act25side

A faint sigh, perhaps a slight chuckle.

Parvis's body has become an empty shell, no longer host to any conscious will. All his attachments, all his cowardice, dissipated without a trace.

Professor?

Within the monitor, the trembling of the H.A.M.H.R.R. seems to gradually calm down.

He completed his experiment, in a most unexpected way.

...No...

How could this...?

Silence! Silence!

Silence, are you in here?

I...

So you really were here!

Step back! I'm coming in!

I finally found you! You had me scared to death, Silence!

When I saw you snatch the car keys off those soldiers and floor it outta there, I knew you were about to do something really, really dangerous!

This place is crazy scary! Not only is this place crawling with soldiers up above, but I even got a real jumpscare from that exploding energy beam!

Ifrit, why are you...?

To save you of course, duh! Didja know I learned how to drive? A real shame you didn't get to see my mad skills!

With my driving skills, I might even get bumped up to elite op! I...

What's wrong, Silence?

Why's Parvis here? He... Why isn't he moving?

He... I don't know.

In the end, he achieved his goal. On the other hand, I... haven't really achieved anything.

I was thinking...

Had I been more decisive, had I been more determined...

Ifrit, how am I supposed to stop people like them – such powerful, brightly-shining souls?

I... Will I never... be able to reach Saria or Kristen?

Stop jokin' around already, Silence!

Ifrit frenetically grabs Silence by the collar.

This isn't the Silence she knows.

You're the strongest woman I've ever seen!

Rosmontis is pretty powerful, and so is Blaze. All of Rhodes Island's operators have their own special skills.

But, you're the best out of all of 'em, Silence! It's because you... You've done so much for me. So much that I, I... to be honest, I don't even know where to start.

I pushed through everything. You and Saria both, you both overcame it all!

I know... what you're trying to do is really huge and really complicated.

The guys you're trying to stop might also be really powerful, and really hard to deal with.

So, that's why you should let more people help you! They have so many helping them out, so should you have to fight all by yourself?

Obviously... You have me, and Saria too. We're here by your side!

I...

Silence looks at the kid in front of her.

Compared to three years ago, her complexion is much more robust. Her body is also stronger, and her entire being brims with vitality.

The girl's health is the product of her own efforts.

It's just... when did she get so tall?

You're right.

I need to get ready. I have to keep going.

And you. It's because of you.

The S.H.A.F.T.'s output phase may be nearing completion, and it won't be safe in this building.

Come, Ifrit. Let's get out of here.

Also, someone's waiting for us to pick her up.

As rudimentary a toy as it may be, the spear of a secondary civilization breaking through the sky for the first time was enough to render this nascent world dumbfounded.

Dr. {@nickname}, regardless of how you see yourself today, you will find you need to hear the truth I speak.

I chose to forsake my duty. I chose to forsake... these lives that I have overseen for nigh-immemorial eons.

They are your kin, and thus you have the right to know. That is all.

What?;......;My kin...?

It's been too long.

Are the shadows of that civilization still deep within your memories, Dr. {@nickname}? Have any fragments floated to the surface?

––Doctor!

It seems like there is at least something there. In any case, there is no point in rehashing the grand visions of the past. Just use your imagination, according to whatever impressions still remain.

But regardless of what you remember, we ended up with far few survivors than you might imagine.

From great desperation was the 'Preserver Project' born. Special life support devices, unshakable underground fortresses. When the calamities receded, they would be the seeds of new life.

But, destruction came, sooner and more overwhelming than anyone could have anticipated. Though at that time, people had already come up with certain methods...

Most of them fail to understand, including she who stands beside you, let alone the blank slate that is you.

We were born out of desperation and not fully prepared. A pure, advanced AI would only increase the risk... so one person made the ultimate sacrifice.

This one volunteered to remain permanently trapped in a cage of consciousness within an electronic cloud, forever locked in an immovable sarcophagus deep underground.

So you mean...;Your consciousness is...

As of this moment... In every sarcophagus, is a person yet to wake up...;...Me?

Correct.

But, none of them will ever wake up again.

They lost that ability long ago.

Even though you have no memory of who you are, you feel a part of your body spasm violently.

A dull pain travels from your heart to the palm of your hand. For a moment, the name of this emotion eludes you, your daily life at Rhodes Island often making you forget the quandary at the core of your existence.

'Kin.'

...Doctor.

Kal'tsit hesitates to speak.

You want her to say something to comfort you. You want her to be as omniscient as she always has been in the past, offering you solutions, answering the questions you've always had.

But, you see only doubt and sorrow in her eyes.

Sorrow is an uncommon emotion for her, even less so if that sorrow is for your sake.

If you came here only to stop Kristen, turn and leave.

Nothing is going to stop us, even if the meaning of her death is itself but a gamble. I've already made up my mind.

The memory-bereft Dr. {@nickname}, and AMa-10, who has managed to survive to this point, if you have no other responses, then we have nothing more to say.

...No!;......

'No?'

What is it you want then? Do you wish to recover your memories and the truth, or do you insist on stopping Kristen?

You can't accomplish any of it. Your amnesia is hardly so simple. You are just being pushed along numbly, thinking you've acquired faith and new ideals.

Ignorant hope is but the harbinger of despair, something we know so very well. Why not enjoy your hard-fought renewed lease on life, and instead insist on broaching the truth?

No.

We need an answer before disaster strikes. I would even like to have your assistance, if at all possible.

Instead, what you are doing now will only cause things to spin out of control. This land is not capable of coming together as one.

...AMa-10 Kal'tsit.

You cast aspersions on the difficult decision I've made, though I've digested this torment alone for ages.

Do you really know anything about this land?

The threat from the ocean grows day by day, while the mighty Ægirian civilization remains arrogant as ever. They might be powerful now, but they still underestimate the ocean.

Though the Demons and the Hollows deep within in Sami's depths show little tendency to expand, they cannot be ignored. They are like cracks entrenched deep within the ice, presaging a collapse that may occur at any time.

But these are only the fringes beyond civilization's soil. They were never the immediate causes of our slain future.

Inequality and prejudice, war and strife. The people are far from understanding the value of unity, are fundamentally unable to set aside differences and old grudges to talk about peace and the future.

Even when Catastrophes descended, the cogs of Ursus's war machine did not stop turning for a moment, and the peasants of Kazimierz were not exempted from brutal punishment and taxation.

Unity is an eternal dilemma. Even today, there are those who cry for the wars of old, yet refuse to face the suffering as well as those who died in vain. They may not even be able to see these words.

It's too soon... They are still too weak. A few lucid individuals do not represent the entire nation.

Columbia will soon seize their desired advantages from Kristen, expand their appetite, and extend their hypocritical forks and knives towards Bolívar, Sami, and Sargon.

What Kristen did is a far cry from a feat of strength scoping out the future of humanity. Even a slight deviation, and all of this will become but a clarion call for the next round of conquest.

Is that what you, AMa-10, Kal'tsit, think of Terra now?