"Fine, fine." Kafka shrugged lightly. "I don't have a good feeling about this mission anyway. If possible, I'd rather tidy things up as quickly as I can."
"Heh. What? Did the script Elio gave you rattle you that badly? Isn't this exactly what you've been asking for?"
"It's not that I'm afraid, it's just..."
Kafka straightened her body, lowering her hands, no longer in the mood to pretend to play the violin. As the door slid open, she let out a quiet sigh, taking a moment to digest—once again—what Elio briefed her on about before the mission took place.
In the scripts Elio provided, he had divined five of the worst possible outcomes.
As Silver Wolf would phrase it, the world is set at Hell Difficulty.
Resting a hand against her chin, Kafka recalled a certain Genius—the Omnipotent. In a far-flung corner of the universe, that Genius's desperate gamble to summon a Demon King would fail catastrophically. And in the ruins left behind by the Emperor's Throne, Annihilation would subsume Destruction.
She dreaded to think an Aeon even worse than Nanook could be born.
As for the second outcome, it involves the fractured path of the Permanence spiraling out of control. A cosmic blight would spread across the stars, assimilating all life into a singular, grotesque whole. Any contact with its light would fuse consciousnesses, pulling them into the unrelenting, boundless amalgamation.
Not even Aeons would be spared from the ravenous tide of flesh and blood.
When Kafka pressed Elio about what kind of monster they would ultimately face, he gave her a similarly cryptic answer.
The day itself was destined to break.
Speaking of which, the third outcome ends in a similar fashion—albeit a bit less tragic in her opinion.
In the far-eastern city of the Blue, a sorcerer will enact a thousand-year ambition, performing a grand culling ritual that will merge every soul on the planet into a single totality: a malignant curse that could neither be killed nor subdued.
Eventually, people would adapt to its existence, treating it as nothing more than another natural disaster.
However, the Astral Express will lose the opportunity to meet a key ally, dooming their chances to win in a decisive battle in Penacony's Dreamscape.
In the end, the entire universe would be reset by a priest.
Then there was the fourth scenario.
If their timing was even slightly off, the Stellaron Hunters will inadvertently draw the Virtuosa out before the Sword Saint arrived—which meant that the Trailblazer's journey, and the entire Astral Express crew in extension, shall end before it could even begin.
Fortunately, out of the five possibilities, convincing the Sword Saint to cooperate was the simplest ordeal.
"What was it again...? Was it along the lines of 'Do not utter a single falsehood in his presence'," Kafka tilted her head, muttering to herself.
"Oh, I remember that one," Silver Wolf's voice chimes in. "The man's a walking cheat code I tell you. It's said that he possesses well-over one thousand divine protections from Idrila; one of them being to discern lies with a guaranteed accuracy. But even without the Aeon's blessing, his might is truly unparalleled."
"...Clashing against a Lord Ravager with a prop sword! Can you imagine how ridiculous that sounds?"
With a crack from the intercom, she continues. "Really makes you think how he eventually manages to lose."
"Oh, please. I didn't ask the question to hear his fanfare." Hearing the word 'lame' coming out of her mouth, Kafka lightly chastise. "And give the man a break, why don't you? How are you supposed to win against someone who can't die... anyway—"
Kafka suddenly stopped.
As if cutting a live wire, silence immediately fell between them.
Silver Wolf did not rebut this time, and Kafka tactfully chose not to egg her on further, realizing she had just stepped on a sore spot.
Right. If the fifth outcome was that simple, then it wouldn't be called Hell Difficulty. Sometimes what appeared to be easiest, turns out to be the hardest. Going back to the final outcome once more, convincing the Sword Saint to cooperate proved to be a simple matter... On the part of the Stellaron Hunters.
But that's the thing. They weren't the actors positioned to play the part, that moment within the script was referring to someone else.
After confirming the Virtuosa hadn't made an appearance, they have already been locked to three outcomes. Knowing this, Kafka was certain that the infinite loop has begun the moment she steps foot on the hallway.
From this moment, the fate of the entire universe now lies with him—Natsuki Subaru.
To that man, these brief few moments might have been the most gruesome eternity he has experienced.
Except, his pride wouldn't allow him to beg for the life of him.
On the other side of the screen, Silver Wolf was still deeply shaken by Kafka's words.
How could she not?
Silver Wolf wasn't cut out for a single-player game.
The man was a stranger, at most everything she knew, Silver Wolf learned by reading the script. Yet it's hard not to sympathize to someone who has endeavored for heaven-knows how many times due to her own sake, at the cost of his own life.
Suddenly, she remembers that day...
Leaving her hometown amidst the effulgent neon lights, she made a vow to herself that very night—"A game is a game and that's all there is to it!"
However, if that was really all, she wouldn't have joined the Stellaron Hunters.
Only she knows the joys she left behind on her home planet; the fun of sharing the same console with a friend, finding genuinely interesting side quests hidden on a crappy game, or completing a difficult achievement amidst the company of like-minded people.
Once you start to reminisce, the ball certainly keeps on rolling.
'If...' Silver Wolf thought. 'If they also had a save point, what would they do?'
If there really was a way to set their own save point, what would Maine and Dorio do? She was certain the sibling-pair Rebecca and Pilar would just bruce force their way out, same as what David would have done, so there was no need to ask them. Sasha and Kiwi, as netrunners, would probably go for a tactical route.
But most importantly, what would that certain Super Genius and Sickly, Beautiful Girl Hacker do?
"Ugh, what a downer. Forget it, she'd just laugh me off had I asked," grumbling, she patted her cheeks to psyche herself up. "Better let the dead rest. Hmn."
Wiping her face, Silver Wolf set a countdown on her terminal and faced forward, her heart thumping in her chest.
Three.
Two.
One—
As the countdown reached zero, the door suddenly opened.
"Yo, Silver Wolf!" A man wearing a cultist robe salutes her—the glint on his eyes was incredibly telling. "I've come to bargain!"
His eyes told that he knew her.
And this time, promising to himself, that it would be the last.