"Fifteen minutes."
Watching his Master walk back toward them across the snow, Shiomi calmly reported the time.
With the recreated Ivan the Thunderous Emperor destroyed, the blizzard that had engulfed the area vanished as if spring had returned overnight. In the blink of an eye, the ice and snow melted away, and the surroundings reverted to the same landscape as the regions they had passed through earlier.
"That took longer than I expected. Sorry to keep you all waiting in the snowstorm."
Scáthach looked genuinely troubled, offering Shiomi an apologetic smile.
"It's not your fault, Master." He took her hand to reassure her. "The biggest difference between the extraordinary entity here and the one in Russia is that its survivability has been significantly enhanced."
This Anomaly Domain's defining trait was its ability to collect records of Lostbelt Kings and reconstruct similar entities through mana.
Koyanskaya had likely anticipated the inevitability of clashing with Chaldea. After analyzing the battle data from Russia, she tailored reinforcement measures specifically for a massive body like Ivan's.
Victory over Chaldea was never the goal. Delaying and wearing down part of their forces was more realistic.
That rough conclusion had taken shape in Shiomi's mind while observing the battle.
"As Tenkei-dono said, before the severed Lostbelts disappeared, the Beast retrieved local special lifeforms and information on the Lostbelt Kings from those regions," Taigong Wang explained. "From the Russian Lostbelt, it took the Yaga. From the Nordic one, the giants. It even recovered lesser fae from Britain."
Shiomi crossed his arms. "If we follow that pattern, Koyanskaya probably planned to retrieve whatever she deemed valuable from all seven Lostbelts and use them to construct this domain's anomalous dependents."
"But plans never survive contact with reality." Morgan reached down and gently brushed the reeds sprouting from the ground. "Based on the varying depths of the Lostbelts, the Crypters initially judged that Chaldea would eliminate them from the shallowest to the deepest, gradually strengthening themselves along the way."
"The greatest variable in that calculation," Shiomi nodded, "was my wife. Neither the Alien God nor the Crypters knew your true identity, nor the connection between us."
Using BB's authority, they had entered the already empty British Lostbelt and sent Shiomi six thousand years into the past.
That single move had completely overturned the Crypters' expectations.
They never imagined anyone could live for six millennia. Nor could they have predicted what such a person might eventually become.
"Before Koyanskaya was gravely wounded by Orion and fully retreated here, she likely retrieved something from the Atlantic Lostbelt as well," Artoria added. "But she never witnessed the defeat of Zeus, the great god of that Lostbelt. She shouldn't be able to recreate Zeus or the Olympian gods."
Taigong Wang smiled faintly. "To be honest, even if Ivan the Thunderous Emperor had been defeated, a new individual would soon have regenerated through the ley lines, continuously draining the attackers' strength."
"Then why didn't he reappear? Was Taigong Wang's prediction wrong?" Nikitich asked skeptically.
"It's not that I miscalculated." Taigong Wang looked at Shiomi. "It's that Chaldea has capable people. When did you notice?"
"A few minutes after the battle started," Shiomi replied with a shrug. "I could already see the connection between the recreated Ivan the Thunderous Emperor and the land's ley lines. This is Koyanskaya's domain. The ley lines are under her control."
Drawing on the experience he had gained during the battle in Atlantis, Shiomi had interfered with the ley lines here.
One could also call it seizing control.
After all, he was tampering with someone else's territory.
"Unfortunately, it was only a forced interference. I temporarily severed the ley lines from Koyanskaya's control, preventing her from creating more recreated entities and anomalous dependents." Shiomi looked down at his own hands. "If we want to truly seize control of this land, we have to defeat the Beast itself."
The problem was that once that happened, there would be no reason left to keep occupying the place.
In other words, even if they stopped the endless stream of hostile recreated entities and anomalous dependents from spawning, they still couldn't use the ley lines to summon Servants into manifestation.
Whether it was altering the Anomaly Domain's rejection of human Servants or making use of the ley lines at all, everything ultimately traced back to the Beast itself.
A classic deadlock where the result became the cause.
"If we want to change the environment and summon more Servants, we have to defeat the Beast. But once the Beast is defeated, there's no need to summon Servants anymore." Shiomi spread his hands helplessly.
Taigong Wang nodded repeatedly. "However, while the dependents and the recreated weapons do not share information with the domain's ruler, the ley lines are a different matter."
"She'll notice through them, won't she?" Shiomi raised a brow.
Scáthach smiled faintly. "Then couldn't we use this stretch of land, where control over the ley lines has been cut off, to set up a defense and lure Koyanskaya into trying to reclaim it?"
"Your idea is sound, but I would make a small adjustment." Taigong Wang nodded in approval and began sketching a simple map in the snow. "Nikitich-dono and I will remain here and hold this severed territory. Tenkei-dono and the others will proceed northwest. From there, there's a route leading deeper into the interior, straight toward the Beast."
A straightforward division of forces.
On one side, they would pressure Koyanskaya to retake control of the ley lines. On the other, they would push forward to engage her directly, forcing her to divide her attention.
"Ah…" Shiomi made a face. "Shouldn't it be Taigong Wang-dono and Nikitich-dono going to subjugate the Beast, while we handle cutting off all ley line control?"
"Hahaha, that's not impossible. If Tenkei-dono truly wishes it, I wouldn't object." Taigong Wang laughed at Shiomi's complaint. "After all, Yuanshi Tianzun has already informed me that the Beast here is neither Daji nor the Nine-Tailed Fox, but an existence merely imitating their form."
Taigong Wang had no particular obsession with personally defeating the Beast.
That was precisely why Yuanshi Tianzun had clarified the matter to his disciple, lest he lose sight of his actual duty.
"No, I was just saying." Shiomi scratched his cheek. "Let's go with Taigong Wang-dono's plan."
"Then before you depart, take this." Taigong Wang drew a finely crafted bronze disc from his sleeve.
It was engraved with the Taiji, the Four Symbols, and the Eight Trigrams.
"What's this?"
"A Mystic Code for long-distance communication," Taigong Wang explained. "Activate it, and we can contact one another at any time. I have a few matters I intend to explain to Tenkei-dono, and this location will serve well for that. With this in hand, even if we split up, nothing important will be delayed."