Chapter 244: Sea of Stars UO, The Age of Servant Everywhere
The consciousness of the Root, the one that gazed upon the death of all things, wanted Rowe to live.
The Princess of the Root, the one who could connect directly to its power, wanted Rowe to die.
That was Rowe's predicament.
Tokyo, the capital of Japan.
A world that had already undergone changes so violent and unprecedented that even the word "abnormal" felt polite.
And yet, Rowe was not surprised that both Ryougi Shiki and Manaka had set their sights on him.
The first was obvious. He had taken too much from the Root, stayed too long within its whirlpool, and left behind a wound that had birthed a will.
As for the second…
"How interesting. Your name is Rowe, right? Rowe, Rowe."
Golden hair, short and wispy, fluttered to her shoulders in the night breeze.
Manaka clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward, close enough that her presence became pressure. The light blue dress she wore was modest in design, yet it traced a figure that felt both childish and on the verge of blooming.
Warm.
Soft.
Too alive.
White stockings covered her legs, but did nothing to hide the smooth fullness of youth. She tilted her head, smiling with innocent curiosity.
"Can I try to kill you?"
Then her smile deepened, not with malice, but with fascination.
"I can't see your death."
For a Princess linked to the Root, the world held almost no secrets.
She was not omnipotent. She was not invincible. As a magus, her magical energy still had limits.
But her connection to the Root granted her something close to infinite authority in the realm of observation.
And yet, when she looked at Rowe, that near infinite sight failed.
She could not see his end.
Not in parallel worlds.
Not in divergent branches of possibility.
No matter what she reached for, there was no line that concluded with Rowe's death.
Unknown.
For the first time, Manaka felt something she had never properly owned.
A desire for knowledge.
"That won't do."
Ryougi Shiki raised the long, narrow katana in her hand. She too had short hair, but where Manaka's presence was playful and bright, Ryougi Shiki's was cool, sharp, and empty in a way that made the air feel thinner.
The will of the Root spoke calmly.
"One who draws power from the Root should remain with the Root."
"Now, and forever."
"Pure and unblemished. That is the Void."
"Does the Root want companionship?" Manaka asked, tilting her head.
"Does not even one linked to the Root have unknowns?" Ryougi Shiki replied, expression unchanged.
Manaka opened her mouth to answer.
Then paused.
Because Rowe finally spoke.
He let out a quiet breath. In his eyes, infinite light and color turned, like a sea that had learned how to think.
"As expected."
"It really isn't that easy."
"Not that easy?" Manaka blinked. Shifting colors flashed faintly in her blue eyes.
Ryougi Shiki's brows tightened.
"You tried to touch it?"
"No touching. Just sensing," Rowe said, clapping his hands as if he were confirming a routine diagnosis.
At this moment, the Throne had manifested within the world.
Countless names had stepped out from human history.
The Throne overlaid the present.
But just as Rowe had anticipated, even if he dragged the Throne down into reality, it was not the whole of it.
It was only one layer.
"The Throne within the Root is, in essence, a vast information library," Rowe said. "It stores all records of life's activity across the universe, and all branches of possibility produced by those lives."
"In that vast universe, humanity is special."
Compared to civilizations that evolve along singular characteristics, compared to Atlantis and the forms of order it represents, humans carry contradiction as a native trait. Sensibility and rationality. Chaos and order.
And because the Sea of Stars exists, humanity can create infinite possibilities and infinite branches of worlds.
"That ability created a burden within the solar system," Rowe continued. "It evolved into the pruning mechanism."
"And because of that, the portion humanity occupies within the Throne is immense."
He lifted his gaze, as if looking through the night sky into something layered behind it.
"But no matter how immense it is, it cannot be the only one."
The birth of consciousness was a miracle built from stacked probabilities.
But even miracles were not unique, not on a cosmic scale.
Humans were special.
They were not singular.
On that Throne, there were records of life from other star systems, other civilizations.
There were beings beyond ordinary life and death.
There was a Divine Throne, a layer that recorded the traces of manifested divinities.
Heroic Spirits encompassed heroes, gods, and even those whose existence had taken on spiritual consciousness.
And Rowe's power was deposited at the very top, above those stacked traces, above even the Divine Throne.
What had descended into the world was only one slice.
Only the layer belonging to humanity.
Not enough for him to climb to the highest step and reclaim the infinite power he had left beyond it.
This was the result Rowe obtained in that brief instant while Ryougi Shiki and Manaka spoke.
He closed his eyes.
He wrapped the planet in the perception of a Star Creating God.
And he measured what had truly changed.
The method that broke the deadlock had always been a gamble.
It was never certainty.
Only "perhaps it will work."
"That is why I told you," Ryougi Shiki said, smiling faintly. The katana in her hand glowed with a thin light.
"I can help you reach the top layer."
Rowe's expression did not change.
"On the condition that I become a puppet of the Root."
"Why not?" Ryougi Shiki asked.
Her black hair stirred. In her dark pupils, faint light gathered, like the reflection of a blade.
"All things flow from the Root. All things will return to the Root."
"To become one with it, how is that different from now?"
"It is different," Rowe said, voice steady.
"Since all things have a Root… why can't I become my own Root?"
Sajou Manaka's eyes brightened as if she had been offered a new toy.
"Then it would be better if I just killed you," she said, almost bouncing in place. "To ascend the Throne, that is the simplest method."
If Rowe were still the Sage of Uruk, he might have genuinely allowed her to try.
But not now.
Now he was the Star Creating God, able to manifest his power fully in a stabilized world.
Dying like this would not raise him to the top.
It would only scatter him.
"So why didn't you do it earlier?" Rowe asked.
"Because I was watching your performance," Manaka replied, clapping her hands.
"Such a magnificent performance. I've never seen anything like it. Dragging the Throne down and everything."
Even she, who had witnessed countless wonders, had never heard of someone doing this.
She had wanted to move sooner.
But she was so captivated that she only arrived at this moment.
"A magnificent performance," Rowe repeated.
Then his gaze slid past her, past Ryougi Shiki, and out toward the distance.
Ancient heroes continued to appear, stepping out from the pages of human history. Preeminent figures returned from record into presence.
Rowe could not directly seize the power he wanted.
But that did not mean he had no other options.
A wise man exhausted possibilities.
From the beginning, Rowe had prepared a second plan.
If he could not target the full cosmic archive from above, then he would target it from below.
"Gaia. Alaya. Are you ready?"
What a demanding fellow.
Yes. We are ready, Father.
Rowe sighed.
"So you don't have to call me Father."
Sea of Stars.
Gaia and Alaya, receiving his message, exchanged glances.
"Alaya, what do we do?"
"Open the barrier between the planet and the Sea of Stars," Alaya said. "Direct contact with infinite existence. Touch the endless worlds formed by other possibilities."
"Isn't that too risky?" Gaia asked.
"It is risky," Alaya admitted. "The Counter Force is the manifestation of the desire to maintain stable existence."
Then Alaya's tone sharpened.
"It is all that guy's fault."
Gaia fell silent.
Then, reluctantly, she spoke as if conceding to an inevitability.
"Yes. Father's actions always exceed everyone's expectations."
"And no one can refuse him."
"Isn't that precisely Father's nature?"
Gaia did not refuse.
To open the Sea of Stars.
To allow the planet to directly contact, and even assimilate, other worlds connected through it.
That was Rowe's second plan.
Countless Heroic Spirits had already manifested and descended.
Using their existence as anchors, he would merge with the inner side of the Sea of Stars, with worlds formed by the countless other possibilities derived from those Heroic Spirits.
He would make the Counter Force become the Counter Force of the Sea of Stars.
He would make himself the Ultimate One of the Sea of Stars.
After the world's first immense change, it changed again.
Following the manifestation of Heroic Spirits, an aurora once more enveloped the planet.
On that day, observatories across countless countries discovered a massive alteration in what their telescopes called the universe.
Innumerable interwoven lines of light, like rainbows, submerged the void.
The atmosphere had always been Earth's barrier.
It preserved an environment for life.
It blocked the Imaginary Number Space.
It also functioned as the barrier sealing the Sea of Stars away.
Now, Gaia removed it.
And the Sea of Stars emerged.
On that day, countless people drifted into trances and dreamt of their past.
Dreamt of their future.
Dreamt of infinite versions of themselves.
Centered on Rowe, the world began to blur beneath the impact of the Sea of Stars.
Like a photograph warped by heat, both space and time began to dissipate, as if bleached.
And yet, also centered on him, pillars stood firm, one after another, shining brilliantly.
The radiance of Heroic Spirits.
The radiance of heroes.
Not one.
Not ten.
Ten thousand.
The Sea of Stars connected infinite possible worlds.
Ordinary human existence was too fragile. A world built only from ordinary people would be submerged by endless worlds.
So anchors were required.
Stable anchors.
Heroic Spirits.
And heroes…
"Everyone has the potential to become a hero," Rowe said.
"Even if it is minuscule. Even if it is a one in a billion chance."
"But a truly infinite Throne should be like this."
He stared at Ryougi Shiki and Manaka, the will of the Root and the Princess of the Root standing before him.
"After converging one's own possibilities, you converge the world's possibilities too?" Ryougi Shiki's expression finally shifted, a trace of surprise cutting through her calm.
"You are becoming more and more interesting, Rowe."
Manaka blinked, and her urge to kill him only intensified.
But their thoughts did not matter.
They could not change Rowe's decision.
They could not stop his action.
"Then farewell," Rowe said. "Both of you."
"We will meet again," Ryougi Shiki replied, serious now.
Manaka tilted her head, as if tasting the idea.
"I think so too."
"Yes. I am confident."
"But perhaps it will be on the Throne."
The stronger Rowe became, the more violently he yearned to reclaim what he had left behind.
Not only because of the magnitude of that power.
But because of what it meant.
Transcendence.
He himself becoming his own whirlpool of the Root.
In that instant, Rowe vanished.
After converging his own possibilities and the world's possibilities, he entered the Sea of Stars.
Then, carrying the imprint of infinite worlds, he leapt into the outer layer of the world, into the Imaginary Number Space, moving backward through time.
Using the traces of his existence as anchors.
Using his existence as proof.
Only by covering the entire river of time, only by occupying the source of all possibilities on the planet, could he become the true Ultimate One of the Sea of Stars.
At the same time, he would completely solidify his power as a Star Creating God.
Traveling backward through time carried immense danger.
Assimilation by the flow.
Consciousness warped by endless change.
Gaia's voice echoed in Rowe's ears.
Any further back, even I cannot reach it.
A time so old that the planet's Inhibitory Force had not yet been born.
But Rowe did not hesitate.
"Even for this, I am prepared."
Rome, two thousand years ago.
Great Qin, two thousand two hundred years ago.
Further back, Israel, Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia.
Rowe's trajectory pierced backward.
Until the planet's primordial shaping.
Until he stood in a world of churning lava, a world where the planet's form had not yet stabilized.
And there, he saw a familiar shadow.
"Aaaaa!"
The primordial goddess of Mesopotamia.
The Sea of Chaos made flesh.
Tiamat.
She was the final anchor Rowe had prepared.
A backup plan waiting at the planet's origin.
"You waited a long time," Rowe said, looking into those pink eyes filled with stars.
He smiled.
Then he embraced the beautiful figure whose hair flowed like seawater.
In Tiamat's joyful arms, they intertwined, touched, and merged.
This was the primordial Tiamat.
It was also the Tiamat Rowe knew.
She had always existed in the highest heaven of the primordial era.
But as a Star Creating God, she had already extended that highest heaven to cover the primordial world.
What was the foundation of becoming a Star Creating God?
Returning to the planet's origin.
Opening the world's origin.
That was Tiamat's authority.
And it was why she waited here.
"I will help you," Tiamat whispered.
"I will stabilize you."
Her fingers traced him gently, and she kissed him lightly.
Primordial sharing.
Sea with sea.
Tiamat was the Mother Goddess who presided over the primordial Sea of Chaos.
Rowe presided over the cycle of the three waters of heaven, earth, and man, the freshwater sea between heaven and earth.
They converged.
And together, they stabilized the world.
Together, they opened the world's origin.
Together, they opened the primordial environment.
Freshwater and salt sea merged, giving birth to heaven and earth and all primordial things.
Mesopotamian mythology.
Not merely a primordial god.
A Star Creating God.
A god who creates stars.
After that, Rowe's conclusion became simple.
"As long as I die, I can ascend to the Throne."
Because Rowe was inseparable from reality.
He created human order.
He even created the world.
Now the present world was part of the Throne.
So after his death, he could follow the connection between Throne and Throne, reaching the higher layer.
No longer bound by the condition of leaving a name in history.
He refused to believe the Throne could still reject him.
After accompanying Tiamat through the initial long stretch of time, Rowe returned.
Back to the present.
Back to the era after the Holy Grail War.
…
The late twentieth century.
The world's lights burned bright, and the constant echo of news reports carried the shape of the new age.
Heroic Spirits had descended.
Mystery and humanity coexisted openly.
Rowe opened his eyes.
Drizzle fell.
From the gloom, a long spear emerged.
A voice, low with battle intent, spoke like a blade being drawn.
"Finally, it's my turn…"
Then the voice sharpened, and the name landed on Rowe like a challenge.
"Rowe."
The spear wielder flicked her long hair and looked at him.
Battle intent coiled.
Killing intent chilled the rain.
.....
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