“Dill!”
“Master!”
At the sound of the children’s voices, he opened his eyes. Dill was pinned down by a group of Reincarnators. His arms had been bound together roughly behind his back, and the right one seemed to be broken. Nue and Sid, who looked in his direction as they shouted to him, had been bound in the same manner and left on the ground covered in mud.
The sky above was cloudy. Prodotis’s sun orb had vanished completely, and the Tower Capital was shut off from the sky by its artificial rain clouds once more. Nue, who called Dill’s name again and again as she crawled through the mud like a caterpillar toward him, finally reached Dill and lay on top of him. She proceeded to cry her eyes out.
“I was wrong,” murmured Dill. “I should have made sure that you two were able to escape. I thought it was hopeless no matter what we tried, so we should at least be together until the end... I was wrong. I should have spared no effort to help you escape.”
Nue shook her head repeatedly. Sid sniffled and said, “Please don’t apologize. Isn’t this proof that you recognized my worth and brought me with you as a comrade...?!”
The feeling of adoration that welled up in Dill was so strong that he found it difficult to breathe. He wanted to hold his children closer and stroke their hair, but he couldn’t do either. He didn’t want to let them die—but in spite of that, he could do nothing but lie there and wait to hear from the Reincarnators.
“Yes. Yes. Everything is going smoothly. Hand them over? To the Republic? Absolute nonsense. There’s no way we’d comply. Yes. Of course. However many hundreds of them may come, we will drive them all away...” As Foghorn spoke over his phone, he was surrounded by guards, never left alone for even a moment. But after a spell, Foghorn’s raised brow furrowed, and he turned his gaze away. “...Although, it would appear that Lily is expanding once again.”
Once again, the castle of Krios was ringed by a group of colossal girls, all holding hands. Each of the girls had different facial features, but they invariably had the same stony lack of expression.
We won’t let you do that, echoed a voice—a young girl’s voice. Dill, Sid, and eventually Foghorn all realized the true identity of this new voice.
“Rei! What are you doing there?” Sid cried.
“Lily is now...nine?!” said Foghorn. “You’re telling me there’s another one?”
Phosphors glowed all across the sky. The rain, containing Liquid Computers, had ceased. In its place there was a shower of light as if the stars were falling from the sky, each of them leaving a trail as it fell!
“We need antiair defenses...” Foghorn’s order was lost in the roar of the phosphors igniting. The rain of lights only avoided striking where Dill, Nue, and Sid lay. Nue tore at Dill’s bonds with her teeth, and Sid had already blasted his apart with his own phosphors.
“Rei! Please, wait! This is wrong...isn’t it?!” cried Sid toward the heavens. Perhaps, having shared a body with Rei, there was some voice only he could hear. “A happy ending where you’re the only one who has to sacrifice themselves...that just doesn’t sound right! I...I won’t allow it to happen. Please, stop messing around...!”
Dill came to Sid’s side and supported his shoulder with his left hand as they looked up at the sky together. Above their heads was a continuous layer of clouds that now glowed with phosphors. As they gazed into the sky, they saw the signs of another Skill begin to manifest. A great black circle with a rainbow glow around its edge opened up above them—a teleportation gate. It was followed by several more, stacking on top of each other. The chain of gates was slowly descending toward them.
“So you’re helping us escape. Rei...and Iris...?” As to whether this speculation from Dill was correct, no one there knew the answer to that question. At that time, in that place, none of them knew enough to make sense of what was happening. After all, Dill had not yet been able to visit the city of the dead in order to truly recover Iris.
“But...then what will happen to...all of you?” Sid asked, addressing Lily.
Come and find us, echoed the voice. The nearest of the descending stack of teleportation gates was already close.
“I will...” answered Sid, tears welling up in his eyes. “I’ll come and find you. Without trickery—without you by my side! Master will help me train, and I’ll do all I can to become stronger! With my strength—my very own strength—I will come...and save you...!”
Now the phosphors cascaded over Sid, and the light that touched him was warm.
✦ ✦ ✦
In the northern region of Redguard stood Vulcan, the first among the cities in the region of Boreas. In the plaza of the Acropolis that sat on the summit of the hill, in the city surrounded by castle walls, the god of the forge was enshrined—Ex Machina Amputation. Life had been breathed into the idol for the god while it remained unfinished, and the half-made god had constructed himself a bed and lay down atop it, although he still lacked a lower body.
In just the past few days, the blacksmith god had created many things. He had repaired the city’s streets, which had been ravaged by the incursion of the Project, and reinforced the walls encircling the city. But the greatest results had been achieved in the plaza where the god was seated. Many citizens of Vulcan gathered in the great plaza, all crowding around transfixed by an enormous slab of stone placed there—a wide, rectangular LCD television.
As if the design had been prepared beforehand, the television had been constructed swiftly in the interior factory of the god’s temple. The recipient it had originally been intended for was no longer there, but for the sake of the people of Vulcan, the god of the forge had installed it in the plaza which served as the city center.
Images were displayed upon the stone slab. It received signals from the Tower Capital, a far-off land. Up until a short while ago it had displayed the image of their hero, the rust-haired Aegisthus. But now, it showed nothing at all. They had seen their hero stand up against a horde of foes, only to be caught and thrown to the ground. From that point onward, the image had changed to a kind of sandstorm.
Countless sighs circulated throughout the crowd. A particular woman whimpered at the sight, but it was only one of the many cries of woe that filled the plaza. Her hair, which had been so very long when she was a girl, was now cut short to spare her the work of maintaining it.
The mark left upon her finger by the ring she had worn for so many years was still distinctly visible. Cirulia Steel-Link realized that there was really nothing here for her anymore.
Cirulia was free now. Free from her husband. Free from having to care for children. Free from household chores. Free from any other work. Free from her parents. Free from any purpose in life. Absolute freedom—she had so much freedom. There was no one left in this town who knew Cirulia intimately. She felt as if she might collapse under the weight of all this terrible freedom and die.
Turning away from the crowd, Cirulia started walking—returning to her home where no one waited for her, even though there was nothing to be done there.
She reached her house. She opened the front door.
“So you’ve come back, you good-for-nothing.”
Cirulia Steel-Link found her husband and children inside.