Avicebron
I would like to know that as well. Are you originally a Servant from this Lostbelt?
I believe the Crypter...that boy, Kadoc, called this place a Lostbelt.
Salieri
So you know of that name. ...First, let me answer your question with one of my own.
Tell me, humans of Chaldea: What do you know about the Lostbelts?
Mash
Well, uh... Only that they're abnormal zones that somewhat resemble Singularities...
Holmes
If you don't mind, Ms. Kyrielight, I'll field that one. First, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Salieri.
I'm Sherlock Holmes, Chaldea's administrative advisor. I became a Servant through unusual means, just like you.
We have been investigating this peculiar version of Russia, where history is so unlike our own.
I have a number of hypotheses, but had been unable to find a critical element to tie everything together...
...until you first mentioned that word.
Lostbelt. A chronological table detailing an alternate path taken by human history. An unbroken strip that continues onward to the present day, rather than occupying a single point in time.
...No wonder it isn't like a Singularity. A Singularity is one point in time where history as it should be went awry, after all.
That is not the case here in Russia. In this world, everything is as it should be. Nothing has gone awry.
It has history quite separate from our own Proper Human History, even though it is not a world gone completely mad like the Singularities.
No doubt the branching point was the Great Cold Wave that struck four hundred and fifty years ago, when Earth was thrown into a new ice age.
And Russia as we see it now is the product of history moving forward from that point.
Mash
So...you're saying this is an ongoing deviation from human history? Is that anything like a parallel world?
Da Vinci
Nope, it's not that. These Lostbelts are something altogether different.
If we assume that parallel worlds exist, then their civilization and lifestyle should also be fundamentally the same.
By definition, they're closely tied to a well-defined base world. In other words, the base world and its parallel worlds are all following the same course.
But let's say there is a world where history diverges radically, going completely off the rails.
Say, at one point, something changes irrevocably...it could be a huge natural disaster, or a major technological breakthrough...
...and the world that's gone off the rails is effectively erased from this universe, deemed to be something that doesn't belong.
Once that happens, its destruction is all but assured. No matter how developed it might be, its evolution just ends.
For better or worse, this universe just isn't willing to tolerate worlds whose future prospects are plain to see.
You know how you prune unnecessary branches when you're trying to grow a tree? Same thing here.
If a world, even a utopia, strays too far from its base axis, it gets the clippers, so to speak.
In the magecraft world, it's called the Pruning Theoretical Phenomenon...
...and it's what allows our universe to keep expanding unimpeded. That's the Mage's Association stance, anyway.
Mash
The Pruning Theoretical Phenomenon... Then, Russia didn't end up as a frozen wasteland because of a plot, like what happened with the King of Mages...
Holmes
Correct. Its climate has always been like this, and it is in fact that very climate that led to the changes in human history.
This is a world where history continued on past the hundred year marker, long after it would ordinarily have been pruned away.
In essence, this history lost to Proper Human History. But now it has appeared in our own world.
Right. It looks like strong alternative histories, or Lostbelts, which we know almost nothing about...
...are being wielded as weapons to invade and destroy Proper Human History.
The Incineration of Humanity was an attack on human history orchestrated by Goetia, a singular entity.
But now, these Lostbelts are attacking the very world itself.
...If I were to give this a name, I think I might call it the Felling Theoretical Phenomenon. Hmm. Yeah, I think I like the sound of that. Let's go with it.
Choices
- ...Lostbelts...
- History that lost to other history...
Meunière
Are you serious...? Then what, you're telling us this Russia is going to become the de facto way of life for the entire planet!?
Holmes
If it continues on this path, yes. But of course, we won't let it come to that.
Holmes
Now then! That went on quite a bit longer than I had anticipated, but that is our current theory.
Tell me, Mr. Salieri, are we more or less on the mark?
Salieri
...Yes, you're spot-on. I'm impressed you managed to arrive at that conclusion without being from a Lostbelt yourselves.
There is nothing more I can tell you beyond what you've figured out. Now that you have the facts, what you do with them is up to you.