When the Heroic Spirits regained consciousness, they found themselves inside an unknown research facility.
A clean, orderly laboratory with gleaming windows and various unidentifiable pieces of equipment.
A faint antiseptic scent hung in the air. Ultraviolet disinfectant lights flickered intermittently, and biohazard symbols were visible everywhere—clearly indicating this was an advanced biological laboratory.
"Where is this?" Waver asked curiously.
The equipment looked extremely advanced—definitely not from their era.
"This is a dream—a dream belonging to that Angra Mainyu." Merlin replied.
His voice came from afar. Waver looked around but couldn't see Merlin's figure.
"I used Magecraft to draw all of you—and Angra Mainyu—into this dream." he explained. "Right now, I'm outside, helping sustain this dream state. Hopefully, you can find a way to create an antidote within it."
Then Merlin's voice vanished, as if he had lost the ability to intervene further.
Waver and Iskandar split up, each searching for clues. The research base was vast; useful hints wouldn't be found quickly.
"What's this? Top-secret surveillance documents?"
Waver quickly discovered a clue among the archives. It appeared to be about an experimental subject named Elizabeth.
He didn't know how he was connected to the Angra Mainyu outside, but he carefully kept the document anyway.
He continued searching through the archives, but the contents were chaotic. Some files made logical sense, others were blank, and some contained utterly nonsensical reasoning.
This was likely due to being inside a dream—not because Aslan was too lazy to properly fabricate them.
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Meanwhile, Kiritsugu stood in an observation room, surrounded by double-layered bulletproof glass and negative-pressure isolation.
Through a small window, he saw a young blonde girl with blue eyes and freckles sitting quietly on a bed, reading a picture book.
(What is she wearing? Looks like a patient's uniform—striped blue and white.)
(Wait… no, that's not right!)
Kiritsugu suddenly realized something. He focused on where the little girl's hand touched the illustrated book.
For a brief moment, thick black liquid appeared—but disappeared just as quickly.
It reminded him of Angra Mainyu outside. This little girl seemed to share similarities with her—in other words, she was Angra Mainyu.
Realizing this, Kiritsugu instinctively reached into his jacket, preparing to draw his pistol.
Yet, seeing the calm child who resembled Illya so closely, he ultimately lowered his hand.
"The specific situation hasn't been confirmed yet. It's not the time to cause a disturbance."
Besides, his pistol probably couldn't penetrate the highest-spec bulletproof glass. And how could the security measures for the observation chamber of such a critical experimental subject be so weak?
Even the internal environment alone was clearly unsuitable for human habitation.
Kiritsugu continued searching and quickly found the experiment logs on a computer. He froze as he read them. The brutality described was so extreme that he couldn't help clenching his pistol tightly.
He was ready to shoot those creatures—who no longer deserved to be called human—at any moment.
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"Do all of these things really happen?" Merlin asked curiously, turning to Aslan beside him.
Merlin was genuinely curious about Aslan's purpose. He didn't understand why Aslan would go to such lengths. Was he creating a Lostbelt?
But for an existence on Aslan's level—even a Lostbelt was trivial. Creating new world lines or influencing human history was effortless.
Why make such a grand move, yet harm no one? And even after everything concluded, would anyone even know? That remained uncertain.
"Of course."
All of this was taken by Aslan from real experiment logs at the Umbrella Corporation's research facility. Elizabeth, as the Primogenitor virus, truly endured every moment of this suffering.
She wasn't the only one subjected to such torture—many other test subjects suffered the same fate.
The cruelty inflicted upon living beings far exceeded ordinary imagination.
"Merlin, do you know the difference between Human Evil and Absolute Evil?"
"The essence of Human Evil is Human Love—compassion, longing to return, comparison, games. After all, Human Evil is ultimately humanity's own wrongdoing, evil that humans themselves will eventually destroy."
"But what about Absolute Evil? That is unavoidable, absolute evil. Everything in the world—air, water, humanity itself, or even the technology created by humans—will inevitably give rise to certain evils."
"Like anesthetics reducing pain—when misused, they become poison. Or industrial advancement, which always causes many people to lose their jobs."
"And the evolution of life, technological progress—they demand great sacrifices."
"These are evils that cannot be avoided at all. They are trials brought forth by technological advancement. And they form the sum total of all the world's evils."
"So one day, humanity will inevitably face such a trial."
This was the essence of the Spirit Status Aslan sought to engineer for Angra Mainyu. It was the accumulation of suffering from victims forced to sacrifice themselves for biotechnological progress, viral and genetic research, and the desire for extended longevity.
Just as technology might spiral out of control, countless evils compounded with an uncontrollable viral outbreak—
Thus emerged the Last Trial of Mankind known as Angra Mainyu [All the World's Evils].
Humanity could never abandon genetic research during technological development. And once genetic research went awry, the consequences would be catastrophic.
Angra Mainyu [All the World's Evil] was the embodiment of this possibility.
It was a trial humanity would surely face as technology advanced.
An evil more extreme, more absolute, than Azhi Dahaka [The Absolute Evil].
"So you did all this… just for one possibility?"
Merlin sneered in boredom, as if all motivation had drained from him in an instant.
He thought he'd witness something interesting. But this? At that moment, Merlin even found Aslan more dull than graduates from the Humanity Foundation.
"Consider it preparation for that slim possibility."
Aslan felt most of his strength fading. He smiled faintly and casually waved his hand.
Perhaps his goal had already been achieved.