In half a day and a night, Guinevere had only killed fewer than 60,000 Magical Beasts. By the time she had slain around 50,000, the Magical Beasts further back had stopped swarming forward.
Kingu and the Goddess behind the horde of Magical Beasts had both realized it: since Guinevere showed no sign of Mana depletion, it was impossible to overwhelm her with a sea of beasts.
At least, with the current quality of Magical Beasts, that idea was completely unfeasible.
A day later, Ritsuka and Mash passed through the Absolute Demonic Front, temporarily stopping there.
"Guinevere, the King of Heroes wants me to take them back to Uruk first..."
"Merlin, why are you so obedient to him? Do you like him?"
"No, we're both his Servants, after all."
In the camp behind the Absolute Demonic Front, bonfires burned endlessly. For the first time in half a year, the Magical Beast offensive had halted, giving the stationed soldiers a chance to rest and feast.
"Speaking of which, the King of Heroes had us transport fruits and wine here in advance. Did he foresee today?"
At the central bonfire, surrounded by all the Servants present, Guinevere had rendered Merlin speechless. Her pointed question left him unsure how to respond.
After a long pause, he finally nodded to Guinevere, who was once again grilling meat, and said:
"Most likely, yes."
As a half-human, half-Incubus, Merlin rarely ate meat and had never once been tempted by grilled meat to the point of drooling. But Guinevere had managed it.
He took the grilled meat Guinevere handed him. The moment he bit into the greasy, sizzling flesh, it burned his tongue, causing him to stick it out and frantically fan it with his small hands.
Seeing his comical display, Ritsuka couldn't bear it and activated her Magecraft, using the healing properties of her Mystic Code to soothe the minor burn, though Merlin realized a moment later that he didn't need such help at all.
"Hmph, it's precisely because Ritsuka is such a gentle person that she can attract so many Servants to her aid, like a succubus. From what I know, in nearly every previous Singularity, Servants have fallen for her, regardless of gender."
The pain on his tongue vanished. Merlin smiled and thanked Ritsuka, then ate the grilled meat much more cautiously, blowing on it to cool it down no matter how much he craved it.
"Yes, Senpai is indeed a gentle person."
Following Merlin, Mash, Ritsuka, Anna, and the others also received portions of grilled Magical Beast meat. Ushiwakamaru, Leonidas, and Musashibo Benkei received theirs a moment later.
The King of Knights? She was the first to get her meat. Guinevere would never make her wait until last when distributing food.
"Speaking of which, we've met the King of Knights before. But it seems that neither the Saber Alter from the Fuyuki Singularity nor the Lancer Alter from the London Singularity are the same person as you."
"Actually, you don't need to be so cautious. We have indeed met before. During the Divine Realm of the Round Table Singularity, when Guinevere was using my body, my consciousness was still inside.
How should I put it... You don't know me, but I'm already very familiar with you all, and I clearly remember Guinevere teasing you."
Around the campfire, everyone reminisced and chatted. Eventually, the conversation turned to the current Singularity.
"My friends, let us raise a toast to the mighty Lady Guinevere! It was she who single-handedly slaughtered tens of thousands of Magical Beasts, granting the relentless Absolute Demonic Front its current respite!"
Leonidas raised his cup high, his passionate spirit filled with admiration for Guinevere.
In his life, he had faced a hundred thousand foes with only three hundred men, but that was achieved by exploiting the narrow terrain of Thermopylae. And he had three hundred.
Guinevere, on the other hand, had faced Magical Beasts attacking from all directions on open ground. The difficulty of that feat surpassed even Thermopylae.
"Cheers!"
As their cups clinked, the topic shifted from the Magical Beasts to the Goddess behind them. Leonidas and the other two Servants, who had been stationed at the front line, had yet to catch even a glimpse of this Goddess.
"So, the King of Heroes speculates that she is one of Mesopotamia's Creator Gods, the Goddess Tiamat, who possesses the Authority of Life Creation?"
"It could only be her. Besides her, the King of Heroes couldn't think of any other god capable of breeding 100,000 Magical Beasts. Moreover, according to myth, after Goddess Tiamat and her children were defeated by the gods, her corpse was split in two, creating this world."
"But a creator goddess wouldn't truly die. She would wait quietly on the outer side of the world, until another chance arose to bring her love back into it."
Merlin was the one speaking, but there were some things he either deliberately left unsaid or genuinely didn't know.
However, after a subtle pout, both Guinevere and the King of Knights chose to remain silent, recognizing that this would be Ritsuka and Mash's journey of growth.
"Tiamat, the Three Goddesses, and the one you mentioned before, Ishtar..."
Ishtar, the name of the Goddess of Venus in the same mythological system. Legend had it that she proposed to King Gilgamesh, was brutally rejected, and then petulantly unleashed the Bull of Heaven to wreak havoc on Uruk, only for it to be slain by Enkidu and Gilgamesh, who were still together at the time.
But the consequence of that outcome was that the Bull of Heaven's death enraged the gods, who collectively sentenced both Enkidu and Gilgamesh to death.
After that, Enkidu truly died, and Gilgamesh journeyed to the Underworld in search of the Herb of Immortality, returning only after accepting everything.
Judging by the myths, this Ishtar clearly possessed the means to destroy Uruk once again.
Shaking her head, Ritsuka temporarily pushed aside the information Dr. Romani had gathered that day. She still found it hard to believe that the tsundere girl could be cruel enough to want to annihilate an entire nation.
"Merlin, can you tell us who the third goddess is?"
"It's Quetzalcoatl, one of the supreme gods of Aztec mythology. She's the Feathered Serpent, the God of Life and Harvest, the God of Culture, the God of Wind and Rain, and at one point, she even presided over the sun."
"But you don't need to worry about her. She's fundamentally a benevolent god, and King Gilgamesh has already devised a strategy for you to deal with her."
"Huh? For us?"
"Well, you are Chaldea's Master, Humanity's Last Master, after all. Of course it's for you."
Without anyone noticing, Merlin had devoured the entire large cut of hind leg meat, and he had also revealed most of what he knew about the Three Goddesses.
But ultimately, sharing this information now, besides giving Ritsuka and Mash some reassurance, was mainly to emphasize that they truly had to return to Uruk to meet the King of Heroes.
"However, there's no need to rush. This Singularity is the largest one and will remain stable for at least several more months."
"And because of your performance during the Magical Beast horde's attack, I think King Gilgamesh can spare you his various trials."
"If all goes as planned, once you reach the City of Uruk and complete a few minor tasks, you can begin your campaign against the Three Goddesses."