Good morning, Bianca.
Did you do the prep work for today? I heard we're covering...
Hey, don't you jinx it...
And then? And then... he just died.
Yeah, had his head eaten... just like that...
A train thunders past.
Bianca...
She hears a familiar voice... calling to her...
...Commandant... [player name]?
I'm... not at the aquarium...
In her hazy vision, sea and sky merge into one, dark and heavy like the hush before a storm.
Ugh... is this visual distortion from a M.I.N.D. deviation?
Commandant's figure flickers at the edge of her visual module—a smudged silhouette standing on a landing pad that wasn't there a moment ago. The human's mouth moves, words lost beneath silence. Bianca hears nothing at all.
Whether or not it's a hallucination in her M.I.N.D...
Careful... tropical fish... Red Tide at the aquarium...
Watch out for the Ascendant...
Captain...
Captain! Captain!
Cough...
The bitter tang of vital fluid lingers stubbornly in her mouth. Hazily, consciousness seeps back into her leaden limbs.
Sylph...
Barely recognizing the team member before her, Bianca coughs up the thick fluid clogging her throat, fighting to steady the pain lashing at her M.I.N.D.
Was that... just a M.I.N.D. hallucination? Yet [player name]'s voice had felt real—almost too real to dismiss...
But there's no time to dwell. The moment the searing pain in her M.I.N.D. dulls to a throb, she immediately asks about the current situation.
...Did we fall back to the first floor?
No.
Then we're...
Things aren't looking good, Captain.
...
Someone's controlling the Red Tide in the aquarium, and they know this building inside out.
We're probably on the aquarium's lower second level. Fallback to the first level is almost impossible with the Red Tide cutting us off. We have no choice but to keep moving deeper.
...
What about comms? Any contact with Babylonia?
Barely. The Punishing concentration here is off the charts. We're only getting intermittent signals at best.
Bianca lowers her head, pulling up her frame's status feed—
A flash of red floods her vision.
The ceaseless high-intensity combat has taken its toll. Despite her efforts to shield the refugees and the Purifying Force members, the Red Tide's corruption has seeped in. Her M.I.N.D. wavers, its coherence fraying at the edges...
Now is hardly the time to wait for her M.I.N.D. to stabilize.
...Give me some bandages.
After hastily bandaging the worst of the bleeding wounds, Bianca takes a moment to survey her surroundings.
She's in what appears to be an underground viewing hall of the aquarium. The exits on either side are sealed tight, though thin tendrils of the Red Tide still slither in through the cracks, relentless.
The refugees huddle together, clutching odd trinkets as they whisper desperate prayers. Nearby, members of the Purifying Force stand watch—some guarding the place, others patching up their comrades with hurried hands.
Bianca lifts her terminal, hesitates for a breath, then taps record.
This is Bianca, Captain of the Purifying Force, leading the third rescue team into the aquarium. Commencing fourth mission log.
I'll be leaving the chip containing this recording at this location, marked clearly so that any follow-up personnel can find it and use it for reference.
During our sweep of the aquarium's two ground levels, we found no signs of the first or second rescue teams.
However, we later discovered that an Ascendant has been stockpiling a massive amount of the Red Tide in the aquarium's lowest-level main tank, funneling it through underground waterways. And they've been frequently using it to attack us...
Overly high Punishing concentration... It's the Red Tide.
The air was cold and gloomy, thick with the damp, earthy scent of decay. Bianca's team had barely stepped into the aquarium's lower first level.
As soon as they entered, the attack came. Viscous dark liquid seeped across the floor, swirling with the unnatural currents of the Red Tide. From within its depths, deformed Hetero-Creatures lurched forward, attacking the rescue team with relentless fury.
Deploy reconnaissance drones to detect the specific location of the Red Tide leakage...
If it were you... maybe the experiment would see different results.
Behind the Red Tide, a purple-haired figure flashes by.
Who's there?! Show yourself!
Just a little experiment, that's all. Play along, and it won't hurt much.
Stay alert! Watch out for the sewer exits around!
Ugh...
!
Fall back! I'll cover the rear!
...After multiple engagements of this nature, we were "herded" by the Ascendant into this position, approximately mid-sector on the lower second level.
Fortunately, we found the rescue targets of both the first and second teams—
Believers of Scarlet Revelation, along with their leader, Grace.
Aaaaahhh!
A sharp cry shatters the recording's audio. Bianca hurls her terminal at a nearby Purifying Force member and in the same motion, whips her swordstaff free—
The Red Tide convulses, its surface bubbling with grotesque, shifting forms. From the seething mass, garbled whispers erupt.
Don't▂█▇▃jinx█▇it█▇...
It tastes▃▇▃▇right▃██▇▃No▇▃█rris...
...
Sylph rushes up from the side and severs the last Red Tide tendril.
...Thanks, Sylph.
...It's fine.
Now, do we go forward or back?
Back. We have to find a way to evacuate. The Scarlet Revelation followers aren't equipped for a fight. Pushing forward will just get more people killed.
But we still haven't found the first two rescue teams and Vice-Captain Chiko.
...Let's get the followers back to the surface first and regroup with the support team waiting above.
This mission... We will get it done.
...Yeah.
Pulling at her hood, Sylph says nothing more.
As the two finish their conversation, Grace, who has been waiting off to the side, fidgets with the hem of her garment, deliberately rustling the fabric to announce her presence.
Captain... Bianca?
The dark green-haired woman tightens her grip on her oddly decorated staff, hesitating as if searching for the right words.
Thank you... for risking yourselves to come and help.
...And thank you for opening the control room door just in time.
Grace's head jerks up, her gaze briefly locking with Bianca's before she takes a half-step back. Her fingers nervously trace her staff, as if the motion might offer an escape from the weight of the moment.
...I'm sorry.
It's true that members of the Scarlet Revelation opened the control room door—but earlier, they were the ones who deliberately closed it in the first place.
When Grace was in the lower second level control room, she spotted the newcoming rescue team through the surveillance cameras. Seizing the opportunity, she herded the followers into this hall and sealed the door from the control panel.
The rescue team would inevitably come this way. And when they did, she could play the helpful ally—opening the door for them, granting them entry. A small favor, a calculated gesture.
Deep inside, suspicion and fear war with an irresistible pull toward dependence on this very power.
...How long have you been inside here?
Bianca appears to overlook the layered meaning behind Grace's "sorry" and presses on with her question.
Sensing that Bianca might not intend to dwell on the issue, Grace responds in a hushed tone.
At least ten days.
I came in here this morning. After stepping into this place, my timing device conked out, so I started carving a vertical notch on a stick every time my stomach started growling uncontrollably.
It might not be accurate. Sometimes I blacked out from starvation, but... I'd say it's been about ten days.
Ten days...
Chiko... I mean, have you met the first and second rescue teams that Babylonia sent in?
We never ran into the first rescue team, but the second one... Chiko... Are you talking about that Construct with blue hair?
Yes, that's her. Do you have any clues about where she is?
...I'm sorry. She was standing between the Ascendant and us with her team... All we could do was run...
...
After that, we hid in the control room here on the lower second level, but this place is swarming with those monsters. And by that point, our food was already running out...
...Don't worry. You'll make it back to the surface safely.
I'm sorry... I wish I had more to offer, but all I can say is "I'm sorry."
She murmurs anxiously, fearing Bianca might abandon them to leave with her more combat-capable teammates.
Is there any work I can help with? Anything at all, like...
We can scout ahead! Or... or whatever you need...
...I appreciate the offer, but that won't be necessary. Right now, we don't need anyone risking themselves to clear the way.
We'll make sure everyone gets back to the surface alive, one way or another.
Bianca pulls up the map data on the terminal, her eyes narrowing as she scans for any viable route—one that hasn't collapsed or been swallowed by the creeping Red Tide.
Meanwhile, inside the monitoring room, the agent in black fixes his gaze on the figures flickering across the screens.
...
The crowd's getting bigger, Mister. Should I release some Red Tide to break them up?
A bit of commotion wouldn't hurt...
The man's tone betrays a flicker of dissonance.
...Mister, your consciousness...
...Don't worry about it.
Struggling to pluck coherent thoughts from the noise, Vonnegut rubs his index finger against his mask, lost in contemplation.
How is Chiko's fusion going?
More successful than originally expected. She might be more suitable for Hetero-Humanoid fusion than Grace.
...
A faint, nagging confusion unsettles him, yet no matter how meticulously he combs through the information, he finds no clear flaw.
Still, he feels it—something slipping beyond his grasp. It began at some indefinable moment, elusive as a shadow.
<color=#ff4e4eff>The Tower</color>... is cutting off contact with him.
Once aware of this "outcome," he scours every note, every record, but not a single sign suggests the "Tower" would disconnect.
Only after relentless searching does he uncover fragmented hints—the shift, the anomaly, might lie right here: the Copperfield Aquarium.
But what, exactly, has changed?
The creeping loss of control gnaws at him like insects on an elephant's hide, trivial in scale, yet relentless in distraction. It won't derail his plans, but it fractures his focus.
Why? Did the Cradle of Deep Blue fail? Did something unexpected happen within the Tower? Or is it...
This is the first "accident" beyond his reach. The first time he has faced the dawning realization that beyond his vision, something lingers—
Vast enough to eclipse the cosmos, blinding his perception. Yet small as a mere insect existing at twilight, its fragile flight swayed by a single breath.
He acutely senses the doubt brought by the "unknown."
Meanwhile, Lithos continues obediently, reporting the experiment's progress.
Mister, the fusion between Chiko and the Hetero-Humanoid remains is going well. If we could integrate a stronger consciousness into this Red Tide... we might be able to breed an even more perfect creature.
For example, that captain of the Purifying Force.
...
A more perfect creature... means more possibilities, right, Mister?
Right.
The subtle dissonance lingers, but the agent has already devised a way to cope with this creeping sense of losing control.
As long as the "Tower" descends, everything can proceed as planned.
But if it fails to appear at the scheduled time, he will force it down—he knows more than one way to make that happen.
Go ahead. Herd the lambs to your site. There's still time for experiments.
He gives Lithos' proposal his silent approval.
After all, Copperfield Aquarium remains theirs to command, and time is still on their side.
