Having left the tunnel where the "fake Liv" was, the three of you proceed in heavy silence along the narrow path.
Aisling clutches the hem of your clothes, refusing to stray even a step from your side.
Shh...
She quietly signals for you to stay silent.
We're almost there.
After navigating two more junctions, a cold realization dawns: according to your memory of the crude mine map, you are moving away from the planned rendezvous point with Liv.
I'm taking you out of here, of course...
The figure ahead hurries on without pause. As she rounds the corner, the Punishing detector flashes a violent red. On cue, two Hetero-Creatures leap from the shadows, charging straight for you.
Your ready bullet cuts coldly through the dissipating "Liv" and strikes the Hetero-Creatures directly behind her.
...She disappeared!
The moment you came face to face, you knew "she" wasn't Liv.
Yet, your brow remains furrowed in tension.
The situation is all too strange. The visual illusions are flawless, indistinguishable from reality, yet the "actors" are unconvincing, their deception obvious to even a casual glance.
This dissonance can't be an accident. It must be deliberate. But... to what end?
Before you can step forward, a voice rings out—Liv's voice—followed by the sharp whistle of a weapon cutting through the air.
Commandant! Look out!
From the darkness beyond the junction, the Lotus Wheel flashes silver, whizzing past your ear to strike down a Hetero-Creature lurking behind you.
Thank... thank goodness I got here in time...
Liv stumbles into the light, breathing heavily and marked with fresh wounds, as if she's just escaped from danger.
Another one...?
Commandant... and Aisling, are you both alright?
Her gaze softens with concern, finding the little girl hiding behind your legs.
...Right, that's her name. Melinoe mentioned it to me.
She crouches to hold her, but the child twists from the offered kindness, refusing it outright.
You must be terrified, poor thing.
She gives an awkward smile.
Don't worry. We'll get out of this place soon.
Yes. I left Melinoe back there and followed your voices here.
Deftly changing the subject, she rises to her feet.
Let's go, Commandant. We should get out of here first...
She reaches out her hand to you—
Commandant!
Her face locks into a rigid, doll-like smile, a mask caught between two expressions.
From the silence, a bullet parts the air, finding its mark in the Hetero-Creature lurking behind her.
Let's go, Commandant—
Your hand, outstretched to touch Liv's, instinctively clenches into a grab. The figure recoils and dissolves into wisps of smoke. In the same instant, a Hetero-Creature erupts from the shadows.
Your other hand is already there, thumb flicking the safety off your gun. You pivot away from the lunge and fire—a single, decisive shot that shatters the monster behind the phantom "Liv".
Another fake.
A soft sniffle comes from beside you. The child has pressed her face into your pants, too terrified to witness any more.
In the emptiness of the mining tunnel, only the soft echoes of two pairs of footsteps persist.
Soon, the visual and auditory distortions return, a relentless sickness that seeps back in to claim your senses.
Comman... Commandant...
Liv's familiar voice echoes from every direction.
Commandant, help me...
Rounding the corner, you find Liv again, in her Eclipse frame. She is kneeling on the side, battered and scarred, her expression on the verge of breaking down.
Commandant...
She reaches out, her face contorted in agony, with nothing but the deep black of the mining pit behind her.
...Commandant! Come here! It's dangerous over there!
Her cry is not yet finished before another "Liv" calls out from the junction.
Commandant, hurry! Let me take you out of here...
Commandant...
From the emptiness, Liv's phantom takes shape. And then another, and another, until the darkness is filled with her echoes.
Ethereal and ghost-like, they drift forth, their dresses rippling like water and shimmering with a pale, phosphorescent glow.
Commandant... I'm waiting for you...
Commandant, help me...
Commandant...
An invisible wind sighs through the mining tunnels, weaving their voices into a chorus from every direction.
Then, for a single, unnerving moment, every "Liv" freezes in place.
You know, Commandant, before I transferred from Egret to Gray Raven, I saw you once through the window.
After hearing about the squad, I grew curious and sneaked a peek at you when I passed by the meeting room.
And just like that, you walked into my world.
As those words hang in the air, your expression darkens.
Unlike before, the tone is different this time, almost exactly like Liv herself. And that could only mean...
Your finger tightens on the trigger.
Every day with Gray Raven, they've been the happiest of my life. Every moment spent with all of you... feels so meaningful.
Is it selfish of me to want this to last? To pray for just a little more time...?
Commandant...
If somehow, all of this could just... end... and we could find each other again in another world...
In a place... we could call home...
We...
The Liv that remains reaches out toward you.
...Commandant?!
Her voice is filled with grief.
The words barely leave your lips before the phantom vanishes right before your eyes.
It's a familiar script, a predictable routine: a swarm of Hetero-Creatures, real and illusory, pours from the space she occupied. A different kind of "human wave attack."
The enemy lacks their own combat strength, it seems, resorting to puppeteering these beasts.
But a doubt claws at you: could the mine really hold this many Hetero-Creatures?
Unable to rely on the Punishing detector to distinguish real Hetero-Creatures from illusions, you have no choice but to keep burning through ammunition.
Clatter. The empty magazine hits the ground. Your fingers find the magazine pouch, then freeze.
You grab the girl, fighting a retreating action while your mind races, overlaying the mining area's map with the locations of the safe zones.
The Rodent squad has set them up by the book. From any point, at least one should be accessible. It's your only way out.
But that's not the problem right now...
Rargh—
You obliterate the stray that breached your line, your movements a desperate dance between the real rock and the warping illusions.
The thought barely forms before your Mind Beacon screams in warning. From the other end of the connection, a silent tide of agony erupts from Liv's M.I.N.D.—a sharp, maddening pain that is not yours, yet consumes you.
Liv seems to be deliberately disrupting her own M.I.N.D., probing at those deeply buried scars to achieve something...
Then, everything within her M.I.N.D. gradually subsides, while something imperceptible begins to grow within.
A light rain falls, and as the mist begins to part, the heavy clouds shrouding her M.I.N.D. crack open...
And with them, the illusions obscuring your vision shatter. Your sight clears, revealing a winding path ahead and the faint silhouette of a crane in the darkness.
Commandant! Your location—
Before the word "M.I.N.D." can fully leave your lips, the clouds seal everything off once more.
At least you managed to tell Liv where to meet up.
Static continues to crackle through the terminal, with no connection established. Melinoe paces anxiously back and forth.
How are they doing right now? Aisling...
Suddenly, a chime from the terminal interrupts Melinoe's words.
Through the noise of static, a soft murmur emerges.
...So much... blood...
...Commandant?
Liv's voice drops to a whisper, the words hushed and fragile, afraid that any louder might draw the attention of the Hetero-Creatures on the other end.
The human on the other end seems just as surprised that the communication went through, breath coming in short gasps.
Commandant, are you hurt?
Use the emergency kit at your waist. Clean the wound and use the bandages inside...
She repeats herself patiently, worried that the intermittent signal might cause the commandant to miss something important.
The words hang unfinished as silence abruptly swallows the other end. It's as if the commandant and the child have vanished into a hiding place, a swift hand stifling any chance of a cry.
Now, the only thing that cuts through the frayed static is the faint, hurried rhythm of panicked breaths.
They are hiding from something.
...
What's happening...
Liv's hand clamps over the terminal's microphone as she signals for Melinoe's silence.
Time stretches thin. Then, faintly, the footsteps return through the terminal, soft and cautious.
The human's words are torn apart by static, reduced to fragments. Liv strains, ear nearly touching the terminal, but can salvage only a few vague syllables.
Something is hunting you...?
Abruptly, the footsteps stop. The only sound is the shallow pull of their own breath, shattered an instant later by the sharp report of gunfire.
A scramble of frantic footsteps echoes, magnified by the mine's acoustics as if they're right beside her ears. Then, silence. The connection is dead again, severed by a disconnected cable or a signal finally swallowed by the deep.
What is happening...?
The pale-faced woman clutches the iron bar in her hands, terror written across her features.
Maybe... there's an even more dangerous enemy over there.
Could it be the one controlling these Hetero-Creatures, or something even worse...?
Liv refuses to entertain the possibilities. Stowing her terminal, she commits the commandant's last location to memory and attempts to recalibrate her visual module—a futile effort, but a necessary ritual.
Unable to identify what's causing the disruption in her M.I.N.D. or the blurriness in her visual module, she has no choice but to brighten her light and press onward.
The Commandant is low on ammunition... but always a master of resourcefulness.
This labyrinth of tunnels is a problem, yet also a shield. The Commandant would know how to use it...
A spike of agony lances through her M.I.N.D., staggering her. She steadies herself and forces another step forward.
She will not lose Commandant again.
Whatever it takes, she must find a way to get to Commandant—
She plunges her consciousness into the M.I.N.D., resuming her unfinished "plan." She will disrupt its very fabric, wielding her own pain like a blade to tear through the clouds that shroud her connection to Commandant.
She can't even tell how much time has passed, how long she's been in pain... Heavy thunder rolls in the distant sky, while memories born of love glimmer faintly, like seeds sown in dark soil.
A light rain falls, and as the mist begins to part, the white bird takes flight beyond the thick blanket of clouds.
There, hanging high in the sky, she sees her guiding star.
I found you... Commandant...
She faintly hears the commandant's voice.
Commandant! Your location—
The voice comes through the Mind Beacon with remarkable clarity.
Watch out for... what? The mine? Hetero-Creatures? Melinoe? Or... something else entirely?
The M.I.N.D. connection, sustained by such a painstaking method, is clearly unstable. Before the commandant can finish speaking, it's blocked once again.
Liv fights her way back to consciousness, struggling against the violent turbulence in her M.I.N.D. Yet, within the chaos, she's at least managed to obtain the commandant's approximate location.
Can... can we still find out their location?
...I've got a general idea.
Liv pulls up the crude map on her terminal and squints at it, locating the landmark the commandant just mentioned as she searches for the quickest route there.
Her focus sharpens as the green dot aligns with the information shared through the M.I.N.D. connection.
While this doesn't definitively prove the holder of the terminal is the real commandant, it's the lead she must follow.
The commandant's Mind Beacon is impossible to replicate, and her own M.I.N.D. would never deceive her. She has to see for herself.
We're close now. Just up ahead.
Before Melinoe can lean in and get a good look at the map, Liv swiftly puts it away. She chooses a direction without hesitation and strides into one of the branching tunnels.
Then, the Punishing concentration in the air suddenly spikes, and Melinoe freezes in her tracks.
The monsters... The monsters are coming again!
With her eyes tightly shut, Melinoe puts all her strength into a swing of the iron bar, striking a Hetero-Creature just as it leaps for Liv's back.
...
Yet, their struggle is far from over. A tide of Hetero-Creatures floods the junction ahead, a seething wall of flesh determined to cut off their path.
Get... out of my way!
In response, her weapon unfolds, a lethal transformation. Its newly revealed edge carves a path forward, the fallen creatures giving the others pause and creating a fragile breach...
...Let's go!
It's all the chance Liv needs. She seizes Melinoe's arm and they dash forward.
Bang—
The thunder of distant gunshots echoes through the cavernous space, as if it's right beside their ears.
Commandant!
Without a moment's hesitation, she runs toward the commandant's location.
The mine tunnels stretch into a seemingly endless darkness, every sound swallowed and thrown back by the echoing void. They have no choice but to follow the gunshots, with no way of knowing how far they have left to go.
Liv, b-be careful...
Melinoe stumbles repeatedly, the fabric of her long dress tangling around her legs, each step a fight against the treacherous ground.
Commandant is injured and couldn't even finish a brief message... The situation must be dire...
The mine's layout has been slightly altered again by the recent tremors.
Liv has lost all sense of distance, running blindly until the sight of a mining crane at a distant junction makes her heart lurch.
The terminal...
She fumbles for her terminal. The synchronized tracking data places the commandant's signal right here.
They're still here... Thank goodness.
The green dot flickers just ahead. The commandant and Aisling should be just beyond this point.
She pushes past the corpses of Hetero-Creatures littering the narrow path, rushing toward the safe zone.
Bang—
A bullet tears through the air, barely missing Liv's cheek.
Commandant, it's me, Liv! Let me check your wounds—
Ignoring the shot—fired from the Commandant's own gun—she stumbles frantically behind the barrier...
The rest of her words die in her throat. Her lips part, but no sound emerges.
...Aisling? Why are you...
Behind the barrier, the little girl stands trembling, clutching a handgun with both hands as she shields the human.
Though jolted by the recoil, she hasn't moved an inch.
Behind her, the commandant is slumped against the barrier, a bloody wound gouged across the human's body.
To the side, the Punishing detector flashes urgent red warnings, but the human is clearly beyond making any response.
Comman... dant?
The shock lasts only a second before she rushes forward, driving the serum into the human's veins.
There's still time... There has to be.
A massive wave surges through her M.I.N.D., while a needle-sharp pain stabs through her frame.
Her hands come away red, the human's blood still warm on her fingers.
There's still time... There has to be...
She fumbles for disinfectant, pouring it over the festering wounds. Her hands work on autopilot—wrapping, pressing, repeating—a desperate mantra of motion.
There's still time... There has to be...
Her lips move soundlessly through the steps of CPR, compressing the human's chest again and again.
But despite her effort, the warmth has begun to fade away beneath her touch.
Calm down... She must calm down. It could still be just another illusion...
Is this... not real? Maybe it's just a clone...
Biting her lip, her hands tremble as she rummages through the supply pack beside the human.
Scare... scared...
Aisling!
The little girl stands frozen, a statue of shock, before a sudden, shuddering sob breaks her stillness. In an instant, Melinoe is there, sweeping her long-lost treasure into a fierce, protective embrace.
The gun slips from the little girl's hand and clatters to the ground, its metallic ring sharp and final.
The gun...
Liv's eyes fall upon it. She knows this weapon. She has cleaned it, maintained it, and memorized its every curve.
It is the Gray Raven Commandant's pistol, its grip etched with a unique insignia, and its magazine is now empty.
Did you pick up this gun from somewhere...?
The little girl shakes her head desperately, her words coming out jumbled.
This... this person... gave me...
...
And... and the terminal, too. This can't be real...
Liv's M.I.N.D. spirals into chaos, a storm of grief. Beside the body lies the Babylonia-issued terminal—
One more piece of the commandant.
At the deepest point of grief, sound fails. A silent scream lodges in her throat as Liv presses her palms against the human's chest, a futile prayer for a miracle she knows will not come...
It is all in vain.
The last of the warmth bleeds away beneath her touch, the body yielding to a terrible, deepening cold...
The human is dead.
The commandant's cooling skin and the savage wounds that cover it tell a story of a brutal, final struggle.
Commandant is dead.
With a vacant expression, Liv gently wipes the blood from the human's face. Her movements are tender, automatic.
As she pulls her hand back, her fingers brush against something on the ground. Her touch curls around a single bullet.
This bullet... It's not the one Aisling just fired. The weight is wrong; It was never discharged.
Her systems, sharper than any human sense, ring a silent alarm.
If the commandant really did fight for life here... then why would there be an unfired bullet in this spot?
Liv lowers her gaze and discreetly closes her fist around the cold, metallic truth.
The commandant...
...Let's go.
We need to... we need to get out.
She lifts the human's body onto her back. Though a Construct's strength should make the weight trivial, Liv staggers under it.
Liv, we...
I said, we need to get out first.
Liv's voice betrays a slight tremor as she turns away, her footsteps unsteady and faltering as if the ground itself has become uncertain.
