Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

She wouldn't go in, because she knew that doing so would be openly participating in the saints' war—she planned to use this pit against other reincarnation teams. Therefore, she wouldn't allow this crucial intelligence to be exposed before the opportune moment arrived.

[Six reincarnation teams: Central Continent, Demon Realm, Indian Continent, Forest Continent, Celestial Realm, and Western Sea. Leaving aside ourselves, the Demon Team consists of members ranging from at least Tier 4 to at least Tier 4 High. Even if they did fall into a trap of this level—and even if they did—with the strength of the clone Zheng Zha and the intelligence of the clone Chu Xuan as a foundation, plus the clones of myself and Patchi, this level of trap is destined to vanish without a trace. The best strategy against them is to delay, to delay their arrival, ensuring they descend only towards the end of the Dao War, thus preventing them from gaining excessively large benefits.]

She chose the perspective of the timeline, traveling back in time from the end of this universe, and soon arrived at the 21st century where Chaldea was located. When she looked inward from outside time, all the changes within Chaldea came into her view.

A group of mortals, a few Servants, a bunch of Spirit Origin Shadows, and a doctor who had transformed from a Heroic Spirit into a mortal—Chaldea held no secrets in Iris's eyes. As her gaze swept across, she easily discerned Chaldea and Sheba hovering above the control room, and even the forty-odd life support pods containing Spirit Particle Transfer candidates, rendered unusable by the void storm, were analyzed in detail. She could release these candidates from their captivity at any time she desired.

She could do it at any time, but she would never. Directly injecting interference into the chessboard through the 'game' provided by Chu Xuan was already the limit of cheating. And once she got involved in the main historical storyline, even for a fleeting moment when the denominator was an immeasurable number, she would be mired in a quagmire from which she would find it difficult to escape.

Currently, what is certain is that Fujiwara Ritsuka is very likely the representative of one of the two saints. Her destiny is so strong that she can interfere with the balance of the entire world despite being only a mortal. However, it is unfortunate that we cannot confirm which saint's 'path' she represents. Thus, even if we were to place our bets at the table, it would become quite complicated.

The spokesperson is not an incarnation or clone; she is neither a secondary account of the saint nor a puppet of the saint. She is more like the saint's shadow, a pure shadow reduced to mortal form. All her actions in this world reflect the battle situation of a certain saint at the Vortex of Origin, and while living like a mortal, her actions will, to some extent, reflect the path of the corresponding saint.

She inevitably has an enemy, a nemesis, and this nemesis will be the spokesperson for another saint. When the saints determine the victor at the Vortex of Origin, these two spokespeople will also determine the victor. And if these two determine the victor first, then the outcome between the spokespeople will, in turn, have a certain impact on the great battle within the Vortex of Origin.

No… perhaps there is no order of precedence at all. The outcome of their battles must be simultaneous. This is because time and space in this entire universe have long since become part of the saints. Even reincarnators protected by the supreme god can only intervene after paying a huge price, and this will inevitably incur the wrath of the saints. And since time itself has no meaning, the point in time at which the outcome is decided must be simultaneous for both.

If she truly is the embodiment of a saint, then will the Demon King be her nemesis? Or... is there something else?

Alice was somewhat confused, and naturally, no one could answer her questions. She sighed softly, holding the coffee cup filled with a galaxy of stars, and walked away from the edge of the timeline. Taking a few steps forward, she arrived at the point in time before the explosion of the Chaldea control room—she saw Olga Marie displaying her authority on the stage, saw Fujimaru Ritsuka fast asleep on the table, saw Flora with her chestnut hair and blue eyes, and saw the members of Team A sitting in the front row, outwardly respectful but actually indifferent.

[The Celestial Team doesn't even have a single member from the Fourth Middle School yet. Even if they've made some arrangements, it's probably just reusing the Tree of Life diagram. The treasure is valuable, but the user is utterly worthless... a bunch of clowns, not worth worrying about.]

Her gaze swept over each member of Group A. Shifting her perspective from the timeline to the world line, she saw in the seven members of Group A a series of 'connections' to the future—the eras and regions represented by the Servants they would summon in a non-existent world line where 'the control room didn't explode.' Akuta Hinako was an exception, but the other six were all different.

A white-haired youth whose fate is connected to modern Tsarist Russia.

A girl wearing an eye patch, her 'fate' connects to the divine era of Northern Europe.

A man with a slightly special identity, whose fate is connected to India, which is also a divine age.

Alice raised an eyebrow and glanced around. She discovered that the remaining three people possessed 'connections' that were respectively linked to the three pantheons of Greece, Britain, and South America.

How interesting, how destined—Iris then eliminated all the 'Fate' held by the five Masters among the six candidates who were connected to the Age of Gods. She then focused all her attention on the top of the Russian 'Fate' held by the first candidate, the white-haired youth.

Analysis begins...

She walked along this non-existent world line, constantly pondering as she headed towards the direction pointed to by the end of 'fate'.

[The Demon Team can only stall, the Celestial Team is not a threat, and the Western Sea Team is already out. So, the only teams most likely to clash with us before the Demon Team arrives are the Senzu and Yinzu teams… Ex and Sesshouin Kiara. Based on the previous Saint Hunting Ritual, it can be basically determined that they both possess the peak of the mid-fourth tier, the ultimate life level of True Gods. Add to that the strange treasures that Reincarnators inevitably possess, and even with an information advantage, it will be difficult to kill them. Therefore… we must prepare other countermeasures besides Flora.]

[Lundminiad is one, though there's no evidence, but I feel there must be a deep 'connection' between Ex and Artoria... after all, their appearances and temperaments are quite similar. Therefore, Lundminiad, whom I've arranged, should be able to delay Ex for a while.]

[So, that leaves only Sesshouin Kiara from the Inshu team.]

The next moment, Alice's journey in the early 20th century came to a halt. What appeared before her eyes was a beautiful young girl, riddled with bullets, lying in a pool of snow and blood.

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova—the last of the Tsarist Russian bloodline, the last princess secretly executed in the first half of the 20th century. She accomplished little during her lifetime, but left behind many legends after her death. Perhaps this is why she is recorded in the Throne of Heroes.

She is now on the verge of death.

“She cannot die,” Alice said softly, her voice not crossing the timeline, but reaching the tabletop and being perceived by someone. “If she dies, she can only become a Servant, and Servants are destined to be filled with hostility towards Flora.”

As soon as she finished speaking, an invisible force surged down from the table, causing the small rag doll in the dying girl's arms to tremble slightly.

Thus, the true god outside the timeline was granted permission. And this permission was enough for her to tilt her coffee cup and pour the entire galaxy, which was originally formed from the components of the current universe, into that small doll.

A faint light burst forth, and from that moment on, the karmic ties between the Servant Anastasia and someone were severed, while the dying girl in the snow formed a bond with an Outer God.

The last chip is ready.

Chapter Seventeen: The Three Little Pigs Presented to the Princess

Those who arrive later often arrive first.

Every event needs a suitable reason to unfold.

....................................

In the 27th century BC, within the Mesopotamian civilization.

The band of light in the sky remained, and a full month had passed since the magnificent divine descent. This long month had changed many things, but many things remained unchanged—the changes were mainly north of Uruk, across the river embankments of Imanitis. South of the river and the dense forest, Uruk and its many subordinate city-states continued as usual.

The goddess of the forest still reigns supreme, the goddess of death still rules the underworld, and Ishtar, the daughter of Venus and protector of Uruk, still flies aimlessly through the skies in her Maana, occasionally unleashing a magical cannonball to destroy a wheat field while 'incidentally' wiping out a swarm of scattered magical beasts. Meanwhile, the army of the goddess of beasts continues its relentless assault on Uruk's northern defenses, eroding the city's population day after day.

Compared to a month ago, the total number of monsters has decreased significantly. However, the overall offensive of the monsters has not weakened much. This is because the individual strength of the monsters is increasing, and also because Enkidu, a hero under the command of the Demon Goddess and a former hero of Uruk, has joined the battlefield. In his first battle, he severely injured Amakusa Shirou, the commander of the northern defense line, and single-handedly defeated the combined offensive of Ushiwakamaru and Musashibo. Ultimately, if King Leonidas of Sparta hadn't unleashed his Noble Phantasm in time, and if Gilgamesh's 'Divine Crest' defensive artillery array hadn't been deployed at the opportune moment, the collapse of the northern front and the fall of Uruk would have been imminent.

It was a fierce battle, with over a thousand Uruk warriors dying in the fighting. If Imanithik hadn't received Uruk's distress signal and launched an attack from the other side, drawing Enkidu's attention and keeping it firmly tied down on the other side of the battlefield, the northern defenses, even if held for a day, would have been completely destroyed the following day.

Immanitsk—anyone still alive and rational in this era knows that the changes there are crucial to this time. It's said that in just one month, Immanitsk has expanded three times, its population skyrocketing from a few thousand to nearly one hundred thousand. Perhaps in a few more months, the center of human civilization will shift from Uruk to Immanitsk. Or perhaps… even less than a few months, and Immanitsk will already be the center of the world.

The worship of the ancient god Mangtrund spread throughout the land. While King Gilgamesh of Uruk did not legitimize the worship of him, he also did not forbid the common people from venerating him. In fact, besides the city of Uruk, the heart of Sumerian civilization, the cult of Mangtrund flourished in many surrounding city-states. If it weren't for the monsters lurking in the wilderness, countless inhabitants would likely have abandoned their city and fled across vast distances to seek refuge in Imanithyc.

After all, people always want to live, except for a very few with noble sentiments. For the vast majority of ordinary people, even in the age of gods, who would willingly choose to die if they could live? The current world situation is clear to everyone: if the goddesses launch a full-scale attack, Uruk will at most last a day before disappearing from the world. And if they want to continue to survive under the power of the goddesses, or even continue their civilization, then they must rely on the power of other goddesses.

Mangtlund is the only viable power, the only viable power capable of directly confronting the Goddess of the Beasts.

Therefore, even though only a few people were lucky enough to cross the northern wilderness, every day, a considerable number of Sumerian inhabitants still secretly left from other city-states outside Uruk, trying their luck to reach the distant Imanithyc.

Very few people survived.

But precisely for this reason, a very small number of the Sumerians who successfully reached Immanuel risked great danger to return. They saw in such an endeavor a path to profit and advancement.

..............................

So, one month and one day after Mangotlund fell, three Sumerian men carefully traversed the shadows between the rocks and the hollows of the wilderness.

The youngest man in the queue accidentally made a slight noise as he stepped over a pebble.

"What are you doing?!" The older man leading the group glared at him, grabbed the younger man, and as they both bent over, he lowered his voice and berated him. "Do you want to die?"

The older man's voice was deep and hoarse, while the young man being reprimanded looked terrified and silent. A third person, carrying a heavy object like a stone slab on his back, immediately bent down and pressed his ear to the ground to listen when the older man spoke.

He gave a no-go sign a few seconds later, and the other two breathed a sigh of relief.

The man leading the group slapped the reckless young man on the head.

“Open your eyes wide! You think this is still the city of gods?”—He referred to Imanityk as the city of gods.

"Yes, yes." The young man who had been hit just smiled apologetically, saying, "It was my fault, it was my carelessness. But don't you still have the divine artifact you got from the Divine City? With this, even if three or five magical beasts come, you can still handle them, right?"

He was referring to a tubular object that the leader always carried in his hand and tied to his chest with a strap. It was said to be called a 'gun,' a previous generation of standard equipment discarded by the Imanitic city guard. If one prayed fervently in peacetime and pressed the button at the end during battle, one could summon the gaze of the great god from the notched tubular object—he had recently witnessed the older man leading the group use this divine weapon once; in an instant, with a loud bang, half the head of a giant Ugal was blasted off.

—It is said that the magical beasts that the army of the Divine City has to deal with have changed several generations. Older generation magical beasts like Ugal, known as the 'Sun Lion,' can only be seen occasionally in Uruk. It's like surplus goods being dumped in a wasteland for wholesale disposal. However, this claim has not been publicly mentioned by any prominent figure in the Divine City.

Then the young man got beaten up again.

"Three or five can be dealt with, but what about seven or eight? A whole group? Do you think even one of us three brothers has the noble blood of the Imanis?" the leader continued to berate. "No! And without the Imanis bloodline, don't even think about unleashing the true power of the treasure. Without the treasure, mortals are just food for magical beasts!"

The young man smiled awkwardly and dared not answer, while the man who had led the way calmed down.

So the three-person team continued onward. This time, the young man was placed in the center of the group. When he nearly stepped on something again, the man carrying a heavy load helped him up.

They were three brothers, each with a somewhat similar face. All three were formerly residents of Gilsu, a town located north of Uruk, beyond the northern defense line. During the recent war, Gilsu served as a pincer movement for a considerable period. Taking advantage of a lull in the fighting, the three brothers crossed the monster's habitat and headed towards the distant north, Imanithic.

They stayed in Imanitik for three days, and on the fourth day, the eldest of the three decided to take his two younger brothers back to Gilsu City.

"It is said that as long as the god Mangotrund grants permission, outsiders can also become Imanitians. But that requires certain merits, and the greatest merit in Imanitians is not hunting monsters, nor producing resources, nor forging weapons. It is bringing back Sumerians from outside Imanitians who are willing to join the city-state." — This is what the eldest brother of the trio told his two younger brothers before the operation: "But the god Mangotrund has a pact with King Gilgamesh. Imanitians will not steal people from Uruk."

Now that the gods had spoken, their followers naturally wouldn't allow them to bear the stigma of breaking their promise. During the month that Imanithik was built, although the number of Mangotrund's people increased, He didn't summon even a single mortal from Uruk. However, while the gods kept their promise, His desire for a large population was known to almost everyone on this land.

The gods crave population, yet they cannot actively summon people. Therefore, qualified mortals will naturally come to share the gods' burden. The inhabitants of Imanitik are considered the property of the god Mangotrund, so they cannot take any action. However, this does not mean they cannot instruct those inhabitants who have not yet joined Imanitik to 'voluntarily' bring the survivors from the Uruk area to the Imanitik region, encouraging them to 'voluntarily come and join'.

Therefore, the three brothers' trio was able to 'accidentally' obtain the divinely bestowed weapon that the city guards had discarded. This is why the second son was able to leave Imanitik carrying a treasure.

The team traveled several dozen kilometers further, and as the sun began to set, the three decided to stop and rest on the slope of a small hill in the woods. The youngest son, the third, was sent to the top of the hill to keep watch. The eldest son began to set up a temporary camp, while the second son respectfully put down the treasure he had been carrying and helped the eldest son prepare the camp and food.

Their movements were cautious and deliberate. After the second son removed the cloth covering the treasure, the third son, who had returned from keeping watch, handed a wild rabbit that showed slight signs of demonic transformation to the eldest son. Then, the three of them respectfully slaughtered the rabbit and offered it on top of the treasure.

It was a square stone slab, about a meter long, a meter wide, and a few centimeters thick. The surface of the slab had faintly carved patterns. The slab weighed approximately one hundred kilograms.

One hundred kilograms—a weight that was nothing to the inhabitants of the Age of Gods. But the second son, carrying the stone slab, looked far more exhausted than he appeared. It is said that this slab was once a floor tile in the inner sanctum of the Temple of Mangotrund. But on the day Mangotrund descended, that inner sanctum was abhorred by the god; the beams and pillars were demolished, the floor tile removed, and the site of the inner sanctum became a pond. The stones themselves were also discarded by the god, thrown out of the temple, and used for other purposes.

However, for mortals, being rejected by the gods is actually a kind of achievement. The stones, after being thrown from the temple, quickly revealed various divine properties. Beams made from the temple's pillar stones would not collapse, no matter how ridiculous the architectural structure. Wearing amulets made of these stones, even without weapons, could deter lone monsters. And if unclean food and water were offered to them in the wild—

An invisible light surged across the surface of the stone slab, and within the three's vision, the hare's corpse, corrupted by the goddess of beasts' divine power, visibly transformed from an inedible state into fresh, bright red flesh. When the light faded, the hare's body had become a delicious and nutritious cooked jerky.

"Praise be to God Mangotrund, thank you for giving us unbelievers food."

The three brothers bowed respectfully, emphasizing their disbelief in their prayers. They were not yet ready to worship the god Mangotrund, nor could they relinquish their Sumerian identity. Yet, the gods still bestowed blessings upon them through their prayers, further solidifying their belief in the legitimacy of their actions.

The three shared the dried meat and covered the floor tile with the cloth again. After briefly checking the surroundings to ensure that no wild animals or monsters would attack the camp at night, the three brothers took turns resting against the floor tile.

"Big brother, will we be safe and sound?" the third son asked his elder brother after dark.

“We’ll be alright. Not only will we be alright, we can even bring many people with us to the City of Gods to live a good life.” The eldest son replied while tending the fire, “As long as we can become warriors of the City of Gods, all the hard times will be over.”

“It is said that the warriors of the divine city do not die. Even if they do, the gods will take their souls back from the underworld.” The third son’s tone was filled with a leisurely longing. “That’s wonderful. If only I were an Imanitian, I could wear the warrior’s armor and wield the warrior’s blade. My father and mother would not have died in Gilsu.”

“We will succeed,” the eldest son said in a deep voice. He tapped the fire with the branch in his hand, sending up a few sparks. “Go to sleep. I’ll watch over things here; nothing will happen.”

The third son nodded, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep. The second son, who rarely spoke, also closed his eyes on the other side, seizing the opportunity to rest. Soon, their even breathing resumed.

The eldest son then tended to the fire for a while.

Just before dawn, he suddenly felt that his 'gun' might need cleaning, so he respectfully placed it on the stone slab. Perhaps it was his imagination, but even with the cloth covering it, he felt that the patterns on the stone slab seemed to glow slightly when the 'gun' was placed on it.

He thought it was an illusion.

So, in the darkest hour before sunrise, a heavy weariness swept over him.

A slightly chilly breeze, accompanied by tiny ice crystals, swept by.

The three brothers never woke up again.

Section 18 - Passing the Interview

Darkness, cold, excruciating pain, and then freezing.

A soft whisper echoed in the girl's ear...

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, shot multiple times, the fatal wound to her heart, died on July 17th of the eighteenth year of the twentieth century.

The echo transformed into a scene: in the silent stillness, the image of a young girl lying in a pool of blood appeared before her own eyes. Beneath her lay pure white snow, which, stained crimson by the blood, gradually turned crimson. Her delicate, light blue eyes widened and expanded, then sank into a deep black. A small, exquisite rag doll rolled to the side of the girl, its toes also gradually stained with fresh blood.

"I know."

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova died in the snowy winter, along with her three older sisters and parents.

Her gaze stretched outwards, and several girls of similar age, build, and appearance lay side by side beside her. Like her, they had been shot in the chest or head. Crimson blood gushed out, but their hands were tightly clasped together. Half a meter in front of them, a middle-aged couple, still exuding an air of nobility, fell dead, using their bodies as cover. Her gaze continued outwards to a row of soldiers, guns raised and smoke rising from their barrels, pointing at her and the girls.

【…I know!】

'Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, as a descendant of the last Tsarist Russian, after your death this land will usher in a new era of prosperity.'

The gaze continues outward, beyond the quiet snowfield, past the towering walls of Yekaterinburg, where Soviet soldiers, raising their red and blue flags, are loudly celebrating their victory. Liberated workers and peasants, their faces glowing, are enthusiastically engaged in construction and production even in the harsh winter. The tricolor coat of arms of Tsarist Russia is carelessly discarded like trash in the mud or burned in bonfires. From the elderly to children, the entire nation rejoices in the demise of the old classes.

I know...