The Seven Last Bosses

Are you here to ride a sandship? Please enter the following settings.

No. of Passengers: 4 Autopilot: On

Ship Rank: A Course: Free

Okay, you're all set. Please use E-VI at dock number four.

In accordance with Moon Dubai law, this service is provided free of charge and with zero liability.

If the ship is damaged, please bring it to a repair dock. If you wish to take it home, please follow the onboard guide's instructions.

Enjoy your voyage, and on behalf of first-generation AIs everywhere, thank you for sailing with us.

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It sure is. This swaying isn't too different from being out at sea. This sand must be remarkably fine-grained.

Our guide also said this ship will automatically put up an electromagnetic barrier around itself in an emergency.

Apparently, it's there in case we collide with any large rock drilling equipment...but I have no idea what they were talking about.

How come you're not steering the ship?

You seemed very confino, excited, when the idea of steering a ship came up before.

I'm letting the autopilot steer it for now, at least until we need to divert from its preprogrammed course.

Once we know where we're going next, I'll switch it back to manual control.

On a different note, I can't believe they just let us use this ship as long as we want, for free.

I was ready to hijack it like back in the day, too. What a letdown.

Right. I was under the impression that all of Moon Dubai considers Chaldea its enemy...

...so I assumed there would also be restrictions on the use of public facilities.

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Apologies for the interruption. We have an election broadcast from the Burj Khalifa.

Everyone on Moon Dubai is obligated to view this broadcast, regardless of citizenship status.

Please direct your attention to the monitor.

Huh?

Hello, people of Moon Dubai. It's BB Dubai, your eternal lord and leader.

Is everyone out there thinking up rational and innovative ways to eradicate humanity? Great♡

At long last, the Final Boss of Humanity's Annihilation Showdownthe election to determine who will wipe out humankind once and for all, is underway.

Remember, here on Moon Dubai, you aren't done just because you've cast your vote!

If you decide you prefer another candidate's position after you cast it, you can switch it to them whenever you like.

The important thing here is the eradication of humanity. So struggle with your choice! Leave plenty of regrets behind!

Now, let's take a look at where the polls stand.

I'm sure there are some rats out there secretly watching this, so I'll present these numbers old-school style.

Oh? As I thought, Area E has a commanding lead. I guess you all really like your boring, bog-standard extinctions.

Well, that's okay. This is your choice to make. It's only natural your opinions would differ from mine☆

There are seven Moon Cancers in the running, each with their own plan to eradicate humankind.

This project has been in the works since A.D. 3000. The candidates may have only been finalized five days ago...

...but they've known about the project since well before then, so it's no shock to see one really explode out of the gate!

Now, this next part is important, so to recap: once a candidate's approval rating reaches seventy percent...

...they will be declared the victor and the election will be over.

Right now, the candidate taking the lead is Area E's Moon Cancer...Tamamo Vitch Koyanskaya.

If things keep going as they have, it won't be much longer before her twisted ideology becomes reality... Fujimaru♡

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I heard it, too!

Apparently, Koyanskaya is one of the final boss candidates, and a Moon Cancer!

Does this mean she didn't learn her lesson after all? Okay, maybe not a huge shock.

I mean, she used to be a Beast. She must have countless ideas and reasons for wiping out huma

...

Erm, sorry. I should have thought before I spoke.

It's been one crazy thing after another since morning, so my mind's having trouble keeping up.

Even now that things have calmed down, I still have no idea where we should go next.

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You need BB? Then we should go to the Burj Khalifa.

She's in there, right? In the tall tower?

Oh, right. You were asleep back then, so I guess you wouldn't know this.

There are actually two BBs right now: Chaldea's BB and Moon Dubai's BB.

At first, we thought BB Dubai was our BB, that she'd just changed her name for this occasion...

...but it looks like she was actually a completely separate BB.

Huh. So where's Chaldea's BB now?

BB Dubai took her out like it was nothing. She didn't seem to know more about BB Dubai than we did, either.

Hmm... I know we'll need to do something about this Final Boss of Humanity's Annihilation Showdown...

...but I think we also need to figure out who BB Dubai is and where she came from.

Despite everything that's happened, our ultimate goal is still to get back to Chaldea.

And it seems like BB Dubai's the only one who knowsor at least, might know, how to do that.

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BB Dubai was clearly stronger than our BB.

And there was that woman with her... She seemed like a Master herself.

I think we might have to look into who she is, as well.

Attention passengers. The ship is under attack.

I have detected four Alvatron Company lunar surface exploration air bikes and two highly mobile crater leveling machines.

They are using high-level Moon Cancer authorization codes to request that we stop the ship.

As your safety is my top priority, I am currently refusing their requests. How would you like me to proceed?

Based on the Alvatron Company's previous desert activities and their current equipment...

...I cannot be certain that you will survive if we comply with their request.

Our vessel is faster than theirs, but I'm afraid we can't lose them out here in the dome's eastern desert.

It would be a different story if we were out in the dome's western desert amongst those old buildings, but we aren't. I'm very sorry.

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So fighting's our only choice. Works for me. Now you'll all get to see what I can do.

Sorry, Guide, but I'm switching the controls over to manual. Then I'm going to wait for a chance to turn us around and ram them.

Master, Mash, I'd like you to stay on the deck and make the mechanized soldiers sorry they messed with us.

Ereshkigal, do you think you can help us fight now?

...

Guess not. Damn. I take it there's something you're not happy with?

Yes. Exactly. I'm in the same boat as all of you. I can't do anything until I understand this world clearly.

I need to figure out which way is evil for me.

...You know, I've been thinking this for a while now, but...

...you're really soft on me, aren't you? Well, fine. In that case, go ahead.

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I'm going to focus on steering the ship, so you two will have to handle the fighting yourselves! Be careful!

That was four mechanized soldiers and two large mobile weapons, right? This won't be an easy battle, but I'm sure we can win!

Master, please try to summon Servants capable of covering wide areas with their attacks!

That was close, wasn't it?

You should really be more careful about fighting battles when you're so obviously outmatched.

S-S-Senpai, is that... Is that

I knew iiit!

...This is a bit, isn't it?

Awww, you're no fun, Senpai.

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Okay, no more surprises! Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone!

That all-powerful, undeniably wicked BB Dubai AI might have shot me into space...

...but thanks to my incomparable cuteness and cherubic innocence, I managed to slip into my space suit and rescue myself!

Now I'm back as BB Cosmo and ready to deal with anything on the moon!

Phew, I'm seriously bushed. Would you mind if I caught my breath? Not so much air in space, you know?

Oh, let me use this terminal too, please. I need all the info I can get on this Moon Dubai place.

I'm very sorry, but network access is not permitted during the election.

At present, the only permissible network activity is communications between Moon Dubai civilians.

However, access to the data on this ship remains unrestricted, so you are free to browse that all you like.

Huh? Election? What election?

Oh, right. You wouldn't know yet.

I think we'd better tell you what happened after you were shot into space.

I see. The Final Boss of Humanity's Annihilation Showdown, huh. What a dumb name. Who came up with something so stupid?

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I see. As I was saying, it's a great name! It really tells you everything you need to know! Anyway, moving on!

It's okay, BB. We know you and BB Dubai are separate Servants.

Oh. I see. Well, I guess it's good to have that cleared up.

But man, I was kind of hoping to draw out the suspense a little longer, since this kind of thing doesn't happen every day.

That's more than enough messing with Fujimaru just to see how he reacts, BB.

We're in real trouble here. Not the time for jokes. Can you start taking this seriously?

Oh? I see you're okay too, Bartholomew. But, what are you still doing here?

If I was BB Dubai, I would have sent every last Servant packing. Well, maybe not Mash, since she's half human.

I can't figure why I would spare you though. Seems like a waste.

A waste? What do you mean by that?

BB Dubai said there are no more humans left on Earth now that it's 3019, right?

AI never lies to humans, so we can take her at her word about that.

Well, they do sometimes hallucinate wrong answers by mistake, but no need to dwell on that now.

If there aren't any humans on Earth, then it must cost way more resources to keep Servants summoned than it did back at Chaldea.

So the only way to keep them around...

...was for BB Dubai to sneakily access and sync up with the Singularity I made that was identical to Dubai in 2030...

...and then supply her own magical energy.

It's a lot like how Chaldea converts electricity to magical energy.

BB Dubai was paying the magical energy cost required to keep all of your Servants manifested...

...so that you would keep raising the Joy Counter.

If all of your Servants are enjoying themselves, there's no reason to feel guilty about being the only one having fun, right?

But once that was over, there was no reason to keep the Servants around.

So I bet she didn't banish all the Servants herself.

She just cut off the magical energy needed to keep them around, which made them return to Chaldea automatically.

I see. So that's how she pulled that off.

From BB Dubai's perspective, keeping all us Servants around was hard work and she finally got to shrug off that extra load.

So that's why you said leaving Bartholomew and Ereshkigal around would be wasteful.

I still don't understand her logic in keeping Bartholomew around...

...but I can understand why Ereshkigal didn't go away.

BB Dubai did banish the Ereshkigal from human history...

...but anything besides that wouldn't have been included in her summoning ritual.

You're not Ereshkigal the Divine Spirit. The fact that your class is Beast now is proof of that.

You're not from Chaldea or Moon Dubai. You're from another universe entirely, aren't you?

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I'm sorry, you're right. It's no problem at all. Just forget I said anything about that.

...You're wrong about one thing. You said Ereshkigal from human history was banished.

Well, I wasn't. I'm right here. I'm not asleep. I'm still the Ereshkigal from Proper Human History.

BB Dubai's automatic banishment didn't affect me because I used Independent Manifestation when our trip to Dubai began.

You mean, around the time you transformed into a Beast?

That's right. And it's all thanks to you and Fujimaru that the other Servants didn't kill me when that happened.

I promise I'll find a way to repay that debtno, that favor, in a way befitting a Beast.

Anyway, there are two more things I'd like to confirm with you, BB Cosmo.

No problem. Let me guess, you want to know how you can all get back to Chaldea, and what the citizens of Moon Dubai really are, right?

Well, the way back to Chaldea differs for each of you.

For Mash and Fujimaru, you won't be able to return there until you defeat BB Dubai

Or rather, until you stabilize this world's Foundation of Humanity value.

For Bartholomew, you'll return to the Throne of Heroes automatically if your Spirit Origin disappears...

...but as long as your Spirit Core is intact, the Spirit Origin graph should let you return to Chaldea, too.

Well, that's not a great way to go. Isn't there a more peaceful method I could use?

Hmm. It's not very dramatic, but...

...you should be able to go back to Chaldea at the same time your Master, Fujimaru, does☆

Perfect, that works for me. Sounds much better than having my head cut off and tossed into the sea.

And as for you, Ereshkigal...

You can never go back to your original world. Your only choice is to keep living here or to vanish.

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Servants neither grow nor change. Their magical energy output might improve, but they can never be more or less than what they are at heart.

But now, in this world, Ereshkigal there has become something different.

Which means, if you think of her passage here from Chaldea as a keyhole, it just won't fit her current Spirit Origin any longer.

That goes for whatever it was that changed her into a Beast, too, so returning to that whatever's original universe isn't an option, either.

As you are now, Ereshkigal, you're a new Divine Spiritborn in this world, able to exist only here as well.

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Hey, it's not just me. Right now, you're in the exact same boat, literally.

As for your second question regarding the true identity of Moon Dubai's citizens...

Going from the information I got from looking at BB Dubai, the way Moon Dubai is structured...

...and the information I just got from this ship's guide, my conclusion is this:

Every person in this city is an AI. In this timeline, all of humankind has transitioned from carbon-based life-forms to beings of pure intelligence.

That is the face of this world's new humankinda humankind that, as of 3019, has effectively achieved immortality and everlasting world peace.

Nobody in this world has any connection to the old humankind. Not even this ship's guide.

No connection? Then, you mean historyall of civilization, has basically ended?

Yes. I'm so sorry, Mr. Roberts.

Your navigational skills are magnificent, and yet, I don't have a single record of you or your life.

I see. Then there's only one thing left to do.

Ereshkigal...?

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Do not speak my name so casually. I have allowed it thus far but have reached the end of my tolerance.

For that matter, my name is not Ereshkigal.

I am the prison of darkness that will swallow the heavens and the earth alike. I am Anki Ereshkigal, the underworld nebula!

What I am trying to say is...

If this is truly humanity's final resting place, then I will fulfill my duty as a Beast!

I am the only one fit to eradicate humanity! Which is why I'm going to enter the Final Boss of Humanity's Annihilation Showdown myself!

If this is truly humanity's final resting place, then I will fulfill my duty as a Beast!

I am the only one fit to eradicate humanity! Which is why I'm going to enter the Final Boss of Humanity's Annihilation Showdown myself!

I told you; it's my duty.

You'll understand once you see what kind of future this Moon Dubai holds for humankind.

Huh? But I didn't even attack you yet... What is this?

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Ghh, I can't steer the ship! Everyone, hang on to something!

There's something in the sand! It's trailing a massive shock wave in its wake. It must be a whale!

It's an obscenely massive rock drill! Everyone, run for it! Before it swallows this ship whole!

I would if I could, but I can't! This sand's like a giant whirlpool!

Guide, does this ship have any lifeboats!? No, wait. Those would just get sucked in even faster!

What about a lifeplane!? No? Figures. I wouldn't keep something like that on my ship, either!

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The ship has stabilized! I think it's

I stabilized the ship for you. Also, to be clear, I didn't summon that thing.

The last thing I need is a rumor going around that the embodiment of the underworld sicced a sand bug on someone.

I don't care what happens to you, of course, but letting you die here would be a bad look for me.

So just this once, I'll help you out. After this is over, we'll officially be enemies.

Now, show me what you're made of, Fujimaru!

Show me what you can do against this foe, and I will decide whether you are worthy.

Show me that you can rival me, Anki Ereshkigal, the Beast of Null and the Evil of Humanity Amassing!

We've dealt with the enemy weapon... But...

Hmph. Not bad. For a human.

As a show of respect for a well-fought battle, I will let you go this once. Try to survive as long as you can.

I doubt we'll ever meet again, but...see you.

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Master, I'm sorry to bother you while you're grieving, but I'm afraid this can't wait.

The ship's engine was damaged during that battle. We're using auxiliary power to get around for now, but that won't last long.

It is true. This ship's power will be depleted in twenty minutes. My sincerest apologies for the inconvenience.

May I ask which harbor you would prefer to dock at, before time runs out?

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If you're looking for a noncombat zone, what about Area C?

That area's Moon Cancer has yet to present a campaign slogan.

So, they haven't yet decided how they want to eradicate humanity? Is that because they don't care?

Do you know this Moon Cancer's name?

Candidate Name: Jinako Carigiri. She's a Chaldean Servant, just like Mr. Roberts.

Oh!

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Thank you for confirming. Setting a course for Area C, Old Dubai.

...Unfortunately, I'm afraid there's another problem.

I know. It's me, isn't it? You won't be able to dock the ship if I'm with you, right?

Correct. Moon Dubai regulations state that the only BB permitted to enter the city is BB Dubai.

This desert is outside city limits, so we haven't violated the regulation yet, but if we get too close...

Don't worry about me. It makes sense for BB Dubaino, Moon Dubai, to limit this city to one BB.

I may not have any admin privileges in Moon Dubai, but I'm still an advanced AI that was created on the moon.

My affinity for a lunar city is just too strong. It would throw things out of whack if there were two city management AIs running around.

I'm glad you understand. Thank you for your cooperation.

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Yes. It sucks that I can't go in the city, but this also means BB Dubai won't know I'm here, so it's a net positive.

In the meantime, I'll investigate the old ruins out in the desert!

I may not be able to acquire any information in the city, but I might still be able to find something useful out here!

When you're done investigating Old Dubai, come meet me back at this ship...

...and we can share what we've each learned.

Then it's settled. Be careful while you're on your own.

Thanks. Same to all of you.

...For the record, none of this was my plan.

MY plan was to invite you all to an imitation of Dubai in the year 2030.

But BB Dubai hijacked the plan and sent you all here, to Moon Dubai in the year 3019 instead.

This city isn't a Singularity or a Lostbelt. I suspect it's a parallel world.

One thing's for sure: Moon Dubai is definitely one of the potential paths humanity could take in the future.

So for the time being, Fujimaru, your job is to solve several mysteries.

How did humanity end up going down this timeline? Who are the seven Moon Cancers?

And who, or what, is BB Dubai?

You'll definitely have your work cut out for you, but I'm sure you can do it.

I know you'll see this through with all your usual determination, that you won't give up, lose heart, or get embarrassed!

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Oh, before you go, I have one last tip for my admirable, shamelessly impudent senpai♡

If you're going to Old Dubai, you might be able to meet up with Passionlip.

Yes, yes, I know. She was erased while she was protecting Mash, right?

But the thing is, there's still a statue of her somewhere in Old Dubai.

It's one of three I had placed in 2030 Dubai.

I made one of Kingprotea in the office area and one of Passionlip in Old Dubai.

Originally, I'd put them there to serve as bosses from the Sakura Five to make your trip more interesting...

...but I'd bet they moved to Moon Dubai when BB Dubai synced it with 2030.

Of course, the Lip who spent this summer with you was the one you knew at Chaldea.

It's something of a chicken and egg paradox, but there should still be a statue of her here on Moon Dubai.

Once you find it, try forming a contract with her again. If nothing else, she'll be a powerful asset.

That's just what you make on the moon. Beautiful things deserve to be preserved in three dimensions, right?

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We'll be docking at Old Dubai soon.

It should take about twelve minutes to repair the ship. Those of you who wish to continue this cruise are free to remain aboard.

Okay everyone, good luck with the start of your Old Dubai arc!