Soon, the appointed time arrived, and Gawain gently pushed open the office door.
Without any unnecessary pleasantries, he recounted the process of his world exploration in a concise, capable manner.
The more Arthur listened, the stranger his expression became.
This was Britain's fifth attempt at exploring another world, and at last, they had discovered one. Unfortunately, the mystery seemed to exist only within a small island nation.
Gawain's experience went something like this: upon crossing over, he arrived at an inhuman base camp filled with bizarre creatures called "ghosts," each possessing strange and unsettling abilities.
But before Gawain, those creatures proved pathetically fragile. He merely separated his spirit, drew his holy sword, and, without any further effort, reduced them all to ashes beneath the brilliance of the sun.
In short—he had accidentally slain the final boss at the very beginning of the game.
Only later did he realize that the being he had destroyed was actually a man-eating demon named Muzan.
For the moment, that could be considered a good deed, and so Gawain thought little of it.
And then… nothing else happened.
That ghost seemed to have been the world's only mystery. With it gone, the place became entirely mundane.
No noteworthy powers, no advanced technology—nothing of value to Britain.
Not only was conquest meaningless, even trade would be a waste of time and resources.
"Gawain," Arthur said, looking troubled.
"Yes, my king."
"When you explore other worlds in the future, you should… No, I cannot blame you. I cannot demand that you leave yourself threatened and unable to fight back." Arthur sighed helplessly.
Disgusting though man-eating spirits might be, they still held mystery, something that could have been studied.
Yet it could only be said that these ghosts were too fragile—or too steeped in sin—unfortunate enough to encounter Gawain, who, perhaps by destiny, annihilated them outright.
And so, the matter was closed.
Suddenly, the door opened again.
When the person who should not have been present at this time stepped into the room, everyone frowned.
"Lord Kikyo? Were you not scheduled to explore the other world this morning?" Arthur asked in surprise.
"Huh? Kikyo, I remember seeing you in the hibernation chamber this morning. The experiment should have been fine," Gawain added, equally confused.
"Yes, my king. Lord Gawain. I was indeed exploring, and my body should still be sleeping in the chamber… That is how it should have been," Kikyo replied softly.
Like all high-ranking officials of Britannia, time had left no mark upon her face. On the contrary, under Britannia's protection and as her physique grew closer to that of a god, Kikyo's presence had only become more commanding.
Yet now, a trace of unease marred her normally cold and composed expression.
Unease?
Since the dynasty's founding, King Arthur had stood as a beacon, illuminating the future and guiding their path.
No one had needed to hesitate or worry. They only had to follow the king forward.
Since the fall of the Humble King and Rome's defeat, how long had it been since the Knights of the Round Table last showed anxiety or fear of the future?
It felt like such emotions had vanished entirely.
And yet, unease now appeared on the face of Kikyo—the fifth seat of the Round Table.
Everyone immediately recognized the gravity of the situation, their expressions hardening.
"Lord Kikyo, what exactly happened?" Kay asked solemnly.
"Today, as planned, I released my records into the other world and used my clone to explore. Sir Gawain saw me in the hibernation chamber, so I should have been within the exploration at that time. But… according to the magi's observation records, my exploration was forcibly cut off within two hours, and I received no memories from the clone." As she spoke, the unease upon Kikyo's face deepened.
"You didn't recover the memories?" Arthur stood in surprise and walked over to her.
This was no trivial matter.
Although the [Gate of Eternal Calamity] had not yet revealed all its functions, the total number of otherworld explorations—including Arthur's own—was only six.
To protect Arthur's safety, the technology of splitting spirits had been developed by Britain's most brilliant magi.
Manaka, Merry, Morgan, and Artoria—among the most powerful and trustworthy magicians in history—had perfected the system. The probability of error in their design, whether in coding or stability, was virtually zero.
Of course, probability was never something to trust absolutely.
Yet compared with a technical malfunction, another possibility loomed larger.
"Have you determined whether the world you entered was a parallel world, or—"
In Type-Moon's countless parallel worlds, the absence of a proper future often led the world's restraining forces to experiment with coexistence. If one stumbled into such a world, it was not uncommon for it to collapse, or for the planet itself to already have been destroyed, leaving explorers adrift in the void.
And in Britain today, not even Arthur possessed the ability to survive in space unaided.
If that had been the case, it would have been simple to explain.
"Mr. Merlin himself confirmed that it is a genuine other world," Kikyo answered. "Before the experiment, the time ratio was also measured—one to one."
"…One to one," Arthur murmured, his voice low.
The ratio was shocking.
In an instant, the atmosphere in the room grew unbearably heavy.
That meant Kikyo had survived for two full hours in that other world.
And after those two hours, her soul had been destroyed by some other being, erased without even the chance to escape.
This was the likeliest explanation, short of a flaw in the spirit-splitting technique.
"…Hah." Arthur suddenly laughed. "Should I say, we have finally discovered a world of true value?"
It was no secret that Britain had grown so far removed from pan-human history that even the restraining forces had abandoned it. Its overwhelming might was not only in its star-destroying weapons like the Star Arrow, but most directly in the Knights of the Round Table.
Every knight commanded god-level power.
They could not contend with the highest beings—supreme gods or god-kings of the pantheons—but against ordinary or even renowned deities, they would prevail.
Kikyo, once a shrine maiden who wielded spiritual power, had, after surviving in Britain and joining the Round Table, mastered magecraft as well. Firing city-razing beams of light was now routine for her.
Even with the clone's soul weakened when projected into another world, such power was still more than enough to annihilate a city.
And crucially—this was not a parallel world, but a true other world.
The difference was immense.
Heroic Spirits and divine heroes alike wielded catastrophic power. Left unchecked, they could reduce a planet to ruin. Normally, however, the restraining forces limited such devastation.
If one unleashed a blast capable of erasing a city, the result might only destroy a portion.
But in another world, free of those restraints, their destructive power would manifest in full.
The same was true for a split spirit.
Simply put—an anti-city Noble Phantasm could truly obliterate a city.
And yet Kikyo's spirit had been erased outright. Which meant the beings of that world possessed formidable power indeed.
Power implied mystery. A world capable of producing such strength was undoubtedly one Britain had to study.
"An unknown powerhouse?" Arthur said. "What is there to fear? We should rejoice. To challenge the strong, to be tested, and in turn to grow stronger—is that not the fastest path? No matter how terrifying that world may be, it will serve as nourishment for Britain's growth. Prepare yourselves. It is time to give it our all."
-End Chapter-
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