Celeste's ring lay on the floor, she didn't know why it was there, but it was finally within her reach again.

As Celeste's fingers reached for the old, rusty ring, a sudden loud sound came from behind her. It sounded like metal clashing against each other, and it happened so close to her, that her body could feel the waves created by the impact.

As the world was enveloped by a field of illusions, Caroline's knife was stopped by the infinite radiance of the Philosopher's Stone.

The stone had jumped from Celeste's purse, as if trying to protect her, and blasted Caroline away with its endless might. The moment Celeste turned around to see what happened, her vision was enveloped by the stone's scarlet radiance, and once it dissipated, the stone fell into the palm of her hand, sitting next to the ring.

"Huh?"

Rather than focusing on the stone, Celeste's attention was immediately drawn to her surroundings. This wasn't the city anymore. It was difficult to tell whether this was outdoors or indoors. While it's true there were some walls close by, everything was covered in pristine snow. The room around her was extremely wide, and tiny snowflakes descended from the cold blue skies.

It was hard to tell what kind of place this was because it also looked decayed and abandoned. It wasn't until she walked into a corridor leading to a restaurant with a familiar logo, that she realized this was a shopping mall. Did she wander into this place by mistake? It wouldn't be too odd for the city to have an abandoned mall like this if it wasn't for all the snow covering everything.

No, even then, she realized she was wrong. It was easy to assume that everything in the Blue District was old and abandoned, but it wasn't even a month ago that this side of the city was bursting with life and activity. Even if the place was left unattended for a few weeks, it wasn't enough for it to suffer this kind of decay.

The red-haired girl gripped her old ring and the mysterious stone as she held her breath and continued looking around. It's not like she was particularly superstitious, but she had heard plenty of scary stories relating to abandoned malls before. For some reason, most of them mentioned strange monsters who would violently attack anyone who wandered into these abandoned places by mistake.

She was well aware anyone would make fun of her for even worrying about something like this, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel like anything would jump at her at any moment now.

Come to think of it, there were also these aggressive people earlier. She clearly remembered fighting them and keeping up with their intense attacks, but... the more she thought about it, the more it unsettled her. Even if she clearly experienced that, it felt as though she was looking at everything from someone else's perspective. Like watching a movie, or seeing a dream happen without being able to control it.

After all, she wasn't strong or good at fighting in any way. The thought of being attacked by anyone was terrifying, so she found it hard to believe she did all that. At the time, she was really irritated and acted on a whim, that anger was real, and some of it gripped at her heart even now, but it wasn't enough to take over control over her own will anymore. If something like that happened again right now, she would just run away, or at least that's what she wanted to believe.

They weren't going to follow her here too, were they?

She knew she had to find a way out, but this place was so big it was hard to figure out where she should go next. Considering how massive this looked, was she on the first floor of the mall, or was she higher up? Maybe finding some stairs would help.

As she glanced around, she stopped on the spot once she felt her feet pressing into something soft. Terrified to find the so-called monster, Celeste looked down, only to find a black-haired girl with a red ribbon who was buried in the snow.

☆

The moment she had tried to carry out a fatal attack on Celeste, Caroline had been stopped by a power beyond her understanding, and her entire body was promptly hurled up into the air.

The girl wasn't in pain, so at least she didn't take any direct physical damage, it was almost like she had been blown away by the power of the wind.

Before she could focus on securing a safe landing, something tightly grabbed Caroline's torso.

Instead of descending, Caroline's body flew upwards as Faith firmly held her in his arms. The boy continued to release Burst Blasts to gain impulse, and both flew across the air before breaking through a window on the next floor.

Putting his gun away, Faith let go of Caroline, letting her body plop into the cold floor.

The place where they stood looked like the front of a sports-themed shop. Despite the freezing snow covering everything, it was easy to tell apart the soccer balls, baseball bats and other equipment carefully placed in the store.

Was this place still in the city? Caroline knew she had to figure out her exact location immediately, but it was hard to ignore the boy's piercing glare that was intently locked on her.

Caroline was then forcefully pulled into the back room as Faith held her scarf. By the looks of it, it was a break room for employees here, but it was exceptionally cramped, and frozen vines had spread across the windows, making it impossible to properly look at what was outside.

"I get it, I get it."

Caroline pulled her scarf away from Faith's hands and stared at him with an annoyed expression. It was safe to assume he saw what happened before, but even so, what is done is done.

"So, what is it?"

Faith moved closer without breaking eye contact, and before she realized, Caroline's back was against the wall. The intense pressure radiating from the boy was enough to make anyone run away or pass out in fear, but Caroline didn't move.

"What do you have there?" Faith glanced at Caroline's neck and pointed at his own as he asked this question.

"Huh? My scarf!!"

"Below that."

Instinctively, Caroline placed a hand over her neck before swaying her scarf to the side, pretending she was just trying to adjust it.

"My neck? Hmph, isn't this just sexual harassment?!"

Faith remained quiet. Even if she didn't give him a real answer, he could still take away a lot from this interaction. After all, seeing changes in body heat was, of course, something he could see with Eschatology. Because of this, no one could easily lie, or hide something from him, no matter how good they were at hiding it with their facial expressions and mannerisms.

That said, it was a little different with Caroline, she hardly reacted to anything, and she even managed to fool him when she pretended to have restored the Anything Scarlet building on her own. But this time, he could see a noticeable change, for the first time he could confirm Caroline was indeed hiding something.

"Anyway, sit down. It's a team meeting."

Faith sat on the old couch across from her and crossed his legs. Despite the piercing look in his eyes, his voice was surprisingly calm.

She was going to get fired, wasn't she? Not like it would be something new to her, but going through these kinds of meetings was always a pain, and more importantly, she couldn't afford to leave Anything Scarlet just yet. She had to think of something.

"What are you trying to do?"

Faith's question was simple and direct. Her eyes met those deadly red eyes, but Caroline didn't look away. Instead, she gave out a simple and honest answer.

"I'm taking the most optimal actions because you failed to do it more than once now."

"So killing this girl would let you take the stone and solve the problem, is that it?"

"Yup!"

"Okay. Now tell me, why are we trying to take the stone back?"

"To save that person trapped in the stone?"

"Wrong."

There was silence for a few seconds. Did she make a mistake somewhere? Usually, it wasn't hard for Caroline to give out answers her bosses wanted to hear, but she was rapidly losing sight of Faith's train of thought.

"We are doing it so I can defeat Wish."

Come to think of it, Faith's reasons for moving on with Anything Scarlet, and Caroline's reasons for wanting to join were entirely different. Given the way the company was set up, she thought it had been a given that they should do anything in their power to fulfil requests for others, but...

"What we need the most right now is allies. We still know nothing about this city, and we don't know anything about this girl either. If you go around killing someone then it's useless to me even if we still fulfil the request, it's bad reputation for us, it's not an option. The most optimal action is useless if we don't get the most optimal result."

"Isn't that a little too delusional? Thinking you are a hero who can save everyone is childish. Sometimes it's necessary to choose one outcome and make sacrifices, we were about to be wiped out back then! If that happens and we all die trying to save someone who isn't even our main client, that's just stupid!!"

"It's not about saving anyone, it's about defeating Wish."

Caroline was lost in thought for a moment. It's true she might have had tunnel vision and failed to remember Faith's real goal, but it wasn't so simple. Even to someone who had experienced a lot like Caroline, it was easy to see that Faith was someone exceptional. His imposing aura was impossible to escape, and he had overflowing power to back it up. Seeing someone like that obsessed over something so petty was a waste.

"Is defeating Wish really that important? Does it really matter? Does it really change anything?"

"It is important!"

For the first time, Faith's voice became louder and he was clearly shaken up, no matter how much he tried to hide it. It was obviously a touchy subject for him.

"Why? What does this change? It's only to feel better about yourself, isn't it? There's no reason for this to be that important at a time like this, so why?"

Faith sighed and leaned forward, moving his face closer to hers.

"You are wrong. If you want to know why, then tell me, why do you want to be part of Anything Scarlet so badly?"

"That's-"

Caroline clicked her tongue, no matter what, it's not something she could tell him. In this case, there really wasn't a way for them to reach an understanding, was there? On the other hand, could there really be a deeper reason for Faith to want to defeat Wish? Something he couldn't tell anyone either.

"And that's how it is."

Faith relaxed, leaning back on the sofa and placing his feet on the small table in the centre of the room.

"Either way, isn't this good? All you have to do is help me defeat Wish, and I will let you stay in the company just like you want. We don't really have to agree or understand each other."

There was one more reason why Faith had started this conversation. At the moment, the biggest liability to his plans was Caroline. Despite everything, he couldn't understand what she was thinking either, and he couldn't tell what she could do. Letting her run around in this Phantasmagoria Field would only cause more problems. This is why, the key to success, the most optimal action, was to stop these problems immediately.

"So with this said, how about we make a deal?"

"What is it?"

Caroline crossed her arms. The way he expressed that sounded extremely suspicious, and the flow of the conversation made her feel like she wasn't in a spot where she could refuse whatever he had in mind. Up until now, dealing with Faith had been easy for her, so what was this pressure she was feeling now? Maybe, just maybe, this time it was different because it felt like that boy was getting a glimpse of her true self.

"Anything Scarlet, you can have full ownership of the company. I will no longer be your boss, you can take the company in any direction, and I will let it happen."

To anyone else, this was a rather empty offer. After all, Faith had only inherited an old, messy building. While it's true you could probably sell it off for a good amount of money, there was nothing beyond that. After all, Anything Scarlet didn't even operate like a proper company. Up till now, everything had been closer to a school club that decided to help others by taking requests, it was something anyone could do.

And yet, to Caroline, Anything Scarlet meant something different, so this offer may as well have immense weight behind it. Faith was directly targeting her weakness, and she didn't like it one bit. Whatever the rest of the offer was, wouldn't be something simple, would it?

"In exchange, you won't kill anyone in this city, no matter what the circumstances are. If it means we all get wiped out if you don't, so be it. And of course, you will help me defeat Wish."

The offer was more dangerous than she thought, it stopped her from taking the most optimal course of action if necessary. It's not like Caroline was an assassin eager to kill, to her, murder was just another tool to get results, just another choice in the wide array of skills she had as a super part-timer. Yet, accepting this offer was really tempting, it could open a lot more possibilities, but...

"If that's the case then I quit."

"Why?!"

"I want to be part of Anything Scarlet, but I have no interest in owning the company, nor do I have any interest to follow your orders against my will."

The boy was at a loss for words, usually, he would intimidate others into doing what he wanted, or he would simply walk away, but none of these seemed like an option when it came to Caroline.

☆

After slowly opening her eyes, Eri had a hard time figuring out whether she was still trapped in some sort of dream, or if this was reality. After being assaulted by piercing cold, and looking at her bizarre surroundings, it only made matters more confusing for her.

"Lia? Lia?"

Eri could hardly react as her body was forcefully pulled out from a pile of snow. Before she could process what was happening at all, she was met with an odd embrace from a much taller figure.

"Aurelia? Why are you here, are you okay? How do you feel?"

The young girl's heart was beating incredibly fast. As her eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness of her surroundings, she soon realized the one embracing her had been an older girl. It was a voice Eri didn't recognize, and a sweet aroma completely different from her sister's perfume. Once the girl let go, and her long red hair entered Eri's field of vision, her heart skip a beat. This was the same person who was fighting Faith and Mirage earlier.

Dream or not, her best option was to get away from here as fast as possible, but something was stopping her. It was the bizarre warmth behind the kindness that this girl was showing her.

"Lia?"

Seeing the expression of concern on Celeste's face as she wiped the snow off of Eri's clothes almost reminded her of her sister. It was an odd sensation that was making her feel safe.

"I..." Eri stopped for a moment before shaking her head, and then swung her fists downward energetically. "I'm fine! It's okay!"

"Lia! I'm so glad!" Celeste embraced her again, a gesture Eri couldn't get used to. "So this is where you were! It's going to be okay! Big sister will protect you, okay?"

How could she even answer at a time like this? Eri took pride in being able to imitate others with ease, but she needed to do proper research on her targets before carrying it out properly. This girl clearly had the wrong person, but if she cleared up the misunderstanding, she would be in danger, wouldn't she? She had no choice but to keep going, but how was she supposed to imitate someone she knew nothing about?

"Y-Yeah! I knew I could count on you, I'm glad that you finally found me!"

A perfectly delivered line full of energy and certainty, and yet, to Eri it only felt like she was messing up more and more every time she opened her mouth.

"Let's get out of here together, okay?"

With a nod, Celeste took hold of her hand and started walking deeper into the abandoned snowscape.

Despite the strange environment with frozen plants taking over the destroyed remains of a clothes shop, Eri's attention was instead focused on Celeste's face.

-Wait a moment-

After getting a better look at Celeste's face, something clicked. That tone of red hair, and those green eyes. She had seen them before.

Back when May had gone into the Castle of Hope without showing signs of returning, Eri had started to run her own research of the at-the-time admin of that base. It had been an old man running a restaurant, and Eri had used that chance to make contact with Faith.

While his facial features were very different, his eyes were almost the same as this girl. What about that name... Lia... Aurelia? It was a bit hazy but, if that old man was really related to Celeste, she could piece this situation together.

"Ah."

Eri completely stopped moving.

It was wrong, it was all wrong.

Eri's mistake had been something else. If Celeste and Aurelia were really related to him, if they were really Orion's daughters, then it would be far too cruel to let things continue this way.

"I'm sorry Lia, it's really cold, isn't it? Can you keep walking?"

"Ah! Oh... sorry, Celly!! I was just thinking this place looked so pretty!" The more cheerful her voice sounded, the more Eri's voice screamed inside her head telling her to stop. She had to stop this, she had to get out-of-character this instant. "I wonder if we can come with mom next time, she'd love to see this!!"

But her guilt had ultimately failed to overpower her fear.

☆

Breaking the silence, a tune echoed inside the break room as the screen of Faith's phone lit up. Pulling out his phone, Faith immediately noticed two anomalies. For one, no one should have had this number aside from Wish and two other people, and second, this call had somehow connected even past the current Phantasmagoria Field.

ϟ"Hey! Do you want to make a deal with me instead?"ϟ

Claudia's voice was calm and relaxed, only making Faith frown as he put the phone down on the table in speaker mode.

"You realize I don't trust you, right? Or rather, you are my enemy."

ϟ"Hm? Hahaha! I think that's a pretty reasonable reaction! I'd appreciate it if you saw me as your ally though!"ϟ

Even if he didn't want to say it out loud, he was convinced that Claudia had willingly put them in danger by sending them to that strange facility beyond the sealed door. While she had claimed that she deciphered this based on the data Faith retrieved from one of the members of the organization, Claudia's analysis had been a little too fast, and too convenient. Faith only had faint memories of it when he was much younger, but he had seen May struggle for several sleepless nights in order to try and decipher some data. If this organization had managed to hide a door in a different layer of the world that couldn't be accessed through normal means, there was no way Claudia could have figured that out so quickly.

"What do you want?"

In retrospective, it had been stupid of him to trust her so easily to begin with. He didn't think much of it at the time because this was one of Mirage's contacts, but ultimately, it's not like Claudia had tried too hard to hide this. It was hard to believe she would be stupid enough to make her secret intentions clear without trying something more elaborate if she wanted to truly fool him, so then, what was really her objective here?

ϟ"Let's make a deal! It's simple, we just have to exchange information. You tell me what you know, and I'll tell you what I know. My database can come in handy you know."ϟ

"I don't think I have any information of use that you don't already have. You have nothing to gain from this, do you?"

ϟ"Hey, I think you are overestimating me! It's not like I know everything, you know! How about this? Let me give you some intel for free, just a bit of information, and if you want to proceed with the deal afterwards, I can tell you more!"ϟ

"Go on."

ϟ"The person that you and Mira were fighting, her name is Celeste Soleil. The Soilel family was a small family with four members, both parents, and two daughters. Did Mira show you the picture of a woman she was after?"ϟ

"Yeah, she looked similar but something was off."

Shortly before her confrontation with May, a young girl had approached Mirage. She asked for help saying that her mother had gone into a rampage claiming that she would "purify" them, a similar tactic as the members of the Organization of Hope. This is what led Mirage to the Castle of Hope, and to the conflict against May in the first place. In the end, the girl had handed Mirage a picture of her mother, but Mirage had failed at finding that woman.

ϟ"I found this out because Mira asked for help looking into this person. Oh! And please don't tell her about this conversation, okay? Anyway! The person in that picture is Clarissa Soleil. Both Clarissa and the youngest daughter, Aurelia, passed away about three years ago. It seems that the father, Orion, had left the family way before that though, and Celeste ended up living with him again at a small run-down restaurant after the fact."ϟ

As Claudia spoke, images of the people she mentioned appeared on Faith's screen, and upon seeing Orion, both he and Caroline leaned in closer, realizing they recognized this man. It was the person they had fought at the Castle of Hope, and the same old man that had tried to poison them.

ϟ"Celeste lived with him for a few years, but well, things get a little more complicated from there, and connect right into the place that you and Mirage investigated earlier! The little freebie ends here though. Want to know more? Then take my deal!"ϟ

Faith brought a hand to his mouth and glanced at Caroline who shrugged her shoulders. She didn't seem interested in making a choice here, so it all came down to him in the end.

"What do you want to know?"

ϟ"How were you able to open that door? It's true that I gave you the coordinate, but even I didn't know a way to open it."ϟ

"Are you familiar with the term Velvet Burst?"

ϟ"Yup! Like Mirage's Phantasmagoria, right? Do you have one too? What does it do? Does it let you materialize things into the world?"ϟ

"We opened the door with a Velvet Burst. That's all you need to know."

ϟ"Fair. To show you I'm also keeping my promise, here's something good: the place you visited was marked as the "Artificial Heaven." Interestingly, I did get some insight into what kind of place it is through the data I received, but I'd like to hear from someone who was there first hand. What do you think about it? What do you think a place with that name is like?"ϟ

"It was like a prison."

"Hm? Was it that blue room?" Caroline jumped into the conversation. "To me it almost looked like the ocean, or like space. It was pretty!"

ϟ"Interesting. Then how about this, have you ever heard about simulation theory?"ϟ

"The one that says the world is a simulation being run by a super-computer? One of the bosses at my part-time jobs was obsessed with that once, but I thought it was a little silly."

If you were to think of the way videogames have evolved throughout the years, graphics have continued to improve, getting more and more realistic, and some say the advent of virtual reality could bring that to the next stage. If you were to combine that visual advancement with the development of AI and fast-forwarded several thousands of years into the future, it would be perfectly realistic for humanity to be able to create and simulate a new world. A world where the people living in it weren't aware that they were just data.

Following this theory, if the world was something that existed thanks to strings of data, if humanity was nothing but codes, was there really a way to know if you were real or not?

"Real or not, I think it doesn't change much."

Faith didn't seem too interested. After all, for someone with access to Velvet Burst, the power to tear the fabric of the world apart, and for someone who could see the layers of the world, the way he viewed things was bound to be different.

ϟ"You are right, it doesn't change much... but that's for us. When you stepped into the Heaven, did anything stand out to you? What did you see?"ϟ

"It was bright and blue, and um..." Caroline had a hard time recalling, after all, her consciousness had started to shut down the moment she stepped in.

"There were a lot of tubes, and some mechanism attached to them? It's not any technology I've seen before at least."

ϟ"I see, so that might be where they are keeping them."ϟ Claudia murmured to herself before talking to Faith and Caroline again. ϟ"See, to put it bluntly, the Artificial Heaven is a perfectly completed simulation. If we look into technology that's not known to the public, we as humanity, are way ahead than what you can even begin to imagine. Most likely, there are people being kept inside those tubes, or at this point, I would imagine it's just their brains."ϟ

Having seen the bodies of the people trapped inside, Faith knew that this last assessment was wrong, but it didn't make this any less unsettling.

ϟ"The people connected to that simulation might not be aware of where they are, to them, they may as well be living their lives as usual even as we speak, without anything out of the ordinary standing out to them. And here's something puzzling, the list of missing people from Glint City's Blue District matches the list of people at the Castle of Hope, but the girl you found there was some sort of robot, wasn't she?"ϟ

The implications of simulation theory could change a lot depending on what you truly cared about. For one, if humanity advanced enough to start a simulation, there was nothing stopping the new humans inside the simulation from eventually creating their own. The deeper the layers went, the harder it would be to know which was the original world. Was there an original world to begin with? And even if it was true that your existence was just data trapped somewhere within the matryoshka of worlds, what would you do with this information?

For some, it may be reason to panic, feeling trapped, as though everything was meaningless. For others, it changed nothing. Learning this wouldn't change anything, you would still need to wake up every day, and the course of your life would continue as usual. For others, it was also a way of coping with a harsh reality. If the world was just data, it meant there was a way to manipulate it, if you could manipulate the world, maybe you could escape its cruelty. If you could escape to the original world, make you still had the chance to start over, maybe there was no need to accept your reality.

"So people were taken from the city, connected to the Artificial Heaven's simulation, and then mechanic copies of them are living at the castle?"

Faith was quick to throw out a hypothesis. After all, the robot girl they had gotten the data from, Claire, had stepped out from that heaven, now being a proper living being.

ϟ"Good to know we are on the same page, I was thinking the same thing. So if we assume Celeste was somehow freed from that Heaven, I may have an idea of what's causing your biggest problem right now."ϟ

"And that is?"

ϟ"Think about it. Why is this simulation using the name "heaven?""ϟ

There could have been several reasons behind that. Such as it simply being the name of the project used by whoever made the simulation, like a symbol to say this was the next step for humanity, maybe even a sign of immortality. But the real answer may have been much worse.

ϟ"You are usually told heaven is your reward after you die, right? After making it through and doing good deeds, you finally get what you want! "I will put up with all the horrors of the world without fighting back because I will finally get what I deserve if I go to heaven!!" It's not uncommon for many to think that way."ϟ

"So... this simulation is some kind of reward?" Caroline tilted her head.

ϟ"If that's how you see it! If we think of heaven as a place where you finally get what you want, a perfect life you were never able to obtain, then this is exactly what this seems to be. Remember I only have surface level data on the project from what you sent me, but at least it's very clear that this is a simulation to let "people experience an eternal paradise." If we take Celeste for example, it's likely she was living in a world where her mother and her sister never died."ϟ

Remembering how Claire had instantly attacked them after stepping out of that place, it made a lot more sense now, and the more things clicked, the more it revolted Faith.

ϟ"We don't know the parameters of this simulation, like what the flow of time is next to ours. After living in a perfect world for who knows how long, how do you think someone would react after being thrown back into a reality that denies their own wishes? I personally think it wouldn't be surprising if that was enough to completely break someone's mind and leave them in a state of complete insanity for the rest of their lives."ϟ

"Tch."

Taking this theory in mind, what happened if you were standing on the other side? What happened if you had full access to what happened with one of these worlds? If you had full access to manipulating someone's entire destiny? Wouldn't that make you the god of that world? If the fate of many and the future of humanity was in your hands, what would you do?

For Faith, it was simple. To him, the world simply didn't need gods. Otherwise, it would be no different to the world he used to live in.

The boy clenched his fist and his teeth sank into his lips. If this is what heaven truly was, then he would shatter it with his own hands.

☆

Mirage desperately ran across the empty mall while looking around. Just where did Eri and Claire go? From the start, something had gone terribly wrong.

Phantasmagoria Field was supposed to be a technique where Mirage had perfect control over the changes in a specific area, but she never intended to turn the area into a frozen world like this. She was going to use her technique for something simple, leaving the young girls inside a safe room while trapping Celeste so she could deal with the situation.

Yet, the moment this field came to be, the girls were nowhere to be found. Of course she tried to undo the field instantly, but that wasn't of much help either.

The brunette stared at the silver rings in her right hand, they were devices developed by Claudia to help measure whether her techniques were still active. After all, when dealing with supernatural phenomena, even Mirage may lose sight of what was real, but neither of the rings were lightning up.

In other words, this wasn't Mirage's Phantasmagoria Field.

If so, what was this place? In order to create a Phantasmagoria Field, Mirage had to charge up her power and then release it at once, it was almost like simultaniously firing several rounds of Phantasmagoria into the world, and this is also why she was unable to use her ability while inside this field. It was as though this power was used up to create something else this time, something out of her command. This had only happened once before, but she was still too young to understand anything, still, she didn't want to believe that it was the same as back then.

At any rate, she had to make sure Eri and Claire were safe at all costs. This was the one time it would have been convenient to have Faith with her, the boy's ability would be perfect to navigate such a strange maze. With how big this place was, there were many possibilities, but at the same time, she was under the impression that the girls were originally very close to her, so searching too far away felt futile.

Taking a deep breath, Mirage stopped for a moment. She had to think. She couldn't let things go south again, not this time. The situation was tough but she was going to do something about it. It would be okay, it was okay, she would save everyone.

Reassuring herself, the girl turned around and looked up as a disturbing image was caught on the corner of her eye.

Mirage was standing in what looked like the central area of the mall, it was a massive circle-shaped, open area with stores on the sides, and if you were to look up, you could easily glance at the upper floors through the mall's inner balconies. At least five to six floors from where she was, she was able to notice Claire.

The short haired girl with green eyes ignored Mirage's voice, to her, the world was still blurry, and her body was still numb, but that was okay, since it would all be over soon.

It was an image that Mirage was unfortunately familiar with. She knew that Claire was about to jump and had no intention to stop.

Mirage couldn't tell if she would make it in time, but there was no time to think. In an instant, Claire had jumped down from the upper floors.

The brunette quickly launched her hook in order to launch herself, but her body failed to take flight thanks to her feet getting stuck in the snow-covered the field.

Gritting her teeth, Mirage threw herself into the floor, shooting a second hook into a low angle. This time the hook pierced Claire's clothes, and slightly changed the direction of her fall, towards a space closer to where Mirage stood. With a final sprint, Mirage slid on the floor, catching Claire in her arms moments before impact.

The brunette breathed a sigh of relief, cold sweat rolling down her neck, but as she set Claire down on the floor, Mirage noticed that her hands were now covered in fresh blood. Soon after, the snow under her feet was now being colored with that disturbing red.

For a moment, Claire remained frozen while staring at the floor, she was in a state of shock and had no reaction to the pain in her body.

Taking a closer look, the hook had pierced part of Claire's right leg, enough to tear apart a chunk of skin. Since she didn't have enough medical knowledge, Mirage couldn't tell if the damage had managed to pierce into her muscle as well, or whether her bones were intact.

As the brunette tore apart part of the bandages on her left arm to wrap them up around Claire's leg, she couldn't figure out what to say. The girl still was showing no response, and moreover, she had attacked them before, so there was no telling if she was still dangerous. At least, her odd silence was very different from her aggressiveness earlier, and Mirage's threat alarm had not gone off either.

"Does it hurt a lot? I know it's my fault so I apologize, I will take responsibility for this, so hang on a little longer, please."

She had tried her best to sound friendly and approachable, but there was no response.

Once she had stopped the bleeding, Mirage looked around wondering if she could find Eri to no avail. For now, she should definitely take this girl to safety.

"I know this is scary but I'll take you to a place where you can rest, they will take good care of you, so don't worry!"

Again, there was no response.

Mirage carefully approached her, lifting the girl up and placing her body over her back to carry her. Surprisingly, she was met with little resistance. Was this girl even conscious at all? Was she still able to think and move? And more importantly, was she in this mental state because of the Scarlet Outburst that happened earlier? If so, she could only assume the same might have happened to Eri.

Now then, Mirage had to make a choice. If she left this place without finding Eri, there was no telling if she could make it back into this odd space. Yet, if she didn't take Claire somewhere safe, the injury could escalate, and worst-case scenario, this girl might even lose her leg.

-It's okay.- She reassured herself with another deep breath. -I'm going to get her out of here.-

☆

Caroline swallowed the last pill from Noa's recommended dosage, and stared at the floor for a few seconds. With this, the poison should be completely gone from her body. It may have been a little victory at a time like this, but it was enough to energize her.

Soon, she ran by herself across the frozen wonderland, her footprints leaving a trail as she dashed through the snow. As for why things ended up like this, she simply decided there was something that she had to do.

Even with her sweater and her cozy scarf, she could tell the temperature of this place was considerably dropping. It wasn't only the snow, but the walls were also turning white, as though they were being taken over by ice.

The layout of the place didn't help either, as much as it looked like a mall, it was more like a massive maze. There was no real reasoning behind the way the place was connected, if you entered a clothes shop you might end up at a sports centre on the other side, and if you tried to go through the exit door it would loop into the mall's basement. Needless to say, reaching her destination was getting harder and harder.

As the girl passed by an out-of-service elevator, a strange sensation made her stop for a second. It was as though a massive pulse or heartbeat had resounded across the mall.

Following the intensity of the snow growing into a blizzard, all the frozen flowers began to rot.

☆

Celeste stared at what looked like flashy action posters, this was likely the hallway that led into the different rooms that played a movie. Whenever she peeked into the room, she would see different fields that belonged to the sports center, once again this place proved to be bigger than expected. She couldn't imagine a mall like this having too many customers if it was such a complex maze to navigate.

Still, she was going to protect "Aurelia," and she was going to find a way out.

Pushing back the nausea at the back of her throat, Celeste took a deep breath and tightened her grasp on Eri's hand, before pulling her to the side with a lot of enthusiasm.

"Oh! This detective!! I... forget the name, but-! Isn't this from that show you really like?"

The movie poster she was pointing at looked really old and torn apart. It was also difficult to see the image properly, as the glass that covered the poster was all frozen solid, but you could still make out the figure of a detective holding a gun and standing in a cool pose thanks to the backlight.

Celeste then glanced enthusiastically at the girl next to her who smiled sheepishly while tilting her head in confusion.

"Hey, and this is the movie you wanted to see, isn't it?! Hah, I remember how you wouldn't shut up about it, I can't believe it's already out! I know mom always said no, but we can sneak out, I'll take you to see it, okay?"

"Y-Yeah!! I can't wait, I knew I could count on Celly!!"

"Yeah! I know I never paid too much attention to what you liked but...-! Maybe I can also watch the show and get into it, it looks fun!"

Eri could only stare at Celeste's back as she turned around to look at the poster again. Looking at the innoncence of that girl, she could hardly think that she was a bad person. Was there really a need to fight her? She had pieced together that this girl had something Faith and Mirage were after, some sort of gem, but had no idea why things had turned out like this.

"Let's do it! We can also- ouch!"

Eri quickly placed the palm of her hand against her neck. The sudden pain had almost been both like someone had pinched her skin, or stabbed her with a needle, disappearing almost as fast as it started.

"What is it? What is it? Are you okay?!"

Eri held her breath, hardly able to look into the girl's eyes before clenching her fists.

"It's fine, I'm fine, but... I think I'm curious about something!"

"You can tell me!"

"I saw you had a really shiny stone earlier! It was so pretty, I really want to see it, it's so pretty! Please?"

"Is it this one?"

Rummaging through her purse, the red haired girl pulled out the blood-red Philosopher's Stone. She held it with her fingers, moving it a little closer to Eri so she could get a better look.

And before she realized, Eri had swiped the stone out of her hand and sprinted away as fast as she could.

"?"

As the young ribbon girl ran away, Celeste's vision finally cleared up. The girl that was running from her was not Aurelia. That's right, there's no way it could be. So then... why? What was she doing just now? Why did something have to be taken away from her again? Why did she have to be reminded of everything now? Why did her feelings have be toyed with? Why did she have to be taken advantage of like this? Why? Why? Why?

Before she knew it, she couldn't think anymore. Her mind became clouded with burning red anger, the same anger that had taken her over before.

The air around her began pulsating like a heartbeat, running across the entirety of that mall, and the frozen flowers began to rot.

"Give it back."

Eri ran as fast as she could, hardly able to tell where she was going. The stone in her hand was warm and heating up, getting hotter and hotter, almost enough to burn her hand, but she couldn't let go of it.

After running for what felt like an eternity, she had thought she was safe for now as she couldn't hear Celeste's voice anymore. After running down a flight of stairs, crossing through the entirety of an electronics shop, and past a restaurant, the central area of the mall was in sight.

But then,

"Give it back."

She was able to hear Celeste's voice loud and clear.

Even if she tried to speed up, Eri soon realized she wasn't able to run anymore. No matter how much she forced her body to move, it would only advance in slow motion, just like trying to run in certain dreams.

With a sudden motion, Eri then realized her body was being pulled backwards by an invisible force. No, glancing at it, the space behind her was being erased as she was pulled towards the spot where the red haired girl was standing. In the end, maybe this was the punishment she deserved.

☆

As Mirage started to walk out of the mall's central area and into a corridor, the silence was broken by Claire.

"Why did you stop me?"

"Because there are still other answers."

"There aren't."

The hero was in a difficult position to speak because she knew nothing about this girl. She had no way to know what was bothering her, and what had pushed her that far. The fact that she was trying to talk now told her that it wasn't really a effect of the outburst, Claire had willingly tried to jump back then.

"There is no meaning in being here. I don't want to."

This time, Mirage was the one who remained silent. After all, she was familiar with this train of thought. Back when she met Wish again, all she could think about was how it was all wrong, how it was better for her to disappear, how meaningless everything had been. If she were to be honest, it's not like those thoughts had just disappeared, and it's not she had found an answer even now.

"Living is tiring. Please let me go back to sleep."

She could give Claire a generic positive answer, telling her how it would all get better, and how life was worth living, but Mirage, more than anyone, knew how those were only empty words. The world was a cruel place, there was nothing that would really assure you that anything would get better, but even then, even so, she had still tried to save this girl. It was specially because she was familiar with these thoughts, that she didn't want anyone else have to go through something like this.

"Hey," Mirage finally spoke. "If you could have anything you wanted right now, what would that be?"

Anything she wanted? Claire frowned. Was she making fun of her, was she not listening to anything she had to say? Maybe trying to speak really was a mistake. If no one was going to take her seriously, then why should she bother?

Despite that, it's not like something didn't come to mind.

Even if she didn't understand it, Claire's memories were now clear, her mind had finally placed all the events that took place in the proper order.

Originally, she lived a lonely life, without friends, or a connection with anyone but her parents. And then, those parents had passed away in an accident, leaving her all alone. She was lost and alone, but before she could get a single day to process what happened, she was taken somewhere.

The next thing Claire knew, her parents never passed away, and she had finally made a friend. She had finally started to enjoy being able to wake up every day, being able to have something to look forward to. Being able to open up to someone, to share her life with them, it was a beautiful experience. To think others could experience something like this so easily, it was unreal.

This unreal world continued for so long she had lost track of time, until suddenly, she woke up in that cold blue room.

Everything had been too real to be a dream, and yet, that world was just as distant as one. Why? Why did she get to experience such a happy life only for it to be torn away from her? It was cruel. This is why her only option was to leave this world, maybe if she did, she could go back to that happy world. Why couldn't someone just take her back there again? Was all of this made just to make fun of her? Just to laugh at her misfortune?

So if you were to ask her what she wanted the most, of course the answer was simple. She wanted a world where she didn't have to be alone anymore. But even if she was aware of that, she couldn't admit it, and so, she simply remained silent.

"I won't tell you that everything will get easy, or that you should just learn to enjoy life." Mirage put Claire down over an old bench, then knelt down and looked into her eyes. "But if there's anything you want, then fight for it until the very end. Don't let the world win."

She didn't hate the idea, but was it really possible? She was nothing but a failure, so, was there really any hope for her? As Mirage placed her palm on top of her head, she failed to understand why this person was trying so hard. Was she simply doing it out of pity, out of obligation?

As she wondered this, a pulse of energy ran through the place where they stood. Before she could blink, a massive tremor ran through, and the entire upper level began descending upon them with a resounding tremor.

So, this it, huh? Claire could only accept her fate as her vision was covered by the massive structure falling her way. Deep inside, she thought she could still find some hope, but maybe that was wrong.

With a strong clash, the structure's descent was stopped by Mirage's Wheel of Fortune. As dust and debris flew all over, Mirage stood still, stopping a massive piece of stone from crushing them both.

The brunette had moved quick to protect Claire, but it was difficult to proceed from here. With everything around her crashing down, there was nowhere to shoot a hook towards and escape.

While using all of her strenght to endure the pressure of gravity, Mirage glanced at Claire, maybe she could use this chance to escape but... the injury on her leg might make it hard to move.

"Are you able to leave?"

Mirage knew it was a tall order, but it was an emergency, she needed Claire to crawl out of there if she had to. But could you really ask that out of someone who didn't have the will to live anymore?

As expected, Claire remained silent and didn't move.

"I see." Mirage nodded. "It's okay, as long as I'm here, you will be safe."

The short-haired brunette couldn't help but to intently stare at Mirage. Why? Why was she going so far for her? It didn't make sense. It was stupid.

Mirage glanced at the place around her, there had to be a solution, there had to be an option somewhere. If she was alone it'd be so much easier to flee, but putting yourself in danger like this is what it meant to protect someone.

Yet, for some reason, her body then greatly slowed down. No matter how hard she tried to move it, it would move in slow motion, making her start to lose strenght in the arm that stopped the imminent impact.

Before she could come up with an answer, Claire's hand extended out, as the bangle on her wrist shined with a scarlet glow.

Hardly processing what she just did, Claire looked at her wrist, her hand shaking, before closing it into a fist. Fighting for someone she had no reason to care for, maybe she was stupid too, but she couldn't let Mirage get hurt for her sake anymore.

With this, frozen ice slowly covered up Claire's injured leg, allowing her to finally stand up. The entire structure above them then turned into solid, transparent ice and broke into thousands of pieces to the sides. The raining ice that stabbed into the floor had managed to miss both of them, almost as though its direction had been controlled by Claire's will.

☆

Eri could only watch as her body was being pulled towards Celeste at a high-speed, but then, it stopped with a sudden halt as a massive blast flew from behind her back and towards the red-haired girl.

■"Steal the stone she's carrying and then run to the mall's central area. From where you are, run straight ahead, take a turn left, go down the stairs, left again, go into the restaurant, and take the corridor to your right."■

Those were the instructions Eri had heard inside her head after getting hit by an Authority Bullet.

"Sorry to put you through this." Faith spoke, standing in front of her as he reloaded his weapon with Burst Bullets. "You did great."

Eri could only breathe a sigh of relief after hearing that familiar voice, maybe she could finally wake up from this nightmare.

"Give it back. Give it back, give it back, give it back, give it back!!"

The aggression behind Celeste's voice only got higher and higher. This time, she had pulled out her scythe and was ready to launch a barrage of attacks, but Faith ignored it.

As dire as the situation looked, everything was moving according to plan. He had managed to meet up with Eri and get the stone back. After all, he had full access to the layout of this place, and if he was right, the sound of that Burst Bullet would cause someone to come from the corridor behind him.

"Wha-!?"

Mirage stepped in while carrying a girl on her back. Her clothes were dusty, and she was breathing heavily.

"It's an Error Spot."

Faith spoke loud enough for her to hear, but simply hearing that term sent shivers down Mirage's spine.

Velvet Burst was a power that tore the fabric of reality, so it was without saying that too many of them used in the same place would have negative effects on the world, creating an Error Spot. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be possible anymore, as there were only three Velvet Burst users left in the world, and the overload needed to cause an error was much higher.

But what about the Velvet Objects, were they able to cause these side-effects too? If so, between Celeste's three objects, Claire's bangle, Eri's megaphone and Faith's gun, adding the power of Phantasmagoria and Escathology on top, it was no wonder the world was getting overloaded.

"Whose error spot is it?!"

Having experienced this at least three times before, Mirage knew that Error Spots always had someone at its center. Usually, humans weren't supposed to have the power to manipulate the world. You could say that Error Spots were also a way for the world to try and correct the problem, like a body's immune system fighting to get rid of viruses. This was the reason why her body had started to move slow at times.

Either way, the fact that the Error Spots always centered on the most dangerous threat to the world was important. After all, the only way for an Error Spot to end was for the world to remove that error.

"Do you even have to ask?" Looking at Celeste, Faith stepped forward. "The center of the Error Spot is obviously this girl."

Mirage gritted her teeth. Did this mean the world would make sure this girl had to be removed? She wanted to save her, she wanted to fight to the end to save her, but, looking at Claire, Mirage knew it wasn't realistic.

After all, Error Spots also ran on a timer. The world slowing down was just a sign that the timer started. As the timer went down, everything inside that area would be consumed. She had to get out of there immediately.

Celeste's scythe then flew in Faith's direction, particles of light also flew around her, circling her feet, following this, slowly but surely, the entirety of the mall's main area had begun to sink, similar to the floor that had fallen over Mirage.

The boy was quick to act. He stepped back, stopping Celeste's attack with another Burst Bullet. He then grabbed Eri by the shoulder and hurled her at the corridor where Mirage stood.

"Get her out of here. If someone can escape an Error Spot, it's you!"

"Huh?!" Mirage knew that he was right, but why did it sound like he wasn't coming along? Just what was Faith thinking? "What are you-?!"

"Get out of here!"

That's right, there was no time to think about it, there wasn't a single second to waste. With a reluctant nod, Mirage placed her hand on Eri's shoulder, before running away with both her and Claire behind her.

"Now then, let's take care of this."

Faith's grip on the Scarlet Grimoire tightened. The floor below him continued to sink down, parts of the mall collapsing around him, or rather, around Celeste.

This was the best time for him to escape. The Philosopher Stone was with Eri now, he could say he completed the request with this, but there was still something that he had to do. Something that he couldn't give up on so easily, and as much as he hated to admit it, something that would be difficult to pull off alone.

As he launched another Burst Blast, the attack never connected thanks to the space between him and Celeste suddenly expanding, it was the same pattern as before.

Using the last Burst Bullet in this cartridge, Faith launched himself into the air. It was likely Celeste would simply expand the space again so that he couldn't approach her, but then-

"Don't move!!"

Caroline's voice resounded from Eri's megaphone. She jumped into the collapsing abyss while holding the Velvet Object with the Power of Authority, forcing Celese to freeze in place.

There was no telling how long this effect would last, but just a moment was okay.

Using the impulse of the bullet, Faith flew directly towards Celeste and then slammed the Scarlet Grimoire into Celeste's scythe.

As red sparks flew between both Velvet Objects, Faith spoke the words that would trigger a dangerous technique.

"Scarlet Outburst!!"

With a flash, the world was painted in deep red.