The thunderous roar finally ceased.
The fierce battle—the kind worthy of being carved into the annals of mythology—had finally reached its end. Whether it was the Thunder Emperor, transformed into a mountain-sized monster, or Kadoc and Princess Anastasia, who struggled to overturn the tide alone, all were ultimately defeated by Chaldea's unwavering resolve and tactics.
The massive structure that stretched from sky to earth—the Fantasy Tree—was finally shattered into glassy fragments, battered by an overwhelming barrage of Noble Phantasms from Servants fighting with all their faith and power. Its remains scattered into countless motes of light, vanishing in the cold air.
With the collapse of the imaginary tree, the blizzard that had smothered this frozen land suddenly ceased, as if its power source had been cut off. At last, a long-awaited silence descended upon the ruins of the Kremlin.
Is it... over?
Mash leaned against her shield, gasping for breath. With every inhale, white mist dispersed into the icy air. She looked around, victorious yet still carrying a hint of unease in her eyes.
If she relied on past experience—or on the proper history—the world should have ended right at this moment, with the skies splitting open and the earth vanishing beneath them.
But nothing like that happened.
No, instead the signs of change were gentler than imagined, but carried far deeper meaning. The aurora above began to ripple with abnormal distortions, odd, pale blue waves spreading through the atmosphere like ripples on water.
It wasn't the color of destruction. Instead... it looked like a progress bar, the kind that tracks the rewriting of data.
Fujimaru stood atop the ruins, glancing at Patxi, who was near her.
The Yaga hunter leaned against a broken stone pillar, gripping his old rifle tightly. He stared skyward—not with fear, but with a bewildered resignation, awaiting his fate.
According to that Crypter called Kadoc, when the imaginary tree fell, the world would end. He and all the Yaga would become sacrifices for the revival of human history.
Ritsuka's palm was soaked with sweat.
Although Steve had made a promise before the battle, the weight of responsibility pressed upon her until she knew the results for sure.
She wanted to eliminate threats to human history, yet couldn't bear to watch such vibrant life disappear. These conflicting feelings were like walking a tightrope.
"Hey, Ritsuka," Patxi noticed her gaze and exposed his sharp fangs in a wry smile. "The tree's fallen. According to Kadoc, does that mean... our world ends?"
"No."
Ritsuka's voice still trembled, but her eyes grew resolute. "It's not over yet... Steve made a promise."
"Hah... do you really trust the words like that?" Patxi shook his head. It was hard to tell if he was mocking Ritsuka's naiveté, or ridiculing himself for feeling a flicker of hope.
Just then, a familiar voice filled everyone's comm channel.
"That was quite an exciting battle, everyone. Good work." Steve's calm, relieved voice came through, utterly unflustered, as if he'd just completed a meticulous task.
"Steve!" Ritsuka pressed her communicator, almost desperately. "The imaginary tree has been felled! What happens next? You said everyone would survive..."
"Of course. I've never broken a promise."
Far above, inside the bridge of the Rewloola-class battleship, Steve's fingers danced rapidly across the virtual keys of a holographic control panel, activating the final, glowing red "Execute" button.
"Listen carefully, Ritsuka—all of you."
"What's about to happen might go beyond your common sense, so let me explain simply first."
Steve's tone grew professorial.
"Until now, you've believed that Earth was somehow bleached by an external force—turned into a blank sheet of paper, right?"
"The Lostbelts are like stickers. Fragments of false history pasted onto that blank canvas."
"Isn't that how it is?" asked Mash, confused.
"That's entirely mistaken."
Steve chuckled, dropping a truth that undermined all of Chaldea's assumptions.
"Here's the truth: the mastermind behind all this never had the ability to forcibly overwrite all of human history on Earth. Such an act would always be stopped by the restraining power before it could take shape."
"What he really did was a sleight-of-hand—swapping out the sky and changing the position of the sun."
"In simple terms, he first bleached his old hideaway—a simulated Earth called Chaldea—and then, using some special trick, swapped the surface of Chaldea for our current, the actual human history's Earth."
"In other words, this white land we're standing on right now is actually the dwelling place of alien gods."
Communication cut out completely.
The flood of information was too much. Even Sherlock Holmes's mind overloaded, and Goredolf could only gape and mutter incoherently, "Ahh... ahh?"
"And the Lostbelts," Steve continued, "are like patches pinned onto this white tablecloth."
"With the imaginary tree—the nail—removed, the patch can no longer stick and will simply fall away and vanish."
"But, what if, in that moment when it falls, a backdoor is made, returning the Lostbelt and all its lives to their original place?"
"Where... was I supposed to be?" Ritsuka murmured to herself.
"That's right. Since this white tablecloth came from Chaldea, let's send this Lostbelt—along with every living thing in it—back inside Chaldea's inner world!"
"This is my reverse displacement trick."
"That man loves swapping games, so I'll play along. But this time, I'll send his trash right back into his home."
With that, Steve pressed the red button with determination.
"Begin! Planetary Spirit Particle Transfer—Target Coordinates: Target E (Chaldea Interior)!"
Buzz—!
The world's colors changed.
There was no destructive collapse. Instead, it was a spectacular peeling away like a mirage. Ritsuka watched in amazement as her surroundings started turning transparent: the ruined homes, the piled-up snow, distant icebergs, even the cold air transformed into flowing strands of light, converging toward a single point in the sky.
Miraculously, however, the Yaga people within felt no pain.
Patxi looked at his own hands in shock. His body glowed, but he could feel his heart still beating strong. He felt as if he was being swept toward another shore by a warm current.
"Hey... Ritsuka!" Patxi's voice grew ethereal, but he managed to shout loudly, "What's happening?! Where are we going?!"
"Back to a real world! It might still be cold, but it's undeniably real!"
With tears glimmering in her eyes and a radiant smile, Ritsuka shouted back, "Live! Patxi! Do your best to live there too!"
"Hah... What a strange yaga..." Patxi muttered, staring at the girl fading in the light—a member of the weak old race, yet the strongest Master of all.
At last, he gave a relieved smile. Raising his rifle, he swung it in Ritsuka's direction.
"Yeah, I will! I don't know where this is, but you promised—I'll try to live again!"
"Farewell! You cowardly old relics!!"
The light flared.
In that instant, the entire Russian Lostbelt—the frozen empire beneath the white wilderness—seemed to be gently lifted by an invisible hand and sucked into the vortex of nothingness.
There was no explosive roar; only a clear, chime-like tone resounded.
As the light faded, Ritsuka, Mash, Goredolf, and the still-bound Kadoc found themselves once more in that white, desolate land.
No more biting wind—it was gone, along with the eternal frost that had gripped the empire. Instead, a barren, eerily quiet Earth wind blew.
Before them, nothing remained.
The Yaga, their villages, the palace of the Thunder Emperor—nothing but blank, white wilderness, as if everything that had just happened was a dream.
But Ritsuka knew it wasn't a dream. Somewhere in that forcibly repatriated backstage world, Patxi was probably already cursing as he crawled out from a snowdrift, beginning his first hunt in his new life.
"They... they really did it..."
Mash could no longer hold back her tears as she stared down at her empty hands. "Senpai... everyone... survived..."
"Yeah." Ritsuka looked up. The sky was still dim, but now it felt impossibly vast.
The weight crushing their hearts was finally lifted, replaced by a joy and pride beyond words.
"We did it, Mash. This is... Chaldea's way of fighting."
Beside him, Kadoc collapsed to the ground, expressionless. He stared at the unbelievable scene before him. Years' worth of belief in fighting for the Lostbelt now seemed like some kind of bad joke before an avalanche of magical theory and Steve's underhanded tricks.
Still, as he gazed at this barren yet life-tinged land, a self-mocking smile crept onto his lips.
"How... how could this be... Damn that Archer..."
"This is total defeat."
…