The skeletal remains of a luxury hotel served as their makeshift camp.
Outside, the fires of Fuyuki continued to roar, fueled by a mana source that defied the laws of thermodynamics.
Julian sat on a discarded crate, his small chest heaving.
His white hair was matted with ash, and his Chaldea uniform was scorched, yet his skin remained flawless—not a single burn or scratch survived more than a few seconds on his body.
Medusa—currently summoned in a Lancer-class aspect—watched him from the shadows of a collapsed pillar. Her eyes, hidden behind her mystic eye killer mask, were fixed on the boy.
"You are staring," Julian said without looking up.
"You are an impossibility," Medusa replied, her voice a low hum.
"I have met gods, and I have met monsters. You smell of both, yet you possess the soul of something... incredibly fragile."
"I was a man once," Julian whispered, the secret slipping out in the exhaustion of the moment.
"In a world where heroes were movies and magic was a lie.
Now I'm a child who can't die in a world that won't stop burning.
"Before Medusa could press further, Ritsuka approached, handing Julian a self-heating ration pace.
"Eat up, Julian. Dr. Roman says your metabolism is burning through calories like a jet engine. Your cells are rebuilding themselves so fast you're basically starving every hour."
Julian took the pack, his hands trembling slightly. "Thanks, Ritsuka. How's Mash?""She's... adjusting," Ritsuka said, looking over at the young Shielder. She was standing guard at the edge of the ruin, staring at her shield with a look of profound confusion.
"She's worried she's not doing enough. Especially after you... well, after you turned fire into a breeze."
"I didn't turn it into a breeze," Julian corrected, taking a bite of the bland protein mash.
"I just forced the universe to acknowledge the 0.000001% chance that the oxygen in that specific area didn't react with the mana to produce heat.
I didn't change the fire. I chose a different reality.
"The Shadow in the FlamesThe comms unit on Ritsuka's wrist chirped.
Olga Marie's face appeared in the holographic projection, looking more harried than ever.
"Listen up! We've pinpointed the source of the Singularity. It's at the Greater Grail site in the caves beneath Mount Enzou. But there's a problem—a massive energy signature is blocking the path. It's a Servant, but the readings are... corrupted."
"Saber," Medusa said, her grip tightening on her harpoon-like lance.
"The King of Knights. Or what remains of her after the shadow took hold."
Julian stood up, the exhaustion momentarily forgotten. He could feel it now—a massive, jagged thread of pure end vibrating in the distance. It wasn't just a threat; it was a wall.
"We have to go," Julian said. "The longer we stay, the more the 'Correction' of the world tries to erase us. My luck is the only thing keeping the Reality Marble of this city from crushing us like ants."
"He's right," Romani's voice added from the background.
"The space-time coordinates are becoming unstable. If you don't secure the Grail soon, you'll be stranded in a timeline that never existed."
The DescentAs they moved toward the Ryuudou Temple, the opposition intensified. Not just skeletons, but Shadow Servants—low-level manifestations of past heroes, flickering like bad television reception.
Mash fought at the front, her shield clanging against the ethereal blades. Ritsuka provided tactical support, using his limited Command Spells to boost her stamina.
But Julian was doing the heavy lifting in silence.Every time a Shadow Servant aimed for a weak point in Mash's stance, Julian would blink.
A piece of the ceiling would fall on the shadow. A gust of wind would throw off their aim. A stray spark from the surrounding fire would ignite a gas line under the shadow's feet.[Warning: Internal Strain Detected]
[Regeneration Rate: 400% — Compensating for Hemorrhaging]Julian's eyes were bloodshot.
His power wasn't free. To manipulate probability on this scale was like trying to hold back a tidal wave with his bare hands. His mutant body could heal the physical damage, but the mental fatigue was a black pit opening up beneath him.
"Julian, stop!" Mash cried out, noticing the blood dripping from his ears.
"You're pushing too hard!""Keep... moving," Julian hissed, his voice straining.
"If I stop... the 'bad luck' of this place will catch up. We'll all die in a freak accident before we even see the temple.
"They reached the gates of the temple. The air was thick with a black, oily substance that seemed to eat the light.And there, standing on the stairs, was the silhouette of a woman in midnight-blue armor.
Her skin was deathly pale, and her eyes were a cold, piercing yellow.
She held a sword that radiated a darkness so profound it felt like a hole in the world.Artoria Pendragon Alter.The Impossible Odds"So," the Corrupted King spoke, her voice a calm, chilling resonance.
"The interlopers have arrived. And they brought a child who reeks of the Throne."She raised Excalibur Morgan. The mana around the blade began to vortex, turning into a pillar of black flame.
"Get back!" Medusa shouted, leaping forward to intercept, but Saber Alter moved with a speed that bypassed the concept of 'travel time.
'With a single swing, Medusa was sent crashing through a stone wall. Mash barely got her shield up in time to catch the shockwave, her feet skidding back, leaving deep furrows in the earth.
"It's over," Saber Alter stated. "There is no 'probability' of victory here.
My blade is the certainty of destruction."Julian stepped past Mash.
He was trembling, his nose bleeding freely now, staining his white uniform crimson.
"You're right," Julian whispered, looking up at the King of Knights.
"In this reality... we lose. In 99.9% of all possible futures, you kill us right here."
He reached out, his fingers twitching in the air, grasping at threads that only he could see.
"But I don't care about those futures."He closed his eyes. He reached past the local threads of Fuyuki.
He reached into the Multiverse—into the connection he held as a being born of two worlds.
He looked for a thread where the King of Knights hesitated.
He looked for a thread where the black sun failed to rise.He found it. A tiny, flickering golden strand, thinner than a spider's silk.
"Ritsuka! Mash!" Julian screamed. "Hit her NOW!"[Ability Overdrive: "Miracle Manifestation"]Julian's X-Gene screamed. His healing factor accelerated to a point where his skin began to glow with a dull heat. He forced the "Impossible" into the "Actual."Saber Alter swung her sword.
"Ex—"But the ground beneath her—which had stood for centuries—suddenly suffered a catastrophic structural failure.
A sinkhole opened precisely under her lead foot.
Her aim shifted by a fraction of a degree. The black beam of Excalibur Morgan roared past Mash's shoulder, obliterating the mountain behind them instead of the girl in front of her.
At the same time, the armor on Saber Alter's shoulder—corrupted and brittle—snapped, a jagged piece of metal piercing her own mana-flow.
"Now!" Ritsuka yelled.Mash didn't hesitate. She slammed her shield into the off-balance King, pouring every ounce of her will into the strike.
Medusa reappeared from the rubble, her lance glowing with a lethal purple light, driving it toward the gap in Saber's armor.
The explosion of mana blinded everyone.The AftermathWhen the light faded, Saber Alter was gone, vanished back into the black mud of the Grail.
The Singularity was collapsing.Julian fell to his knees.
He looked like he had been put through a meat grinder.
His uniform was more red than white, and his eyes were rolled back in his head."Julian!" Mash caught him before he hit the ground.
"Is he...?" Ritsuka started, his voice trembling.
"He's breathing," Medusa said, her mask gone, revealing eyes that looked at the boy with something akin to awe.
"His body is... knitting itself back together as we speak.
But the cost... no child should have to pay that cost.""We're being pulled back!" Romani's voice was frantic.
"The Grail is secured! Rayshift initiated! Hold on!"As the blue light of Chaldea's return sequence enveloped them, Julian had one final thought before he slipped into a deep, healing come.
I changed the ending.
He had saved them.
But in the depths of his mind, he felt a new presence.
By reaching so deep into the multiverse, he hadn't just pulled a thread—he had caught the attention of something else.
Something that lived in the gaps between worlds.
The Marvel universe was looking for its missing mutant.
And the Throne of Heroes had a new vacancy.