IBHJ 1338

One mangled beast staggered through the blood-soaked remains, biting into a fresh corpse. It let out a final, hollow howl before collapsing in a heap. Within seconds, its body melted into viscous liquid, leaving behind nothing but steam.

"Wait, what? They're all dead already? But the previous version with standard aggression was projected to last thirteen hundred years! I even increased the aggression levels this time, so how did they all die out in less than a day?" Tethys let out a long groan, throwing her hands up in disbelief.

Shirou nodded along, understanding that when Tethys mentioned years, she meant something completely different from his concept of time. Since her thoughts flowed directly to him as pure information, they automatically translated into terms he could grasp.

The sheer frustration bleeding through her voice made him curious. "Besides ramping up their aggression, what else did you add to them?"

"An energy acquisition system, obviously." Tethys waved her hand as if the answer should be clear to anyone. "I modeled it after you and gave them mouths plus matching metabolic systems. Their aggression shot way up, but somehow they died even faster. It makes no sense." She paused, then re-manifested in human form and began circling around Shirou like an excited cat. "Anyway, do you have any suggestions?"

Shirou shook his head with a dry smile. "Forget it. Our ecosystems are completely different from yours. I don't have any useful advice to offer."

Her eyes lit up with curiosity. "Then what's your ecosystem like?"

"Producers, consumers, and decomposers," Shirou answered simply. "A three-part cycle."

Honestly, he couldn't imagine any ecological model beyond that basic system. Not that anyone could blame him for it. No ecologist ever had, really. After all, human understanding was still limited by their own environment. The viewpoint, social structures, and symbolic systems of the Origin Lifeforms stretched far beyond what any human mind could truly comprehend.

Tethys tilted her head. "Producers?"

Shirou scratched his chin, thinking of the simplest way to explain it. "Think of them as plants. Their energy intake method is actually similar to yours during your material stage. You used to absorb high-energy cosmic radiation, right? Plants do something like that with light and nutrients. They perform metabolism, store energy, then get eaten by consumers. After the consumers die, decomposers break their bodies down into basic materials, which the producers absorb again to start the whole cycle over."

“Oh. I see. A tri-loop system,” Tethys muttered, more to herself than to him. “I should run some tests on that... though your plants would need to be adapted to Gaia’s conditions.”

Suddenly, her eyes narrowed and a mischievous grin spread across her face. “My dear Shirou…”

A chill ran down his spine. he instinctively wrapped his arms around himself, taking a cautious step back. “What are you scheming now? I swear, if this is some weird information-age pervert thing, don’t even think about touching me!”

“Perverts? Really now?” Tethys rolled her eyes. “All I want is a little favor.”

He exhaled, relieved. For a second there, he thought she’d completely lost it and was about to dissect him for some insane ecosystem experiment.

“What kind of favor?” he asked warily. “Can’t you do it yourself?”

“Nope.” She smiled sweetly, though the glint in her eyes said otherwise. “This one’s special. Only you can pull it off.”

Tethys leaned in a little closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “Be a good boy and help Grandma Tethys steal something, will you?”

…

Wrapped in a layer of mud, Shirou drifted over a roiling sea of gas made from hydrogen, helium, methane, and deuterium. This was Uranus—an ice giant, cold and alien. All around him stretched a hazy white mist, giving the place a frozen stillness that reminded him of Skadi’s world.

“Uranus is asleep. The item’s in the core. Go fetch it for me,” Tethys’s voice echoed in his head, calm but insistent.

Shirou frowned. “If your voice can reach all the way down here, why don’t you just come get it yourself?”

“Idiot! If I show up, he’ll sense me instantly! Uranus will throw me out and send a complaint to Gaia!”

He twitched. “…So this isn’t your first time pulling something like this.”

“No more whining, just grab the thing! Help me with this, and I’ll help you investigate that Lord of Salvation.”

Shirou let out a long sigh. It was a shady deal… but also an irresistible one. “Fine. Just don’t mess up the directions.”

He started descending, guided by her mental map. The sky above suddenly split open with lightning. A raging storm surged through the clouds, hurling sparkling particles like shrapnel.

Crack. Crack.

Each shard hit the barrier of [Evil] around him, but didn’t break through. Curious, Shirou reached out and caught one. It glittered in his palm—a natural diamond.

Right, he remembered. Uranus was famous for that. The so-called “diamond planet,” where pressure and atmosphere churned out some of the largest diamond formations in the solar system.

Off in the distance, a glowing fissure of crystal caught his eye. Without hesitating, he flew toward it, tore a chunk of the massive vein loose, and dropped the gleaming gem into the imaginary space of the [Evil].

"May as well take a few extras," Shirou muttered, slipping another diamond into the Black Mud. "Might help with my future money problems."

“What are you doing grabbing shiny rocks?! Move it already!”

“I am moving. Calm down,” he grumbled. “If you get too worked up, Uranus might notice you again.”

He followed her guidance, descending through the dense layers of Uranus’s atmosphere. The lighter gases thinned out as he pushed deeper, replaced by heavier elements—oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur—each one pressing harder against him than the last. But the real surprise came at the center.

What should’ve been crushing pressure and swirling gas… wasn’t.

Instead, a hollow sphere stretched out before him. And at its center, an enormous tree stood tall—silent, unmoving, ancient. Its roots ran through every layer of the planet, threading through rock and gas like lifeblood in a sleeping titan. At the tree’s core, nestled deep in its trunk, a crystal pulsed with light, steady and alive.

“Yes! That’s it!” Tethys chirped. “Shirou, be a dear and bring that core back for me!”

“Alright,” he said, stepping forward.

As he reached out to touch the tree’s bark, a strange thought hit him. Was this the real reason future Gaia and Uranus had a falling-out? Because Tethys had taken a piece of this world-tree to jumpstart Earth’s ecosystem?

He paused, hand hovering. “Is this going to cause any damage?”

“Not at all! It’s totally safe. Now hurry up!” Tethys’s voice was practically shaking with anticipation.

Then, without warning, a thunderous voice roared through the hollow core.

“WHO?”