Credits: Nicholas Berenguer
The despair of being rejected by everything left Mash so breathless that she could barely imagine how hopeless the person experiencing it firsthand must have felt.
At that time, Mash could do nothing. She could only watch helplessly as Alaric stepped, one step at a time, into the abyss, rejected by the world and human history.
This sorrowful memory was buried deep in her heart, turning into regret.
To be reunited with Alaric—truly, truly—was such a blessing.
After the joy of this unexpected reunion subsided, Ritsuka Fujimaru also began to carefully observe the current Alaric.
Alaric seemed to have undergone a significant transformation, possessing a completely different aura from what he had during Camelot. If he had once been a dying madness, now he was like a newborn sunrise.
An overwhelming vitality radiated not only from Alaric's body but also from his renewed spirit.
Even though the ominous aura surrounding Alaric remained as oppressive as ever—perhaps even stronger—Fujimaru felt no inclination to reject him.
In Fujimaru's eyes, Alaric was unquestionably a good person.
Even if his methods were overly extreme, he was still a good person.
["So, Sir Alaric. Are you alive? Or a Servant?"]
Amid this harmonious atmosphere, Romani's incredulous voice broke through: ["How did you manage this?"]
According to Chaldea's observations, Alaric's magical energy readings were even stronger than they had been in Camelot. Moreover, due to Alaric's magic circuits surpassing human levels and reaching the realm of Heroic Spirits, Romani couldn't determine whether Alaric was currently a Servant or a living human.
Only Alaric himself could provide the answer to this question.
With Romani's words breaking the calm mood, Mash and Ritsuka also snapped out of their joy at the reunion.
Both of them, almost simultaneously, the thought of the same question:
How had Alaric traveled from the 13th-century Middle East to Mesopotamia? Could it be through the same spiritron transfer method they used?
This was a question that every Chaldean who had reunited with Alaric would inevitably ask.
"I'm alive and well, not dead yet—"
Hearing Romani's doubts about whether he was alive, Alaric's smile widened. "As for how I got here, you could call it something like drifting.
The method is probably a little different from your spiritron transfer, though."
The true nature of Heroic Spirits in the realm of the mysterious is known as Ghostliners, which are essentially replicas of Heroic Spirits inscribed upon human history.
The existence of Heroic Spirits recorded in the Throne of Heroes is akin to a recorded tape—documenting the actual historical figure, mythological legend, or the impression left upon later generations associated with a name.
Some records contain multiple individuals under the same name. In certain cases, one record might even contain contradictory versions of the same person.
Even for historical figures who existed in reality, different facets of their lives can be represented.
The Ghostliners transcend the concept of time, encompassing Heroic Spirits from both the past and the future.
For example, Heroic Spirits from the future can be summoned in the past, as evidenced by Gilgamesh summoning seven Heroic Spirits from the future to serve him.
Alaric, however, knew that he could never become a Heroic Spirit. Alaric lacked the qualifications to ascend to the Throne of Heroes—no great deeds, no renown, no accomplishments to elevate him into legend. Furthermore, being rejected by the world only cemented his belief that becoming a Heroic Spirit was far out of reach.
If he wished to act with the body of a Servant, the only way was through Merlin's concept of Independent Manifestation—a skill that allowed one to exist in any timeline, immune to paradoxes caused by time travel and the dangers of parallel world interference.
Through Independent Manifestation, it was relatively simple to construct an ether-based body resembling that of a Servant—identical.
However, even after Alaic explained the general idea of how he arrived in Mesopotamia, Fujimaru, Mash, and Romani were still utterly baffled.
Alaric's explanation was far too abstract, and without context, it was nearly impossible to comprehend.
Just as the group exchanged confused glances, a calm voice broke the silence:
["The Holy Lance—do you have it, Sir Alaric?"]
Standing behind Romani, Da Vinci set her coffee cup down, nudging Romani aside and taking up most of the monitor's screen.
Faced with any difficulty or challenge, the genius secretary Servant—Leonardo Da Vinci—could always maintain her composure and analyze the situation.
For Alaric, who had come back from the dead, Da Vinci already had her suspicions.
After a heart-to-heart conversation with Alaric, Da Vinci gained some understanding of his circumstances. Back during the battle at the Tower at the End, when Alaric faced the Lion King, his final madness...
If Alaric had managed to obtain the Holy Lance from the Lion King, then he might have survived through the restoration force of human history.
The reason Alaric had not returned to the Singularity's Origin was likely because such an origin no longer existed. As a result, Alaric could only be expelled from the world as an anomaly.
However, as a human, Alaric could not survive outside the world on his own, leading to a future filled with despair and annihilation.
But with the Holy Lance in his possession, he could avoid the corrective force of human history and escape the vortex of the Sixth Singularity. It was highly likely he had been drawn into another vortex instead.
Before this, Fujimaru had already repaired six Singularities. Since there had only been seven Singularities in human history, the only remaining vortex capable of pulling Alaric would be this one:
Mesopotamia, in the year 2655 BCE—the final Singularity, designated as the Seventh Singularity by Chaldea.
Having reached a preliminary conclusion, Da Vinci stared deeply at the face of Alaric on the screen.
Even with her deductions, Da Vinci still couldn't fully connect the Alaric before her with the Alaric from Camelot.
It was all too incredible. No one could guarantee that the current Alaric was the same person as the one from Camelot. Even if they were the same person, who could say for certain that Alaric's mental state hadn't undergone some profound transformation during his unknown journey?
For instance, King Arthur, at the brink of death, took up the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad and merged with it, becoming the Holy Lance Goddess—a deathless wraith whose mind was utterly transformed.
If Alaric had indeed obtained the Holy Lance and successfully used it, would similar changes not have occurred in him?
Even before acquiring the Holy Lance, Alaric had displayed extraordinary combat prowess, capable of defeating the unyielding Servant Gawain, who never stopped fighting. Adding the Holy Lance's authority and magical power to his existing strength would make him a disaster waiting to happen.
The greatest danger was this:
Alaric had every capability to replicate the Lion King's unfinished work—constructing the Tower at the End, severing Mesopotamia from the planet, and obliterating human history in one fell swoop.
These overlapping factors made it impossible for Da Vinci to feel at ease with Alaric's existence.