"————"
Within the world of radiance, all sounds had already vanished.
Neither the rumbling of the earth-turned-battlefield, nor the roars of the monsters and the black sea, nor even Tiamat's earth-shattering howls could enter this world of light.
Rozen and Altera faced each other, one with eyes full of calm, the other with eyes trembling with hesitation. They paid no mind to the surging torrents of mana blasting down from outside, unleashed by Tiamat without end. Both had sunk into silence.
In this moment, no one could intrude upon this world.
Because compared to the matter before them, the future of the world, the future of the planet, and even the future of humanity—all of it no longer mattered.
Within her wavering heart, after an unknown length of time, Altera finally spoke.
"...You already knew, didn't you?"
Her voice was weaker than ever before, as if barely audible.
The once cold and merciless swordswoman, under these circumstances, seemed helpless—almost pitiable.
But Rozen did not soften his tone.
"You should have guessed it already, right?" Rozen said, unexpectedly cold. "The last time Gilgamesh kept me alone in the throne room and sent you away, you should have realized he wanted to tell me the truth about you."
Indeed.
This was never difficult to deduce.
Gilgamesh was among the few who knew Altera's true identity. Altera herself was aware of that.
And at that time, just after Altera had volunteered to confront Tiamat, to weaken her Saint Graph with her own power, Gilgamesh had abruptly changed the subject, sent everyone away.
Unless one was a fool, it was obvious he wanted to speak of something concerning Altera.
Altera had in fact realized it long ago. Otherwise, that day, she would not have returned directly to the embassy, refusing to wait for Rozen to emerge from the Tower of the Gods.
In other words—
"You were just deceiving yourself. Even though you already knew in your heart, you refused to accept it. You ignored the truth happening before your eyes, lied to yourself, and refused to face it."
Rozen's words cut without mercy.
He even added:
"Truly, that's just like you."
These words pierced Altera sharper than any divine weapon could.
She felt as if some unseen wound had been carved deep inside her, something within her cut apart, her heart seized by pain. She fell silent.
After a long while—
"Yes. I am the Wandering Star of Predation's spearhead, a civilization-destroying weapon from beyond the stars, once called the Giant God, the White Titan who ended prehistoric civilization—Sefar."
Altera raised her head, eyes closed, finally admitting everything.
"I am the nemesis of this planet, the nemesis of this world, the nemesis of all life. I exist to destroy all, to erase all, to consume all. Like that Beast of Original Sin before you, I am without question an Evil to the primate world—worse even than the Evils of Humanity."
She lifted the Sword of the War God in her hand.
"This blade too—I stole it from this planet's War God. After fusing it with my own existence, it became what you now see."
"This body is nothing but a false image. My true self is no Heroic Spirit, no maiden, not even a warrior—just a pure weapon."
"Though my true form is now sealed, in the past it ravaged this land, ended the prosperity of the Age of Gods, and destroyed the previous history of mankind—that was me."
"Just as Solomon, the King of Magic, said—I should be the enemy of the world, the enemy of civilization, the enemy of mankind, a being more detestable than even he himself."
"This... is my everything."
Altera opened her eyes.
"Now you know it all, don't you?"
In the past, she had desperately tried to conceal this truth.
Now, it could no longer be hidden.
"...Gilgamesh told me, as the vanguard of the Wandering Star who descended upon this planet, you created an avatar 14,000 years ago to ravage the earth. In the end, your true body was sealed upon the Moon, while the avatar was slain by a holy sword forged by the stars, perishing upon the land."
Rozen's voice was steady. "That Giant God avatar transformed into a cavern, which the Huns later discovered."
"...Yes." Altera lowered her gaze. "At that time, the avatar was indeed dead. But after becoming a cavern, the Huns unearthed a girl within."
As the Wandering Star's spearhead, the true Altera was nothing but a pure civilization-destroying weapon, devoid of self, driven only by the instinct to annihilate planetary civilizations and absorb their information, just like the Evils of Humanity.
But within a certain civilization once devoured by the Wandering Star, there had been a system born of maternal love and compassion. Its information was absorbed by the Giant God Altera, and thus a self began to form.
Originally, this self should never have awakened.
But within the slain avatar's cavern on Earth, a core condensed from the residual information took shape.
That core was a girl.
This girl was the one hailed by the Huns as their Great King, the Heroic Spirit who once shook all of Europe—Attila.
"Living on Earth as Attila awakened the self that the Wandering Star had sealed."
Altera confessed everything calmly.
"Though to me, it was nothing but a fleeting dream, galloping across the plains, it was a dream I longed to prolong forever."
In other words, Altera yearned for the life she had once lived as Attila—riding across the plains, living as a human.
From then on, she began to question and doubt her existence as a Giant God.
Because that yearning could never coexist with the mission of the Wandering Star's spearhead.
Thus, the Giant God Altera came to possess "humanity."
"To me, even my current experiences are nothing more than another dream of my true body."
"I had thought... that this time, perhaps, the dream would not end so easily."
"But it seems... the time has come to wake."
Her words carried a sorrow unlike any she had ever shown before.
That sorrow was almost comparable to Tiamat's.
Hearing it, Rozen fell silent as well.
So that's why...
So that's why Altera had always lamented, wondering when her dream would end, how long it could last.
That was also why she resonated so strongly with Natsuki who had overseen the Prison Barrier—whose true body remained within the barrier, while their will lived as a dream within a puppet moving freely outside.
Because in that existence, Altera saw herself.
To this, Rozen had only one thing to say:
"You're an idiot, aren't you?"
Rozen restrained his emotions as he spoke those words.
"..."
Altera once again fell silent.
Her expression was extremely complicated.