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The Elafia sits with her legs crossed, her back against a desk. She places a pillow on her knees and spreads open a book upon it, the candlelight illuminating her drooping head.

The girl reads in undisturbed silence.

Then she raises her head from the page to meet Viviana's gaze.

You don't seem very surprised to see me, Vivian.

...I saw your shadow in the doorway, and knew it was you.

Ja. You've spent so long observing the shadows in this tiny room, lit only by candlelight.

What are you reading?

'The Last Knight.'

I'm currently at the—

Third-to-last chapter. Behind the nameless knight is a huge and lonely lighthouse. The relentless waves push him and his steed Rocinante back.

But they roar as one, and towards the huge waves, as dark as night...

They charge.

Eek! No spoilers please.

You'll spend a night reading that paragraph over and over again, until you fall asleep on the floor with the pillow in your arms. Until Mutti returned in the middle of the night to blow out the candles.

Huh? How do you know?

Of course she knows—the room, the posture, the book...

This is her memory, after all.

Viviana retreats into the doorway.

Are you leaving?

I'm sorry, Vivian.

I have questions about my life, and I need to look for the answers.

Maybe, just maybe, there's still time to open one last door.

How many have you opened already?

More than a hundred? I've already lost count.

I just want to... find a better possibility.

Oh. And what if you still can't find one?

Is 'better' something clearly defined, like a math problem?

In those doors you've entered, maybe Mutti and Vati got to live in peace together for longer, without anyone disturbing them, or maybe Mutti left us a few years later than she did.

If you think about it, how do you know you haven't already come across a 'better' answer?

So why do you still carry so much regret?

I...

How can you be sure you'll ever find one in the first place?

And what happens even if you do? It won't change your past. What's meant to happen has already happened.

Vati always said that if he'd waited at Marigold Alley for just ten more minutes, maybe he could have met with Mutti, and everything would have turned out differently.

'A pity fate does not afford us a chance to start over.'

But even if he did meet her, he'd still have to leave anyway, right? The story wouldn't change in any way, aside from giving Mutti one last chance to cry and say goodbye.

Or maybe you're actually <i>hoping</i> you won't find a better answer? Because then you could tell yourself that this was the best of all possible worlds?

I just don't get it. Aren't you thinking the same way that Vati did?

Vivian...

I'm going back to my book.

You're disappointed, aren't you?

You should go. There's still time to open the next door.

The sound of collapse approaches.

Viviana turns around. The line of doors collapsing in succession scores in her eyes, like dominoes toppling into one another, or the fireworks in her memories going off all night long.

The rumbles travel from afar, reaching the tallest spire in Sturmland.

Her father seldom comes here. As the Kurfürst, he has to receive an endless line of visitors on festival nights, and her maid mother will be busy serving them until the early hours of the morning.

She would huddle in the corner of a room, just like now, and shield the sounds outside with books.

'Once the waves washed away, once glory and life together faded.'

'The world and all its beings fell from zenith to nadir, becoming dust.'

'Once the forge belched its flames, once Catastrophe descended, once families and old friends alike forsook the soul.'

'The last knight upon this great land, all alone, faced the swells as dark as night and began to charge.'

Back then, she had yearned for this so much, so full of courage.

She had told herself not to be weak, to imagine herself as a knight—Viviana the Knight.

A true knight is unafraid of disaster or hardship.

The 'collapse' is clearly visible, its ruin right before her eyes.

An inexpressible sense of danger strikes Viviana in her heart. She suddenly feels a strong premonition that the collapsing doors are not simply a manifestation of her repeated failures.

If this tiny room were to be swallowed up, something truly would be wiped away. Something would be lost, forever.

Viviana.

When the knight charged toward the endless waves, did you imagine that he was trying to overcome the entire world?

No.

I won't leave.

Viviana turns around, protecting the little girl with her own body.

I don't even know what's really been going on, ever since I began climbing that spiral staircase.

Maybe this is something everyone goes through when they come to the Genesis Horn. To be tightly bound by the knots deep in their hearts; to lose themselves in a whirlpool of chaos, becoming one with it.

Vivian, what do I say to you? Or rather, what do I say to myself?

The light of a candle is dim, and its flame will always flicker at the whims of the night wind. There will always be filth coming at you and regrets you can't revoke. The bafflement of finding and grief of losing will seek to swamp you over.

But you must believe. The stories you once yearned for are not at all legends or symbols.

You've seen for yourself a radiance that can light up the entire land. A light that does not flicker, even when no one is walking the path it illuminates.

Maybe you yourself are not that radiant light. But you, too, have once drawn your blade to protect it.

Never forget this, Viviana Droste: you are a knight!

The collapse arrives, and darkness swallows her in an instant.

Compared to the Last Knight, whose nemesis was the ocean beneath and the sky above him, she knows nothing about her enemy's identity.

She suddenly finds herself unable to feel the sword in her hand, nor can she light a candle. Fear, suffocating as the ocean and raging as a tide, instantly scours her to the point of numbness.

But soon she feels calmed, soothed, and relaxed somehow. Dread and sorrow no longer drown her.

Because bit by bit, the waves are no more.

Just what is it, in those collapsed doors and their cracks, that is devouring her emotions?!

Countless images, real and fake, intertwine, binding Viviana into a strange yet soft cocoon. What must she hold onto? What CAN she hold onto?

A dazzling light fills up her vision. She comes to a stark realization—

Tested by a dark, bitter, and thorny path, and scored in history by its legend... A knight swordstaff that even time itself can never wear away—

Here and now, it shines in the palm of her hand.

She tightens her grip with the weapon in her hand. The knight now wields her swordstaff and cleaves at the darkness ahead.

Its radiance intensifies, and a resplendent gold builds all, delivering its radiance toward the ends of time and space.

Gone are the spiral staircase and the doors.

Viviana looks down at her empty hands, betraying the gritty sensation that felt so real just now. She shuts her eyes, reconstructing in her mind the last thing she had seen within the darkness—

Malevolent spirits take the form of indescribable sounds, lights, shapes, and colors, together forming chaos itself. Piercing through it all was the swordstaff, resplendent and glorious.

I was holding onto... a projection of it.

Their Majesties...

No! More terrifying calamities in the chaos outside the Genesis Horn would befall... This place must not fall to ruin!

Fremont?

The twins failed... Yet you have come to conclude my concert at the end.

You have been a recapitulation in my ascension and downfall.

Leave. The Pavillon is disintegrating.

Hah. Or are you here for your phylactery?

Your achievement in Kargereich would be enough to earn the respect and fear of the people, yet your attitude remains as loathsome as ever.

Should I be grateful that you 'milked it for all it's worth'?

Ja.

I've never seen you so reluctant, Herkunftshorn.

But I must have it back. It will have a role to play in Kazdel's survival.

I've dragged this on for far too long. So many years have come and gone. The Lich King's Court should have left Leithanien ages ago.

'Exile'?