**Please be sure to read the afterword.
Without even resorting to a grand Noble Phantasm, Solomon (male)—having shattered the moon with a mere volley of magical energy—nonchalantly asked, "Is there no second attempt?" Upon seeing this, the Crimson Moon (female) seemed to lose her mental composure. Whether her spirit was broken or she simply realized that such a monstrous attack couldn't be replicated twice, she collapsed where she stood, staring blankly at Solomon and me.
...And frankly, I was doing the same.
'No, really, what kind of madness is this? I used Godword (male) to suppress the vampiric impulses, which pissed off the Crimson Moon and dragged her out. I died, and then that manifestation of the Root (unknown) tried to pull an Equivalent Exchange on me...'
It felt as though a ninja had suddenly jumped into the middle of a perfectly normal story. However, pulling my wits together, I began to silently calculate the benefits and drawbacks of this situation.
'First... the King of Mages, Solomon, has become my ally, however incomplete.'
Truth beord: with Solomon here, the Atlas Institute, the Wandering Sea, and even the Clock Tower have all become irrelevant trifles. An Elder? A Marshal of Magic? What could those fools possibly achieve against a prime Solomon with infinite prana? Of course, I wouldn't say they lack any means to land a blow. There are cheat-tier weapons like the Black Barrel, and if he were struck by something like Ryougi Shiki's (female) Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, Solomon would surely meet his end.
The real issue is that this Solomon isn't like the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors, who are merely close to deathless. He's closer to a Reanimated corpse whose body simply 'returns to life even if killed.' To put it simply... if the Ancestors are immortals with an active auto-regeneration buff, the Reanimated Solomon is... an infinite resurrection loop? Of course, if one attempted to seal him, he might be sealed. If he cast aside all his lingering attachments to his previous life and chose to ascend, he would. But the 'current' Solomon is essentially a terminal that once lived solely by following the oracles of the God of Revelation. He is a being for whom 'lingering attachments' cannot exist. As for sealing? I'd be more curious to know if anyone even exists who can seal the King of Mages.
Furthermore, as the man who fundamentally established the concept of Summoning and the primal King of Mages who first taught the likes of the Marshal of Magic and Lord Brishisan (male), his sheer influence is absolute...
'However, the downsides are just as significant as the advantages...'
Up until now, I had defined what I received from connecting to the 'Root' as two things.
First, the memories of my previous life. Second, the Rinnegan—the eyes of Saṃsāra that touched the Origin.
But the manifestation of the Root defined what I took differently.
*[You have already recalled the memories of your 'previous life,' which were barred from you by the Root. You have peered into the secrets of the world—information of the future—and you have even accepted the Rinnegan as a gift. Those could be considered the price taken by one who first reached the Origin. However, at this moment, you are in a state that has been completely finalized by 'death.']**
According to that entity, when I first reached the Root, I took a total of three things.
The first was the 'previous life' memories that form my current personality. Born as an ordinary person, attending an ordinary school, living through an ordinary pandemic, and dying in an ordinary way while trying to avoid a truck by being hit by a motorcycle instead... my first life.
Naturally, if these memories vanished, the personality that constitutes the current 'me' would collapse. It would have led to two possibilities: I would have become a mere cog in this world, living as a magus who happened to possess the Rinnegan, or I would have gone insane from the unbearable void in my memory.
But right now, I'm perfectly fine, and my personality remains intact. Above all, I can clearly recall my past life, so those memories are safe.
Second, the Rinnegan.
In truth, this was what I worried about most.
If the Rinnegan were gone, many of the things I've accomplished would be effectively nullified, and I might even be killed in a raid by Goetia (male).
It's likely I would lose the cooperation of the Einzberns as well, and if the news broke, the Clock Tower or the Holy Church would surely mobilize to eliminate me...
'But the eyes that touched the Root weren't paid as the price either.'
That left only one thing.
"Crimson Moon... No, should I call you Archetype: Earth (female)?"
"...Call me whatever you wish. Do you even realize what you have done...?"
"Resurrection of the dead. But it shouldn't matter much, right? It seems even the Counter Force of Humanity can't properly reach this moon."
"To say such a thing... Bringing the primal King of Mages back to life!"
"I see you know him. Well, since Kishua (male) handed you a total defeat, I suppose you'd know who his master was."
"That jester...!"
She glared at me, gritting her teeth. I brushed the dust off my clothes and stood up, looking down at her.
As I looked down, she stood up to meet my gaze. For a moment, we stood there, staring each other down.
"Is this moon your Millennium Castle?"
"If one must categorize it, then yes. It is the thousand-year castle completed by this body, a precious territory where only I and my kin can exist."
Come to think of it, I recalled that the Crimson Moon's original home was destroyed by the invasion of Velber. She was the lord and survivor of the True Ancestors, the last of her race, and had accepted a contract with Gaia to serve as the sentinel of the Counter Force to ensure the prosperity of her kind.
"...Then, can other eyes see into your territory? For instance, the parallel worlds of the Second Magician, or the Independent Manifestation of the Beasts?"
"No. My Millennium Castle is a primordial land that their presence cannot even reach. Since the Evils of Humanity were born with humanity as their starting point, no matter how absolute they may be within human history, they cannot set foot in my domain."
...I see. So that's how it is.
"Good..."
"...What is 'good,' you fool?"
"I've been thinking about it, and right now, you're standing here by suppressing the personality of Arcueid Brunestud (female)... the one you call the Little Princess, right?"
"Correct."
"Then... if I tell you to switch back to the original personality right now, are you willing to listen?"
"As if you have the say—"
As she glared, I quickly stepped back and tapped Solomon on the shoulder. Solomon looked at her with indifferent eyes before speaking.
"Karma, do you wish for me to kill this woman?"
"If she won't listen."
"...Damn you!"
"Alright, then summon the two Magicians to your Millennium Castle right now. Just so you know, if you refuse, the King of Mages will turn you into minced meat."
* *
Zelretch and Aoko-nee (female) were both shocked nearly to the point of fainting upon seeing Archetype: Earth. When they spotted the King of Mages, Solomon, standing next to me, they wore expressions of utter disbelief, as if they had lost all sense of reality.
"It has been a long time, Crimson Moon. It looks like you've had a scuffle, and you certainly look the worse for wear."
"Do not test my patience, Jewel Mage. I will tear you apart."
Once the two growling parties finally settled down, I stood them aside and made two requests.
"Jewel Old Man. Could you draw a magic circle here?"
"...A magic circle?"
"Yes. I plan to gather magical energy to Incarnate the King of Mages, Solomon, in a moment."
As I said that, Solomon, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
"Karma, that is impossible."
"And why is that?"
"Because your ability is insufficient."
For a moment, I stared at him blankly, dumbfounded. The flustered Marshal of Magic quickly stepped in to provide a supplementary explanation.
"Ahem, as you know, my Master has very thin emotions and often leaves out necessary context. To clarify, what he means is that his current body wasn't revived as a perfect Servant, but through a form of necromancy, which makes it impossible. Even the Incarnation of a Servant often requires prana on the level of the Holy Grail. For a soul called forth through an imperfect summoning like my Master's—not a pure Heroic Spirit—that soul wouldn't be able to withstand the process and would return to the Underworld, the Throne of Heroes, no matter how much prana you use for Incarnation."
Indeed, a wonderful explanation from the Second Magician-wagon.
However, the Incarnation I had in mind wasn't that sort of concept.
"Let me clarify: I have no intention of reviving him through the typical concept of Servant Incarnation. In the first place, there's only one way to truly revive someone brought back by Reanimation, and I can't use that method right now."
"Then what is this 'Incarnation' you speak of?"
"That's a separate matter. But before that, there's something else I must do."
The manifestation of the Root took one of the things I received from the Origin as the price for 'sending me back' and the 'Reanimation.'
I had thought two of them were the same thing, but they were actually distinct: information about this world, and my past life memories. It took the information of this world... specifically, the knowledge of future events, as the price.
'It's possible the Counter Force of Gaia intervened. Unlike Alaya, I have been twisting the predetermined future starting from the Fourth Holy Grail War as I pleased.'
Perhaps that's why I don't have memories of the work titled 'Witch on the Holy Night,' the event where I first met Ms. Kuonji (female).
If the 'future information' I received from the Root wasn't inputted into me in its raw form, but was instead remembered as a type of **fiction? That would explain why I'm so calm despite having the future information—which is technically part of my past life memories—stripped away.
Of course, this is a very serious problem for me.
Since I've been deprived of my future memories, I can no longer guess how my enemies will attack. Even if I am attacked, I will have no choice but to be swept along at their pace.
An enemy might approach me pretending to be an ally, or they might induce internal strife among my companions... or they might just push through with overwhelming force, as I've done until now. And crucially... since I have forgotten** the methods to deal with those absurd Evils of Humanity, the battles ahead will be difficult.
Furthermore, I can no longer be certain if my current actions are the right course for the future.
I have no way of knowing if recruiting the Crimson Moon right now will be a positive for the future, or if Reanimating Solomon was a good move.
It feels a bit late, but I realize now just how much I was benefiting from this future knowledge. I lived with the certainty that I was doing **the right thing, acting with the conviction that my path was the correct one**. Therefore, since the future memories—the source of my confidence—have vanished, my position has become genuinely precarious.
It could be said that it was the perfect 'toll' demanded by the manifestation of the Root.
However... at the same time, this was actually a trivial matter to me.
The manifestation of the Root certainly said this:
[I am the existence you call the World itself.
Sometimes called the Universe,
Sometimes called God,
The Origin,
The Truth,
The World,
The One,
The All.
…And I am you.
I will not 'reclaim' everything. However, there will not be a second chance. If I appeared to be someone with a personality, that personality was not mine, but yours… you understand what I mean.]
It won't reclaim everything, and there are no second chances.
To put it another way, that entity—which was essentially the Root itself—deprived me only of my future memories, settling the account for my act of entering and leaving the Origin.
But I still have my memories of the past.
Helping Aoko-nee and Ms. Alice, defeating Lugh Beowulf (male), fighting alongside heroes in the Fourth Holy Grail War to crush the Evils of Humanity, warring with the Clock Tower...
"And, I handed over the entirety of my 'memories' to convince one person."
"Eh?"
"Call Godword Mayday to this place immediately."
You think taking my memories is enough?
I'll just restore them.
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