Following the route Taigong Wang proposed, Shiomi and the others parted ways with the two of them and headed farther north on their own, searching for a way deeper into the interior.
Before that, though, they needed to test the Mystic Code Taigong Wang had given them.
When they reached the canyon area Taigong Wang had mentioned, Shiomi activated it as instructed before they split up. It started up smoothly, projecting the figures of Taigong Wang and Nikitich.
"So it really is similar to Chaldea's communication system," Artoria said, surprised.
"Technology is just another way of making miracles happen, one that isn't Magecraft," Shiomi replied. "As human technology advances, the scope of Magecraft only gets narrower. Even after the Age of Gods receded and the Fifth Imaginary Element was proven to exist, it didn't change the fact that Mystery is still in decline."
"Tenkei-dono is right." Taigong Wang agreed. "Originally, the retreat of the Age of Gods was meant to be the inevitable trend across the world. Divine Spirits, Phantasmal Species, even Phantasmal Lifeforms would gradually withdraw, returning to the Inner Sea of the Planet or departing for the Outer Realm. The planet's physical laws would stabilize, becoming better suited to primate humanity. That was the correct path."
"The correct… path?" Shiomi echoed, genuinely caught off guard.
"As I said before, Yahweh allowed Goetia's idea and guided him toward a creation called the Incineration of Humanity."
It was clear Taigong Wang was using Shiomi's question as a springboard to explain further.
"Although other deities rejected that creation. In a world governed entirely by divine order, even the freedom to breathe would belong to the gods. That is why Goddess Nüwa used fragments of Lucifer as the foundation to shape you," Taigong Wang said. "Or rather, she shaped an embodiment of 'denying the divine order.'"
"You've already said that part," Morgan reminded him.
"What I mean is this: the Incineration of Humanity is not simply destruction of humanity and the world. It is, in a broader sense, a form of salvation." Taigong Wang continued without haste. "To Yahweh, humans clinging to a particular time and place have no meaning. To erase everything and recreate the world from the beginning, placing it beneath divine order, is the more complete salvation."
Gods and humans held entirely different values.
What was an obvious act of salvation to a god was, to the people living in that world, utter annihilation.
To be burned away without even realizing it, reduced to the heat of a band of light, might be what they called mercy.
Even if human history continued afterward, it would become something like the Ship of Theseus.
Would a recreated human history still count as true human history?
The very fact that this question existed was proof enough of what the battle at the Temple of Time had meant.
"Salvation…" Shiomi lowered his gaze. "We already know the Bleached Earth is a world about a hundred years after 2017. Does that mean that even if nothing had happened, human history would still end a century later?"
"That possibility exists, which is why we must prevent that destruction," Taigong Wang said. "What Goddess Nüwa hopes for is that the existing world continues normally. In the future, humanity may fade away naturally, or continue evolving, and one day leave this planet's cradle to set out on a vast journey toward the sea of stars."
Scáthach understood the motive at once and found herself agreeing. "That Earth Mother Goddess is unexpectedly gentle."
"If she weren't, how could she have refined the Five-Colored Stone to mend the heavens and save humanity on the earth?" Taigong Wang replied. "But this crisis known as Bleaching has also given other restless beings their chance. The Beast Koyanskaya, who rules this domain, is trying to use Bleaching to accomplish her own goal."
Then he told them to pay close attention to the canyon ahead.
After Shiomi and the others passed through the forest and prepared to cross the mountain route before them, they found a canyon nearby that they would need to detour around.
"Observe the anomalous dependents within the canyon carefully, and tell me what you see," Taigong Wang said.
Following his instruction, Shiomi and the others did not climb the mountains right away. Instead, they approached the cliff edge, where they could look down into the canyon at the anomalous dependents below.
What would normally require binoculars or getting much closer was now perfectly clear, simply by reinforcing their vision with mana.
"All of them… I've never seen creatures like these before…" Morgan murmured in astonishment.
They carried no trace of Phantasmal Species, yet they were not native lifeforms of this planet either.
Some had bodies like sheep, but their limbs, especially their feet, resembled those of birds.
Others looked like dogs, yet bore squirrel tails, rabbit ears, and the same avian feet.
"They aren't sustained by Mystery. These are entirely new lifeforms, truly rooted in the land itself," Shiomi said quietly, grasping their nature. "The entire canyon is filled with them. They outnumber the anomalous dependents. What exactly are they?"
"Let me give you the conclusion first," Taigong Wang replied. "They are not native to this domain. Yet they are the most numerous lifeforms here. No other creatures attack them. Within this region, they sit at the top of the food chain."
"They gather in large groups, three to five hundred at a time, forming distinct clusters. And yet we haven't seen a single one feeding," Scáthach said thoughtfully. "So how do they sustain themselves?"
"This is merely their settlement. Hunting takes place primarily in the forests and along the rivers. There are individuals specifically responsible for that function," Taigong Wang explained calmly.
"Functions?" Shiomi and the others were visibly surprised.
"Yes. They have families. They have formed villages. Each individual fulfills a role, contributing to the community, with the exception of the child-sized ones. They are social creatures, forming society after society."
Shiomi narrowed his eyes. "But they aren't evolved humans adapted to this environment."
"More than that." Though Taigong Wang still wore a faint smile, his tone turned unexpectedly grave. "Aside from the anomalous dependents, every form of life here, whether beast, bird, fish, or even the plants and trees before your eyes, none of them exist or have ever existed in Proper Human History."
"I have a question, Taigong Wang-dono," Shiomi said suddenly.
"Please, ask," Taigong Wang replied, indicating he would answer without reservation.
"Over tens of thousands of years, humanity rose to become the planet's most prosperous species, establishing the era of primates." Shiomi stood and gazed down at the lifeforms within the canyon. "If one day all humans vanished from the planet, and everything else remained unchanged, what would happen to the planet?"
Taigong Wang answered without hesitation.
"If that day were to come, then among the remaining life on the planet, a new species would rise to replace humanity. It would become the one to determine the planet's future, the one to inscribe its mark upon the world."