The fierce battle in the void finally came to an end.
Most of the Temple of Time had been reduced to rubble under the clash of those two brilliant lights. The once-imposing Demon King had ultimately fallen from his throne, crashing into the shattered floating islands below.
Listening to his roars of disbelief, Guinevere stood in front of the ruined throne at the heart of the temple, leaning on his sword, glancing down with a calm expression.
"Goetia. That's all he was."
That was what he said, at least—but in truth, his strength was nearly drained. He stood now at the lowest point of his condition.
However, after witnessing his display of power in vanquishing Goetia, none of the demon pillars circling below dared to rush forward. Instead, they clustered together, quietly relaying messages through means imperceptible to Guinevere.
"The King appears to have lost consciousness?"
"Incorrect. Proper phrasing: the King has sustained damage beyond standard tolerances and has entered a forced dormant state to enhance repair efficiency."
"Estimated time of dormancy?"
"Measured in human-world scale: initial estimate, more than three months."
"What of our plan?"
"No concern. The plan has reached its final stages. We need only wait for the King to awaken."
"..."
Unfortunately, the energy of the Holy Sword had been mostly depleted in the previous clash. That final strike had failed to completely annihilate Goetia—or perhaps, such a feat had never been truly possible.
To destroy Goetia within the Temple of Time was, in the end, simply too difficult. The temple bestowed near-limitless regeneration upon all demon pillars. As their king, Goetia received the same blessing.
After casting one last glance at the unmoving Goetia, Guinevere waited briefly in place, regaining just enough strength to move. Then he turned and stepped through the dimensional gate Goetia had left behind—returning to London.
Behind him, as the rift in space sealed shut, the demon pillars continued their conversation.
"Should we pursue the intruder?"
"...Request denied. If you want to die, do not consume the temple's repair capacity."
"With the plan suspended, what shall we do next?"
"...Shall we try human entertainment activities? I hear the human invention based on Charles Babbage's concept—called a computer—is quite amusing."
"Explain your reasoning."
"We're idle anyway. In human terms, this is called a vacation."
"Incorrect. Proper phrasing: as key executors of the plan, we will maintain subjective initiative and psychological stability through temporary engagement in human recreational systems."
"...Isn't that exhausting to talk like that all the time?"
"Rebuttal: As the Human Incineration Protocol, our communication method should remain... wait a moment."
"Why are you speaking like that? Barbatos? You... you're not Barbatos. Who are you?"
...
Naturally, Guinevere knew nothing of this demon pillar dialogue.
At that moment, he had already returned to the singularity in London.
And there, the others were still anxiously awaiting the result of the battle.
"Mr. Hyde?! You're back?!"
Seeing Guinevere leap back from the gaping void, Ritsuka Fujimaru jumped up in relief.
"Thank goodness you're alive...! You just dove straight into that obviously terrible place, I thought you were going to confront Solomon himself..."
But before she could say more, two hands gently grabbed her shoulders and tugged her back.
"Hello, Miss Fujimaru. We understand you're excited, but please be mindful of personal space, alright?"
Artoria smiled as she patted Ritsuka's shoulder.
Her expression was bright and sunny, but for some reason, Ritsuka felt a cold wind brush across the back of her neck.
"What's there to worry about? That's my Guin—uh, my Blood Boy! He's always been amazing—of course he'd come back safe and sound!"
On the other side, Bavanzi had already moved to lean on Guinevere—only to be discreetly pulled back by Artoria.
"Give it a rest, will you? He's not just your Blood Boy anymore," Artoria muttered irritably.
"Ugh... right." Bavanzi froze, suddenly realizing something.
Now that the Blood Boy and the Holy Sword Wielder had merged into this current Guinevere, whose side was he really on?
As she furrowed her brows in thought, another voice suddenly cut in:
"Um, sorry to interrupt... but the anomalous magical readings I detected earlier—they've disappeared. What happened back there in the Temple of Time? Can someone explain?"
"In short—I fought King Solomon," Guinevere replied calmly. "Bought us a little time. At the very least, you won't have to worry about him popping up to gank you guys in the final phases of the next few singularities."
"Wha—you fought Solomon?! And came back alive?!" Dr. Roman's brain took a few seconds to reboot before he exploded.
"You fought that Solomon? And you're alive?! You even managed to buy us time—which means he lost ground?!"
"You could put it that way... Ah, looks like it's time."
Even as Guinevere considered how to explain it further, a startled cry rang out. Turning toward the sound, he saw Bavanzi glowing gold—disappearing into spirit particles.
Soon after, Artoria followed.
At the same time, a prompt appeared in Guinevere's mind:
[Singularity confirmed resolved. Mission complete. Simulation ending.]
Guinevere let out a quiet sigh of relief.
It seemed he wouldn't have to explain much more.
"Looks like it's time to say goodbye, everyone from Chaldea."
"Wait! But even if you're possessed by a Servant, Mr. Jekyll—you're still a person from this world, right?" Ritsuka looked startled.
"Ah, well... not exactly."
Guinevere scratched his head, chuckling awkwardly.
"Due to the time-space distortion in this singularity, I'm technically from a time about ten years earlier than this one. Looks like I'm getting sent back now."
"Wait—!"
Ritsuka couldn't hold back anymore. With Artoria and Bavanzi both gone, she darted forward and grabbed his hand.
"Mr. Jekyll! Can you at least leave behind a relic or something...?! I really hope I can summon you during a Chaldea summoning session!"
"Is that so?"
Guinevere chuckled, thinking for a moment.
"Sadly, I don't really have anything that would qualify as a relic... but if the maid lady here ever tries summoning in a maid outfit or something, maybe our bond will pull me through anyway."
"Ehh?" Ritsuka froze. "Wait—is this Hyde now?!"
"No... well, maybe it's both."
Guinevere shook his head. Given that he was still using the doctor's name, he figured he owed some final words.
"Let's just say... I've made peace with myself."
"I used to chase this idea of pure good—and split myself in two. But now I think, maybe absolute good or absolute evil never really existed in the first place."
"In the end, 'good' and 'evil' are just choices... A good person might fight for justice, while a villain might protect someone out of their own reasons. What truly defines someone is not their intent, but their actions."
"So... until we meet again."
And with that, Guinevere left the singularity behind.
Chaldea successfully recalled Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others.
The once bustling underground grew quiet again, swallowed once more by thick mist.
...
Elsewhere—across time and space—in a temporary camp in another world, Guinevere finally opened his eyes.
"Man... that was one long simulation."
The campfire flickered dimly beside him. Guinevere gave his head a little shake, still feeling a bit dazed.
To be honest, he could deal with the kind of simulations where you just watched events play out. But full immersion like this—where his consciousness was directly thrown in—left him feeling drained.
Many days had passed in the simulation, yet in reality, barely any time had gone by. The dissonance was unsettling.
But that's just how simulators worked.
"...Forget it. I'm going to sleep."
Rubbing his temples, he closed the barrage of post-mission notifications that were popping up in his system.
Right now, he was too tired to care.
He'd check the rewards tomorrow.
But just before he closed his eyes, his gaze fell on the sword lying by his sleeping bag, and for a moment, he seemed dazed.
"A knight's tale of a journey, huh..."
He recalled something someone once said, and shook his head.
"If only she could really be here with us, in this world, on this journey."
With that thought, he closed his eyes.
...
Meanwhile, far away in the mist-covered Fairy Kingdom, in a small village cloaked in fog, a door creaked open.
A cautious tooth-fairy poked her head in.
"Um... Lady Lord? There's a banquet tonight. Would you like to attend?"
Half a second later, a thoroughly annoyed voice bellowed from inside:
"Ugh, shut up! I've told you already, I don't give a damn about your stupid banquets! Stop bothering me while I'm gaming!"
"Eek—sorry!!"
Startled by the snarl, the little fairy quickly closed the door and ran off, terrified her volatile lord—the Fairy Knight herself—might chase her down.
"Ughhh, so annoying. Don't these nobodies in the Nameless Forest have any real work to do? It's party after party... What was Mother thinking, summoning me just to dump me in this place as its 'lord'?"
Inside the room, a blonde girl in a red leather jacket grumbled as she glued her eyes to the screen.
[Another player's simulation has ended. Beginning a new simulation cycle. Enable auto-mode?]
A prompt popped up in front of her—visible only to her.
"Simulation? What kind of garbage—auto, auto! All of it! Leave me alone!"
With a huff, she dismissed the interface and picked her controller back up.
The laptop on the table hummed softly as it ran. Plugged into its power cable was a crimson greatsword, faint sparks of red lightning dancing along its edge—powering the device.
"You know what? Guinevere was right after all."
As she furiously mashed buttons, she muttered:
"Babbage's so-called 'computer' thing? Pretty damn fun."