All right, everyone, give me a moment. Let your long-suffering author get this out first...
Aaaaaaaaaah!!!
Volume four is finally finished ꒦ິ^꒦ິ.
From chapter 192 on February 7 of this year, 2026, to chapter 268 on August 13 of the same year.
A total of 189 days, 77 chapters of story content, 76.5 chapters of main plot, and 0.5 chapters of side stories.
An upgraded Great Holy Grail War between Red and Black, with an Avenger added to each side.
Eight Master-Servant pairs, two Arbiters.
Eighteen Servants, eight Masters, not counting extras.
Real-world weather conditions, the original work's geographical information, Earth's myths and epics (important), and Type-Moon reference material (important).
New characters needed sufficiently original designs, established characters needed personality tweaks that fit their real-world source material without straying too far from Type-Moon, and then there were all the emotional arcs and plot arrangements between this whole crowd of characters...
Your long-suffering author finally understood why so few Type-Moon fanfic writers were willing to tackle Fate/Apocrypha.
With that many characters, there was no way to keep it short. It dragged down both the writing pace and the time it took.
The original anime and its characters had a terrible reputation across the board (important! Extremely important!!!).
The original novels had poor prose too, and the limited length meant the characterization wasn't good either.
Tch, it was so fucking frustrating. A whole six months of writing until I couldn't tell night from day.
Seriously, what did it mean to learn your lesson after one experience?
This was exactly that.
If any reader saw these words from your long-suffering author, Balmung, whether you were becoming a fellow writer or hoped to become one someday...
In short, don't touch Fate/Apocrypha!!!
Unless, of course, you were a dedicated fan of an Apocrypha character, like