[Video Danmaku]
Eriri: "Elysia died? No way, that was so sudden!"
Utaha Kasumigaoka: "That Marisbury... he clearly said he wouldn't make a move on Elysia, but did he do it in the end? Seems he's just as treacherous a villain as Kiritsugu Emiya."
Conan: "Strange. It's still very strange. There is only one truth. There was nothing out of the ordinary in Elysia's room. Could Solomon's magecraft really kill Elysia without her having the slightest inkling?"
Ai Haibara: "Back in deduction mode again? Great Detective, I think it's more likely your 'Reaper' constitution activated in another world."
Ran Mouri: "Reaper constitution? What's that? Don't tell me Conan has superpowers too?"
...
[In the video— Amidst the audience's confusion and doubt, the footage continued.
The camera's focus shifted to a peculiar space.
It was a paradise as beautiful as a dreamscape. Brilliant sunlight shone everywhere, surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants. White marble buildings were scattered throughout the landscape.
It was like a paradise, flawless, filled with happiness and joy. But... a paradise?
That's right... a paradise? The first to pick up on this keyword were the Flame-Chasers who were closest to Elysia, like Kevin and Eden.
Soon, many of the sharper viewers also remembered... that's right. Back at the end of the Banquet of Kings, Elysia had said her wish was to create an Eternal Paradise.
And now, such a paradise had appeared before them. If nothing unexpected happened... Elysia's consciousness should be here.
In the world of Type-Moon, the only place that could be associated with a "paradise" was Avalon, where Merlin resided. However, the paradise before them clearly had nothing to do with the Magus of Flowers.
As the camera panned forward, a familiar face once again appeared on screen. This brought a sigh of relief to the Flame-Chasers and other viewers who had been worried about Elysia's safety.
Of course. How could the protagonist die before the finale?
Those who had experienced similar situations probably guessed it already. This was not a physically existing place. In other words, in the known corners of the Type-Moon and Honkai worlds, the paradise in Elysia's heart simply did not exist.
"An unfamiliar ceiling... ah no, a familiar ceiling."
Staring at the dream-like ceiling above her, Elysia was momentarily lost in thought. Wasn't this exactly what the paradise in her dreams was supposed to look like?
Had her dream come true? That was obviously impossible. She wasn't so far gone as to lose her senses just by seeing a scene from her dreams.
"This is clearly an illusion—why am I here?"
Elysia sat up. Although she wasn't a psychic MANTIS like Aponia, she could still see through such an obvious illusion.
"Playing this kind of joke will make me angry, you know~~"
Elysia spoke to the air, trying to attract the attention of the illusion's creator, but it seemed to have no effect.
It clearly wasn't the work of a Servant from the Holy Grail War. It wasn't that Elysia looked down on them, but she could take on ten of those Servants, who were suppressed by the Counter Force, all by herself.
What about Solomon, you ask? Well, although Elysia had never fought him, his abilities shouldn't be able to pull her into an illusion without her noticing.
That was something not even Aponia, arguably the strongest psychic MANTIS, could do. Even the Herrscher of Sentience would find it absolutely impossible.
"Hmm... oh well. I'll just have a look around. This place is a little different from how I imagined it."
After realizing she was in an illusion, Elysia had no intention of forcefully breaking free. On the contrary... the scenery here was so beautiful, so identical to the paradise in her heart, that she decided to take a stroll first.
---o---
A dream-like place. To build such a paradise, one would probably need Eden's level of wealth.
Elysia mused to herself. She wondered if that King of Heroes could do it. He certainly looked rich, but given how stingy he was, it was better to forget it.
When she had asked Gilgamesh for the elixir to keep Lancer alive, she had also tried to borrow a spatial-type Noble Phantasm from him.
After all, that guy claimed his treasury contained everything. It would be normal for him to have a time-space-related item like the Thousand-Realmed Ichinen, right?
In the end... she still couldn't forget the punchable look on Gilgamesh's face. He had said that only if Elysia became his woman would he bestow a space-related Noble Phantasm upon her.
How could that be possible? Elysia's love belonged to every cute person in the world. All the beautiful humans in the mortal realm were Elysia's wings—
She would love every human equally, with the exception of perverts like Ryuunosuke Uryuu and similar dregs of society.
However... a space-related Noble Phantasm... in truth, Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon already was one.
If Elysia had just nodded, given Gilgamesh's temperament, he might have just given her the rights to use the Gate of Babylon. Unfortunately, there was no way Elysia would agree.
The Holy Grail War only lasted for seven days. After it ended, no matter how wonderful that world was, Elysia would not choose to stay. The Honkai had not yet been eliminated, so she could not possibly remain in the Type-Moon world.
Her original idea of borrowing a spatial Noble Phantasm from Gilgamesh was now impossible. She would have to find another way to return to her original world. Perhaps she could try the Holy Grail? It was a wish-granting machine, after all. A pity it was already corrupted.
Lost in thought, Elysia walked aimlessly. This vast paradise seemed to hold only her. That wasn't good. The paradise in Elysia's heart was not such a lonely place.
It was supposed to be a place where she could live together with the other Flame-Chasers and all of humanity... right?
Before Elysia could finish her thought, the unexpected happened—
"Eh?"
Just as a fleeting thought passed through her mind, a figure appeared before Elysia.
Its suddenness was no less shocking than a beautiful maiden falling from the sky. Not even a magic trick could be this abrupt. For a person to appear out of thin air tested one's psychological fortitude.
"No way. I was just thinking it, I didn't say to actually make someone appear."
Could she be the creator god of this illusion? Whatever she thought, appeared? Elysia wondered.
Moreover, this person was a beautiful girl, very much to Elysia's liking. But this girl... she looked a little familiar~~]
---o---
[Video Danmaku]
As for why Elysia had suddenly died, and why she had suddenly appeared in an illusion, the viewers still hadn't figured it out. But one thing was certain: the woman standing before her was definitely related to the reason Elysia had come to this illusion.
Because she looked so much like a certain person...
Kiritsugu Emiya: "Irisviel? No, she isn't Iri."
Kiritsugu Emiya wouldn't fail to recognize his own wife. Although they looked similar, there were actually significant differences.
That's right. The woman before them had the same doll-like, exquisite face as Irisviel, but she was not Irisviel. To be precise, she was likely Irisviel's ancestor, one of the original creators of the Holy Grail War system—Justica!
Tokiomi Tohsaka: "Someone who died five hundred years ago... why has she reappeared in an illusion?"
As a member of the Three Founding Families, Tokiomi Tohsaka naturally had records of Justica. But for someone who had been dead for centuries to reappear, and in an illusion inhabited by Elysia, of all people... it was all inexplicably strange.
Otto Apocalypse: "A figure who died five hundred years ago... a strange and unbreakable illusion... and the fate of the world... I think I know who is behind this...?"
Among the viewers across the multiverse, Otto's intellect was definitely among the top. Compared to Conan and L, who were still pondering what had happened, he had already formed a basic line of reasoning.
It was common knowledge that the Type-Moon world possessed its own consciousness. The thing called the Counter Force would guide humanity and the world along its normal trajectory. Once something appeared that could affect the course of human history, it would face the risk of being eliminated by the Counter Force.
To be able to separate Elysia's consciousness from her body without a sound and create such a perfect illusion... among all known existences, only the world's consciousness could achieve this.
However, the Counter Force would not, in most cases, directly intervene in the development of human or world history. It would only dispatch various Heroic Spirits to correct the original history, summoning Grand Servants in critical situations.
But... Elysia was not a human from the Type-Moon world. Her previous existence had left no trace in this world whatsoever. In that case, it was entirely possible for the Counter Force to act against Elysia directly.
The current mystery was, after being confirmed by the Counter Force, Elysia was not a factor that would negatively affect human history; on the contrary, her existence was meant to correct it.
So why did the Counter Force pull her into this illusion? And what was the meaning of Justica's appearance?
---o---
[In the video—
"Elysia. A human from another world. Or perhaps, a Herrscher from another world."
Under Elysia's astonished gaze, Justica exposed her identity. A human from another world—that part was not surprising, as her status as an outsider was no longer a secret. But a Herrscher... very few people knew that secret.
"You may call this body Justica. Because I am unable to tell you of the disaster this world is facing through telepathy or other means... I had to resort to this extreme method to bring you here."
The girl with the same appearance as Irisviel spoke with a blank expression. At the end of the day, this body was merely a tool for communicating with Elysia.
If it weren't for its inability to read Elysia's mind, given its mischievous personality, it would probably have used the forms of Kevin, Eden, or other figures familiar to Elysia to converse with her.
"I see. So you're the mastermind who brought me to this world—"
Elysia was no fool. On the contrary, for her to have hidden her identity as a Herrscher for so long within the World Serpent, and to have befriended every uniquely individualistic Flame-Chaser, her intelligence was not one bit inferior to that of Su, who was known as the wisest of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers.
"Simply put, this world is facing an unsolvable crisis. After a communication with the Imaginary Tree, you arrived here..."
Justica spoke to Elysia as if she didn't want to waste any time. In her eyes, Elysia was also a tool, merely an experiment born from the first-ever communication between two multiverses.
This indifferent attitude truly angered many people. No matter what, Elysia was a foreign expert you invited over. To not even try to curry favor was one thing, but to have such a rude attitude was another.
But this couldn't be entirely blamed on Justica. After all, she was also a tool, responsible only for keeping this absurd world running. It didn't matter to her who solved the problem in the end, be it a Heroic Spirit or Elysia. As long as this broken world could continue to survive, that was all that mattered.
"So? What danger is this world facing that requires me?"
Elysia, on the other hand, didn't care about Justica's attitude at all. She was still more curious about the structural composition of this paradise. After all, it seemed to have many phenomena that violated the laws of physics.
"Solomon should have told you. If not for his intervention in this Holy Grail War, the victors would have been Team Saber. But now, because of Solomon's existence, the victory of Team Saber has become the victory of Caster."
"You're not going to ask me to correct fate, are you?"
Elysia asked. She had known about this for a while, but she wouldn't do such a thankless job. She disliked the concept of fate to begin with.
Although she held no ill will towards Saber, Marisbury had been planning for so long without doing anything too heinous. To say that fate simply dictated Saber must win would be far too cruel to Marisbury.
"If it were merely that, there would be no need to go to such great lengths to summon a Herrscher with the power to change fate from another multiverse."
The power to change fate...When Justica spoke of Elysia's true authority as a Herrscher, Elysia finally began to take this self-proclaimed existence of the world seriously...