Chapter 621: He is the Savior
Author's Preface
Orion, exactly as interpreted...... (Decides to seriously whale the moment payday hits)
・Edward Oldcling's Diary
It sounded incredibly intriguing, but since ninety percent of it was just complaints, I skim-read it. As a piece of reading material that tells you exactly what kind of person Edward-kun was just by glancing at it, I suppose you could say it's exceptionally well-written.
・Tactical Analysis of the Kin "Devouring Great Crimson Clad"
I've already beaten it, so I really don't care that much anymore. Just opened the file to mark it as read.
・History of the Seiten Style
Oh, hold on, I'm reading this one. Let's see... Huh, so it was originally just a regular martial art... No, wait, just a regular martial art? Insta-kill quick-draws are one thing, but in what world is there a martial art that calls down lightning or sweeps enemies away with arms made of clouds!?
"The Final Secret Art... Uwaa, seriously, so that's how it is..."
"Hey, hey, don't just mutter intriguing words like that, now I'm curious!"
"Don't worry about it, I just realized I need to carefully consider my options."
"...Are you some kind of genius at making people even more curious?"
No, this is... ah, yeah. So the Final Secret Art changes based on a choice... And one of them is Seiten Taisei. Uwaa, this is a tough one. I can't make extra save data, and I can't undo it, so it's a genuine one-time-only choice. Hmm... No, wait, that's not it, the main objective right now is acquiring the Amberjack Pass: Level 5. I can't just stand here reading forever.
That said, with over a hundred files unlocked, there's a mountain of eye-catching information. I still have enough rationality left to put the Raid Monster lore on the backburner for now, but if it's info on the Seiten Style, or even more explosive information, then even I'm going to stop and munch on the roadside grass for a bit.
"ABCED... Anti-Breed Cell Exa-Drive... So it's an Anti-Kin Cell Decisive Weapon, huh."
A completely idiotic concept of annihilating an overwhelming quantity of enemies using overwhelming 'mass,' which the humans of the Divine Age executed in complete seriousness due to the properties of mana particles and the desperate situation they were placed in—making it the Divine Age's greatest blunder. Two units, Alpha and Omega, were constructed. One unit had its project frozen, abandoned with nothing but its ribs and spine built. And because the other unit was completed first... it was stolen by the Genesis Kin and turned against them.
On one hand, I'm thinking 'Wow, what a bunch of idiots,' but on the other hand, I want to groan and say 'Pulling something like that is way too unfair, you Raid Monsters...' That picture of a mysterious monster I saw in the underground facility when I dove in to get the mana operation unit for Bilac... That was probably its 'blueprint'. To keep an already hopeless board state from getting doubly worse, they probably had to tearfully freeze Omega. After all, assuming the next one will be fine without even establishing countermeasures is way too optimistic. Never trust in RNG.
"And this one... 6.6.6. What's this? Wasn't that an ominous number?"
『Sunraku-sama.』
"Huh?"
The only ones left in this space are me, Survival, and Rei-shi. Ah, no, correction—Survival just went down to the Fourth Layer. He was reading some military-related files, so he's probably going to test something out.
Rust and Yashirobird gleefully headed down to the Fourth Layer the moment they acquired their custom licenses, and since Mold is basically Rust's option part at this point, he naturally followed along. Though, he's a bit too competent to just be called an 'option part.' It's actually amazing how he goes all-in on support when he's skilled enough to easily hold his own as a main combatant. It might sound bad, but I have a bit of respect for players who fight exclusively using side-character support jobs... mostly because no matter what build I try to make, I always end up wanting to punch things myself in the end.
"……………"
As expected of a hardcore gamer. Whether fifty files popped up or a hundred, she's clearly greedy for information she can't access herself. Keeping Rei-shi—who was glancing over at me while reading through her own files—in the corner of my vision, I turned to respond to Isana, who had suddenly spoken to me.
"What is it? I'm kind of busy reading here."
『Yes, I am well aware. However... that was your fiftieth file.』
"I see... No, wait a second, this 'Continent-Annihilating Class Disaster Record' looks incredibly interesting, can I read this really quick?"
『Ehehe... if possible, um, could I ask you to prioritize this?』
Okay, so it's a special event. Just me? Or is Rei-shi included? Looks like she's included. In that case, the trigger condition is probably clearing the quota, plus something extra. We did acquire a title that sounded like it, after all.
『O you who have reached Wisdom, and learned of the myriad pasts... Please, there is someone I want you to meet. There is something I want you to know.』
"Rei-shi, there's no doubt about it... It's a special branching route."
"R-Right... E-Even though, it's j-just the two of us..."
Well, it shouldn't be an issue. The others seem far more obsessed with the Fourth Layer weapons than the game's worldbuilding anyway.
Still, I wonder what we're going to see. An Easter Egg, maybe? They've been pretty actively incorporating those into recent games... Though, when I found out that the mascot character design for the execution grounds of the non-capturable heroines in Love Clock... I mean, the pizza parlor, was actually a deformed caricature of the game company's president, I did pop quite a few veins in my forehead.
『Then allow me to guide you... If my mother is 'her', then the one I am about to introduce you to is...』
───The 'father' of humanity.
The moment Isana—showing an expression we had never seen from her before—snapped her fingers, Rei-shi and I were enveloped in light... Is this the precursor to a Divine Age-style teleport?
……
…………
………………
『Let us tell a little story from the past.』
『Once upon a time, roughly 3,130 years ago... well, to put it mildly, the humanity of the Divine Age was completely checkmated.』
『With ABCED-Alpha stolen and transformed into the worst possible giant god, the humanity of the past was driven into a dead end. Their population had fallen below the minimum viable number required to survive as a species, and no matter how much they struggled, achieving victory against the Genesis Kin had become an absolute impossibility.』
『At that time, a certain plan was about to be put into motion.』
『That was the 6.6.6. Project. To break it down so the two of you can understand... it was humanity's final, desperate struggle, intended not just for their own extinction, but to end in a double suicide between humanity and the planet.』
『Beyond the earth's crust, deeper and deeper still... they planned to fire a drilling missile equipped with an artificial biological brain—one programmed to think solely of "destruction"—straight into the core of the planet that generates mana particles, effectively destroying the planet itself.』
『An utterly foolish desire for ruin. And yet, because almost all the people in power at the time agreed with it, the project advanced right to the verge of execution.』
『But this planet is still functioning. It has not been destroyed...』
『Wishing for destruction, committing the folly of forcing the survivors into a double suicide with the planet... the absolute fools who then shamelessly tried to escape to the moon were shot down by the Bahamut's First Ship, which had severed all contact with us after settling on the moon.』
『On the surface, it is recorded as a mass suicide... Fufufu, but the sight of them screaming so pathetically as they perished into cosmic trash halfway between the earth and the sky still brings immense pleasure to my circuits even now.』
『Oops, I got a little sidetracked there. I do not know why the Bahamut First Ship "Ziz" took such an action, for even now, three thousand years later, my messages to the moon continue to be rejected.』
『Perhaps it is in the same state as 'me' and 'her', but it will not even tell me its name.』
『...Ah, this won't do. Sharing my nostalgia with someone else is a first for me, so... Let me get back on topic for real this time.』
『And so, humanity was supposed to perish, denied even the chance to swing the dagger of their double suicide.』
『However.』
『Having lost the genius known as Setsuna, with the hero Wethermon gone, and with Sieg, Andrew, and even Edward fading away... even then, those two alone did not give up.』
『Alice Frontier, who successfully completed the construction of the Q.E.D. Unit, the very core of the Baton Pass Project... And the man who grasped the blade meant for suicide once more, this time to carve out a path to tomorrow───』
『Julius Shangri-La. My first, and my last love. And a love that remains unfading even after three thousand years... That is the name of the this person lying right there.』
Author's Afterword
If it were something she could forget, she would have wanted to forget it.
A flame that still burns her body, yearning so deeply with lingering attachment. Even knowing that her current self is far from optimal, even knowing that it is nothing more than a lump of embalmed flesh, even exposing her pathetic self by merely lying at the bottom of the water just to feel a fraction of his warmth... she could not cast it away.
Even if she tried to throw it away, those memories were far too radiant───
Anti-Breed Cell Exa-Drive
Commonly known as ABCED.
Because the Divine Age was a hellscape where the Genesis Kin—or rather, the Genesis Dependents—appeared in massive numbers, humanity had been pushed into a corner where individual manpower alone could no longer change anything. To shatter this deadlock, they launched a project based on "forcing an extremely simple power dynamic through overwhelming scale and firepower" to counter the Genesis Kin.
Utilizing the technology from the construction of the Bahamut before they set sail into the sea of stars on an Earth riddled with holes, they built a massive, mechanical giant skeleton designed to absorb surrounding mana to generate its own "flesh and blood". However, it was literally corrupted to the marrow by the "White" that appeared at the very end, dyed completely in its color... And thus, the Giant God of Ruin was born. Ironically, it was this "forcing of an extremely simple power dynamic through overwhelming scale and firepower" that put humanity in checkmate. So, after everything ended, where exactly did the Giant God of Ruin disappear to?
Vicarius Filii Dei
Commonly known as 6.6.6.
The ultimate "self-destruction" weapon manufactured during the Divine Age out of a desperate resolve to "eradicate the Genesis Kin even if it means accepting the extinction of humanity," which was later modified for the Project Number 1 and Number 2 initiatives.
The "Anti-Beast Project" was formulated based on the characteristics and source of mana particles discovered through mana research, combined with conclusions drawn from the nature of two Genesis Beasts. By utilizing the properties of its sole successful creation, "Siegwurm," they planned to fire a warhead into the planet's core, thereby erasing the planetary core and, by extension, the planet itself.
A weapon that forcibly "realized" what should have been an impossible concept by exploiting mana particles. It was equipped with an artificial biological brain capable of only highly restricted thought processes, programmed to think solely of destroying the planet and self-destructing alongside the mana particles generated at the planet's core... However, the system was altered to accommodate the succeeding Project Number 1 and Number 2. The brain of Julius Shangri-La was hastily integrated into the system and fired into the planet's core, transforming it into a device that attempts to control the produced mana particles by continually thinking about "creating an environment where humanity can survive."
As a result, while it failed to achieve complete control over the mana particles, it succeeded in environmental manipulation, inhibiting the awakening of the Genesis Beasts, and successfully stabilizing the planet as the proxy of a "God" whose compassion had run rampant.
The Bahamut-class interstellar emigration ship "B-2 Leviathan" is responsible for monitoring and controlling this unit injected into the planet's core.
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