———The final culprit.
Hearing Rozen's words, everyone present fell silent.
The control room was instantly enveloped in stillness.
Every expression turned grim.
Especially Mash, Roman, Da Vinci, and Olga Marie—their serious looks were mixed with bitterness, hatred, and tension.
Seeing them like this, Artoria [Alter], Jeanne [Alter], and Hassan of Serenity also understood why.
"The Mage King Solomon, Grand Castor, the initiator of the incineration of Human Order… the one who created seven Holy Grails and sent them to different eras, forging seven Singularities, plunging human history into chaos—the mastermind behind it all?"
Hassan of Serenity cautiously voiced the thought.
Who else, apart from him, could be called the true mastermind of this crisis of human history?
Artoria [Alter] and Jeanne [Alter] each had their own impressions.
"Though I know of his existence, in the Singularity of Fuyuki, I only saw the Demon Pillar holding a Holy Grail. Its name was Lev Lainur Flauros, wasn't it?"
Artoria [Alter] spoke calmly.
"The disgusting one who I burned to death in Orléans, who also ambushed me and stole the Holy Grail away?"
Jeanne [Alter] ground her teeth in fury.
Both of these reversed Servants had encountered Lev Lainur Flauros.
One had met him in the Singularity of Fuyuki, realizing the end of human history was approaching—an unavoidable apocalypse.
Driven to despair, she had only wanted to preserve that Singularity until the very end, accepting the Holy Grail from his hand before being defeated by Rozen and reigniting her hope for humanity.
The other had been ambushed by him in the First Singularity and nearly lost her life.
But both had seen only Lev, not the Mage King Solomon who commanded the Demon Gods.
Still, even without meeting Solomon directly, they both understood his existence fairly well.
Thus—
"At this point, there's no need to feel nervous about such a man anymore, is there?"
Artoria [Alter] said this with a faint edge of dismissal.
"Yes, he's only a Grand Castor, isn't he?"
Jeanne [Alter] agreed without hesitation.
The two had already reached the level of top strategic-class Servants, only one step shy of Grand. With Rozen's High-Grade Mana, they could both be elevated instantly to that level.
And besides—they had already defeated a Beast. Here, they also had Altera and Tiamat, two weapons of planetary scale. Against that, a mere Grand Castor hardly seemed worth fearing.
Seeing the rest so grave and tense, both Artoria [Alter] and Jeanne [Alter] felt somewhat unimpressed.
And indeed, that much was true.
If he were only Grand, at this point Rozen would hardly care.
But…
"The real fear is that he's not just Grand."
Rozen's sneering words stunned them all.
"Not just Grand?" Hassan of Serenity asked in surprise. "Rozen-sama, you mean…?"
Rozen's meaning was simple.
"If it were before, perhaps I wouldn't have suspected. But now—after traversing seven Singularities, after witnessing the Evils of Humanity and the true nature of Heroic Spirit summoning—I seriously doubt that the Mage King Solomon is merely a Grand Castor."
Rozen spoke bluntly.
"Would just a Grand be capable of orchestrating such a disaster as the Incineration of Human Order, destroying the very foundation of human history?"
That one simple question left them all speechless.
And yet, once spoken, suspicion rose in their minds as well.
"A Grand servant is a messenger chosen by the Root itself, summoned by the world and endowed with a spiritual foundation far surpassing ordinary Servants—a weapon of the world, meant to oppose the great disasters threatening mankind, namely the Beasts, the Evils of Humanity."
Rozen turned his gaze toward Tiamat, who remained silently in thought.
"Gilgamesh once said: Heroic Spirit summoning and the Evils of Humanity are essentially mankind's safety mechanism and self-destruction system. If that's true, then why would Solomon, as a Grand servant, do something entirely opposed to his nature?"
It was a question worth pondering.
"If a Grand servant could endanger humanity, would the world still choose him?"
"If a Grand servant saw humanity as nothing, would the Root truly bestow him that role?"
"At the very least, I don't believe the world itself would 'bug out' so badly as to grant the Grand foundation to one who wanted to burn away human history."
"Not to mention—the Mage King not only awoke the very Evils of Humanity the Grand servants are meant to defeat, but used the Holy Grail to summon Tiamat back from the Imaginary Number Space. Could one really act in a way so contrary to their own existence?"
Rozen posed question after question.
At the same time, he recalled what he had once seen recorded on the Tablets of Destiny.
The Mage King Solomon had spoken to him there.
"Long ago, there was a king who possessed eyes that could see through past and future alike."
That king must surely have meant Solomon himself.
But then he also said:
"—that man, can never be forgiven!"
In other words—he hated Solomon, he was an enemy of Solomon, yet he carried out the Incineration of Human Order in Solomon's name.
What was the truth behind this contradiction?
Rozen already had a bold hypothesis.
And so, he could affirm one thing.
"The mastermind of the Incineration of Human Order is definitely not as simple as merely a Grand servant."
Rozen's certainty rang clear.
"By now, the enemy surely knows the seven Singularities have been repaired—and even that we've subdued the very Evils of Humanity itself. He will be furious, enraged, and wary. He won't dare to appear recklessly again."
But he would not give up his goal of destroying Human Order.
"Therefore, if we wish to resolve this disaster completely, we must find the true mastermind and eliminate him."
Rozen looked at them all.
"If we cannot defeat him, then the Incineration of Human Order cannot be resolved."
That was the reality.
In other words, there was still one last wall to overcome.
"To defeat the one calling himself the Mage King Solomon, to uncover his location, and drag him out."
Rozen declared firmly.
Roman, Da Vinci, and Olga Marie remained silent for a moment—then lifted their heads.
"The seventh Holy Grail was placed in Mesopotamia personally by the Mage King. Together with the analysis of the previous six Grails, we can use this last one as a reference point. By observing it carefully, we'll be able to trace back the era and place where the Mage King resides, and pinpoint him!"
Da Vinci said with certainty.
"From here on, Chaldea will mobilize everything to this task—we will find Solomon's coordinates!"
Olga Marie spoke with fierce resolve.
"This is our final duty."
Roman murmured as though to himself.
Rozen nodded heavily.
Thus began Chaldea's last operation.
Target: the Magus King Solomon.