Story Reader / Affection / Liv: Empyrea / Story
Senses are like a rock that has fallen into a torrent, corroded and washed away by the mud over countless years.
The numerous scars on your body are taking their toll on you. If this goes on, you will lose your sanity.
How did you manage to maintain your most basic form? The flickering light could no longer gather its thoughts to ponder such a question.
In the memories that you have collected, one thing is for sure... You are reliving Liv's past.
She too was once lost in the sea of memories and death, struggling, pierced, and torn apart.
You have lost count of how many times you call her.
In this muddy torrent, every effort you make will end up in vain.
And things stay that way for a long, long time.
Following the muddy torrent of data, you drift toward the end of the world... until you feel the wind that carries a soft singing voice.
It is supposed to be a lullaby, but instead, it awakens those who lie dormant.
It is supposed to be a song sung in a cage, but instead, it delivers the key of freedom to the imprisoned.
Following the singing voice to its source, you realize this empty world is slowly growing realistic. The souls drifting in chaos have finally found a safe haven to rest their weary minds.
The summer breeze comes through the window and lifts the silk curtain, as warm as the day you left.
The bird Liv helped save remains in its cage silently, trying not to show its fear.
No matter how the wind blows on this night, it no longer dares spread its wings and fly again.
The house you once shared with your companions is as you remember it to be.
Raindrops fall on the exterior walls and the blossoming flowers on the windowsill, which silently remember how many days the girl has spent next to the window, waiting.
Those days that she dreams about have long turned into a cage of loneliness, but still, she remains here like a lantern forgotten in an abandoned house.
...She is just like the bird in the cage.
The nightmare is never gone. She just covers it up with her own dream.
The memories of awakening to reality and the echoes once lingering in the void are calling to you.
It is only by destroying her dream will the bird in the cage be able to return to its previous habitat.
But is that really something you should do?
You've been living in her dream for a decade, and every day is full of peace and love.
This is the world she longs for. The world that everyone wants to see. And one day in the future, it will become a reality.
But this future is far away and out of reach. Before you have a chance to get there, thousands of lives will be buried in the snow of winter.
If things are destined to end up in ruins, why not embrace this beautiful dream and stay away from the cruel reality?
Before you are presented with this opportunity, countless people have to choose between life and death.
To realize this peaceful dream, they light up the dark and clear a way leading to that future.
This is Liv's dream. It is all the more reason to believe that she will not give it up.
...Commandant!
Upon hearing someone knocking on the door, the girl quickly comes down from upstairs as fast as a cat running in the moonlight. She opens the door and jumps into the arms of the person she has long awaited.
It's okay... I'm just glad you are back now.
She is slightly trembling, fearing that this phantom will vanish if she hugs too hard.
Yes... Commandant...
Despite your reluctance, it is time to say goodbye.
I know...
I have always known.
With her eyes watering, the girl bids farewell first.
...This is but a remaining dream left in my M.I.N.D.
And you have come to collect my M.I.N.D. shards. That's why you are here, Commandant.
You are m... our Commandant.
This time, she addresses you by your title, but she cannot keep her emotions under control.
...And she doesn't have to anymore.
To find you and everyone else, I've been searching everywhere in this world.
Though it took me a lot of time, I finally... found myself.
You look to where Liv is looking and find the white bird in the cage still dancing with the wind.
Yes... That bird is my M.I.N.D. shard.
Before falling into her dream, you have experienced many such illusionary realms in search of her shards. This is because Asimov used Spear of F.O.S. to visualize data.
Usually, Liv's M.I.N.D. shards are represented in her image as they wander where the memories intertwine.
...I am just a dream left in the M.I.N.D. I'm an entity imagined by that white bird.
Do you remember what happened before you came here?
You were searching for the sixth M.I.N.D. shard... And you thought it was what happened in the last memory.
When humanity is overwhelmed by the horde of Hetero-Creatures and the Corrupted, no matter how they struggle, the pathetic effort won't be enough for them to touch the light in the sky.
The shout is lost in the crowd and unable to reach the girl who has vanished into the light.
Just like a bird that voluntarily stays in its cage, so long as the Empyrea frame can grant her the strength to change and save things, no matter how much pain that cage brings, Liv will face it.
Perhaps if you stay here, one day you will have the chance to see her?
But the enemies coming from behind do not think so.
Upon noticing this, blood starts dripping down from where your head once suffered a trauma. The unbearable pain pulls at your Mind Beacon and plunges it into the ocean of chaos and corruption.
But the bird slowly faded away. You were thus lost in that never-ceasing snowstorm.
But you woke up.
The dying flame is only able to remain in this turbulence because it is protected by the fantasy of peace.
Well, me too.
Though this is just a dream, the ten years you and everybody spent with me here are much more than that.
Thank you...
You help wipe away her tears. Teardrops flow through your fingertips and into your palm.
This is all I ever asked for. Now... it's time to wake up from the dream.
The sound of that white bird flapping its wings comes from outside the window. Just like the cage, this space too starts to shake.
Before everything falls apart, Liv puts your hands on her chest. You can still feel the warmth of her teardrops in your palm.
And it is time you leave.
I am part of this dream. I must stay for the dream to be completely destroyed.
The last shard is supposed to exist only after I have experienced "death."
After all, that's how my memories played out... But you are here now. Take it with you.
The white bird finally opens its cage and puts a golden key in Liv's hand, but then it turns around and lands on the shoulder of the person who is about to travel far.
Farewell, Commandant. I'm sure we will meet again.
Even though reality is filled with challenges and pain, so long as you have friends fighting alongside you, this dream will come true someday in the future.
I<//DREAM> will be waiting for you in the future.
The girl is shedding tears but smiling, waving goodbye to the light of her life.
So, please come find me... when I'm all alone at the end of a snowfield.
The last M.I.N.D. shard is right there.
Okay...!
...You look at the smile on her face as this world is devoured by white light.
