Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

“So, this is the last singularity.” Sirin landed lightly on the treetop outside the Great Hollow, the large tree beneath her feet still swaying and dancing in the flames. Everything in her field of vision was still a complete crimson expanse—flames, burning, ruins… The clash of Servants had utterly destroyed this city of this era. And far beyond the burning Eastwood, the faint sounds of a rescue convoy could be heard in the distance.

Only Fuyuki City was damaged, and it wasn't really a proper singularity. In Chaldea's original plan, Singularity F was a small historical warp that could be left unattended, a training ground for the Chosen Ones to practice and familiarize themselves with the process of restoring human order.

This place is insignificant. But even though it's insignificant, it's still a complete world.

The next moment, Sirin stretched out her hand—she stretched out her hand toward the earth in front of her, and a huge phantom in the shape of a hand descended from the sky at her will, sweeping across the earth like painting a canvas.

And so, the collapsed buildings were restored, and the dead mortals were resurrected. The memories of suffering were erased and then rewoven, and as her hand moved from the left to the right of the earth, the burning city returned to its original state at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This concludes the last section.

She watched as the distant horns, initially piercing, softened into hesitation, then confusion, and finally a bewildered "What am I doing here?" The clamor quickly subsided, and the once-burning city of Fuyuki was once again ablaze with lights—she casually walked to the city center, then randomly chose a house and lightly landed on its roof.

The house is inhabited by a boy with short red hair, presumably a middle school student. A subtle magical reaction emanates from his family's storeroom. Similar magical reactions can be found in six other locations throughout the city.

[...So, the Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City was an established fact? But this seems a little different from the story Alice told. Those young protagonists do exist in that city, but their relationships seem somewhat different from what's recorded—is it a difference from the Outer World?]

"That's what Celine thought to herself," she thought, then tilted her head slightly as Alice's communication call echoed in her mind.

“Miss Alice.” Sirin gently smoothed her hair.

“Sirin,” Alice said calmly on the other end of the communication. “You restored those singularities? Xiao Honglu told me that Chaldea can no longer detect the reactions of the other six singularities. At the same time, apart from the Knights of the Round Table and other Servants who are directly bound to Mash and Ritsuka, all the other Servants have been forcibly repatriated due to the interruption of their ‘bonds’—Olga Marie blocked this news, but this may not last long.”

"Isn't this what you expected, Alice? You told me that because you guessed what I hadn't noticed. Isn't everything unfolding exactly as you wished?"

“...I didn’t scheme against you, Sirin. This is something I discovered while filling in the gaps. The Indian and Senzhou teams weren’t completely held back by me; they were just pretending to be held back while actually making their own moves. I did prevent them from landing in Mesopotamia this time, but that doesn’t mean they can’t deviate from their own course.”

"So that's why you went along with what I was going to do, destroying their landing points before they even descended? You even foresaw that I would be affected by the Dao Erosion, so why didn't you tell me sooner? Did you think I couldn't even handle this kind of thing?"

Her tone was agitated.

Alice, on the other end of the communication line, let out a bitter laugh.

"No, I didn't see that much. I just judged that there was a possibility that the reincarnators in the other teams were trying to deceive me. I sent you to inspect the singularity to make an example of them. What you did at the singularity is actually irrelevant. As long as you get there, you will achieve my goal... The matter of Dao Shi was an unexpected event that I did not expect."

“So I should thank you, Miss Alice.” Celine gave a soft hum. “Do you think I’m angry? I’m just a little annoyed by your underestimation.”

"...Talking while breathing heavily is bad for other people's hearts."

“Same to me,” Celine scoffed softly. “This isn’t the first time you’ve tried to scare me. Besides, you should know very well that I always trust wise men like you.”

"...There's something I need to tell you."

"I can guess, someone's coming, can't I?"

"It's the Morizu team. I just observed its trajectory shift, and its target is Singularity F... It came with you, so you're probably a step too late. Meanwhile, I suspect the Indozu team is also just a decoy, so I arranged some probes in Chaldea, but I haven't received the expected feedback yet... Aren't you leaving?"

"Why should I leave?" Sirin replied calmly. "Although I was forced to make this choice, it is still my own. Now that I have preserved this land, I will not watch it perish."

"...Is that so? Well then, good luck."

Communication is interrupted.

Celine stared at the warehouse below her feet.

Her gaze pierced through the warehouse ceiling and spray paint, landing directly on the ground. The magic circle that had activated without any apparent reason was clearly visible in her eyes.

It was an elaborate summoning circle, its format and design roughly equivalent in many details to the one Flora had drawn in the temple. There was no medium on the summoning circle, yet it still operated in a strange way.

Should we destroy it?

No, there's no need. The other side's reincarnated being has already arrived. If she acts now, the most she can do is physically erase this continent. Even if she evaporates and vaporizes the island nation beneath her feet, the most she can do is close the door that's about to open. The uninvited guest behind the door, even if unable to push it open, can simply blast open the door itself or even the walls outside, ultimately leading to the complete collapse of this era.

What does the collapse of this era have to do with me? Do the lives and deaths of these mortals really have anything to do with me?

"Hmph, they simply can't do it. Their lives are worthless to me. But I've only just begun to restore this land, this history. To let you turn it into such a mess would be a disgrace to me."

She watched the magical reaction in the warehouse grow ever stronger, and pondered to herself.

The warehouse's original owner, the red-haired youth, seemed to sense something. He walked over in a daze, wanting to check it out, but Celine's mere thought sent him obediently back to his room to sleep soundly until the next morning.

This isn't a visual novel; there's no nonsensical male protagonist. There won't be any cliché plot like a lucky boy accidentally stumbling into a mysterious world. She could tell at a glance that the boy possessed King Arthur's sword sheath, and knew that sheath could provide him with excellent self-healing abilities and mental resistance. However, even with the protection of such a star-made weapon, her will could still subdue him.

Sirin let out a soft breath. The reason why Singularity F became the world record for Singularity F became clear in her mind as she reviewed the information.

[In the year 2004, in Fuyuki City, a Holy Grail War will be held.]

In the original history, the former director of Chaldea gained the opportunity to make a wish because he won a war here. He thus built Chaldea, and his follower Solomon fulfilled his wish and became human... This is, in fact, the origin of all these stories.

Solomon emerged victorious, defeating King Arthur, Musashibo, Hassan, Heracles, Medusa, and a future version of this red-haired youth—the Servant Emiya—a total of six heroes from different eras. He ultimately joined the former director of Chaldea to touch the Holy Grail. If history had been restored to its original state, I should be able to see Solomon as a Servant right here now… No, not just me, but Fujimaru Ritsuka, who first arrived at Singularity F, should have seen Solomon as well.

However, they encountered Cú Chulainn, a caster.

The girl lowered her eyes; this small discovery had piqued her interest. She knew that the former Solomon had become Dr. Roman of Chaldea, and the Solomon now carrying out the incineration of humanity was his original familiar, Goetia, who had unified the wills of the seventy-two demon gods—the Chaldeans were unaware of this, so they considered this singularity a simple area for practice. However, in reality, when the journey to restore humanity began, the Demon King should have been waiting for them here.

Could it be that the reason this singularity appeared is because Solomon was replaced by the Caster Cu Chulainn...? If so, this Holy Grail War... wait, with the current methods of human restoration, those who died in the past would be naturally corrected by history to become the rest of the dead. And there are no survivors in this singularity...

...In other words, if this singularity exists, then Chaldea's former director should also be dead here, and the very foundation of Chaldea's existence would be negated...What the hell? Does this mean that if I don't come and pull off this monster resurrection, Chaldea will simply be finished, and the entire stage will disappear?

She felt confused; the current situation was somewhat incomprehensible to her. However, the next moment, something else that was not so difficult for her to understand caught her attention.

She saw five gems appear on the magic circle in the warehouse.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Exusiai, the Overlord of the Stars

[Paranoia.]

If one has nothing to hold onto in one's heart, one can accomplish nothing.

That's always been my opinion.

[After the corpses of my tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of android sisters decayed and rotted, and I finally realized what death itself truly meant, this has been my belief ever since.]

Can androids be considered human? Can synthetic humans be considered human? If they are human, then why are they so readily disposed of, discarded, and destroyed by ordinary people? If not, then why do we act according to human morality?

[I haven't understood this question for a long time, even after I wiped out every living thing on that planet, burned its surface to glass, and even mobilized my fleet to completely erase it from the star map... I still don't understand the answer.]

Some call me a demon, while my subordinates call me a tyrant in private—I understand, for I lead the most powerful and infamous pirate fleet in the entire Servant universe. I am as cruel and harsh to my subordinates as to my enemies, yet even so, my forces continue to grow stronger.

Did they join me because of my strength? Or because they couldn't survive? —I don't know. And I have no interest in knowing. Even in the galaxy, war will always exist between humans—wars with their own kind, wars with other races, wars with tools, wars with nature…

...They always have the slogan "We just want to survive" on their lips. And in order to survive, or rather, to live the way they desire, they can kill anything that gets in their way without batting an eye, feeling no remorse and taking it for granted.

Am I making excuses for myself? No, I wouldn't do something so meaningless. Killing doesn't need a reason, just as being killed doesn't. I'm just using this theory to tame my so-called subordinates, letting them find their own excuses.

"To survive, we'll do anything." — How ridiculous, how amusing… even though everyone knows it's a lie, an excuse. Yet they still treat it as truth and practice it. To survive, there's a reason to plunder a port. To survive, there's a justification to massacre a city. To survive, it's not unacceptable to set planet after planet ablaze, letting war engulf the galaxy — how pathetic.

[How pathetic... Is this what people are all about? Or is this the only kind of thing I can see?]

It doesn't matter anymore, the former or the latter. It all happened thousands of years ago. Those I controlled, those I destroyed, those who rebelled against me, those who defeated me… they all happened many years ago.

Sometimes I wonder... what if the shredder at that research center hadn't malfunctioned that day? What if I hadn't found that battery when I woke up in the junkyard? What if the junk collector who found me hadn't sold me to a space pirate crew? What if the control hub implanted in me hadn't broken down in that battle...? Would I have been discarded again before even understanding what death meant, thus preventing everything that followed from ever happening in the first place?

I used to believe this wholeheartedly. Until I learned that there is no such thing as chance in this world, all my wishful thinking crumbled. And from that day on, I gave myself a name—

[Exx.]

[X—some say it signifies 'mystery' or 'power.' But to me, it's just a letter I randomly picked from a alphabet. It has no meaning, and I don't want it to. A name is just a name, a label, nothing more.]

But if that's really the case, then why should I give myself a name?

【Tch—Boring.】

Several years passed. My intelligence network informed me that in an academy, there was a girl with the same name as me. She even had the same face. A strange feeling rose within me, a feeling that led me to take my trusted aides to that academy on that planet to investigate—perhaps I shouldn't have gone there secretly back then. Because it proved to be a foolish choice in hindsight.

But that's a story for later. At that time, I didn't have time to think about anything else. I spent a week making seven interstellar jumps in a row, and when I finally arrived near the academy and cast a scrutinizing glance at the girl from my hiding place, I finally confirmed a fact...

That's my sister, the one who shares the same genetic origin as me and my 2,440,090 failed sisters—the android research center that created me finally succeeded in producing a usable product after I was discarded. She was sold, raised, educated, and given the name 'Ei-chan'. And then she enjoyed a happy life.

[How happy she is... Although I can never truly grasp the concept of happiness, I can feel it in her. Eating sweets given to her by friends, using half-baked swordsmanship, not having to crawl through mud and decay, not having to struggle between blood and beams of light, not needing to fight, not needing to be fought... Such a life must be blissful.]

But do I envy her? I don't think so—because happiness means nothing to me, nor do human emotions. Her existence certainly gave me someone to empathize with. But I know she's a different kind of being from me—she doesn't need to know I exist, and I don't need to see her.

I neither envy nor hate her. Just as I feel nothing for her and her genetic prototype, Artoria Pendragon, who is said to be the strongest swordsman in history from the ancient times, I will not show mercy to her when she is my biological sister.

At the same time, I am also very clear that there are no coincidences or accidents in this world. My existence is not without reason, her existence is not without reason, and my knowing about her is certainly not without reason. And my foresight that she might become my enemy in the future is certainly not a miracle of probability.

I live to accomplish something. And so does she.

[And so, I expanded my fleet, and I changed my administrative strategy. Instead of destroying conquered planets, I instead dominated them—it was difficult, but I overcame those difficulties. When the expeditionary fleet of Gilghasi, the most powerful emperor in the galaxy, crumbled under my tactics and will, my banner finally flew for the first time on a habitable, inhabited planet. And then it rapidly expanded outwards.]

I call my empire the Eternal Empire—a name I made up arbitrarily. But my subjects are proud of it. They no longer secretly call me a tyrant or a demon. Instead, they respectfully address me as the God-Emperor, and after I granted them the surrounding star systems and the authority to rule, they value upholding the empire's rule and my authority more than survival itself.

Humans are truly fascinating.

Those who once publicly condemned me have become subservient. Those nations and planets that openly offered bounties for my head have quietly withdrawn them as if nothing had happened. When my empire expressed a desire to forge an alliance with a slightly weaker nation, its inhabitants seemed to have forgotten overnight that I had plundered three of their planets. As my fleet swept over their capitals, I saw millions waving and laughing at me from the earth.

Because I have become a nation, a powerful nation, a powerful nation that is always victorious. Therefore, everything I did before can be considered as if it never happened. Because power and authority are truth?

Humans are truly fascinating.

[They're so funny I'm starting to lose interest in them.]

I no longer leave my palace at will. I relinquish my rule over my servants, allowing them to govern my country according to their own wishes. And I quietly await my own destiny within my palace.

[My sister will probably become a regicide… that’s what I think. After all, my rule was so brutal; I unleashed billions of wars, causing countless kingdoms across the stars to perish. In that sense, I perfectly fit the role of the villain in the story. And my innocent sister, a sister who is almost entirely devoid of falsehood, evil, or ugliness… she seems very much like a protagonist destined for greatness.]

This is what I think: I wait silently in my palace. To me, this universe holds no value, no meaning. I have no interest in leading humanity to explore outer realms, nor in reviving a synthetic human kingdom. My power has reached a limit; I can even contend with ancient deities slumbering in the depths of space. I have nothing left to desire, no wishes to fulfill. The only thing I care about is the destiny I am destined to have in this world.

Those who have no attachment to anything will accomplish nothing—I've always believed this.

What I hold dear is my destiny—I am determined to overthrow it the moment it manifests. Then I can prove that my will is above Heaven.

So I waited.

So I waited.

So I waited.

I sat in my palace for seven thousand years. My power grew stronger, and my life force drew ever closer to that of the ancient gods. And then… I waited for nothing.

My empire perished… naturally. When I pushed open the palace gates, sealed for millennia, I was met with a desolate planet—no war, no rebellion, no corruption. It simply declined naturally and was then abandoned. I left this silent planet and ventured into another land among the stars. Then I discovered that the empire called Eternal had long since become nothing more than a record in history books.

Humanity's assessment of me is 'unparalleled in merit.' This is because I ended the era of numerous independent nations during the Stellar Era, restoring the authority of unification to this vast galaxy. Many unified nations emerged after the Eternal Empire, and without exception, they all claimed to have inherited its legitimacy. More than one of their founding emperors even claimed to be a long-lost descendant of me, as if my bloodline were somehow superior.

[How laughable! Where would I get any offspring? Every drop of my blood, every cell of my being belongs to me. Why would I need any random offspring? And don't these people know that I once slaughtered half the vast galaxy to build the Eternal Empire?]

Humans are truly fascinating.

[They're so interesting I've lost interest.]

[I left this planet and saw my biological sister for the last time. She was still alive, living a strong and happy life—she had once been connected with an organization called Chaldea in another world, descending her will to roam the void, participating in preventing the ancient goddess Astartes' revival, experiencing all sorts of wondrous adventures, and besides that, she had many friends.]

She should be living a happy life, both in the past and now.

And I still didn't go to see her, nor did I let her meet me. Because I neither hate her nor envy her.

I just feel... something's strange.