"Although I had mentally prepared myself a bit before… but still…" Pepe said with lingering fear, "I didn't expect this Lostbelt to be so dangerous…"
"This is just the beginning," Aoko clapped her hands as she spoke, having just burned a goblin faerie slave-catching squad to ashes. "This is the fabled Island at the Edge after all—lots of monsters and demons are only to be expected, right?"
After saying this, Aoko looked north. In the distance stood a colossal, strange tree. Even from far away, they could see it.
Logically, the Fairy Britain they'd arrived in was a forsaken land at the bottom of the imaginary sea, and once a year had passed for the faeries, it would be destroyed—pruned by the laws of humanity.
But on that bleached Earth of the FGO timeline, it was clear that the will of the Alien God had used a Fantasy Tree to connect Britain's surface with this abandoned Lostbelt. In other words, this place was both not a Lostbelt in FGO, and yet also was one—a paradox that could easily confuse people.
In other words, this is a state that can only exist within the unstable history of a Lostbelt. If someone were to enter this Lostbelt from the bleached Earth, it would mean they also entered the bottom of the imaginary sea—this is the true nature of the Storm Wall.
It was a needle crafted by the Alien God to seal off the universe.
Noticing Aoko's gaze, Toneriko was unusually silent—not introducing the customs and culture of the Lostbelt as usual. That's because, in Toneriko's plan, she had already decided: she would borrow the Fantasy Tree that had descended from the heavens to fix the entire Lostbelt as an Alternate World, thus escaping its fate of being pruned.
That's right. As a rare genius in magecraft, she had already determined from Morgan's memories that this world had no future at all. If Fairy Britain were to be saved, it would only be possible by using the power of the Alien God to elevate the Lostbelt.
If Fairy Britain were elevated to an alternate parallel world, it would, in a sense, stand as an equal to the worlds of Proper Human History. This meant, that to become the true primates of this planet, the faeries of Fairy Britain would inevitably have a final battle with humans.
But Aoko wasn't worried about that. She was confident she could persuade Toneriko to give up this island made of faerie corpses and take the faeries worth saving away from this hellhole. It wouldn't be easy, but Aoko was sure she could do it.
Though she'd joked and bickered with Toneriko all the way here, Aoko knew that, at this point, Toneriko had already given up on saving both humans and faeries of Fairy Britain as a messiah. Uther, leader of the Round Table coalition, was the last attempt.
But there's no way Aoko would just watch as Toneriko married that clueless, short-lived Uther, right?
"Hey, hey, Artoria, you're not going to watch Uther marry Queen Mab, and then get involved with your sister, are you?" Aoko whispered privately to Artoria through a secret technique. "I support you in snatching Toneriko away from your dad, you know?"
Artoria frowned, glanced at Aoko, then snuck a look at Toneriko, who was chatting with Totorot. She could sense that this girl, so similar to her sister, had been through so much—beneath her innocent beauty was a history of blood and tears.
She did indeed have many grudges and tangled feelings with her royal sister, and they'd even had a child together, Mordred. But that didn't mean… Well, okay, she was pretty cute, and it did remind her a little of her queen, Guinevere…
Thinking of this, Artoria felt a bit melancholic. She'd never really cared whether her spouse was male or female. Back when she married Guinevere, she was ready to bring her happiness. Unfortunately, Guinevere ultimately chose to elope with Lancelot, which hurt her for a long time.
Aoko had told her about her goals in coming to Fairy Britain. Among the faeries she wanted to take away, there was certainly the magical genius Toneriko.
And if Aoko wanted to take away this girl who loved this land so deeply, the best way was probably to fill the void left by the loss of her homeland with another kind of love.
At this thought, Artoria's usually stern face blushed a little, but her powerful self-control quickly suppressed the change.
"I'll try…" Artoria mumbled softly, sighing. "I promise you."
"Ara~Ara~" Aoko laughed delightedly, looking utterly pleased with herself. She'd always thought Artoria and Toneriko or Morgan would make a great couple—how could she not try, now that she had the chancae?
The journey had been bumpy, but there weren't any real threats to Aoko or Artoria. Aoko casually dispatched countless faeries who got in their way, her cool efficiency even making the Black Knight, Ector, gape.
By evening, the six-person team had crossed the eastern forests of Cornwall village, traversed the southern plains of Fairy Britain, and arrived at the first large city Aoko had encountered in this land: Salisbury.
The city's architecture looked both Victorianly exquisite and elegant, yet also as clean and tidy as a modern metropolis. The faeries, being part of nature itself, probably didn't produce much pollution.
"Huh?" Aoko was surprised to see the figure welcoming them in Salisbury Cathedral. "Cú Chulainn?"
"It's Grimr, Grimr!" The blue-haired youth protested, correcting her. "If you call me that, my Spirit Origin output will drop a lot!"
"Who's this Grimr…?" Pepe covered his mouth, asking, "Is this person a Servant?"
"Heh, this guy is kind of a pseudo-Servant," Aoko looked up and down at this Odin-disguised youth. "I know he calls himself Grimr, but I just don't care for all that secrecy."
"Geez, you people don't respect your elders!" Grimr scratched his blue bird's nest hair, complaining. "I'm not as free as you magicians, you know—I can only help out in this form!"
"Grimr, where's Uther and the rest?" Toneriko asked. "Did the southern expedition succeed?"
"Uther went ahead to Londinium," Grimr replied. "The operation went well. As long as the coronation ceremony is held successfully, the long-standing chaos of Fairy Britain can finally end."
"That's great…" Toneriko clutched her chest, showing a smile both happy and exhausted—feelings accumulated over two cycles of reincarnation, spanning centuries. The strength of her emotion was so intense that even Aoko, an outsider, could sense it.
Artoria's expression wavered slightly. Aoko noticed her state and confirmed that the suggestion she'd given Artoria earlier had already been seriously considered by the King of Knights.
The reason a Lostbelt is called a Lostbelt is because no matter how its inhabitants struggle, their fate is always destruction. Artoria understood this, and that's why she wanted faeries like Toneriko and her companions—so kind and gentle—to have a better future.