Fate/Swapped Chronicles (Chronicles of Darkness; Mage the Awakening + FGO, in that order!).

[Repentant_Dragos]

Prologue - Chronicle of One's Rebirth

No Magic Circuits that carried arcane power through my body.

No ability to sense that power, which in my past life, was called Mana or Od.

Only my intelligence and memories existed to indicate that anything outside of the 'Common Sense of Humanity' was occurring.

I was born to a different family with little to no knowledge of the Supernatural or the Occult, although they had plenty of wealth to spare. Strangely enough, I kept the name Kirsch, although there was no question of using the full name I had in my past life even when I grew up and became more independent.

Right now, I am a toddler. I have a past life in a world other than this one. A world with many different rules for how the Supernatural works, where the noblest pursuit is to find The Root, the source of all things.

A world where I was a noble among those with Occult Power and those without. Where I was the elite of the elite, chosen by an organization that wanted to save the world… Or so they said.

I was Kirschtacia Wodime, of the Clock Tower, of the Chaldea Security Organization, and the Crypters. I died and was reborn here, in this strange world, to live out a Chronicle I was not meant to be in.

A Chronicle of Darkness... Where I am alone.

------

I had my first breakthrough when I was five or six years old, and a nanny brought her slightly older child in, and that child wanted to watch Anime.

That Anime was Fate/Stay Night, by Studio DEEN.

As I gazed into the screen, engrossed in the events of the show and the life of Shirou Emiya and Saber, I knew that I was, indeed, in a different section of the Multiverse, one that may or may not follow the same laws as Fate/Stay Night's.

After watching every episode, certain that the show was, indeed, about my section of the Multiverse, I had more questions than answers.

I needed to find out more, even if it meant revealing more of my intelligence than was necessary.

But how do I get internet access as a small child? Should I wait, and follow the progress of the Fate Franchise as it advanced in this strange new world?

Or should I assume that there is something in this universe more important than my current separation from my native world?

------

Years pass, and I notice that the people here are more aware of the Occult and the Supernatural than in my world; they just say, "No, it's nothing abnormal; Magic isn't real, it's all perfectly mundane."

My new birth father says when I'm not around, "It must be something easily explained; it's best if it is. For my family… It's best if everything is as they say things are."

And I saw where those words came from.

Fear of danger, fear of chaos and disorder. And of course, fear of the unknown, coded into their subconscious through some means woven into reality.

A lie. The Lie, one that whispers at the back of my head too.

Magic exists, but you will never see it.

You don't deserve to see wonder, and never did.

You are nothing before the world.

it's better to hide behind our chosen elect, where it's safe.

From everything but the elect, but better us than the world, which is rotten, and cruel, and frightening, and we're the only things that can and are willing to protect you, and it is our right to do whatever we want to you because of it.

It's okay to live in ignorance.

Ignorance dulls the pain, and all knowledge does is rob you of happiness before the end. You will obey, or you will die - that is the nature of things.

I have inferred that this Lie is weaker in my subconscious than it is in others, including my new birth family's. Was it because I was reincarnated here, because of my past upbringing as a Nasuverse-style Magus, or both?

It is 2015 now; I am fifteen years of age.

At the same age, I saw the darkness - and innate goodness - of Humanity back in my home world.

At the same age, I grew to care for people.

My new birth father was an indulgent one, boring, staid, fearful of threats to himself and his family. I loved him anyway, as he genuinely loved me.

My new birth mother was intelligent, competent, and independent. We both loved her dearly. She was on a business trip to Japan; I asked her to get me that new game they were about to release - Fate Grand Order.

But while waiting for her to come home, I spent my time drowning myself in books of mythology, theology, philosophy… and the occult, hoping to pierce through the Lie that was trying to convince me to wallow in ignorance.

This world is grim; and dark in a way that made my world - And others in the so-called 'Nasuverse' - look like vacation spots. Every form of abuse is practiced there, and goodness and hope exist only to be crushed.

Even at a young age, I know I need to tread carefully.

-----

2018; Cosmos in the Lostbelt has been released. Some progress has been made into piercing The Lie, but only to the point where I can witness some undeniably Supernatural phenomena without sacrificing a portion of my sanity or The Lie modifying my memories.

My interest in the Supernatural and the Occult has affected my social ties with others, for good and ill. My new birth parents are understanding, but my extended family sees me as eccentric at best and a potential shame at worst. A few among my circles share the same interests as me or dabble in them, but they are also influenced by The Lie.

A few try and struggle; I respect them for that. But as I continue my studies, I find myself being watched.

I know what it's like to be stalked by those who mean harm, but this time, I have no means of supernatural defense beyond carrying silver, cold iron, and some holy water.

Things grow grimmer in the City I live in, just as they are in the rest of America, where I have been reincarnated. Unlike in the 'Nasuverse', America here is rich in supernatural resources, albeit ones I do not know much about yet; from what scraps of knowledge I do know, it is no 'spiritual wasteland'.

Quite the opposite; it seems with Ghosts and Spirits - Similar to my world's, but also different; more primal, more alien.

Ghosts can be anywhere from imprints of the dead to the actual dead person themselves - Not left-behind grudges or memories, the actual dead person. From this, I inferred that Souls do not have to go to The Root upon death, nor are they necessarily drawn there; this raises cosmic implications that disturb what I had assumed about Metaphysics as a whole.

Spirits, meanwhile, are different; they exist in inanimate objects, living objects, and concepts, preying on each other in a world separate from our own, but can influence ours and be influenced by it. Even ordinary Humans can influence Spirits and find ways to draw on their power; Hedge Magic, they call it, and the effects are minor enough to slip through The Lie.

Mystery does not exist here; the Supernatural is not weakened by revealing it. Rather, the incentive for keeping Magic secret is because of The Lie, as well as various hostile forces willing to use force to terminate any breaches in secrecy for ends less justified than the Clock Tower ever proclaimed.

I have already received a warning; attempts at supernatural assault have been made at my family - Curses, mental assaults, mysterious fires and accidents.

It is going to reach a head in a year or two, but I cannot stop now; all I need to do is to protect my family - my new family - as well as I can.

------

It is 2020, and I am witnessing my death in videogame form. Every detail is accurate, as accurate as the medium permitted.

My secrets have been laid bare. My backstory is exposed to the attention of others. My motivations are open for debate and examination.

It was then that I broke The Lie; piercing through it, gaining everything I wanted so far.

A road of electrum that made its way through masses of Auroras, past crackles of lightning and thunder and the woosh of wind that carried Mana more potent than what I was used to in my section of the Multiverse, such that a whiff held several times more energy than the mana-saturated air of my Lostbelt.

This was more than another dimension; this was a realm where concepts materialized, the source code of Reality itself, which can alter History retroactively if messed with.

If not for the fact that The Root did not manifest in material and comprehensible form, especially not a landscape, I would have thought I already reached it.

But if this isn't the Root… It is somewhere adjacent to it like the Throne of Heroes.

As I walked, I saw a structure ahead of me; a tower of glass, silver, and gold, taller than any modern skyscraper, large enough that I could barely see its curvature.

I instinctively knew this was my destination; that it was my destiny.

Voices sang to me; Cherubim and Seraphim in eternal melody as stars spun around us all, scattering trails of superheated hydrogen.

I reached the tower; the song said it was called the Watchtower of the Golden Key, and to sign my true name, how I identified myself, onto its walls, which were made up of countless gears, levers, wheels, and other harmonious mechanical parts.

There was a glass pen in my hand, and I wrote on a clock hand that ticked in lockstep with the other parts: I am Kischtarcia Wodime.

Barely a second had passed since I witnessed my death in my past world, but my Awakening had ended, and I now saw the nature of this reality.

This world is Fallen, a world that reflected a higher truth; the realm I visited, where I awoke to… Magic Beyond True Magic, given by the Ur-Symbols of Reality.

A realm of concepts materialized, an… emanation, the True Form of this existence. It was like The Root, but one step below, if one must permit a heresy.

But unlike in my world, what separated us from this realm just one step below The Root is not the drying-up of Mystery, not the inevitable but graceful death of Magecraft as Humanity, as a species, starts to save itself (something I found out from translations of Kinoko Nasu's notes in this universe).

No, this world is separated from the realm one step beneath The Root through deliberate, unnatural, malicious effort.

Humanity, unlike in my world, has the potential to save itself now, but is actively being stopped from doing so.

Something actively stood against the salvation of the world, preferring to keep Humanity in misery. The Lie was deliberate, and I had just marked myself as the enemy of the ones who put it in place.

My eyes flashed as I thought, So be it; I fought against impossible odds before.

Then I wondered, Was I swapped with someone native to this reality?

Something flashed in my head; a young man of about sixteen years of age, with sandy blond hair and teal eyes, wearing a scarf, a cotton jacket, a white shirt and blue jeans, plus sneakers.

He was in Novum CHALDEA, confronting a mob of angry Servants just outside the Summoning Chamber.

This boy glanced at Archer Gilgamesh as the latter threatened him, and I saw him say, in my head:

"Prime 4, Destroy Tass. Prime 5, Word of Unmaking."

And I witnessed as if in a dream, one of the most powerful Servants of all time collapse into a puddle of Mana.

And I had that same type of power.

 

[HumerusBoneAus]

Hell, yes. I love all if this!