IBHJ 1403

From the lost continents to the legends of Atlantis, from the Age of Gods to the modern era—the scars of their war were etched across time.

And now, as Shirou arrived…

The battle between the First Vortex and the Mortal Vortex—between the Golden Gate and the Azure Gate—reached its breaking point.

The Lord of Salvation had created Manaka Sajyou, vessel of the First Vortex.

Shirou had inherited Tethys’s Mortal Vortex.

But because of choices made long ago, even the Lord of Salvation couldn’t unleash the Golden Gate all at once. He had to assemble it piece by piece.

The First Vortex was the foundation of the Golden Gate.

The Seven Beasts were the catalysts needed to mature it.

The Mortal Vortex, in turn, was the core of the Azure Gate—its growth tethered to Shirou’s evolution, its completion fueled by the souls of Gaia and her siblings.

After defeating Manaka in the Shinjuku Grail War, Shirou stood by as they reshaped the world.

But the Lord of Salvation struck in that moment—ripping a piece of void and flinging it onto the timeline. A trap disguised as temptation. A spectacle designed to be seen. Defined.

He sent a Sixth Seat to nudge events forward. To reclaim the Arrow of Akasha.

And he succeeded.

The Arrow was pulled—

But it never reached him.

The Ideal King seized it first.

The key to the sealed war had been removed.

And for the first time, release became possible.

At last, Shirou endured trial after trial. He awakened as the Savior of Mortal. He matured the Mortal Vortex before Manaka could finish hers. He took the Arrow of Akasha in hand.

And stepped into the First Cause War—a conflict waged in silence for billions of years.

This wasn’t a dream. Or a simulation.

This was history.

Before Shirou arrived, everything here had been frozen.

But the moment he entered… the gears began to turn.

The timeline wasn’t set at the sealing of the Lord of Salvation.

It was set at the very start of their failure—when the Origin Civilization stumbled upon the “correct answer”… and began building the seal.

In other words…

They hit a dead end.

They looked up a walkthrough.

Reloaded the save file.

And sent Shirou in their place.

At first, this version of Origin Gaia hadn’t known.

But the moment she was summoned into the future and saw Venus, everything came flooding back.

And so, she began shaping his path.

She guided him into the Golden Universe.

Led him to the Tablets.

Encoded truth into the myths he would later unravel.

All so he would complete the Azure Gate, reach the First Cause…

…and destroy the Lord of Salvation with the Arrow of Akasha.

That was the answer Gaia had chosen.

The one solution they’d found—after billions of years.

But Shirou—

Shirou refused.

He turned away from the “correct” answer.

And used the Arrow of Akasha to destroy the Golden Destroyer instead.

“…Why?” Gaia’s voice trembled with grief.

She had already failed once.

And this time, more than anyone—she needed to win.

“Because you were manipulating me,” Shirou said. “And he was manipulating you.”

Gaia gave a hollow smile. “If you don’t finish the First Cause War… you’ll never reach the First Cause. And without the Arrow of Akasha, even if you did…”

“I know.”

“Then why?”

“Because I made a bet,” he said. “Everything—my future, this Universe’s future. If I lost, everything would disappear. But…”

He met her eyes. “The war isn’t over. And you’re still here. And I’m still here. That means I dodged a false ‘correct answer.’”

The “right” path isn’t always right.

Sometimes it’s just a trap—dressed up in righteousness.

“…Your future is one thing,” she muttered. “But to wager everyone’s…”

“If you don’t risk everything,” he said, “how do you win the future?”

He stepped closer. “So stop hiding. Tell me, Gaia. What was your real goal?”

“…To have you reach the First Cause,” she exhaled, defeated. “To make you use the Arrow of Akasha and destroy it. But once you crossed that threshold… you’d be trapped—like him. And we—the past—would overwrite the future. Reclaim it.”

Her voice softened. “But now… it’s over. We’ve lost.”

And then—

Alaya cried out:

“Warning! Warning—unknown massive presence detected from the Golden Universe!”

Cosmic Alaya suddenly flared—issuing a violent, panicked warning. Whatever it sensed, it wasn’t just dangerous.

It was terrifying.

A projection screen blinked into view.

Shirou turned. It showed the fringe of the Universe—a borderland region that, though technically part of the cosmos, sprawled outward like a malignant vine, wrapping around neighboring universes.

The Golden Universe.

Once radiant. Now collapsing.

A pitch-black tide was devouring it. Not darkness in the poetic sense, but an absolute absence—so total that even light couldn’t escape.

Planets. Star systems. Nebulae.

One by one, they vanished—swallowed by the void.

There was no mistaking it now.

This was the entity that had once driven the Golden Universe to madness. The one that forced them to ignite the First Cause War in desperation:

The Void Overlord. The Cosmic Devourer.

A being birthed by the First Cause. The end-point of entropy. A failsafe designed to consume dying universes and keep the macrocosmic balance intact.

Long ago, the Golden Universe narrowly escaped extinction by launching the First Cause War. And once their Golden Gate was completed, it held the Void’s hunger at bay.

But that Gate had been stolen. The Golden Destroyer was the last wall between them and oblivion.

Now the Destroyer was gone—erased by the Arrow of Akasha.

And with that—

The Void resumed its feast.

The Golden Universe, which had endured for billions of years, unraveled in mere moments.

Gone.

Not just dead—erased.

It was beautiful, in a way. But terrifying.

Existence is wondrous and hideous. Brilliant and doomed.

And now, the Void Overlord—having devoured the Golden Universe—turned its gaze toward the Gaia Star Domain.

Then it lunged.

Toward the golden lifeforms that had invaded it.

“No—NO—!”

“Help us!”

“Please—!”

Screams. Shrieks. Wordless sobs and frantic prayers.

Then silence.

The final remnants of the Golden Universe—snuffed out like candle flames.

This was the Void.

Even if you fled your collapsing world—even if you survived a dying cosmos—it would find you.

It would follow.

And it would consume.

Not out of cruelty. But because the universe was its prey.

And you—life itself—were part of that universe.

But that had nothing to do with the Gaia Domain.

Gaia belonged to a young universe. A thriving one.

At least, it should have.

But the Void didn’t stop.

It crossed the boundary—spilling into the Gaia Star Domain.

The iron warships guarding the outer rim were gone in an instant.

“What’s happening?” Origin Gaia gasped. “Our universe hasn’t even begun to decay!”

The Void shouldn’t be here. As a First Cause entity, it only targeted senescent systems. Dying ones. Not vibrant, stable ones like this.

And yet—it was charging toward the solar system.

Was this the Lord of Salvation’s doing?

No. If he had that power, Gaia would've been reduced to ash long ago. The Origin Civilization would never have sealed him to begin with.

Then there was only one possibility.

“Something’s attracting it,” Shirou muttered, eyes narrowing.

The Void only responds to dying universes—or their remnants.

“…The Golden Protein.”

“Golden… Protein?” Origin Gaia blinked.

“Tethys used primordial material from the Golden Universe—recovered from the Tiamat warship—to build a new lifeform system. That protein… it might’ve drawn the Void Overlord here.”

Tethys said “I never studied proteins from the Golden Universe because If someone did create life using that material… it wouldn’t be part of Gaia’s system. It would belong to them.”

“But… Moromaya said she was helping you construct an environment for protein-based evolution—”

Shirou’s voice cut off.

His eyes went wide.

Origin Gaia reached the same conclusion at once. Her voice turned sharp. “My children—can any of you reach Moromaya’s thoughts right now?”

One by one, the answers came in.

“No.”

“Negative.”

“She’s blocking us.”

The origin lifeforms shook their heads in unison.

Origin Gaia’s expression darkened. Her eyes flicked to the projection.

Then she turned to the Cosmic Alaya. “Alaya, stop the Void Overlord!”

“Y-Yes—!”

But Alaya’s form was already fading.

And with a soft pop—like a soap bubble bursting—she disappeared.

Gone.

Cosmic Alaya had vanished.

Silence fell.

Something at the core of Earth—something that sustained Alaya’s existence—had just been severed.

Origin Gaia’s jaw clenched. “Return to the Solar System!”

They raced back toward the sun.

But deep down, everyone already knew.

The truth was undeniable now.

Something was very, very wrong with Moromaya.