"Master of Chaldea, have you lost your mind?!"
Medea, who likely served as the sole anchor of 'reason' within the Argonauts, shrieked in horror.
Discarding her usual elegantly threatening tone and smooth, honeyed voice, she screamed in a high-pitched wail—truly a rare sight. In a way, it was a testament to just how much she had been thrown into disarray.
"It's a charge! Screw the waves! Full charge ahead toward Poseidon!!!"
[Wave height: 3.4 meters! Confirmed to be within the range deflectable by Shinra Tensei! If we use Servant Altera for a Prana Burst boost, we can achieve rapid acceleration at least five times!]
"We'll handle the frogs, so just keep going! GOGOGO!"
"Greecian seafaring prowess is the greatest in the wor—ld!!!!"
"Uhyoh! It is a grand release of the legendary lines this humble priest has always yearned to shout!!"
…Regrettably, the others were far from sane.
The Argonauts—that collection of Grecian lunatics who had discarded everything except for guts, pride, and avarice—and Edward Teach, a man who dedicated his life to treasure, women, and greed, and whose torso supposedly searched for its own head in the water after death just to keep clutching his loot.
The combination of these two entities began to exhibit a spectacular synergy the moment they heard the word 'charge' directed at that maddened Poseidon.
"The—The frogs are swarming from behind!"
"To hell with that! This humble one is aboard a ship now! Let out a war cry!!!"
[FRANCIS DRAKE—!!!]
Waves crashing, frogs lunging, waterspouts erupting in every direction, and the Noble Phantasms of Poseidon raining down—it was a maddening spectacle.
I wiped my nose as I watched the scene unfold.
"Total chaos."
[Doesn't matter, does it? Going out in high spirits like this might actually be better!!!]
Romani was also fighting hard in his own way.
Monitoring not only the source of the curse but also predicting waterspout occurrences and the attack routes of the frog swarms, Romani's tone grew increasingly frantic. His face was flushed red, visible even through the hologram…
"Hey, wait, Romani! What the hell did you do?"
[Eh? Uh?! I'm not really sure myself! Manaka-chan said this was a powder that gives you energy if you eat it, so I inhaled a bit, and now my head feels like it's spinning-spinning-spinning-spinniiiiiing!]
"Dammit, that's a drug! You're not even a Master, why would you take a booster drug?!"
[It's fi-ine! I'll just win it back and pay it off!!!]
"Master, this is no time to be worrying about that side!"
"A Machine God is approaching. If we collide, this ship will be obliterated. Give the order!"
Quickly turning my head, I saw something resembling a massive ramming prow closing in on the flank of our ship.
"What do we do? If the plan is to abandon ship and dive in there, I'll have to politely decline!"
"…Medea, just in case, what are the odds of you flying over there and successfully plunging Rule Breaker into it?"
"Zero percent!!! I'd be drenched in that seawater and die from the curse before I even got close!"
Ultimately, life is a sequence of choices.
The enemy before us was powerful enough that my other means could not suppress it. If we couldn't overcome this, we wouldn't even be able to reach the source of the curse that Romani—now high on drugs—was scanning.
I had planned to save this until the very end for our entry into the source, but…
"Edward Teach!"
"Duhuhuhu, this humble one is a bit busy, please call back later!"
"I need you to use your Noble Phantasm!"
"Are you serious?! Weren't we saving that? Using your ultimate move in the early game and losing because you don't have it for the late game is a classic battle manga cliché!"
"Screw the clichés, this isn't a battle manga, it's cosmic horror!"
"Duhuhuhuhuhu… Pwahaha! Understood!"
After a short burst of laughter, Teach snatched the rigging from Jason's hands, violently spun the helm with one hand, and roared.
"Look, and witness! For I am the Demon of the Caribbean, Blackbeard! And this ship is my alter ego, my very life!"
Originally, Edward Teach's ship was the least capable among the trio of vessels in Okeanos.
In terms of sheer firepower, it paled before Drake's ship, and it was certainly outmatched by the Argo, which could summon other Heroic Spirits.
However, Edward Teach's ship possessed one very special ability…
"This ship is the grave of villains, Davy Jones' Locker! Upon this vessel of phantoms abandoned even by God, the passenger requirement has been firmly met!"
The ship strengthened in proportion to the number of Servants on board.
[Take flight, Queen Anne's Revenge!!!]
*
"C-Crazy! Is this actually flying?!"
"…It's no wonder the Master saved this as a hidden trump card. A sailing ship navigating the skies—it's like a dream!"
It wasn't just the Servants who were stunned.
While the briefing team, including Romani, already knew because I had told them, the frogs in the water and the Machine God Poseidon aiming at us from afar came to a halt, if only for a fleeting moment.
"Good. With this, we say goodbye to those tedious frogs!"
"…Wait, Master. Surely you aren't thinking of charging Poseidon like this…?"
"That 'surely' is exactly what I'm doing. Teach, show them the power of the Caribbean's Demon!"
"Duhuhu, just as I wished!!!"
The only obstacles in the sky were the swarms of tiny insects. Teach's ship began to plow through the swarm, which gathered like clouds, and advanced toward Poseidon.
The ramming prow at the ship's bow crushed the rising waterspouts that sought to break the vessel, and the insect swarms were once again annihilated by the orange gas erupting from my mouth.
[FRANCIS DRAKE—!!!!]
At that moment, Poseidon also swung into action.
Poseidon's True Body—resembling a giant dragon or perhaps a ray—pointed three sharp spines on its frontal protrusion toward us and began to gather beams of light at its center.
"The enemy is intercepting!"
"Ignore it and charge! Once we close the distance, it's our victory!"
Just as I concentrated energy into both hands to unleash Shinra Tensei, a bronze-skinned woman blocked my path.
"Caenis?"
"Oi, Master. Save your strength. Your power is a repelling force, right? It's not suited for this situation!"
Holding her spear aloft, she kicked off with all her might, leaping into the air as she began to radiate light.
"I'll handle that beam of light! You lot just keep charging!!!"
"…Fine. Then, by my Command Spell, I order you. Neutralize that damn light and return safely!"
"Aye, aye, sir!"
"Teach, increase speed further while Caenis holds the line… no, Altera! Prana Burst toward the stern! We charge while she blocks Poseidon's attack!"
A light that looked as if it were melted gold began to shine.
In a shape resembling burning gold, a massive phantom bird began to glide gracefully. Watching this, Poseidon began to shriek in a distorted voice.
[You are… You are! Y-O-U—!!!!!]
"Haha! That's right, Poseidon… I wanted to see you too."
Her legend, after all, originated from Poseidon.
A life lived resenting the Sea God but ultimately unable to kill him—a life carried out with a heart full of vengeance and rage toward him until the very end.
[FRANCIS DRAKE—!!]
"Haha, you can't even recognize your opponent anymore? Fine! Even if you don't know me, I know exactly who you are!!! This time, I'm going to break you, Sea God Poseidon!!!!"
The beam of light fired. Simultaneously, Caenis, in the form of a golden bird, charged forward and collided head-on with the beam.
[Soar, My Great Golden Wings—Lapitai Caeneus!!!]
[U-Uwaaaah! The prana readings are skyrocketing! We'll be swallowed by the storm at this rate, for now we should avoid…]
"Don't talk in your sleep, Observer! We are the Voyagers of the Storm! If we can't navigate a measly prana storm like this, what right do we have to call ourselves voyagers or adventurers? While my comrade Caenis is buying time, retreating is out of the question! Pirate, take the wind head-on!!"
"Duhuhu, excellent! We shall charge with the storm at our backs!!!"
The clash of Noble Phantasms generated a massive shockwave. By natural law, that shockwave became a wind that slammed directly into the sails.
The Queen Anne's Revenge, reinforced to its limit by the Servants on board, did not yield to the wind but instead used it as a tailwind to accelerate toward Poseidon, eventually colliding with a thunderous roar.
[You pests, you—YOU—!!!! FRANCIS DRAKE—!!!]
"He's just a puppet that lost its mind anyway. Stab him with Rule Breaker!"
[Think it'll work?! Think I would succumb to the likes of you, FRANCIS DRAKE!!!]
In that instant, something began to sprout from Poseidon's hull.
Red, green, blue. Creatures appearing in various forms—from mottled spots to solid colors—it was the swarm of frogs that had been bothering us so persistently.
"…I can't get down like that! I'll be instantly killed before I can even plant the knife."
"Don't worry. I can handle those."
I couldn't use it before.
The numbers were too great to deal with using this, and it had been more efficient to handle them in other ways.
Blocking the lice and gnats, repelling the frogs with Shinra Tensei, repeating it over and over…
But now, dealing with such a localized quantity was no trouble at all.
"The Six Paths. Hell, Preta, Asura, Animal, Human, Deva. They shall cycle and complement each other."
"They shall cycle and complement the laws of the universe. Thus I complete the immature one who has not yet attained enlightenment."
"Six Paths of Samsara. Primordial Enlightenment. Manifest."
A massive sphere—perhaps even larger than the sailing ship we were on—formed in the air.
Radiating an overwhelming gravitational pull as if it would swallow everything in existence, it began to vacuum up the frogs forming on Poseidon's body.
[Deva Path—Chibaku Tensei.]