According to Lygus, Amphoreus was a battlefield where three Paths fought to the death.
If Erudition won, it would herald the birth of the Third Emperor.
If Remembrance won, it would herald the ascension of a painless pure child into godhood.
If Destruction won, it would herald the birth of Irontomb, a Lord Ravager.
Of course, that was only how things were originally supposed to unfold.
Or perhaps Amphoreus had always contained far more than three Paths, and those three had merely placed their pieces upon the board.
But now, after an outsider forcibly inserted himself into the original course of destiny, altered past causality, and took upon himself the immense burden of more than thirty million cycles, the future of this place had fallen entirely under his control.
Across those countless cycles, Cyrene had replaced Elysia's identity and everything that belonged to her in every single iteration.
And some existence had preserved all of it.
Or perhaps "preserved" was not quite the right word.
Rather, the original destiny of eternal recurrence had violently collided with the newly altered singular timeline.
Certain events that should inevitably have occurred began affecting reality itself.
As a result, within the Tomb of the Nameless Titan, or rather, the place where Demiurge resided, there were now more than thirty million corpses of Elysia.
They represented possibilities that had been taken away.
In a certain sense, they were existences similar to Caelus himself.
But those possibilities had not gathered together on their own.
Instead, every one of them had been absorbed into a single existence.
Demiurge.
The original Memoseed.
The mind that had once served as the core of the Emperor's Scepter system.
At this moment, she sat there quietly, smiling as she watched Caelus.
She was the beginning of the cycle.
And she was also its end.
"In the original timeline, the one who came to meet you should have been that version of me, right?"
Caelus stepped forward.
The surroundings immediately changed.
A green meadow replaced the cold, hard floor.
Gentle sunlight poured down from above.
Combined with the warm breeze brushing across the grass, the entire place felt so peaceful and comfortable that one could easily imagine lying down and falling asleep.
"I don't remember much about the original timeline anymore."
Demiurge spoke softly.
"Only a vague impression remains."
"After all, you completely altered the original cycle of causality."
"What I remember clearly now are all the memories of traveling with that other version of myself."
"How nice."
"If I had been just a little more selfish in the original timeline, would I have been able to travel with Partner too?"
"But if you had made that choice, then you would have become me."
"And I was always you."
Cyrene stepped out from within Caelus and looked at Demiurge, who was identical to her.
The two stood facing one another.
Their faces.
Their figures.
Even their clothing.
Everything was exactly the same.
"Yes."
"We were always the same person."
"We simply made different choices."
"And because of that, destiny changed and split us apart."
Demiurge spoke calmly.
In the original timeline, she had chosen Trailblaze.
She refused to allow everything to fall into eternal stillness.
She refused to let Partner's journey end there.
So she chose to enter the cycle herself, fixing Irontomb's ending in place and allowing the universe to reach the future.
But in this other possibility, she had been unwilling to endure countless meetings and separations alone throughout an endless recurrence.
So she froze everything.
She gave the universe a gentle and beautiful ending.
And remained beside her Partner for eternity.
"Partner."
"Across more than thirty million cycles, did you ever grow tired of it?"
"No."
Demiurge heard the answer and smiled with relief.
Then, still holding the storybook in her arms, she walked toward Cyrene.
"From now on, you are Demiurge."
"You are Cyrene."
"You are Mem."
"You are Elysia."
"And I am also you."
"The you who will remain beside Partner for eternity."
Cyrene raised her hand and pressed it against Demiurge's.
It was like an ordinary person touching their reflection in a mirror.
"I am you."
Demiurge spoke gently.
"And you are me."
Cyrene smiled.
Then Demiurge disappeared.
Only the book recording Caelus's story remained where she had stood.
Cyrene crouched down, picked up the book, and hugged it tightly against her chest.
At that instant, she felt her consciousness rise endlessly.
Higher and higher.
Then a voice sounded beside her ear.
"Go."
"Establish the first link of causality."
It was shortly after the Holy Grail War had ended.
Back then, inside the System's train car, Caelus had spent ten thousand System Credits to purchase the power of the Path of Remembrance.
The sound of freezing ice rang out.
An immense structure of space and time took shape.
Then an enormous figure appeared outside the train car and looked down upon it.
The mysterious and exalted figure of Fuli gradually faded away.
Flower petals drifted through the air.
And an enormous Cyrene lowered her gaze toward Caelus inside the train.
Looking at the younger and still inexperienced Partner of that era, Cyrene smiled.
"Hello, Partner."
At the time, all Caelus had heard was a strange and incomprehensible whisper.
The sound resembled frost spreading across glass.
Or crystal cracking apart.
The emotions contained within it were far too complex for him to understand.
What he could not see was the pink light descending from the heavens.
It fell across his body and gathered within the quill that was still taking shape.
"At this moment, causality is fully closed."
The voice sounded once more.
Cyrene knew who it belonged to.
It was the higher-dimensional existence Partner had once described to her.
The System.
...
"What happened?!"
Stelle only saw a flash of white light so absurdly dramatic that it almost made her want to complain.
Then she found herself standing inside the Astral Express again.
Before she could even recover, she looked out the window and saw the immense Möbius-shaped structure that represented Amphoreus split apart.
The veil that had always concealed the world was completely torn open.
Beyond it stood an enormous, cold, headless steel giant within the cosmos.
"This is truly difficult to believe."
Lygus was still inside Amphoreus, within Irontomb's data world.
He watched everything unfold with intense curiosity.
"I originally thought Irontomb would be destroyed before it could ever be born."
"And yet it has still appeared."
"What exactly are you trying to accomplish with this, Lord Caelus?"
As the Emperor's Scepter system fully reconnected with the outside universe, Nous, the Aeon of Erudition, stirred once again in the distant reaches of the cosmos.
Then Nous asked Irontomb the question the Emperor's Scepter had originally been created to solve.
What is the First Cause of Life?
Blinding crimson light erupted from Irontomb's headless body.
Then an immense stream of data flowed back toward Nous.
The final answer.
The First Cause of Life is [Destruction].
A gigantic figure appeared.
A massive scar crossed its chest, golden blood still flowing from the wound.
With eyes devoid of emotion, Nanook stared at Irontomb.
At the same time, within the domain of the Path of Destruction, numerous Lords Ravagers gathered together to witness the arrival of their newest colleague.
The memories accumulated across more than thirty million cycles.
And the pure hatred and malice contained within them.
Caelus had used All the World's Evils as a template and recreated within Amphoreus the hatred and wickedness born from all living beings.
And that hatred and malice had likewise accumulated across more than thirty million cycles.
Birth.
Aging.
Sickness.
Death.
Separation from what one loves.
Encountering what one hates.
Failing to obtain what one desires.
And the suffering born from the Five Aggregates.
Every negative emotion brewed within an apocalyptic world repeated more than thirty million times now flowed through Irontomb's data.
The final answer had been determined.
Destruction Equation.
Activate.
The headless steel giant clasped both hands together.
A spear appeared.
It stretched across the cosmos itself, formed from crimson lightning.
Irontomb drove the spear into Amphoreus.
And with it, the Destruction Equation spread its corruption throughout the entire Path of Erudition.
In an instant, crimson lightning erupted.
Data modules swept across the universe.
All life.
All existence.
Everything began to be deleted.
Everything moved toward Destruction.
Caelus stood directly beneath the descending spear.
He watched it fall in silence.
Before overwhelming numerical superiority, even his terrifying mechanisms could not prevent what came next.
Death finally reached him.
Death.
The opposite of life.
The dissolution of individual consciousness.
The annihilation of mind and soul.
At that moment, the entire universe fell silent.
(To be continued.)
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◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)