Walter slowly pushed open the door, revealing an elderly gentleman sitting in a parlor chair, sipping tea. Behind him stood several wispy maids, all wearing armor and brandishing weapons like guns, broadswords, polearms, etc. 'Come in, come in, take a seat. I would love to have a little discussion with you. And before we start any hostile engagement, let me introduce myself. My name is James Moriarty, but you can all call me James.'
Mordred and Bob slowly made their way to the front of our heroic group, just in case Mr. James tried anything. Their caution was wise but unnecessary; James had no intention of violent engagement—he simply wanted to talk. Nana, the physically oldest person in the minds' group, moved forward to be the spokesperson.
"So, what do you want to discuss, Mr. Moriarty?"
"None of that. Like I said, just call me James. And what I'd like to talk about is simple: I'd like to discuss the terms under which I give the Altars back control of the system," James said, as he turned to everyone behind Nana.
"Why the heck do we have to discuss terms with you? We could just beat you up here and now and take it back by force!" Mordred said.
"Yeah!" Bob agreed, not really understanding the situation but wanting to be included.
"My dear Mordred, I don't think you understand the predicament you're in," Moriarty said, gesturing around the room. At first, all our heroes could see, as far as threats went, were Moriarty himself, Walter, and the battle maids. However, when the group looked closer, they realized there were three familiar sets of eyes staring at them from throughout the entirety of the room.
The lights above them turned on, revealing a very familiar-looking chandelier as the source of illumination. Eight red eyes stared at them from the shadow of the chair Moriarty was sitting in, and finally, a strange-looking crown perched itself atop a statue of a noble knight.
"How the heck did they get here? We killed them all!" Mordred and Leonidas yelled in unison.
Mordred froze for a second before looking at Leonidas. "Why the heck are you copying me?" Mordred asked.
"Oh! I was demonstrating how predictable your reactions are, my good friend!" Leonidas replied.
James decided to ignore the two of them as he focused his gaze on Nana, Izuku, and Emiya. He had disregarded the two bickering idiots and knew that Bob and Medusa understood very little of the situation. So, he concentrated on these three—the brains of the operation.
James decided to continue. "I've chosen to give you all back your control of the system. The limited control you had to begin with, but still control. However, there is one condition: if you can't prove to me that it's worthwhile for us to become heroes, then I will take back control and proceed with my plans."
Izuku was concerned about that last part but still had more questions. "And if we refuse?"
Moriarty smiled. "Well, then you can forget about this deal. I'll simply have my subordinate capture you, and I will fulfill my purpose."
Emiya looked at both Nana and Izuku before responding. "We're going to have to make this deal with him. He currently holds all the cards. We can't fight those spider-butterfly creatures all at once; we could barely handle them one at a time. If we face all three of them, we'll just lose. Plus, we have no idea what the abilities of the other combatants may be."
Nana nodded. She realized they were cornered, and their enemy, who had clearly won, was giving them a chance. She didn't know what his purpose in all this was, but she and the rest of her group really had no choice. "Fine, we agree to your terms."
James smiled before standing up and shaking hands with all three of them. "A pleasure doing business with you. Now, I believe it's time for you all to wake up."
James lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, all the altars, except for Bob and Medusa, collapsed unconscious. Nana stood there, stunned.
Bob yelled, "What did you do to our friends?!"
"Calm down," James said. "I simply returned them to the world of consciousness, to reality. Soon, all five of those heroic fools will wake up in the real world. They'll have to deal with all the consequences of my rampage."
"So, were you just shirking responsibility for what you did onto them?" Nana asked, dreading the possible repercussions of James Moriarty's actions in the real world.
"Of course not. I'll be there to share responsibility. Eventually, I just need to help this world settle down first," James replied.
"Walter, could you please take some maids and escort our currently conscious alters back to their domicile? Their mental bodies are currently lying on the ground; taking them back to their own mind palaces would probably be best for them mentally." After receiving Moriarty's instructions, Walter bowed, and some maids walked over to slowly carry off the currently unconscious mental projections of the five alters.
"Now, I would appreciate it if you three would vacate my mind palace. I have a meeting in a few minutes, and it's very important." Nana, Bob, and Medusa slowly walked toward the door. This victory felt hollow. Was this even a victory? The bad guy was still somewhat in charge. Sure, they had completed their goal of getting the System back in control of the altars, but something felt off. They knew sticking around to question James would be pointless, so they slowly left, following after Walter and the maids.
As the door shut behind them, Moriarty's smile gradually disappeared. "You can come out now; I know you're there." A shadowy figure slowly materialized in front of Moriarty.
The figure was entirely wrapped in a black cloak, resembling Batman, but as one looked higher, it became clear that this person wasn't him. Two blue flames flickered in the eye sockets of a towering skull. The visage of some unknown monster, it had two giant, jagged horns protruding from each side of its head. This intimidating presence radiated fear, and even Moriarty, who possessed powerful control over the mindscape, felt a distinct threat from this being standing before him.
"So, what do you want, King?" Moriarty asked, studying the unknowable being standing in front of him. Moriarty didn't know much about this figure, but he recalled that when he first formed and took hold of the mindscape, he realized there was someone who had just as much, if not more, control than he did.
Moriarty was born specifically to control the mindscape, yet he had no idea who this being was. All the fragments present before Moriarty's arrival referred to him as "King." When he first took control of the body, one of the King's agents had specifically materialized to warn him of the consequences if he didn't restrain himself. This warning was half the reason he made the deal with the alters.
The other half stemmed from his curiosity: if he applied pressure to these heroic individuals, could he turn coal into diamonds? These interests fueled Moriarty—a simple game to both test and teach the other alters around him. As Moriarty focused his gaze on the mysterious figure before him, the figure slowly glanced back. It reached up, and all the narrator could see was darkness.
== authors note
Hey, what gives! who turned off the lights? oh, come on the switch is gotta be around here somewhere. And lights on! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I made it like this because I realized that I made the spider bosses to powerful. There's no way the characters can take all three of them at once so I decided that I would introduce to concepts that I had planned for later now instead. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed goodbye.