Why is the B System just an... empty void? Shouldn't a physical manifestation mean, I dunno, an actual physical presence?

"Let's not worry about that," I whisper.

Aster's fallen to her hands and knees. I fly down to her side in a matter of seconds.

She's bleeding from her eyes. I wave a hand at her, willing her to be whole again, and she returns to health, but it's not enough. She starts bleeding once more.

[Objective]: Integration Progress: [91/100]

The true form of the B System continues to force itself into this world all around us, the infinite darkness replacing the skill-lit starry skies of before.

The truth hits me like a sack of bricks.

We've never been fighting a single, living being. The R System made mistakes. It was, after all, a human being strapped to a device that gave him godhood, and us humans are fallible.

But the Origin System's never behaved like a person. It's never pretended to be one.

Because this is what it is. It either is the void or is something so divorced from human reality that it chooses to live inside absolute nothingness.

I've been too quick to assume things about this world. There's magic here, souls exist, W Inertia is a measure of both your potential and your soul energy--why wouldn't the Origin System be able to access infinite darkness?

Staring into the void sends a chill running down my spine, both physically and metaphysically. My entire System feels uneasy staring into it.

But we have to attack it. We have to enter it.

[Objective]: Integration Progress: [92/100]

If we don't do anything, it'll all be over. I was a fool. I forgot that this skill isn't one way. If I seized control of it from the R System, there's nothing saying the Origin System can't take it from me.

And that's just what it did.

It moves slowly, but it's inexorable. Every tick of 1/100 on the progress bar takes longer to achieve than it took Aster to move it forward by five, but I can't wrestle control back. Even with my millions of W Inertia, trying to fight for control is like a toddler trying to wrestle a Navy SEAL. It's just not happening.

There's only one thing I can hope for now, and it's the fact that there's still some connection between me and Origin. If I play my cards right, I may still be able to shank this thing like the R System did way back when.

In order to do that, though...

I have to leave Aster behind. She's in no state to fight or even walk.

With a flick of my hand, I teleport her to Arcs and Thron. The invaders have backed off, which surprises me. Despite dying in spades in the streets of a city whose name I don't know, they kept going. Origin's arrival here has likely caused its people to withdraw.

"Just you and me," I murmur.

Just like it was at the start.

And I fly onwards unto the void.

I'm inside the Origin all too soon, and the transition happens far too naturally. One moment, I'm in a warped form of reality, and the next, I'm in complete and total blackness.

My entire world lights up in a moment, bright blue erupting in front of me. It extends so far out to either side of me that I'm sure I've left the Continent and made it to another planet. My perception still stretching across the majority of the Continent keeps me grounded, but I can't even start to process the size of this thing. This one light in the void has to be as large as the entire planet.

All of a sudden, my perspective warps, and I'm looking at myself from far, far behind.

Another chill runs down my spine.

This isn't a planet.

That's an eye. [Objective]: Integration Progress: [93/100]

Fuck. I shiver, but I force myself back into my own head. Well, Jerome's head, but at the moment that's one and the same.

I guess this is how it ends, then.

"I guess so," I say, and the void steals the sound away. Still, from the reaction in my mind, Jerome's probably heard it.

Nah, fuck that. We stop fighting when we die, and we're not dead just yet.

I know you don't believe in us. Please. Believe in me. Believe in yourself.

We're going down swinging.

Jerome having a spine shouldn't really surprise me at this point, but it does somehow.

I smile despite myself.

"Alright," I say. "One last time."

I reach out, knowing my [Authority] isn't nearly strong enough to defeat it. I'm completely unsurprised when the light flashes a single time and every trace of W Inertia I build up is utterly annihilated.

If I don't already know how hopeless this is, that cements it.

[Objective]: Integration Progress: [94/100]

But for some reason, some part of me refuses to give up. I recognize that part of me because it isn't me.

You can do this, Parker. We can do this! You've saved me so many times. You saved a world from the Eternal King. You fought back against the Origin's System before you even knew it was brainwashing you! You're too strong to just give up now.

I chuckle softly, then freeze.

The Origin System makes no note of it. Why would it? All I can see of it is a single, impassive eye, waiting for me to die and be turned to its cause.

It can't read my thoughts. The connection between us is strongest here inside its own domain, and even then it's tenuous, like an old, torn-up string hanging on by its last piece of thread.

Jerome's given me an idea.

[Objective]: Integration Progress: [95/100]

It's almost definitely hopeless, but there's nothing else I can do. Before, I had to focus a hundred percent of my attention on the shield, preventing Aster from falling to [Unique] rarity skills fired from half the Continent away.

Now, though, Aster is safe and sound and completely incapable of casting. Nobody is attacking her. Why would they? Their System already has its prey.

I can focus my still-existent will outside.

Jerome's right. I'm stronger than this. Nowhere near strong enough to kill the B System alone, but I refuse to go down without even putting up a half-decent fight.

He must be able to feel the shift in my W Inertia, because the impression of a smile graces my mind.

There's the Parker I know.

I spread my influence all over my territory. There are millions dead, but there are tens of millions more still alive. The rate of death sharply decreased after the initial wave. Once the weakest were taken out and there were enough corpses stacked up, getting to other people to kill must've become much harder.

The Continent is a massive, world-spanning graveyard, but some of its strongest individuals remain mind-controlled. The Origin System continues to violate the deepest part of them, preventing them from being themselves.

I've removed influence before. I can't remove redactions without an extreme amount of effort, but I can eliminate memories and tendrils of mind-fuckery just fine. When I did it with the party, it was simple as anything else.

This is the same thing, just... on a far more massive scale.

And yet the Origin System still doesn't notice.

[Objective]: Integration Progress: [96/100]

I suppress a laugh. It's so focused on executing its most recent "proposal" that it's completely ignoring what I'm doing to its people. Maybe it's deemed that they aren't a threat. Maybe its modeling is inaccurate now that we're out of bounds for its predictions.

But over the course of forty-five seconds, an entire Continent loses the mental blocks that the Origin System applied to them. Millions of people realize at once that they've murdered innocents. In the moments after the realization sets in, several thousand more die.

There's still so many people left in this world. None of them are under the influence of the B System. Even those who gain their power from Origin have their minds unclouded now. Maybe it'll replace those blocks as soon as it kills me, but I want to believe that a few will survive. A few will continue the resistance.

I'll die having made a change.

[Objective]: Integration Progress: [97/100]

"I did my best," I say, the void rendering me silent. I don't try to leave. There's no point in trying.

And then Jerome speaks.

He speaks, digging deeper into the System than I thought he'd try to.

The Origin's little prodigy. Jerome is truly special, isn't he? I still think much of his ambition in this world comes from me--someone had to guide that poor fellow--but I'm seeing now that when he sets his mind to something, he commits.

He still can't do it alone, but I see the gist of what he's doing, so I guide him.

When we speak, we do it as one.

P-System Broadcast

All of you have likely spent the last hour fighting for your lives. To some, this was an unprovoked attack. To others, you were sent on a righteous crusade.

And now the fog has cleared. Those of you who believed you were fighting for a true cause--think back, and realize the one who invaded your mind. The one who caused all this death and suffering.

I seek nothing more than peace. For this, I beg you: lend me your power. We want to end this. Nobody else has to get hurt.

From two people thrown into the deep end to everyone out here, help us.

You are the world's only hope.

I don't imbue them with any power of influence. Not only do I not want to not descend to the Origin System's level, I physically can't. I've exhausted so much of my W Inertia.

[Objective]: Integration Progress: [98/100]

I look across the world with my senses, reaching out to see if anyone reaches back. I see confusion. Distrust. Fear. Mothers cry for their children. Fathers cry for their mothers. Children cry for everyone.

Nobody acts. I sigh.

It was worth a try.

And then a trickle comes in. Thousands of W Inertia, hundreds of mana. Practically insignificant to me, but for a regular person, extending their willpower that far out is like trusting me with their life.

I trace it back to its source.

Aster is bleeding from every orifice. Half a dozen healers attend to her, barely keeping her alive, and still she gives me everything she has.

Another trickle joins her a moment later. Arcs. Then Thron.

A healer adds his will in later, my reach guiding his subconscious to send me fragments of his self. W Inertia.

Another healer.

A child looks up through the red mist of the battlefield and sees hope. She extends her will to me.

Another. Another. Another.

[Objective]: Integration Progress: [99/100]

Another. Another. Another. Another. Another.

Soon, I lose count. Within seconds, the trickles become a deluge, the sheer quantity of people enough to make the level of W Inertia significant.

Around the world, the fear remains. People stay buried in on themselves, terrified and distrusting, but through all that runs a single light.

Hope.

Hope for a brighter future.

Hope for a world where this day can never happen again.

If I could fall to my knees, I would. I sob openly, the sudden crushing weight of an entire world's belief bearing down on me, and I accept it all.

I take and I take and I take.

And I need to give back somehow.

I fight, and the Origin System finally fights back.

The eye blinks once more, and this time, I refuse to let myself be torn away in its torrent.

Jerome fights with me.

Aster fights alongside me.

Thron and Arcs fight too.

Around the world, everyone fights. So many of them don't even know what they're fighting for, and yet they fight for a man and a System that they've never met before.

My heart burns with everything. Everyone's rage, their desire, their frustration, their dreams, their despairs.

I scream, and the world screams with me.

[Parker's Objective]: Integration Progress: [100/100] Origin System Status

Soon, the Origin System screams with us.

It takes three entire hours to fade, bit by painstaking bit.

Slipping back into my System form is practically a relief. It takes no effort at all.

Hero's Personal Log [Jerome, signing off] Thank you, Parker. P-System Broadcast

We did it.

We won.