Seeing Shiomi's expression as he spoke, BB perked up, thoughtfully tapping her palm with her pointer.
"Then let's start with the conclusion. This place... SE.RA.PH will sink into the Mariana Trench, 10,000 meters below sea level, in two and a half hours."
She got straight to the point.
The weight of that statement hit Shiomi hard. He almost sprang up from the bench, ready to rush out and continue investigating for a way to fix this Singularity.
Fortunately, Morgan and the others were seated in just the right positions to keep him grounded. The moment he started to rise, they pushed him right back down.
"Calm yourself," Scáthach said, ruffling his hair.
Everyone understood why Shiomi was so on edge.
If he were here alone, he might've remained composed enough to listen to BB's explanation patiently.
But with his companions involved, things were different. Shiomi didn't fear dying himself—but he couldn't bear the idea of dragging others down with him.
It might've sounded romantic in theory, but he wanted nothing to do with that kind of ending.
"There's only two and a half hours left, yet you're so relaxed... That must mean the remaining time refers to how fast this Singularity is sinking, as observed externally from Chaldea?" Morgan asked.
BB nodded enthusiastically. "Correct, Mother. Time in the real world flows a hundred times faster than here in SE.RA.PH. To be precise, one minute outside equals a hundred minutes inside."
"Then... the communication cutoff between Chaldea and here might've been for the best," Artoria said, beginning to piece it all together.
With the massive difference in time flow, Chaldea would receive a hundred times more data per minute than expected. Such an overwhelming surge of information could easily push their systems beyond capacity, possibly crashing all of Chaldea.
"A bit over ten days, then," Shiomi concluded.
Not ideal—but far better than just two and a half hours.
"So what happened at the Seraphic Oil Field? How does a North Sea oil rig end up relocating to the Pacific and sinking?" he asked, lightly brushing Scáthach's arm. She responded in sync, hugging him a little tighter. "Is this the work of a Beast?"
"A Beast?" Scáthach blinked in surprise.
She'd helped Chaldea deal with the calamities of both Beast II and Beast I, but that didn't mean she could stay calm when it came to other Beasts that had yet to appear.
...Except for Beast IV. That one had already revealed itself—and had consistently stood on the side of Chaldea, or rather, on the side of those working to restore humanity.
"No wonder I felt like more than just the doctor had come looking for Master when I got back to my room," Morgan said, eyeing BB. "Since you were already here, why didn't you show yourself?"
BB raised a finger. "Because it's a restricted action. As the exclusive AI assigned to guide Dad, I'm not allowed to appear freely in front of others or reveal my existence—"
"You mean like that time at the Twin-Faced Tower, where you used the Primordial Runes' foundation as bait to trick Touko into fighting me?" Shiomi narrowed his eyes. "I hold grudges, you know."
"Ehe~"
BB stuck out her tongue, pretending she didn't remember.
Then, without missing a beat, she brought the conversation back on track.
"It's true that Seraphix ended up like this because of the Beast. But by the time Mooncell detected something was wrong and sent me here, this place had already transformed into a newborn electronic metropolis—SE.RA.PH—completely beyond Mooncell's ability to monitor."
"You said earlier this SE.RA.PH is a fake. Then what's the real one?" Shiomi pressed.
"The real SE.RA.PH is a spiritual-construct world installed inside Mooncell. It's a 'city-engine that drives the moon,' built by Mooncell to sustain its own operations." BB paused, then summarized, "That's all you need to know for now. According to Mooncell's schedule, it's not yet time for Dad to visit it—so let's leave the rest for later."
A growing unease crept into Shiomi.
It wasn't fear of danger—but rather a sense of disquiet, of being adrift in uncertainty. Like everything had been predetermined from the start, yet every step felt like his own choice.
He'd believed he had free will, but in truth, maybe he'd only ever been choosing among pre-selected options.
Maybe that's why BB had stopped giving him directions after the Fourth Holy Grail War.
"I see. Then we'll talk about it later," he said, readily accepting BB's answer.
Shiomi considered his greatest strength to be never wasting time on things that could be dealt with later, especially not at the expense of more urgent matters.
And right now was exactly one of those times.
"But if Mooncell can interfere with the Land of Shadows beyond the outer world and even send Master to me," Scáthach said, "why can't it observe a Singularity located just 200 meters beneath the sea surface?"
"Because the Beast in control of this place deliberately blocked Mooncell's observation," BB replied, pointing at Shiomi. "It doesn't want any interference during its metamorphosis into its completed form. The failures of Beast II and Beast I serve as critical lessons—it won't take the same risk."
"Then just like before, we defeat the Beast," Shiomi said calmly. "Isn't that exactly what Mooncell wants?"
"That determination makes even me proud to be your daughter," BB said with a sweet smile. "But don't forget why we were able to defeat those other two."
Tiamat had simply let go of her original intentions. She accepted everything Shiomi conveyed to her from the perspective of a "child" and chose, as a "mother," to watch over the future of the planet.
Goetia, on the other hand, had only been defeated because Shiomi happened to obtain the Ten Commandments—an artifact with critical power against him.
That spell was originally created by the King of Magecraft, Solomon. As long as Solomon continued to exist, Goetia couldn't truly die.
His defeat marked not the destruction of his existence, but the collapse of his 3,000-year-long plan to incinerate humanity.
He merely fell from the throne of Beast I and returned to being a magecraft entity.
The failure of the Incineration of Humanity was now a fixed point. The Seat of Omnipotence had crumbled—there was no longer a way to start over.
"So what you're saying is... we don't have what it takes to defeat this unknown Beast. That's why we need to act fast, before it fully matures."
"Exactly!" BB said, giving a playful thumbs-up—though her tone remained deadly serious.
She swept her pointer through the air.
A moment later, a holographic image of SE.RA.PH unfolded before them.
"A woman's... body?"
Shiomi stared at the map in disbelief.
...
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