The Thirsty Girl's Guide To Summoning (Fate/Isekai)

Chapter 34

Ren gripped the desk, digging in her imaginary talons. "You're using them up, not saving them."

"Ah, but you're here now," said Jonathan. "And you can help with that." He leaned forward. "My world withers as well, but it isn't yet doomed like yours. You can save it."

With a scowl, Ren said, "What makes a world die anyhow? Pollution? Bombs? What did you do?"

Absently, Jonathan picked up a pen and began to twirl it as he studied her. Finally, he said, "They once said God saw the fall of every sparrow in every world, but eventually that became too much. Infinite variation carries a very high price." His mouth twisted unpleasantly. "Too high for God to pay. And so God looks away sometimes. The worlds God ignores fall away like branches trimmed from a tree."

He tapped his pen on the desk. "As a lopped branch can still flower, so the worlds abandoned by God still live... for a time. But without the blessing of God, without a connection to the root of the tree, irregularities develop and spread like a cancer, until the world collapses entirely, giving its remaining energy back to the universe... if it isn't claimed by another dying world first."

Ren watched him, mesmerized by his voice. He met her gaze for a long moment and then said, "Now, your world—"

"It's not my world," she interrupted. "I was called there, or maybe sent, to save it."

"Were you?" asked the Master of Raven Tower, looking intrigued. "By whom?" He picked up a lens the size of his palm and squinted at Ren through it.

Ren shrugged. "I don't know. But I know I was sent to help."

He considered. "To help the world? Or individuals within it? Because if the latter, I maintain that you would help them more by helping me."

"You haven't even told me what you're doing," she pointed out, and caught Astolfo giving her a double thumbs-up from the corner of her eye.

"Ah, yes! Well, this started as a routine harvesting spell. The form varies—I think this time it's become something called a Holy Grail War. Quite an efficient magical reactor, potentially. But I think with your assistance and... some other unexpected factors... we can achieve the goal of a millenium. For you know, Miss Ren, a branch lopped from a tree may be replanted in a suitable medium, and so root itself."

His enthusiasm, his hope, was contagious, but Hyde shifted behind her, standing up slowly, and Ren leaned away from the Master of Raven Tower. "What are the other unexpected factors?"

Jonathan frowned and tapped his pen again. "My fairy's harvesting spell collected two particularly significant individuals." He paused and Ren waited aggressively, pretty sure she knew where he was going. Finally, he sighed and went on. "The little girl with the familiar is... a living magic of a sort I haven't before seen. Fate constantly shifts around her. Frankly, that we were able to capture her suggests to me that we're meant to be her salvation."

Ren clenched her fists. "I'm meant to be her salvation. Who's your other significant individual?"

Jonathan's frown deepened. Once again he flickered, and Ren saw Gilbert with his hands over his mouth as if contemplating a wonder or a horror. Then Jonathan reappeared, swallowing as if his mouth had gone dry. "Merlin. How it happened is beyond me, but we found Merlin in that Swiss-cheese world."

"I summoned him," Ren snapped, jumping to her feet. "And I want him back along with everybody else."

"Help us and you'll have your chance to reclaim him," countered Jonathan. "That's the joy and wonder of this, don't you see? You needn't sacrifice anybody we've already collected."