…The enemies that attacked Chaldea. The things descending from the sky. Crypters. As Mashu has said, the situation is entirely incomprehensible. However, they are undoubtedly our enemies. Threats to humanity who have destroyed Chaldea. In order to deal with this situation, we must reach for even greater violations. We cannot let these unknown newcomers ruin the future that we have worked so hard to reclaim. First of all, we must overcome our current predicament. The counterattack comes later. Well then, let us go, Master. This is our new weapon, our new journey–Shadow Border, departing from reality. Imaginary Numbers Dive–Zero Sail, proceeding!
— Leonardo da Vinci
Under the guise of restructuring the Chaldea organization, the forces of the Lostbelt assault the base and kill all but eleven of Chaldea's members.
Tropes:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: This chapter is pretty much only about this, with the legal methods in the first released portion and a full-fledged assault in the second half.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Koyanskaya's cruelty is shown when she purposefully and spitefully steps on Fou after he attacked her. She even states she would have broken one of his legs if it wasn't for the protagonist.
- Big Damn Heroes: A trio of Oprichniki arrive to face off against an exhausted Mash after she struggled to defeat just one. When all hope seems lost, Sherlock arrives to deal with the villains.
- Body Backup Drive: Da Vinci has one in the Shadow Border, but it doesn't fully bring her back because her backup was essentially in stasis and treats everyone as a new acquaintance.
- Breaking the Fellowship: Most of Chaldea's original staff is leaving, the Heroic Spirits summoned by the protagonist have been desummoned and the protagonist is planning on returning home at the start of the prologue. By the end of the prologue: Chaldea has been sacked by the Crypters, Sherlock was only able to save 8 of Chaldea's original staff, Da Vinci is killed by Kotomine and what remains of Chaldea is forced to escape their dimension when the Foreign God invades.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Despite the protagonist, Mash, and Da Vinci saving Goredolf, he starts berating them thinking that they're the cause of the invasion. While Da Vinci is annoyed, the protagonist and Mash are just happy they saved him.
- Crazy-Prepared: Da Vinci, knowing that Chaldea is seen as Heroes With Bad Publicity, has spent the last 6 months preparing and we see just how much she did. She omitted all records of Holmes being in Chaldea, allowing Holmes to save the protagonist, Mash, and 8 Chaldea staff, created a copy of every spirit origin the protagonist has summoned so that the bonds the protagonist has made with their servants won't be lost, created the Shadow Border as an emergency escape vehicle, and even created a backup body for herself.
- Dope Slap: Goredolf panics when he sees Anastasia, saying that Da Vinci can't compete in terms of power and looks, Da Vinci hits him with her staff to shut him up.
- Escape Pod: The protagonists have to use one to escape the building and Koyanskya's troops.
- Heroes With Bad Publicity: Chaldea might have saved the world, but they had to break many rules and protocols to do so and thus are seen as potential criminals by the UN and the Mage's Association.
- Misery Builds Character: Anastasia and Koyanskaya claim this, saying that the servants from Proper Human History can't stand up to servants from the Lostbelts due to the Lostbelts being far less hospitable.
- Missed the Call: Special attention is brought up about Team A, seven of Chaldea's best masters who were expected to save the world instead of the protagonist but were instead left critically injured by Lev's bomb and placed into cryogenic suspension.
- Mood Whiplash: Going by the release date, the date in the title can only be December 26th. Even factoring in that this is right after Chaldea's Christmas party, the Christmas event that year was "Merry Christmas from the Underworld", one of the most heartwarming events in the game and the final wrap-up of Season 1, which canonically takes place on December 23rd, ending not even an hour before Christmas Eve. Talk about a short holiday season...
- Sinister Minister: Kirei Kotomine is back in full force and he emphasizes his priestliness by asking everyone to call him "Father".
- Take This Job and Shove It: When Goredolf offers Da Vinci a job as his assistant after she fixed the coffins housing Team A in a single night when his team failed to make any progress in three days, she says she would rather disappear.
- Title Drop: Both parts of the episode, Prologue/December 26, 201X for chapters 1 and 2, and Prologue/December 31, 201X, for chapters 3 to 7. Fittingly, the titles line up with the days on which the chapters unlock.
- Title Sequence: A new opening plays after finishing the prologue to welcome in the second main story arc.
- Wham Line: "You make an excellent point, Father Kotomine."
