Fate/ Grand Crypter

Chapter 36 (Septem)

"I am Stheno, Goddess of the Shaped Isle. It is a pleasure to meet you, heroes."

The young girl smiled, spreading her arms out in an inviting gesture. In contrast, her eyes remained cold, examining and evaluating them. They were the eyes of a serpent, a hunter, watching them as if she were looking at a meal that had fallen into her den. A sudden survival instinct rose within Leo as he met her gaze, even as his memory fit together the pieces of what was going on.

"Stheno? One of the gorgon sisters?" Kadoc frowned next to him. "A Divine Spirit."

"Ah, you are a learned one," Stheno said smoothly, turning her sweet smile on Kadoc and breaking eye contact with Leo. Anastasia shifted slightly, eyes narrowing at the goddess.

"Indeed, I am. I was called to this place and have laid my claim here, on this Shaped Isle."

"The Shaped Isle? I thought you and your sisters resided upon the Shapeless Isle?" Kadoc looked around, slightly confused.

"This isn't the Shapeless Isle," Leo said, shaking his head. "This is an actual island that Stheno has just taken over for herself. Am I right, Goddess?"

Leo had finally recalled this place. Stheno had done something similar in the original work, laying claim to an island and creating upon it her "Heroes Cave," a place where she tested visitors to see if they were heroes, then rewarded them appropriately. Despite the noble name, the cave was more akin to a meat grinder that Stheno directed the would-be heroes through, a place where she could enjoy watching those with noble hearts struggle and fight. Notably, in the original work, the protagonist and Emperor Nero had sailed here after hearing the rumours of a divine being. However, Leo and Kadoc had been pulled from Rome to this place. The fog that swirled behind them was a stark reminder of how they had arrived.

"Very good, young mage," Stheno nodded appreciatively at his words. "Indeed, this is a place I have crafted to suit my ends. It does not deserve the name of my home, so it is instead the Shaped Isle, a realm I have shaped myself, not left to the whims of the land."

"If you were summoned here, then are you willing to help us close this singularity?" Kadoc asked eagerly. "Given your status as a Divine Spirit, your aid would be most welcome."

"Welcome for some perhaps," Oberon muttered, shooting a sideways glance at a glowering Anastasia.

"Child of man, it is not for the gods of eld to interfere in the matters of today," Stheno replied. "The problems man faces now must be overcome with man's own strength. I do not intend to fight their battles for them. Indeed, I am not sure that you travellers from the future have a right to fight their battles for them either."

Kadoc's face dropped at the response, resignation written across it.

"However, I am not oblivious to the plight of this age. I may not act directly, but I have not been idle."

Stheno gestured behind her, towards the large mouth of a cave that jutted out of the island's upper ridges. Its emergence stood in opposition to the terrain around it, with milky white stone that had lines of crystal criss-crossing through it forming the entrance. It was clearly not a natural formation, but a product of the goddess before them.

"While I will not fight your battle for you, I can offer you the strength required to overcome such challenges. I have created what I call the Heroes Cave. If you are able to pass through the cave and retrieve the treasure from within its depths, you shall be rewarded with something that shall aid your fight in this Singularity."

Leo glanced up at the cave tentatively. This was mostly similar to the original work. The island and the cave were both the same. But something about this place gave him pause. There was a subtle yet strong undercurrent of mystery here. The fog that had brought them here had supposedly manifested several times in Rome, each time abducting one or more civilians and soldiers. Yet, they were completely alone on this beach. Not to mention, Leo remembered what lay at the end of the original Heroes Cave, a monster that existed to challenge the would-be heroes further still.