Blue sky, white clouds, the Incineration of Human Order Ring.
War, death, the Absolute Demonic Front...
Several hours later, when Guinevere and the King of Knights arrived aboard Vimana, Ushiwakamaru and the others had already finished assembling the cavalry... no, the Knight Order.
"It's been a while, Ushiwakamaru-chan."
"Lady Guinevere, it has indeed been a while."
As a Rider Class Servant, Ushiwakamaru had her own warhorse, Tayuuguro. Without a Knight Order to lead, she hadn't used the horse because she herself ran faster than it. But now that she was responsible for commanding the Knight Order, the horse could finally be put to use.
With a neigh, Guinevere stroked the horse's neck and immediately sensed its proud temperament.
Did she want to ride it? The horses of the Far East were small, far inferior to those of Britain. Guinevere couldn't appreciate them.
"Ushiwakamaru-chan, I'm entrusting these... knights to you."
The journey to Nippur would be fraught with Magical Beasts, and most of the knights behind Ushiwakamaru were from the first batch of logistics troops Guinevere had personally trained. Only a few were elite soldiers selected and trained later.
If they suffered losses, Guinevere would still feel a pang of heartache.
While Guinevere greeted the many hastily trained knights, the King of Knights briefed Ritsuka and the others on the mission's tactics.
And among the group, the one who had changed the most after several days was Anna.
Compared to before, she held her head slightly higher, no longer bowing it as if afraid of people seeing her face.
"Ms. Arthur, have you hugged enough?"
"No, let me hug a little longer."
If it were Guinevere, she probably would have said, "Who could resist hugging someone so sweet and soft?" But since it was the King of Knights holding Anna, she merely straightened up slightly and spoke with a hint of seriousness.
Even before arriving at this Singularity, she knew that Anna's true name was Medusa, a version of herself from before she became a Gorgon, who should never have been summonable.
And the Goddess of Magical Beasts appearing in the City of Nippur was another Medusa, fully grown and also someone who shouldn't exist.
According to what Guinevere and the King of Knights knew, this Medusa had devoured her two goddess sisters and was about to abandon her last shred of Divinity to achieve her complete magical beast form, Gorgon.
Anna had appeared here precisely to personally kill this complete magical beast form she utterly despised.
In other words, if this mission went too smoothly, this might be the last chance to hug Anna.
"Lia, you've hugged enough, right? My turn!"
Her farewell to the Knight Order didn't take long, and Guinevere wasn't about to miss this final chance to get her Anna fix.
"Hehe, Anna, hehe..."
Her tone was that of a perverted woman, yet her hands remained well-behaved, so even as Anna struggled, she didn't draw her Noble Phantasm scythe, Harpe.
"Guinevere, you two, that's enough!"
Had she been corrupted? As her tone grew sharper, Anna successfully broke free, only to be immediately embraced by Ritsuka, who had been standing nearby and was now inspired by the same impulse.
For the past few days, Ritsuka and Mash had been training under King Leonidas.
Under his tutelage, the two didn't practice advanced combat techniques. Instead, he discovered their foundations were unstable and had them spend every day carrying bricks and building walls, alongside basic training like horse stance and sword swings with ordinary soldiers.
As for the results of their training? It was naturally faster than their own haphazard practice.
Time flew by, and the final preparations were complete. Ushiwakamaru's original plan, to have the Knight Order act as a decoy to lure the Magical Beasts while Ritsuka's group infiltrated the city, was rejected.
Guinevere and the King of Knights would go first. If there were no anomalies, or if the refugees were still undergoing transformation, the two of them would serve as the decoy.
At the very end, Guinevere hugged Anna again and lightly bit her ear. She was timid, lecherous, and cared about the King of Knights' opinion, but for something like this, the King of Knights would only give her a kick and wouldn't pursue the matter further.
With that light bite, Guinevere had secretly placed a basic Tracking Magecraft on her.
Of course, since it was basic, Anna noticed it and immediately wiped it away with her hand, only for Guinevere to forcefully shove a gemstone with the same tracking function into her hand.
"Take it. I spent a long time prying these gems off the Vimana. They're perfect for inscribing Tracking Magecraft. It's not just for you; Ushiwakamaru has one, and I'll give them to Ritsuka and Mash too.
If you're attacked during this mission, crush the gemstone immediately."
"...Okay, I understand."
After a few seconds of silence, Anna saw Ushiwakamaru flash the same gemstone at her. Since it was a strategic item everyone had, she had no reason to refuse.
A few more minutes passed, and Guinevere and the King of Knights were once again seated in the Vimana, hovering steadily at an altitude of ten thousand meters.
Next, they would fly ahead of the Absolute Demonic Front and use the Beast-Attracting Incense Merlin had given them to lure as many Magical Beasts as possible.
"Three, two, one, BOOM!"
The Beast-Attracting Incense was saturated with the scent of humans, which the Magical Beasts perceived as the most delicious prey. The attack now annihilating the horde was the Vimana's built-in 'Ancient Nuclear Warhead'.
After clearing the path for Ritsuka and the others, Guinevere and the King of Knights had completed all their current tasks ahead of the Absolute Demonic Front.
"Guinevere, you pried off every gem you could from the Vimana, and now you've used up its only reserve weapon. What about the King of Heroes..."
"Lia, you're just too upright. Did you really think I'd return something he put in my hands?"
Flying high above, they maintained a distance equivalent to a half-hour's march from the main force behind them. Several hours later, as dusk fell, Guinevere and the King of Knights finally spotted the mountain city of Nippur.
Built atop a hill and fortified with walls, the city spanned several square kilometers. According to the refugee numbers provided by the King of Heroes, it should have been teeming with people.
But...
"Just as I thought. They're all dead."
From their vantage point high in the sky, Guinevere and the King of Knights saw an empty city. Amidst the desolate mountain city, the most conspicuous sight was the bloodstains spread throughout, all dragging in the same direction.
From these traces, one could conclude that after a large number of civilians were killed, they were all dragged to a certain location within the city.
"So they were all turned into nutrients, huh? Otherwise, we would have seen a magnificent Corpse Mound built from over a hundred thousand bodies."
The King of Knights hadn't been angry when Guinevere lightly bit Anna's earlobe, but she was genuinely furious now that Guinevere spoke of this with such a flippant tone.
"In my presence, do not act as if human lives are nothing."
Her voice was exceptionally solemn, punctuated by the crisp sound of her Holy Sword striking the Vimana's floor.
Guinevere gave the King of Knights an awkward smile. Thinking that not all the humans in the underground snake nest were dead, she abandoned the idea of using her Holy Sword's release to knock on the door.
She took out a gem inscribed with Amplification Magecraft and shouted loudly toward the City of Nippur:
"Gorgon, Goddess of Magical Beasts, we have come to bring you death!"