"I have to protect him! Absolutely! Master… Senpai…!"
The day Chaldea exploded. Fujimaru Ritsuka, her Senpai, was the only one desperately trying to save her, buried under debris and on the verge of death.
"Why do you call me Senpai? Judging by seniority, I should be the one calling you that…"
"No! For me, everyone here is Senpai. Besides… you seem the most human of all the people I've met."
"Human, you say… Well, thank you anyway, Mash."
She wanted only one thing: to see his smile again. No, one time wasn't enough. She dreamed of saving Chaldea, the world, and human history, to restore peace, and under a clear blue sky, walking on warm earth, to see him smile again and again. That was Mash's wish.
"Mash! Hold on!"
"Kuh… Senpai…!"
Ritsuka was there. Not just as a Master and Servant contract partner, but as a comrade, ready to share any hardship for the restoration of human order, as a precious person who awakened her heart.
"There's a magical reaction in Mash's shield!"
As Olga Marie had noticed, Ritsuka's meager magical circuits connected to the shield through a Command Spell. Though he lacked magical talent, his sheer will to overcome the crisis shoulder-to-shoulder with Mash awakened the hidden power of a Servant – her Noble Phantasm.
"It's a Phantasm!"
"Yes, Senpai!"
As Ritsuka and Mash poured all their strength into their cry, the shield was enveloped in a powerful aura of magical energy. It began to expand rapidly, taking the form of a colossal fortress wall, and absorbed the full might of Saber's attack.
Pseudo-Phantasm. Mental Model Deployment.
"Lord Chaldeas!"
"Incredible. To use a Demi-Servant's Phantasm like that…!"
Could this be the "power of love" the red mercenary kept talking about? However, despite the successful activation, a problem remained. Mash's Phantasm was defensive, not offensive like Saber's. She could only hold back the onslaught.
"If so, then…!"
Olga Marie, who had only been observing from the sidelines until then, was ready to intervene when a familiar silhouette flashed past them, heading towards Mash and Ritsuka.
"I told you! The power of love works wonders. I've experienced it firsthand. Power of love and peace!"
Deadpool. His costume was worn and tattered, but it was definitely him. He rapidly closed the distance with Saber. She, having just recovered from the recoil after activating her own Phantasm, couldn't react in time to the red mercenary who leaped at her and only tried to swing her sword at the last moment.
"Slow."
As Deadpool's twin blades pierced her chest, Saber, no longer hoping for salvation, finally parted her silenced lips.
"So… it ends like this. I guess I was powerless to change anything…"
She whispered it with a bitter, regretful smile. Her body began to slowly crumble into sparks, disappearing from the bottom up.
"Someday, you'll understand. The great quest for the Grail – Grand Order. This journey is just beginning."
"Wait. Grand Order? Who did you hear that from?!"
Hearing these words, Olga Marie was bewildered. How could a Servant from another dimension know about the "Grail Front – Grand Order" plan, which was supposed to start normally if not for the catastrophe? She wanted to pry for details, but Saber had already completely disappeared.
"Who is behind this…"
While Olga Marie gnawed her nails in thought, Ritsuka, Mash, and Deadpool celebrated their victory.
"Pool! You're alive! Defeating Berserker… that was amazing!"
"But how did you manage it? That's Berserker. And you're not even scratched… what happened there?"
Ritsuka couldn't stop admiring Deadpool's abilities, who had returned unharmed. Mash, on the other hand, really wanted to know how he had managed to win against such an opponent.
"I watched anime and copied it. You know… I was inspired by the sixteenth episode of 'Fate/stay night' by Studio Deen. It's not like I have projection abilities, but… Anyway, it's a secret, okay?"
"What?"
Ritsuka and Mash clearly didn't understand what he was talking about. While they stood with puzzled faces, Deadpool decided his work here was done. Since everything had returned to normal, it was time to leave. He waved goodbye carelessly.
"Alright, I'm a busy person, so see ya. Time to go home and sharpen my chimichangas. It was fun, though short-lived. Adios!"
As he was about to leave after such a sudden farewell, Deadpool suddenly felt something was missing. He frantically patted his pockets. The time and space travel device – that one-time use gadget he had once stolen from his sworn friend Cable and modified for infinite use – was nowhere to be found.
"It's gone. Wait, how can it be gone?! Damn it! No way! I guarded it like the apple of my eye! Lost?! Damn this world!"
Unable to find the device, Deadpool panicked. Without it, he couldn't return to his universe and would be forever stuck in this burning city.
"Looking for this, Irregular?"
A voice came from the top of the grotto. A voice filled with undisguised malice and bile. At least, that's how it sounded to Deadpool, but for Ritsuka, Mash, and Olga Marie, it was different.
"Lev!"
"Professor Lev!"
Before Olga Marie's eyes appeared her colleague, whom she believed dead in the explosion – Professor Lev Lainur. He floated in the air, looking down at them.
"Lev, you're alive!"
"Yes, I'm alive. But you…"
Overcome with joy that her reliable comrade had survived, Olga Marie rushed towards him, forgetting Ritsuka and the others, when she suddenly felt a force pull her back sharply.
"It's amazing how ridiculous you look, Olga, believing that a dead man can be alive."
"What… what are you talking about, Lev? I'm here…"
Only then did Olga Marie realize: something was wrong.
She was not suitable for Leyshift – quantum transfer in spacetime. That's why her duty was to select forty-eight Masters to send to Singularities. But now, against all odds, she was here.
"Your body was unsuitable, bound by flesh, but now that you are dead and only your soul remains, transfer has become possible. To forget your own death… that's so like you, Director Olga Marie."
"No… it can't be. Lev! Stop! You're joking, right? You couldn't have done this!"
She tried to deny the obvious, but when Lev, to whom she had been drawn close, slightly opened his usually narrowed eyelids, Olga shuddered at the bottomless malice in his eyes.
"Oh, Olga. I admit, your abilities as head of the family were high, but in all other respects, you are a complete failure."
Lev extended his hand and pierced Olga Marie's chest through and through.
"No… no… don't… I don't want… to die like this… I don't want to!"
She disappeared without a trace. Before she could utter a word, her essence dispersed. Since she was already dead, her soul simply crumbled into sparks.
"How strange. I was sure I had killed all forty-eight Masters, but one still survived. Well, survivability is also a kind of talent."
"Professor Lev Lainor! How could you?!"
As Lev mocked Ritsuka's useless talent, Mash, having regrouped, raised her shield.
"This is all the will of our King."
Lev spread his arms, and a portal opened behind him, revealing Chaldea, turned into a veritable hell by the explosion. Chaldeus, the observation device that recreated the planet's soul, burned with crimson fire.
"Our King burned human history to break the vicious cycle of endless contradictions. To turn everything to zero and start anew… From now on, humanity will rise from the ashes and gain the life the King dreamed of. The New Order of Humanity…!"
The incineration of history. Inri Sōkakku. To purify the current world and create a new one meant the death of civilization and all humankind. This had to be stopped. The King's plans, whom Lev served, must be thwarted.
"Ahem, ahem. Excuse me for interrupting your dramatic monologue. To put it politely: I would be extremely grateful if you would return that precious time-traveling thingy you're holding in your fist. Hear me, scumbag?"
A servant in a red suit appeared in Lev's field of vision. Deadpool, with a furious expression, aimed his pistol at him.
"Ah, right. A being from another world. As the King predicted: 'Alien presence.' Your intervention has begun to distort the world line. But everything will be according to the King's will…"
"Hey! Green Lantern!" …Deadpool whispered. "Damn it! I never thought these words would come out of my mouth…! I advise you to return the item nicely. Otherwise, I'll personally turn you into kebab paste with my swords!"
"A time-travel device. Curious. However, it's crudely made and primitive. Moreover, this trinket will only hinder our plans."
Despite Deadpool's warning, Lev casually examined the device clutched in his hand. Then he clenched his fingers, and the device turned to dust with a crunch.
"You son of a bitch, you premature bastard, may the devils take you-u-u-u-u-u-u!!"
The veins on Deadpool's temples bulged as if about to burst with blood. In a rage, he raised both pistols and opened fire.
"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die, you bastard!!"
The bullets fired by Deadpool, driven mad with anger, flew straight towards the target, but Lev merely waved his hand lazily, and they scattered.
"Well, farewell. Try to survive in a collapsing world. Hahahaha…"
"No! No-o-o-o! Don't you dare leave! Clean your ring first, you scumbag!!"
Ignoring Deadpool's screams, Lev disappeared with a smug grin. At that moment, the entire cave was shaken by a powerful tremor. The ground cracked, the ceiling collapsed. The world around them was literally falling apart.
"Guys! I'm initiating Leyshift! Hold on tight!"
Doctor Roman, sweating profusely, hastily completed the transfer system's launch, though it wasn't part of his direct duties. But the world's destruction was accelerating – the floor beneath Ritsuka's feet gave way, and they plummeted into the abyss.
"Senpai!"
"Mash! Grab my hand! Mr. Pool, you too…!"
Mash and Deadpool clung to Ritsuka's outstretched hands. In the next moment, a blinding pillar of light enveloped them, and they vanished along with the dying world.
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That day, Lev didn't yet know that he had crossed paths with the best – and simultaneously the worst – character in the Marvel universe…
***
Read the story months ahead of the public release — early chapters are available on my Patreon: Granulan