At that moment, the atmosphere that should have filled the universe vanished, leaving only the two colors of heavenly light.
In the eyes of Fujimaru and the others, the pitch-black pillar of light descending from the heavens began to disintegrate. Under the relentless advance of the golden nail of light, it spiraled outward, scattering in all directions.
Like a celestial flower in full bloom, its original diameter of merely a kilometer expanded continuously during its disintegration. In an instant, it covered more than half of the black cedar forest.
And then, the pitch-black flower bloomed.
Everything—absolutely everything that came into contact with the pitch-black light—disappeared silently, evaporating without a trace. The golden nail of light became the sole existence amidst the darkness.
Shining within the black light was the pulse of the earth, the breath of humanity.
The chains of heaven, now empowered by Gaia's support, embodied the incarnation of the earth itself. It was the only weapon capable of opposing the Star.
The final wave of light roared, sweeping across the black cedar forest like a thundering tide. It formed a wall of black light, advancing rapidly in all directions.
Yet this time, not even rubble remained. Everything touched by the black light was instantly vaporized, leaving nothing behind.
"What… is that?"
To better observe Alaric's strike, Fujimaru and Mash stood atop the walls of Nippur. But it was precisely because of this vantage point that Ritsuka felt confused and unsettled.
The earth roared, and everything visible was engulfed by the tide of light.
"Is that… Sir Alaric?"
Not only Ritsuka but Mash also looked worried and puzzled.
Gazing at the black light, Mash felt a wave of resistance and sorrow well up in her heart, as if she were witnessing Alaric's descent into ruin.
The destruction Alaric now displayed made Mash momentarily see a vision of the Lion King.
This apathy toward everything, the ease with which he abandoned and crushed all things, so long as he could achieve his goal.
And most importantly, that black light—
What exactly was it?
Merlin, who had also witnessed everything, stared deeply. The sheer power of Alaric's strike had already exceeded his expectations.
Even Merlin's most optimistic predictions only anticipated a power level slightly surpassing the battle against Kingu the day before, where the Holy Lance had unleashed a supercharged holy judgment. However, Alaric's current level of power had once again shattered Merlin's calculations.
This time, the scale of the strike was fully comparable to the Excalibur unleashed by Artoria herself during her lifetime, the Sword of Promised Victory, and even momentarily surpassed it through its strange, ever-expanding magnitude!
It must be noted that the Excalibur, as the Holy Sword of the Stars, was rated as an A++ Noble Phantasm. Its mystery alone was unparalleled, to say nothing of its terrifying heat, capable of vaporizing mountains.
But Alaric's strike, after undergoing this bizarre expansion, had indeed reached the level of the Sword of Promised Victory—and even stood against the Chains of Heaven, which had received the Counter Force's support!
"Roman Archaman, how's it going on your side?"
Still staring at the blooming celestial flower, Merlin shouted, "There's not much time left!"
If Alaric could be observed in his normal state, it would have been fine. But after numerous instances of holy judgment and extended interactions with him, Merlin knew that Alaric's true nature could only be glimpsed in this state of full magical activation.
With the help of Chaldea's advanced observation systems, the near-future lens Sheba, the calculation device Trismegistus, and the miniature Earth, Chaldeas, they could record every detail of Alaric's embryonic state.
If circumstances allowed, Merlin would have preferred not to let Chaldea observe and analyze Alaric in his current state. But Alaric's growth was simply too rapid.
Especially now, with the support of magical energy from the earth's ley lines, Merlin couldn't even estimate whether this embryo would undergo other changes. As Merlin spoke, Roman's exasperated reply came through:
["I'm watching, I'm watching!!"]
Roman's fingers danced rapidly across the keyboard, coordinating with other Chaldean staff members to observe and record the data, displaying all the information on the screen before him.
["Magical energy reading—three hundred thousand?? A normal top-tier Noble Phantasm ranges from one to three thousand! What kind of absurd mana chunk did Sir Alaric release? It's like the Lion King's holy judgment!!"]
Based on Chaldea's past adventures, the only thing capable of surpassing the current black light was the holy judgment of Camelot's pure white ruler, the Lion King, whose holy judgment boasted a mana reading of three million, overwhelming all else.
Yet Alaric's strike, bolstered by the Age of Gods environment and unknown factors, now bore a trace of similarity to the Lion King's holy judgment.
In other words, with the support of ley line mana, Alaric had achieved godlike levels of output.
Roman, however, couldn't fathom how Alaric managed to release so much magical energy at once, completely ignoring the limits of his mana output and reserves.
Even with ley line support, the mana should have required conversion through circuits to be released!
Not only were Alaric's magic circuits generating mana at an absurd speed, but the sheer volume they produced was excessively high.
And—
["It's light! Sir Alaric is converting his mana into light, similar to how the Excalibur, upon activation, converts the wielder's mana into light, delivering the Breath of the Stars!
Or perhaps it's closer to how the Lion King uses the holy lance to release the Light of the End from the Tower at the End!
But this light is just the external manifestation—the internal information is overwhelming! What on earth is this guy!?"]
Using the moment of the holy judgment's release, Roman managed to observe a fragment of the pitch-black mana but felt no relief. Instead, he was busier than ever.
Chaldea's computational capacity was more than sufficient to analyze the composition of Alaric's mana. The problem lay in the time available and the astonishingly high volume of information.
The window of opportunity was far too brief. They had only seconds to successfully observe and at least obtain some results!
Roman's efforts were not in vain. In just ten seconds, the fully operational Chaldea, supported by top-tier instruments, successfully uncovered a fragment of Alaric's truth.
Using the observation data from Sheba and the calculation device Trismegistus, Chaldeas provided its conclusion:
[Base sequence confirmed: human genome]
[Spirit origin alignment: Neutral Evil]
[Spirit origin reaction: Confirmed]
[Dragon attribute: Confirmed]
[Anchor of the Stars confirmed: Tower at the End, Rhongomyniad (Full Divinity, Authority Transmutation), Goddess's Protection]
[Soul analysis: Failed, failed, failed, failed]
[Reinitiating analysis: Request sent, Central System [■■■■■] link established, reinitiating analysis: Information download failed]
[Failure reasons: False ■■, ■■ humanity, existence anomaly, pruning ■■]
[Analysis halted. Information confirmed:]
[■■Humanity confirmed]
[■Human■Spirit confirmed]
The words that appeared before Roman's eyes carried an unspoken weight, washing over his heart.
Through Sheba and Trismegistus's observations and calculations, Chaldeas reached its conclusion.
This being, standing atop the heavens, was something never before seen in human history—
[Evil of Humanity / Beast.]