Please, Emi… Please just forget about me.
The memories flashed through her mind.
It is time to sleep, lady Emilia. When you wake up, I pray that this matter will have advanced to the next stage.
"Have you awoken, young lady?"
A voice pulled out Emilia from her slumber as she woke up, eyes fluttering open as the sight fell onto her. A certain academy office and a man facing the window before him.
"Eh? You… You are…"
"It has been quite a long time, young lady."
An old man. Close to his sixties in appearance with a monocle on his face. Gray hair and green eyes featured his elderly head and well put-together clothes, and a cane accentuated his overall appearance as he turned towards her with a gentle smile.
"Sir… Hugo…?" Emilia muttered out as an expression of pure dumbstruck shock etched itself on her wide-eyed face.
"Yes. It is I."
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"I take it you're aware of at least that much, no?" Lilith asked with a head tilt while the only answer she got was a silence as good as any confirmation.
"…" Ace simply averted his gaze. "I know that already."
"Oh? You do. I see…" Lilith hummed pleasantly. "Then I suppose I'll just move on to what you're more interested in knowing. What exactly are you and I truly? Why are we so different?"
Ace's gaze shifted. It was more focused. Like a hawk locking onto its prey.
"My, so eager~" Lilith turned around once more, resuming to walk in front of Ace as he followed behind her.
"To begin with, what do you think is the information that constitutes Akasha in its entirety if its essence is the collective subconscious of humanity?"
"Memories, imagination and knowledge," Ace replied instantly.
"Correct~! That's exactly it. Whether it'd be from the past, present or future, or even if it came from this world or another distant one, the essence that forms Akasha is nothing more than such information. And that is where the Cataclysm comes in."
Lilith then started twirling her finger in the air, smile still etched on her lips.
"However, it happened or whatever caused it to happen, the Cataclysm broke the rules of the reality the humans were accustomed to as well as the boundary that balanced that order. It was—in one sense of the word—like poking a needle into a balloon, and instead of completely bursting, only a small ripple occurred, hence the disaster of 300 years ago and the abnormalities that followed."
Lilith stopped mid-step, glancing back at Ace over her shoulder.
"Among such abnormalities were Vanishing Points, Realizers, you and I, but most importantly, Akasha itself. With the knowledge you now possess, I'm sure you can take it from here, no~?"
Lilith looked at Ace with a gleeful, inquiring gaze, making the latter sigh.
"To begin with," Ace began, following up on what Lilith had said. "Akasha should have never gained self-awareness. What was once a simple conceptual existence became an entity with a sentient sense of consciousness but no individuality."
"Exactly," Lilith chimed in. "Even if it did gain self-awareness as an existence, its purpose did not change and it remained whole. While this world burned from the rupture it had itself caused, Akasha became something more. We might even call it, the Will of Akasha."
"But something else emerged," this time Ace took on the initiative. "Irregularities that broke off from the whole that was Akasha to become individual existences."
"Yes. That is exactly right. You and I are those irregularities. But even if we share the same origin, we are completely different from each other. When I became self-aware of my own individuality, I wandered within the whole that was Akasha until I finally escaped it."
"Into this world, right?" Ace inquired intently.
"Of course. There exists a multitude of worlds within the very fabric of reality, but the one closest with Akasha is this one, Elderngard. You might be surprised to learn this, but when I emerged into this world it was approximately 13 years ago. I had been confined within the body of a black cat. And the ones to discover me were none other than the Wellbergs. Frank and his dear uncle, Philip whom I later possessed before posing as Vadus Light."
"But you are different from me, you integrated with something else entirely," Lilith approached Ace, inclining his head with her finger. "Something unbound by this world yet that was pulled into it temporarily through Akasha. Am I wrong~?"
Ace's expression remained impassable at the inquiry and gesture, but his mind had already come its conclusion.
'Asaru Takayoshi. He was that foreign existence that got pulled in. But now, it confirms it. What the Will of Akasha told me a few days ago in that white landscape. From what it is, what I am, everything is true.'
His mind couldn't help but go back to that memory, the differences in the explanations diverging slightly in delivery, yet the same underlying mechanism remaining the same.
"Not gonna answer, are we? Too bad," Lilith pulled back as this time she stayed right in front of Ace. "When we came into individuality, we were both Nameless. That fact hasn't changed for me. Vadus Light, or even Lilith, those names are merely borrowed names."
Lilith then raised a hand to her chest, tilting her head with that same smile of hers.
"This vessel for instance is called Maria Williams. She serves as Secretary in the Jaegers Association and she only has to two twin younger brothers, Isaac and Theodore who graduated from Therion Academy. I acquired her a few weeks ago with the objective of acquiring information on the average response time of Realizers to Vanishing Points ruptures, but—"
"Enough. I've heard enough," Ace interrupted her, memories surging back in his mind. "I can't say she gave me the warmest welcome or that I know her that well, but what do you gain from all this?"
"Hmm…" Lilith pondered, a twisted mesmerizing grin spreading on her lips. "Huhuhu~ What do I gain? Do you truly need great ambitions or inherent goals to act on one's desire~?"
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"How…? What happened here?"
A group of three Sentinels were stunned as they admired the spectacle before them. It was a residence frozen in ice. Spikes had erupted, destroying a good portion of the walls and roof.
"Quick! We're going in!"
The leader of the team ordered as the two other Sentinels with him started looking into the ruined frozen residence.
But further from their location, hidden within the canopy of trees with frost bites and a reddened face of exhaustion, Francesca leaned against a solid tree, sliding down its rough surface while still clutching onto her injured arm.
As she finally made contact with the ground filled with dirt and withered leaves, she released a deep, long sigh.
'Master Ace… I'm sorry. It would seem that we've greatly underestimated Lady Emilia.'