Chapter 1147: The Beginning of the End
That was a pitch-black fairy.
An unpleasant odor emanated from his entire being.
It was not the decay and rot of silent demise, but the withering, ashen pallor that actively brought about the end—a hollow, meaningless figure that rendered all things void.
He wore a familiar plush cloak, yet its color was so dark it gleamed. The once approachable gray bob cut, now adorned with that hue, had turned icy cold.
Only his face bore a radiant smile, as if a gravely ill person were embracing the world.
Without a doubt.
He was—
"Oberon."
Staring at the calamity-bringing figure, Eiji's expression was icy.
"It was you who tempted Fujimaru Ritsuka to fall in the Garden of Lost Will back then, wasn't it?"
Looking closely.
Oberon's eyes were azure vertical pupils, like those of a beast.
"Huh? You still remember that?"
Oberon's tone was flippant, as if indifferent to everything.
"What a shame. If you hadn't shown up and gotten in the way back then, I might have eliminated a major threat already!"
He laughed with genuine delight.
As if he thoroughly enjoyed every moment of that process.
"Oberon, you..."
Fujimaru Ritsuka stared at him in a daze.
"Be careful, Senpai! This person is dangerous!"
Mash immediately tensed up, raising her shield in front of her.
Artoria, Tristan, Muramasa, Grimm, and others unhesitatingly moved to shield her, glaring warily at Oberon.
"What's going on with this guy's Spirit Origin?"
Da Vinci fiddled with her instrument, her face full of disbelief.
"It's not a Spirit Origin from Proper Human History, nor is it human or fairy! It's not any life form currently existing on Earth! Even his Spirit Origin is changing every single second!"
This phenomenon defied common sense, nearly causing Da Vinci's brain to short-circuit.
A Spirit Origin that constantly changes—such a thing shouldn't be possible. Even a deity of the highest level shouldn't be able to accomplish this!
Because constant change itself implies having no form or self, making it impossible to maintain existence!
"Everyone, I have some terrible news to report!"
Holmes' worried voice came through the broadcast.
"According to Sheba's calculations, the collapse phenomenon of this British Lostbelt hasn't disappeared at all! In fact, it's intensifying at a visibly accelerating rate!"
"What?!"
"Wasn't the collapse caused by the Cursed God?"
Everyone's expressions shifted.
The collapse not ending but worsening meant the Earth's crisis wasn't resolved—in fact, annihilation was drawing closer!
Even after defeating such a powerful enemy as the Cursed God!
"Not at all! If anything, it's the complete opposite!"
Oberon narrowed his eyes, his lips curling into a wide grin.
"Cernunnos is the world's lid. Despite how much He wanted to drag the entire world into curses, He was actually an incredibly benevolent god! Because He served as that lid, the collapse couldn't rise to the surface of Britain. Someone had to defeat Cernunnos first!"
"But Queen Morgan, in order to sustain the Fairy Kingdom, has been suppressing Cernunnos all along. I had no choice but to make use of the Child of Prophecy and the Foreign Traveler—by having you defeat the Queen, I could awaken the Cursed God!"
"And you bastards really did a splendid job! Just as I expected, you beautifully defeated the Cursed God, and thus, the true Collapse has successfully surfaced onto Britain!"
Morgan suppressed the Cursed God.
And the Cursed God suppressed the Collapse.
Once Morgan was defeated, the Cursed God would awaken.
Once the Cursed God was defeated, the true Collapse would arrive!
It was like a chain reaction—breaking one link would bring about a despairing cascade of doomsdays!
"Everyone, this is bad! Severe gravitational collapse is occurring across all of Britain!"
"Everything is falling! Sheba has issued a first-level alert. If this continues, the entire Earth will collapse within an hour!"
Captain Nemo's desperate shout made everyone's expressions change drastically.
An hour?!
You've got to be kidding!
"Ahahahaha! Didn't the Shrine Maiden already give the prophecy?"
Oberon clutched his head, letting out a maddened laugh.
"—The newer the world's appearance, the older its foundations. And so, unbeknownst to all, like this. With just a tiny bite from an insignificant insect, it will come crashing down!"
"Clang—!"
In that instant.
A flash of blade light.
Before anyone could react, this sword strike that reached causality had already arrived before Oberon—slicing through his body with a single slash!
Eiji gripped his sword with a fierce expression.
Even after being told the Earth was doomed, he showed no hesitation in delivering a killing blow to Oberon!
"It's useless, you fool!"
However, moments later.
Another Oberon emerged from the dream once more, looking at Eiji with utter contempt.
"The moment the Cursed God was defeated—"
A third Oberon appeared.
"Fate had already decided the curtain call for this stage play!"
A fourth.
A fifth.
In the blink of an eye, over a dozen Oberons had appeared around them.
Like phantoms, like dreams.
What troubled Eiji was—even his intuition was powerless to determine which was Oberon's true body!
"You can't kill him here."
At that moment, Morgan's voice came from behind.
"Let's leave this place first."
Why leave?
The moment this question arose in their minds, everyone immediately felt the ground beneath them become violently unstable, as if they were about to plunge into an abyss!
"Dammit! Has the Collapse begun?!"
"Hurry back to the Shadow Border!"
No one dared hesitate for even a moment.
Mash picked up Fujimaru Ritsuka, and together with the others, they sprinted with all their might toward the Shadow Border!
"Clang—!"
Morgan raised her staff and lightly tapped the ground.
From the palace not far away, the Throne and the twelve Holy Lances floated up, descending toward the Shadow Border's deck along with herself and the frozen Beryl Gut beside her.
Eiji spread ten wings, flapping them as he flew, following behind Morgan.
"Rumble————!"
A prolonged roar echoed.
The entire Camelot was sucked into what seemed like a black hole, falling into the bottomless abyss below.
Immediately after, even the Great Pit began to crumble, disintegrating under the immense suction force.
And then.
A void of immeasurable width floated upward from the deeper reaches of the great cavern.
Even the great cavern itself, in the face of that void, became like a tiny porcelain doll nested within it.
That void was less a cavern and more an alien dimension.
It seemed as though an entirely different world existed within it.
Once trapped inside, it would be like falling into a bottomless pit—impossible to ever return to this world.
"What is that...?"
Standing on the deck of the submarine, Eiji gazed at the colossal alien dimension.
Up close, it was impossible to discern its true nature.
Only by putting some distance between them could its full form be glimpsed.
"That's the worm! The Abyssal Worm!"
Morgan's beautiful face turned icy as she tightly gripped her magic wand.