Fate: How About a New Savior?

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but endless ocean. Tenkei Shiomi stood on a cliff by the sea, facing the ocean breeze. His clothes rustled in the wind.

"What business do you have intruding into my dream, King of Magecraft?" Shiomi asked without turning around.

Behind him stood a man—he didn't need to look to know who it was.

"There's no need to be so quick to send me away. You led Chaldea through six Singularities. Naturally, I'm here to congratulate you," said the King of Magecraft. His voice was as contradictory as ever—blurred and indistinct, yet unmistakably clear.

"Appreciate the effort, but something feels off about this dream," Shiomi said, still standing in place. A deep calm settled within him. "This place… it looks like the island of Patmos."

As he spoke, a door opened in the sky. A voice echoed like a trumpet:

"Come up here and confess your sins, and I will show you what must take place after this."

The voice might have been directed at Shiomi, but he turned around calmly, ignoring it.

"You're dreaming about receiving revelations now? Do you really think you're divinely chosen?" the King of Magecraft said, glancing at Shiomi without once looking up at the open door above.

"Seems like it. Probably from reading too much scripture lately—day thoughts become night dreams." Shiomi shrugged. "Still, hearing something like that in a dream you're meddling with doesn't bode well for me."

"You think you've received a divine calling, yet put on a show of indifference. You're an unbearably arrogant man," the King of Magecraft said.

Shiomi shook his head and smiled casually. "King of Magecraft, since you claim to possess clairvoyance that sees past and future, why don't you use those eyes to uncover the cause of all this? Tell me, what is this 'sin' that voice says I've committed?"

"…"

But the King of Magecraft remained silent. He stared at Shiomi expressionlessly, neither speaking nor reacting.

"You can't see it either, can you?" Shiomi raised his hand, pointing at him. "You talk about how only once the seven Singularities are resolved will we matter, and yet here you are, wasting your time meddling in my dreams—"

"Accept the Lion King's invitation and go with her to the end. This is your last chance," the King of Magecraft interrupted. "You're no longer purely human. There's no need to throw your life away for them."

"You really think humans are worth nothing…" Shiomi narrowed his eyes and let out a cheerful laugh. "What did humanity ever do to offend you?"

"The Lion King said you're walking the path to the Throne of God. You should understand exactly what overcoming death means for humans. You're no longer one of them," the King of Magecraft said, his tone calm and uncharacteristically rational. "You've broken free of the death fated for humans since the beginning. You could remain in the Land of Shadows, the Tower at the End, or any such place, bearing witness to the extinction of human history. So why keep risking yourself for lives so worthless?"

Shiomi pressed his lips together. "Didn't you say it yourself? I overcame death, and I know I'm hard to kill. Since I can't die, of course I should try for those who can die, for those who fear death."

"You want to be humanity's savior? Be worshipped like the Son of Man?" the King of Magecraft asked.

"No thanks. Anyone who wants to be the savior can have it," Shiomi replied without hesitation.

The King of Magecraft stood still, his clothes and hair stirring in the wind. His expression was calm and solemn, as if discussing something of great importance, yet there was a faint undercurrent of suppressed anger—born of frustration with the man who met it all with such levity.

"That being the case, you should be joining me—rather than throwing yourself into a battle with no chance of victory." The King of Magecraft extended his hand. "My temple will always be open to you. You could become the prototype I use when reshaping this planet from the ground up."

"Oh?" Shiomi realized this might be his chance to uncover the King of Magecraft's true intentions.

From the intel obtained at the Atlas Institute, along with Holmes' analysis, the Incineration of Humanity had already been completed. The King of Magecraft was now moving on to the next phase of his plan.

"You've seen it yourself, haven't you? Long-lived or short-lived, human life is ultimately limited," said the King of Magecraft. "Take that little girl in your team—she has, at most, less than a year left."

"Mash…" Shiomi's gaze darkened.

It wasn't his fault, nor was it his burden to bear.

That was one of the "sins" left behind by Marisbury Animusphere as a Magus—an act done under the pretense of benefiting humanity as a whole.

"There are many humans like her. Even if they weren't created that way from the start, their lives are still painfully short," the King of Magecraft continued. "Don't you want to see them, like you, overcome death and step into the next stage of evolution?"

"You've already burned the world to ash. What next stage is there for humanity?" Shiomi scoffed. "Or are you trying to sugarcoat extinction by creating new life from scratch?"

He was beginning to grasp the King of Magecraft's goal.

For reasons unknown, this self-proclaimed King had grown disillusioned with both humanity and life on this planet. So he orchestrated the Incineration of Humanity to gather energy and rewrite history, starting from 4.6 billion years ago, to build his ideal version of Earth.

And Shiomi's power—accidental or not—had become a model worth replicating in the King of Magecraft's eyes.

"It's not for you or me to define humanity's worth. The right to decide its future should always belong to humanity itself," Shiomi said, lowering his gaze to his clenched fist. "I'm one of them. Now and always, I want to continue living as a human. That's all."

A massive wave crashed against the rocks below the cliff, roaring like a thousand galloping horses.

Shiomi tilted his head slightly, looking up. The illusionary door in the sky had vanished.

"Haha…" The King of Magecraft's body began to tremble. "Hahahahahaha—HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

The mastermind of the Incineration of Humanity laughed maniacally, as if mocking Shiomi's obstinacy and foolishness.

The laughter dragged on for minutes. Shiomi simply scratched at his ear.

This was a dream—no matter what he wanted to do, he had no way to act.

"Done laughing?" he asked.

"Then I'll remain in my temple and enjoy watching you and the last remnants of humanity struggle until the end. The final Singularity will be your grave."

As the King of Magecraft's laughter echoed, the dream unraveled, and Shiomi's consciousness began to fade.

...

(100 Chapters Ahead)

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