As our intrepid heroes stood in dumbstruck silence, watching their enemy and all the webs inside the throne room begin to shine before the corpse of the crown spider spun and twisted, the scene became surreal. As the corpse continued to spin and twist, thousands of spiderwebs were spun around its body like a ball of twine. Hundreds of thousands of yards of thread were pulled off the walls, the ceiling, and the floor—every visible surface was covered in it. As the spinning continued, the body of the spider grew smaller and smaller until eventually there was no thread left in the room, and the only thing floating in the air was a key. Nana, just like in previous times, slowly walked forward and reached out her hand.
With their mission objective in hand, the group made their way out of the castle, but four of them decided not to continue the journey. Medusa's sisters did not have quirks suited for combat; their quirks allowed them to connect with each other like a hive mind, which wasn't really combat-oriented. The most they could do was relay information between the two of them. The other two who decided not to follow were Artoria and Igris, and that was for obvious reasons. Even after working together with the other alters in battle, they did not trust them quite yet.
The four had decided to head to Aries's temple. All of them knew Aries and completely trusted him. Therefore, the group that remained consisted of Nana, Izuku, Emiya, Mordred, Leonidas, Asterios, Bob, and Medusa.
After the current party arrived outside James Moriarty's mansion, they decided to take a break and discuss their plans for what to do when they got inside.
'So our first big problem is, we don't know what the new altar's quirk is, and we don't know what it's going to be like inside that place,' Izuku said as he sat on the curb in front of the mansion.
'Why does that matter? We didn't know what the powers of those spider things were, and we beat them to a pulp!' Mordred boasted while lying in the grass behind Izuku.
'We didn't even know those spider things existed until the first time we ran into one,' Emiya grumbled as he leaned on the front porch's banister.
Clearly, planning wasn't going to help them much because they had barely any information. Before the more observant and calculative members of the group could get discouraged, Leonidas sprang into action.
"My friends! I know it seems a bit scary not knowing the possible dangers that could befall us! But take heart; our determination will overcome any trap or enemy that stands in our way!" In an excitable and energetic fashion, Leonidas cartwheeled his way to the front door of the mansion.
Nana felt a mix of emotions regarding the two groups. She was excited and believed that this team could take on any opponent beyond that door, but she was also worried that they might be a little too overconfident. However, second-guessing oneself can lead to mistakes, so Nana decided that now was the best time to push the group forward. "All right, guys! It's as good a time as any to try to get your body back, I guess." The group slowly gathered around the door, and as Nana reached for the door handle, all three keyholes faded and disappeared, and the door swung open.
The inside of the mansion looked exactly how one would expect: a lovely entryway littered with paintings and statues. The center of the room, leading from the door all the way up a flight of stairs, had a rich red carpet. Along the two walls on the other side of the entryway were two doors, and at the top of the previously mentioned stairs, there was a hallway leading from left to right. Standing on either side of the red carpet were more wispy figures dressed as maids, and at the bottom of the stairs stood a strange figure. At first, they thought he was just a normal-looking wispy butler, but as they looked closer, they realized he wasn't a wisp at all.
This butler-looking fellow was an older gentleman with a monocle on his left eye. He wore a dark purple, almost black vest over a button-up white shirt. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail, revealing the wrinkles on his forehead. But why did they think he was a wisp before? Well, the position he was standing in was slightly shaded, with his face catching the light on his monocle just right, making it almost impossible to see his features and giving him the appearance of a shadow with one glowing white monocle.
The man bowed in the most stereotypically British manner. "Welcome to Moriarty Manor. The master of the house has been expecting you."
Nana and the group of alters gulped nervously. They had hoped to surprise whoever was inside this place, but apparently, they were expected.
"Can I ask what your name is, sir?" Izuku stuttered out. This butler was very intimidating.
The man seemed to observe Izuku and the rest of the group, as if judging them, before he finally said, "My name is Walter C. Dornez, head butler of Moriarty Manor."
Mordred blinked before gaining a silly grin. "And what exactly does a butler do, Mr. Walter?"
"I buttle, ma'am," Walter said with a slight smile.
"Anyway, Master Moriarty is expecting you; we shan't keep him waiting," Walter said as he began to ascend the stairs. Mordred looked like she wanted to say something snarky, but before she could get a single word out, Walter raised his hand, and suddenly Mordred's mouth was forcefully clamped shut.
"If you're going to be a little yapping Pomeranian, then I will muzzle you like one. Now you will be quiet until we get there. Do you understand?" Mordred, looking very uncomfortable, nodded and quietly followed behind Walter. The rest of the group, feeling a bit bewildered, also followed him.
As they walked down the halls, they saw many wisps of butlers and maids cleaning the lavish property. Every once in a while, they also spotted one of those butterfly spider creatures called "preachers." But no one dared to ask Walter any questions, given what had just happened to Mordred.
Finally, they arrived at an intricately designed door. Why are all these doors so special and strange? Well, it's probably just to show importance, similar to the grand entrances of battle arenas or other notable places. I haven't thought too much about it; I'm just here to explain how intricate it is.
Anyway, the door resembled one that you might find on the exterior of a charming house. It was blue, adorned with two golden lanterns on either side, and featured a golden circular arch above it. The center of the door had a golden knocker, and right above it, "221B" was elegantly engraved in fancy golden text.
Walter approached the door, and with a gentle swing of the golden knocker, they heard a deep voice from the other side respond, "Please, Walter, bring them in. We have much to discuss."
== authors note
OK, so I had some writers block during this chapter. That's why I didn't write one yesterday cause I just had no idea what to write. That and doom the dark age just came out and I've been playing that. Anyway, about halfway through, I realized I didn't want to do what I originally planned for the final part of this Arc. It felt repetitive and didn't really feel like something that the antagonist of the arc would do. So I scrapped it and brought in one of my favorite characters from anime Walter as the replacement for what I was going to do. Specifically the Walter from the abridge series, I just like him way more in the abridge so anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you next time.