IBHJ 1238

As if on cue, glittering particles like tiny stars began to emerge from Shirou's body. They drifted upward and clustered together, gradually forming what looked like a virtual screen. Within this shimmering display appeared a figure with striking white hair and piercing red eyes.

"Oh wow, we finally made contact!" Gaia exclaimed, clasping her hands to her chest dramatically. "The Empire's barrier is just so powerful, you wouldn't believe what I had to go through!"

"Save the act—you're not very good at it," he cut in bluntly. "Nerissa bringing us here was actually your idea all along, wasn't it? Your real plan was to make us connect with your old flame, Alaya. Right?"

Mana and Astraea exchanged startled glances before staring at him in disbelief. They both recognized that the Gaia on the screen was actually part the planet itself—the physical embodiment of Earth's consciousness.

That's exactly why they thought Shirou might be pushing his luck. After all, he was talking to Gaia. Every living thing on Earth—humans, animals, bacteria, even single-cell organisms—were technically her subjects. Shirou's tone seemed way too casual, almost rude. And that "old flame" comment… Everyone knew that while Gaia tolerated Alaya, they were hardly friendly. Gaia had even called on her siblings to wipe out humanity at one point.

How could he speak to her that way?

But to everyone's shock, Gaia didn't seem offended by Shirou's disrespect at all. Instead, she responded with—

"Old flame?" Gaia rolled her eyes. "The little sweet loli who always said she would protect and cherish me when she grew up was fine. But this?" She let out a dramatic sigh. "This yellow-faced old hag who works people to the death? Yeah, no thanks."

Alaya: "..."

Getting rejected and insulted by Shirou was bad enough—after all, it had happened before. But now being trashed by Gaia too?

Alaya was completely devastated.

Shirou watched Gaia with an amused expression. He noticed that after being personified for so long, her emotional range was becoming increasingly rich and obvious. While this made their conversations surprisingly comfortable, he realized it was probably the worst possible news for humanity as a whole.

Astraea and Mordred stared at Shirou in complete shock. Sure, the planet developing a personality might make communication easier, but actually joking around with her and being accepted? Even gods couldn't pull that off. This kind of special treatment was incredibly rare. Besides Crimson Moon, only Shirou had ever managed to do it.

"Let me tell you about this yellow-faced old woman called Alaya..." Gaia continued.

"Shut your mouth, you flat-chested brainless blonde!"

The sudden harsh interruption made everyone freeze. They turned to see Mana glaring at Gaia's image with unmistakable hostility. Her blue eyes were now flashing with rainbow-colored light.

Gaia stared at Mana with surprise, then her lips curled into a mocking smile. "So you actually managed to steal a human body and complete your personification? How fitting. Humanity always takes what isn't theirs to satisfy their endless greed—and now you've stolen her body just to manifest yourself." She let out a cold laugh. "That particular brand of despicable behavior seems uniquely human. I could never imagine myself sinking so low."

Everyone stared blankly as Gaia and Alaya fell into a full-blown argument.

Astraea looked particularly stunned as she watched Mana Ryougi, clearly just realizing why Mana could speak with Alaya. It wasn't just that she represented it—Alaya had actually been able to possess her body, using Mana's physical form to manifest in the real world.

Shirou glanced from Gaia on one side to Alaya on the other, then covered his face with a groan. Great. Two Counter Forces had shamelessly taken physical form and were now bickering right in front of him.

Gaia's manifestation wasn't that surprising when you thought about it. The planet itself had its own life and consciousness, though not in any way humans could really understand. To the planet, humans and other living beings were basically just microorganisms. It was like how people can't directly talk to bacteria in their gut, but they can create things like medicines or supplements that interact with those tiny organisms—either wiping them out or helping them grow.

The planet works the same way. It can't talk directly to humans, but it can place its consciousness into special vessels to interact with the living world. That's exactly what Arcueid was—a vessel created by the planet.

But now the planet has upgraded to using Mooncell to manifest part of its consciousness directly, so Arcueid isn't necessary anymore. It's just like upgrading your computer equipment—both basic and high-end graphics cards can run the same games, but the high-end ones give you better performance and smoother frame rates. When you have access to the better option, why would anyone stick with the outdated hardware?

So if the planet has figured out how to take physical form, of course Alaya can do it as well.

In simple terms, Alaya was basically the shared essence of all humanity. Like a mathematical concept, all humans together formed one big set A, with Dutch people as subset a, Germans as subset b, and so on. Alaya emerged from the complete set of humanity, and its only purpose was to protect humanity's survival as a whole.

This explained why when Germany invaded the Netherlands, Alaya didn't intervene. Such conflicts represented mere internal strife within the larger set. But when natural disasters or outside forces threatened to wipe out humanity entirely, she sprang into action.

At its core, Alaya represented humanity's basic instinct to survive—the collective will refusing extinction. Its sole purpose was ensuring humanity as a species didn't disappear completely.

When external threats emerged that could destroy multiple branches of humanity, Alaya's system activated. The entity identified individuals who could potentially reverse these crises and granted them special powers, turning them into [Heroes] capable of creating miracles.

But there's always a catch. In exchange for this miracle-making power, the [Hero] must become a Guardian, eternally bound to protect humanity's existence forever.

And that's the cruel twist in the bargain—Alaya's Contract.

But what happens when none of these [Heroes], or even her ultimate weapon, the Seven Grand Servants, can stop an extinction-level disaster? What then?

In that case, she has no choice but to step in personally!

While Alaya and Gaia have different protection methods and operational systems, they share one key similarity: just like Gaia, Alaya can create a simulated personality to break free from her usual instinct-driven operations and physically manifest in the world.

Gaia used Mooncell to simulate both Shirou's and Arcueid's personalities to complete her manifestation. This left her mind sharp, but also gave her this weirdly salty and somewhat goofy vibe.

Adding Arcueid's personality traits to the mix was basically like shooting yourself in the foot—a recipe for disaster.

Alaya, meanwhile, had possessed Shiki's daughter Mana Ryougi, borrowing her personality to manifest—which explained the rational but undeniably cunning demeanor.

Ever since the industrial revolution, the tension between humanity and the planet has only gotten worse. Even though they're now forced to take physical form and work together against the threats of the Emperor and the Lord of Salvation, they still clearly can't stand each other.

Alaya keeps mocking Gaia as some narrow-minded blonde airhead, while Gaia fires back by calling Alaya a power-hungry, yellow-faced old hag.

"Okay, you two, that's enough," Shirou interrupted. "While you're both busy arguing, the Emperor is out there working on completing the synchronization. Whatever issues you have with each other, can you please just put them aside for now?"

Under normal circumstances, he would've happily grabbed some popcorn and enjoyed watching this cosmic squabble play out.

But with the Emperor and the Lord of Salvation breathing down their necks, he had no choice but to shut down what could have been the argument of the century.

"Fine," Gaia huffed, making a childish face at Alaya.

Alaya merely gave her a cool glance, clearly unimpressed by Gaia's silly antics. Then the rainbow glow faded from Mana Ryougi's eyes as Alaya withdrew her consciousness from the vessel.