Immediately after recruiting Edward Teach, Roman manipulated the console to link the Chaldea communication to full frame so that it could reach everyone.
[Good. For now, is this everyone we can recruit in this Singularity?]
"Taking the time to gather any others would take too long. Once the Tenth Calamity strikes, it's effectively the end of the world. We don't have the luxury to expand further."
Compared to the Singularities we had encountered so far, our current talent pool was exceptionally impressive.
First off, even excluding Francis Drake, who falls within the 'human' category, we had the main force of the Argonauts: Jason, the adult Medea, Hector, Caenis, and Atalante.
To put it simply, my allies consisted of an all-rounder party with Hector and Caenis for close quarters, Atalante for long-range, Medea as support, and myself acting as the Joker and frontline commander.
Add to that Teach, who possessed a top-tier Noble Phantasm as a Rider whose performance scaled with the number of Servants on board, and the Anne Bonny & Mary Read duo, who could more than hold their own.
Considering that the First Singularity was a disaster where we had to blind-charge believing only in Jeanne d'Arc, Marie, and Amadeus, and the Second Singularity was a chaotic brawl where the lines between friend and foe were blurred, securing such a solid pool of 'allied' talent was a truly encouraging achievement.
[The Third Calamity is the Calamity of Lice. In some translations, they're often referred to as gnats or mosquitoes, but in the proper records, 'Lice' is the correct expression. They will likely amplify this calamity to summon Phantasmal Beasts in the form of mosquitoes that spread infectious diseases.]
"If it handles insects, then it's a calamity of the entomomancy lineage… Medea, can you analyze it?"
"Absolutely impossible. Those frog summons, the curse that dyed the sea—they are curses on a completely different level from mine… I suspect they are higher-order curses than even those of Lady Hecate, whom I served."
The deity Medea served would be Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and magecraft. To surpass her meant… that the curses scattered by the King of Demon Gods were superior even to those of a genuine Greek Divine Spirit.
"Against entomomancy, fire-attribute magecraft would be ideal…"
[Don't even think about facing it head-on. Just because you've mastered a few secrets of the Matou family doesn't mean you can win a direct confrontation with the secret arts of that insane King of Mages. That would be suicide.]
"Then do you have a solution? Personally, I think we have to decode this magecraft itself."
Given enough time, my Rinnegan could decode the structural components of the magecraft… After that, I would have to use one of the trump cards I had been trying to save.
[That method is absolutely out of the question.]
"Why?"
[First, the Rayshift system is still too unstable. Furthermore, there's no guarantee your Rinnegan can grasp the structural parts of this magic circuit in the time we have left, right? Even though the performance of the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception held by the two Shikis is a top-tier form of Precognition, they cannot cut anything if they cannot 'capture' the target definitively.]
"…Wait, what does that mean?"
When Jason asked, Romani Archaman sighed and began to explain.
[…To prepare for such an eventuality, Chaldea has pre-emptively recruited numerous talents to create countermeasures for any situation. We have the 'Multidimensional Kaleidoscope'—which pulls possibilities from multiple dimensions so that even those without Rayshift aptitude can do so—and the 'Book of False Attendant,' a Matou secret that grants Master aptitude. And on our side, we have an agent with a form of ultimate Precognition that can forcibly capture the 'Death' of all things.]
"Exactly! With the ultimate Precognition, we should be able to dismantle this curse. I'm sure of it!"
"Is that true…?!"
"Indeed, Jason… The ultimate Precognition is an Authority that not even Lord Hades, the King of the Dead and death itself in Greece, ever possessed."
To be precise, it was more that the Greek gods were extraterrestrial in nature, so they lacked abilities related to 'Death' in that sense.
However, Romani threw cold water on their optimistic assumptions.
[Even so, it is impossible. We cannot deploy those two agents.]
"Explain why!"
[First off, they cannot perceive the curse. If it were a simple curse placed on the 'sea' itself, we could just cut the sea, but if it were that simple, the Rinnegan would have captured the source of the curse long ago. The fact that even Chaldea's scans cannot pinpoint the source means the King of Demon Gods is controlling the curse's origin.]
"But the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception can grant death to the essence of a thing just by cutting a portion of it. Even if it's a degraded version compared to the Authority of 'Balor,' the Northern God of Death, it shouldn't be a problem if it's the Mystic Eyes that can grant death to objects or other concepts, right?"
[That brings us to the second reason. There is a functional issue with the two agents. One of them, to begin with, cannot see the death of things that are not living organisms.]
Medea nodded at this.
"…If that's the case, I have to agree. If they can't see the death of things above the level of living beings, their participation would be meaningless."
[And in the case of the second person… though she can indeed see the death of concepts…]
"State the other complication."
[It's too dangerous. Ultimately, to cut the King of Demon Gods' curse, she would have to cut the lines of death at the core of the curse's origin, but her combat prowess is far too low.]
"You underestimate us too much."
Atalante joined the conversation, clutching her bow.
"That idiot over there might be a bit of a fool, but he knows how to command properly. Furthermore, we've secured a new ship, and we have a definitive collaborator in Chaldea's Master. Moreover, if someone possesses the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, they must have at least a minimum of combat capability. With multiple Heroic Spirits protecting them at once, surely drawing a single line should be a feasible operation?"
[That is exactly why it is impossible.]
Romani concluded in a polite yet firm tone.
[If my prediction is correct, the path to that center will be a literal hell of a battlefield. The probability of the Mystic Eyes possessor… Miss Ryougi, even surviving the process of approaching that far is infinitesimal.]
"…Wait a second, Roman. What exactly is at that center that you're acting like this? Do you have some kind of inkling?"
The true essence of Doctor Roman was Solomon, the wise King of Israel who commanded the Demon Gods.
Normally, he would be playing the role of an ordinary man, but having grasped the circumstances where the ten curses of Tetragrammaton had been dropped onto the Singularity, Romani was throwing himself into the briefing and planning like a runaway bulldozer.
[A curse, fundamentally, means to degrade the opponent and commit blasphemy filled with hatred. It even appears in Biblical verses; in the Old Testament, one of the primary words used to describe Tetragrammaton is 'Jealousy,' and He cast various curses to punish the other Egyptian gods. While it is true the King of Demon Gods has spread that cursed power within the Singularity, there are many lacking points compared to the original.]
"…You seem to know quite a lot about this, don't you?"
[Well, I am an expert… First, the subject who casts the curse and the subject who receives it are exceptions.]
"Is that important for a curse?"
[Of course! A curse changes drastically just by switching the sender and the receiver. Tetragrammaton didn't cast those ten calamities in that specific way for no reason. He cast them specifically to match 'Egyptian faith.' The blood in the Nile and the swarm of frogs were meant to punish the gods corresponding to those domains. The death of the firstborn was to punish Osiris, the god of death, and Horus, the protector of the Pharaoh's line. But none of those apply to you… Here, the King of Demon Gods is already losing the 'Probability' of the curse's establishment, which is its most basic element.]
His tongue now fully loosened, Romani began pouring out knowledge as if he were rapping.
[There's also an issue with the caster. The entity that cast the curses was ultimately a single massive divinity, Tetragrammaton. The King of Demon Gods, who is merely an 'Evil of Humanity' and not the entity of that divinity, can never replicate those curses perfectly. Furthermore, personal arrangements have been added to this curse. Instead of blood, another form of 'curse' has dyed the entire Singularity and the sea red, far exceeding the total area of Egypt, and the swarm of frogs manifested not as mere frogs but as frog-like Phantasmal Beasts that seem to have undergone dark evolution. In other words, these are actions that inevitably lead to resource consumption even for the King of Demon Gods.]
"However, O Observer, they have the Holy Grail, and according to your deductions, they must have even seized the Ark, the treasure of the Israelites. Utilizing those, surely they could cast calamities of this scale easily?"
[No, even if one possesses the Holy Grail, to perform a thaumaturgical foundation that covers the entire Singularity requires at least a central ritual ground and a medium. If such a scale of curse were possible using only the Holy Grail and resources, Karma and Ritsuka would have lost their heads in the previous Singularities.]
"True… When such effective means were available, Elizabeth and Kiyohime's antics in the First Singularity or the internal conflict strategy in the Second were far too clumsy."
[From the King of Demon Gods' perspective, he likely wants to definitely eliminate the Masters of Chaldea in this Singularity. That is why he brought out curses that include 'Instant Death' that cannot be dispelled… But as I said before, this curse ritual has an inevitable weakness: the existence of the ritual site, commonly called an altar, and a time limit of ten days.]
"If we simply destroy the altar, will the curse be broken?"
Medea asked.
While she was a highly capable Caster, her knowledge of magecraft related to Abrahamic religions was virtually non-existent.
[I'm not sure how it works in Greece, but in Abrahamic religions, an altar symbolizes a single sacred presence. Considering the identity of the King of Demon Gods and the religion serving as his foundation, destroying the altar would be the most effective course of action.]
"…Fine, now the pieces are coming together. If it's just destroying an altar, even without the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, we can manage it by dumping every Noble Phantasm we have into it!"
"The Queen Anne's Revenge has become quite strong as well, and under these conditions, the Captain should also be 'qualified' to summon all the sailors of the Argo…"
"Since I have my Noble Phantasm, if all else fails, I could dismantle the altar by cutting off the prana supply itself…"
[Yes, for now, we have a clear target. The problem is reaching it.]
"Ah…"
Romani's words brought everyone back to reality.
No matter how perfectly they prepared to destroy the altar, a 'Universe Defense' set up by Goetia himself using the Holy Grail would surely be no joke.
"Something more important. If you say an altar exists, Roman, shouldn't we know its location before we try to attack it?"
[We're searching for it now, grinding through every bit of reserve power, so be patient. Also, on Ryougi and Manaka's side, 'Boundaries' and the 'Whore' are requesting the release of the Eyes that Look Far Into the Distance.]
"…The situation is dire, so grant it for now. Just make sure to keep Arcueid glued to their side… So, what's the estimated time to find the location?"
[48 hours from now.]
"What?!!! In that time, five more curses will overlap! If that happens, the forces here might have to retreat!!!"
Jason flew into a rage.
The next calamities were Lice, Flies, and the Death of Livestock.
While Lice and Flies were somewhat predictable, the Death of Livestock was a calamity whose form he truly couldn't imagine.
"…Hey, looks like we need to get away from those things before that anyway?"
"Damn it, Teach! Accelerate the ship!"
"Dyu-hu-hu-hu, understood!"
As if signaling the Ninth Calamity, the sky turned dark, and a massive mass of something in the shape of a giant cloud began to approach our ship in an orderly fashion.
Though each was tiny enough to be crushed by hand, their numbers were so great they seemed capable of damming a massive river, and their speed far surpassed the frogs that were popping out from the sea like mines to fire sonic waves.
[The Calamity of Lice… its destructive power doesn't seem high, so for now, move toward the safety zone I'm briefing and shoot them down with fire magecraft! There's no noticeable prana immediately nearby, so turn the helm 45 degrees to port and cruise on!]
"My Rinnegan is enough. We don't need a briefing right now, just hurry up and find the source of this damn curse!"
The Third Curse: Lice.
Its true form was an onslaught of a swarm of blood-sucking insects that covered the entire sky.