Chapter 391: Fate World and Tsukihime World

The defensive wall the six sisters once joined hands to build unfurled high in the heavens, like a shell of stars—

Those several dozen layers of gray cloud sea wrapping the leaden sky were a shield manufactured within the planet's atmosphere to protect the sole remaining home…

However, on this day.

Those several dozen layers of heavy gray cloud sea were actually brutally torn apart by absolute power, shattering like fragile foam.

And at the top of that gray cloud sea, because the Aristoteles from Pluto was wounded, its blood fell like a torrential downpour, covering this planet and forming a blood-red sea.

Likewise, it was on this day.

This crimson symbolizing despair, too, like dust in a storm, was ultimately blown utterly away by the impact, vanishing without a trace.

But the thing that shattered the sunken darkness of despair was not the dawn of hope.

It was an even greater despair.

Dimmer than twilight, redder than fresh blood.

Violent cosmic rays and solar storms suddenly erupted somewhere on the planet's surface, like nature's most primal power venting, illuminating the iron-gray land!

The two Aristoteles that originally could not descend to the planet's surface because their invasion was blocked leisurely swam in this crimson ocean, like true fish of the universe.

But at this moment, faced with the sudden change, they could only flee in panic from the planet about to collapse, plunging headlong into the pitch-black, freezing dead silent space without looking back.

The defensive wall is gone…

Now we can descend…

It's practically a joke; even UOs from other celestial bodies are incompatible with this planet's common sense, lacking a conventional concept of "death."

But this doesn't mean they truly absolutely cannot be killed.

If they're devoured by that terrifying thing, it's really over.

—The crimson blood ocean gradually evaporated completely under the solar storm's ravaging…

—The figures of the two Aristoteles fled in panic through the pitch-black, freezing space…

The planet's surface right now is like a human purgatory; the iron-gray land is illuminated by the violent solar storm, every inch of earth emitting death's aura; clearly the temperature is rising sharply, yet it makes one chill to the bone.

This scene turned many people's complexions pale; they thought of the past crusade against that black Aristoteles, that history's shadow seemingly shrouding this hopeless world once more.

—Type Jupiter.

Said to be the Aristoteles from Jupiter, its appearance is a pure black giant tens of kilometers in total length.

That terrifying scale of existence is like the personification of Jupiter, the giant within the Solar System.

If you don't look at the size, this Aristoteles's shape is extremely close to a human.

However, probing its essence, its main body seems to be an aggregate of some kind of black photon gas, seemingly able to expand infinitely, and at the gas center is a core of unknown entity that can only be described as simulating the Sun.

Its body is photon gas, seemingly released by that core of unknown entity.

As the one among the eight Aristoteles that eliminated the most lives, the Western Continent once gathered all its forces, attempting to oppose it.

But regrettably, this epic confrontation, though it temporarily drove back that black giant, failed to inflict any damage on it, leaving no trace on its pure black photon gas body.

Afterwards, the wheel of fate turned again, welcoming the decisive moment.

At the end of the battle with the Knights dispatched to the Western Continent, this tens-of-kilometers black giant was cleaved in two by a single world-shaking slash from the Knight Aiden.

Facing the terrifying power of the Magic Sword "Slash Emperor," the Aristoteles from Jupiter also temporarily went offline.

And maybe because it couldn't watch ads to resurrect, the loading time was incredibly long.

Because among those slacking alien companions, Jupiter's Aristoteles, with its diligence and outstanding achievements, became the existence that killed the most Earth lives.

So its falling down counted as giving this world's people a brief chance to catch their breath.

Just behind winning this brief respite lay immeasurable sacrifice—

In the final chapter of that crusade, as the black giant perished, the simulated sun within its body also lost control, and the Western Continent was erased amid brilliant light…

That endless light and heat were released…

Thoroughly scorching the surface world clean.

That scene remains an ineradicable nightmare in many hearts to this day, and today this terrifying scene is actually playing out again, and even worse than before.

Clearly that's power only reachable when Type Jupiter self-destructs…

Why can it be released this easily?!

This is naturally because—

Awakening from a dormant state, maximizing its functions in an extremely short unit of time, this world's ORT has already entered full-power operation mode.

In Chaldea's terminology, that is—

"Shi Ba's danger observation, hostile reaction, both at maximum…"

"Spirit Origin scale expanded from satellite-class to stellar-class, exceeding measuring instrument normal range…"

Even…

This spider is still the version that hasn't had its heart gouged out; compared to the one over in the Lostbelt, it not only shows not the least weakness, but is completely in its peak period, at full strength!

In such a situation, one can imagine what earth-shattering commotion it'll make when it goes berserk.

Speaking of it, for a very long period, Mr. Spider was misunderstood by people as the Mercury UO, and because it was overly idle, it had no performance to speak of during the entire Steel Land period…

But today, it tore open that disguise, like a hibernating dragon awakening, revealing its fangs.

Making everyone realize it wasn't that it was slacking off so hard it had no presence…

But merely because…

It doesn't care.

………………

………………

Breathing has become even more difficult.

Clearly originally needed medicine just to breathe…

Now he even felt an unbearable pain and scorching heat tormenting his lungs, as if raging flames were rampaging inside his chest cavity; every breath came with indescribable agony, his insides feeling as though they were about to catch fire.

A weightless sensation, like a tide, surged over him, nearly drowning the man completely.

Only when his exhausted feet stepped back onto the solid ground of the city wall did this torment lessen slightly.

Thought slowly returned; he slowly sat down directly, unable even to recall how he had stumbled step by step back through this chaos.

Things happened too fast.

Memories, too, seemed scorched by flames, leaving only vague fragments.

There seemed to have been a few seconds...

He had almost completely lost consciousness, but his body, this stubborn shell, still obstinately followed the instinct to survive, unwilling to let death claim him easily, barely supporting himself so he would not fall...

At this moment, the area inside the city wall had thoroughly fallen into chaos.

On the bustling streets, creatures of various races were bewildered by fear; this emotion spread rapidly like a plague, triggering even greater turmoil.

Although many among them were existences surpassing the human species, even so, when the End of the World arrived, they would not say they had not a shred of emotional fluctuation.

Beastmen roared desperately on the ground, trying to steady the situation, but their howls appeared so powerless before the terror of the approaching end.

Angels flew through mid-air, darting about like headless flies, having lost direction and target.

Facing the turmoil before him, the man voiced no opinion,

He merely struggled to move his exhausted body, which seemed already at its limit, slowly stood up, and simultaneously attempted to turn back and look toward the outside of the city wall.

In that instant, his pupils seemed ignited by purgatory fire, reflecting a heart-palpitating world.

Between Heaven and Earth, there seemed to remain only the monstrous might released by that monster, as if the entire firmament were crazily reverberating with clamor, shaking the trembling Void.

Furious and violent Solar Wind and Cosmic Rays created a cataclysm woven from fire, smoke, and thunderous roars!

The man watched the forest outside howl in flames; dark gray trees and withered-leaf-colored grasslands rapidly turned to ash in the heat wave.

On this dead silent planet, the surface could no longer grow plants long ago; only the area sheltered by the World Tree still retained precious vitality and greenery.

But now, all of this was being devoured by high temperature and radiation in a split second.

In just a frantic, delirious flash of time, all beauty and hope had already been shattered.

This sudden change caught people off guard, yet they were powerless to reverse it.

The man could only stand there silently, watching helplessly as this world collapsed and disintegrated bit by bit before his eyes.

Only the two World Trees situated at the city center, soaring straight into the clouds, still stood tall amid the ravaging of endless rays and storms; their height even reached the former Cloud Sea, standing firm like guardian gods.

However.

As countless female humanoid bodies with bird wings growing on their backs fell burning from above the canopy, turning into localized meteor showers...

It appears the World Tree's own condition would not be said to be very optimistic either.

If not for the radiation source of the Solar Wind and Cosmic Rays being very far, very far away, they would likely have long since turned to ash under the continuous bombardment.

As for now, they seem barely able to still shelter the city below, but no one knows how long they can hold out...

This is the reason people feel fear.

Annihilation seems right before their eyes.

The man thought so too; he forced his eyes wide open, wanting to see clearly that distant light source, that sun disk seemingly rising slowly on the planet's surface.

Beyond that, there was no way to see any more details.

He even felt his eyes were about to burn blind; a scorching pain radiated from his eyelids.

That should be fighting with something, right? Or a unilateral rampage? Just that the distance is too far, too far, and the other party might not have such a massive scale of existence, so it fundamentally cannot be seen.

"Just what is..."

"What happened?"

The man felt doubtful, but a premonition rose in his heart.

Perhaps, that great war without a victor, that great war to utterly exterminate the already dead planet, is about to raise its curtain once more...

Six Sisters... Knight Eden... those names from stories, the vanished Strong Experts...

As long as one is unwilling to welcome the end with eyes wide open, then they will definitely appear again.

——————

——————

"Rin is suspicious? Oh, that's quite normal."

Underground in Fuyuki City.

Inside the nonexistent Great Void.

The Magician stood beside the giant spider firmly imprisoned and suppressed by the Light Grid, casually tapping the interactive interface projected in mid-air.

Listening to the information conveyed by the silver-haired girl beside him, he tilted his head and pondered for a moment.

"Better not tell Rin; go out one trip and bring back the Magecraft world's nightmare, put it in Fuyuki City's underground cavity..."

Cough cough, this is indeed too stimulating.

He worried Tohsaka Rin couldn't withstand this kind of stimulation.

Currently it's finally turning out well after hardship; everything is thriving day by day, making the Tohsaka Family great again no longer seems like an illusory dream.

Still, let the Tohsaka Family head enjoy a few more good days.

"In a few days I'll find something else to do, divert her attention..."

Xia Zhi said this, while enthusiastically waving at Miss Filia, looking like he wanted to share—

"Right, come quick, our Sino-US joint venture project has made a major breakthrough."

"What do you mean Sino-US joint venture?" Miss Filia frowned.

"Aren't you a Goddess of Beauty?" Xia Zhi coughed once, "Forget it, don't mind the details, come come come, after this period of observation, I've found the World's Divergence Point!"

"Oh?"

"That's right, the world that affirms human history, and the world that denies human history!"

The Magician spoke with a serious face: "Or rather, a world where Heroic Spirit Summoning holds possibility and Human Order is strong... and a world that denies Heroic Spirit Summoning and human history, where Dead Apostle Strengthening occurs."

(Chapter End)