Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

"Wait, wait! King Gilgamesh is dead! The king is dead, and you just dismiss it like that?" Ritsuka felt a throbbing pain in her head. Something that might be called a 'generation gap' was clearly manifesting in her mind, demonstrating its power to her. For a moment, she even wondered if the city of Uruk had long been fed up with King Gilgamesh's tyranny and wished for his death, but this conflicted with Tomoe Gozen's information and the obvious respect in Siduri's words…

"Is it surprising that the King died?" Siduri tilted her head in confusion, then suddenly realized. "Ah... I'm so sorry, I forgot you two are envoys from a foreign land in Chaldea. The situation there might be a little different from here in Uruk—since the monster attacks began and the northern defense line was started, the King has died almost every two weeks. But don't worry too much, the King should be able to return on his own. After all, there's still a lot of work waiting for the King to handle, and even if he used death to escape, he couldn't escape it."

Her explanation was so powerful and logical that Ritsuka was completely stunned after hearing it. Mashu, standing beside her, also looked deeply shocked, muttering things like, "The Sumerians are terrifying; even the dead have to work overtime," while trembling. Clearly, her worldview had been severely shaken.

They were bewildered, and the situation was equally chaotic at Chaldea. But a place where scholars congregate is ultimately more conducive to communication. The commotion there lasted only a dozen seconds before Leonardo da Vinci forcefully suppressed it. Then, this famous Renaissance scholar began explaining to the others, including the two outside the communication terminal, the concept of the underworld in the Age of Gods and the differences in the nature of death.

While Professor Leonardo da Vinci was giving his history lecture, Chaldea and Ritsuka were unwittingly led by Siduri to the gate tower of Uruk. Before Ritsuka took the first step into the gate, she hesitated for a moment, turned her head, and saw Tomoe standing a hundred meters away waving at her.

Tomoe's will was clearly stated: she hadn't responded to Siduri's invitation, which meant she didn't intend to enter the city. Ritsuka, though somewhat disappointed, wasn't one to force things—she smiled at Tomoe and waved goodbye in return.

So, she and Mash, who also had some idea but ultimately decided to consult her, walked through the gates of Uruk.

And so Ba's temporary mission came to an end.

She nodded slightly as Ritsuka, Sidori, and the other two completely disappeared through the city gate. Then she turned and walked past Ushiwakamaru, who had remained silent since Sidori appeared, to leave.

"Tom," Ushiwakamaru suddenly spoke just as she was about to move. The Genji hero, who usually appeared as a young girl, unusually revealed a mixture of shame and frustration. He took a deep breath and said, "About what happened before..."

Ba didn't let her finish speaking.

“It’s pointless,” Bar said calmly. “I know you didn’t mean it, and I know you’re just venting your frustration from the previous failed war. But it’s pointless.”

Ba didn't explain further, nor did he explain that in the war Ushiwakamaru referred to, Enkidu's decision to retreat when he held a significant advantage wasn't solely due to King Leonidas's Noble Phantasm or the soon-to-be-completed 'Divine Crest' defensive cannon—Enkidu's power far surpassed these two things. The real reason the demonic beasts retreated was actually due to the Imanitecs' diversionary attack on the Blood Temple.

The goddess Mangtlund and King Gilgamesh had a pact of mutual support. However, it was she, Nakahara Tomoe, who volunteered to launch a diversionary attack and led the army in a surprise assault. Her actions at the time could be considered a betrayal of her Master, and even though Flora didn't care, such behavior still filled her with deep shame.

[As a Servant, I am utterly incompetent... Honestly, I've clearly chosen my Master, yet I keep hesitating. I'm such a terrible woman.]

"...This can't go on any longer."

She smiled bitterly to herself, her mind made up, but her expression remained unchanged.

"The hatred between you and me will always remain. Minamoto no Yoshitsune, although you are not yet fully grown, your memories, understanding, and karmic ties will not disappear. I will not forget the blood feud between the Kiso and Nakahara families—if neither of us had a choice, I would have tried my best to restrain myself when we fought side by side. But now that we have a choice, our current positions of serving different masters are appropriate and beneficial for both of us."

“…” Ushiwakamaru was silent for a few seconds, then sighed softly.

“You’re right. This situation is indeed better for both of us… but I’m still the one who made the mistake. I shouldn’t have treated you with that outdated perspective and attitude. So…” She lowered her head towards Ba. “I’m sorry, I apologize for my previous outrageous remarks.”

Ba nodded.

“I also have my faults,” she said, and the next moment she took a step forward. With a burst of air, her figure turned into a streak of flame and disappeared into the jungle outside Uruk.

Her actions were swift and decisive, giving Ushiwakamaru no opening or opportunity to offer any suggestions. Only after Tomoe's presence had completely disappeared did Ushiwakamaru, who had been standing there dumbfounded, give a wry smile, shake his head, and leave.

She had important things to do, and since there was no chance to persuade her to stay, words would be meaningless.

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

Ten minutes later, Tomoe stopped in a grove of trees just outside the northern defense line—the line was still under construction and had recently suffered heavy damage. She could easily pass through it, just as she had with Ritsuka and the others, to reach a quiet place.

The flamebird on her shoulder cooed a few times and flapped its wings—she didn't care, because in her eyes it was a common sight that she could see every now and then.

There was a reason why she stopped here.

Because she hadn't forgotten the stone tablet she'd obtained at the gates of Imanitic, nor had she forgotten the unsettling feeling it evoked. She'd placed a hidden tracking coordinate on it when she lost it during her battle with Enkidu. And now, she clearly sensed that the stone tablet was right there, not far from her current location!

Crimson petals began to fall from the air, seemingly out of nowhere.

Section 31, First Cycle, Dusk

Meanwhile, in Imanitic, with the first 'War Angel' nearing completion, Flora finally had the extra energy to focus on matters other than the current project.

The flamebird at her shoulder cooed twice, but she didn't pay much attention, as this was quite common—this bird, which didn't exist in any mythological texts, was essentially a manifestation of the wisdom of the god Mangotrund, but it also possessed many of the physiological characteristics of a normal bird.

An unseen messenger flew in from outside the temple—she caught it casually. The massive amount of information was clearly categorized by the filtering engine provided by the Flame Bird. The redundant and boring information was thrown into the processing area. The slightly more important information was rationally integrated, polished, and then manifested in her field of vision in the form of physical light.

I feel like a deity in a fantasy novel, needing no faith but overwhelmed by information overload. So much so that I need a 'godhood' to process the overwhelming information for me… Ah, is this the difference between a true god and a mortal like me? Mortals can't tolerate the pollution from information overload, while a true god can effortlessly swallow it all?

She muttered to herself, reviewing the information filtered through the Flamebird. The deeper she delved into Mangotlund's divine power, the more she understood the true strength of this ancient god. Now, aside from the unknown strength of Tiamat's true form, she felt that if Mangotlund's true form were to descend, it would likely be able to take all the powerful beings she had encountered in her memory and fight them all together.

Such a powerful god has no need for humans.

She still remembered her pact with the goddess Mangtlund: the goddess granted her power, and the price she had to pay was to dispel the goddess's doubts—to prove to her that humans were useful to the gods…or useless.

She knew she had to do it; she couldn't afford not to. The goddess's promise seemed to be filled with divine arrogance and condescension towards humanity, but if the subject of the verification was slightly reversed, it would be found that things were not so simple.

If humans don't need gods, then do gods need humans?

—If the weak do not need the rule of the strong, then do the strong need the survival of the weak?

If lower-level life forms do not need higher-level life forms around them, should higher-level life forms allow lower-level life forms to continue to exist in their field of vision?

Earthlings don't expect an alien civilization to suddenly appear and claim sovereignty. So, if an interstellar colonization-level alien civilization were to discover Earth as a habitable planet, how would this civilization view and deal with the "indigenous barbarians" on this "primitive habitable planet"?

Flora pondered, and the more she thought, the more her head throbbed with pain. The answers to these questions could easily be found in Earth's history. Yet, it was precisely for this reason that she found thinking increasingly difficult.

How does civilization deal with barbarism? How does the strong deal with the weak? Ah… the Canaanites wiped out by the Israelites and the Incas wiped out by the Spanish are certainly good examples. Flora felt that if she simply handed this conclusion to Mangotlund, then the history of the Canaanites and the Incas would probably repeat itself.

If outsiders fail in their wars, they will be regarded as invaders.

If outsiders win a war decisively, they will be regarded as conquerors.

Flora had reason to believe that the Mangtlund god who granted her power could become a conqueror. For to her, a deity of an ancient era, the civilization of this world was no different from that of a foreign land. She would feel no remorse or hesitation in destroying everything on the surface of the earth, for nothing here had ever been connected to her in the slightest.

Perhaps in her eyes, she was simply picking up an eraser to wipe away the marks on the white paper in preparation for another painting. But for the marks on the white paper, her actions represented the end of everything.

[Should I try to defeat her? No… that would be equivalent to answering another question, one marked with the answer 'Man doesn't need God; man will actively destroy God.' And I cannot use her power to defeat her, because from beginning to end, I have only been acting on her behalf, not wielding her power.]

So how can I prove that 'humans are useful to God'?

The girl's mind was filled with various filtered and selected pieces of information. Among them, Tomoe Gozen's words, voice recordings, videos, and historical projections from the moment she set off, her battle with Enkidu, her contact with Fujimaru Ritsuka, and her farewell to Ritsuka and the others in Uruk, all appeared in her mind in great detail. As she carefully browsed through them, she took a step forward and appeared out of thin air at the top of the clouds above Imanitic, looking down on this vast land like a true goddess.

[The temple's stone slab, ah... I'd almost forgotten about that. Come to think of it, why did I even attempt to summon a Servant in the first place? Such a foolish thing... I was unexpectedly stupid for doing it.]

Beneath the clouds, the colossal steel city breathed heavily, like a monstrous beast on the verge of awakening. Hills upon hills of various metallic ores were continuously extracted from surrounding mines and fed into the beast's body. Accompanying the beast's panting and low growls, gleaming rivers of molten iron surged like blood through pipelines beneath the city's surface—gears hummed, bells boomed, and white steam rose into the sky, then, amidst chorus of prayers, was gathered into bundles and filled into various specially designed containers.

She concealed herself and landed lightly on the top of a factory. As she descended through the chimney and entered the factory, the scorching smoke, reaching temperatures of around 400 degrees Celsius, brushed past her ankles. The concentrated mineral particles were still burning in the smoke.

[The battle against Enkidu was quite impressive... Hmm, is having only a top-tier Servant Spirit Origin a bit insufficient? Equipment issues? Hmm... the sophisticated equipment from the previous generation certainly can't gain the upper hand in a contest against a creation of the gods. However, Enkidu's self-recovery ability is rather astonishing; such a massive amount of mana... is something else supplying it? Or... something else entirely?]

She passed through the smoke, her toes pausing briefly on the scorching heat of the production line. The roar of hammering and forging surged into her senses like a tidal wave. With a slight shift of her gaze, she could see one after another towering giant, three or four meters tall, clad in auxiliary power frames, swinging rune-inscribed hammers crackling with lightning on either side of the production line, sculpting the steel components that were gradually taking shape under the influence of magic into their proper forms.

'Boom, boom—' Swinging the heavy hammer, moving muscles, forging the steel into shape.

'Boom, boom—' Pushing the lever, the spell was activated, and flames and frost constructed by the spell descended.

'Boom, boom—' Gears whirred, steam gushed forth, and new life surged within the newly forged machinery.

A dragon-like, serpentine mech, crafted from steam, lightning, steel, and the biological tissues of magical beasts, gracefully descended from the end of the production line. The craftsmen attached bladed limbs to it, covering them with a lightning-like molecular disintegration field. Its appearance resembled the 'Hydralisk' from Flora's memories. And its mouth could spew forth a ghastly green plasma, far surpassing even the most potent venom.

One hundred Hydralisks leaped from one hundred production lines. They were clad in heavy composite alloy armor, the interior of which was filled with triple runes. Accompanied by divine prayers, a wisp of insignificant ancient divine power descended from the most prominent statue at the center of the factory, and the flesh hidden beneath the Hydralisks' steel armor immediately disintegrated, transforming into fluid, then mist, and finally into a bizarre entity, half-energy and half-solid. Two distinctly different creative powers combined to form an intertwined double spiral within their energy bodies. This enhanced their survivability and made their offensive methods more unpredictable and varied.

[Did you run into Ritsuka...? Ah, only Ritsuka and Mash, Akuta didn't come down. Interesting, it seems Chaldea has some strange plans, or discoveries I'm unaware of. Phew, Ritsuka's skill at seducing Servants is as sharp as ever. Tomoe, I can clearly read the wavering in your heart.]

Flora smiled, but whether it was a sarcastic remark about a certain Servant or an endorsement of a former comrade remained unclear. After all, she hadn't seen the full intelligence yet; all she was certain of was that the contract hadn't been broken. However, if the heart had betrayed, the continuation of a contract only meant a greater betrayal.

The flame-shaped bird 'Love' on her shoulder flapped its wings. The goddess in her place then hopped down from the fiery flow of the production line, and with graceful steps, lightly mounted the back armor of a 'half-spirit hydra'—she maintained her stealthy state, obliterating her form and presence. The next moment, the 'half-spirit hydra,' with particle cannons loaded into its side armor, twisted its body and swiftly and orderly left through the factory gate.

The gates of ten factories swung open simultaneously, and a thousand war beasts lined up in formation at the confluence of ten roads. A chosen warrior blessed by her awaited them in the center of the square, while the tallest, and only exceptionally tall, beast emerged from its formation. It crawled forward to the chosen warrior, whose entire body was clad in armor, imbued with at least thirty blessings, and whose arms surged with immense lightning and fire, and then humbly bowed its head.

The warrior acquired a mount, and dozens of priests surrounding the plaza prayed together for divine favor. A small portion of the vast spiritual power generated from the prayers accumulated within the divine network then rolled away. Meanwhile, a dozen or so blessings and protections, encompassing different domains, were permanently imprinted beneath the decapitation armor.

And so, the winds and clouds surged, and the serpentine war beasts spread their wings in unison. A thousand-strong formation, under the command of a chosen warrior, rose neatly into the sky. The warrior's thoughts were interconnected with the blank brains of these thousand war beasts, and while he received an extreme amplification to his soul defense, the formation of the beasts also became more agile due to the presence of their commander.

A thick cloud was lifted. And behind the cloud lay arrays of warships waiting.

[King Gilgamesh is dead again... How many times has this happened? Hmph, I think his sudden death at this time is a bit suspicious. Could it be that I'm not the only one sensing something amiss? Hmph, whatever, whether he's using a diversionary tactic or lying in wait, I won't stop here.]

[However, Tomoe didn't stand with Fujimaru; instead, she obediently followed my orders and left immediately after the Chaldeans arrived at the first city… That's a bit unexpected, as she wasn't part of my plan. Tsk, did I misjudge her? But if that's the case, why haven't I been able to connect with her in my dreams yet?]

Flora lowered her eyes. Having mastered the Holy Grail ritual, she was well aware of the Servant's characteristics—if a Servant trusts their Master, the Master can communicate with the Servant in dreams, gaining insight into the Servant's inner obsessions and desires, and even directly entering the Servant's dream world—this theory had been verified many times with Fujimaru Ritsuka. However, in her case, there had never been even the slightest indication.

Could it be a problem with my constitution? Unlikely. Well then… hmph. Let her move around freely for now.

She finished reviewing the intelligence and stood at the very end of the battle formation, her eyes scanning the dense swarm beneath the sky. Even now, she hadn't found any indispensable use for mortals to the gods. But at least for now, in her realm, mortals weren't entirely useless.

A mortal warrior can lead a thousand war beasts. Ten mortal warriors constitute a small force. A thousand mortal warriors make up a legion. And above the clouds, five legions await her command.

Five thousand warriors, five million war beasts. With a tremor from the ground, five colossal airships, each three hundred meters long, steadily emerged from the factory, thousands of divine ion engines operating simultaneously. The five giant airships then smoothly arrived at the sky she desired amidst distorted ion aurora.

Thunder-fire composite propulsion, a simple early airship technology from the wisdom of the gods. She originally planned to skip this step and directly build a more advanced space carrier or even a floating city. But now... time waits for no one.

The next moment, she silently returned to her throne in the main temple. Her most faithful high priest awaited her command below. She then rose and pointed a finger toward the location of the Western Blood Temple.

As long as she doesn't act, the goddess of magical beasts won't either. This is the tacit understanding between the goddesses, and she now intends to push this understanding to its extreme. After all, she has already obtained enough information, and she no longer needs to be as cautious as she was in the past.

"Go, my people, start a war and bring victory." Her voice was like thunder, echoing throughout the melting city.

"Destroy the forests, annihilate the monsters, and demolish the temples. Trample every inch of blood shed in the West."

"—Let's start the war!"

The next moment, the roar of the war beast and the booming of thunder and fire resounded through the sky.

The Imanitic Legion has fully entered the war.

Meanwhile, at the very depths of the temple, the first war angel was created.

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

Meanwhile, in a jungle north of the northern defense line of Uruk, Tomoe Gozen, determined to no longer waver in her allegiance and offer her loyalty to the goddess, lightly raised her long sword.

"Please leave that stone slab behind, or I will resort to force." She pointed to a white-robed mage dozens of meters away, who was carrying a stone slab on his back and accompanied by an unidentified cloaked girl.

"You and I both know that thing is not the Destiny Clay Tablet."

Merlin.

Section 32, First Cycle, Twilight

Alice had met Merlin before, of course, the Merlin from her original world. Unlike the white-robed fellow before her, who resembled a glib, talkative older brother, the Merlin she knew was a knowledgeable, highly respected Gandalf-like sage. Of course, he still possessed a talent for words, but his overall reputation remained quite good.

But this guy looks kind of annoying...

Alice landed on a low tree, flapped her wings, scattering sparks that vanished and vaporized in mid-air. In her line of sight, Ba was arguing with the man she called Merlin. There was no need to describe the details, for it meant little to her love for someone.

It was simply that Ba wanted to take the stone slab, but Merlin wouldn't allow it—Ba's reason was that she sensed an ominous premonition on the stone slab, but Merlin said it was the aura of destiny, and retorted, "If you feel it's ominous, then why don't you destroy it?" This left Ba speechless.

Does this stone slab hold destiny? Yes, it does. The will of the ancient heavens, the reincarnated Alice, is destiny—though it is a forged destiny.

Why wasn't this stone slab destroyed by Ba from the beginning? It's simple: Alice was watching it, interfering with it, and the inherent aura of destiny naturally emanated from within the slab. This caused those who wanted to destroy it immediately to hesitate or abandon their actions for other reasons.

Alice raised her paw and, like a real bird, grabbed a wild fruit and stuffed it into her mouth. The fruit was broken down and destroyed the moment it entered her mouth, but she still managed to simulate the sensation of chewing and, using random numbers, created a flavor that she had probably never tasted before.

Eating is not merely about filling one's stomach, but about providing a suitable reason for the act of 'tasting'. Alice hasn't enjoyed food given to her by anyone other than her companions in a long time, and she has no intention of changing this habit.

A jumble of complex data appeared in her mind, some of which was discarded, some set aside, and some used for detailed analysis. The most detailed part of that analysis covered almost all the causal relationships, all the stories, all the events, and all the...destinies on this small stage.