Trapped between a wall and a hard place, with her mana almost dry, Olga Marie felt a despair she had never known. She had worked so hard, but...
"Lev!!!"
With a mix of desperation and a final shred of hope, she screamed the name. At that moment, a barrier of pure mana materialized in front of her. But before she could celebrate, a voice filled with dry amusement whispered in her ear.
"I'm not the Lev you're looking for. Sorry to disappoint."
She watched as the strange skeletons in front of her ignored her entirely, charging past to intercept the ones chasing her.
Crack! Crunch! Thud!
The two skeletal waves collided with nothing but the sound of bone on bone. Neither side had vocal cords, after all. The only difference was that the skeletons chasing her dissolved into mana fragments upon death, while the new ones simply shattered into piles of bone.
Despite the adrenaline, Olga Marie hadn't lost her head. She guessed that this sudden newcomer and his skeletal minions were helping her.
"Are you... the Caster of this Holy Grail War?"
"Nope. But I can take you to meet him later. Before that, though—"
"Before that?"
Olga Marie felt her heart jump into her throat, but the man's next words left her stunned.
"Before that, wipe those tears away. If someone sees you like this, I'll never be able to clear my name."
She might have spent her life buried in magecraft, but she wasn't an idiot. She caught the drift of Lancer joke and let out a startled laugh. To her, he sounded like he was just messing around—a totally unreliable joker. She didn't realize that for most people, it was a joke, but for Lancer... anything was possible.
Realizing she was being a bit rude, she quickly lowered her head.
"Unknown magus, thank you for your assistance. You must be a participant in this Holy Grail War. I am Olga Marie Asmleit Animusphere, Lord of the Astronomy Department of the Clock Tower. I request your assistance."
As a Lord and the head of the Animusphere family, Olga Marie had her pride. But it was that very pride and knowledge that told her how dangerous this "ordinary-looking" man truly was. His mana signature and his ability to command such powerful familiars spoke volumes. Showing basic respect to the strong was common sense among ancient families; only the uneducated fools of the "new money" families would offend someone just for the sake of empty ego.
"To be honest, that was my plan too."
"?"
Seeing her confused look, Lancer gave his pre-prepared explanation.
"Your organization, 'Chaldea,' is here to fix this Singularity, right? That's exactly why I'm here, too."
Lancer words made Olga Marie reflexively take a step back, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.
Initially, she thought he was a "native" of this Singularity—someone involved in the original Fifth Holy Grail War. But Lancer had name-dropped "Chaldea." This proved he didn't belong to this timeline, given that Chaldea was founded long after the Fifth Holy Grail War.
But Lancer brow suddenly furrowed. He felt his summoned Dragon Tooth Warriors being destroyed in large numbers.
The materials he used for them were actual "dragon bones." Even if the worlds were different, the result was still an elite-tier mob. That was why they had been able to crush the other skeletons despite being outnumbered.
As far as Lancer knew, the only ones capable of tearing through Dragon Tooth Warriors this fast were Saber, her three puppet Servants, or... Mash.
"Come with me for now. I don't know if it's an enemy or your friends, but things are changing nearby..."
As he spoke, Lancer stepped toward her.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing much, just getting you out of here. There might be some necessary physical contact, so I'm apologizing in advance."
With that, Lancer reached out toward her.
Admittedly, Lancer height combined with the eerie background and his mysterious identity was quite intimidating. As he picked her up, she instinctively pointed a finger at him, clearly ready to blast him with Gandr. But she had underestimated him.
Before she could even react, she felt herself go light-headed. Her finger, originally aimed at Lancer, was now pointing at nothing in particular.
"Hey!! What do you think you're doing?!"
A bright red Olga Marie glared at Lancer, who currently had her tucked firmly under his arm.
"Well... I figured I should try to minimize our physical contact as much as possible."
Looking at Lancer dead-serious expression, Olga Marie actually wondered if he was telling the truth for a split second. Even so, she looked annoyed. Did this guy have a screw loose?
In reality? Lancer was just trying to salvage whatever was left of his dignity.
If he had been called a "stallion" back during his time with the CCG, he would have owned it—after all, he did make moves on Ryoko and Akira. But in his last world, he hadn't done a single thing, yet he still got stuck with the "stallion" label. Why?
After some soul-searching, he'd come up with a plausible answer.
It had to be those weird rumors. So, he decided to be strictly self-disciplined. If he actually did something, fine, call him whatever—he'd own his actions. But he wasn't about to take the fall for something he didn't do.
Obviously, his logic was completely lost on Olga Marie.
His behavior was, in a very weird way, "gentlemanly," but it left her with no idea how to even begin criticizing him.
She didn't notice that as they moved, several spirits detached from Lancer shadow and drifted off into the distance.
Dragon Tooth Warriors were his to control, but they didn't share their sight. Lancer couldn't see the battlefield through them, so he sent his summoned "yokai" to scout. He needed to know what was shredding his skeletons. If it was Saber or her goons, he'd contact Cu immediately to decide whether to strike or bail. But if it was Mash and the others, they could finally make contact.