IBHJ Chapter 940

"You're wasting too much time, Venus!" she glanced at her with displeasure, then turned her head to look at him and asked, "Since you defeated Crimson Moon, you should also know about its existence. Then, you should also know about the Mooncell, the supercomputer that exists within the moon, right?"

Other than Shirou, everyone else was completely lost. UOs, ancient civilizations, and now Mooncell... What was going on? They exchanged bewildered glances.

Artoria, however, wore a thoughtful expression. She'd spent the most time with Shirou and had even interacted with the Second Magic user through him. She'd also personally clashed against Crimson Moon twice, so she had some concept of these things.

Even about Mooncell, she knew a little – enough to understand that it was a computer within the moon that had nearly driven Crimson Moon mad, causing him to want to invade and occupy Earth. It was wary of the Holy Sword, though, so it had been acting in secret until it discovered that the Holy Sword was in Vivian's hands. That's when it made its move.

Crimson Moon had first taken control of the Roman Empire, turning the Emperor into a puppet and weakening the nation's power. This left Britain vulnerable, leading to the Saxon invasion.

At the same time, the Age of Gods was ending. To ensure the survival of the British people, Vortigern, the lord guarding Britain, and his friend began to reverse the Age of Gods, setting in motion a series of historical events.

Shirou nodded. Although he had never been to the moon, he was the one among them who knew the most about Mooncell. That's why he was able to intimidate Altrouge, tricking her into becoming one of his powerful allies in defeating Vortigern. After successfully defeating Vortigern, he captured her and trained her to be his double agent.

"4.6 billion years ago, when this solar system had just formed, a group of alien visitors came to this newly formed system to conduct an interstellar experiment. They inserted an observation tool, Mooncell, into the newly formed moon," Tiamat said.

He nodded again. He knew this part as well. He also knew that Mooncell later trapped the body of the Vanguard of the Umbral Star, the White Titan, thus preventing Earth's civilization from being completely annihilated. What was clearer now was that the alien civilization that created Mooncell was actually from the same source as the Umbral Star.

"Then, those alien visitors gave will to the eight planets in this solar system, created the siblings of UOs, and began their experiment..."

"Hey! Tiamat!" Venus looked at her in shock. "We don't need to tell them about this, right?"

"What's wrong with it? Having inherited the legacy of that civilization, he should also know the origin of UOs, right?"

"That may be true, but... this is taboo..." Venus said with a headache.

"Wait, wait a minute!" he looked at Tiamat, unable to accept what he was hearing. "You're telling me that Gaia and all the other UOs came from some alien experiment?"

Tiamat nodded, her brow furrowing slightly. "Yes, is there something wrong with that?"

"But aren't planetary wills born from the Origin, Akashic Records?"

"We'll get to that later, but what I've told you, though perhaps not entirely accurate since I wasn't around back then, is mostly true," Tiamat said firmly.

After a moment, she continued. "Not long after the interstellar experiment started, that civilization seems to have had some kind of civil war due to conflicting ideologies. This led to a fight among the interstellar observers that ended in their destruction. The UOs, scared that the interstellar civilization might hurt them, gathered everything they could on their planets to defend themselves."

Tiamat pointed toward Venus. "But unlike her, most UOs chose the path of destruction, and only Gaia imitated that interstellar civilization and built her own."

"Gaia used the remains of the interstellar observers and the technology left behind by that civilization to create her own life forms, starting from primitive proteins," Tiamat explained.

"But those life forms were no different from the organisms we see today, very fragile, so everyone thought Gaia was a fool at that time," Venus added, still rubbing her cheek against the God Brain's. "But Gaia didn't care about what they said and instead devoted herself to nurturing her organisms, repeatedly destroying and altering her own form to make the environment more suitable for life. As a result, after passing through the primitive stage, Earth quickly approached stability."

"Billions of years later, the spark of civilization was born on Earth. That civilization was cultivated by Gaia with all her resources. From the perspective of our other siblings, she was just another unique UO like me. However, unlike me, a predatory UO focused on ecological invasion, she is a UO dedicated to the development of civilizations. If we were to give this civilization-development type UO a name like how 'Heaven's Corpse' is my name, there's only one fitting choice."

"Alaya," Tiamat said.

As soon as the words were spoken, everyone was stunned.

Alaya?

Earth having a UO wasn't something he knew about, and surprisingly, this UO was a civilization development type. Considering ecological invasion-type UOs like Venus existed, it wasn't completely unexpected. But what really surprised them was that Earth's UO was... Alaya. Well, not quite. It was called Alaya, but it wasn't the same as the Counter Force Alaya.

Even so, it was a shock. Illya and Morrigan, being magi, and Shirou, were quite surprised. As for Heroic Spirits like Artoria and Mordred, they were only mildly surprised. When common sense is flipped upside down, the level of shock depends on how much you understand in the first place.

"When civilization emerged and thinking minds were born, Gaia guided them to recognize her. At the same time, she gave that civilization an alien spacecraft to study. From then on, the fire of civilization spread across Earth. Unlike the next-generation gods, magical beasts, and humans she nurtured, this civilization, like other UOs, was an extension of the planet's will. They didn't completely obey Gaia, but they worshiped her—the one who created civilization and helped it grow—as a god."

Tiamat paused, then continued: "Eventually, that civilization reached the moon. They seized control of the Mooncell, acquiring all the technology and data from those interstellar experiments. By combining this knowledge with Earth's cosmic and geographical conditions, they developed their own advanced technological system. They then applied this new technology to Earth, transforming it into the unique blue planet we see today."

Shirou's brow furrowed. "Wait. Are you saying Gaia nurtured the development of this civilization, and they in turn used their new technology to develop Earth?"

Tiamat nodded. "Is there a problem?"

"No... not really," he replied, shaking his head, putting it out of his mind for now. "So what happened next?"

His curiosity about the distant past had been sparked. He sensed that Tiamat and Venus's tales weren't just idle chatter, but a series of connected events. Perhaps the truth about the Vortex was hidden within these stories.

"And then, that one over there got jealous and couldn't stand it anymore." Tiamat pointed dramatically towards Venus, "Seeing her sibling become so beautiful, surrounded by the joyous sounds of life. This woman went crazy with envy and tried to take over Earth. Of course, she was completely defeated in the end. If it weren't for Gaia deliberately sparing her, she would have been gone a long time ago."

"How rude, Tiamat! That wasn't me; it was the will of our siblings! I was forced by them!" Venus glared at her with an annoyed pout as she hugged the God Brain tightly, causing a terrifying cracking sound.

"Uuu... it hurts." Aqua whimpered softly.

Not even denying being completely beaten... Shirou glanced at Venus, silently thinking to himself that she must have really taken a good trashing.