Story Reader / Main Story / 15 The Last Spark / Story
The recording is over.
All the questions you have on the way here have been answered.
There was no evacuation, no bodies. Everyone stayed until the last possible moment. This brain above the Atlantic Ocean did not stop thinking until the end.
Except all the fuel was consumed, with barely any cinder remaining.
But the last spark is safely kept at the top of this light house.
Vera steps back.
This is insane...
Despite her murmur, she grins like a mad woman.
Ha! These people were out of their minds like me. Absolutely unhinged.
You were right. They didn't take what they went through as a lesson.
They could have a second chance and nothing would change.
They only treated it as a failed experiment.
Experiment. Fail. Experiment again, and fail again. This was but their daily lives.
Vera wipes away the tears at the corner of her eye.
She suddenly remembers why she was recruited by Nikola in the first place.
Kill. Survive. Kill again, and survive again. That was the whole of her existence.
She was always the one who remains, carrying everyone's pain. She could not tell what could possibly await her at the finish line of this endless cycle.
So that man showed up and offered her a way out.
He told her it would be a path filled with obstacles and pain, but he promised there would be light at the end of the road.
I see.
Vera closes her eyes and mutters a few words that only she can hear.
Then she turns to look at you.
Do you remember what I asked you?
Yeah.
I wouldn't put it out.
I wouldn't, because I want to find out what is there at the end of the darkness.
I want to find the person who planted the detonating cord and kick their ass.
—Don't lose the courage to go further just because we are being plundered.
—Seize it, conquer it, fall, and stand again. Keep going.
The story of humanity is the story of the fight against fear and the unknown.
At first, humans were afraid of beasts. Then they feared fire, and the gods after that... But they have driven away the beasts, harnessed the flame, and discovered secrets withheld by gods with science.
Everyone is afraid of punishment and death, but no one has ever stopped because of them.
If they have, humans would have believed the earth to be the center of the universe. They would have thought fire and lightning were the gods' wrath. They would have hidden in the trees from the predators.
Newton said humans were playing on the seashore next to the ocean of truth. Or perhaps we are standing in the dark, fearing the unknown in the dark. But we raise our torch higher every time. Because we are curious.
That is the purest, the most primal kind of courage, the greatest gift our two million years' worth of evolution has given us.
There lies the mountain, thus our will to climb it triumphs over our fear of falling.
We would choose the same even if we could do it all over again.
You're out of your mind too, you know?
A sudden "Crack!" interrupts your conversation.
You look toward the sound and find the glass wall breaking, but the crack has yet to go through.
We have to find a way to stop it.
Right, the goddamn fish. I don't know why she can control the system, but she's the one with the clearance.
Of course I know you can't access it!
But the goddamn fish can, even if we don't know why.
We'll just grab her and take her here, and we force her to—
If the Ascendants are also after information on the zero-point energy, then there's only one place she'll be heading.
The top of the tower.
The two of you almost say it at the same time.
The floor below you keeps shaking. As water pours into the lower levels of Atlantis, the breeze blowing from your back also gets stronger, like the last breath of a drowning man.
You look down from the edge of the street, and there is but darkness and a trembling rumble.
The alarm goes off—not for the breaching water, but for you, the invaders.
Dammit! What quarrel does this place have with us?
Why can that Ascendant travel uninterrupted? Why does the city accept her identification?
I know!
Once. Twice. A third time.
The sound of Vera's spear hitting the metal echoes every time, long and petrifying. It travels downward, intensified by the empty expanse between the walls and the water, making it more haunting.
Annoyingly, every time you breach a door, you find more alarms, sealed entrances, gates, and checkpoints waiting for you.
The machine that is this city does not falter, despite its administrators gone.
Except it considers Lamia as an ally, and you two the enemy.
Water follows you closely from behind. Every time you put some distance between you, you find the road stopping before you. By the time you open a passage, the water once again closes in.
The Corrupted Lamia has brought here are amassing. They were only wandering outside in the beginning, but now they have followed the water and blocked your way to the top.
