The alarm rang through all of Chaldea.
Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash Kyrielight put on their equipment with practiced speed and rushed to the control room.
"Doctor, what happened?" Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash jogged up to Doctor Roman and asked together.
"Another Singularity Belt is approaching Chaldea, so we need you to go in. Its condition is the same as the last one. It has to be completely eli..." Doctor Roman stopped, glanced at Fujimaru Ritsuka, who was listening carefully, and changed his wording. "Resolved. Do not worry. Wu Ling will go with you. If something unexpected happens, follow Wu Ling's lead. He knows what to do."
"We are going with Mister Wu Ling again? That is wonderful," Mash said, unable to hide her relief.
Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded in agreement. "Yes. Wu Ling is dependable. When he acts, it feels like there is no problem in the world he cannot solve."
Doctor Roman looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka, then Mash, then Wu Ling.
"When did you three become this close?"
"Because Mister Wu Ling is the King of Heroic Spirits," Mash explained. "Over the past few days, whenever we tried summoning Servants, he stayed nearby to help us. When we were tired, he told us stories about other worlds."
"He is good looking, powerful, and he does not have any obvious flaws," Fujimaru Ritsuka added. "Unlike Kiyohime. She has been coming to my room every night these past few days. Holding her while sleeping feels like hugging a soft pillow, but I am still not used to it. And whenever I refuse her, she narrows her eyes and gives me this terrifying smile. Without Wu Ling stepping in, I feel like she really would have tied me to the bed."
Fujimaru Ritsuka patted her chest as if the memory still frightened her.
Doctor Roman could only smile with awkward courtesy. He really had not known any of that. These past few days, he had focused entirely on searching for the mastermind. Even during Servant summoning, he had only watched the first attempt. After that, he left the rest to Fujimaru Ritsuka.
Doctor Roman urgently wanted to know more about the Goetia and Solomon that Wu Ling had mentioned, along with the location Wu Ling had traced in reverse. But Fujimaru Ritsuka's side needed Wu Ling more right now.
Human Order had been burning for some time already. A few more days would not decide everything. With Wu Ling's strength, destroying that Singularity Belt should only take one or two days.
Thinking that, Doctor Roman turned to Wu Ling with a serious expression.
"Please take care of Ritsuka and Mash."
Doctor Roman knew Wu Ling would protect them even if he said nothing. But out of concern, he still said it.
Wu Ling also became serious and nodded to him.
"I will."
To be honest, the current situation had already gone beyond Wu Ling's expectations. Melusine in the previous world was one example. By all rights, she should have been a Servant from a Lostbelt. If Wu Ling had not known her information beforehand, a brutal fight would have been impossible to avoid.
Battles between Servants were battles of intelligence. Aside from Servants like Gilgamesh and Karna, who had almost no exploitable weaknesses, once a True Name was known, half the threat disappeared.
But here, the information Wu Ling knew about Singularities and Lostbelts was not very reliable. Last time it was Melusine. Next time it could be Surtr, the Abyssal Worm, or even a Machine God. With his current strength, he might truly lose against beings like that.
Even so, Wu Ling made that promise to Doctor Roman. He did it because he trusted his own strength, and because he had a small but real sense of responsibility. Mash and Fujimaru Ritsuka believed in him that much, so he at least had to answer that trust.
And then...
Wu Ling stepped on the gray soil underfoot. As far as he could see, the entire world was wrapped in fog.
"The Fourth Singularity? No. Worse than that. This should be a Singularity Belt using the Fourth Singularity as its template."
After a moment of thought, Wu Ling formed a rough guess.
"Ritsuka, Mash, come here."
Hearing Wu Ling's voice, the panic caused by the surrounding mist immediately faded. The two followed his voice and reached him.
"The visibility here is terrible," Fujimaru Ritsuka muttered. "If Wu Ling had not spoken just now, I almost would not have seen him."
"Do not worry, Senpai. I will stay beside you the whole time."
Wu Ling somehow got fed a mouthful of public affection. He had wives too, but he had never shown off like this in front of people.
Only then did Mash turn to him and ask, "Mister Wu Ling, do you need something? Did you discover anything?"
Wu Ling nodded as if nothing had happened.
"I did. This fog carries a trace of poison. It will not do much harm to your bodies, but it will still cause discomfort in the short term. Stand still for a moment. I will add a layer of protection."
After speaking, Wu Ling raised both hands toward Mash and Fujimaru Ritsuka's faces. When his palms were less than two inches away, he stopped.
Red lines spread across his palms. He was using his energy circuits to place isolation barriers over Fujimaru Ritsuka and Mash.
With his hands so close, both girls could feel their own breath strike his palms and rebound. Mash remained calm. Fujimaru Ritsuka blushed a little.
The process lasted about a minute. When Wu Ling moved his hands away, the foul smell that had stabbed into their noses and the discomfort in their eyes vanished. They could even see through part of the fog.
"Good. That should do it. Air filtration around your bodies, plus simple farsight Magecraft."
"Static... can... hear... Ritsuka and Mash..."
Doctor Roman's blurred voice came through. A screen full of static appeared beside the three of them. The image flickered in broken intervals. The signal was clearly bad.
Sometimes the person on the screen moved his mouth, but no sound came out. Sometimes there was sound, but no visible image.
Wu Ling waved his hand. The fog around them was swept away, and the signal gradually stabilized.
"Ritsuka, what is happening on your side? Chaldea is observing a region of gathered magical energy. That magical energy is extremely mixed, and it has a strange flow pattern. Our signal is being disrupted by it."
"Doctor, it is fog. We are inside a thick fog."
"Fog?" Doctor Roman sounded surprised.
Ordinary fog meant nothing. But when it came to fog that left its mark on history, only one place came to mind.
Wu Ling nodded at the same time.
"Correct. Fog. And the location is London. Unless something has gone far off course, this should be that event."