On the Argo—
A blond-haired, blue-eyed man in ornate light armor stood at the captain's post, listening impatiently to his subordinates' report.
"Blackbeard and the Queen Anne's Revenge have disappeared?"
"What about Euryale? Any sign of her?!"
"No, Lord Jason."
dea Lily smiled as she answered. "Blackbeard's fleet seems to have been wiped out without a sound."
"Useless!!!" Jason slamd the helm in fury, shaking the entire ship.
He was Jason, prince of Iolcos, hero of Greek myth, and captain of the Argo.
In this Singularity, Jason had only one goal—find Euryale, then sacrifice her to the Ark.
"dea, you're sure that sacrificing a god to the Ark will grant power?" Jason asked again, as if seeking confirmation.
"Of course." dea Lily's beautiful face held an unreadable smile. "As long as you can actually manage to do it."
"Tch—" Jason clicked his tongue. "This ti, I will create my ideal country—one where everyone respects ."
At this point, dea was not yet the "betrayer witch" and knew nothing of her future mories. She simply followed orders, her superb magic and knowledge making her valuable to Jason—or so he thought.
"Strange… could there be other naval Heroic Spirits in these waters?" He rubbed his chin. Stronger than Blackbeard, perhaps, but skilled at sea battles? That was another matter entirely.
In this oceanic world, without ships or transport, one would likely be stranded on a deserted island. Even the strongest Heroic Spirit on land couldn't swim into battle.
Those like Blackbeard—or himself—whose Noble Phantasms ca with warships or fleets, were few. Jason could only recall a handful.
After counting on his fingers for a while, he still couldn't guess who else might excel at sea combat here.
Vmmm—
The hum of ion thrusters filled the air. Jason looked up instinctively—and saw the exact scene Blackbeard had faced earlier.
A sailing starship, massive and bristling with hundreds of ters-long tentacles, charged toward him from the horizon. The tentacles writhed unnaturally, dripping sli into the sea.
It looked like a steel-forged, unnaable giant sea monster.
Too Cthulhu.
Just a glance was enough to empty one's sanity.
Starship sea monster—far more terrifying to locals than a re spaceship.
"???"
"Wha—?!" Jason nearly lost his balance at the helm, stumbling and almost falling overboard.
"What the hell is that?!"
...
"You're pretty popular," Setsuna remarked, ruffling Euryale's hair on the bridge of the Golden Hind.
In this Third Singularity, the little purple-haired loli seed to be in high demand.
Blackbeard lusted after her beauty, wanting to make her his woman.
Jason, manipulated by dea Lily, had lost his mind and was fixated on sacrificing Euryale to the Ark for power.
It seed everyone was after her.
No wonder—she was the embodint of the "idol" and "ideal woman," with maxed-out charm.
"Tch, disgusting." The purple-haired loli spat in disdain.
Euryale knew well that under the influence of her divine power, it was perfectly normal for n to fall for her. But Blackbeard was a crude barbarian, and Jason was a lunatic planning to sacrifice her—hardly worth enjoying a couple of simps over.
"Tell , don't you have any special thoughts when you see ?" she asked sweetly. "You know, many n would do anything just to make smile..."
Standing beside Setsuna, she gracefully lifted her skirt and tilted her head, smiling just right. Her posture and expression radiated the beauty, cuteness, and allure of a goddess—many heroes had fallen for her charms and been toyed with like playthings.
"A Heroic Spirit trying to seduce the Commander?!" Gudako and Tohru exchanged looks, convinced Setsuna was basically a walking incubus.
Setsuna glanced at the loli, then turned away. "Not interested. You're smaller than a destroyer. When we get back, I'll enroll you in elentary school."
"???" Euryale stared in disbelief. "Comnting on a goddess like that is rude, you know?!"
Gudako whispered to her, "He's been around shipgirls too long—his sense of size is warped. Now when he sees a C-cup he thinks 'that's it?' Totally abnormal, right?!"
"Huh???" Euryale seriously considered using her Noble Phantasm on him later.
They bantered for a bit before turning their attention back to the Argo below.
"Commander, sa as before? I can handle them quickly," Golden Hind asked eagerly.
"Hold on—let dea stab Jason first. I want to see what a Demon Pillar looks like this ti and study it."
...
On the Argo, Jason was already shaken to his core at the sight of the Golden Hind—especially when he spotted Euryale leaning on the railing.
"You... you're here?! Did you defeat Blackbeard?! No—who are you?!" He sensed no Servant aura from Setsuna or the massive ship, as if they didn't belong to this world at all.
Boom—Smash! A single tentacle strike shattered the Argo's mast and cracked open the deck, seawater flooding in.
"Prepare for battle! Defend , quickly!!!" Jason roared.
"Yes, yes..." Hector readied his spear. "This opponent won't be easy."
"Not easy? Fight anyway! Bring her to !!" Jason raged helplessly.
dea Lily, however, looked almost amused. "In this situation, we can't surrender or retreat. I'm just a mage with healing and defense—what should I do~~" she said, voice devoid of urgency.
Jason frowned at her odd tone. "Less talk—protect !"
"Of course, I'm thinking about it," she replied, tilting her head. "But Jason, you'll never be the ideal king. Even if people truly yearn for peace, the soul driving it is twisted beyond hope. You can never achieve your dream in the form you desire."
"???" Jason scowled. "What are you saying, witch?!"
Before he could react—shhk—a dagger pierced his heart.
"You told to protect you, right? This is how," dea Lily said calmly, as if pronouncing his death sentence.
"Wha—you?! Wait!! Stop!!!!" Jason's body began to lt.
"Manifest, rember—descend here, O seventy-two Demon Pillars!" she chanted. "Grant him the power to fight, the strength to resist!"
"Co, thirty-second pillar—Sea Demon Forneus! Use your power to end this voyage, and destroy the enemies from another world!"
Boom—
Jason's body first dissolved into an indescribable chaotic mass, then rapidly swelled in size. The surrounding mana surged violently.
A massive Demon Pillar erged from the sea, its surface covered in countless scarlet, eye-like protrusions. Its grotesque, sickening form was enough to trigger trypophobia on sight, and the oppressive aura it exuded made anyone feel deeply uncomfortable.
"A Demon Pillar!! It actually exists?!"
"Can we really defeat that thing?!" Euryale, who had been watching from the Golden Hind, was startled. Its presence radiated a destructive power that made her uneasy.
"Ritsuka Fujimaru, Mr. Setsuna, be careful," warned Dr. Roman's projection, also clearly shaken. "This is the final enemy of this era—we have to eliminate it!"
"Heh—" dea Lily watched the summoning with satisfaction, expecting to see fear and dread on the faces of these outsiders.
However—
"Ooooh, so this is a Demon Pillar? Ugh, so ugly!!!" Gudako leaned over the starship's railing, openly critiquing its bizarre shape.
"Commander, do we have to fight one of these in every Singularity?"
"Uh, yeah—and again in the Temple of Ti…" Setsuna replied.
"So weak, so ugly, and it doesn't even look edible," Tohru muttered, scratching her head. She had once imagined a Demon Pillar to be an awe-inspiring, reality-erasing 'Demon God'—but seeing it now, it was nothing like she'd imagined.
"Can it hit outside the atmosphere? Can it withstand orbital bombardnt? Does it have faster-than-light strike capability?" shipgirl Drake asked the three questions most important to her.
"No."
"Then it couldn't even beat a destroyer!" she declared. In shipgirl terms, if it couldn't counter a starship, it was just a native.
Grey wasn't even interested—she just yawned.
"...???" Roman and Da Vinci realized Setsuna's group didn't fear the Demon Pillar at all.
"All fear cos from insufficient firepower," Setsuna said calmly, glancing at his companions. "Who wants to go?"
"I'll do it," said the Spirit of Origin, stepping forward. "Husband, I want to see whether this so-called 'Demon God' can match my authority."
"Go ahead," Setsuna nodded.
Mio stepped to the foredeck of the Golden Hind, hands pressed together.
[Paradise of Samsara (Ain-Soph)]
Shwoop—
Her domain unfolded, and the world instantly froze into monochro. Birds in the air, fish in the sea, even the spray of ocean waves—all locked in ti and space.
Within this realm, all laws of existence bowed to the will of the Spirit of Origin. She was, quite literally, a god—exerting absolute control over everything inside.
"Another cheat skill?!" Gudako gaped.
The Demon Pillar, too, was frozen, its form and flowing mana completely still.
"Hmm… to destroy it completely, I'll use that," Mio decided. "If anything went wrong, I wouldn't want to trouble my husband."
She reached out again—
[Sanctuary of All Things In Creation (Ain-Soph-Aur)]
Before Mio blood a massive flower bud.
The First Angel—Angel of Death.
At its center was a pistil in the form of a young angelic girl, her features resembling Mayuri's.
Shhk—
From the pistil poured vast amounts of pollen-like light particles. Carried by the sea breeze, they spread instantly across much of the area ahead.
Any shipwreck touched by the pollen rotted away on the spot, decaying into powder. The pollen ignored all defenses and could not be blocked. Even fish in the shallows and deep sea, brushed by the drifting motes, were corroded into nothing.
Shwoop—
When the pollen touched the Demon Pillar, it disintegrated like sand washed away by the tide. Under the ti-space lock of the Paradise of Samsara, it had no ability to resist.
Seconds later, the black-and-white world returned to normal.
The sea was empty. The Demon Pillar, the shattered remains of the Argo struck by tentacles, and Jason's surviving crew and Heroic Spirits—all reduced to dust. Only the calm sea remained.
To the outside world, it had all happened in an instant.
"Hah—" Mio exhaled in relief, sensing for any trace of the Demon Pillar's foul aura—but it was gone.
She hopped over to Setsuna, tugging his arm and pouting for praise. "Husband, I won~ I'm more skilled~"
No matter her overwhelming power, in love Mio was always a girl in the throes of romance.
"Not bad." Setsuna pulled her close and teased her.
The shipgirls and dragon girls were unfazed; the native Heroic Spirits and Roman's projection, however, were dumbstruck.
"You call that 'more skilled'?!" Roman thought she was being far too modest. One hit to annihilate a Demon Pillar—with the highest-tier, rule-altering power.
Spirit of Origin? By Chaldea's system, she might as well be called a Root Spirit. Her ability surpassed even Grand Servants; Roman couldn't judge her upper limit.
dea Lily had no idea what had happened. In her view, the fight ended in a flash. The Demon Pillar, Jason, and the other Heroic Spirits—gone. Only faint magical traces hinted the pillar had been defeated.
"This is…" The little loli stared blankly at the Golden Hind's crew, unable to process it.
"Confird—no enemies remain. Singularity correction complete. You can return now," Roman said.
dea Lily's body began to fade. "I… I'm disappearing too? So unwilling… I still don't understand what happened—who was that impossibly strong silver-haired spirit? What kind of ship was that? And who is that man piloting it? …Well, maybe this is just the fate of the betrayer witch."
She sighed in resignation—
Screech—
A tentacle suddenly rose from the sea, curling around her.
"Eh?!" dea Lily gasped. She tried to resist, but her strength was far too little.
Witch. Tentacles. The combination gave her so unpleasant ideas.
Clack— The starship's hatch opened. The tentacle tossed the loli inside.
"Captured one Lily. Mission complete—let's go ho!"
—
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