Ainz was the last to arrive to the meeting, entering the meeting room at a time when all those present were already seated and were only waiting for his appearance.
"I'm sorry for being late," Ainz sighed, after which he looked around the room.
This room that was called the "main meeting room" solely for a lack of other suitable rooms for the role. In fact, it was most likely some kind of reception room or even a lounge for staff - at least it beared such an impression - a small room stuffed with small sofas and armchairs, with a couple of small tables nearby and a somewhat large plasma TV, that was, of course, lifeless at the moment hanging on the wall.
'Not the best choice for a serious discussion' - Ainz remarked to himself, after which, looking at those present, he took a couple of steps and sat on a free space on a sofa, leaning back on its soft back.
In addition to Ainz, there were three more people in the room, who at the moment were the triumvirate of power in Chaldea. The chief, Olga-Marie, who is silently and thoughtfully looking at Ainz. Roman, a man who at the moment could be called the responsible deputy of the chief, is massaging his head - apparently, overwork and stress have caught up with him. The only one who did not seem to be busy with something was Da Vinci, who was seated with a cup of tea in her hand in the corner, preferring to sit on a low window sill, shifting to the side some regular potted plant, one of those that was put in the room "to create comfort". Ainz thought for a second that in all the companies that he had to work in, he had never seen living plants - only plastic imitations. It was to some extent even funny that he saw some living vegetation only now, when the whole world was already destroyed. Some kind of strange irony.
The door behind Ainz finally snapped its automatics, closing the door, thereby snapping the chief out of her strange fugue, after which she blinked a couple of times and started talking, "So, everyone is here."
Ainz nodded and Olga-Marie immediately turned to the main topic - "We managed to establish a connection with the second Singularity. You can go there now."
"Okay," Ainz nodded in confirmation, "What is known about the Singularity?"
"Nothing really useful," Olga-Marie sighed. "But I still managed to find out something. Judging by the facts reported by our observations system, this Singularity is located quite far in the past, much further than the previous one, and is connected with one very definite place."
"It is connected with Rome," Olga-Marie said, "During the time of The Roman Empire, the date is no later than the first century AD and no earlier than 1 AD. The peak of the power of Rome, when its legions were strong, the people were united, and the generals and politicians paid attention to distant lands without doubting their own power and the possibility of conquest."
"Hm," Ainz nodded. He has heard about the Roman Empire - it was hard not to hear about such a historical civilization. He was even quite sure that he had heard something about the Punic Wars - in the end, Punnito Moe chose his name in honor of this event, about the Triumvirate, about Caesar and Caligula. Even more so, if Ainz thought a little, maybe he would even be able to remember what exactly caused the Third Age Crisis…
'Thank you, Punnito' - Ainz kindly recalled his old friend, who had been a fan of the history of Antiquity and had managed to provide Ainz with some understanding of that era.
"We were also able to determine the place of the greatest accumulation of mana," Olga-Marie sighed. "This is Rome. Region Latium, to be more precise."
Ainz nodded at this yet again - it was nice that he did not need to do something like investigating the vast territories of Rome and moving throughout the empire in some kind of treasure hunt.
"Unfortunately, there is another problem," Olga-Marie sighed. "The concentration of magic signatures within Rome and its environment is simply phenomenal. It is safe to say that there are Servants - many Servants. More than ten, that's for sure."
Ainz nodded. Ten sounded like a very unpleasant number. Of course, according to Leo, most of them should not be very strong, but it was impossible to completely discount the fact that among the Servants there there could be someone really dangerous. On the other hand, if all of the enemy's forces were concentrated in one place, this also meant that Ainz's action plan was very simple and clear, there was no need to look for allies in hiding or was on a long journey, if all of them were somehow concentrated in one place.
"Regarding the Singularity, that's all the information I managed to get," Olga-Marie sighed and Ainz nodded. Not that this information would have helped him much - most likely, of course, that the Servants summoned during this time period were probably connected with Rome, but firstly, this still did not give Ainz any additional information regarding their abilities, and secondly, nothing explicitly forbade the servants of other places and epochs to appear in this Singularity, just as Kiyohime or Bathory appeared in France at the time of Jeanne d'Arc.
"However," Olga-Maria interrupted his thoughts suddenly, "This is... Not everything that needed to be discussed this time. Roman!"
"Yes, yes, chief," when the man heard the shout, he sighed and rubbed his neck a little, looking thoughtfully at Ainz, "In general... There is a certain problem with the Servants."
"Cainabel?" Ainz immediately thought about the most probable cause of the problem, but the man only shook his head.
"Not that kind of problem," Roman sighed. "In general, the matter concerns the re-summoned Servants. Those that were killed in the Singularity."
Ainz blinked. At first he had decided that it was necessary to sacrifice them, then reproached himself for the useless sacrifices, then he found out that they weren't concerned by death anyway, and now again... One day this will bring him to the brink of madness.
"What's the matter?" Ainz looked at the man. "Are there problems with them?"
"No, no," Roman shook his head. "At least not yet..."
"Roman!" Olga-Marie barked loudly, forcing the man to flinch, "Get to the point!"
"Yes, chief, for sure," the man sighed. "The fact is that they recalled all the events of the Singularity regularly, but... The fact is that during the summoning of the dead Servants I noticed one small detail - slight disorientation, muscle cramps, involuntary tics... And I did a little research on those Servants who were killed and was summoned again."
"Roman…" - Olga-Marie called out ominously, forcing the man to flinch again.
"In general, their magic core is damaged," Roman blurted out quickly.
"In what sense is it damaged?" Ainz looked at Roman.
"Slightly, very slightly," Roman sighed "The fact is that the FATE system, the system that creates the pseudo-"Throne of Heroes" in Chaldea, is an experimental system, most likely even a fluke of a success. Before we and Mashu managed to find the missing catalyst, it was actually a non-working project. We simply did not have the opportunity to test it robustly earlier and before that no one had managed to create a stable pseudo-"Throne of Heroes" successfully to determine how the souls of a killed Servant would behave after they were resummoned. We in this regard are the same ignoramuses as all other magis - and we only learn the rules as we go."
"Roman…" - this time Olga-Marie called the man almost affectionately, so that, not feeling a dirty trick, he turned to the girl, after which he instantly got a fist on his forehead, - "Get to the point!"
"Sure, chief!" Roman grabbed his forehead and then tried to crawl a little away from the girl, fidgeted on the armchair, and turned in the direction of Ainz, "In general, apparently, the system cannot absolutely accurately reproduce the deceased Servant."
"Reproduce?" Ainz looked at Roman carefully. Reproduce didn't sound like "revive".
"Um," Roman looked at Olga-Marie, looking around his boss appraisingly, "This is a question for the future. In general, the fact is that the system did restore the dead Servants, but after that they remained somehow damaged. Minorly, I will say right away! Based on the results of a week-long observation of them, I can assure you that none of them, apparently, has lost anything substantial - they retain their full memory, full strength, no changes in personality or body. However, this damage, apparently, is permanent. It is insignificant - I would say that this is just a scratch that does not even affect their strength, however…"
"No one can say for sure what would happen if they die again," Ainz continued the thought himself, after which he started thinking.
Apparently, the revival of the Servants was still not completely safe.
In Yggdrasil, almost all types of rebirth demanded a certain fee - often they removed levels from reborn players, except for some special specialized high-level abilities and spells. For the revival of the NPCs that they personally created, the players had to pay a certain amount of gold, sometimes a really big amount, so it could not be said that revival was really ideal in Yggdrasil. Having looked at the revival system of the Servant Ainz decided that this system did not have any side effects, however, apparently, he was wrong.
"Is it possible to somehow fix these injuries?" Ainz looked at Roman.
"I don't know," Roman sighed, after which he looked at Da Vinci.
She, noticing the guy's look, took a sip of tea, and then looked at Ainz, "Theoretically? Yes. In these conditions? No."
"In what sense?" Ainz looked at the girl.
"The restoration of the damaged magic core of the Servant is not something that many scientific works have been devoted to," Da Vinci sipped again, "Theoretically, this is possible, even more so, I think that it would not be that hard to solve if I have the necessary resources and some time. Unfortunately, under the current conditions, we have neither the first nor the second."
"What kind of resources are needed?" Ainz looked at Da Vinci carefully.
"Those that are suitable for spiritrons," the girl spoke out as briefly and as exasperated as possible, "Magical crystals, catalysts for summoning, a couple of scientific works, and, of course, a lot of reagents and a good laboratory. All this would be somewhat easy to get in the outside world using the power of Chaldea…"
"But now it's impossible to acquire it," Ainz finished the girl's thoughts, making her smile, nod, and a little playfully salute with her mug. "So, it's impossible to fix this defect... At least until humanity is completely returned to this world."
"Yes," Roman said simply.
"In that case," Ainz sighed. "What will happen to the Servants in the future?"
"Now?" Roman rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Nothing. The damaged core is stable and does not progress; it will not become worse. However, if the damage grows... It is impossible to predict the exact result."
"They will die," Ainz looked at Roman. He rubbed his eyes.
"Not really," Roman said stiffly, "At least that's not something that can be said unequivocally. Destruction is likely to be gradual. It is definitely impossible to predict this - but each death will leave its mark on them. It is impossible to predict the outcome of such an action - impaired memory, psyche, changes in the Saint Graph - I do not know what it will be - but I doubt that these changes will turn out to be positive."
Ainz nodded. So, in fact, the revival of the Servant was like a game of roulette - you could not lose anything... And you could get terrifying damage that destroys the foundation of the Servant.
Ainz sighed. Now he was returning to the idea that perhaps he should not have sent his servants to death so easily.
'Okay' - Ainz confessed to himself - 'In the future I will try to avoid this.'
"Roman has dragged out this idea for a long time, but I think that now everything has become clear," the chief sighed, after which she looked at Da Vinci, "However, there is one more point."
Da Vinci, taking the last sip, put the cup next to her, and then jumped down from the windowsill - "Finally, the line came to me."
"So," the girl took a couple of steps to the magician and looked at him, "Ainz, do you have one of the Grails? Like the one that you used... As a catalyst?"
Memories that Ainz spent one of the Grails on the summoning of Cainabel returned to the magician. Damn, after that summon the machine broke down and its repair was now one of Leo's duties...
Ainz felt a little ashamed, because of which he only quietly put his hand in his inventory and pulled out a Grail, the second, which he received from the hands of Gilles de Rais.
Da Vinci, taking the goblet from Ainz's hands, weighed it, after which she looked at it carefully, "As I thought. This is not the Grail."
"More precisely," Da Vinci immediately hastened to correct herself. "It looks like a Grail, it feels like a Grail, it have the texture like that of a Grail and probably weighs as much as the Grail. By all indications, this is the Grail - but it is not the Grail."
Ainz wanted to ask the question "why," but still feeling guilt by the thought that he had broken the summoning machine and caused several temporarily irreparable damage to the Servants, Ainz did not dare to do this, fearing that those present would consider him even more incompetent than before.
"I would call it a pseudo-Grail," Da Vinci sighed, "I feel that there is power in this thing... I would go so far as to even say that it has enough power to make it work like something like a Grail. But in the end, it's just an artifact. An extremely powerful source of mana with certain powers, created as an imitation of the True Grail."
After that, Da Vinci returned Grail to Ainz, and slowly walked to her place on the windowsill.
"So, this is a powerful artifact imitating the Grail," the girl looked at Ainz, "The reason for the existence of the first Singularity and the most important part in the plan of Gilles de Rais. Such items are not sold at discount supermarkets."
Ainz looked at the girl. She nodded to him.
"This is exactly what I am leading to," Da Vinci sighed, "Although the probability that Gilles de Rais found such an artifact lying around in a field is not absolutely zero, it is nevertheless extremely small. It is also unlikely that he could - or even found it necessary - to visit places where such things could be. I don't think he could get to Avalon or Mount Ooe. And yet he found the Grail - the main trigger for his plan, the central, I would even say, detail."
"Do you think that someone made sure that the Grail fell into his hands?" Olga-Marie looked at Da Vinci.
"I'm saying this straightforwardly," Da Vinci shrugged, "Someone found — or worse — created the Grail, after which he somehow delivered it to Gilles, and Gilles, in turn, made a wish, which created a whole Singularity."
"And now he can repeat this trick again," Ainz sighed.
"Once is an accident," Da Vinci quoted an old saying, "Twice is a coincidence, thrice is enemy action. The singularity with which it all began - the zeroth singularity, was also created by the Grail. However, then it was already possible, I would even say, logical - that Singularity was a continuation of the disruption of the Fuyuki Holy Grail War, the Grail itself should have already been there. In France, the Grail was not supposed to appear or exist at all - and yet, it was there too. It is impossible to say with certainty that the next singularity will also be created by the Grail - however, the chances of this are high, so this possibility must also be investigated. As well as finding out who exactly is throwing the pseudo-Grails around and possibly creating these Singularities."
"Any ideas on who this might be?" Ainz asked.
"There was one possibility," Da Vinci admitted, "But this man died in zeroth singularity."
"Lev," Ainz nodded, after which he remembered the chief and looked at her, accidentally reminding her of her deputy and failed killer.
"I'm fine," the girl sighed. Apparently, she was not quite pleased to recall him, but nevertheless she was coping with the thought, - "So, after the death of Lev... There are no more suspects?"
"No," Leo confirmed this, after which she glanced at Ainz, as if asking him.
'Why are you asking me at all?!' Ainz panicked for a second before the suppression of emotions intervened, "No ideas."
"It's a pity," the girl sighed, and then fidgeted on the windowsill, "Well, I have told you everything that I know about it."
"I see," the chief sighed. "In that case, the briefing seems to be over. Now you only need to determine who you will take into the second Singularity."
'Why can't I take everyone?' - Ainz thought for a second, but before asking anything from Olga-Marie, he stopped - 'Or should I understand why I should take only a certain number of Servants? And how much should I take then?'
"I think six Servants is the maximum," Olga-Marie answered the unasked question, "Chaldea can't support anymore than this."
"I had seven in the last Singularity," Ainz noted at least one important fact.
"I know," Olga-Marie sighed, "It's also why we couldn't reach you."
Ainz froze.
"Chaldea was designed for a certain number of Masters and a certain number of Servants subordinate to them," Olga-Marie began to explain, "A magi can have one Servant. Maybe two, for the most exceptional of Magis. Maybe even three, well, if this magi is really outstanding. However, you have twelve of them - and this number will continue to grow further, if I understand everything correctly. Chaldea is simply not designed for this - it was created with the setting "one Servant - one Master". Theoretically, Chaldea is able to support a larger number of Servants - however, this is simply against the system settings themselves. Even the fact that it was possible for Chaldea to tune into several Servants was already a miracle - and, as it turned out, seven - it was simply too much. Chaldea is unable to establish a connection with the Master of the seven Servants at once - most likely, this was precisely the reason why we could not contact you in the Singularity."
What Olga-Maria said was understandable, logical even. A super computer can have all the computing capabilities of the world in order to run any program, but it simply cannot do this if a system is installed on it that does not recognize the program it was supposed to run. It is logically sound, if not for one "problem"...
'This was not the reason you were unable to contact me!' - Ainz in his mind tried to telepathically reach the boss - 'It's all the fault of my defense against espionage!'
However, Ainz froze. He broke the Servant's summoning system, damaged several Servant's magic cores, and has no idea what situation they were in - if he just said that he was also guilty that Olga-Marie couldn't contact him, he would clearly put himself into a completely incompetent light.
'I…' - Ainz thought for a moment 'I will tell them…'
"Roman!" - Olga-Marie, unable to stand it, gave a crack to the guy dozing on the armchair, - "Do not sleep!"
'Later,' Ainz added democratically. He will simply go into the Singularity, allow the girl to cool down a little, and then say that they have a slight misunderstanding - that's all.
Besides, six Servants is not so bad. This means that he could provide a greater number of Servants with rest - this sounded at least not bad from the point of view of the Servants themselves.
"Six, then," Ainz sighed.
Six was not a very large number. This made the choice of the Servants quite difficult. But still…
'Cainabel definitely.'
'Cainabel was a definite choice . Although Leo did not name her among the strongest - if Ainz was confident in anything, it was that Cainabel was one of - if not the strongest in Chaldea. In addition, she was also the one who was most inclined to create problems. Now she was behaving calmly - however, it was impossible to predict exactly how she would behave if she could only remain without Ainz's attention. It was impossible to leave her unattended.
The next candidates were unambiguously the three strongest Servants that Leo mentioned - Arthuria, Jeanne and the Witch. However, Arthuria died in the previous Singularity - and as it turned out now - this was not an insignificant detail, so Ainz would prefer not to choose her for now - at least until Roman makes sure that her injuries did not worsen.
So Cainabel, Jeanne and the Witch. There were three more.
Cainabel was strong, but she was a warrior in totality, with almost no interaction with the rest of the group. The Dragon Witch was made for causing damage - and Jeanne is for support, a paladin-type support. They lacked a good tank and Range-DD...
Ainz did not notice how he switched his language into his usual gaming slang.
So, the party from the leader is Ainz, the wildcard is Cainabel, support is Jeanne, melee-DD - Dragon Witch... There is a need for a range-DD... Archer or Cu Chulainn?
Ainz thought for a moment. Both options could perform in their role of range-DD, but Cu Chulainn was also useful due to the fact that he was a mage. On the other hand, Archer was a sensor - which was also very useful.
The memory of the two guys made Ainz think. Cu Chulainn was quite simple and understandable, while Archer... Archer watched Ainz like a hawk all this time - and even after all this time Ainz could not say that he knew him too well.
Means, Cu Chulainn is probably the better choice.
However then the problem of the tank and the sensor remained.
With the tank, however, choosing was quite easy - Mashu was perfectly suited for this role. Medusa and Mozart could cope with the role of the sensor... However, Medusa was also a rogue-DD, while Mozart was a support - this same niche was already occupied by Jeanne. So, additional DD was more useful in these conditions - that means, Medusa.
Ainz smiled. It's funny, he seemed to be once again making up a raid group in Yggdrasil, to clean up the next boss...
The suppression of emotions soured the mage's joy instantly, causing him to breathe deeply. Sometimes this skill really helped him. Sometimes it prevented him from enjoying the simple joys of human life.
"Cainabel," Ainz began to list, "Medusa, Cu Chulainn, Jeanne, the Dragon Witch, and Mashu."
Those who heard his verdict nodded. Only Da Vinci grinned.
"Gathering yourself a harem?" The girl smiled at the magician.
Ainz blinked a couple of times. For a second he wanted to rush to make excuses, but how his suppression of emotions deprived him of his joy - it also sometimes helped him to maintain his composure.
"They are the most effective team that I can create in this case," Ainя said calmly, "Moreover, among them is Cu Chulainn. I don't think that Cu Chulainn could even think of something like that.
"Little strokes fell great oaks," Da Vinci wisely said, raising her finger pointing upward and smiling, "Don't worry, considering what eyes they look at you with..."
"DA VINCI!" - at that moment Olga-Marie suddenly interrupted the girl's voice.
"Yeah, sure, forgot," the girl cut herself off, "It's not only the Servants..."
"Da Vinci," the girl said deceptively calmly, "You know that if you are thrown into the Chaldea's core, even you won't be able to get out of there."
"I stayed with you too long," Da Vinci sighed immediately, "It seems that the briefing is over and I can go to my office."
"Yes, good luck," Olga-Marie waved at the girl with a hand.
'Throw her in the core of the Chaldea' - Ainz recalled - 'This is what Lev tried to do with her, isn't it?'
However, Olga-Marie rather fell in love with this joke rather than become stressed because of it.
'She seems to be developing a professional black sense of humor,' Ainz sighed. But at least it was better than just giving up. Humor always helped to cope with stress.
"Good," Ainz sighed. "In that case, can I, too, probably go?"
"Yes, of course," Olga-Marie smiled. "Go and get a victory for the glory of Chaldea, special operative."
Ainz stood in the same chamber as when he was sent to the last singularity. This time, however, his company was somewhat different.
"My lord," Cainabel smiled, kneeling on one knee, "I am glad that you honored this servant with your assignment."
"Bootlicker," the Witch threw it contemptuously.
"Oh, is it only to my ears, or did the girl without her own name speak?" Cainabel turned to the Witch. "I don't understand why my master loves you."
"Loves?" "The Witch stopped for a second, after which she immediately shook her head, "I do not want to hear a single word from your rotten mouth."
"Well, well," - Jeanne tried to intervene in the conversation, trying to smile at both of them, - "Do not quarrel. We are all friends and allies here…"
"The last time you said so, you were burned at the stake," the Witch instantly threw a mockery at Jeanne.
"Because you couldn't read," Cainabel smiled right away, "By the way, I heard that you still don't know how. If I were you, I would hold on to the Master with all my might - who else needs such a brainless Servant?"
Jeanne, hearing this, stepped back a step.
"It will be difficult for them," Cu Chulainn sighed and turned to Medusa, "But I am glad that you are going too."
Medusa instead took a step away from Cu Chulainn.
"Damn it, I already apologized," Cu Chulainn took a step after Medusa, who immediately took a step away again, "I was drunk, it was just an innocent offer! Damn it, Medusa, you're breaking my heart!"
"I can break your something else," Medusa answered calmly, taking one more step away from the mage "If you don't leave me alone."
"Senpai," Mashu caught the attention of Ainz. He turned to the side and smiled at the girl, - "This will be another adventure next to you."
"Yeah," Ainz extended his hand and patted the girl's hair, making her giggle, looking at the conflicting Servants, who continued to squabble with each other, "It's going to be a great adventure."
Ainz did not take into account one thing when compiling a team.
Psychological compatibility.
"Transition to the final stage of reyshifting" - the mechanical voice of the system was heard and Ainz sighed - "Coordinates: 1st century AD, Roman Empire, Rome"
He could already see how simple this Singularity would be.
Deicide - is a skill denoting a person who has dedicated his life to killing the divine. To get such a skill is not enough just to face the divine or even fight with the gods. Even killing one or two gods will not give one this skill. This skill is given to a person who has killed hundreds, thousands — and in the case of Ainz — millions of divine beings and creatures marked as a God in his life. It doesn't matter what kind of god they were marked with and what exactly was the goal of the owner of this skill - a God-chosen champion, the owner of a great divine artifact, the divine beast or a God himself - this skill, rather than giving new abilities, simply indicates the fact that the owner of this skill in itself is a real nightmare of divine creatures and the instrument of their destruction.