The Sealed End of the Four Seas—Okeanos.
According to the original record, this is the era where the difficulty of the Singularities begins to escalate in earnest. Unlike the other Singularities where one traverses open plains, this one centers around an unusual battlefield: ships and the high seas.
Fittingly, the Servants summoned here are pirates or maritime heroes associated with the ocean.
The Argonauts, the greatest fleet of ancient Greece; Edward Teach, known as the Demon of the Caribbean; Francis Drake, the strongest privateer in history… Furthermore, if one considers the powerful Heroic Spirit David and the 'Goddess' Euryale appearing as outliers, this lineup does not pale even in comparison to the second Singularity.
'It's dangerous in a different sense from the second Singularity. This is a place where if something goes wrong, there's truly no telling what might happen.'
What I know of the third Singularity is that Francis Drake confronted Poseidon, one of the twelve Olympian gods, shattered his Divine Core, and seized the Holy Grail—and that Jason's objective is to bring the Ark into contact with the Goddess to realize his ideal world.
In other words, the final boss of this Singularity is Jason. Other volatile elements include Edward Teach, whose pirate values make him unpredictable, and Poseidon, who normally should have been dismissed by Francis Drake.
"What about the third Singularity?"
"I've just pinpointed its location… but the Foundation of the Human Order here is a bit dangerous."
"…To what extent?"
"The Human Order Foundation is ranked A+++. To use your expression, the threat level is equivalent to 'Babylonia.'"
"Even so, that's within the realm of possibility. Tell Ritsuka to approach the capture of the Singularity as leisurely as possible."
If the purpose of the second Singularity was to eliminate Ritsuka and me, then the third Singularity is intended to force a choice upon me.
If I invade with full preparation, accompanied by Ritsuka and the other Servants, it will take that much more time and the Singularity will fall into total chaos. Conversely, if I enter alone, they can simply kill me before Ritsuka and the rest of our forces can join up.
"I'm going."
"…Are you truly planning to go?"
"There are no more threats remaining in Chaldea, right? And it's not as if I'm going alone."
I wasn't the only one stepping into the Chaldea Rayshift coffin.
A female warrior with bronze skin, wearing an outfit reminiscent of a dancer with a veil draped over her.
Normally, she should have been on standby within the Path of Asura for a surprise attack, but given the circumstances, she decided to join me for a frontal Rayshift this time.
"I've surveyed it with my 'eyes,' and it doesn't look like they've tampered with the Rayshift like they did in the first Singularity."
"I'm relieved they're playing it that way… of course, assuming Roman doesn't make a mistake during the shift and drop me right in the middle of the enemy camp."
"That won't happen, so rest easy!"
—Inner Summon Program: Start.
—Commencing Spiritron Conversion.
—All processes cleared.
—Grand Order: Verification commencement.
The floating sensation subsides, and a momentary feeling of exhaustion washes over me.
The salty scent of brine began to prick at my nose. Soon, turning my head slightly, I saw Altera clutching her sword, which looked like a three-colored ballpoint pen, guarding our surroundings.
I expanded my sensory perception and activated the Rinnegan to look around…
"…You've got to be kidding me…"
The sea came into view.
Broad, vast, and infinitely wide, an ocean that looked as though once you entered, you could never leave…
It was, quite simply, stained a deep, crimson red.
*
The one who shook off the indescribable dread first was none other than Altera.
"Master, is that something I must pulverize?"
"…Calm down for now. Pulverizing the ocean is impossible, even for you… Roman, are you sensing anything from that sea?"
[…I'm sensing an immense presence of a curse. At the very least, it's on the level of an Age of Gods curse… Something of that magnitude couldn't be achieved with a simple human sacrifice ritual. It's highly likely a curse directly inflicted by multiple Heroic Spirit-classes… or at minimum, a Divine Spirit-class intervention.]
The Rinnegan is fundamentally an eye that sees magical energy. Because it directly grasps the structure of prana, it possesses the insight to see through the composition of any given magecraft or curse.
However, the information entering my Rinnegan regarding that red sea… was filled with nothing but nauseatingly malignant information.
"It feels like looking at the Night of Wallachia from the past… that fellow who was composed of nothing but malignant information."
No, in a way, it was even more severe than Zepia back then.
Unlike Zepia, who maintained himself as malignant information scattered sporadically throughout the world, this insane ocean was dyed red as it actively mass-produced curses of its own volition.
"It would be nearly impossible for life to survive in this sea, wouldn't it…?"
[It would be best not even to think about letting your body touch it. You don't have to taste filth to know it's not food, right?]
"If I used my Preta Path… No, even that would likely be impossible. Is this the work of the King of Demon Gods?"
[I'll analyze the details of the curse. For now, you should look around.]
I was maintaining flight with Shinra Tensei, but floating like this was straining in many ways. I formed a hand seal and summoned a Nue, capable of flight through the sky.
With Altera riding on the head and me grasping its back, we began moving at high speed to see if there were any other Servants summoned to this Singularity.
However, despite flying for over an hour and a half, we couldn't even catch the presence of a single Monstrous Beast, let alone a living Servant. Instead, I listened as Romani explained what the 'curse' he had identified actually was.
[I've managed a rough decryption of the curse. That isn't a newly created curse; it's the act of dragging an existing phenomenon or Miracle down to the level of a magecraft execution.]
"…What exactly does that mean?"
The former King of Magic, current Head of the Chaldea Medical Staff, Rayshift Supervisor, and Provisional Director-Candidate Romani began his explanation.
[In this world, there were events categorized as phenomena or Miracles. Stories like a Pharaoh performing wonders, or the Prophet Muhammad receiving divine revelations… that sort of thing. This isn't just a curse categorized under common witchcraft; it's the reproduction of a 'real' Miracle as magecraft.]
"Reproducing a Miracle isn't something that should be treated lightly…"
[That's exactly what I'm saying.]
When one thinks of Miracles granted by a god, images of good things—like Jesus healing the sick—often come to mind. But in reality, the category of Miracles contains far more horrific and terrifying calamities.
The disaster of fire and brimstone brought upon Sodom and Gomorrah, the Great Flood that appears as a staple in every mythology, the lightning bolts cast by Zeus, the King of the Greek Gods… these are calamities that even ordinary Heroic Spirits cannot handle casually, yet they exist as 'Miracles.'
"But was there ever a calamity where the sea was dyed red…?"
[…If we're talking about Miracles associated with a red sea, there was Moses parting the Red Sea. But this doesn't seem to be that. Among my current guesses are stories related to Sekhmet and Hathor from Sumerian mythology…]
"Wait, my Rinnegan caught a presence."
Right then, something was captured in the vision of my Rinnegan.
An island that had not been completely submerged by the red sea, and smoke rising from it.