After forming a formal alliance with Sion, not even the knotty riddles of future strategy pressing on him could make Steve reply right away.
The massive ODG quantum server cluster could simulate trillions of countermeasures every second. Yet at this moment, Steve's own mind sank into an unprecedented silence. His hand unconsciously tightened, and his gaze seemed to pierce to the depths of the cosmos, through the walls and beyond.
It was as if he was processing more accumulated calculations than Atlas Academy had pondered in centuries.
A moment later Steve raised his head, and behind those dark sunglasses, his pupils were less sharp than usual, holding mostly inquiry and grave confirmation.
He asked a question—a little sudden, perhaps out of sync with the mood.
"...Sion, before answering, may I confirm just one thing?"
"Your full name. Please don't omit any part of your title."
Sion's face grew obviously perplexed for the first time.
Though she couldn't trace the logic, she trusted Steve completely, and as any alchemist knows, true names have deep significance...
Without hesitation, she answered clearly: "Sion Eltnham Atlassia."
That was the name.
With that, it was as if the deepest shutter in the world, long locked, suddenly opened, and with a roar, the most profound memories of the world's workings flooded him.
It was not "Sokaris." It was "Atlassia."
To him, that one-word difference marked two entirely different worldlines.
In his own knowledge, "Sokaris" was the surname Sion adopted by inheriting the magic crest and family business from her adoptive father and ancestor, Zepia Eltnam Atlassia—used in a particular worldline where she, as the less-cursed director, never fell to death.
A relatively happier worldline belonging to the FATE series.
But her real name, "Atlassia," mercilessly declared a different reality.
The Sion before him bore the curse of her family, tormented at the edge of destruction—a girl ultimately killed in a back-alley of the IF future by the young Tohno Shiki...
Sion belonged to the Tsukihime world.
In a moment, every previously disconnected clue fit together.
At last, Steve understood.
This was not the FATE world, where "the possibility of humanity" and heroic spirits protected civilization as guardians of history.
This was the Tsukihime world, where Gaia's will dominated, planetary Mysteries surpassed all human civilization, and the "inhuman" Dead Apostles and True Ancestors took the main stage!
From the very foundation, this was a world that denied Human Order's prosperity!
Understanding this, Steve instantly re-evaluated all predicted threats from a new, higher dimension.
"Burning Human Order"—Goetia's plan...
He nearly burst out laughing.
In the Tsukihime timeline, that threat was essentially nullified. Why? Because the chain of causality simply never began!
He reasoned: in Tsukihime, Human Order had suffered long suppression from Gaia and all the inhuman races, and so was extremely weak.
Thus, the "suppressor force"—the human collective unconscious known as Alaya—was cripplingly weak. Alaya could not answer prayers, meddle with history, or power miracles like "summoning Heroic Spirits." The absence of such summoning meant the "Holy Grail War"—the seven-servant sacramental battle—was rootless.
In FGO, the story begins with Marisbury Animusphere winning in Fuyuki, earning the capital and technology to found Chaldea. Without that, Chaldea would not exist. Lainur, descendant of the Flauros family, wouldn't be hired, Mash Kyrielight wouldn't be created, and he would not witness Chaldea's inhumane experiments nor lose hope in humanity.
Without that despair, Lainur would never buy into Goetia's "Burning of the Human Order." According to the FGO short story "Clock Tower 2015," when Lainur has hope in humanity, he would most likely break the family curse via suicide.
If he died, or simply refused, the "Burning of Human Order" could never occur for lacking critical mass approval. Another Pillar—Mozart—had also refused; the ritual was dead from the start.
Remembering this, Steve felt a deep relief, as if the Damocles sword called "Burning Human Order" permanently vanished.
...But the relief lasted less than a second.
Thanks to his "Astonishing Wisdom," he saw danger lurking on the opposite side—more hidden, cunning, chilling.
While the threat of "Burning Human Order" faded... the risk of "Land of Steel" as seen in "Tsuki no Sango" surged.
Tsukihime's world revolved around the loss of Human Order. Sooner or later, the Dead Apostles pick apart what's left of Alaya until it is utterly hollowed—even physical existence persists, mankind would lose all will to continue, to persist, and vanish into oblivion.
A fate more terrifying than obliteration by force—quiet, irresistible, a slow dying born from the very "decay" of civilization.
…