The white dreamland turned dark. Only a ray of light shined upon them, as Lace clasped his hands together in a stressful manner. He knows himself better than anyone, but like 101 had said, without self-awareness, one would be lost in life. So, he tried not to think that sometimes reality is harsher than the truth, but he fell into deeper thoughts.

“The shock in your eyes… Do you not believe me?” 101 asked.

Their souls may be one, but few of Lace’s thoughts could pass through 101. The deeper he thinks, the more difficult for her to reach. For so, she had to read his expression like a natural with a gaze trained to the hone. Sometimes she had to take a closer look.

“No, I’m trying to believe you, but then, the Earth is still here. We wouldn’t be here if it was already destroyed,” Lace replied.

“Ah, I see, you’re a little confused, but you got the spirit. Let me elaborate further with the use of your lucid dream– Our lucid dream.”

101 held each of her palms open left and right. A hologram of some sort is a 3D image of the Earth, one on each of her hands. The only difference between the two Earths was the layout of the continents. One is identical to the modern map, the other is rather larger and foreign.

“Here are holograms of 2 Earths. One is older than the other, which I call the Primordial Earth or simply the First Earth, while the other is Modern Earth or, for short, the Second Earth. Now, mon chou, listen carefully because I hate repeating myself,” 101 explained, and placed both holograms on the coffee table.

“On the right is the First Earth, on the left is the Second Earth,” The said hologram grew in size at the flick of her fingers, and eventually enveloped the entire dream. “The First Earth is where you had lived your first life during the Age of Gods within the Mesopotamian civilization, like so–”

The hologram expanded upon the dream. The colourless land turned into breezy grassland of endless green and faunas. From which, buildings raised within a quick time-lapse of builders constructing ancient infrastructures from the foundations to the roof on mountains to flat plains and eventually the whole kingdom itself.

Lace stared in awe, the scene of the population moving fast-forward in time as the once empty streets became bustled with the daily lives of the growing population. The people there spoke in Sumerian, an ancient language which was left behind in the dusts of history.

“Their language… I understood them,” Lace said as his approaching hand pass through the holographic crowd.

“Let me guess, your mom, mon chou?” 101 replied.

“You read my mind, didn’t you?”

“Perhaps,” 101 narrowed her eyes as her alluring smile grew mysterious. “Even so, we’ll have to talk about your mother one day, but now we have other more pressing matters.”

101 had thought that Lace’s mother was a strange person. Moreover, she could not pinpoint on who or what exactly is his mother origin. Nor, she could peek at information in Lace’s memories because she could only read his current mind to some extent. So, like Lace, she was also drawing blanks.

“Moving on. As you can see, the people’s lives were peaceful and bliss as they, including me, praying almost daily to their gods such as Anu the god of heaven, Enlil the god of four elements and much more, for protection, blessings and fortune–” 101 stood up and slowly waves her hand as the scenery changed. “Until the gods fell from grace, the fallen gods.”

The clean blue air turned molten red with patches of lava and ashes pouring from the skies. Buildings were reduced to charred debris, flooded by black goo. The tall walls that once stood proud were nowhere to be seen. The land had turned dry with no signs of flora and faunas from miles. Thousands of fresh and aged mangled corpses, young to the elderly, laid upon the ground with no graves to call for their last salvation.

Lace felt a sudden surge of swell from his stomach. The need to vomit, but he held it within and swallow it back despite the pain and tears. His wish to have stronger will was firmed, and no mere puke could falter that.

“How did that happen in the first place?” Lace questioned, sweating heavily.

“No one knows, all of this happened too quickly. Enlil was the first god to fall and went berserk as he laid the rage of mother nature upon the First Earth. Which resulted in a small portion of the population left, only in a day.”

Lace grimaced at the holographic grotesque land and sky. The very same could happen to the city which homes to the people who he held dear. If 101 was not there to save him, Vulkan would have turned the city to dusts after killing him.

“Come mon chou, follow me,” 101 walked over to Lace and lend her hand. “I shall take you to where the tale of the First Slayer began.”

Lace looked up at her and saw the collected composure she had despite the hell she had lived through in the First Earth. The passion burning behind her gaze, the confidence in her words and the smile that soothes his anxiety. She had everything he wanted now, the capability to protect, make someone hopeful and to worry another day. Compared her to himself, he was only some kind of small matter.

“Those admiring eyes of yours lingers before my feats… it’s pleasant but–,” She forced him to stand by pulling his shoulders and grasped the cheeks of his face with both of her hands. “Stop it. Stand tall and proud, like you once did against Vulkan! Stick out your chest and hold your head up high! Then, surely, you’ll look alive at a new dawn with the ones you love.”

Her words vibrated in Lace’s ears. Those were the few times that someone actually tried to encourage him. The edges of his lip slowly curled up into a small, genuine smile as 101 slowly released the grip off his face with a subtle worried gaze which broke her composure.

Despite her steady composure even in the face of the end of the world, it broke at the sight of Lace’s self-doubt. Which came to his realization, even the steadiest minds like her could waver when someone she held dear felt discomfort, and Lace was no dense man. If she could read his mind, then he is an empath that could tell her feelings, which caused him to chuckle.

“What are you laughing for?” 101 asked, she frowned with slight annoyance.

“You’re cute when you’re worried, do you know that?” Lace replied as wiped a tear from his eye.

“Cheap words,” 101 turned around abruptly. “This is not good for my health.”

She muttered the few latter words to herself and folded her arms, as a twisted smile etched on her face. The impulses in her body grew stronger, a desire of her which resided within her for aeons had long awakened from dormant. One which she held back when she carried Lace within her arms after killing Vulkan.

“But seriously, 101. The hell you went through in the First Earth… the gods berserk, people dying left and right, and lavish lands turned to wasteland, doesn’t that scares you? More importantly, what drives you to live up to this point, turning yourself into a Machina, something which is inhuman and live through those lonely years in space?” Lace asked.

“Lace, my dear, mon chou. I follow a path beyond love and hate– my obsession.”