The image of being pierced through the chest by a black sword still lingered in Gilgamesh's memory, along with the weightlessness of his spiritual foundation's collapse and that complete defeat. He had returned to Valhalla with his spiritual foundation intact.
This defeat was so unforgettable for him that it was deeply engraved into the origin of his spiritual foundation.
Remaining within the ontological consciousness of Valhalla, in the nearly stagnant flow of time, he repeatedly analyzed and deduced every detail and root cause of his defeat.
In the end, he concluded that the failure that had caught him so off guard, despite discarding all pretense, proved only one thing.
They were gradually being abandoned, being set aside by the very people of this world. The future might lose its place, completely reduced to the past.
Within the realistic timeframe, from the collapse of his spiritual foundation to its completion, not even a second had passed.
On the other side, the tyrant Gilgamesh, who had already obtained a complete body, also discovered this at the same moment.
He swirled the divine wine he had taken from the Gate of Babylon in his goblet. His crimson pupils slightly lowered, and his originally carefree mood suddenly shifted into an irritability that was difficult to suppress.
"In my time, this king bid farewell to the gods on behalf of my people and on behalf of all humanity."
"And you, Locke—are you going to completely bid farewell to humanity, to restraint, to all of human reason?"
Thinking of this layer, Gilgamesh's face darkened completely. It was pleasant to see people breaking free from their shackles and flying forward, but at this moment, he suddenly woke up—he himself was precisely one of those parts that humanity should completely leave behind along with the old era.
The remaining wine disappeared in an instant, and he could not enjoy it at all.
In that future, humanity had surpassed them and reached the pinnacle of its civilization and race. Those people of that time might even forget the legends, making them a thing of the past.
However, when he thought that he might see such a future and even become a part of it, Gilgamesh's mood suddenly improved. He considered.
Perhaps in the future, he would not be as simple as Gilgamesh.
When the reality of the wise king Gilgamesh, the last trump card in their hands, failed to win even half a victory, Fujimaru Ritsuka stood before the gladiatorial arena, transformed into the deck of a starship, and felt all her strength drain away. Even her fingertips were cold, and she was instantly overcome with a near-numb self-denial.
Faced with two defeats, they had not been mentally prepared for the worst, but the realistic outcome far exceeded all expectations.
They had lost cleanly, without the slightest value—not to mention discovering the enemy's weaknesses or finding a way to break the game. Even their strongest Servant had been directly killed by the enemy's unreasonable Noble Phantasm, leaving no room for a turnaround, no matter how she used her Command Spells. Gilgamesh's death remained irreversible.
The current situation was no longer something that could be easily described as "falling into a disadvantage." It was a desperate situation where not even a trace of light could be seen.
An immense, suffocating pressure instantly overwhelmed her.
Two consecutive failures, along with the heavy burden of saving the survival of all humanity, lay on the shoulders of an ordinary high school girl. She understood too well that losing this final battle would lead to an irreversible end for humanity and the entire world, even if it was only a subspecies singularity.
At that moment, Shirou Emiya reached out and patted her on the shoulder. As a close friend recognized by Locke, he had already keenly sensed the fleeting vitality and brilliance in these two seemingly irreparable duels.
Fujimaru Ritsuka lifted her head blankly and met Shirou Emiya's calm and determined eyes. The nerves that had been so tense they were about to snap suddenly relaxed, and she froze in place. Without any superfluous foreshadowing or comforting words, he spoke directly, his voice as steady as if it could bear the entire trembling load:
"I have an idea."
At the same time, Fou, still agitated and exhausted, had quietly settled in Matthew's arms, tilting its little head to enjoy the girl's gentle comfort, but its round eyes were full of doubt.
Where had the aura that had just belonged to the "Beast" gone? How could it suddenly vanish without a trace?
And just as they were puzzled, Locke, having obtained the "Principle of Understanding," met with the other Lockes and briefly informed them of the situation. After exchanging character cards, he successfully prevented the birth of the Eighth Beast.
Although Mahoraga was gone, its "Principle of Understanding" could better help Locke realize his next plan. So Locke remained in Valhalla and began to "understand" it.
He used the "Principle of Understanding" to open the barriers of Valhalla and implanted a passionate but distorted future into this temple, which recorded all the glory of humanity—he wanted Valhalla to accept those human heroes who had traveled across the galaxy for 40,000 years.
He succeeded and also failed. He recorded the heroic spirits that had already "existed" before Chaldea, such as Cypher, Sigismund, Mephisto, and other heroes, in Valhalla, but he could do no more.
Their memories were unreal and might even contradict each other, and while this could be explained by the schemes of Tzeentch, it was not what Locke wanted.
He wanted to create a real future through lies. But no matter how real these lies were, they also needed a piece of land capable of taking root. There was no human trajectory that truly served as a cornerstone. Even if he could read everything about humanity, he could not make Valhalla recognize these souls that existed only in his imagination, crossing the galaxy.
The human reason of this world was firmly locked within the square inches of its home planet. It was too narrow to contain even half a star sea.
He searched every corner of Valhalla but found no existence capable of carrying the romance of humanity's galaxy 40,000 years later. It was as if all the good of humanity was sealed in the past of the past, and the future was predetermined, leaving only a tragedy destined to fade away.
Just as he was about to give up, turn around, and head straight into the vortex of the Root, a soul as faint as a star rushing into deep space burst into his field of vision.
[Voyager]
This was a modern heroic spirit, existing for a very short time in human history—a miracle from a parallel world line, recorded by Valhalla based solely on all of humanity's shared longing for the starry sky.
In 1977, humanity sent two probes named "Voyager" into the dark and boundless universe. They carried humanity's most fervent dream of space, carrying a golden record recorded in 55 human languages, flying into the infinite deep cosmos, sailing without stopping, becoming humanity's most tender love letter to the star sea.
This longing and romance across the galaxy ultimately transformed into a heroic spirit named "Voyager." Its appearance resembled the little boy from The Little Prince, traveling between planets, always accompanied by humanity's purest and most passionate yearning for the starry sky, the unknown, and the future.
The moment he saw Voyager clearly, Locke's heart finally settled. He no longer needed any alternative Plan B.
With the surge of reason and the grounding of will, his figure slowly changed within the sea of light of Valhalla.
Golden armor, as bright as a star, covered his majestic body. A crown woven from laurel branches fell through his hair. The double-headed eagle emblem of the Human Empire on his chest was like two eyes gazing at the star sea, shining with a majestic and tender light.
With a love that could hold the entire galaxy, he leaned down and gently embraced the little prince before him, as innocent as a young beast, into his arms.
Voyager woke slowly in his warm embrace, looked up, and met Locke's deep eyes. Its clear pupils were full of helpless confusion.
"Go to sleep, my child." Locke's voice was like an evening breeze, wrapped in starlight, gentle yet carrying the weight to shake the world. "When you wake up, the world will have a new form. As a reward for carrying the romance of all of humanity's stars, you will become my child, a whole and true human being, to touch every starry sky you have dreamed of."
"This oath is made in the name of the Lord of Humanity."
The moment the words fell, all of Valhalla suddenly trembled. The boundless sea of light flashed and boiled, and this temple, which recorded all of humanity's past, marked a breakthrough that shook the earth.
At the same moment, Locke's world line caused a drastic change that could shake the entire human foundation. The entire timeline from this moment cracked, splitting into two completely different trajectories.
In the Chaldea command room, the light screen of Sheba's near-future observation lens suddenly exploded with a blinding red alarm. A sharp signal instantly filled the room.
The already tense atmosphere completely exploded. The already nervous staff immediately plunged into chaos, their fingertips flying rapidly over the consoles, trying their best to capture the basic data of this anomaly and figure out what had happened to this singularity.
Dr. Roman grabbed his hair and shouted at the light screen that was nearly collapsing: "What the hell is this singularity doing?!"
Leonardo da Vinci leaned against the edge of the console, her fingers casually sliding over the constantly red parameter panel. Her tone was no longer her usual lighthearted one, mixed with some inexplicable melancholy and the unique, uncontrollable curiosity of a genius:
"I always feel... we are truly being left behind by humanity and the future. By the way, the situation of humanity 40,000 years later—I suddenly want to see it with my own eyes."
"This is no time to talk about that!"
Dr. Roman, who was somewhat desperate, suddenly turned his head to her, clenched his fists, and raised his voice, shouting:
"Don't give up!"
At the same time, Holmes, standing in the corner, frowned slightly, pressing his fingertips to his chin, yet maintaining absolute calm in the chaos of the room.
He quickly sorted through this series of unreasonable changes, but the doubts in his heart grew stronger.
Locke, who had single-handedly created all of this, who had become the "future Emperor of the Universe" and the "Lord of Humanity"—had he appeared suddenly? And why had he so abruptly burst onto the chessboard of human existence?
Who was this future Emperor of the Universe and Lord of Humanity? Why had it appeared so suddenly?
Before anyone could understand what was happening, the two rapidly diverging timelines bit through and approached, ultimately transforming into a mirror world of two sides of the same body, like a closed-loop Möbius strip at the end of its limits. The front and back were originally one, and there was no possibility of separation.
At the same time, Locke, who was rewriting Valhalla based on Voyager's spiritual foundation, watched as future heroic spirits appeared one after another before him, and the galaxy of his dreams constantly appeared before him.
But all of this was still unstable. He still needed help.
"You really did it? It seems God still favors us."
Heroic Spirit Locke appeared in Valhalla. After Locke had distorted reality, he was replaced by a true Valhallan Emperor's Angel and became the one who fought against Chaldea, Shirou Emiya, and the others.
"It's not that God favors us, but I have to say, everyone should thank Mahoraga."
"Oh? What happened?"
"It's a long story, but I'll make it short. He became a Beast."
"?"
"Those details don't matter. The main thing is that from now on, what we have to do will be no exception."
With that, Locke extended his hand to the heroic spirit whose face was exactly like his own. In those eyes, which carried the glory of humanity for 40,000 years, word by word, there was unshakable resolve:
"Are you ready to rewrite the fate of this world, Emperor?"
The corner of the heroic spirit Locke's mouth, known as the Emperor, smiled with the same frequency. He raised his hand and firmly grasped it, his voice resolute, crossing the timeline:
"I've been ready for a long time."
When they tightly clasped their palms together, a bright light that could illuminate the non-linear flow of time in Valhalla burst forth. A fierce stream of light engulfed everything.
In the next second, the two homologous consciousnesses simultaneously broke free from the shackles of Valhalla and re-entered the material world—only their figures were separated into two distinct timelines, standing at opposite ends of the mirror world, in two planes that were one and two sides of the same body, but never intersecting.
Emperor Locke looked at his Space Marine character card and the additional "Principle of Mutual Understanding" entrusted to him, containing all of humanity's loneliness, and slowly closed his eyes.
He raised his hand and waved it forward, his fingertips tearing the curtain of reality with his will, revealing a bottomless imaginary space.
He entered this chaotic world, where the laws of reality had completely collapsed and ordinary reason could not observe, standing unprotected between the cracks of the world.
This was the tidal crossing of countless parallel worlds, pan-human history, and pruning issues, as well as the critical boundary closest to the Root disaster and the material world.
Locke stood here quietly, holding in one hand the "distortion" that subverted fate, and in the other the "understanding" that empathized with all living beings, embarking on this journey spanning 30,000 years in the name of the Lord of Humanity.
"Here, this is my subspace."
"For the next 30,000 years, let it be."