IBHJ 1402

In the distant future, only Venus remained.

That alone made it obvious—this recreated war had ended in her victory.

And if Shirou wanted to defeat the Lord of Salvation, he had to reach that same summit. Equal footing. Equal ground.

To do that… he needed a Gate.

Not the one forged by the Golden Universe. That was theirs.

He needed a Gate born from this Universe—from his Vortex. Only then could he enter the realm of the First Cause.

But the cost was clear now.

The star-souls of the planets.

He understood. At last, he saw the full shape of it.

This war—this entire world—had been created by the Origin Civilization. Or rather, carved out of history. A sealed-off reality with one purpose: to guide the Vortex's inheritor. To lead him to absorb the planets, awaken the Gate, and face the Lord of Salvation.

That was the intended path. The “correct answer.”

Use the Gate to reach the First Cause. Use the Arrow of Akasha to kill the one who had nested inside it.

It all made sense.

Too much sense.

‘…Thank you, Tethys.’

‘If you hadn’t been there—maybe I would’ve followed this “correct” path too.’

Shirou reached behind him.

He drew the golden bow gifted by Artoria and the others, then nocked the Arrow of Akasha to it. And he aimed it straight at the Golden Destroyer.

Origin Gaia, still locked in a losing battle with the Destroyer, turned—caught sight of what he was doing.

Her expression broke. “Shirou—don’t! STOP!!”

But he had already drawn the string.

His voice was calm and cold. “Cause and consequence of all things—Arrow of Akasha.”

He loosed it.

Gaia screamed. “No—!”

“W-What…?!”

The Golden Destroyer saw it—just for a second. The Arrow streaking through the dark, impossibly fast. His eyes widened. A breath caught in his throat. Then—

He bolted. Light-years vanished behind him in an instant.

Didn’t matter.

The Arrow of Akasha caught him anyway.

It hit.

“No—No. That’s not—this isn’t real!”

His voice cracked. His gaze darted, panicked, disbelieving.

And then—

That flawless body, immune even to Root Line erasure, began to shimmer. Faint at first. Like heat haze breaking over glass.

Then he started to come apart. Not just atoms—deeper than that. Concepts. Memory. Structure.

“So this is it…? This can’t be it… The Universe… it’s over…”

And then he was just—gone.

Not just dead.

Deleted.

Body, soul, data, essence—

Erased. Without ripple or echo.

Golden light spilled across the battlefield. All at once, the tension cracked. Cheers erupted from scattered corners of the void. Even Alaya let a faint smile slip.

Only Origin Gaia didn’t move.

She stared at the empty space where the Arrow had vanished. Not in victory.

But like something had gone horribly wrong.

Her lips pulled back. Slowly. Her hands curled tight at her sides. And then—she stood.

The cheering faded when she turned. Every face went still as her glare found Shirou.

“…Why?”

A pause.

“Why?!”

“You knew what that Arrow meant! It was our last hope! Why the hell would you throw it away!?”

Shirou didn’t flinch. “Because that was your answer. This whole First Cause War—it’s your fight with the Lord of Salvation. Not mine. You’ve been steering me toward this ending from the start. At you. And this Universe. You’re not some projection. You’re not an AI. You’re a cage. A sealed world. A trap carved out of history—built to lock the Lord of Salvation in.”

Goetia had hinted at it.

So had the Ideal King.

Even Future Gaia couldn’t explain what came before.

Tiamat remembered nothing.

Venus knew almost nothing.

Tethys? Nothing.

Of course they didn’t know.

Because the past of this whole Azure Universe wasn’t missing.

It had been cut away.

Split down the middle and buried inside two Vortexes.

One for the Lord of Salvation.

And the other…

For the one who’d kill him.

Because the past no longer existed, no one alive in the present could explain it—nor even perceive its absence.

It was like watching a film with the first ten minutes cut out. The story continued, but the origin of everything was lost to time.

And the ones who sealed the past away… were the Origin Civilization, led by Origin Gaia.

During the Age of Origins, just like now, Origin Gaia used the First Cause War to defeat the Golden Destroyer.

They believed they had achieved a final victory.

But they hadn’t known—there was still one being left behind from the previous First Cause War. A former Cosmic Master. The Fool.

Or rather… the Lord of Salvation.

He had been both arbiter and participant in the war—the true architect hiding in the shadows.

And he was far more terrifying than the Golden Destroyer.

The First Cause had been reactivated. But it had already been tainted. It was too late.

The Lord of Salvation could no longer be stopped from returning to reality.

Just like the Fourth Holy Grail War: even if you win, what manifests isn’t a Grail—but All the World's Evil.

So the Origin Civilization had no choice.

They fought the Lord of Salvation for control of the First Cause—but in the end, they lost. Completely.

At the brink of extinction, they realized something dreadful:

Even the Origin Lifeforms—even beings made of pure data and soul—were part of the First Cause.

They could never win.

So they made a final decision.

They would seal the war itself, and entrust it to someone outside the domain of the First Cause.

Someone from the future.

Someone like Shirou.

To that end, they perfected the Azure Gate, carving out a portion of the still-unpolluted First Cause and forging the Arrow of Akasha.

Then, they sent Tethys out—aboard fleets of starships carrying the genetic and memetic seeds of Gaia’s Domain—fleeing in all directions, waiting for a time when they could return and rebuild.

Finally, they burned everything.

They sliced open the timeline of the Azure Universe.

And using the Arrow of Akasha, they sealed that slice—along with the Lord of Salvation—into the deepest part of the Root.

The entire past… permanently sealed.

So the old horrors could no longer threaten the dawn of new life.

Only Mooncell had managed to preserve fragmented records. And it was from those fragments that Demonic Bodhisattva learned the truth—including the existence of the Arrow of Akasha.

And thus, with the past discarded, the Azure Universe began its second life.

The Wandering Star, the Outer God, and others began to manifest. Earth transitioned from the Age of Stars to the Age of Life. With ether came evolution—and from evolution came the Counter Force.

Venus, last survivor of the second First Cause War, helped guide the planet’s counter force, summoned Tethys, and called back the fireseeds—those wandering fleets still searching for homes. Gaia’s Domain was rebuilt, and the next generation began.

The starships returned—Tiamat among them.

But in the end… the Origin Civilization had underestimated the Lord of Salvation.

Even sealed within the infinite past, unable to act directly in the present—he still found ways to influence.

He bred proxies, cultivated pawns, manipulated with truths and temptations, leading humanity toward their own ruin.

He spent eons orchestrating subtle assaults on his prison.

And Tethys, the last of her kind, fought back.