"Hey, Guinevere, was this part of your foresight too?"
"Are you referring to Ishtar's arrival, or her crashing directly into Ritsuka's arms?"
"Both, of course. But what surprises me most is that Chaldea's duo could actually handle so many Magical Beasts. It took you over two hours to lure all the nearby ones here."
"Master Merlin, stop playing innocent. Did you forget who, when I asked, willingly provided the exact landing coordinates for Chaldea after they were repelled by Uruk's barrier?
Without your help, no matter how many Magical Beasts I lured, it would have been pointless."
"Guinevere, are you satisfied then? Did Chaldea's pair pass your scrutiny?"
"Ritsuka's growth has actually exceeded my expectations. As for Mash, she still needs to further develop Galahad's power."
Beyond the wilderness, within the forest, Guinevere, Merlin, and Anna... The three of them were watching from afar through Merlin's 'Water Mirror' Magecraft.
The King of Knights? She had temporarily remained on the Absolute Demonic Front, where she was needed most. Although she and Guinevere shared a Spirit Origin, they were not incapable of acting separately.
And just as Guinevere and Merlin were talking, while Anna remained silent beneath her cloak...
The girl who had been shouting "Move, I'm gonna crash!" finally came to her senses and realized she was being held princess-style by another girl.
She leaped away like a startled cat, the pigtails on either side of her head momentarily flicking up like a little demon's horns.
After landing several meters away and casually kicking a Magical Beast out of her path, the slender, red-eyed, black-haired girl was met with surprised expressions from Ritsuka and Mash.
"Um... hello?"
"You... you! Who are you? How dare you catch me in your arms without permission! Are you an enemy? One of those bastards Gilgamesh sent!"
Even in later eras, this girl's attire would be considered shameless. Upon closer inspection, she wore only the most intimate gold-trimmed upper and lower undergarments, with thigh-high stockings and elbow-length gloves worn on only one side each.
She was being questioned with hands on hips, aggressively confronted, but Ritsuka had a keen interest in beautiful girls, and throughout her journey, she had already met more ill-tempered people than she could count on both hands and feet.
"Aaaah, how dare you touch my body without asking! You really want to die, don't you!"
With hands on her hips, she continued her tirade, yet she only kicked away Magical Beasts and made no move to attack Ritsuka.
Even just this was enough for Ritsuka to judge her as someone whose bark was worse than her bite.
With one sword strike, she cut down a Magical Beast that had reached her side; with a second, she glanced back at Mash, still fighting fiercely; with a third, Ritsuka performed a brief battlefield courtesy and spoke:
"Lovely lady, before you fly into a rage, shouldn't we first exchange names? First, I apologize. I did indeed touch you without your permission, but it was to prevent you from falling into the dirt.
Second, we are the Master and Servant of Chaldea, here to restore the Human Order of this era. We do not yet know the Gilgamesh you speak of.
However, if the Gilgamesh you mention is the King of Heroes of Uruk, then he should be on our list of people we must meet."
Ritsuka had learned much about how to handle people; for a girl who seemed to have a spoiled, princess-like temper, she would choose to be polite first.
If that didn't work, she would reassess the situation.
And this time, politeness clearly worked. The girl opposite her dropped her angry expression, her eyes now deep in thought.
"People from Chaldea? So you're the so-called 'foreign visitors'? And from the looks of it, you truly don't know who I am."
A "young lady" temper was best directed at those who knew her; throwing a tantrum at someone who didn't recognize her would be utterly humiliating.
With a sigh, the cool-headed girl raised her right hand, the five fingertips shimmering with Mana.
The next moment, five beams of light shot out like threads through needles, their targets being the nearly one thousand remaining Magical Beasts.
Blood splattered everywhere; not a single Magical Beast could withstand the girl's attack.
One, two, three...
Mash had just counted to ten after lowering her shield when the entire horde of Magical Beasts was annihilated.
"Alright, you saved me from getting dirty, so I'll consider this saving your lives. Now, answer one more question for me: have you seen any colossal creatures nearby?"
"We just arrived. And this place is flat as far as the eye can see. I imagine you can see everything we can."
"Hmm, you have a point. Shall we part ways here for now?"
"Leaving so soon?"
The raised right hand had lowered, and the mana flow that had slaughtered thousands of Magical Beasts had vanished. But farther away, Magical Beasts were still approaching. Ritsuka and Mash probably had about a three-minute window.
Was it a greatbow taller than a person, or a flying ship large enough for the cool-headed girl to stand on?
As the cool-headed girl spoke, she had already leaped into the sky, landing on the summoned ship. She then said her final words:
"Master of Chaldea, right? Keep up the hard work. If you can't even handle Magical Beasts of this level, restoring the Human Order is just a pipe dream."
The cool-headed figure sped away, continuing her long search for 'something.'
Just as she vanished, the communication link from Chaldea finally connected with Ritsuka.
"Thank goodness, Mash, Ritsuka! Head due north! Magi Mari just contacted me; she has arranged for support there!"
Over the comms, Dr. Romani's voice was tinged with urgency. On his screen, it wasn't just the Magical Beasts near their landing point that were converging on Ritsuka and Mash.
Further south, even the Magical Beasts attacking the Absolute Demonic Front were converging on Ritsuka and Mash.
In total, there were at least one hundred thousand of them!
"Guinevere, as you wished, you did indeed wait for Ishtar. But you failed to wait for Kingu, who was supposed to appear next."
"Merlin, I did wait for them, you know. This horde of Magical Beasts, beyond what I prepared for, can only be Kingu's handiwork, right?"
In this era, the King of Heroes' closest friend, Enkidu, was already dead. However, his corpse had been stolen by the Demon God King, given a Holy Grail, and thus formed a new soul.
But beyond that, he was also one of the Creator Gods of this region's mythology: a child of Tiamat.
With this dual identity, he sided with the Magical Beasts, his goal being the destruction of the world and humanity.
In the plot Guinevere knew, he was supposed to appear after Ishtar's departure, finishing off Mash and Ritsuka before temporarily joining them.
He would remain with them until Merlin and Anna appeared, directly forcing him to retreat.
But he didn't appear. Instead, he sent more Magical Beasts.
Guinevere knew this could only be because of her and the King of Knights.
"There's a ninety percent chance Kingu believes that if he appeared in person, there'd be a one hundred percent chance we'd trap him here."
If we could find Kingu, if we could eliminate him now and take the Demon God King's Holy Grail from him, this Singularity would be over.
Unfortunately, Kingu had grown cautious, even though he didn't know that Guinevere, Merlin, and the others were aware of his circumstances, let alone that the Demon God King's Holy Grail was inside him.