Story Reader / Interlude / Metamorphosis / Story
Lucia moves quickly through the city's shadow. Human armies can be seen marching through the streets as she approaches the designated area.
Lucia turns to face the other way after confirming the direction. When she sees no trace of the Corrupted, she feels relieved and slows down.
They haven't caught up yet, so as soon as I can get back to the team...
Ugh!
All of a sudden, memories of the past flooded into Lucia's consciousness...
Humans...
No, I can't go there...
Lucia's legs started trembling and, suppressing her headache, she turned her back to the base and marched on...
A few days later...
You are pretty tough...
But I'm almost tired of this...
Lucia barely held on to her blade as she stumbled across the city.
The extensive and intense fight has put Lucia's frame in critical condition, and it does not help that she is fighting without a Mind Beacon and M.I.N.D.
...
When her frame stops working, Lucia falls hard on the ground. The fall sends her weapon flying.
Lucia slowly crawls to her weapon, then holds it in her right hand and tries to get back on her feet by leaning on it.
I can't stop yet, I must get up...
But Lucia could only kneel on the ground and finally lost all of her power. She then fell to the ground again and went into a coma...
...
After some time, Lucia slowly opened her eyes. She found that she's not in the ruins of City 049, but the church she knew so well in her memory.
As Lucia raised her hands, she found they were not cold and mechanical with a bionic coating but were warm flesh... And she was able to say anything she wanted to say.
Suddenly Lucia felt something. She looked behind and saw a little girl holding an ugly frog doll talking to her. Her body automatically started a conversation with that girl.
—Lucia—
I'll protect you—
——
The girl goes farther and farther away from Lucia. Lucia wants to ask the girl what she said, but she cannot make any sound. The church then disappears, and Lucia plunges into the endless darkness again.
There was nothing but loneliness and emptiness in the dark. Suddenly, a cold touch was felt and the darkness faded. Lucia opened her eyes again.
Having regained some of her strength during the coma, Lucia could finally pick up the weapon.
