When Tiamat truly awakened, the Chaos Tide surged toward the land at an astonishing speed.
The southern cities of Ur and Eridu were already engulfed, and by dusk, it had reached the southern front.
As acting king, Hakuno Kishinami issued her final command: to activate the Fangs of Napishtim, a weapon designed by Gilgamesh, halting the black mud advancing from the sea before it could further corrode the land.
"We finally managed to stop it from reaching our base. If we had something like this, you should've brought it out sooner," Shiomi muttered after receiving the frontline report from the soldiers.
Gilgamesh chuckled. "That's exactly how a final weapon should be used! Though this should've been the duty of the 'King' of this era, I had no choice but to step in."
"Anyway, since everyone's here, shall we begin... a round table meeting?" Hakuno gestured toward the center of the hall.
Mash had laid her shield flat on the ground, turning it into a large-scale communication device.
Unlike their personal communicators, Chaldea's spiritron communication could transmit far more detailed data through Mash's shield, allowing all of Chaldea's analysis to reach Shiomi and the others at the Singularity.
Seeing the shield used like this brought a wave of emotion over Artoria—for a moment, at least. Unfortunately, Mash was the only one here who could truly be called a Knight of the Round Table.
"First, the Laḫmu—Tiamat's creations fall into two types," Shiomi began. "One kind turns into a sphere at sunset and ceases movement. These are the ones that attacked civilians in the remaining cities. As for the second type..."
Those who had attempted to strike at Tiamat's main body—including Shiomi—had already encountered them.
"The ones that fly around her, keeping enemies at bay," Ereshkigal said, still visibly affected by the memory.
If they hadn't all been at full strength at the time, those flying Laḫmu alone would've caused serious trouble.
"What's going on? The data on Tiamat..." Artoria's expression darkened. "The specifications and capabilities are detailed, but..."
"No weak points?" Scáthach gave a wry smile.
Romani sighed. "I'd love to include at least a couple of strategies, but Tiamat is flawless—both physically and mythologically. We simply can't stand up to her."
"Marduk's Axe," Shiomi said slowly. "It's in my hands now. I can't release its True Name like last time, but if we can get a major god like Quetzalcoatl to assist, we might be able to threaten her, right?"
Quetzalcoatl nodded in agreement. "That's true. But you and I aren't Marduk—we can't draw out the axe's full divine power. There's no way to recreate the scene from myth where Marduk slayed Tiamat. At best, we can slow her down."
"So it really is like that, huh." Sakura let out a breath. "Still... ever since Mother came back earlier, she's been using the throne here to prepare some kind of secret weapon. What is it...?"
Only Morgan and Shiomi truly knew the answer—something tied to Morgan's greatest secret.
Even Shiomi hadn't asked, merely sensing the truth and remaining silent. Between them, there was a perfect, unspoken understanding.
"It's nothing that impressive. Just a large-scale launcher for the Holy Lance," Morgan said, crossing her arms. "I built it myself using treasures from the King of Heroes' vault as materials—an anti-divine weapon."
Her tone was casual, as if it were nothing more than a tool—less remarkable even than the Divine Authority Seals set into the walls of Uruk and the Magical Beast Front. But it was clearly no ordinary weapon.
"Eh—Eh—Eh—Eh—?!"
Everyone present wore expressions of pure shock.
They all knew Morgan had mastered Magecraft and could reproduce the Holy Lance with power equal to the original.
But now, she was talking about deploying an attack on the scale of the Holy Lance—on a mass scale.
The sheer magnitude of it left them speechless.
"You don't have to sound so relaxed about it..." Shiomi whispered to her.
"Because I was looking forward to everyone's reaction," Morgan said with a gleeful expression.
Even in such a life-and-death crisis, she still maintained a rare sense of optimism.
"Wait, did you hold back when you were at the Round Table Fortress?" Artoria couldn't help but ask.
Olga Marie wiped the sweat from her forehead. "I thought it was going to be all three Holy Lances firing together... but apparently..."
"It was quite... outrageous," Hakuno said with a bitter smile.
"That said, if we want to unleash its full power and actually destroy Tiamat, we'd need at least two thousand years' worth of Mana," Morgan explained, her tone turning calm and serious after enjoying everyone's reactions. "I've already gathered all Command Spells except for my husband's, and with the treasures as backup, the total Mana output might, at best, be enough to make Tiamat pause for a single day."
"That's already insanely strong! We're talking about the goddess Tiamat here, not just some random monster!" Romani exclaimed. "If you had something like that, you should've said so earlier! If we'd started preparing back when we first arrived, we might've—"
"We didn't expect things to spiral this far either," Shiomi said with a wry smile. "The original plan was to defeat Kingu, recover the Holy Grail, and prevent Tiamat's full awakening..."
That was when Ereshkigal noticed something was off.
"Wait a minute, what exactly is going on?"
"What?" Ritsuka looked confused.
"That's our mother we're talking about! Mother has no weaknesses. Even Marduk had to struggle immensely to hurt and kill her. So how... how can you talk so casually about having a way to kill her?" Ereshkigal's voice trembled with concern. She feared it was just an attempt to boost morale.
"To be precise," Shiomi said calmly, "as long as a Servant or Heroic Spirit is born from proper human history, then their Noble Phantasms are basically incapable of harming Tiamat. But if that isn't the case..."
The hall fell silent. Some immediately understood. Others were still trying to piece it together.
"So that's what it is..." Scáthach let out a sigh.
Artoria slowly closed her eyes and nodded in understanding. "Then I won't ask further. You've already shown incredible selflessness by revealing your identity at a time like this. It's enough for us to know that your plan isn't some empty dream. Our Master trusts you more than anyone—and we trust our Master."
...
(100 Chapters Ahead)
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