Third Singularity – Okeanos, The End of the Age of Seafaring.
"Mash! Mash! Wake up!"
Ritsuka, holding the fallen Mash in his arms, desperately shook her shoulders. But she, struck down by a sudden sword blow, remained unconscious.
"You bastard! You're finished!"
Deadpool repeatedly pulled the trigger, turning Iason's already cooling body into a sieve, not even noticing that the magazine was long empty. Realizing he was out of ammo, he began kicking the corpse, spewing the filthiest curses.
"Where do you think you're going?! Come here! Hear me, you bitch, I'll still kill you! I'll tear off your arms and legs!!"
Soon, Iason's body crumbled into sparks of light.
"Wade! Mash..." Ritsuka, barely holding back tears, called out to Deadpool, not letting the girl go. Drake and the other Servants had already surrounded her when Wade hastily approached them.
"Hey! Where did he hit? Where did he slash? The stomach? The gut?! Okay, the wound... the wound..." He faltered. "...It's not there?"
Examining the supposed impact site, Deadpool found a perfectly intact stomach. It seemed impossible: he had seen with his own eyes how Iason delivered a sudden blow, and Mash had fallen, coughing blood.
"Huh?" Ritsuka stared dumbfounded at the undamaged armor, remembering how he had howled in grief a second ago, thinking she was dead.
"But... she was coughing up blood..."
Ritsuka had seen it clearly: Iason's blade had reached its target, and a bloody cough followed. If there was no wound, where did the blood come from?
"Let's take a look."
Deadpool carefully opened her mouth. A little blood had congealed on her lips and inside, but it clearly wasn't coming from her throat.
"Damn it... She bit her tongue."
In an attempt to shield Ritsuka, she lunged so suddenly that she bit off a piece of her tongue – hence the spectacular "bloody cough."
"And why did she faint?"
"Well, she fell backward, so she hit her head on the deck."
The tension in the air burst like an overinflated balloon. At first, everyone seriously thought a tragic finale was approaching, but it turned out to be a ridiculous accident. Relief was replaced by a sense of utter absurdity.
"Hey, Mash. Get up."
As soon as Deadpool gave her a couple of slaps, Mash opened her eyes. Seeing the gazes fixed on her, she darkened, thinking she had already died, but Deadpool, with a heavy sigh, explained the situation:
"Listen, madam, your belly is bare, how is it that there's not a scratch on you from a sword? And why did you chew your own tongue? Do you know how scared we all were, thinking you'd kicked the bucket?"
"Well... my Endurance parameter is Rank A, so normal attacks don't leave marks..." she mumbled.
"For crying out loud! You could have at least not fainted!"
Mash blushed deeply and stared at the floor, burning with shame. Drake and her pirates, watching this scene, couldn't help but burst into laughter. Finally, they could relax.
"It's clear who took on the heavy burden of saving humanity."
Hearing this familiar, but by no means pleasant, voice, Ritsuka's team turned around. The White Witch, Medea, descended from the heavens. The magical pillar had disappeared, human order was being restored, and seeing the collapse of her plans, she looked surprisingly calm.
"Come down here, I'll give you such a punishment – I'll put a swarm of hornets in your pants!"
"I don't ask for forgiveness," Medea said. "I didn't particularly like this world anyway. It was enough for me to have the opportunity to love Iason."
She looked wistfully at the empty space where her beloved had just disappeared.
"I couldn't oppose him. My strength was not enough to defeat that mage. I had to obey, and in the end, I ended up here."
Ritsuka, Mash, and Deadpool immediately understood who she was talking about. The very "mage" who caused all this, supposedly perished in Rome, merging with the demonic pillar.
"If you're talking about that green guy, I sent him to hell a long time ago."
"No. The one you fought was merely a subordinate. [That mage] is on a completely different level; it's blasphemous to even call him a mage."
A different level. Could this be related to the "King" that Lev Lainur kept babbling about? Mash frowned, recalling the pillars they had already fought twice. She desperately wanted to know who had given Medea the Grail and who was behind the burning of humanity.
"That's precisely why I wanted to talk to you."
The green-haired shepherd, guarding the Ark, somehow appeared on deck and addressed Ritsuka's group.
"So, we'll dock ashore for a breather! Hurry up, move it!"
Drake, dispersing the sailors in a commanding manner, winked at Ritsuka and headed for the helm with Euryale.
"Honestly, I suspected, but when I saw the demonic pillar in the epicenter of the storm – I was finally convinced."
Mash felt that her thoughts coincided with the shepherd's conclusions.
"I am a Servant of the Archer class. My True Name... is David."
David. The Judean king who defeated the giant Goliath with a single stone throw. A man who went from a simple shepherd to the ruler of a country, whose life was full of storms and hardships. And, importantly, the father of the legendary King Solomon.
"Okay, stop-stop-stop. So you're saying that your son is behind all this crap and the final boss?"
Deadpool asked, not believing his ears, and David nodded.
"Ha! So we're up to our necks in shit, cleaning up the piles your offspring made, and the dad stands aside and plays dumb?"
"Oh, well... Sorry. I apologize as a father."
"He apologizes, look at that?" Deadpool gave the king-shepherd a contemptuous look. "You should have raised him, you damn dad."
"No, wait. It's not that I'm apologizing... I mean, he's my son. He should be my son... Maybe... Or not?"
David's speech became increasingly confused. Deadpool, tired of beating around the bush, drew his pistol and pressed it to the king's chin.
"King or not, if you don't start talking business right now, I'll put a .45 caliber slug in your head for concentration."
"Alright, alright! I get it. Sorry. Honestly, when I was king, I didn't really pay much attention to him. What do they call it now? Parental neglect?"
Deadpool sat down. The seemingly noble and innocent young man turned out to be quite a character who abandoned his son to fate.
"So your damn son is doing whatever he wants! Do you have any fatherly conscience at all, or did you trade it for holy stones?!"
Only Ritsuka's intervention, who didn't want to waste any more time on arguments, helped separate them.
"So... Mr. David? Are you claiming that Solomon is behind all this?"
David sat on the railing, tapping his shepherd's staff.
"Yes and no."
The answer was useless. Ritsuka was about to object that now was not the time for riddles, but David's next words only further confused the matter.
"I know I was a lousy father. After all, I was a simple shepherd. And he was born a king. For someone like him to become disillusioned with people and decide to burn history? That Solomon I knew wouldn't have had the will or the courage for that."
So it wasn't Solomon? But David immediately refuted that. The seventy-two demonic pillars, inextricably linked to Solomon in life, were irrefutable proof.
"And what do you want to say with this? I hope this isn't all the 'valuable information' you've prepared?"
"Uh... Probably?"
Seeing that David was trying to evade, sweating cold, Deadpool put away his pistol, drew his sword, and roared that he would now chop him into kebab and wrap it in a lamb chimichanga.
"Forgive me. Maybe I was a great king and shepherd, but as a father, I turned out to be a complete nobody – I only realized this recently. I have nothing more to say. Goodbye."
With these words, David simply slid off the railing and dissolved into the air. Whether he returned to the island to guard the Ark or went to herd sheep in another world is unknown, but one thing became clear: Solomon was involved in what was happening.
"At least now we know the enemy's face for sure, Senpai."
"Well, shall we go back?"
Ritsuka touched the communicator, requesting a Ley Shift teleportation back from Doctor Romani.
"Listen, kid!"
Just before disappearing, Medea, whose body had already begun to melt in the light of the restoring world, called out to Ritsuka.
"You, as you are now, will never defeat that mage. Therefore, seek the light... seek the light of the stars. You must find it. And... don't lose hope..."
Medea disappeared. The teleportation began, and Ritsuka, Mash, Deadpool, Emiya, and Fou saw Drake, Euryale, and the pirates waving goodbye.
"Phew... It turned out to be fun. So, goddess, where should I drop you off?"
When Ritsuka's group disappeared, Drake, standing on the deck of the restoring "Golden Hind," touched the Grail hidden in her bosom and looked at Euryale.
"Yeah, it was fun. But I miss Asterios, who left earlier. Goodbye. I'm going to get my dear sisters."
Soon, Euryale also crumbled into sparks, returning to the Throne of Heroes.
"Well, let's go! There are probably still plenty of treasures buried here! Hey, you loafers, hoist the sails!!"
At Drake's command, the sailors, with cheerful songs, sailed the ship out to sea.
At that moment, a column of spray shot up next to the "Golden Hind," and a painfully familiar sailboat emerged from the water.
"Heh. Well, of course, a guy like that wouldn't just go to hell."
Drake smirked and, without looking back at the surfacing vessel, steered the helm into the open ocean.
"I! Have returned! From hell! Where's my old lady Drake?!"
In the middle of the boundless sea, a huge brute roared. Blackbeard, Teach, immediately began calling for Drake, but she had already gone far ahead.
"Wh-what?! Your humble servant has returned from hell itself, and no one is meeting me?! My tender and pure heart is shattered, desu! Ho-o-o-o~ Besides, I'm a Servant and I'm about to disappear-deri-sion?!"
Without a trace of pity, the world erased Teach, leaving only the echo of his foolish laughter as he finally dissolved.
***
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