Connected
The moment Anhur's outstretched hand touches the Lothal, it flickers and disperses in a burst of static. The remnants of the enemy frames vanish too, leaving behind only my broken and battered mech in the sky.
"I see that you would sacrifice my daughter to save the world." I hear the Emperor's voice coming from the intercom.
"This world is false. It doesn't really matter what I do here. I am merely repeating the actions I have taken in real life by stopping the drop."
"Would you have stopped Lothal if it meant Kyrie’s death in real life?”
“I…” Not for the first time, hesitation strikes me.
“Do you know how close this particular scenario came to playing out in the real world?”
“I would have found a way.” I mutter.
“There would not have been a third option.”
“Then I would have chosen the world.” I say, more out of a desire to be contrary as I recognize that my words lack commitment. When did I start thinking I was some sort of hero and an ally to justice?
The Emperor speaks up, as if reading my mind. “Sometimes the only thing you can do is the task laid out in front of you. If that necessitates making a painful sacrifice so others may be gifted hope, that makes you a hero.”
I remain silent, not knowing what to say.
“There is no need to be confused. I have faith in you. Now, let us examine what you have done here. The world as we know it came about because man desires peace in his heart. Oh, you may say that there is always death and strife and all sorts of bloodshed,” says the Emperor kindly, “but at the end of it all, all that most of us really want is to settle down and have a particularly uneventful, stable life.”
“Most of us?”
“Of course there are… aberrations. But that is expected of any population. No one person is exactly the same. Now, this world that we live in has come about because of that desire. That is what has shaped our history. We fight, yes, but we fight to save ourselves and others from misery and suffering.”
“You are quite the idealist, aren’t you?”
“I know you are pragmatic. There is nothing wrong with pragmatism, but without a cause you would be lost, as you are now. All things in life need balance. Similarly, a peaceful, contented humanity would never progress quickly enough. Humanity’s ingenuity is tested and honed in the fires of conflict. It is at its sharpest and deadliest under the greatest pressure. Our desire to be return to a state of peace makes us search high and low for ever more inventive ways to do so – and if that means advancing technology by leaps and bounds, we will do it. Had Lothal hit, the sheer scale of the disaster would mean the unity of almost all of mankind in order to overcome this adversity. Had it been destroyed, whether riskily in the atmosphere or safely in space, the war would have continued, inflamed by the passions of the people. Either way, man would be put under pressure.”
“Why the rush? Why do we need to progress so quickly, regardless of the cost in lives?”
“I do not know that, because you do not know it either,” says the Emperor apologetically. This is probably part of the program designed to gather my own thoughts.
“Is that what you really think?” asks a third, new voice over the intercom. “Humanity is peaceful? That is why strife allows us to progress? What a joke.” The voice is that of a young boy. I cannot think of anyone else it could be – the boy I saw running down the stairs.
The channel the Emperor is on comes to life, but what I hear is not his voice, but a woman’s. Anna’s voice.
“Damn, something’s wrong with the patterns. Hoshikawa! Wake up! I need to… Wait, what are you doing? Don’t –“
I can hear a wet, sickening thud, the sound of flesh being pounded to a pulp, and the feed cuts off.
“What a fool. She thought she could hide the key from me,” remarks the boy in an cold, arrogant tone. “By the way, thank you for not interfering with my search… though I suppose I could have tricked you into helping me anyway.”
“Don’t get too full of yourself,” I growl. “Who are you?”
“I’m not going to say something like I am you, and you are me. I am not you, and you are not me... but we are one, nonetheless.”
The mech dissolves around me, reduced into small motes of light. The world does the same; the sky cracks and the ground quakes, as reality fractures into ever smaller pieces. Then, I find myself standing back in the hall of the lich. It looks exactly the same, except for one small detail.
The person on the throne is no longer a dusty old corpse, but my younger self, a small smile on his face and the lich’s crown on his head.
"Do you not recognize this place?" he asks, looking around the hall.
"This is the throne hall from Tomb of the Biolich, of course."
The child sighs. "That is wrong. Tomb of the Biolich was a classic text adventure. There is a bit too much detail in these halls to be derived solely from the game. No. This place is created from our memory."
An experimental facility.
"Shangjing." I mutter.
"Welcome to our birthplace." grins the boy. He stands up suddenly and I cannot help but take an involuntary step back. There is something more to him than meets the eye - some terrible madness despite his calm demeanour. I can tell, because it is the same madness that I have felt in me. The guide NPC, who has faithfully followed me to this place, steps in front of me.
"Sir, he is irregular. This is highly dangerous. The program is no longer under control. I suggest-"
She does not finish her sentence before blue cracks appear all over her body. The NPC shatters and crumbles away. The boy gives a dismissive glance at its remains as he puts his hands back into the pockets of his jacket.
"This is where we met God." he whispers. "I brought you here so that you can understand how wrong you are about everything. You are lost. You have no purpose. You stumble about in the dark, wasting your power trying to save lives..."
"Ah, I see. I used to be a genocidal maniac who loves to kill." I'm slightly disappointed, if this is who I was.
"You misunderstand me. What is the point of saving false lives in a false world? Our mission is to awaken their souls. That is the path to true salvation!"
"Ah, now I see. I used to be a fanatical, genocidal maniac." I'm not sure whether to be even more disappointed.
"You have no right to pass judgment, not as you are, liar. What did you say just now - you would sacrifice Kyrie to save the world? What a bad joke. You wouldn't do that."
"You don't know that."
"Oh, I know. I know it too well. You are the sort of person who would save a loved one over a hundred people. A thousand people. A million. A billion. You are selfish in your very nature. In that you are my exact opposite - that is after all why you were made - I am the one who would selflessly sacrifice everything to save the masses.
"You mean, by planning to drop a colony and killing off half of the world? Some saviour you are. Sounds more like a demon to me." I retort.
"You do not listen, do you?" says the boy, his tone carefully neutral. "What you think is reality is just falsehood. We are living in a created world of dreams. Do you know of the nightmare?"
"It is a common term used for bad dreams, but the ancients used the term for a demon of dreams."
"Yes. It was said to torment humans in slumber with frightening visages," muses the boy, his eyes twinkling in a less than sane manner. "But if your bad dream does not culminate in overwhelming terror, how would you know to awaken? The nightmare serves that very role, as a harbinger from your subconscious. What is fear after all, if not the message of salvation that will wake you from your endless slumber? That is our mission. That is who we are. The black nightmare."
"So, I used to be a delusional, fanatical, genocidal maniac. Wait, I suppose a maniac is already insane, in a way..."
"Whether or not you believe the truth is of no concern to me. Besides, I have found a better way to bring about salvation rather than relying on something as unrefined as dropping a massive object on the Earth." says my younger self. "Now, that old immortal bastard promised you knowledge. I offer you knowledge too... that of our origin. Unlike him, I am a truthful person. However, unlike him, I will have you pay a price."
He raises one hand and snaps his fingers. The facility melts away into blackness. A thick, metal door appears in front of me, seemingly out of thin air. It opens, clanging as it does so. A Kyrie model NPC steps out, her long blonde hair tied into two pigtails that hang over the straps of her white summer dress. She looks at me with the same blank, polite expression all the NPCs do. The door swings shut again with an air of finality.
"Dismember and mutilate the NPC, and the door will lead you back to Shangjing and everything that I know," says the boy with a cruel smile. "Do nothing, and it will never open again."
"What are you planning?" I ask, feeling the slight heat of anger rise up in my cheeks. "What is the point of all this?"
"The point is... well, I find myself a bit inconvenienced by your incompetence. I have a great work to accomplish, and I can manage it even if you slumber, but it would be much quicker if you just came around to my point of view," he says disinterestedly. "Besides, I cannot stand the idea of myself - even if it is another me - stumbling around in ignorance, no matter how that might benefit my own goals. Now, I have many things to be done. It has been a long time... Choose wisely, Senya."
He vanishes, leaving me in the void with just the door and the NPC.
***
A. I kill the NPC to open the door. It is not real. It is just a doll. The boy has something planned and even though he may want me to venture through the door, staying here and doing nothing does not seem to help either. I will just have to have faith in my willpower and forge on ahead.
B. I do nothing. I don't think I can do anything. I will sit in the dark and wait for help. Hopefully my lack of cooperation will slow him down and allow someone - perhaps Shulgi - to awaken me from this nightmare. In fact, this might just be another test. I shouldn't get too worried and make a hasty decision.
edit: This choice is rather important so there won't be any surprise updating. At least two days of voting time.
