Story Reader / Main Story / 33 Wither to Shine / Story
The gaze from the dream detaches from the body, overlooking the entire world like a ghost from above.
┛┛▅saw▃▄▁▆past▁▄▁▅▃▄▁▆┛┛▁▄▁...
Hello, do you need any help? I just noticed you seemed a bit out of it...
Hello, my name is Lucia. My frame designation is BPL-01, Lotus, and I'm also the team leader of Gray Raven—
I don't regret what I just did. I had to tell Vanessa and my former teammates about my will as a soldier and member of the Gray Ravens.
The unknown isn't always unsolvable. Sometimes, true hope can be found in the unknown... I know you will always choose to stand by my side, and that's exactly why I'm bound to succeed.
▁▆┛▅▃see▄┛▁▄<phonetic=Chaos>her</phonetic>▁...▁▄▁▃▄┛▁...
...Once it's released, whether through Luna, who failed the re-filtering, or through Cradle, its fusion with the Ascension-Network is inevitable. The only question is who will take control.
The key is quite complete... Perhaps she truly can become a nearly perfect "return ticket".
See▄┛▁▄▁...▁▄▁▃▄┛▁...▁▆┛▅▃
A tranquil, stable world that feels both comfortable and strangely alien.
The viewpoint suddenly elevates, revealing a blue planet on the edge of sight. From the far reaches of the cosmos, the pink-haired woman approaches with measured grace.
Finally awake, are you...
Finally can control your own eyes, finally can see it all...
She pauses for a moment, her voice revealing a hint of sudden realization.
Finally... able to obtain the true ticket.
Eyes snapping open, the gaze sinks into the Hetero Tower. The surroundings are completely silent, as if nothing has ever happened.
The agitation of the Hetero Tower is soothed by Chaos, who emerged from the Red Tide.
The fissures flowing with red liquid gradually seal themselves, as the scattered butterfly wings on the ground are wholly assimilated into the tower.
Cradle's residual power fills the fissures in the tower's body. Chaos slowly lowers her gaze, feeling the power of Agent Zero.
With absolute command over Agent Zero's power, your gaze can now truly merge with this form so intimately linked to you.
The doll's peculiar voice echoes throughout the Hetero Tower.
...
How does it feel... to obtain such power?
With the authority of Agent Zero, time and space within the Hetero Tower feel like compressed glass spheres, able to shift in accordance with the wielder's volition. However...
Tentatively, Chaos attempts to control the Hetero Tower.
The tower trembles, but offers little "response".
After risking death countless times to claim Agent Zero's authority, securing the Hetero Tower's core while caught between Vonnegut and Cradle...
The doll repeatedly draws power from the Hetero Tower, attempting to halt its growth, trying to reverse everything back to the correct path...
But no matter what actions are taken, the Hetero Tower gives only the faintest response.
The tower trembles, responding weakly to its newborn master, like a sculpture hewn from glass that could collapse at any moment with just one more touch.
Why? Why the Hetero Tower still can't be used?!
As if the previous moment of bewilderment was merely an illusion, the doll intensifies her movements.
...Chaos?
Ignoring her call, the doll's movements grow increasingly violent, and the Hetero Tower emits an earth-shattering wail.
Complex "information" floods into her mind as the towering Hetero Tower continues to "grow" without cessation.
Throughout the fluctuations of the past and future, it has never ceased growing upward.
The power of grief converges, on the verge of tearing everything apart, yet suddenly freezes in a single moment.
...
The lofty deity resembles a fish stranded out of water, gasping and near death from desiccation. Though her expression remains unchanged, a melancholic aura pervades the tower.
The doll's voice is etched with despair.
Chaos covers her face in agony.
The tower spirals upward, with tendrils sprouting in all directions.
Due to Vonnegut and Cradle's reckless movements through the tower earlier, even though Chaos has successfully obtained Agent Zero's authority, the information within the tower has grown exponentially...
You saw it.
The pink-haired woman gazes at the weeping newborn "deity", a compassionate smile playing in her eyes.
Is it that you can't use it... or that you dare not?
She can't.
The crimson tower spirals upward to touch the heavens, threatening to collapse at any second. Different "layers" of the tower undergo repeated fission, splitting apart again and again.
The "past" and "future" altered through the Hetero Tower haven't disappeared—their "cornerstones" continue to stack precariously, teetering on the brink of collapse.
If the "deity" attempts to return to the "previous layer" or intervenes to change everything while her power's bedrock remains unsteady, the infinitely stacked information may crumble imminently.
Human civilization will cease to exist.
Why... She has done everything she can... Why is she still unable to change the schemes of fate...
This is everything "They" have carved out.
Ishmael speaks calmly.
...Like me, you're able to see beyond the ordinary world.
Like me, all that's left of you here is also just a "projection".
Essentially, we are the same kind of existence, and our endings... are destined to be alike.
The vast sea of stars explodes at the edge of the universe, stardust scatters in all directions, and misty clouds spread throughout.
Her gaze penetrates through countless universes, settling upon... this world.
We will eventually meet at the end of the world.
Bearing their broken civilizations, they will journey together through the depths of starlit skies and oceans until they find a new shore.
The newborn "deity" opens her eyes filled with blood and tears.
...
But you no longer have the power to save this place...
Power gradually grows, wings stretching to obscure the sky and sun. Every dark pupil harbors the spectrum of emotions, gazing upon the world chaotically amassed by the Hetero Tower.
There will always be a way.
The Red Tide slowly dries up, its contained "information" slowly absorbed by the doll.
...
You'll be overwhelmed by excessive information, completely losing yourself.
The pink-haired woman voices her bewilderment.
Things are fine as they are... aren't they?
The Punishing Virus will preserve everything of this civilization. One day, we'll find a way to restore it.
But if you continue absorbing this endless stream of information caused by Vonnegut and Cradle...
You'll lose your mind from being unable to bear all this information.
Even higher-dimensional beings—even deities—can meet their <color=#ff4e4eff>twilight</color>.
Ishmael takes a step back, gazing at Chaos whose pupils swirl with turbulence.
Please forgive me... I'll have to stay in the past for now.
But you will press on, far beyond, until you reach the place where everyone can be brought back.
Liv, Lee... and our other companions... They didn't leave Earth because they abandoned it... They left to look for hope in places far beyond... to look for you.
When that time comes... if you still want to, come find me.
What I<//COMMANDANT> left in this world is more than just a "projection".
Here...
Carries my<//COMMANDANT'S> memories...
Holds my<//COMMANDANT'S> emotions...
Bears my<//COMMANDANT'S> bonds...
Brilliant light scatters in all directions as time freezes in this moment.
Innumerable red threads manifest, omnipresent, coiling around the Hetero Tower and ensnaring the entire Earth.
The gate of the stellar sea is forcibly pushed open. Myriads of shards drift along the river of time.
I<//COMMANDANT>... I<//[player name]>.
Here, I will <color=#ff4e4eff>reshape</color> the time of human civilization.
The threads, carrying red and golden shards with them, gradually expand, enveloping the entire blue planet.
Death and rebirth, joy and lamentation blanket the vast stellar sea.
Babylonia... the Punishing Virus has caught up...
It's... Eternal Winter.
Even animals have begun mutating too. No one can escape...
Is my duty already fulfilled...
I'm here to say goodbye to you...
Why... was I born into a world like this...
She hears sorrowful, lingering sighs, and the countless "voices" of humanity.
She takes into herself all the redundant echoes pruned from human civilization.
Infinite causality and time crowd her M.I.N.D., leaving only murmurs by her ears—merged, cacophonous, yet indistinct.
Her consciousness shatters countless times, only to solidify and reconstruct itself just as often.
Star clusters appear and vanish, congealed in the cosmos, eternal and unchanging.
They<//HUMANITY> roar in anger.
They<//HUMANITY> wander without purpose.
They<//HUMANITY> wail in sorrow.
They<//HUMANITY> are filled with joy, welcoming the arrival of new life.
They<//HUMANITY> raise their blades against invaders in fury—
Countless years of "information" amassed by the Hetero Tower flow ceaselessly into her M.I.N.D. Civilizations lament the final requiem in sorrowful song.
The "deity", teetering on the brink of madness, wrapped in countless strands of "time", rampages recklessly through the Hetero Tower.
She obliterates all in her path, witnessing a myriad of "endings" belonging to humanity and beings beyond.
She sees the weapons of "THEM" descend, effortlessly crushing an entire planet into a thin slice.
She sees planets shrouded by eerie red mist, devoid of even a whisper.
She sees day and night reversed by the "rules", the ground becoming beyond reach as life drowns in the deep sea.
She sees a "sun-like" star expanding, its scorching energy engulfing an entire stellar region...
She sees a somewhat familiar... emblem.
Unintentionally, Chaos, teetering on the edge of insanity, halts in front of a gate bearing the symbol of a four-winged white raven.
Here...
Hazy memories surge from the depths of her M.I.N.D.
So, what is this place?
...One of the entrances to the graveyard.
The entrance... to the graveyard.
Chaos touches the white gate.
Beneath the intersecting threads of fate, she gives a serene smile.
Let me see the true, "stalled" amber.
