Weighing Options And New Allies

Entry 135:

Linus Ozias POV:

Before I can begin to explain, the reality begins to crack around as everything begins to fade out, as Romani says over the comms.

[Explanations later! I need to get you all out of there now! Prepare for ray shift!]

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All of us are soon teleported in a blinding flash of yellow light, leaving the burning city to disappear into the annals of human history.

The first Singularity ends as it begins in utter and complete silence. Soon enough, we find ourselves in what remains of the ray shift room as Ritsuka falls over unconscious due to the effects of ray shifting.

I pick up the girl as Romani enters the room. I ask, "Romani, I know you have questions, but I would need to know if you have a space available to put her down other than the Infirmary."

Romani looks at me and says, "Luckily, we have some private rooms available as most of the residential spaces are intact. I will lead you there now."

So, if we walk through the hallways, Romani asks, "So, who exactly are you, Ozias?" I ponder my answer as I say, "You already know my name, Dr. Romani. I am Linus Ozias, but simply more."

He raises his eyebrow and says, "Please define what you mean." I continue, "It's rather simple. The reason I joined the project wasn't because the director simply asked. It was because I was asked to by another party. I assume Gaia and Alaya ring a bell?"

His eyes widen as he asks in almost shock, "You are telling me that the beings that represent the world itself asked you to be here. Do we need to do a psych evaluation, Mr. Ozias?"

I shake my head as I state, "I have never lied since I came here, and I am not lying now. I can assure you I am here to help and preserve the human order, but I assume you will not trust my words, and even my actions in the last Singularity may not have proven much, but I ask for the opportunity to prove myself."

He looks like he wants to ask me something as he then sighs and says, "Honestly, if we weren't so down to the wire, I would have had a full investigation made to your claims, but we're too desperate, and we lack, but I will be watching you."

I give him a solemn nod and say, "If you truly wish to test my resolve, we could sign a geas if you so desire." Romani gasps and says, "You do know what that would involve, correct you would be burying yourself in a contract?"

"If that is what is needed to make my claims more truthful and my allegiance more cemented here, I'm willing to take the risk." We look each other dead in the eye as we stop in the hallway before one of the private rooms, unblinking and unmoving.

Romani then says, "That won't be necessary. I have seen enough, and while yes, it may take some time to trust one another, we shall see for now. Let us get our orange-haired friend to her bed."

I chuckle as I state, "So quick to allow me to continue? Are you not afraid I would betray all of you similarly to our previous professor?" Romani then smiles and says, "If you are what I think you are, I know you won't, and speaking of which, I wasn't able to see what happened after Lev revealed himself, so explain."

I sigh as I begin to tell him what Lev said to Olga. "Well, after revealing himself as a demon god in disguise, I made use of my reality marble to take him outside of the timeline so that I may eliminate him. It was a gift from the world."

The mention of demon gods gives the man pause as he asks, "Which one?" I raise my brow and say, "Flauros, one of the seventy-two demon pillars of GOETIA."

A flash of recognition is seen in Romani's eyes as I continue, "Essentially, I created the reality marble with the help of Gaia and Alaya and filled it with my various inventions."

The doctor's eyes widen in realization as he says, "I would ask that you show it to me, but I understand how important a reality marble is to someone, so I will not pry, but I have to ask what happened to the director as she did not ray shift with you all."

I nod as I lay Ritsuka down in bed with Mash standing guard as I continue, "I have the director's soul in a mystic code I created perfectly preserved so that we may create a new body for her. Olga does not deserve the Fate she was about to be dealt."

I then pull out the container with her soul in it as Romani studies it and says, "This is an amazing piece of technology. I would wish to study it further, but that is not my expertise. That lies with the head of research and development."

I ask, "Who is the head of research and development?" Romani then smiles mischievously and says, "Oh, you will know the person when you meet them, and let's just say it may be a bit of a surprise."

That is not ominous at all, but I place my hand on Ritsuka to check her condition and find she is only tired from today's experiences. "I will not ask you to trust me, any of you, but I truly do wish to help in any way I can."

Romani then asks, "Well, from what I've seen so far, you are definitely an inventor worthy of praise, and I would like to ask you for your opinion of the facility's power supply as we are still running on backup generators."

I smile as I state, "Well, Dr Romani, I actually have the perfect solution for that because, you see, before I arrived, I was studying a new form of energy that comes from the beginning of the universe. I call it Singularium ."

I then show him some notes on it as his eyes widen, and he says, "This is insane from what I'm gathering from these blueprints. One reactor would power this entire facility for years, even with the various systems, and if we install a decent number of them, we would never have to worry about power again."

But then Romani sighs and says, "But we lack the manpower to build them quickly enough. Do you have any ideas, Mr. Ozias?"

I nod and say, "You can call me Linus or Oz, Dr Romani, but I have some ideas. You see, while my family is known for mystic code creation, we are also very adept at the sciences, and I have been producing a rather interesting form of manpower."

I then show him my various android model blueprints and creation lines that can be made, and he says, "This is amazing as we would usually populate the workforce with homunculus, but these models are perfect, and we could even create a body for the director using these models."

He then shows the blueprints to Mash, who looks over them with a fine eye and oddly smiles for some reason as she says, "Well, I'm happy the director should be able to gain a new form soon because we are going to need her to keep the association off our backs if they still exist that is."

I nod as I ask, "Speaking of which, Romani, what has happened in the outside world? How is it faring?" Romani then looks down and says, "All of them are gone. Maybe some pockets remain, but all of humanity is incinerated. We are all that remains due to our shielding and the presence of the various systems in the facility."

I can feel my anger growing at the senseless loss of life, and as I spread my senses across the world, I find what Romani says to be true as we are the only ones left, and in total, the staff barely numbers fifty people.

The silence is palpable as I say, "While they may all be gone, that does not mean they are lost. if we are able to find out where they all went, specifically where all their souls have gone, we should be able to restore them."

Romani smiles slightly as he says, "While that outlook may be decently optimistic, Linus, we're going to have our work cut out for us. There still are many singularities left as it seems multiple Grails have been sent across the timeline summoning servants in different eras that are causing chaos."

I nod as Mash responds and says, "Well, we should focus on what we can do here and now, so Dr. Romani, we probably should focus on getting the other systems ready for use, such as the FATE summoning system, as we will need help.

Romani nods in agreement as he says before leaving the room, "Well, I will get to work trying to get these systems back online, and Linus, I would ask if you can get your project up and running as soon as possible. We have a lot of work ahead."

"I'll need a workspace, and if you can provide that, I can work my magic." Romani showed that smile again as he said, "Well then, head to the science area and introduce yourself to the R&D Head, and they can get you started."

Okay, the fact that he's unwilling to say the person's gender is odd, but it's probably something harmless, as Romani does not seem that malevolent. A man who hides secrets definitely, but we all hide our own secrets.

I do wonder what he refers to in the science department, as it can't be that strange, right?

Such a lack of information does trouble me being who I am, but I can get used to it. I have to.

I then look to Ritsuka on the bed and say, "Mash, I would ask if you can guard the room as since we are the only ones left, we got to stick together, and I also don't trust her to be alone."

Mash remains her stoic self but smiles slightly in the end as she says, "Yes, I do not trust her as while she is delusional, she is one of the very few Masters we have left, but regardless of what we are hiding, I know we will make it through this."

We nod as I head to get set up in the science center, and as I walk down the hallway towards my new workspace, I wonder what the endgame is here as with the amount of energy from all those souls across history, one could do many things.

It almost makes me regret killing the demon god so quickly before he could monologue further, but I did not want to take the risk of him escaping.

It was a bit impulsive on my part, but I felt like it needed to be done, and since if all of the demon gods were present, we would have a decent number of them to deal with. 

In all honesty, I am somewhat excited as well. I have never understood the story of the grand order. The one thing I do remember is the random chance involved with the game, and I wonder how that will play into effect in this reality, as I do not want to have to deal with picking up all the tofu that shows up.

All of the various servants to summon and learn their histories and backstories are rather exciting.

So, as I find the door leading to the science department, it opens on its own, and as I see what looks like a woman wearing a red and blue Renaissance-esque dress, I ask, "Hello, I am Linus Ozias. Are you the head of this department?"

The woman turns around with what looks like a clockwork owl looking at me, and she says, "Welcome, Mr. Ozias. I am the head of the science department at Chaldea, but you may call me Da Vinci Chan to you, mister!"

I understand what Romani was hiding from me as I think I can hear faint laughter.