Chapter 130: Open Ending

Once, Galahad is a person who wouldn't hesitate to take the blow himself for the sake of others. It is his primary reason for choosing the shield—it could both attack his enemies and defend his allies. Even his Noble Phantasm, Lord Camelot, is a manifestation of his impenetrable defense in the face of danger.

It is evident that this characteristic of his is present up until now.

'This battle… How dangerous would it be?'

Nobu mused as he heard Nettesheim's explanations.

"The greatest card you could play is your [Dreamland]. It could directly contradict the physical laws. It is one of the greatest spells I have ever seen."

"Alice's Wonderland…"

At first, it was his small attempt to mimic the 'Domains' formed by Sorcerers. It is a special technique whereas they turn the space around them into something favorable for their cursed techniques. It is as if they turned the cursed technique into a mobile fortress.

Bam-!

Nobu's attention went to the Misfortune demon that kept attacking his barrier. He found out that 'Alice's Wonderland' couldn't easily expand through this black space. Its range could barely encapsulate his body.

All his nine mind partitions ran swiftly as he thought of a breakthrough.

'Abraq ad Habra…'

In the end, he came up with an interesting combination. If [Abraq Ad Habra]'s main function is changed, it would go from [Archangel Summoning] to the [Ten Sephirots]. It would become something akin to the world's first state as to when God created it for seven days.

Seeing him thread down this path, a complex look appeared on Nettesheim.

…

Upon Nobu's meeting with Nettesheim, he continued settling every problem in his world.

"You mentioned cursed tools being the incarnations of several ancient sorcerers. Wouldn't you settle them first?"

"I already did. More than half of the hidden cursed tools were sent to Gluttony yesterday. I believe he dealt with them already."

Nobu felt the convenience brought by Gluttony. Since he didn't have enough power in the past, he couldn't forcefully take some of Sukuna's fingers on the Sorcerer Society's hands.

Now, he managed to take all five fingers from Satoru as well as the four within Itadori. The remaining eleven came to his hands after two weeks of intensive search around the world.

It could be safely concluded that Kenjaku and Sukuna, the two most troublesome Evil Sorcerers, no longer exist in this world. Not even the body parts of a god could survive inside Gluttony's stomach. They would be turned into nothingness; a phenomenon that couldn't be explained completely even now.

"Isn't this matter more important right now?"

Nobu pointed to the seven-colored realm with a matter-of-fact tone. In the midst of it is a huge throne, in which a "goddess" sat down.

An extremely strong aura emanated from the surroundings. The sheer amount and quality of Telesma on the surroundings is similar to Goetia. It spoke volumes of the goddess who could see through fate itself.

"You two are still casual about this…"

The silent Reiji finally spoke up.

"There's no use in being anxious. We will be facing her sooner or later. We only brought forward the execution time." Nobu replied.

Seeing the three talk leisurely pulled the string of the goddess.

"Just by being able to interact with the Spirit Realm, you mortals have grown arrogant. And you, Yuusha-sama, why have you gone down this crooked path?"

At this moment, Nobu and Suimei haven't activated their [Infinite Conversion] in hopes of letting her miscalculate their full strength.

"The first hero… He told me you wanted to keep the First Sacrament to yourself."

Reiji spoke as golden-white bolts of lightning surrounded his right arm.

"You are a twisted person who would see an entire world be destroyed for entertainment. How long would you keep up this facade?"

Although Reiji valued justice, he is neither self-righteous or blind. He acted in accordance with the well-being of those around him—not to satisfy his selfish desires.

Knowing that the goddess who summoned them treated everything as a game and the fact that she would've caused their world's destruction without the First Sacrament, he made his stance.

"What a pity. Everything would end like this."

Her sight shifted into Suimei.

"The one with the strongest fate."

It was then redirected to Reiji.

"The one with the heroic fate."

Finally, it turned to Nobu.

"The one with a pitiful fate."

Just as Nobu heard it, he briefly stopped his intention to attack. A sense of realization flickered within his eyes.

"You might have been sitting on your divine throne for so long." He stated before continuing, "There is no longer pre-determined fate. It is merely nothing but a shackle imposed on oneself."

Nobu communicated with a certain someone as he spoke to the Goddess Alshuna, the one responsible for bringing Suimei, Reiji, and Mizuki to another world.

"Oh? Continue."

Alshuna spoke with a hint of sarcasm. Saying that fate is not pre-determined in the face of someone who knows it too well is akin to a fool educating a scholar.

"There is no need to wait."

Nobu replied as a full-powered Rhongomyniad Blast came from nowhere.

"You'll see it now."

…

It was an abrupt summoning. I heard the call from the "Singularity" and did not hesitate to lend a hand.

Currently, I am in the midst of a desert. It is reminiscent of Jerusalem when he went to "save" his King at that time.

"You're here, Akasaka-san."

A familiar voice rang in my ears. King Solomon… no, Archiman-san's 'projection' came up in my sight.

"I didn't expect it would work this smoothly…"

"I thought it'd simply work since the throne of heroes work similarly to the spirit realm."

One of the 'magicka' I modified in this world is their 'summoning magecraft'. It is a slightly-advanced magecraft that could be used to summon forth familiars.

When it is modified by three magi families in this world, it turned into something that could connect into the 'Throne of Heroes', the so-called resting place of heroes from the material world.

Simply put, it is a kind of "afterlife" exclusive to heroes. My King explained this one to me in-depth.

What I thought was the possibility of 'summoning' someone from another world. With the original [World Transfer] spell and [Summoning Magecraft], the summoning of my 'consciousness' to this world became possible.

As for the body, I took inspiration from the spiritron bodies as well as the one Galahad created for me during the ninth iteration.

"The talking comes later. It seems that you are in a pinch?"

Nobu's eyesight saw the tide of beasts storming in his direction.

"Sigh… The seventh singularity is unique…"

…

"This..!"

Within his spiritron body, Nobu's actual capabilities are limited. It is not as 'firm' as his actual body, and as such, the use of dream organs or even the [Infinite Conversion] state could only be done several times before his body gets destroyed.

Up to now, he faced two scenarios that required him to use [Mana Furnace].

Facing this sea of all evils, Nobu had no other choice but to directly enter his strongest state.

"Infinitus, commuto." (Infinite conversion.)

Instantly, a sea of white light emerged from his foot. He directly used the learnings he had during his 'meeting' with Nettesheim as well as the things he got from 'defeating' an actual goddess.

Within this dreamland, there lied the ten sephira. The ten sources of creation worked around Alice's Wonderland.

Moreover…

Bzzt-!

A blue magicka circle appeared on his back. From there, the concept of sephira became a reality.

Ten archangels, each representing a part of a sephirot, descended upon the material world.

The sheer amount of telesma emitted by these ten projections matched the spirit realm. Their presence alone is enough to 'cleanse' the surroundings of the 'dirty sea' emitted by a certain Servant.

Without needing to tell them, the ten archangels began to take positions.

Rumble-!

Their summoning didn't go unnoticed in the midst of this 'fight'.

"Akasaka-san!"

"I'm going to perform a single strike. Most likely, I won't be here by the time it ends. However, it should be able to deal significant damage against her."

Originally, Nobu wanted to rely on Merlin, the one and only court mage of Camelot, in order to deal with the 'final threat' of this singularity—Tiamat.

What he didn't expect, however, is for her power to be extremely similar to the Twilight Syndrome of his world.

With this in mind, he chose to test the firepower of the trump card he prepared against their world's end.

"Feel free… no. If I haven't been answering your summoning after this, our world might be undergoing its final struggle. I apologize in advance for that."

"There's no need to." Romani replied. "Is there anything we could do to help?"

"It's better if you would focus on this world's threat first."

Nobu chose to reveal the information he heard from Galahad to Romani. He is extremely trustworthy as the legitimate King Solomon. Since they had so much to deal with on their plate alone, it would be difficult to ask for their help.

"Until next time."

…

Preparations were made.

There are hundreds of satellites orbiting Earth under concealment, all for the preparation of this day. The newly-made Quantum Computer, [Laplace Box], became responsible for running these weapons all around Earth.

It did not end there. High-end combatants were preserved up until this moment. The internal threats—be it in the Sorcerer or Magician side—were dealt with properly. There are also the Knights of the Round Table who came with Nobu. Their strengths contributed a lot to this world's high-end combatants.

It could be said that this is the strongest their world has ever been.

Suddenly, darkness enveloped the skies. Many people thought it was the result of a total solar eclipse. Little did they know they wouldn't see the blue skies for a period of time.

"...It's here."

A person with small stature manifested behind the man wearing a black overcoat.

"Was this the one you're wary of?"

"Yes."

"This…"

Melusine frowned upon the strange yet subtle atmosphere it brought. It greatly reminded her of the time when the Insect appeared on her world.

'I haven't survived until the end.'

Nobu recalled all of his previous iterations. Not once was he able to survive until they had successfully defeated the Twilight Syndrome. He always died before he could see the end.

With his current strength, he is confident enough to do it this time.

Ring-!

As he had expected, his phone had its first caller of the day.

"Nobu. It's here."

"Yeah, I could totally see it." Nobu replied. "There's no use being tense."

"...Fine. You're acting as if we're not facing the end of the world."

After defeating the goddess, Suimei was able to realize his true potential. His current strength is not weaker than Nobu's as of this moment.

"I'm going to talk with everyone. We need to act organized to deal with this."

"Alright. Tou-san is also preparing at our side."

"Ah, right."

Nobu reminded Suimei of something.

"Leave that Ancient Dragon for me."

…

Our world fought evenly with the manifested eschatologies. Lord Nettesheim did his job and held back more than half of them, resulting in them popping up one-by-one instead of everything at once.

We have a chance at winning.

"Being cursed is like this… fuck."

Our main enemy was a mere concept. The only way to fight against a concept is with another concept. That was how it worked in all three worlds I have ever been to. It is confusing to fight such an intangible and abstract thing without any material manifestations.

Still, it is within the confines of what we could do.

However…

"...I see."

We had to deal with two things against the Twilight Syndrome.

One is the 'certain end' it attempts to enforce. If a 'thing' has a start, it would have an 'end'. It is a natural law of the universe. Twilight Syndrome merely speeds up this process through the humans' belief towards the end. It is a concept given form by humans themselves.

What comes after the end?

It is the second thing: disappearance. It is different from the Buddhist's Nirvana that signifies 'complete annihilation of worldly suffering'. It is an adverse thing that erases the 'existence' of anything it comes across with.

Fighting these two things at once proved to be a difficult task.

Nobu silently looked at his worn-out companions. Perhaps only Artoria could be seen as the least injured at this moment. When their gazes met, she immediately realized his thoughts.

This brief moment was captured by the two goddesses who accompanied him for this battle.

"No! There's no need to take any more risks, Orion!"

"Hey…"

When he looked at the mirage of the red-haired goddess of smithing, she supported Artemis' words.

"If you do something risky, we won't sit by. We won't let you brave the dangers alone, Nobu."

"...Alright…"

Nobu was pulled back from doing something risky, or so it seems.

'Three… no, four billion people. Everyone…'

He thought of his friends, family, and acquaintances that might be caught during the Twilight Syndrome's "attack". Once it deals a fatal strike, the population of the world would be halved. He wouldn't know if it would affect someone he knows or not.

Worse, he couldn't reverse that effect any longer. He no longer has possession over the grail that could maifest miracles.

'...Miracles.'

A realization struck him.

'All I need is to do a miracle.'

In the end, there are some things that could only be done by one person.

*****

***

*

Upon returning to reality, the first thing I did is to heave an extremely deep breath. My hands keep trembling with the revelations I received in an instant. My mind partitions are working in full power to process them.

'That fight…'

Out of everything, the one that gave me the biggest impression was the final fight. I gathered everyone I could in order to face the world's end. Reiji's [Ein Sof], Suimei's fate…

In the end…

"Did I… die..?"

For yet another time, the ending that I saw was vague.