Fate/Ultimate Antagonist

[38] I Am Your Only Light

"..."

Listening to the silver-haired youth's smiling response, the sturdy old man could only manage a bitter smile. He raised his hand and gently ruffled his son's silver hair.

"Come with me. Since you insist so much, let me tell you about the truth of this cage called Britannia, the whole story..."

[Holding Morgan's hand, you followed Vortigern to the underground where you were born.]

[This place was covered in cobwebs, with dusty candle holders, seemingly untouched for a long time.]

[The old man waved his hand, and a hidden door leading to a deeper place appeared in the underground.]

[Descending along a spiral staircase, you finally arrived at a complex and spacious underground cavern resembling a maze.]

[The rock layers here were densely filled with thick, tree root-like conduits, through which flowed a faint blue glow like fireflies.]

"Is this... the underground leylines?"

Alvin immediately understood where they were. The Clock Tower also had the underground Spiritual Tomb of Albion, and even built the vast mining city of Magisfair within it.

"Yes, this is the underground of Londinium, where a part of the thickest leylines runs through the entire island of Britannia."

Vortigern's voice echoed in the underground cavern.

"However, compared to twenty years ago, the true ether flow of these leylines has been reduced by more than half. Perhaps in a few decades, these leylines will completely wither away."

"...If they wither, what will happen?"

Alvin asked, already anticipating the cruel answer.

"Everything prosperous in Britannia now bathes in the true ether. It is a genuine object of the age of gods."

"The decline of the age of gods is like the arrival of eternal night. True ether, for us is like the sunlight. If ether diminishes, the land will become barren, crops will wither, magical beasts will go extinct... Most people will starve to death, famine will spread, and people will be forced into cannibalism..."

The old man spoke softly.

"This island will become a literal hell on earth."

Alvin frowned. He had experienced such a cruel famine era in his previous reality and knew how brutal it could be.

"So, Father, is this why you want the age of gods to return?"

"Yes, this is the only way to save Britannia."

"...If that's the case."

Alvin asked the question that had been bothering him for a long time.

"Why don't you make this information public? Instead, you bear it alone. If people understand the truth, no one would want to die. The whole Britannia would work together, and you wouldn't have to endure being blamed. Why subject yourself to public condemnation?"

"It's not that I don't want to say, but I can't say, Alvin."

The old man spoke each word calmly.

"The Celts are remnants of the age of gods. If they were to learn the truth of the age of gods's decline and it triggered a collective panic, it would further accelerate the decline of the age of gods."

"Such a thing exists..."

The witch was astonished. She knew that the decline of the age of gods was inevitable, a rule of the planet's rotation, but she had no idea of such secrets.