The broken vow dissolves in an instant, and Alpha buries it in every footprint, across past, present, and future.
The F.O.S. auditorium follows fate's design, vanishing into the Fog.
The Fog writhes and retreats, erasing every lingering trace until only a solitary figure stands.
Alpha extends her hand, and the Sefirah's power obeys, drawing the Fog inward.
This drifting realm, too, finds where it belongs at last, within Alpha's M.I.N.D.
I've made every choice I had to make...
Alpha stands behind the Gateway, murmuring to herself.
Good... This is... what I... have to do.
This is what it means to carry [Atheism].
Heh... Heheh...
Behind the Gateway, she lets out a bitter smile, uncaring what waits beyond, or what watches her from the dark.
Someone hears the laughter and opens their eyes.
You 'fate' loves you indeed... One day it will be wholly yours.
I've been waiting for you.
Being beyond the Gate... Tell me, what did the other civilizations do when they faced the harvest? Have any worlds made it this far before?
The new queen lifts her head through the pain, her voice urgent, questioning the presence beyond the Gate.
Yes. But the [Crown's] choice—or in your case, [Atheism's]—is what matters most. If you cannot shoulder the weight of that information, the path you have chosen will prove false and collapse before your eyes.
Most [Crowns] choose to preserve a handful of the most promising paths. Even when none are perfect, it leaves room to reconsider.
But the universe follows conservation. Hesitation... fallback options... they ensure one thing: you will never reach the absolute.
So the [Crowns] of other civilizations almost never saw it through to the end?
The Merciful One remains silent, offering no reply.
...Hah. So I made the right call.
I'll hold the line for the one world that remains. Everything else... I've already cut it away.
If I made the right call... then I can bring
Of course.
With a slow incline of the head, the Merciful One offers [Atheism] her deepest respect.
You have made your choice, and you kept only one.
Go. Your vanguard team awaits.
They will live on with you, moving forward by your will alone.
The Merciful One's voice sets the Fog thrumming with resonance. All around Alpha, familiar voices rise, echoing the farewells they once spoke, each one at peace with having been "cut away" by her choice.
The vanguard team will never leave you behind again. You'll always be our little hero "Alpha".
Can I still find you again? I'm sorry. You were my only friends... Maybe I only existed so I could pass this fate on to you.
...So it's fine. Everyone at F.O.S. is a vanguard reserve. I've been ready for this day all along.
Just to be clear, in the one world you kept, you didn't enroll at F.O.S., right? I really don't need another student who turns the whole academy upside down...
Lucia, you don't need to look at me. You don't need to ask. I don't mind... because I know that no matter which world you choose to keep, you'll always find your way back to me.
Just keep looking forward. No need to look back.
Come on now. Let's sail home together.
Go. Lead everyone home.
Face after face, voice after voice, they gather and converge, slowly coalescing into a single scene.
The final note of the chorus fades, yet the solemn auditorium never settles back into silence. On stage, the students buzz with excitement, calling out their questions to someone seated below.
Ms. Cassandra, what's the name of the song?
Ms. Cassandra of F.O.S. College brings a hand to her forehead with a sudden smack.
Oh, how could I forget the most important part?
What's the name of the song?
Cassandra murmurs the words, turning her head as she and the students on stage all cast their gaze toward the audience below. The sensor on her arm gives a sudden flicker; it has caught something.
The far corner of the auditorium is not empty after all. Someone has been standing there all along.
...
Trustee Cassandra meets Alpha's gaze and repeats the question, each word weighted with intent.
Alpha, what's the name of this school anthem?
The stage seems to swell with more and more figures. Joanne, Adelyde, Ophelia.
Leora and the others who wove themselves into the Bridge Across Dreams.
Chrome, Vanessa, Harley Jo, Simon, Sica, Valeria, Haniff...
And beyond them, countless more. Her parents. Luna, her sister. Liv and Lee, her companions and family...
Every "vanguard" from every world stands gathered here, waiting.
They are waiting for the name of the anthem. For the answer [Atheism] will give.
......
Alpha speaks.
After the long, arduous voyage, she has found a name more worthy of it.
Let's call it... Homecoming Voyage.
This path we set out on was always meant to be a long journey home.
At last, a resolute smile settles on Alpha's face, the kind of smile that can only belong to someone who was once truly happy.
The vanguard smiles with her, all of them united in accepting Alpha's choice.
Alpha raises her hand. The fate of human civilization rests within her grasp—held tightly, held completely.
I will bring everyone home.
She walks onward, hand raised high, advancing through the auditorium of F.O.S. as the vanguard's song swells around her.
Onward she presses, crossing the Bridge Across Dreams.
Onward, following the veins of the tree, she crosses through the Fog.
She plucks the other
I'll be the one to watch over them.
Now, Alpha stands again at the tragic point of divergence.
Now, the human has not yet bled out. Lucia's Omega Core has not yet caught fire.
The battle raging aboard the F.O.S. starship is held in suspension, frozen at the instant when every voice still roars in defiance, before the silence and the gray descend.
Alpha gazes upon the world, newly pruned, and counts the vanguard one by one. Every soul present.
She scrubs away the blood left by the vagabonds, staining her body, and rises—bearing the full cost upon her shoulders.
No one knows it yet, but the story that had been falling without end has just reached its turning point.
As Chimera's sanity crumbles, more and more rifts tear through the Fog.
Lost vagabonds rampage through the Fog, lashing out blindly at anything and everything, as if venting rage pent up from enduring corruption for far too long.
Lucia tries to prop herself up with her blade and stands, struggling to keep the Omega Core feeding energy to her frame.
She is exhausted from battle, yet a faint hope flickers at the edge of her awareness. The Chimera seems to be weakening, and her wounds are slowing their decay.
The human kneels in the corner, fingers trembling weakly around the gun, drained of strength. A clench of the jaw, and the other hand locks it steady.
The F.O.S. starship does not stop firing.
This is no longer a war of attrition without end.
...!
The figure of red and white has already toppled the most colossal of the vagabonds, surging upward from the depths of the Fog to stand before them now.
Shock seizes Lucia's face. In a fleeting instant, she sees Alpha's silhouette crumple beneath some invisible burden, a pitch-black crown atop her head, dripping with melted flesh and viscous vital fluid from the dead.
As though she is crushed under an unbearable weight, haunted by something dark and clinging that will never let her go.
Her body is a map of scars, caked with the dust of ages, as if she has walked this road for eons uncounted.
But before Lucia can look more closely, Alpha's voice reaches her from just ahead.
I can take
You don't have to burn yourself out anymore just to force an opening.
What...?
Now I just need everyone to back me up...
Alpha's gaze meets the human's in a fleeting exchange.
In those mortal eyes, she sees only fog—bewilderment misting over—and understands: the vision that sees beyond worlds will not be granted to the human, not yet.
Because that person made a choice long ago.
She lowers her eyes. But there is no time to taste even that faint sting of dejection.
But the human's hand finds hers at once, gripping tight.
!
...
That flicker of dejection is gone.
Alright. Let's get out of the Fog together.
......
Lucia, who knows herself more deeply than anyone, can say it with certainty: Alpha has changed.
Not only in that fleeting double-image she glimpsed, but in the crimson-black hue creeping into her hair, in her gaze, her voice, her every choice.
She has a dim, elusive memory of Alpha pressing her forehead to hers, tenderly entrusting her with something. Though she cannot recall when.
We may be drifting apart now, but I believe the world is round, and so is fate.
One day, beyond all the paths that pulled us apart, we will find our way back together.
Lucia says nothing more. A single, steady nod, and she steadies herself.
Her blade sweeps out, flames roaring to life along its edge. That is her answer.
At that same moment, alarms shriek through the F.O.S. starship, and Vanessa's voice rings out with the others.
We'll take down the "vanguard" together.
With those final words, Alpha draws her blade and charges toward the Chimera—the "vanguard."
The dead of other worlds tear ceaselessly at her M.I.N.D., yet they cannot slow her advance.
She knows she is still the same as the day she first set out, pressing forward without hesitation, without ever looking back.
There's nothing left to fear.
There's nothing left to fear.
The crimson blade thrums in her hand, and as her fingers tighten around the hilt, the vast power in it trembles with eagerness.
Bring it on!!!
(...Let's go home.)
