Chapter 22: Family

Chapter 22:
Family

 

OTTILIE BROUGHT MILKIT and the others she rescued back to the facility beneath the capital for safekeeping. They were kept confined to their spacious room. Food came throughout the day and books were available upon request, but what they wanted most—news from the outside and information about the man named Satuhkie—was strictly off-limits.

The biggest change they witnessed after several hours in the room was when Ink was summoned and taken away. As they walked through the halls, the guard—he struck Ink as a mercenary—warned her not to make any attempt to go outside.

Hallom grew sick from the stress, causing Kleyna to get more annoyed with each passing hour. Was keeping them locked up in here really the best option? The answer seemed far less certain as time went on.

After a short while, Ink finally returned.

“Ink…?”

Milkit jogged over to her side and took the young girl’s hand to lead her into the room.

Her face spoke volumes. She was pale, like she’d seen a ghost.

“Hi, Milkit.”

Milkit led the sullen girl over to the sofa and sat down next to her. Kleyna brought Hallom over as well and sat down on the sofa across from them.

“Why did they only summon you? What did they want?”

Ink bit down on her lip at the frank question but made no attempt to respond. It was rapidly becoming clear that something bad had happened.

“I’m guessing you didn’t hear anything about this facility from that Satuhkie person, did you?” Kleyna asked.

She nodded.

“In that case, there’s probably nothing that Ink needs to share with us,” said Milkit.

“…You’re probably right. But I’d at least like to know what the place outside this room looks like.”

Kleyna made no further efforts to ask Ink any questions.

Milkit sat next to the silent girl, making no particular effort to comfort her beyond sitting next to her and squeezing Ink’s trembling hand in her own. A short time later, Kleyna finally left the sofa to lay Hallom down in bed. That was when Ink decided to break her silence.

“Maybe I was wrong.”

Milkit tilted her head to the side while Ink pulled her knees up to her chest and continued.

“Wanting everyone to live. Maybe that was a mistake.” She bit her lip again.

Milkit didn’t yet know about Mute’s and Luke’s deaths, but she could tell just by looking at Ink’s face that something deeply troubling had happened to her.

“Wanting them to be happy after killing all those people and committing so many terrible acts… I guess it was all pretty selfish.”

“Oh?”

In the past, Milkit would have sat and listened quietly while Ink let out all her negative emotions, but now she felt more confident in her ability to understand other people’s pain and troubles.

“If we’re talking pure logic, then no, that wouldn’t make sense. But I also think it’s entirely natural that you would want to help someone you love when they’re suffering. No matter how bad of a person they may be, even if they’re the worst person to ever walk this planet… If I were in the same spot as you, I would still want Master to be happy.”

Obviously, plenty of people would disagree. But Milkit saw nothing wrong with holding a desire, a wish in your heart. And if that wish was representative of your love for someone, well, then it might just turn into action, too. If someone asserted to you that that was wrong and rejected it out of hand…perhaps that person had never lost something important before.

Ink smiled slightly at Milkit’s reassuring words.

“I see… Thanks, Milkit. I guess you really do like Flum, don’t you?”

“Wh-where did that come from?!”

“Huh? I mean, you’d still like her even if she took on the whole world, wouldn’t you? I think it’s pretty clear you’d go that far. Don’t you think, Kleyna?”

“That’s right. I wish I were still young enough to talk about love in such a brazen and open manner. I’d be up to learn some of your tips and tricks, if you’d share.”

“You too, Kleyna? Please don’t tease me like that. I’m being serious here…” Milkit’s cheeks puffed out, burning a bright shade of pink.

Ink and Kleyna giggled furiously at the sight.

“Thanks, Milkit,” said Ink. “I’m glad to know that I wasn’t mistaken.”

“I’m just happy that my words may have been of some use to you.”

The two girls smiled at one another, though Ink still had a lot on her mind.

I know we weren’t related by blood, but how can I be here smiling just moments after watching my sister and brother die right in front of me? But I’m lucky. I have people who will support me. A place outside my family to go home to. Maybe that’s where Nekt and I differ.

This was a fortuitous change for her, but she also felt a certain sadness whenever she found herself speaking with her family. It was almost like there was an invisible barrier between them that dimmed their voices, creating little more than hollow echoes on her side.

“Hm?” Ink looked up as silence fell over the room.

“What is it?”

“Something strange’s going on. My skin, it’s all prickly…”

Ink’s heart pounded in her chest, making her feel lightheaded.

“Ink?!”

She brought her hands to her chest as a pained expression took over her face. Milkit was immediately at her side to help hold her up.

Sweat beaded along her forehead; she began to pant heavily. “A-another…one of…us…is b-being…b-born…!”

Even the so-called failed first experiment could feel the reaction after living for a whole decade with a core embedded in her.

Her body began to burn in response to the change outside. “Milkit, can you please…help me stand…?”

“Of course. What’s wrong?”

“I need to go. If I’ve reacted this way…Nekt must have noticed, too!”

Judging by Ink’s condition, they really should have been calling for a doctor, but she was too fixated on those who were important to her to bother with that. Milkit, who understood the feeling all too well, wasn’t in a position to say no.

“I understand. It may not be much, but I’ll help in any way I can!”

“What about me?” said Kleyna.

“Wait here with Hallom. We don’t know what’s happening yet. Anyway, let’s go.”

“R-right… First off, to the exit!”

Milkit wrapped her arm around the younger girl and followed her directions to their objective.

 

***

 

Nekt stepped into the operating room right as Fwiss’s operation finished, the room thick with the coppery scent of blood. She ignored the researchers, walking to Fwiss’s bedside.

“Mute and Luke are dead.”

Her voice was cold, flat. She was merely conveying facts.

“Huh, looks like Mother’s finally completed the final form, too. You can feel it, right?”

Fwiss didn’t sound terribly bothered.

His chest was bare; the stitches from his reassembly were still an angry red. Nekt didn’t quite know why, but she did note that Fwiss could only move his neck and head.

“I have to say, I’m surprised that you’d do something like this for me, Fwiss.”

“Don’t be a jerk, Nekt. I loved you all almost as much as Mother did.”

“I feel like there’s a difference of at least ten orders of magnitude between first and second place here.”

“Not at all. Maybe three, max.”

This elicited a laugh from Nekt, and Fwiss responded in kind.

However, Nekt’s face instantly clouded over, and her laughter ended as soon as it started.

“You know, I’m not even going to ask what you plan on doing, Nekt. I helped my beloved Mother see through the most difficult of tasks, and now I’m helping out my treasured siblings. I can die happy.”

“I understand. Sweet dreams, Fwiss.”

“G’night, Nekt.”

This was the last time the two would ever speak. Fwiss wasn’t quite dead yet, but he would be by the time Nekt returned. Nekt swiped the core that had until recently been in Fwiss’s body and left the room for the storage locker where Mute’s and Luke’s cores were stored. With that task finished, she teleported from the facility.

 

***

 

“Nekt!” Ink heard the sound of Nekt’s light footfalls and called out from where she was waiting near the exit.

Nekt looked back at Ink. The look of surprise melted away into a gentle smile as she recognized her sister.

“So you’re going to try to stop Mother,” said Ink.

“Heh, even a failed project like you can feel that?”

“And how do you plan on doing this alone, Nekt? You can’t take down something that big, that powerful!”

“You’re probably right, I can’t do it alone.”

“Wait…no…Nekt, you can’t. You’ll die!”

“Let me ask this then.” Nekt’s voice went cold. “Who else besides me can stop it? You and I have a pretty good idea what’s going on out there. If we just stand by and do nothing, Eterna’s going to die. How can you love her so much and still be okay with that?”

“I… I…” Ink knew it was wrong, but she hesitated.

Milkit noticed Nekt smiling. Nekt noticed Milkit’s eyes on her and brought a finger to her lips, asking Milkit to remain quiet.

“But…I don’t like it, Nekt. Not one bit. Maybe when you said that you didn’t see any meaning in surviving alone, you meant that you were okay with dying, but with you gone, that leaves me all alone.”

“You’re not alone, Ink. Just take one look at the girl at your side, holding you up.”

“Sure, Eterna, Flum, and Milkit all treat me incredibly well and care for me. But…that doesn’t mean that I won’t be sad if you’re not here! I don’t want to lose anyone! You felt the same way when you went out to save everyone, didn’t you?? You’re just sad right now ’cause we lost Mute and Luke and we’re going to lose Fwiss. That’s all! The people here are thinking of a way to deal with this, I’m sure. There’s got to be a way to do this without more death! Please don’t do anything rash!”

“You’re being unreasonable, Ink.” Nekt shook her head emphatically. “Don’t be rash? And do what? Think about how scared I am to die?”

But as the words left her mouth, she finally realized something. Mute, Luke, Fwiss…they’d all come here with the same intention.

They’d decided that they were going to die, and even as the situation around them evolved, their intentions never changed.

“You should be afraid!” said Ink. “It’s absolutely normal!”

“Yeah, well, there are things that I still need to do. This place will be safe from Mother thanks to the reversion core, but Ottilie is the only one here who can actually fight. Even if she did go into combat, she’d only stall Mother. Besides, I’m not just doing this for me but for the heroes, too.”

It was true. There was no sense in denying it. Despite all the chaos above ground, the researchers in this facility didn’t seem concerned. The final form of the Children project—something even the church knew nothing about—had been born last night, and no one yet knew what it looked like or even how powerful it was.

If they could create some kind of weapon using the reversion core, maybe they stood a chance. But once Mother’s last child was complete, Nekt doubted there would be any survivors.

“Nekt…please…don’t leave me alone!”

Ink couldn’t think of any further arguments and could only mumble her final plea.

Nekt stepped close to her older sister and patted her head affectionately before mussing up her hair.

“See ya, Sis.”

Deep in her chest, Nekt ached with sadness even as she spoke the words. She quickly turned her back on Ink before she picked up on the change. She clenched her jaw and marched resolutely toward the exit.

Ink’s cries echoed down the hall behind her.

Not so long ago, she would’ve brushed this whole situation off as an annoyance. Now that she’d experienced loss and the accompanying grief, however, Nekt felt a much stronger attachment toward this girl who’d shared eight long years of her life.

Stepping through the door, she made her way up a long, seemingly endless stairwell. Nekt’s mind wandered as she made her way up, one step at a time.

Did Satuhkie recruit me knowing that I would do this?

Satuhkie couldn’t know how powerful the final Child truly was, but he must have at least made arrangements. But Nekt had never seen anything that seemed like it could stand up against such a force, no matter how hard she looked.

That could only mean that Satuhkie counted on using Nekt when the time came. Time and again, it was clear he couldn’t be trusted, but in the end, Nekt was choosing to do this herself. No one needed to, nor could, order her around.

Or maybe I had no choice at all. Heh, I’m no different from the others.

Even freed of your chains, it was no small task to achieve total liberty. Maybe there really was no way to truly become free without throwing away your life along with it. Put that way, perhaps Mute, Luke, and Fwiss made the right choice. They hadn’t gone about it the best way, but with their hands bound and backs up against the wall, they’d made the best choice they could.

She reached up and lifted a covering to reveal a completely normal house on the other side.

Much like how Satils had concealed the entrance to her hidden chambers, Satuhkie also chose to conceal the entrance to his own facility by building it into a facade that looked like a home near the cathedral.

No one actually lived here, and there were none of the usual signs of life or fresh death. The curtains were shut tight, preventing Nekt from getting a look outside.

Her first sight of the horror awaiting her was when she opened the front door.

“Wow, this is absolutely deranged. Were you really this far gone, Mother?”

She looked up at the wall of pulsating flesh rising high into the sky. Burrowed right into the middle of it was a giant copy of Mother’s face.

Mother, awoken as the fourth-generation child, was in the midst of transforming the capital. Red veins ran across the ground like tree roots, little cocoons sprouting from them and covering nearly everything in sight. They would slowly change color as they achieved a full sympathetic connection, turning purple when they were fully developed. Large arteries from the fleshy mass rising up into the sky stretched down to pump their fluids into the cocoons, prompting them to burst and give birth to large, flesh-colored babies by dumping them unceremoniously to the ground.

Many of them suffered broken limbs and other grievous injuries during their fall, but they would shrug it off and take up the attack on the capital.

“You turned all the survivors into your children…so I guess you still won’t think of anyone but yourself, even till the very end, Mother. You never harbored any love for us, no matter how much we hoped to one day earn your affection. And yet Mute, Luke, and Fwiss all gladly threw their lives away for you. What do you think, Mother? Did your children’s last moments on this earth impress you?”

Mother’s voice resonated directly in Nekt’s head. He made no attempt to answer Nekt’s question.

“Oh, my, it’s been a while, my second failure.”

“At the very least, you could have done the same.”

Nekt felt Mother’s self-serving words bombard the inside of her head in reply. “I have no use for you if you’re just going to stand in my way. You have no right to even consider yourself my child.”

Just as she’d figured, there was never any love there to begin with.

Mother shot one of the blood vessels crisscrossing the city straight toward Nekt’s neck. She managed to duck out of the way, but only barely.

“In that case, you’re speaking to all of us, Mother!”

Nekt used her Connection ability to narrowly evade the sharpened veins shooting out at her from all directions. Now airborne, she found herself pursued by a much larger tendril stretching from the wall of flesh.

“I’m really sorry to take advantage of you guys like this, but…I really need you to lend me your strength!”

Nekt pressed the Origin cores recently harvested from her siblings to her chest.

“Origin Core…Quartet Drive!!!”

The power of four cores coursed through her body as the diamond-shaped gems spiraled together, drastically boosting her power.

“Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuugh!!!” The skin blew away from her body, revealing a pulsing mass of muscle. The power was simply too great to maintain her human form…or even her heart. So complete was her transformation that it was impossible to tell who or what she had once been.

She didn’t, however, lose sight of her enemy.

“Moooooooooooooooooootheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!!”

Nekt spun herself faster and faster, until she looked for all the world like a crimson tornado, and launched herself straight toward Mother.