
Black armor and attire. A flag nearly identical to Jeanne's—except emblazoned with the image of a black dragon.
Pale skin, dulled hair, and a smirk full of scorn.
Jeanne Alter.
The woman often joked about in Fate/Grand Order as "one of Chaldea's easiest-to-handle Servants" now stood before them—as an enemy.
Without Chaldea's support, Jeanne had lost the massive detection range granted by her Ruler-class abilities. Both of them had been relying on sight and sound to track threats—which was why they hadn't sensed the danger until it was right in front of them.
"None of that political or economic nonsense. Crushing everything with pure force is simpler, more effective—and way more satisfying, don't you think?"
Jeanne Alter grinned.
"I know that much. What I don't understand is—if you're me, why go this far? Why destroy this country?"
Jeanne raised her flag, pointing it at her darker counterpart, her voice firm but laced with confusion.
Jeanne Alter's expression darkened instantly.
Without so much as a gesture, four figures materialized beside her, their spiritual forms dissolving into reality.
Vlad III and Carmilla—the vampire duo, radiating malice.
And Martha and Chevalier d'Éon—their expressions conflicted, as if bound against their will.