Except for Fuyuki, which was the starting point of the Singularities, and the Halloween Event-Singularity, I had never once held the upper hand against the enemy in any of these temporal distortions.
In the First Singularity, I was nearly done in by the asymmetrical warfare of Fafnir and the enemy's tactic of implanting Demon God Pillars into Servants who were supposed to be our allies. In the Second Singularity, a civil war nearly broke out as Boudica and Nero split the front.
The Third Singularity threw us into a crisis of annihilation due to the catastrophe of the Tetragrammaton despite lacking a clear enemy. And in the Fourth Singularity, the Mafia Game and the King of Storms effectively rendered our numerical superiority moot.
But perhaps that is why a solution existed for every Singularity.
In the original timeline—that is, the Singularities as Ritsuka Fujimaru was meant to progress through them—there were always specific keys to victory. For the First Singularity, it was the premise that Jeanne d'Arc was 'real.' For the Second... while the blatant 'Nero-worship' in the writing was an issue, the cheat-code existence of 'Nero' was the answer. In the Third Singularity, it was Captain Drake with her Pioneer of the Stars skill. In the Fourth... well, much like the Second, it felt a bit ambiguous. The fact that Solomon simply withdrew when he could have killed everyone was inherently an error in the system.
Excluding the Sixth and Seventh Singularities, which were practically suicide missions, every Singularity possessed a sort of 'Master Key'—an omnipotent existence that could be used anywhere.
"Hello. You're Nightingale, right? I am from Chaldea's—"
"It is chronic fatigue. You must have at least sixteen hours of deep sleep."
"...What?"
"Rest assured. Even if I must knock you unconscious, I will ensure you get your rest!"
Good grief. This crazy woman.
"Uh, wait... Hold on! Don't swing that hammer!"
"Based on physical contact analysis, an impact of this magnitude will not result in death, only a loss of consciousness. Please, faint with a peace of mind!"
"Like hell I will!"
Right.
Florence Nightingale.
Despite being the daughter of a bourgeois family who lacked for nothing and the flower of high society, she lowered herself to the position of a nurse—a profession held in contempt at the time. Through her legendary efforts as 'The Lady with the Lamp,' she contributed to reducing the mortality rate of wounded soldiers from forty percent down to a mere two percent.
...If one stopped there, she would be seen as the ultimate role model for nurses and a magnificent historical figure. However, this woman named Nightingale had another well-known nickname, though perhaps less famous than the one involving her lamp.
The Lady with the Hammer.
With her extensive connections and noble status, she possessed formidable political power. When officers refused to give her supplies or embezzled them, she would use every form of persuasion to obtain them. There are tales that if even that failed, she would march in with a hammer and personally raid the storehouses.
The problem was that this aspect had manifested as one of her Servant traits.
"...Calm down and listen! I am constantly applying Prana treatment to my brain, so I can remain active for up to seven days without sleep."
"Such a dangerous technique... Discontinue it immediately!"
"It's not harmful to my body. It's simply a skill acquired through future technological developments. I don't necessarily need to sleep."
"I cannot allow the accumulation of mental fatigue caused by it. Rest, Commander!"
"That's my burden to bear. More importantly, if I rest now, what do you plan to do about the front lines being pushed back or their surprise attacks? Look at the situation through a macro perspective, Florence Nightingale."
The saving grace... was that this Berserker was at least capable of conversation.
While Spartacus was a Berserker who tried to define every sentence through the theme of 'Rebellion,' Nightingale defined every action through the theme of 'Treatment' for the patient. If someone is attacked? Counter-attack to remove the cause of the injury... It functioned in that manner.
"Good. Now that everyone is calm, I'd like you all to take a seat."
"Oops, pardon me. Who are you, pal, that you're acting like the big boss?"
While I was busy dodging and persuading Nightingale, it seemed Alcatraz had managed to gather all the other Servants.
Billy the Kid holding his twin pistols; Robin Hood wearing his green hood; Li Shuwen, who somehow looked like sunglasses would suit him perfectly... and even Karna.
"Alcatraz, didn't you introduce me?"
[Haha! I thought it would be better if you did it yourself!]
Well, if that's what he thought.
"I'm sure you all know who each other are... but I suppose a formal introduction is appropriate. I am Karma Kirigaya, a Master from the Security Organization for the Preservation of Human Order, Fenice Chaldea. To put it simply, I'm the human who travels around cleaning up the messes made in these worlds."
"...A man from the observatory, then."
"Hmm? Billy, you know what that is?"
"It's information provided as a backup by the Holy Grail. Didn't you get it?"
"First I've heard of it," Li Shuwen and Robin Hood replied, nodding.
For a moment, I wondered if they were Demon God Pillars... but thankfully, they weren't. They weren't detected by my Rinnegan, and after the betrayal of Kiyohime and Elizabeth or the recent incident with Dr. Jekyll, Chaldea was checking for Servant betrayal quite sensitively.
"Anyway! I've heard the gist from Alcatraz. Billy the Kid, the outlaw of the frontier, and Robin Hood, the outlaw of Sherwood Forest... If I had known, I would have brought a Hydra Dagger or something."
At the mention of poison, a flustered Robin looked at me.
"Huh? You know about my Noble Phantasm, pal?"
"Mostly. You could say I'm quite knowledgeable about Servants... The God Spear Li Shuwen, the same goes for you... and Karna. Seeing you alive is a pleasant miscalculation. I needed a card to reliably check Arjuna."
"[Arjuna is a rival I must face regardless. Thus,] your words are unnecessary."
...Ah, I knew it would be like this, but his way of speaking is incredibly aggravating. He clearly skipped a lot of words in that sentence... fine, let's just leave it at that. At his core, he isn't a twisted person... I hope.
"But I'll be blunt. Our combat power is overwhelmingly insufficient."
"That is the truth."
"Karna, you personally fought in this war. Setting aside the Servant forces, can you tell me specifically about the strength of the Celtic soldiers? Please, don't skip words unnecessarily—tell me everything that comes to mind just as it is."
"...Their numbers must have increased significantly by now, so the numbers I knew are meaningless. If judged by simple individual combat power, they may have grown stronger. Ultimately, the specifics remain an unknown variable."
"Alcatraz, what about you?"
[Hmm~ aside from some minor upgrades, the strength of the Celtic soldiers themselves remains the same. However, Druids have been summoned, and since they have a complete monopoly on the ley lines, their total combat power has surely risen far higher than during the President King's reign!]
It was true.
A military force far exceeding the one that fought the President King, combined with a robust Servant roster. It was a well-rounded, hexagonal formation with no weaknesses.
"And our strength?"
[The President King's remnant forces—the mechanized infantry—total just over thirty thousand when combined. The number of Celtic soldiers is unknown, and considering the combat ratio for mechanized infantry against Celtic warriors is 5:1, we are at a clear disadvantage.]
There was no way to even gauge the Celtic numbers.
Communication with Romani was cut off due to a prana deficiency, and even if Chaldea succeeded in scanning, it was uncertain whether they could properly map that land, which was overflowing with so much magical energy that it was regressing toward the Age of Gods.
"In short... you're telling me to beat a Dark Souls boss with no damage when I have no way to recover... damn it."
[How about that massive bomb you used in the previous Singularity!]
"...How do you know about other—ah, Zelretch must have told you. Unfortunately, that's impossible. The prana consumption is insane; I'd have to keep the Preta Path active at all times. Even if I launched a nuke, I have no certainty it would be stronger than Karna's maximum output Noble Phantasm... and more importantly, the Mad King would probably just stop it."
In the end, checking our strength led to only one conclusion.
Somehow, by any means necessary, we had to secure Scathach.