"The first two had screw manipulation and metal transformation. The first explosion was from a launched screw. The last one's ability must be telekinesis—the power to remotely manipulate and deform all matter. That's Jean Grey's Omega-level mutant ability from X-Men... which means this red rider is probably the strongest of their seven."
"That was filmed in Britain three days ago. Our drone happened to be conducting reconnaissance on-site, so we captured this interesting footage. Pretty cool, right? X-Men fighting to the death. The next clip is from beneath the Laptev Sea. Watch closely."
The second video was labeled: Russia.
Opening the video, there was nothing but water—endless, pitch-black current. Anyone with claustrophobia would already be sweating.
The footage wasn't very high resolution, probably due to underwater conditions. Only faint silhouettes were visible in the lightless deep. A massive nuclear submarine glided through the black depths like a great whale.
The Typhoon-class strategic nuclear submarine is the largest submarine in the world. After the Soviet Union's collapse, Russia retained only one: the Dmitry Donskoy.
The Dmitry Donskoy had enormous reserve buoyancy, a light hull, and excellent ice-breaching capability, enabling it to navigate through ice up to 2.5 meters thick. It could cruise beneath the Arctic Ocean, practically immune to enemy subs and aircraft.
Commissioned into the Soviet Navy in 1982, it measured 172.8 meters long, with a maximum beam of 23.3 meters, a draft of 11 meters, an underwater displacement of 48,000 tons, a top speed of 25 knots (43 km/h), and a crew of 163–170.
"So this was filmed by a drone sub attached to the nuclear submarine? Otherwise how would you have such classified footage?"
"To create more living space for the crew, Russia renovated the Dmitry Donskoy. Since it was the world's largest nuclear sub at the time, we were involved in the renovation. Leaving a back door is just how we operate, so... don't worry about it, keep watching."
In the video, the submarine suddenly lurched violently to starboard. Even through the screen, Warren could feel an enormous shockwave.
It was as if a Wolverine had torn through the special-steel hatch from inside the sub—destruction that was simply unstoppable.
The Dmitry Donskoy's design was unique: a double-hulled construction made of high-strength special steel, shaped like a flattened sphere along the vertical axis. This greatly increased displacement but also dramatically improved survivability, reducing the risk of explosion and fire. No other country in the world had adopted this design.
Yet the evidence was right before his eyes. Special steel that represented the world's cutting edge was being torn apart like paper from the inside. Was this even human strength?
The next footage was even more staggering. Two forward compartments of the submarine exploded—like underwater fireworks, rapidly expanding then shrinking in a flash—before the feed went black.
"The submarine's location is a major military secret, but internal bulletins attributed it to a mechanical failure in the engine room, causing an unavoidable explosion that damaged the sub."
"Of course, from our data, that explosion was far more significant than any engine room malfunction. If you want an analogy an Easterner would understand—it was like Godzilla rolling over inside a nuclear sub and then hosing down those two exploding compartments with a nuclear blast."
Warren's expression grew increasingly grave. "So you're saying... this was also the work of Holy Grail War ability users?"
"Exactly. The crew on that sub passed rigorous training and polygraph screenings. Weapons were stored separately. At that depth, the only explanation for that level of destruction is that they were ability users—or rather, they'd been granted abilities, just like you."
"And you noticed in the first video—when their bodies were destroyed, they dissolved into data and vanished. That's already beyond the scope of our civilization's technology. If the footage is real, then there's only one conclusion: this wasn't done by humans, but..."
"You're saying some kind of advanced civilization is using the Holy Grail War format to grant abilities to people in a specific area, then having them fight to the death to select the fighters they need?"
"Not necessarily fighters. They could be executors for certain missions. The only things we need to know now are: who are they, what do they want, and why do they possess such advanced civilization yet haven't wiped us out? You know that in wars between civilizations, the strong absolutely exploit and prey on the weak."
"True. If they can grant these kinds of abilities, destroying Earth would be trivial for them..."
"So I don't think they intend to destroy us. As you can see, both Holy Grail War zones were enclosed in some kind of data barrier—organisms inside are just data, while their real bodies are stored in another dimension. They need to keep your body healthy to test whether you possess a certain trait... a trait they desire."
"Listening to you, they sound like such a benevolent advanced civilization... come on, let's watch the third video."
The third video was labeled: Japan.
Aokigahara Forest—properly known as the Aokigahara Jukai—is located at the base of Mount Fuji, a scenic natural woodland. Its dense, dark canopy blots out the sun, earning it the name "Sea of Trees." Its convenient access and high degree of concealment have made it a sanctuary for suicides, known as the "Suicide Forest." Japanese authorities discover up to a hundred bodies there each year. But Aokigahara's real notoriety comes not from its beauty, but from the Japanese tendency to end their lives there—hence "Suicide Forest."
The forest is impossibly dense, blotting out the sun, and the sun can't be used for navigation. At altitudes above 1,500 meters, the air thins. When your surroundings are nothing but trees and the landscape lacks variation, it's desperately easy to lose your sense of direction with no way out.
Statistics show that Japanese authorities find and remove over a hundred bodies from Aokigahara each year. The government has erected numerous signs along hiking trails urging people not to take their lives, and police patrol the forest to stop anyone who might be suicidal.
Legend has it that the forest is so cursed because, before World War II, nearby residents lived in such poverty that they often abandoned newborns and the elderly in Aokigahara. These unfortunates starved to death among the trees, and their accumulated resentment over the years made the place profoundly malevolent.
Since 1971, an annual Aokigahara search has been conducted. Every year, around October 20—before the snows fall on Mount Fuji's slopes—hundreds of police officers and firefighters sweep the forest for the remains of suicides.
The trend is said to have started after Seicho Matsumoto's novel Black Sea of Trees was published, in which two characters kill themselves in the forest. As if to prove how easily swayed they were, hundreds of Japanese people hanged themselves in the boundless sea of trees. The forest was so thick that even at midday, patches lay in near-total darkness.
In subsequent years, the numbers climbed sharply—57 bodies in 1994, nearly 80 by the end of the 20th century, a record. Finding remains in such dense forest was agonizingly hard. Worse still, compasses didn't work here.
And in this particular video, the opening shot shows a girl in a kimono running through the Sea of Trees, with two long-haired men in pursuit.
The girl's wooden sandals didn't allow her to run very fast, but the dense tree cover helped her maintain a small lead.
The men sneered as they closed in—the prey was only steps away.
"Your people are ruthless. Not intervening to save a girl in this situation?"
"It's not simple. Think about it—what kind of person goes to Aokigahara to abduct a woman?"
Fair point. After watching a bit longer, Warren noticed something odd.
The two long-haired men were powerfully built, yet they always stayed a fixed distance from the girl—not too close, not too far. By eye, roughly twenty meters.