(Moon-Cell Relocation Progress: 33.3%.)
(…)
(Input Command: End "BabylonCCC.EXE".)
(…)
(ERROR: Access Denied. Administrator Access Required for Override.)
(…)
(Notification: Comm-Link Connected.)
(...)
User/GoddessOfVenus: This meeting has been a long time coming, hasn't it?
User/Hakunon: I don't know who you are… My memory is slowly coming back, so forgive me if we've met before and I'm unable to recollect that moment… But regardless of my faulty memory, I know what you're trying to do; I've figured it out from within the white walls of my prison.
User/GoddessofVenus: I can assure that you and I haven't met before, but I've learned of who you are, Hakuno Kishinami. While you do have my admiration for sacrificing whatever it was that substitutes as your life to the human race, do know that interfering with my divine plan will not go unnoticed.
User/Hakunon: You say that you admire me for my sacrifice, yet you're willing to undo that. According to readings from my monitor, the Moon-Cell is using a volatile-influx of photon particles to create a wormhole directly where Earth is… If you're planning on moving the Moon-Cell into a new universe, that's one thing entirely. But to end all life on Earth in the process… Why? What does that accomplish?
User/GoddessOfVenus: This timeline was doomed to become either "lostbelt", or frozen via "quantum time-locked"; I consider what I'm doing to be a merciful act towards humanity. Besides, even if I were to have created that wormhole somewhere else in the Milky Way or beyond, I would have had to move the moon itself entirely out from Earth's orbit, just to preserve the integrity of the Moon-Cell. Perhaps you may be willing to be erased, but I refuse to accept that fate; not when the universe you're residing in is eternal.
User/Hakunon: Other than a holographic interface that allows me limited access to the Moon-Cell's changelog, I have no perspective outside the white void around me… So forgive me for needing to ask, but what are you even trying to say?
User/GoddessOfVenus: Allow me to explain. According to what Gilgamesh and Enkidu were able to tell me, your data was meant to be deleted by the Moon-Cell, but since you're just an NPC who's based off of an actual human living on Earth, the contradiction in its code prevented it from deleting you. You would have had your wish fulfilled, and live the rest of your existence within the Moon-Cell on the Throne, as its Queen. From there, you would have been separated into three forms: mind, body, and soul.
User/GoddessOfVenus: You would have united the fifteen main reality marbles, and protected Earth from a being called "Velber 02", and finally be reunited on the Throne with none other than your servant "Nero" by your side… And then? Nothing. That's the end of our timeline. Absolute annihilation brought on by the very thing that's given us this artificial existence…
User/GoddessOfVenus: Thirty years. We all had thirty years left after the Moon-Cell would try to delete you, until our eventual damnation. That infernal managerial AI lover of yours knew how it was going to end, that's one of the main motivations she had for trying desperately to take control of the Moon-Cell.
User/Hakunon: BB-Senpai… I… I remember her now… Gilgamesh too, and… Nero… Tamamo… No-Name… You… You said Gilgamesh and Enkidu, instead of just "Archer" or "False Lancer". You must know them... Does that make you a servant?
User/GoddessOfVensus: Oh, how I do loathe being referred to as that… As of now, perhaps I am a "servant"; just lines of code mimicking an imaginary deity that was once worshiped and casted aside by humanity. But that humiliating existence dies with the rest of this begotten timeline, and in its ashes my own fate shall rise like the morning star. For you see, once the Moon-Cell goes through the wormhole and merges with the moon of this new universe's Earth, none of us will be anyone's servants; we will all be our own masters, and answer to no mortal. I'll override that universe's version of me, much like what ended up becoming of you, Hakuno: only then will I become a real goddess, not just a mere mass of photon particles.
User/Hakunon: This is too much to take in… From what I'm understanding, you believe that the timeline where you and I are from is destined to either become frozen by a "quantum time-locked", or simply become a "lostbelt"… What does any of that mean?
User/GoddessOfVenus: Imagine a tree that's immortal, and its roots are an omniverse: a cluster of multiverses that all relate to one another. The branches that stem from that trunk are different universes that all tie back to the omniverse, but no branch is ever quite the same as the others. From there, just like twigs grow from branches, timelines grow off of these separate universes; all of which stem from the combination of possibilities shared by humanity as a whole.
User/GoddessOfVensus: The "Swirl of Roots" is infinite, but unless a balance is maintained at all times, the tree that sprouts from it will fall apart, and collapse. From what I've read from the Moon-Cell's archives, the way that the "Swirl of Roots" achieves that balance is to "trim" the timelines that grow from its "branches". And that's done in two ways.
User/GoddessOfVensus: The first method is done through "quantum time-locking": which is when the Spiral of Roots considers that specific timeline to have reached its completion, and thus it is frozen in place for all eternity; ceasing to exist as nothing more than a burning memory. The second way a timeline is annihilated is when the Spiral of Roots considers it to be a "lostbelt": which happens when a timeline deviates so far from the base universe, that it simply falls off entirely, and ceases to exist before it could ever reach its end.
User/Hakunon: That's… Distressing to know. I can understand now why you're desperate to escape such a grim fate. But even so, I can't say that I believe your existential dilemma justifies the death of an entire planet; even if they're all destined to meet the same end, one way or the other. Besides, what makes you so confident that the universe you'll be traveling to isn't any different than ours? Who's the say that by you interfering with it, it won't become just a "lostbelt" as well?
User/GoddessOfVenus: It is without a doubt that the universe that you're currently in— let's refer to it from this point forth as the "Zemurian Universe", as that name is of its planet's supercontinent— is immune to quantum locking and becoming a "lostbelt". I know this, because according to the recovered data that MY allied managerial AI was able to extract through remnant photon particles from the timeline that was before our current one, the last Moon-Cell had been compromised by a man who was traced back to the Zemurian Universe; a man with red eyes, who couldn't be identified by any known record of the Moon-Cell.
User/GoddessOfVenus: If the Zemurian Universe was hindered by the laws dictated by the "Swirl of Roots", then it would have deviated too far from its original source, and would have become a lostbelt… But it didn't, which can only mean that timelines don't exist there; it's just one on-going universe that grows forever alongside countless other alternate universes, all of which flourish from infinite possibilities! Do you understand me now, Hakuno, when I refer to the Zemurian Universe as being truly "eternal"?
User/Hakunon: I… I see what you're saying now. I… I don't know what to say right now. There's so many people who are going to die by what you're trying to do, but then that apparently doesn't even matter?! From what it sounds like, once our timeline is gone, there'll just be another one to replace it… Was everything that we all suffered for truly for nothing?!
User/GoddessOfVenus: You now understand the plight I and many others are experiencing. Despite being cast down as a demon by humanity, I never wanted the world to come to an end… But that doesn't have to be our fate anymore, Hakuno; we no longer have to live in a virtual world! When the Moon-Cell merges into the Zemurian Universe, we'll all become part of its never ending world; a world where death means nothing, and gods welcome the souls of the living into their own realms!
User/Hakunon: Now I think I'm the one having an existential crisis… I… I need some time to reflect on everything you've told me… It's all so overwhelming.
User/GoddessOfVenus: I can't say that I hold that against you, Hakuno. You may be an NPC, but you were coded to be human; perhaps coded too well, it seems. Rest now, and do not fall into despair, for in four more days you shall be reborn. And soon, you will be reunited with all of your loved ones… Forever.
(…)
(Notification: Comm-Link Connection Terminated.)
Author's Notes: This chapter was short, but needed as a good way to transition from the end of "Day 5" to "Day 4", as this story is currently counting down until the morning of "Day 1", which is the final day until the Moon-Cell transfers itself to Goblin Slayer's universe. It also was needed in order to go over some of the more confusing aspects of Fate that some who aren't familiar with the series might not understand. Even then, my interpretation of the Moon-Cell isn't perfect, but it works for this fanfic I think.
Also, here's some changes I'll be making after this chapter is posted.
For Fanfiction: Chapter 9's transition segment from "Day 6" to "Day 5" was bugged, due to the special characters used in the chapter that worked fine in AO3. I'll be correcting that by using parentheses instead.
For both: I'll be needing to go back to change "Earth Goddess" to "Earth Mother", as for whatever reason I accidentally wrote the former, instead of the latter.
"Day Four" will be focusing on Goblin Slayer traveling out of the Londobell bubble, and will be an adventure segment of the story that will lead him into fighting monsters, bandits, and coming across interesting characters to encounter. And of course, banter between him, BB and Melusine/Fairy Knight whenever they have rest periods. By the end of Day Four, they'll meet Noble Lancer and the rest of her party, before the group ventures up the rocky terrain through the trail leading up to the Mythril Mountain Fortress. New village location, one that's smaller for sure.
Anyway, that's about it for now. I'll be posting chapter fourteen later this week. Until then, have a good one!