Fate's Choice: Livestream at the Start Summoning Billions of Ravens

The azure waves did not rise from the sea, but descended from the sky.

The magnificent phantom called the "Eternal Theater" is not a simple optical image, but a higher-dimensional projection of rules.

It forcibly stripped the Tokyo Bay area, spanning ten kilometers in radius, from reality and replaced it with a stage called "Opicalay".

The raging waves that were originally so powerful that the ship's fire control radar could not lock onto the target were now as docile as a pool of ironed silk.

The Fujian, Ford, and dozens of surrounding frigates remained as stable as mountains under that strange buoyancy rule, like models embedded in jelly.

In contrast, there were countless black mud monsters rushing in from all directions.

The Abyss Legion, which had been moving as fast as mad dogs just moments before, showed a visible slowdown the moment it entered this azure territory.

The air seemed to be filled with an invisible, viscous substance, and each flap of their wings and each strike consumed ten times their usual kinetic energy.

This is the privilege of the "director".

In this theater, unless you are more mysterious than the girl standing on the top of the ship's island, you are just an extra on the stage who can only follow the script.

"Lights! Music! And...applause!"

The scepter in Funina's hand drew an elegant arc in the air like a conductor's baton.

Above the dome of that opera house, which was only an outline, countless musical notes, formed from high-purity water elements, poured out like a flock of startled birds.

They did not dissipate in the air, but instead stretched and deformed rapidly, transforming into three different phantoms, each radiating terrifying magical energy.

Lord Uther, dressed in a tailcoat and with octopus tentacles.

Lady Hevima floats gracefully, surrounded by rainbow bubbles.

And "Miss Shebeleta," clad in heavy armor and with claws like battering rams.

These are the retinue belonging exclusively to the water goddess, and also her "special guests" in this performance.

The way we fight has changed.

It is no longer a battle filled with smoke and blood, but a bizarre and absurd drama.

Lord Uther spat out not ink, but high-pressure water blades, which dismembered the black mud pterosaurs that were trying to dive in mid-air like sashimi. Lady Hevima's foam bombs, upon contact with the monsters, produced no sparks, but instead washed away the filthy black liquid into transparent steam.

A black rain fell from the sky, but it was completely purified by the blue field before it hit the ground.

The pressure on the ground defenses decreased sharply.

The soldiers of the human expeditionary force stared in disbelief at this mythical scene through the observation holes of their bunkers.

Those monsters that would normally require several armor-piercing shells to destroy are now being thrown out of the ball by security guards without any dignity, like a group of barbarians who have barged into a high-class ball.

However, the script did not always go as the director intended.

In New Delhi, thousands of miles away, the Eye of the Abyss, hanging atop a bone pillar, seemed to be enraged by this stage filled with "order" and "beauty".

It dislikes such delicate things.

It craves chaos, craves collapse, and craves to tear everything beautiful to shreds and trample it into the mud.

"Buzz—"

A low-frequency vibration spread throughout the world.

The Kuromushi Tide, which was advancing towards Tokyo Bay, suddenly stopped its mindless charge.

Those puddles of writhing black sludge began to frantically coalesce and pile up, no longer mimicking the form of wild beasts, but instead imitating human creations.

Within a few seconds, hundreds of "biological fortresses" made of black mud rose up on the coastline.

Their shapes are twisted and ferocious, yet they have long cannon barrel structures, which are the war weapons they have extracted after they devoured human artillery positions.

boom! boom! boom!

Hundreds of compressed, high-pressure mud projectiles, carrying an abyssal curse powerful enough to corrode steel, pierced the sky and crashed heavily onto the combined fleet on the sea.

The Abyss's learning ability is so fast it's despair-inducing.

"Damn it! Hard to port! Evade!"

The captain of the USS Ford roared the order, but the 100,000-ton behemoth didn't have time to turn in a matter of seconds.

Three mud shells accurately hit the energy shield on the side of the aircraft carrier.

There was no crisp sound of metal colliding, only the sound of corrosion.

The protective shield was like a piece of plastic sheet that had been splashed with concentrated sulfuric acid, instantly becoming riddled with holes.

A violent magical explosion erupted at the edge of the deck. Although the shockwave did not penetrate the armor, it caused the entire aircraft carrier to tremble violently, and more than a dozen fighter jets parked on the deck were shaken out of their fixed positions.

"They're mimicking our weapons!"

"These beasts have even learned ballistic correction!"

Just as panic was about to spread, a thick golden light suddenly shone.

That was Zhang Ruoxu.

The old celestial master sat cross-legged at the bow of the Fujian warship, his eyes slightly closed, while the Bagua diagram beneath him spun wildly.

"The Three Powers return to their origin, the Four Symbols are locked in control!"

Mud bombs rained down again.

But this time, the devastating kinetic energy that should have been borne by a single warship was instantly distributed across every inch of the entire fleet's steel plates by the golden net the moment it made contact with the hull.

One hundred ships share the damage from one cannonball.

The Ford only swayed slightly, and not even the paint chipped off.

"Thanks, old sage!" the American captain roared into the communications channel, his voice trembling with relief after surviving the ordeal.

At the top of the ship's island, Funina watched this scene, her heterochromatic eyes, which had initially held a hint of mockery, gradually turning cold.

She didn't like the uncontrolled plot.

I dislike even more this ugly creation that dirtied her skirt and the stage.

"What a... utterly unaesthetic struggle."

The girl sighed softly, took off her hat decorated with irises, and tossed it into the air. The hat turned into countless blue petals and disappeared in the wind.

She no longer waves her arms like a conductor.

At this moment, she clasped her hands together in front of her chest, her expression becoming solemn and compassionate, as if the divinity belonging to "gods" was awakening in this mortal body.

Since comedy cannot tame wild beasts.

Then let them see what the tragedy of the end is.

"In the name of justice, I pronounce judgment..."

The clear, cold voice, following the rules of the Eternal Theater, resounded deep within the souls of every living being.

[Noble Phantasm 2: The End of Comedy]

"When lies become truth, when performance becomes essence, when false gods gain genuine faith—then does this hypocrisy also become reality?"

Click.

The phantom image of the opera house, suspended in the sky, shattered.

It did not disappear, but disintegrated into billions of crystal-clear fragments.

These fragments fell like a torrential rain, but instead of falling into the sea, they floated above the sea surface, piecing together a vast, boundless water mirror that covered the entire battlefield.

The world has turned upside down.

The sky is below, the ocean is above.