The Lotus Wheel shatters the illusion, its force striking directly at Melinoe, the weaver who had been hiding in her own web, spinning this elaborate fantasy.
Ugh!
Caught completely off guard, she reels. A shockwave of pain reverberates through her, setting every silken thread in her web trembling violently.
Overhead, the sky itself falls. The illusion peels away like brittle, aged paper, and from the dissolving clouds, you—the silent "observer" of Liv's life—are violently thrust out as the illusion crumbles around you.
With no time to process the sensation of falling, you seize the opportunity within the fracturing illusion to quickly locate Liv's M.I.N.D.
Commandant!
Within her M.I.N.D., clouds part to reveal the sun as that seed begins to sprout.
The guiding star erupts with brilliant light as she firmly grasps your hand.
The illusion collapses with a thunderous roar. Howling winds rush past as you fall endlessly into the void, holding onto each other tightly amidst the chaos.
How... did this happen...
The child—perhaps it is still right to call her "Aisling"—watches the falling pair, her confusion accompanied by a sharp, hot rage.
Doesn't she love me...?
Why wouldn't she give me everything she has? Like...
Like
Aisling... come to me.
Aisling, don't stray too far. It's dangerous out there...
Aisling, I'll give you a home. A safe place where nothing can hurt you.
Aisling, anything you want, anything I can give you...
Why...
The Red Tide writhes, coalescing into razor-sharp claws that lunge desperately after the two falling figures.
Didn't you say you loved me?
Why do you pull away when I want to hold you?
Effortlessly, the shadowy presence slips into Liv's M.I.N.D. It meets no resistance, as if she has laid all her defenses bare.
You already... You already know what I want...
Let me have a taste of your M.I.N.D...
...Mom.
She has often imagined what Liv's M.I.N.D. would be like.
Perhaps an endless field of flowers, as vibrant and softly chaotic as an oil painting.
She has dreamed of its taste, too.
She's certain it would be as rich and comforting as maple syrup that Liv once let her taste... sweet and warm like the autumn sunlight.
Whatever its form, she is sure it would be built of the warmest, most beautiful things...
When Aisling touches Liv's M.I.N.D., a cascade of light floods her vision. A shiver of pure, childlike anticipation fills her widening eyes, the thrill of a new toy finally within reach.
Then—
Aisling opens her eyes, and a crimson tide floods her vision.
How...
The very world convulses. Razor-sharp fragments of memory whirl in a blinding storm, blotting out the sky. Countless moments intertwine with a ceaseless, buzzing chorus of lament and screams.
Thorns wail from the bleeding soil, and murky waves of earth merge with the crimson sea, coalescing into grotesque, despairing human shapes.
M-Mom...?
What... is this...?
Aisling's legs give out, and she collapses to the ground.
Even within Melinoe's consciousness, a repository for countless human sufferings, she has never witnessed a landscape of such pure horror.
Mom...
It shouldn't be like this...
It shouldn't be like this! Her M.I.N.D. should be a tranquil sea, a sweet dream. It can't be this!
This has to be an illusion... It must be!
She dashes frantically through the crimson sea, recklessly unleashing her power in all directions, churning the chaotic environment into utter pandemonium.
Then, a clear cry pierces the cacophony. A white bird with blood-stained wings and a weary gaze descends, a streak of purity dashing through the hellscape.
Mom... Mom?!
You hid your real M.I.N.D. from me...
I want it. Can you give it to me?
...This is my M.I.N.D.
The white bird shifts into a human form, now a silver-haired woman standing serene upon the turbulent sea.
This has to be an illusion... It must be!
Why didn't I feel any of this... when we were at home?
Because we don't pass our burdens to our family.
Am I... not your family? Mom?
It reverts to its usual pretense, eyes glistening with manufactured tears.
"Family"... It's not someone you "pick" to serve your own desires.
That isn't what a real family is.
Mom...
You only care about getting what you want. You picked Melinoe, you picked me, and you even picked Commandant.
We are nothing but dolls you've picked to play with. That isn't what a real family is.
...
Remember what I told you? It's not good to ask for things without restraint, Aisling.
A good child should learn to control their desires. It's part of growing up healthy and strong.
...But Mom... haven't you been lying to me too?
It seems... I will have to be a bad girl, then.
I will get... what I want. No matter the cost.
Shadows silently creep across Liv's M.I.N.D.
Elsewhere, the endless fall ceases within a gentle embrace.
The hurricane winds that lashed your cheeks soften to a gentle drizzle. The suffocating plunge slows, then stills.
It's as if you have settled into a bed of soft clouds. Your consciousness, cradled and safe, finds solid ground once more.
You open your eyes to a tranquil lake.
A peach-orange twilight stains the sky like melting silk. A formation of graceful birds wheels overhead, their songs weaving through the quiet air.
Commandant? I'm right here.
She stands on the lake's surface not far away, smiling at you.
The place looks so different from your last memory that you wonder for a moment if you're still in an illusion.
...
Liv tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her gaze drifting away. She keeps her tone deliberately light.
It's a safe zone created within my M.I.N.D., just like what the Rodent squad did.
He wasn't lying. This small sanctuary exists because of it.
Ever since we arrived at the conservation area, or maybe when we entered the mine... I can't quite remember.
But something has been lurking there, affecting my M.I.N.D. At first, we blamed the minerals.
I suspected her involvement. But on her own... she couldn't achieve something of this magnitude.
...Before accepting that, I was avoiding the possibility, deliberately and subconsciously.
Melinoe was the obvious one, but now that I think about it, Aisling was always hiding in her shadow.
The little girl named Aisling is shrouded in mist. She seems almost harmless, yet she has been present in every scene alongside Melinoe.
And there's no trace of the Punishing Virus on her. I can't rule out that she can control it with perfect precision, but...
...They tried to "fabricate" a version of you within the illusion, but it was too obvious...
Commandant? You're still working?
The mission at the mine... You mean the operation to clear the Hetero-Creatures from the mining area, right?
It's because... that "Commandant" only had memories from within the conservation area...
...Perhaps Melinoe and Aisling couldn't access your consciousness and memories?
Under the same conditions, if they could access Liv's memories, why couldn't they access yours to create a convincingly real version of you?
It couldn't have been out of kindness, but they also don't seem the type to toy with their prey.
No.
Her rejection is immediate and absolute, cutting off your unspoken plan before it can fully form.
I won't let you put yourself in danger again, Commandant.
I won't let you... disappear from my sight. Ever again.
Liv presses her lips into a tight, bloodless line.
She cannot forget the whispers that haunted the long night, nor the visceral anguish of watching her Commandant plunge into the Red Tide.
It was a terror more profound than any M.I.N.D. migraine, a suffering more desperate than a thousand deaths.
Back then, when she chose the Empyrea frame and walked toward her own end... did Commandant feel this same, crushing agony?
An echo from the past resonates through her M.I.N.D.
The plan doesn't require you to separate. If your theory is correct, you should be able to help Liv resist the illusions, or perhaps even...
Before the thought can fully form, Liv's head snaps up, her body taut with sudden awareness.
Ethereal spiderwebs rain down once more, but this time, the Lotus Wheel stands ready.
Melinoe's fingers dance—hooking, twisting, weaving—as she pulls countless glistening threads into her orbit, sealing this forgotten corner of the mine in a silken prison.
She moves with the grace of a master musician, conducting a grand, silent symphony.
Layer upon layer of ghostly silk engulfs the blades, while waves of nightmare crash over you in a relentless, suffocating tide.
The two of you plummet into a desolate wasteland. Before you can even catch your breath, countless grotesque Corrupted surge from the cracked earth, shambling toward you.
Commandant!
With wordless coordination, you fall into place, standing back-to-back in defense. But before you can clear the horde, the ground itself betrays you. The quicksand beneath your feet yawns open like a massive, hungry maw.
In an instant, the scene shifts. You are walking along a desolate shoreline now. The sea writhes, and countless Hetero-Creatures surge from the depths.
A tidal wave looms over you. Suddenly, you are trapped in a mountain valley, the howling wind whipping stinging snow into your faces.
No... this isn't working.
Nestled within her web, she watches the two figures struggle forward through the heavy snow.
The M.I.N.D. connection is far stronger than she ever imagined.
A subtle twitch of her fingers, and she once again borrows "Aisling's" power. An illusion abruptly unfolds, painting her spider threads with a mesmerizing, ethereal glow—
Morning arrives, and the alarm rings right on schedule.
Exhaustion radiates from every bone in your body. But yesterday you only...
Yesterday...?
Fragments of "memory" explode like lightning through your mind, but no matter how hard you try, you can't place when any of it actually happened...
In your consciousness, there seems to be a single thread that stretches outward, pulling you somewhere...
It's raining outside.
The gentle patter falls against your umbrella as you follow that strange thread forward. The image of a silver-haired girl flashes through your mind once again.
Is she the one at the other end...?
...Commandant!
A silver-haired girl races through the rain from across the street, heading straight for you. Your Mind Beacon suddenly blazes with brilliant light.
The moment you see her, countless memories flood your mind.
I found you!
The instant your fingers touch, the ground splits open into a black void.
Melinoe is using that mysterious power again...
In the darkness of the "void," Liv speaks softly.
Don't worry, Commandant. We're... almost ready to close our net.
Before your conversation can finish, the next illusion descends.
Empowered by "Aisling," Melinoe grows reckless. She weaves desperate, brutal fantasies to sever the tether between you...
You fall into the abyss and become two Corrupted.
You dissolve into a sea of flowers, transformed into blossoms yourselves.
Turned into a gentle breeze, you can still find your way to the single green leaf that is Liv.
Morphed into a dormant seed, you are sustained only by the rain clouds that Liv has become.
...How is this possible...
How do they always find each other somehow...
Still not working? But... this is what I want most...
You promised you would give me everything...
...
Driven by the child's persistent pleas, Melinoe grows increasingly agitated.
She cannot bear to fail Aisling, not again. After all, it's her Aisling, the child she lost and fought so desperately to reclaim...
Under that expectant gaze, she borrows the child's power, tirelessly weaving her web of illusions.
Finally, a vibration travels back along the silken threads, confirmation that her illusion has taken hold. A sigh of relief escapes her, followed by a spark of excitement she hasn't felt in an age.
Just like that day... when she found...
Wait...
A small figure flashes in her peripheral vision. She freezes, her fingers suspending mid-weave.
That's...
Melinoe can hardly believe her eyes. Slowly, she approaches and gently lifts the infant from the cold ground.
That's... Aisling.
After the Punishing Virus outbreak, she "woke up." She wandered the mine tunnels for a long time. She had gorged on the negative emotions of miners and researchers, yet still couldn't find a reason for herself to "live on."
Just as she was about to self-destruct, devoid of any purpose... she saw the infant.
She nurtured the tiny, helpless thing.
The child was a vision. A dream. And a redemption.
She once tried to raise the child herself, but...
It's Aisling... something's wrong. She won't stop crying, she's burning up... I don't know what to do...!
Did I... did I almost kill her...?
Three days ago, their kid... didn't make it in the last Hetero-Creature attack. Just eight years old. They shut themselves in for a whole day after.
Reluctantly, she left the child at the entrance to the conservation area, and then...
Mom...
Mom... are you leaving me?
She could only watch as the child ran back through the mine tunnels, tears streaming, stumbling and falling, only to scramble back up again.
No, Aisling, no...!
Her eyes widened in horror, a scream trapped in her throat as she watched the small figure tumble from the heights.
And then...
Then, she remained alone in the sunless mine for a very long time.
She would gaze at Aisling's crude gravestone, her whispers meant for ears that could no longer hear.
Aisling, if you can come back...
I will give you everything. Anything you want. Anything I can get for you.
...Please, be my child again...
I will give you... all my love...
Time lost all meaning in the deep, until—
Until a rumble shattered the stillness. Until that strange "infant" appeared beside the gravestone.
Aisling...
She murmurs softly as the reflection of a mirror-like surface flashes across the threads.
No... This is not right...
The spider silk tangles into chaotic clumps, piling into a disordered heap around her.
In a surge of shocked fury, Melinoe frantically tries to reweave the web, the perfect web meant to conceal everything.
But her efforts are futile.
On the other side, sharp, mirror-like blades gleam with cold light, steadily corrupting her threads.
They... They're turning this power against me...!
Snap.
The spider-silk thread breaks. And in its wake, the massive web begins to crumble.
