They've already fought their way through the Holy Grail War, and you still call them dragons?

"That person's concept was to create a conceptually closed universe. Senior, you should know that while the universe has no boundaries, it is not infinite. That person input this design into the core of the Greater Holy Grail. When the Black King descended and his spiritual will triggered a mutation, this design remained at the very core."

"When this blueprint was successfully unfolded, this is the scene we witnessed—as for why it was successful, a detailed explanation would be a bit tedious."

"...BB-kun can only roughly assert that the formation of this conceptual universe is related to ancient memories from the birth of the planet itself. I'm afraid we'll have time to analyze it in detail after the incident is resolved. Now, please pay attention! The 'heart' at the center of this conceptual universe!"

Emiya's eyes instantly locked onto the red Void Star flashing in the distance.

It is like the imagined super god, the only beating core of God in the center of this universe.

He inexplicably thought of the astrological magic spell of the Animusphia family, the founder of Chaldea in FGO - the celestial body is empty, the empty space is the void, and the void is filled with gods.

"Although this conceptual universe is magnificent and will be unstoppable once it's formed, it's still a fantasy in the design stage. Shatter that core, and everything will be over!"

"Ohhh! That's it, right—!"

Emiya gathered a fierce, blazing flame. The doomsday flames of the divine sword Levatin roared fiercely in the void, silently transmitting an unimaginable amount of heat. With his free hand, he gathered a massive longbow, nocked the doomsday sword, and took aim.

That light still shone in the deepest void, without making any counterattack.

This is understandable. This is an unfinished experimental design drawing, leaving only a conceptual universe of fantasy. All the life impulses are concentrated in the central core, as if it contains the impulse of life.

It reminds one of the Black King's soul egg... but compared to this, the crimson core is more like a celestial egg that has condensed all the light and heat.

Emiya gazed at the ominous glow and without hesitation, shot the ultimate arrow, the flaming sword from the end of myth.

Black tyrant, witness the power that shatters stars!

A flaming aurora shot out, piercing the void in a brilliant straight line. Following the bottomless gravity of the fall, it struck the red heart.

And so, the vision was filled with a crimson tidal wave. The cold, empty conceptual universe welcomed the majestic and grandiose flames of doom that swept across the airspace. The cold world was transformed into a red warmth, the twinkling starlight was gradually obscured by the extreme heat, and everything eventually returned to nothingness.

----

"That weird gravity is gone!"

When Melyuchina brought everyone down from the sky, some people exclaimed.

But if you look around carefully, you can still feel that everyone's reactions are different.

Some people are laughing happily as another catastrophe of the Doomsday Incident has passed, but more people are waiting for the judgment of the next disaster in confusion and panic, or have sadness on their faces, feeling grateful for the departure of familiar people.

For example, the blonde Valkyrie Slude now has a slightly gloomy expression.

Her sister, the Valkyrie Hildre, had been forced to leave the world because she had been overloaded with power for too long and her spiritual foundation had been severely damaged before.

As a mechanical tool, Valkyrie Slud shouldn't feel sad about this. Death is just the fate of a warrior.

However, after spending a long time with other humans, Slude was unexpectedly infected by a bit of human touch. She knew that this gloomy atmosphere contained a mood called sadness.

Nono and Eri also stood by Slude's side, offering a moment of silence. Slude's departure was inevitable. Even if she were given enough magical power, the damage to her spiritual base caused by overusing her powers would still be irreversible.

This moment of silence is not only for Valkyrie, but also for humans like Chu Tianjiao who died in this catastrophe.

Not all people died because of the collection of events and had a chance of survival. Some people lost their lives on the YAMAL, and Chu Tianjiao fell into the galactic picture of the conceptual universe, and the result was also not optimistic.

...If Emiya fails to resolve the situation.

"It doesn't matter, he will definitely come back."

Nono heard Eri cheering herself and others on. The girl seemed to have inherited Uesugi Kenshin's high spirits and comforted everyone with an optimistic attitude.

"Well, definitely."

Nuonuo stood up and turned to look at the place where the light body dissipated and the core mutated.

In that place painted with the magnificent starry sky, the dangerous gravity layer has disappeared, and the extremely distant stars swallowed up Emiya's figure not long ago.

And now, the fantastical Milky Way suddenly burst out with a brilliant and dazzling aurora. Upon closer inspection, it seemed as if the scorching sun was rapidly expanding, with rolling heat waves rushing towards one's face. Immediately afterwards, the starry sky scene was filled with light and completely disintegrated!

“—He succeeded!”

Eri shouted excitedly at the first moment. When Nono heard her say that, it seemed a bit premature to jump to conclusions at first, but if she continued to look carefully, she could see Emiya returning hand in hand with the baby with purple hair flying.

As the two men walked out, the white world of light immediately dimmed.

"Welcome back, great hero who saves the world!"

Nuonuo and the other two were incredibly strong, so they leaped off the dragon's back in a single bound and ran over to greet them. However, Regisleve, Xia Mi, and the others were a step too late. Then, many of the YAMAL's young and beautiful female passengers, all of them wealthy and well-off, followed the boisterous Su Xiaoqiang and bravely followed...

In short, the girls came running over chattering and surrounded Emiya. For a moment, the whole place was filled with colorful flowers competing for beauty.

"Stop for a moment... I'm fine, don't check. I'm just a little tired. Let's finish the follow-up as soon as possible and go back."

Emiya felt like there were at least a dozen hands groping him from different directions, and he deeply felt that the female hooligans who took advantage of the inspection to take advantage of him were no less skilled than any male...

"Everyone, please disperse. If nothing unexpected happens, the world outside should have returned to normal."

A girl in pink pajamas raised her hand among the other girls, "Excuse me... is Mr. Chu back?"

The girl's thoughts were simple. Chu Tianjiao had saved her, so she bravely came over to ask about the whereabouts of her savior.

"Chu...?" Emiya quickly realized he was referring to Chu Tianjiao. There wasn't another person with the last name Chu on the entire cruise ship. He turned to look at BB. It seemed the BB had collected and analyzed a lot of data during his time in the conceptual universe, so it wasn't like he'd come up empty-handed.

Unexpectedly, BB was actually a little discouraged, "Senior, the data collected from that core is incomplete."

"what?"

"It must be the triggered spatial transfer technique that Friedrich had set up in advance. Although BB-kun copied most of the data, a small part was transferred away... Mr. Chu's luck isn't very good. He may not be able to come back."

BB's statement was simple and straightforward, almost a final conclusion.

After Chu Tianjiao fell into the realm of the conceptual universe and was absorbed as data, he happened to become the part taken away by Odin's spell.

"...Oh, I see. Sorry, thank you for your help anyway." The girl's face turned noticeably sad. She politely thanked them and stepped back, giving the "good position" close to Emiya to someone else.

Before Emiya could comfort the other person, his vision was occupied by a new face. Nono took his hand and whispered that he was tired and needed to replenish his magic. Eri, who had good hearing, came over and became curious about what magic replenishment was.

Xia Mi asked Helver and the Orluen maid team to do their job diligently and exclude other irrelevant girls as much as possible. She herself came over like a eunuch and said auspicious words to Emiya, boasting about her own merits and hard work while guarding the rear.

Reggie Love watched the girls fighting for the right to speak, and hesitated for a moment, feeling that she had no say. Instead, Su Xiaoqiang pulled her cousin Marianna over and squeezed in, using the name of gratitude to chat with some words to get close to her.

Emiya: "..." He originally wanted BB to analyze the data of that conceptual universe field and combine the analysis to obtain useful intelligence, but looking at this scene, he seemed inexplicably tired.

----

"...So that's how it is. The situation in the north was resolved by the God Slayer."

A few days later, Frost, the acting head of the Gattuso family, left a letter of secret communication with Angers.

He had already noticed signs of unusual behavior among the elders within the clan in recent days. These inexplicable personnel changes seemed insignificant at first glance, but combined with the YAMAL incident, he could surmise that the timing of the two events coincided significantly.

By now, Frost had come to understand that as acting head of the clan, he was essentially a tool, tucked away in plain sight, completely unaware of the top secrets. The clan elders valued him less than Pompey and Caesar, father and son.

The evidence is that with the resources and power that they can mobilize, it is actually very difficult to uncover the secret action forces deployed by the elders outside, and they cannot even find the slightest hidden clues.

Of course, Frost didn't act too blatantly, lest he be forced to fall out with the elders before the investigation was complete. Furthermore, Frost knew full well that as a tool, he was far inferior to the elders in terms of control over the family.

If you want to go further and break through the difficulties, this strength is not enough.

"...But, unless it's absolutely necessary, I don't want to rely on the secret party." Frost locked Ange's letter in the drawer with a gloomy expression.

However, a sudden accident disrupted his plan.

"Pasi?"

Frost looked up and saw Percy suddenly coming in, with a puzzled look on his face.

"Acting head of the family, the head of the family is back." Percy replied with a confusing sentence.

“…Who? Him?”

Frost almost thought he had heard it wrong. Pompey Gattuso, the playboy who was out picking up girls all day without caring about anything?

"Yes, he hopes that before he returns, you can take a look at the 'Great Project Plan' he sent. As long as you support him, he can completely hand over the position of head of the family to you."

"...?" What crazy talk was this psychopath saying? Frost wondered if he had the right to inherit the family. If he became the head of the family, what would happen to Caesar? Was that even reasonable?

But Percy didn't care about that. He had already clicked the remote control, started the 3D projector and played a video.

The office lights dimmed instantly, and what greeted Frost's eyes was a vast starry sky. The starting point of darkness exploded, and huge star clusters formed in a few hundred millionths of a second. Primordial matter diffused at a speed close to the speed of light. The dimensions of time and space began to expand, and the universe was officially born...

The Earth began to form, volcanoes erupted, and primitive ocean life evolved...

"Can you fast forward? I don't have that much time to waste with him!"

Frost thought to himself that he really couldn't stand this lunatic.

The scene fast-forwarded, and Pompey Gattuso, dressed in a white suit, adjusted his camera and smiled. "Hey, brother! Thank you for your patience in watching the beginning. I believe that after watching the video, you will definitely be interested in my project called Chaldea!"

Chapter 288 Still Going Still Going

"Chaldea?"

Frost drummed his fingers on the desk. He decided to listen patiently for a while before giving a reasonable rejection to Pompey's fantastic plan... He was still thinking about how to deal with the family elders and had no time to fool around with Pompey.

Pompey in the white suit obviously didn't know what Frost was thinking, so he just smiled and explained through this video:

"Brother! I know you'll be annoyed by the Big Bang scene at the beginning, but it's undeniable that humanity's insistence on deep space exploration stems from this romantic fantasy of cosmic exploration!"

"A careful look back at history reveals that the gene of exploration is deeply rooted in human groups from ancient times to the present!"

"Since the BC period, the Mesopotamian civilization in the Mesopotamian region has observed astronomical phenomena and created a lunar calendar. The Chaldeans, who inherited the knowledge and culture of the Sumerians, built the Neo-Babylonian Empire and developed a richer and more advanced astronomical system."

Pompeii clapped his hands, and the scene behind him instantly turned into the magnificent ancient Ishtar Gate, one of the iconic buildings of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Frost narrowed his eyes. This background... looked like a museum showroom in Berlin.

"The Chaldeans were the first to divide a month into four weeks, each lasting seven days. They named each week after seven star gods, which is the origin of the word 'week'. They also divided the bright stars into constellations, which is the earliest standard for dividing the starry sky in modern astronomy. Not to mention, they could also accurately predict the time of solar and lunar eclipses..."

"Later, the Chaldeans became renowned for their exceptional achievements in astronomy and astrology, becoming synonymous with astrologers and astronomers, a cultural symbol of astrology... This is also recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible."

"Observe the stars, make observations, and preserve that prosperous sea of ​​stars forever. This is also the origin of the name of the Chaldea Project I proposed."

However, Frost's patience was almost completely worn out by Pompey's long speech. "Okay, okay, after all this talk..."

"—Do you need the family to fund the construction of a large observatory for you to use for serious stargazing, or do you want it to make it easier for you to continue picking up girls and seducing new women?"

Frost had already anticipated it, most likely the latter.

Of course, Pompey in the video couldn't have heard Frost's complaints, but he seemed to have anticipated his brother's distrust. He paused for a moment before saying:

"Haha, I guess, Frost, you probably thought I was going to build an observatory? No, no, no, Chaldea isn't an observatory for gazing up at the stars in the universe. It's an observatory for looking down at the Earth from the void, gazing at the star-like human civilization from afar."

"?"

"That terrifying event, originating in the Arctic and spreading across the world, is something anyone who experienced it firsthand cannot ignore, right?"

Pompey spoke vaguely, but Frost could easily understand that the YAMAL incident, as spread by some survivors, had caused an uproar within many mixed-race families in recent days. It was indeed a hot topic that could not be ignored.

This point is actually not simply focused on Emiya showing his powerful Fire Giant form and turning the tide to resolve the incident before everything is irreversible.

What made it even more difficult for them to ignore was that the Black King finally demonstrated the ability to wipe out the entire world on his own, proving that the Black King's doomsday declaration that had been circulating for a long time was not false.

...Although the Black King had been defeated once again this time, no one could predict whether he would return in the future. After all, the Black King had been defeated once before in ancient times, and this was already the second time. A third world destruction wouldn't be surprising.

Pompey opened his arms, his tone suddenly becoming high-pitched, "That's why we need Chaldea!"

"To prevent the world from falling into crisis again, to ensure the long-lasting and resilient continuation of human civilization, and to guarantee long-term prosperity in the future, we need to establish a base station to monitor the world and its future development!"

"This is Observatory Chaldea. To Chaldea, all men and women are stars! We gaze upon humanity—a community as brilliant as the starry sky! We guard the interstellar canals of human civilization—the long road that has flourished and developed from the past to the present, stretching far into the future!"

"..."

Pompey's speech was powerful and full of passion. Frost was actually somewhat moved. He could sense that he wasn't talking nonsense. His previous statements about Chaldea had clearly been the product of academic research...

Although Pompeii had these characteristics long ago, Frost knew that this guy only pretended to do research in order to pick up girls.

In the past, Pompeii would often sigh at the twinkling stars from the observatory, lamenting the immensity of the Hercules Corona Borealis Wall and the Antarctic Cosmic Wall (the large-scale spatial structure of the universe) and the insignificance of human life...

Then the scene changes and he says to the beautiful woman with shining eyes next to him that human life is so small and fleeting, why don’t we do something happy and meaningful to leave beautiful memories for our lives!

But this time Pompey actually took it seriously. Doesn't he really have other intentions?

"...Think about it, brother. There are more and more new things appearing in this world. There's the Holy Grail War and the Heroic Spirit incident in Tokyo, there's the world-destroying incident in the Arctic, and there are even rumors of vampires appearing in Europe... We can't measure everything with the same old way of thinking anymore!"

"Science alone cannot fully measure the world, nor can alchemy alone reveal its complete picture. Therefore, I believe that this Chaldea Project cannot be carried out by even our Gattuso family alone. Instead, we must combine the wisdom and strength of forces around the world and recruit the world's best talents to safeguard the future of mankind!"

"This is the Chaldea Plan, implemented to prevent the future extinction of humanity!"

The video ends.

The office lights returned to normal. Frost, still somewhat confused by Pompey's speech, looked at Patsy Gattuso, who stood there quietly. "How long will it take for that guy to return?"

Percy lowered his head slightly. "When the patriarch contacted me, he said he would be here in about ten minutes after the video was finished."

He pointed to the balcony over there at the office.