Глава 14

You're right, the Doctor and the rest should have more pivotal information on their end.

There's no more time to waste, let's go.

General, General!

This place is...

We were cleaning up the battlefield when we so fortunately found you...

General... we failed to recapture the 'Lifebone'.

Am I the only one here?

Ascalon...

General, your wounds...

We'll bring you back to camp for treatment right now.

No.

We missed our chance, and time is no longer on our side. Our top priority now is to return to Londinium and discuss our next move of our plan with the Regent.

Contact the spy sentries ahead to cooperate with us, and prepare to cross this warzone.

General! Look at the blood dripping nonstop... you're in terrible shape! The Military Commission can't afford to lose another high-ranking officer!

I gave an order.

...This is for the remaining, living Sarkaz.

Yes... sir.

What happened...?

...Impossible. This feeling—

Your Highness, is this the price you spoke of...?

For the Sarkaz's future...

From today onwards, there will be no trace of your existence anywhere, even within Originium...

The 'gods', or the arrogant being professing to be the creator...

Will you see them at the end of your path... Theresa?

After I felt you brushing past me, your voice has turned harder to hear.

All I hear now from the void surrounding me is muffled, vapid noise.

The path ahead is clear, and it's time for everything to end.

Theresa—

'Can you still hear my voice...?'

I can.

Yours, the newborns, and the dying ones... here, we can hear the voice of every Sarkaz...

The souls are stranded in an ocean of unconsciousness, shouting our names before they drown as they await guidance.

In a present no longer recorded anywhere in time, the name we respond to the most... is 'Theresa'.

I can hear the raging rumbling from skeletons that fell from the sea of stars into the ice field ten thousand years ago. Unknown, dreadful, terrifying.

We have ended the oppression that was branded into our blood from that time onward... No, we have yet to do so.

We questioned ourselves: Did our resistance hold any meaning then?

...The future will prove it to us.

Then, what about now?

Now we shall go far, far away.

That is my reply.

The myriad souls who never gave up resisting until they completely dissipated, did one last thing for the Sarkaz within the Originium—

They fought for a future where everyone has a right to survive, for the ones still alive.

Onward, everyone.

That day, a certain exhausted Sarkaz girl fell into a deep sleep within the warm flames of the Kazdel Soul Furnace for some reason.

She dreamed of her mother far away in a foreign country, standing in light within the pitch-black darkness speaking to her.

She couldn't hear her clearly, but she did not cry either. Because she saw her mother smile. Then, she woke up, opened her eyes, and saw a pure white flower in full bloom by her head.

The black dust from the forge burning death landed on the fragile flower petals, but it unexpectedly highlighted the flower's dazzling vitality even more instead.

Here, death and light congregate. The girl shed tears at the beauty created by setting death aflame.

After that day, Sarkaz passing by the Soul Furnace would see a girl show up every single day to water a flower growing in the Originium dust and bones with drops of dew.

She offered tribute to the light until the day that flower withered and died.

'Is that how the story ends...? Why is it so sad, Theresa?'

'Sad? I actually see it as a happy tale of hope arriving, Amiya.'

'The flower withered, returned to dust. But the seed of new life has already been sown.'

...Did the revenant get left behind?

No, the myriad souls never took in revenants.

Even if he regathers his thoughts, his intrinsically Originium-influenced self cannot be reversed or changed.

So he was never to depart with the myriad souls.

So Her Highness never planned to take him away from here either?

I have no way of knowing.

Heh... so it's not like Her Highness can't lie...

I didn't expect you to end up in my hands, old fossil.

There's no reason to harm him anymore, W.

I told you to call me Wiš'adel!

Relax, bunny. I'm not going to smash him to bits... I'm just taking him away with me.

He already died once, so it's not hard to guess why Her Highness let him remain here.

Up 'til her death she always craved for the Sarkaz to unite, so her plan for the revenants is super simple—

To first live like people. Well, even if he no longer looks anything like one.

You don't have to set everything on fire. Your mission ended a long time ago, so leave the rest to more capable people. Like me, for example...

Bah, just stay in this weapon for the time being, yeah?

'Do you still remember the story about the puppet, Amiya? He went into a river of tears, and sank to the riverbed...'

'Grief, despair... But it doesn't mean it's a true ending set in stone. You can always continue a story for as long as you want, but what's more important, is the storyteller.'

'The storyteller... are you talking about yourself, Theresa?'

'Me? No... Amiya, I'd prefer the storyteller be you.'

Hold on, do we have go back to where we came from to leave? Is that possible?

We won't have time. This place is changing faster than I expected.

So what are you and the crone planning? How the hell are we leaving this place?

I'm still trying to figure that out!

(Takes out explosives)

Wiš'adel! Calm down!

Doctor, I cannot tell you how to leave this place. The secrets in here are beyond even me.

But I believe Theresa definitely mentioned a piece of key information to you.

NOW WHAT?!

Doctor, Dr. Kal'tsit! These roots are breaking apart, and... floating upwards?!

'Theresa, what if... the puppet was never alone in the first place...? Maybe his companions were waiting for him down there all along!'

'Just like us. Doctor, Dr. Kal'tsit, and you... and everyone in Babel!'

'Little people made of pebbles, white, black, green, red... a whole lot of them!'

'They'll surround the puppet and bring him far away following the fierce river waters—'

'Hm... but where can they go...?'

We are currently 'falling' from this platform.

'She'... finally noticed what Theresa has done.

This tower is being erased. All the information that was organized and put together here is being broken apart.

But I can still feel Theresa's presence here, as if she still exists within the scattered information...

Everywhere, although it's vanishing quickly—

She's fighting against it... as are the myriad souls.

Get your head moving, hood! Even the platform we're on is breaking apart!

Shit! The—thing's—falling—down—

Doctor—

Doctor, I've got you!

Old hag! Your little freak isn't here to help you, so stay still, unless you wanna fall and shatter into a million pieces.

I have an idea on how to slow down our descent. Old fossil, get out here and help! I know you can do it!