And so, burdened with heavy thoughts, everyone departed from the throne room.
Even Siduri left, leaving only Rozen and Gilgamesh facing one another.
Gilgamesh had dismissed everyone, sending them to their own duties, until only he and Rozen remained in the hall.
Even Altera, after a moment of silence, disappeared from the spot.
She did not remain here in spirit form.
Because of a single sentence from Gilgamesh.
"Let me speak with him alone."
That was what Gilgamesh had said.
Thus, Altera had fallen into silence, and finally, with unspoken thoughts, departed.
In such circumstances, Rozen also cut off his communication with Chaldea.
After all…
"You have something you wish to say to me in private, don't you?"
Rozen asked Gilgamesh bluntly.
Gilgamesh did not deny it.
"You've probably guessed already, haven't you?"
Gilgamesh spoke with a faint, knowing smile.
The greatest benefit of speaking with the wise was that one did not need to waste words.
In Gilgamesh's view, Rozen was a rare sort—one intelligent enough to earn his recognition.
And Rozen had indeed guessed what Gilgamesh wanted to say.
"It's about Altera, isn't it?"
Rozen asked in a low voice.
There was no helping it.
Their earlier discussion had been deliberately diverted by Gilgamesh precisely when it reached Altera.
Gilgamesh had ended the topic forcefully—partly to let the others rest and prepare for the coming battle, and partly because of Altera.
Thinking back, from the very beginning Gilgamesh had shown an unusual attention to her presence.
Thus Rozen could be certain—Gilgamesh must know the secret Altera had kept hidden all this time.
Her true origin.
"Ordinarily, I would not care to meddle in your affairs. In truth, your relationship with that woman has been most amusing to observe. If possible, I would prefer to merely watch how it unfolds, without interest or time to interfere beyond that."
Gilgamesh looked down imperiously upon Rozen.
"But since that woman intends to act herself, to face Tiamat… I have no choice but to remind you of one thing."
And what was that?
Gilgamesh did not say directly.
He merely fixed Rozen with his gaze, and spoke.
"Surely, even if you do not know the woman's origin, you have at least guessed at the deeds she has done?"
Gilgamesh's words made Rozen recall the dream.
The dream that had haunted him ever since forming a contract with Altera.
A land engulfed in flames.
Animals driven to madness.
Humans plunged into insanity.
A world sunk in despair.
A white giant trampling, ravaging, destroying.
Scene after scene—surely they were things that had truly happened once.
After arriving at this Singularity, piecing together what he knew, Rozen had made a certain conjecture.
"They say that roughly ten thousand years ago—fourteen thousand years before my own era—prehistoric civilization and the Age of Gods, then at its dawn, suffered a great cataclysm. The gods were slaughtered, civilization destroyed, True Ether began to wane, and the Age of Gods formally entered decline."
Rozen raised his head and looked at Gilgamesh.
"Because of that event, even the very existence of the gods changed—evolving from the stronger, purer concepts of the primordial era into the varied forms known in present myths."
"Because of that event, the Age of Gods began to collapse, and mystery itself fell into decline."
These were things Kingu had told Rozen.
And at that time, when Altera heard it, her reaction had been unlike anything before.
Combined with the dread and fear the gods bore toward her, and with the dream, Rozen could more or less guess.
"The one responsible for it all was Altera, wasn't it?"
Rozen forced the words out, restraining his emotions.
At this, Gilgamesh only smiled.
"Well now, you do seem to know quite a bit."
Rozen had no trouble understanding the implication.
It was tacit admission.
Altera was the giant who, fourteen thousand years ago, destroyed prehistoric civilization and the primeval Age of Gods.
"Do you know of the Wandering Star of Predation?"
Gilgamesh suddenly spoke a name Rozen had never heard before.
"The Wandering Star of Predation?"
Rozen frowned.
Gilgamesh showed no surprise.
Few indeed knew of this matter.
"The Wandering Star of Predation, also called the Harvest Star, is a comet in the Milky Way that appears in cycles of fourteen thousand years."
Gilgamesh began to speak, slowly revealing a hidden truth.
"Its form resembles a weeping eye, but wherever it passes, the civilizations of all intelligent life are destroyed."
Rozen's heart gave a small tremor.
He had already guessed.
Guessed what Gilgamesh was about to say.
And sure enough…
"About ten thousand years ago—fourteen thousand years before your present—the star passed near this planet."
Gilgamesh continued.
"At that time, to destroy this world's civilization, a white giant was cast down from the star."
That white giant was the vanguard of the star, a weapon for annihilating civilizations.
"She grows by absorbing the information of intelligent life. When every intelligent being on a planet is extinguished, she loses her nourishment and self-destructs."
"Human, animal, plant, structure, or even the concept of material itself—she can destroy it all, and absorb the information of what she has broken to enlarge herself and increase her strength."
"She can even absorb unconditionally all techniques, knowledge, and civilizations. No matter how clumsy, if it is born of intelligence, any attack or interference will be absorbed and turned into her power."
"Thus, whether overwhelming firepower born of mystery or weapons devised by science, all are nothing but folly that fuels her further."
"To fight her, only pure physical force can be used to strike her directly. But even physical attacks reinforced by mana burst would be absorbed. Only the energy of a holy sword forged from Earth's inner sea could deal her effective damage."
"Ah, and she can create duplicates. In the past, she did so once, and through destruction of land and civilization grew larger and stronger—thus annihilating prehistoric civilization and the primeval Age of Gods, slaughtering the deities."
"In the end, one who bore the holy sword of the stars slew her duplicate, while her true body was sealed upon the Moon, confined within a stone chamber ever since."
Gilgamesh's voice sank into Rozen's ears.
"She is the enemy of the world, the enemy of the planet, the enemy of civilization, and the enemy of mankind."
"If the Beasts of Original Sin are the Evils of Humanity for the primate world, then she is the evil of civilization itself, the calamity of planetary environment."
"Those who know of her call her thus—"
"————Sefar."
The name by which both Gilgamesh and Ereshkigal had addressed Altera.
Which meant…
"The familiar by your side is the vanguard of the Wandering Star—"
The enemy of everything on this planet, and the sinner of prehistory.