On the large screen in Chaldea's Central Control Room, the markers for the five Singularity have been changed to green checkmarks indicating that they have been repaired.
Only the last two remained, hanging there, radiating an unsettling red glow.
The Sixth Singularity.
Human Order Foundation Value --
Olga Marie stood in front of the control panel, her arms crossed over her chest, her silver hair gleaming slightly under the cool lights of the control room.
She stared at the fluctuating number on the screen, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper.
" Roman."
"Yes, I saw it too."
Dr. Roman sat behind the control panel, his fingers flying across the holographic keyboard, bringing up one set of observational data after another.
His expression changed from relaxed to serious, and then from serious to a bit of a headache.
"The spacetime distortion of this Singularity far exceeds that of the previous five. The causal deviation within it has exceeded the upper limit of conventional observation, and it seems that there is more than one god-level being inside."
Olga Marie remained silent for three seconds.
"The foundational level of Human Order is set to EX."
Roman looked up at her.
"Director, EX-level is --"
I know what that means.
Olga Marie interrupted him, her tone calm but unwavering.
"Based on the observational data, the complexity and danger of this Singularity far exceed any of the previous ones. Leaving aside the special case of Fuyuki, from Orléans to North America, no other Singularity has such a chaotic internal structure."
She turned around and looked at the three people standing in the corner of the control room.
Ritsuka Fujimaru wore Chaldea's white stand-up collar uniform, and the unruly ahoge on her short, orange-red hair swayed gently in the air conditioning.
His orange-gold eyes were intently focused on the data on the large screen.
Mash stood beside her.
Fou perched on Mash's shoulder, her tail curled into a circle.
Then there's Mayuri.
She leaned against the wall, her hands in the pockets of her school uniform skirt, her long, light golden hair falling over her shoulders.
The red halo above her head and the black wings on her back had been put away, and now she looked like an ordinary high school girl.
She was yawning.
"So, Jerusalem?"
Mayuri covered her mouth with the back of her hand, only opening her mouth halfway through her yawn.
"The target is Jerusalem."
Olga Marie nodded. " Jerusalem and its surrounding area during the Third Crusade, from the late 12th to the early 13th century. However, based on observational data, the actual internal conditions of the Singularity may be completely different from historical records. Be prepared."
"Um."
Mayuri's response sounded perfunctory.
Olga Marie glanced at her and decided not to pursue the matter.
"Alright, prepare for Spiritron Transfer."
Three coffin-like Spiritron Transfer frames were deployed in the center of the control room.
The metal hatch was lifted, and the blue light path inside pulsed slowly in standby mode.
Ritsuka Fujimaru was the first to walk over and skillfully lay down inside the cage.
This was her seventh time Spiritron Transfer, and she had gone from being nervous at the beginning to being quite adept at it now.
She adjusted the position of the back of her head, her orange-gold eyes looking up at the ceiling.
"Senior, I'm ready too."
Mash carried Fou into the second enclosure, her short pink hair spreading out on the lining. Fou jumped out of her arms and nestled against her stomach.
Mayuri walked to the third frame and looked down inside.
"It feels like an encoffining."
"Please do not say anything unlucky before the Spiritron Transfer," Olga Marie's voice came through the communication channel.
"Okay, okay."
Mayuri rolled over and lay down inside.
The hatch closed.
The brightness of the blue light path suddenly increased.
" Spiritron Transfer Begins—Target, Sixth Singularity, 1273 AD, Jerusalem."
Dr. Roman's voice echoed in my ears for the last second.
Then everything turned into white light.
--
hot.
This was Mayuri's first feeling after opening her eyes.
A scorching, dry wind swept over her, carrying fine sand particles that pelted her face, arms, and bare calves.
Mayuri squinted as she looked around.
desert.
An endless desert.
The tawny sand dunes stretched from our feet all the way to the horizon, while the sun overhead shone brightly, like a bronze plate nailed to the very center of the sky.
There were no buildings, no vegetation, no water sources, and no trace of any man-made objects.
Ritsuka Fujimaru stood up from the sand and brushed the sand off her uniform.
Mash stood up immediately after her, instinctively raising her cross shield, her purple eyes scanning the surroundings warily.
Fou poked her head out of the sand, shook the sand off her ears, and made a dissatisfied "Fu" sound.
"Strange." Mash frowned. "According to the previously set teleportation coordinates, we should have been projected to the vicinity of Jerusalem. But here..."
She looked around.
"There's absolutely no trace of a city."
"Have the coordinates shifted?" Ritsuka Fujimaru raised her hand to shield her eyes from the glaring sunlight and gazed into the distance.
A burst of static came through the communication channel, and then Olga Marie's Projection and Dr. Roman's Projection appeared in front of the three of them one after the other.
The Projection image was somewhat blurry due to interference inside the Singularity, but the faces of the two people were still clearly visible.
"The teleportation coordinates haven't shifted." Roman's Projection adjusted his glasses, looking somewhat confused. "Your current location is indeed near Jerusalem on geographical coordinates. But—"
However, the terrain of this Singularity has been completely rewritten.
Olga Marie continued, "The desert beneath your feet should be located east of Jerusalem in the normal historical timeline. Its current state indicates that the environmental changes within the Singularity are far more drastic than we anticipated."
"So which way should we go now?" Ritsuka Fujimaru asked.
Roman traced a few lines on the unseen control panel with his fingers.
"To the west. I detected a water source about 30 kilometers to the west. Where there is water, there is a high probability of human settlement. Let's head there first and investigate the actual situation of this Singularity."
"Thirty kilometers..." Ritsuka Fujimaru muttered to herself about the distance.
"Let's go, let's go."
Mayuri finally stood up from the sand, patted the sand off the hem of her skirt, and then began to brush the sand out of her hair.
Her long, pale golden hair was blown about by the wind, and no matter how hard she tried to brush the sand away, she couldn't get it all out.
"So annoying..."
She muttered something, then looked up.
The view went beyond the tops of the sand dunes.
West.
At the gap between the dunes, a huge, yellowish-brown cloud wall was moving toward them.
Dust storm.
The wind has arrived.
The swirling sand began to prick her skin like needles, Fou screamed in terror, shrinking into the gaps in Mash's armor.
"Senior! Sandstorm--!"
Mash raised her shield to block Ritsuka Fujimaru, but the shield was clearly not big enough to stop the entire sandstorm.
Mayuri glanced at the cloud wall that was getting closer and closer.
"So annoying."
She raised her right hand.
Palms facing forward, fingers slightly spread.
Leviathan.
The void cracked open.
Emerging from the crack was an overwhelming, salty, deep-sea scent.
A massive, dark purple body slid out of the spatial rift, its fluorescent green carapace patterns reflecting an eerie luster in the sunlight.
The three giant mandibles opened and closed, and the giant wings, tinged with pink and purple, unfolded from its back, while the tentacle-like tail swayed slowly in the air.
Leviathan.
Even with only the front half of its body exposed, its size already covered half the sky.
Mayuri pointed to the sandstorm ahead.
"Get that off."
Leviathan's three massive jaws opened.
It roared.
It wasn't just a sound.
It is also a kind of "declaration" that directly interferes with concepts at the Spirit Origin.
The concept of dust storms as a natural phenomenon has been directly denied.
The sandstorm died.
There was no physical collision or shock wave during the entire process.
The massive, brownish-yellow cloud wall that blotted out the sky suddenly stopped, like a machine whose power had been cut off, all its power vanishing in the same instant.
Then the dismantling process begins.
Starting from the top, from the outer layer, the sand grains lose the force carried by the wind and fall downwards in an unnatural, slow manner.
It was like a sandcastle that collapsed with a single breath.
The sand fell.
A vast expanse of sand.
And so it fell on the heads of Mayuri, Ritsuka Fujimaru, and Mash.
"Puff--!"
Mayuri her mouth, and her light golden hair turned yellowish-brown.
Sand seeped into her school uniform from her head, shoulders, and collar.
"I said get it off, not let it fall on my head."
She spoke to Leviathan with a blank expression.
Leviathan's three massive jaws snapped shut, emitting a muffled groan that sounded like, "You didn't make yourself clear."
Ritsuka Fujimaru crawled out of the sand pile, rubbing her eyes and coughing.
Mash held up her shield in one hand and pulled Fou out of the gap in her armor with the other. The little beast was covered in sand, turning from a white fur ball into a yellow one.
"Fu--!" Fou expressed her strong protest.
"Alright, alright, at least the sandstorm is over."
Mayuri retracted Leviathan, the spatial rift closed, and the sky returned to its blue hue.
Covered in sand, the three set off westward, guided by the communication Projection.
Walking is slow in the desert.
With each step, half of my foot sank into the soft sand.
Ritsuka Fujimaru soon began to pant, beads of sweat trickling down her forehead and dripping into her collar.
Mayuri walked at the very back, at a moderate pace, with an expression as leisurely as if she were strolling through a market, although she kept complaining.
"It's so hot. Why is the Sixth Singularity a desert?"
"Miss Mayuri, Dr. Roman said that we'll reach the water source in about ten kilometers." Mash glanced back at her.
"Ten kilometers..."
Mayuri's expression became even more utterly hopeless.
The three walked for about twenty more minutes.
Ritsuka Fujimaru was the first to notice.
Something is moving behind the sand dunes ahead.
Moreover, it was an organized, marching movement.
" Mash."
"Yes, senior, I felt it too."
Mash raised her shield and walked in front of Ritsuka Fujimaru.
After crossing the nearest sand dune, the three spotted the group.
There were about twenty people, all dressed in long black robes.
Their faces were mostly covered by hoods or face masks. They were marching in two columns, heading in the opposite direction from Mayuri group.
In the center of the line was a huge cage.
The cage was completely covered by a thick black cloth, so you couldn't see what was inside.
But judging from the metal bars that were occasionally revealed when the black cloth was lifted by the wind, the cage was quite sturdy.
Something moved inside the cage.
The black cloth billowed slightly and then fell back down.
The leader was a woman.
Long, blue hair fell from under the hood, fluttering in the wind.
She was wearing a white skull mask.
She was looking in Mayuri's direction.
Mayuri noticed the woman's gaze.
The pupils of the eyes peering out from the eyeholes of the skull mask contracted slightly the moment they saw Mash.
Then--
Stop them.
The woman in the skull mask spoke. Her voice was cold and low, devoid of any extra emotion.
Seven or eight people immediately stepped out from the ranks of the black-robed group, each drawing their weapons.