Cradle, is this your creation?
My army. My puppet army. Good little things that will never betray me.
Is that so? You're still so fond of your little schemes behind the scenes. What a shame that no matter how many chances you're given, you only ever produce such mediocrity.
Were my expectations of you too high?
Luna drags the broken Cradle into the air as her puppets rise alongside her. The young girl's smile makes the doctor's skin crawl.
Luna snaps her fingers to summon chakrams that spiral around her body, their spinning radius widening. The chakrams transform into silver shards, dispersing through the void to lock onto their target.
At Luna's second command, all shards dive downward, silently slaughtering everything within the marked area. Severed limbs rain down upon the ground.
Defeat unfolds in an instant. With such an overwhelming disparity of power, the battle amounts to nothing but a massacre.
So weak.
You think you're worthy of the Countess' throne? You truly believe you can steal my sister's glory?
The chakram reassembles from its shards and returns to
I never knew you were this... powerful. Even Alpha struggled with the beast transformation... I thought...
Did you honestly believe you could stand as an equal to my sister?
Though we share our power, she spent most of hers protecting me.
Not once has she let her guard down all this time... Cradle, you should never have destroyed all of this.
Two gazes... one from Alpha, and another from her sister.
Two death-filled gazes, two moments of surrender. It was so close... so very close.
Boss, your greatest virtue is your boundless optimism, even when you're standing on the gallows.
Thankfully, they all chose humanity... whatever their reasons might have been...
If you're so powerful, why didn't you show up earlier? Why couldn't you have just merged and killed all those monsters before it was too late?
What were you doing while those monsters were gnawing on my legs?
Lucia shields her sister behind her, while the shorter girl firmly grips Lucia's arm. They're explaining themselves to the girl in the cave.
Sorry, but we can't team up with you.
My power is only enough to protect my sister. No one else.
Lucia and Luna can hear Cradle's crying like an abandoned animal that is too scared to wail loudly. Luna says nothing, only gripping her sister's arm more tightly.
Cradle buries her head deeper into the cave. This temporary shelter is all she has left. If not for the kindness of the sisters, she wouldn't have survived this long with her disability.
She can't bear to watch them leave. Seeing them go is akin to witnessing her own execution.
Cradle?
Luna's soft voice can be heard outside the cave. She has returned despite never straying from Lucia's side throughout the test site.
Keep these rations hidden. Don't let anyone else see them. This is all we have left.
Luna leaves again. With her sister, she will find a safer place and more food and medicine. Maybe together they will even survive until the experiment ends.
But Cradle is terrified too. The red lights have started flashing again. She clutches the rations tightly before tossing them aside, hugging her doll instead.
Monster claws scratch at the walls outside. They've already caught her scent...
Yes, you're pitiful. But what does that have to do with my sister and me?
"Do you resent that my sister and I didn't save you in time? Or do you resent that we weren't blubbering and waiting to die like you were?"
Well done, Cradle. It seems you've actually learned something over these years.
Thread and materials twirl around
The threads connect the small doll to Alpha's body. Soon, the doll's form is filled with life as Luna manifests within it. She examines her new vessel, feeling clumsy and awkward, but decides it will serve as an adequate temporary host.
The connecting threads become stained with black and red fluids, moving between the two bodies as the cycle accelerates to a speed impossible for the eye to follow.
The small doll suddenly turns her head and stares at you while she works. She points to her sister, then to herself. Only after receiving a nod of acknowledgment from you does she resume her task with apparent relief.
What is she doing? It looks like some deranged ritual. No... she's abandoned her original body to awaken someone who has died.
Does she realize that she can never return to that body if she fails? The doll can't last long... They'll both vanish, and everything Alpha has done will be for nothing!
She's purifying the blood, cleansing Alpha of her bestial transformation.
The impurities will leave the body through the blood and remain trapped within the doll, while the filtered, purified blood returns to Alpha.
So the transformation can be tackled this way... Dammit, why didn't I think of that?
But didn't you bring all this about with your own hands?
It's not that you didn't think of it... you just weren't willing to do it.
I was so close to fully controlling that path... I still have the organization, and we're just a step away from achieving it.
In that moment, the divine's will is fully revealed. The divine never dictates, only presents choices and watches as each person falls into their destined end.
Before the little doll becomes full of corrupted blood, she hops anxiously back and forth on Alpha's body, worriedly observing her sister's condition as the signs of bestial transformation begin to fade.
The little doll is so focused that when she stumbles and nearly falls, both you and the Countess reach out at the same time. In the end, though, it is her sister who picks her up.
At last, we meet again... in the real world...
This is no illusion.
I can finally be certain that you're still alive, Luna. You're still alive.
If you need proof, I can help you verify. As far as I know, illusions don't feel pain... Never mind.
Savor this moment, [player name]. Your gamble paid off.
Alpha gently touches foreheads with the little doll before placing the doll on her shoulder. She then surveys the battlefield, locating her companions and confirming their safety. You exchange a knowing glance.
The flames around suddenly surge into a barrier, contracting inward in concentric circles, engulfing all the puppets while carefully avoiding Cradle. For the first time, the Countess flaunts her power without reservation.
A wine bottle is tossed into the air, immediately pierced by Daybreak. The Crimson Countess leaps to grasp her sword, spinning in the air as the wine-soaked blade erupts with butterfly-like wings of flame dazzlingly.
Against the dark moon, the white-haired Countess rises, her hand braced against her blade to gather power. Brilliant sparks fall from the sword's tip as she climbs higher and higher until she eclipses the moon itself.
Where crimson stands, dawn only guides the dead.
Let me sever these tangled threads of fate, Cradle.
Alpha delivers her final strike from above, unleashing power so overwhelming that even the Mist has to retreat from her path. As the shadow of her blade hits the ground, she herself plunges downward.
As she lands before Cradle, she sheaths her blade. The figure before her no longer poses any threat.
Cradle's body has completely shattered, held together by surging threads that try to piece together the vessel of their personality.
Impressive. For a final show before a villain's curtain call, I'd give you a perfect score, Countess.
You could have walked your own path without stealing anything from anyone. Cradle, you had the power all along.
I don't need you to lecture me.
Or are you actually feeling sorry for me, Alpha? For a clown like me?
Cradle smiles wryly, tasting the sting of defeat. She has failed, and the future she chose has crumbled with her.
Perhaps next time, the "future" should choose a better "champion."
Let me put you in my debt for once, Alpha.
Cradle reaches into her body and extracts her core essence: the divine "Primordial Threads" that sustains what remains of her form.
The small doll frantically tries to stop her sister, yet Alpha still reaches out her hand.
That future I couldn't reach... the two of you should be able to get there.
Just as Alpha is about to grasp the threads, a force field intervenes, displacing everyone several meters away while Cradle is erased from existence before your eyes.
The disappearance is not normal. There are no wounds or attacks; she just fades away from head to toe.
Each time Alpha resists the force field, you are pulled even farther away, until you retreat into the city and watch as the Mist erupts in a blaze that fills the sky.
The divine giveth, and the divine taketh away.
How dare the failed lab rat try to contaminate other specimens?
The moment the "Primordial Threads" are extracted, Cradle officially ceases to exist. Memories of her remain, but no one can recall her appearance. That image has been deleted from the world, even from photographs.
Alpha and you exchange a look in silence, then vanish with your companions into the boundless night.
