A bizarre, blue world expanded before Faith's eyes. There was no telling how large this room really was. All he could see were never-ending tubes that stood tall and tinted the room with a blinding light.

To the other three, this was a beautiful sight. The odd tubes had tiny, shimmering white stars swimming inside them, making them look like objects that belonged in outer space. Of course, only Faith could see the human bodies that lay dormant inside every single one of them.

No matter how much he stared at it, he couldn't understand what he was seeing. After all, many of the faces here looked identical to the people in white uniforms he had fought at the Castle of Hope. Were all these people still alive?

Startled, the boy turned his head around before a loud, distorted noise could echo through the room. Using Eschatology, he had caught a glimpse of Caroline and Eri collapsing behind him.

Did someone attack them? Staring at Mirage, even she started to look faint. It had to be something in this room, but what? Using his ability, the room looked like it was being washed out of all colors. He initially assumed this is how the effect of the blue light was reflected through Eschatology, but that wasn't it. Once he started feeling lightheaded and scanned his own body, he finally realized the real cause.

This room was quickly becoming an anoxic zone.

The reason everyone else was starting to pass out was due to the lack of oxygen here. This wasn't the time to investigate, if they remained here any longer, this might as well become their graveyard.

There was no need for words. After exchanging a simple glance with Mirage, both took hold of Caroline and Eri's unconscious bodies and ran towards the door that had taken them here.

There was a narrow corridor connecting the Castle of Hope and that strange world, both with a door standing tall on each side. It was clear that humans weren't welcome anywhere near that room, but he couldn't accept leaving just like that. While standing in the center of the corridor, he desperately glared at the endless blue world. There had to be something that could give him answers, but aside from the human bodies, the tubes only had cables and strange technology he didn't understand.

As he desperately tried to burn this image in his mind, the sound of slow footsteps reached him. It was the same artificial person they had met at the entrance of the castle. She looked like a young girl with short, brown hair covering one of her eyes. She was clad in a white and silver uniform full of belts and triangles, the same one all the members of the organization wore. It was hard to believe that someone who looked like this wasn't human.

Unlike before, she didn't give off the impression of a lifeless robot that could only follow orders. She looked like a being with intelligence, taking action out of her own free will.

"You aren't one of us. You shouldn't be here." Saying this, she stepped into the endless, blue graveyard, turned around and glanced into the boy's eyes. "But if you insist on coming this far, I have one single request."

As the doors leading to that room closed, sealing the world away, Faith could only see the girl's lips. Her voice was unable to reach him anymore.

Immediately after, the door leading back to the castle closed shut, trapping them in a dark corridor.

「At that moment, everything around him started to get drained of all color. 」

Faith clicked his tongue after realizing what was happening, all oxygen quickly began dissipating into nothingness.

He was well aware he messed up, simply walking here had been too naive. It was a given that a forbidden place this like wouldn't be kind to intruders. Was this an automatic security system, or was someone manually triggering this? Using his Burst bullets, Faith released a soaring blast towards the door blocking their path to the castle. As he did, massive blocks of steel emerged from beneath, acting as a barrier to block his attack.

Under normal circumstances, even this blast wouldn't have been able to make any damage to such a sturdy structure, but the barrier triggered Faith's World Break. With this, the defensive system was entirely bypassed, and the door, along with the barriers, were all blasted apart into pieces.

A path had been opened for them to escape, but even his body couldn't last too long in a place like this. With his consciousness fading away, the boy collapsed on the corridor's cold floor.

☆

★Fragments of an Abandoned Paradise - Fading Heaven

A young girl walked down the crowded streets of Glint City. The lights that illuminated the night, and the noise from the massive crowd walking back home, contrasted with the girl's gloomy atmosphere.

She stopped by a popular burger restaurant that showed a new menu and some popular toys for kids on display. Looking at her reflection in the glass, she adjusted her bangs, with one of them covering one eye. Her black leather clothes blended in with the darkening sky and kept her warm in the midst of a cold evening.

As always, no one's eyes were on her. Her appearance was noticeable thanks to many golden accessories, but her presence made her fade into the background like a ghost. Throughout her life, this had been a good and a bad thing.

For one, she could sleep in class, even skip class, just like today, and she wouldn't get in trouble because no one noticed she was missing. On the other hand, it made it hard to make friends with people since no one would bother to remember even her name.

But it was fine. After all, despite being like this, even someone like Claire had managed to make a friend. Even if she could never meet that friend in person, they were always in close contact.

As her phone began vibrating, a message from that same friend arrived. She didn't know their real name or appearance, but she didn't mind. Both would simply talk about their interests and never pry into each other's affairs. To many, it may have looked like a superficial friendship, but that was more than enough for Claire.

Angelic Ribbon: Hey, hey!! Are you home yet? Don't forget you promised we'd play GalaxyBuild today!!

Huh, Claire had forgotten all about it. If she were to be honest, she wasn't too interested. Even though the game had an insane boom in popularity back then, it was considered an ancient relic by now. At some point, it became really hard to find hardware that could still run it. Still, this friend seemed to love trying old games like that. She even got her a version that could run on modern devices, albeit not in the most optimal way, and a promise was a promise.

DarkAngel CC: I didn't forget!! I'll be there soon!!

Angelic Ribbon: How soon? You are two hours late already!! (;﹏;)

Dark Angel CC: Uh as soon I grab a burger and catch a bus.

Angelic Ribbon: Oh, OK!!

Angelic Ribbon: Bring me one too!

Angelic Ribbon: I'll be waiting!! ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ̀ˋ

Replying with the sticker of a happy cat mascot in a labcoat, Claire put her phone away and decided to go home.

☆

Once she stepped in and locked the door behind her, everything fell silent. Since her parents would always work until late, it was still a few hours before they arrived home. It was lonely, but she was used to it, and having the house to herself wasn't too bad either.

After hanging out with her friend, hours flew by, and before she knew it, it was already time to sleep. Come to think of it, her parents hadn't come to knock on her door as usual. Were they running late? It wasn't too surprising, but it annoyed her when that happened.

Angelic Ribbon: They really shut down the servers on us like that huh? And I really wanted to play too (つω`｡)

Dark Angel CC: Eh, they didn't even bother to announce it, guess they thought no one played the game anymore.

Angelic Ribbon: They won this time but I have a plan!!

Dark Angel CC: ?

Angelic Ribbon: I'll get my sister to set up a server for us! You'll see! ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ̀ˋ

Dark Angel CC: Wait, wait! Is that even legal?

Angelic Ribbon: It's all going to work out somehow! It's okay!!

Unsure if she should follow through with this, she decided to worry about it tomorrow. For now, it was time to sleep– or so it should have been. After tossing and turning for several hours, she was still wide awake. Knowing that it would be her birthday the next morning was making her nervous. She didn't care much for that day, but her parents always made a big deal about it. Just what were they going to come up with this time? Is this why they were running so late? Shoot, she totally forgot to check on them.

Curious, she stepped out of her bed and pressed her ear against the door. More than once, she had managed to overhear their plans once they thought she was fast asleep, but there was only silence this time. Maybe she was overthinking it, they were probably just asleep already.

With a sigh of relief, she went back to bed. But almost as soon as she closed her eyes shut, she was jolted awake by the sound of her parents bursting into her room.

Accepting her defeat once more, Claire sat up and glared at them awkwardly as they sang her a birthday song. At the end of the day, maybe she could accept she really did appreciate them.

☆★

At that moment, Claire's eyes finally opened. Her entire body was assaulted by freezing air as her bare skin touched a metallic surface. An intense blue light blurred out her field of vision and her consciousness slowly returned.

This wasn't her room anymore, was it?

What about her birthday?

No, that didn't happen today.

At that moment, her eyes met what looked like a chipped bone lying on top of a pile of white and silver clothes.

What about her friend?

...

What friend?

There never was one.

And what about her parents?

...

That's right. On that night, she didn't go back to sleep, did she?

After all on that night she...– but then... why were they in her room just now? Why did she have conflicting memories?

Instinctively, her hands reached for the strange item which let out a scarlet glow.

At that moment, she was enveloped by the radiance of Heaven.

☆

Taking hold of the boy's coat, Mirage's hook forced Faith out of the corridor and jolted him awake. Using her trusted tool for fast mobility, she had managed to escape the corridor the moment the boy destroyed the door and immediately pulled everyone back into safety.

Sighing in relief, Faith crouched down and confirmed the other girls were still alive. Judging by the expression on Mirage's face, she was also frustrated, but she clearly had no idea of what really was inside that room, she wouldn't be so calm if she knew.

Would he benefit in any way if he told Mirage the truth? After all, if all of those people were still alive, was it okay to abandon them there? It may have been none of their business, but it was the same back then. Because it was no one else's business, no one had come to save them, and they were trapped in a living hell until it was too late.

Should he try going back on his own? As he stared at the destroyed door before him, this time something else changed.

In an instant, the temperature began dropping at an insane pace, getting colder and colder by the second.

A girl then stepped out of the corridor leading to the strange facility, she stood at the center of the wide room at the top of the castle. She looked identical to the girl from before, but a quick look was enough to tell Faith something was different.

「This girl didn't have any internal mechanisms, she had a beating heart and the same internal organs any other person would have. She was a human through and through. Moreover, there was a red glow coming from a bangle dangling from her left wrist.」

"Warning! Warning! Stage Four Threat - Supernova!"

With the alarm resounding from Mirage's necklace, it was clear this was a similar situation as before. That girl was wearing a Velvet Object.

In the blink of an eye, the room darkened, and Faith's group was assaulted by a massive blizzard. The floor, the roof, the broken windows and the screens hanging from the walls of the room all became frozen solid in seconds. It had become completely impossible for anyone to see anything with their own eyes as a frenzy of snow, ice and wind assaulted them.

His body was rapidly being pushed back into the wall, and he was losing the ability to move at will at the same time. Forget the previous traps he faced, at this rate he likely had less than ten seconds to act before it was all over.

He pointed the weapon at the girl who stood at the center of the attack, but his hand had slightly begun to tremble.

「The girl didn't say anything, and she didn't move. She simply stood in one place while her lifeless eyes stared at the frozen floor. It was clear that she wasn't fully aware of what she was doing. She looked lost and confused. 」

Faith's finger approached his gun's trigger, and the Eschatology action line connected the trajectory of his bullet to the girl's heart. It was a shot that wouldn't miss.

He knew this was nothing but an innocent human that got caught up in an incident she shouldn't have. He knew she didn't deserve this, but this was the only way he could assure everyone's survival.

This was the best course of action, no one would blame him for it. This was the optimal choice, he had to do it. He knew he had to do it.

And yet...

Before his finger could make contact with the trigger, he felt something pushing it down against his will. It was Caroline's hand.

"Don't move!"

A command was spoken through Eri's megaphone. As the Velvet Object activated, everyone standing in that room came to a halt, including Caroline's hand which was frozen on the spot before she could push the trigger all the way down.

Even though the ribbon girl was using a broken, wide monitor to protect herself from the impact, her clothes were still torn all around her limbs thanks to the barrage of ice pieces and cutting wind. It even caused some wounds on her arms and legs to open and bleed. She used a cord attached to the handle to strap the megaphone to her wrist, while using her hands to hold the monitor as a shield. She was clearly preparing to approach that girl.

Faith knew even this makeshift shield wasn't going to protect her for long, and as much as he tried to run simulations in his head, there was nothing he could do if his body wouldn't respond to his commands.

Slowly but surely, Eri stepped towards the girl standing at center of the blizzard. The attack didn't stop for a second, and pieces of ice crushed the tip of Eri's fingers against the monitor's plastic. The young girl could only bite her lips as she forced her bleeding fingers to grasp the monitor harder before it was forced away.

Advancing in this situation wasn't easy, but it wasn't impossible. She just had to force her way through, just as always. She just had to keep moving.

"I have no idea who you are... but, you were asking for help, weren't you? So then..."

A block of ice then flew into Eri's leg from the side, making her lose her balance, and let go of the monitor with one hand. The wind immediately made it crash into her body, the screen breaking in half against her head.

The piercing pain was enough to spread a shockwave across her body. It was hard to tell but she wouldn't be surprised if that broke a bone or two somewhere. The pain was unbearable and it was getting harder to see anything, but even then, she had experienced worse before. Gathering any remaining strength, she strongly planted her feet on the ground before she could fall backwards.

"So then... I'll take that request."

Throwing the monitor away, Eri closed her eyes and ran. Even if she didn't realize it, the closer she got, the weaker the blizzard would become. Was that girl trying to protect her at the very end?

"So that's why," This time, Eri spoke to the girl, standing only a step away from her. "It's all going to work out somehow. It's okay."

Finally losing the adrenaline that let her walk, Eri's body tilted forward, and the megaphone dangling from her wrist made contact with the girl's golden bangle. Red sparks flew from the point of collision and everything was engulfed in an endless scarlet red.

With this, the effects of both Velvet Objects came to an end.

The blizzard stopped and Caroline's fingers pulled on the trigger following her initial impulse. With a crashing sound, the burst bullet missed the girls who had collapsed and buried itself into the snow that now covered the castle's walls.

It should have been time for relief, but for Faith and Mirage who knew exactly what that light meant, they could only brace themselves for the worst.

Stepping away from Caroline and putting his weapon away, Faith put an arm over his eyes to protect himself from the blinding brightness. Without a doubt, this was an ability he knew well, and one that had tormented him for long. Once it was triggered, there was no way to stop it. There was simply nothing he could do other than watch and hope both girls would survive it.

It was the Scarlet Outburst.

As the red enveloped everything, he switched to Eschatology to have a clearer look at his surroundings.

「Looking at the room from above, something odd was immediately clear to him. Even though she was behind him seconds ago, Caroline was now missing.

Expanding his ability to the limit of his range, he could see the brunette rushing down the stairs that led to the second floor of the castle. Before she walked outside his range, he could see a distinct frown on her face. An expression he wasn't aware she was capable of.」

Why did Caroline decide to leave in such a rush?

If this had been Wish, he knew she'd leave to try and fight the people behind this and free everyone.

If this had been May, she'd have left to start research on the mysterious facility.

All of these outcomes were easy for Faith to predict, but Caroline was only a stranger who decided to tag along. In the end, he knew nothing about her. Was she running away and abandoning them after sensing the danger of the situation? Was she going to do something that worked against them? Should he count this as betrayal? Should he count her as an enemy from now on? Was she only a coward? Was she scared?

At any rate, it was time for him to start running different possibilities in his head. Not knowing what would come next meant he had to be prepared for everything.

☆

The little girl's sight was taken over by a bursting light that shined in seven colors. She didn't know how things ended that way.

A voice called out to her, and the final sensation she could recall was someone taking her hand.

At that moment there was only one thought left in her mind.

-It was all my fault. If I had taken the most optimal actions, this wouldn't have happened.-

After that, no matter what, no matter where she was, no matter the situation, she would make sure to take the most optimal actions to reach her goal.

As she distanced herself from the castle and walked down the empty road that led back to the Blue District, Caroline could only focus on what the best route to take was.

Seeing what just happened, she was able to realize something important. Contrary to what she expected at first, Faith would not make the most optimal choices. If things were going to be like that, she would have to bring this situation to an end using her own hands before everything got out of everyone's control.

Once the district's tall buildings came back in sight, Caroline was surrounded by the sound of howling wind carrying withered leaves.

After looking to the sides, she used her phone to make a call and got an answer almost immediately from the person on the other line.

"Hihi! Are you done with the sniper, Claudia?"

ϟ"Hm? There really wasn't any sniper though, not even Mira can enter Vani's bunker."ϟ

"I figured!"

ϟ"Well since you are out of there I guess I should tell you. Soon after that guy sent over the data, someone hijacked our call. We are dealing with someone that could bypass GHOST's technology, you know? So it was best to pretend I didn't notice. I'm currently trying to track them down but no luck. And it only happened inside the castle, so we are entirely safe here."ϟ

"Come to think of it, something like that happened in the castle before."

ϟ"Tell me everything you know!!"ϟ

"Uh, we have someone who is really good with technology. Maymay's inventions are something else, it makes you question whether you are looking at science or magic. When we were at the castle for the first time, there were messages coming from her phone with instructions, but they were clearly sent by someone else."

Claudia went silent for a few seconds, and the next time she spoke, the cheerful tone was gone from her voice.

ϟ"This might be worse than I thought. I'm also looking at the footage I recorded from Mirage's Entropy Scale. The data you sent over had the coordinates for a location called "Artificial Heaven" at the peak of the castle. But to think it was something like this..."ϟ

"I don't think the door leading there was normal, there wasn't enough space in the castle to fit in all of that."

ϟ"It was definitely some type of paranormal phenomena, like a teleporter? Maybe a gate? Not sure though. Going through the phenomena I know about, a mix of Alchemy and Science comes to mind. The place looks too spiritually polluted to be Magic, Advent or Cosmic power. Esper and Spirit abilities are out of the question too. But if we think about Mira then... there's no limits to Velvet Burst."ϟ

"Sorry," Caroline laughed nervously. "You totally lost me there."

ϟ"That's okay, the less you get that the better! Anyway, you called me for a reason, right? What is it?"ϟ

"Nevermind that. That scale device thingy you gave Mirage... I didn't know there was a camera there. Is there one in the one you gave me too?"

ϟ"Of course, it's perfect for gathering data, and other things hehe...! Anyway, if you don't need anything else, I'll go now. There's a lot for me to look into and very little time! See you!"ϟ

As soon as the call ended, Caroline took out the Entropy Scale attached to one side of her scarf. It looked like a tiny memory card, making it hard to believe a camera was in there at all. Dropping it into the floor, she slammed her feet against it, breaking it into pieces before walking away with a smile.

☆

After putting her phone down, Claudia moved back to one of her monitors and opened a tab with an ongoing video call.

"There, I sent them to the Artificial Heaven as you wanted. But still, aren't you moving things too fast now, Viktor?"

"It is what it is." The blonde shrugged. "Even if the original plan is falling apart, failure is what experiments are all about. And besides! We've finally confirmed the existence of heaven! Aren't you glad?!"

"I can't disagree with that, failed experiments are just part of science. On the other hand, we really found heaven huh. To think we'd be focusing on something as illogical as that. Do you think that's really the best place for humanity to go in the end?"

"Of course not. Heaven is just the first station, it's only the beginning." Viktor turned around. He stood in what looked like a dark room full of monitors, and even Claudia couldn't track where the call was coming from. "But you know, I don't appreciate you hiding Mirage from me. Is a faded light worthy to stand at the center of the stage? I hope you don't mind if I run an experiment."

Claudia laughed carefreely before giving him an answer.

"Go ahead. Do whatever you want, but don't come crying to me if you get hurt."

"Don't be mean, I'm just a fragile scientist, you know? Besides, I'm just a little curious, is all. I may break the test subject a little, but hey, that's part of a good experiment too."

★

☆Scarlet Reverie - Memory Outburst

In the blink of an eye, Eri found herself inside a room she had never seen before. Her body felt light and it was difficult to feel her limbs. The floaty, blurry sensation was similar to that one of a dream, but it was also similar to what she had seen at the underground facility.

Whose room was this? Looking around, the room was very dirty and dusty. Several empty cans, paper, boxes and dirty clothes laid on the floor. There were posters of a popular band called Seasonal Outburst on the walls, but some of them had taken damage and degraded over time.

With no window in the room to let any sunlight in, Eri instinctively looked for a light switch to get a closer look but wasn't successful at locating where it was. Her only source of light was the monitor of a basic desktop computer in a corner of the room.

The black-haired girl wasn't particularly fond of intruding on other people's privacy, but this was her best shot at assessing the situation. She approached the PC which was running an old game called GalaxyBuild. Eri remembered her sister showing it to her before, but she never had anyone else willing to play it together, so it wasn't a fun experience in the end.

It took some time for the game's window to minimize. Given how slow this computer was, it was likely struggling to run that game in the first place.

Eri scratched her head after seeing the date. Given the state of this computer, it was likely just outdated, but the current date pointed to two years ago. A year that Eri didn't want to remember if possible. However, after trying to check the date online, it was the same.

-If this is a dream then it makes sense. Calm down.-

Reassuring herself was difficult. A lot of things pointed to this being a dream, but Eri's dreams were never this lucid. She had a lot of trouble remembering them most of the time.

Aside from the game, there was a CIRCLE chat window opened. Hopefully this person would forgive her for taking a look at her personal conversations. Looking into this person's account, their handle was DarkAngelCC.

Unfortunately, this was the most Eri could learn about the owner of this computer. Even though she had this program installed, her friend list was entirely empty and any messages she had were only from bots.

Eri took a deep breath. She was trying to distract herself by looking for information, but the more she remained in this world the more she remembered her encounter with Raiko. The images of those around her being mercilessly murdered by that entity floated in her head. If this world was like that one, was something like that going to happen again?

Moreover, if it really was two years ago then... no, just thinking about it felt wrong, but...

Opening a search engine, Eri typed down the following: "Mireille agency accident."

With trembling fingers, she pressed the enter button, and then...

The door to the room opened with a loud bang.

Eri held a hand over her mouth, her face growing pale and her hands getting cold. A familiar girl stood by the entrance of the room. It was Claire, the same girl they had met at the Castle of Hope. Since it was late at night, she was wearing puffy, black pajamas, but this alone gave her an entirely different vibe than the organization's pure-white uniform.

With an annoyed expression, Claire slammed the door behind her and began rushing toward her computer at a fast pace. Eri jumped out of the chair and tried to let her voice out to apologize, but the girl ignored her. In fact, she didn't even look at her or acknowledge her existence.

"U-U-Um... I'm sorry I–" Eri tried reaching for Claire's shoulder to call her attention but her hand phased through.

"Why aren't they answering my calls?"

Claire's voice rung loud inside Eri's head. She quickly realized Claire's mouth wasn't really moving. It wasn't a clear voice either, it was more like a jumbled mess that mixed in with her own thoughts.

Was she able to read Claire's mind? Even so, this was very different to what she expected mind reading would be like. Before she could process what was happening, a deluge of information then assaulted Eri's mind.

She now knew that the girl standing before her was named Claire Amano. She learned that Claire's father was born in Europe and her mother was from Japan. After the events of the Procella Incident, they lost their house and their money, so they ended up moving to Glint City where they could still get a house at an affordable price.

After moving to the city, Claire attended a new school for about a month until she started dropping out of classes every now and then. Half a year later, she dropped out of school altogether.

Her parents weren't aware of this. Given how they were rarely home, she would only see them at night when they would eat dinner together, and once it was morning, they would already have left again.

Thanks to the current state of the world after the incident, their occupation wasn't too needed anywhere else, but after arriving at Glint City, they had gotten a stable income and were making a significant amount of money.

Despite that, today was supposed to have been different than usual, it was Claire's birthday.

Her parents always made a big deal out of that day. They even prepared a party, and invited random classmates without asking, telling Claire: "We invited your friends over!!"

Of course, that was only their perception. They were acquaintances that she had only talked to once or twice at best. Some of them weren't even on good terms with her anymore.

Once morning came, her parents did not show up like every other birthday. After going downstairs, there were birthday decorations all over the house and a single note on the table.

"Happy Birthday Claire!!

Listen, We are sorry! Really really really sorry!!!

An emergency came up so we need to rush out immediately. We'll make it up to you, okay? We'll try to get there early, and we can go out somewhere together! Anywhere you want!!

Have fun at the party, okay? We love you! - Vail and Sora"

After reading the note, Claire clumped up the paper and threw it away. In the end, she expected this would happen sooner or later. It wasn't going to matter whether she forgave them or not anyway.

Eri ran to pick up the piece of clumped paper, but unlike the computer, she wasn't able to interact with it. The paper was tight-shut, as though it was made of the strongest metal. She desperately wanted to take a closer look, but at the same time, she was certain of what she saw. After all, Eri knew those names really well, and if this was really two years ago... no. What happened already happened. There was no way to change it. Eri had already accepted that much long ago.

As expected, once the time for the party was here, no one bothered to come. As the evening faded away into the night, Claire waited in the living room for a few hours, but her parents never arrived.

With all the information flowing into Eri's head, of course, the faces and occupations of Claire's parents were also clear. If this was really two years ago, Eri knew why they never came back home, and Eri knew that they were never going to either.

As Claire sat on her computer, she opened the tab with her game again. The odd search Eri had made earlier had completely disappeared from her monitor. Eating a slice of cake with a fork, she resumed playing with a frown on her face.

Even without immediate danger. In a way, this may have been worse than before for Eri. Even if she had been able to talk to this girl, there was nothing she could tell her at a time like this.

Was it already too late? Could she do something to change things? Maybe if she changed the world in this dream, she could change reality. But maybe that was just naive, wishful thinking.

Of course, listening to the girl's thoughts and being overflowed with all her memories wasn't the end of it. After all, memories weren't as simple as watching a video of what happened in the past.

"Tch. Never talk to me again. I hate you so much."

"What do you mean I love you?"

"It's quiet."

"Hypocrites."

"I wish I could talk to someone but no one will listen."

"You never cared about me anyway."

"I need to stop being pathetic, people would make fun of me anyway."

"Why did you have a daughter if you were going to abandon her?"

"It's just a birthday anyway, it doesn't matter."

Eri was assaulted by a familiar, nauseating sensation. Even though it was like this every day for a long time, she had gotten better in the past months, and she had hoped she wouldn't have to experience this again. But now, the heavy sensation pushing down her chest, drilling into the depths of her heart, and the sudden heaviness across all of her body was back.

If this was a dream, she couldn't wait to wake up. It's not like she didn't know how to deal with this, she had done it countless times, but every time was just as tiring, and this time it was worse than usual.

Eri could only lie down on the floor, staring blankly at the girl whose expression didn't change one bit. If she was feeling the exact same, she was really strong, wasn't she? Eri could only think about how pathetic she was. She knew what day it was from the moment she looked at the date but she tried to ignore it. She knew what was about to happen, but all she could do was accept it. She was just as powerless as back then.

What followed was a long, sleepless night.

Eri could only sit on the floor looking at the girl who struggled to stay still. Her thoughts endlessly flowed into her head, so Eri couldn't get any rest either.

The time her parents gifted her a plush of a mascot character she really liked.

The time a teacher embarrassed her in front of everyone for not paying attention in class.

The time someone promised they'd always be her friend.

The time she was abandoned after others got to know her better.

The time she realized she would always be alone.

The time she desperately wanted a friend.

The endless hours of silence and solitude.

All of Claire's memories were being shown to Eri one after the other for what lasted like an eternity. Once the sun started to come up, what was going to happen next?

Eri remembered that day really well, but for Claire, it was different.

Somewhere in the middle of night, her phone started to ring. Seeing that the call came from her father, Claire rushed to answer, but the voice on the other side was from a man she didn't know.

Hearing the bad news, her phone fell to the floor. No, this had to be a prank call, it was a sick joke. She wouldn't accept this. Someone had stolen her father's phone and called her to speak nonsense, that had to be it, right?

Eri could only watch as all the sad and angry thoughts filled Claire's head.

They were playing a prank on her, weren't they? Why wasn't her mom picking up either? It wasn't funny anymore. She wasn't going to stand here and fall for it. She was going to go find her parents and confront them.

Getting ready in a rush, Claire ran outside her home, and once she stepped outside, the world surrounding Eri changed into a black abyss.

All that remained was an infinite door shrouded in ethereal blue, the door to heaven.

☆

Faith and Mirage had now moved the girls to one of GHOST's medial trucks parked near the castle. Mirage had given Eri first aid and gave Claire a medical gown to cover her body. It seemed like Eri's wounds were closing fast thanks to Noa's food from earlier, but that couldn't be said for Faith.

Mirage looked at the black-haired boy covered in bandages. Seeing his red eyes glare at her like this... it was the same as back then, wasn't it? She had managed to absorb most of the damage thanks to the Wheel of Fortune, but Faith and Caroline both had taken more direct hits, and Noa's healing effect wasn't working on him anymore, it had already run out after healing the wounds from their earlier fight.

"This is an Scarlet Outburst, isn't it?" Mirage pondered as she looked at the girls who slept side by side on a plastic bed.

"It's definitely one." Faith intently scanned the girl's auras through Eschatology. Even if the concept of a soul was beyond even this ability, it definitely seemed like something between them had connected. "But I always thought you needed that idiot to make it work."

"That's what I thought too. I always thought that was her own personal Velvet Burst, but maybe we were wrong. Do you only need Velvet Objects to activate it?"

The boy didn't bother giving Mirage a response and instead looked at the two items that lay on a table opposite of the bed. They looked like a regular megaphone and a golden bangle, but when scanned through Eschatology, both were bursting with a blinding red light.

He couldn't understand why Velvet Objects like this existed, but if they were anything like the Scarlet Satellite then maybe...

The boy took out the Scarlet Grimoire, it was a weapon that could use two kinds of bullets. Knowing how it worked, he had always thought it was an unfinished prototype created alongside Wish's weapon for testing purposes, but the existence of other Velvet Objects changed things a little.

"Wait, what are you–?!" Mirage reacted as she saw Faith picking up the bangle and moving it close to his gun.

"It's fine." Faith interrupted her. "Whatever caused it, Velvet Objects should only work as conductors for an outburst, even if the items were destroyed, it wouldn't change anything right now."

Having said that, Faith pressed the bangle against the gun and both let out red sparks. With a flash of light, his gun swallowed up the object, similar to how Silver Memories would take items inside. With a clicking noise, the bangle was ejected a few seconds later.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mirage stood up from the corner of the bed and approached him.

"It seems like whoever made this weapon made it with the other objects in mind." Faith pressed his finger against what looked like a tiny opening to the side of the gun, and a tiny box that looked like an old-school game cartridge popped out. The box was light blue and the word "Cryonic" was engraved on it in white letters.

Dumbfounded, Mirage was unsure how to react. What was she even looking at?

"This is the one that came from a piece of that idiot's sword."

Faith then put another cartridge on the table. This one was bright red and had the word "Burst" engraved in black letters.

Mirage held the cartridge but was unsure of what she was looking at. It felt cold and metallic, with tiny indentations on the backside. Was this some sort of data device?

"I don't really care if you learn about this or not, but these are the bullets I use to reload this guy." Faith shook his gun, and then repeated the process using Eri's megaphone. This time an ominous black cartridge that read "Authority" was created.

"Bullets? You didn't hit your head too hard, did you?"

The boy pondered for a second, then shot at Mirage while speaking out the command, "throw a punch with your left hand."

The moment the bullet made contact with her shoulder, it didn't cause any physical damage, but instead, her body moved on its own while following the command.

Immediately, Faith jumped back, swapped into the Cryonic bullets and released another shot. A cold blast was released against Mirage, and exploded into ice pieces that fell to the side on contact. Since the hero took the hit using the Wheel of Fortune, and without the intent of defending, Faith's piercing ability didn't activate, so she didn't take any damage.

"Huh, it works." The boy picked up the Burst cartridge Mirage just dropped on the floor, then stared at all three of them on his palm. The two he just used looked drained of all color. Judging by the looks of it, Cryonic bullets took the same time to reload as the Burst ones, but the Authority bullets were reloading at an insanely slow speed.

"You... I'm not your guinea pig you know." Mirage clenched her fist, gathering all the stored energy that the Wheel of Fortune just took in.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Faith didn't look too concerned. "If you release that here those two could get hurt you know."

"And testing those bullets here seems safe to you?!"

"Do they look hurt to you?" Faith glanced at the girls, and then looked at Mirage with a mocking smile.

"You are the worst."

Mirage turned away with a sigh, her patience was well beyond her limit.

"Either way, this should do." Faith put all three cartridges away and opened the exit door of the truck. "I'll take care of this now."

"Wait, why are you leaving on your own–?!"

"They won't wake up anytime soon, and we can't stay here to wait for things to get worse. We can't take them to Noa without getting the stone back first either. " The boy turned around and looked into Mirage's eyes. "I'm just doing what's more optimal."

After all, he was well aware if it was someone like Mirage, she would stay behind for someone else no matter what. To Faith, someone like that would only hold him back, but he could use her to keep Eri safe. Moreover, something else was bothering him greatly. The ring he had taken from Celeste was gone, and after going through of all his hypotheses, he found one that made sense the most: Caroline was after the Philosopher's Stone. It wouldn't be rare for someone to betray you in order to get their hands on the elixir of eternal life.

Seeing Faith's back as he walked away, Mirage couldn't help but remember a scene carved deep into her brain.

"Wait, but you promised we'd escape together and–"

"It's been hours and she's not waking up!"

"I know, and that's why we can't go yet. This isn't normal, what if something bad is happening to her?"

"There's no point in waiting anymore. I won't make any more sacrifices for her sake, I'm just doing what's more optimal."

Mirage clenched her fist. The ring which helped measure the gauge for her Field Phantasmagoria started lighting up. Even if it felt the same, she wasn't the same helpless girl anymore.

She was Mirage, a member of GHOST, and a hero who would protect everyone. Someone who would abandon others and put results over anything else, it was the kind of people she detested the most.

☆

Celeste looked troubled as she walked through the empty streets of the blue district. Not only were her memories a jumbled mess, but she also realized her ring was now missing. The more she thought about it, the harder it was to remember what the ring really meant to her.

Earlier, her intent was set on finding the owner of the ring but she couldn't remember why anymore. What would she do once she found someone who could wear this ring? One of her memories told her she originally found this in the street, so it meant it was never hers to begin with. But then why did she have so many memories of her mother wearing it in the past? Why did she have a memory of it being given to her?

What was real and what wasn't? Was this world where she stood real at all? Was she real at all?

The red-haired girl stared at her own hands. Sweat poured down her neck as the shining sun enveloped her with disgusting warmth.

If there was something that she was certain of, is that being alive was nothing but tiring.

Regardless of which memory she decided to take as the real one, at the very end, she still didn't have a place to return to, and she still didn't have anyone waiting for her either.

Focusing on the gem sitting on her choker, she pressed her hands against a busted vending machine just outside an abandoned store. The moment her palms made contact with it, the gem shone brightly and the machine was reduced to dust.

It wasn't just a fluke or her imagination. She did have this kind of ability now, but why? The clearest memory she had was of waking up in a room tinted in blue, there, she came in contact with this gem. Soon after that, she walked into a castle full of corpses and walls painted red. There, she found two other, bone-like items that changed form to become the horn sitting atop her head and the scythe in her hand. There wasn't any real reason for her to pick them up, but for some reason she didn't understand at the time, she didn't want to let go of them either.

What were the limits of this ability? This time she touched a bench with the figure of a familiar clown outside an empty restaurant. The bench itself dissolved in seconds but the clown was taking longer. Once she removed her hand, only half of the clown's body remained, its empty, broken stare gazed into Celeste's eyes.

Was getting touched by this painful? Would it work on a human body?

The red-haired girl then hovered her hand in front of her forehead. She wasn't too knowledgeable about these things, but if her brain went out first it would be over faster, right?

Finding the ring, being accepted by Alice, and having to continue existing in a world that didn't need her anymore. She wouldn't have to think about any of this anymore, she could finally rest. It should have been so easy and yet, once she pressed her palm against her forehead, nothing happened.

It seemed like she had to willingly activate this power for it to work. So then why? This is what she wanted, so why wasn't it activating?

Just like always, she was just a coward, wasn't she? Regardless of what she wanted, she could never go through with it. She would always chicken out at the last second.

It wouldn't take long until she reached the end of the Blue District, steps away from entering a long road surrounded by trees, leading towards the Castle of Hope. Should she go back there? For some reason, the thought of going there disgusted her, but there was nothing for her to do in this abandoned city either.

She stared at her reflection in the glass of a store, but immediately averted her gaze. To Celeste, looking at her own reflection was gross. It was so ugly. It was repulsive. She didn't like being reminded of her looks. Why did she have to be stuck in such a gross body? Maybe if she was different, if she wasn't like this, Alice may have never abandoned her. Maybe this way people would like her and she wouldn't have to be alone.

Before she could realize it, her hand was bleeding, she had broken the glass and little pieces were sticking out of her clenched fist. Previously, she would have been scared and asked for help, but now, it didn't matter. Opening the palm of her hand, she realized this was a good red. It was calming, it was what she deserved.

As she stared at the drops of blood falling on the ground, something caught her eye immediately. It was her ring. The ring she had been so preoccupied about was now rolling on the ground and stopped just next to an empty crane machine.

As Celeste knelt down to reach for it, a figure stepped behind her with blinding speed.

As a super-part timer, Caroline had gained a high amount of skills in many areas. Cleaning, cooking, delivering or building something? She had you covered.

With a swift movement, the long-haired brunette had now pulled out a sharp knife.

Of course, some part-time assassination wasn't out of the question either.

After all, fighting this girl head on was no use. Talking to her was no use. She was simply doing what was more optimal.

All she needed was one swing.

As Caroline's hand flew towards the back of Celeste's neck, Faith stepped in. A terrible scene unfolded before his eyes, and he realized he was too late to do something about it.

"I won't lose anyone this time." Mirage stood up and clenched her fist.

At that moment, the power of Field Phantasmagoria enveloped everything, and the streets of the lonely city, along with everyone standing there, all vanished away like a fading mirage.