(Sand Island Air Base, Osean Federation - April 2, 2022, 2314 hrs.)

The allied officers were scrambling to figure out the motives of Greyhound's departure from Avalon Dam via a portal, which he, the Grey Men and a portion of the allied strike team used before disappearing. Voychek was being briefed by an officer regarding the situation.

"They disappeared!?" Voychek asked. "You're sure?"

"Yes, sir." An Osean officer answered. "With the Galm Team and Crux being the last to enter, Captain Tonomachi was serious. They said that they are heading in pursuit of the target in another dimension."

"Order the commanders to perform a thorough sweep in all of the suspected areas. I don't want another portal generator running."

"Yes, sir." He saluted before leaving.

Then, an Aurelian officer arrived.

"Sir, word from the mainland has arrived." He told him. "The package is heading here in three days."

"Is there anything in the cargo?"

"It's a recovered portal generator."

"Holy...you're kidding?"

"No, sir."

Voychek has some thoughts on what to do with it.

"Uh...sir?"

"Get the allied nations on the line." He requested. "We may need to enter that dimension to find out."

"On it."

(Tenguu City, Japan - April 3, 2022, 0659 hrs.)

Shido was sleeping soundly in his house in the hours since he and his friends returned from the other dimension. Other than his counterpart and Tonomachi's, he has only one problem left to solve and that is finding Greyhound and Emiya. A knock on the door shortly after his alarm clock rang was heard.

"Shido, are you up?" Tohka asked him.

"Mmmggggghh...Tohka?" Shido asked while getting up. "I'm coming. Be there in a minute."

"Okay. Tonomachi, Chihaya and the other you are downstairs visiting our house."

"Wait, they're...visiting us?"

"They just want to see you."

Shido hesitated slightly before he began to change clothes.

"Anyway, I'll make them breakfast if they asked."

"Okay, I'll tell them."

After Shido changed clothing, he began to head down to the kitchen to prepare the meals. On the way there, he saw Kotori and the pilots having a chat with one another. They then noticed Shido.

"Morning, Shido." Cipher greeted. "I hope you've slept well."

"Oh, hey there." Shido replied. "I was just about to cook breakfast."

"Just some coffee and buttered toast for us." Tonomachi requested. "We're kinda used to fighting without it sometimes."

"I'll have the usual, please." Kotori followed while wearing a pair of black ribbons, a sign of her personality as commander for Ratatoskr.

"Coming up."

As he gets the ingredients, the four seated continued talking.

"About Tonomachi here, why is that his enemies hated him so much?" Kotori asked.

"It's almost always like that." Tonomachi answered. "You do something eye-raising, they will take notice and think of our actions as a blow to them."

"Like what event?"

"Like taking down an aerial fort." Unknown to Kotori, Tonomachi was referring to the aerial fortress Gleipnir that crashed in Santa Elva.

"No way!"

"Ah, Gleipnir." Cipher figured out. "I've read the news reports. The one with the optical camouflage and that 'Shock Cannon.'"

"What is a 'Shock Cannon' anyway? It looks like it's just as powerful as a spacequake."

"To simply say it, it uses shockwaves to level it's enemies."

"Okay. Anything else that is eye-raising?"

"Fenrir. The superfighter we shot down more than a year ago."

"They even exposed the reason why it's developed." Chihaya further explained. "When the report came out for the real reason behind the war, the citizens in Leasath rioted against their leader Diego Navarro. All hell broke loose there."

"All thanks to Tonomachi here."

"But what about you, Cipher? Pixy told me everything about you."

"To put things simply, I'm just feared and liked by everyone. Friends and foes alike."

"They called him "the Demon Lord of the Round Table" due to his actions." Tonomachi elaborated. "Even the best of ace pilots couldn't be able to match his skills."

"WHHAAATTT?!" Kotori shouted in surprise.

"Like what happened in B7R?" Chihaya uttered.

"Yeah, Battle-Axe."

"What's with "Battle Axe" anyway?"

"It's a large-scale dogfight in the Area B7R region of the country called Belka." Cipher explained. "I was called 'the Demon Lord of the Round Table' from that point."

XXXXXXXX

(27 years earlier)

(Area B7R, Belka - May 28, 1995, 1213 hrs.)

The dogfight entered a new phase as the Galm Team were busy tackling a Belkan ace squadron comprised of eight MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors as well a few Belkan fighters which were also there to stop the mercenaries.

"Bandit's in gun range." Cipher said before firing the gun to finish off a Belkan Su-37 Terminator. He turned away to attack the Foxhounds.

"Feeling a bit scared? Afraid?" The Foxhound pilot taunted. "That's just death lurking around."

"No, I'm not." Cipher confidently responded.

"Target the leader."

The squadron then began to attack Cipher but continuously evaded and began to attack the former in retaliation and took down two Foxhounds.

"Another aircraft?" Who shot it down?" One Belkan pilot asked.

"Demon of Ustio." Another answered.

"What the hell happened?" The Foxhound leader uttered in disgust.

"About half the Belkan fighters have been shot down." The Allied AWACS, Eagle Eye, confirmed. "You can win this."

"Feeling scared, huh? Pixy, time to show 'em what we can do."

"Roger, ready to roll." Pixy responded.

The duo began to down the enemy fighters. Many Belkan fighters maneuvered as hard as they can but in the end, they fell before the eyes of the Demon Lord.

"Yeah, Cipher just bagged a bandit!" An Osean pilot named PJ uttered in enthusiasm.

"The demon born of the Round Table..." Another pilot uttered.

XXXXXXXX

"I...I...I..." Kotori tried to get hold of the story.

"But alas, my father disappered from the skies shortly after the war ended...until now."

"The reason why me and Pixy came here is because of what's happening in our world. Thanks to my trusted friends, I now know why they are doing this. It's also a continuation of my actions before the war."

"What do you mean of the actions before the war happened?" Kotori wondered while Cipher began remembering.

"It's because...of Tohka."

Those near him stood silent.

"What do you know about my mother, dad?" Chihaya asked with a slightly demanding attitude.

"It's because...because..."

They were waiting for his answer.

"It's because she was a Spirit as well."

"WHAT?!" Everyone, including Shido, was shocked at the revelation.

"I don't believe it!" Tonomachi tried to understand.

"My mom...she was a Spirit!?"

"But not what you'ld think. She was once a normal girl but some organization took her away from her family, performed experiments on her and became the person she was back then. I rescued her and she was happily living her life now."

The revelation made Tonomachi wonder about their current operation.

"Speaking of which, Shido, Tohka and Origami here might be hiding something they can't simply give out to the superiors."

"Like what? Most of the Spirits here were humans before." Kotori told the pilots.

"You're sure about this?" Chihaya asked.

"Definitely. Nia told everything."

"I kinda understand what they is going through. When we are briefed about human augmentation, Shido reacted with a surprised look. I noticed his reaction and I suspected he may have more information about this. Now that we believe that the Spirits in our world may once be human, everything became clear."

"But what about the spacequakes?"

"That, we are still analyzing." Kotori answered.

"And here's the kicker. He said that to save the Spirits, he has to let her go on a date."

"Pfftt...I know that."

"So do I." Cipher echoed Kotori's answer.

Shido then came with the food.

"Here you go." Shido said while giving out the food. "So...that's the truth?"

"I know it's a bit hard to hear." Tonomachi assured him. "Victoria, Mira...and Emiya...might be human before."

"So you've found out about them?"

"We are not entirely sure just like you but we may be closer to figuring out."

"Thanks, guys." Shido smiled, knowing that things can still be alright.

"Anyway guys, Crux and I have arranged a briefing at 10 o'clock in the morning." Kotori reminded. "Everyone including those in the SDF will be hearing this."

"Okay. We'll be there." Chihaya agreed. "Shido, get something to eat."

Shido nodded and began to sjt with the guests.

(Fraxinus, 15,000 meters above Tenguu City - 0952 hrs.)

They arrived in the airship just as selected Japanese officers were walking calmly to the room where they will hear the briefing. Then, Pixy arrived to meet up.

"Glad you made it, guys." He greeted.

"No problem." Cipher responded. "By the way, we need to talk in private."

"A'ight."

"Excuse us for a little while." The two veterans then left to talk about the latest revelation.

Suddenly, Kaguya and Yuzuru arrived looking for the Galm pilots.

"Excuse me, have you seen the Demon Lord and his associate?" Kaguya asked. "I need to ask him something."

"Confirmation. She is asking if you people have seen them." Yuzuru explained. "The pilot's history has intrigued her."

"Well, they are currently talking in private for a moment so just wait until they've finished." Tonomachi answered.

"By the way, you look similar to Tonomachi in our world."

"Resemblance. What she said was true."

"Hehe...yeah, Shido and the others were wondering as well when they first came to our dimension."

"Hey guys, is everyone here?" Shido asked.

"Affirmative. They have already assembled for the briefing." Yuzuru confirmed.

They entered a room where various officers were waiting. After a few minutes, Cipher and Pixy returned to catch up with the group.

"So it was true, after all." Pixy commented. "The guys who told me stories about you was truthful. And Tohka was a Spirit as well."

"Yeah. A bit hard for Chihaya and Tonomachi to handle it at first."

"When we get back, I'll check out the files for myself and see what you have been doing at that time."

"I may do that."

The duo then began sitting between Captain Tonomachi and Mukuro Hoshimiya, a fellow Spirit.

"I believe you people are the so-called "Knights of the Round Table," am I correct?" Muku asked them.

"Yes, we are." Cipher answered. "Did the other guys told you about us?"

"Yes, I do heard about your actions."

"It's a long story, but we are highly feared and admired by both sides." Pixy explained. "If anything, we are the country of Ustio's last hope."

"I see."

"I'm Cipher, or Shido Itsuka from another dimension." Cipher introduced.

"Larry Foulke, or Solo Wing Pixy." His wingman followed.

"Muku. Mukuro Hoshimiya."

Nearby, Brandon was patiently reading a newspaper when Chihaya came.

"You look a bit surprised." Brandon commented. "Did something bad happened?"

"Not really." Chihaya answered. "But..."

"Too hard to explain, I see."

"Yeah. My dad said that my mom is a Spirit and that he has a record of fighting before the Belkan War happened."

"No way! Your mom is..."

"I know."

Brandon then began to calm down.

"Anyway, Tonomachi told me about Spirits being human before. Should make things different from now on."

"Good. I'm counting on you."

Brandon nodded. Then, Eugene arrived.

"Alright, everyone."

The participants saluted in response.

"Please be seated."

They followed the order.

"Now I know why you are wondering why we are here. To sum things up, I'm Eugene Solano from the Federal Republic of Aurelia and some of the pilots and Spirits here are from the same dimension as mine. You may raise your hand."

Said people raised their hands which made the others, except Shido, Tohka, Origami and a few more, intrigued.

"They even have Spirits?" One Spirit named Natsumi asked. "Wow!"

"Yes, they have." Nia answered. "I saw them myself."

"I wanna talk to them, too."

"You can if you want."

"Now, on to more pressing matters." Eugene began to brief them. "In our dimension, we are suffering a crisis due to the appearance of spacequakes. They are caused by Spirits, supernatural beings; however, we have confirmation that they may once be human before. We also confirmed that a related augmentation project was involved, codenamed 'Trident.' We all need the help we can get if we don't want any of our dimensions to suffer more. One more thing, I'll be called 'Crux' on the radio so pay attention at all times. That is all."

Most of the people were startled at the revelation.

"Calm down, everyone." Cipher suggested. "You might have found out about this earlier in your dimension."

"Oh, right." Mikie responded.

"Good."

"Alright, if there are no questions, you're dismissed."

Everyone saluted as the briefing finished.

(2219 hrs.)

In the balcony of the Spirit Manor, Origami was reading some of the files from their operations in a review when Cipher arrived.

"It's getting late." He said. "You should get some sleep."

"It's okay, sir." Origami responded. "I just need to review a few things."

"Just call me Cipher or Shido for that matter."

"Okay."

Her appearance reminded the pilot of something.

"I not sure about this but you do remind me of the Origami of our dimension back in my days of youth."

"So she does live there as well?"

"Yeah. She was a mercenary just like me, only that I became one when the Belkan War broke out. She was a quiet one. All she would ever want was to move on with her life after her parents died due to an accident and become a cute bride in a wedding with me as the best man. To me, I was helping her cope with the stress."

"I see."

"However...she lost her life protecting us from a stab of a sword."

"WHAT?!" Origami was shocked. "She..."

"I'm sorry if I had to say this. It made a scar on our minds, a painful reminder of that day. But I promised Origami to remember her and visit her grave to plant flowers. How I wished that if she's here, she would see your face."

Origami stood silent for a while to understand the situation. The answer shocked her but decided that it is in the past and she should move on.

"I get it. I hope she's watching us right now."

"I hope she is." Cipher repeated. "Now c'mon, let some rest."

Origami nodded before heading inside.