[Aaron Side Story Episode 4]
1. Pure for One (4)
* * *
The Hegrian faction has officially announced their withdrawal from the project.
Big news soon spread all over Eden.
It is known that the Pick Me Up project has been thwarted.
[Tonight, an escape fleet will be prepared at the airfield in front of the headquarters.]
Hegrian's speech was broadcast on the TV channel dedicated to Eden.
[This fleet will be the last procession to leave Mobius. If you want to escape, join us without hesitation. We will not deny anyone.]
Jingle.
The ice in the glass shakes.
Tell took a sip of the red wine.
[I'll say it again. An escape fleet is at the airfield in front of headquarters tonight…]
Peek.
Tell gestured and the screen turned off.
"You were very determined to tear the city apart."
To beat up a broadcast saying they would escape openly.
Tel is sitting alone in the empty CEO's office.
Tell sipped his wine as he spun on his leather chair.
"How many people are going to leave here?"
No one answers Tell's question.
Ikar was away, saying he had urgent business to do.
"At least a third. This would make operations difficult."
Tel Ikar's way of governing is close to Earth's democracy.
Individualism, which puts one's opinion above the collective.
Ikar had said so to the spirits and gods.
Do whatever you want.
Freedom is guaranteed to you.
You have the right to live your own life.
"So it's like this."
If the city was held tight, there wouldn't have been anything to obscure the atmosphere with a broadcast like that.
There must have been uproar everywhere by now.
Almost half of them are preparing to escape.
"Hmm."
Tell can put a stop to such trivial agitation with a single gesture.
But it didn't.
"…"
There is no frustration that the project has failed.
There is no regret that Mobius is over.
just waiting
'I…'
What are you waiting for?
It reminded me of Ikar in the conference room last night.
My sister was in conflict. I didn't know what the right answer was and I didn't know what to do.
'If I were human.'
Could I have said this
Tel muttered.
"Let's stop. Let's stop and go out together. Let's live a new life."
But I couldn't.
As a goddess of innocence, Tell could not deny her essence.
Ikar's Purity.
for seeing it
Tell cannot deny her innocence.
Because I was born that way.
The younger sister had been anxiously wishing for it.
'If only I gave up.'
If you give up that mercy
we could start over
Not as a goddess of mercy and innocence, but as something else.
As a being with a human heart.
Sometimes good and sometimes bad.
Sometimes love, sometimes hate.
As such a complex being.
"Huh-huh…"
I burst out.
Tell drank the wine glass in an instant.
A hollow laugh leaked out.
"know."
you know
Because I am another you
You essentially know what decisions you're going to make.
I bet you do too.
You know what I'm going to do?
Because the two of us are one
Ugh.
The smartphone in my pocket trembled.
There was a text message from my sister.
[I want you to come to the 12th basement floor of the headquarters.]
Click.
Tell got up from his chair and boarded the direct elevator.
The night was slowly approaching.
The basement of the Mobius headquarters.
The basement of the headquarters was a place where almost no employees came and went.
Because it was the domain of Lecadis, the game director.
Except for a few direct spirits related to the top executives and directors, no entry was permitted.
'It's on the 12th floor underground.'
ding.
The door opens.
The distinctive stale and sunken air beneath the ground.
Thick and thin lines intersect in a dizzying way on the walls and ceiling.
It was a mechanical room.
"Oh sister."
Ikar stood in the center of the room.
she laughed merrily.
"What are you doing in this room? I'm seeing it for the first time."
Tell's gaze fell on the machine in the center of the wall.
A large machine made of cylindrical glass.
I couldn't figure out the use.
"The deal my grandfather was secretly making."
"Is that grandpa?"
"huh."
good.
Ikar pressed the button next to the machine.
Part of the cylindrical glass was opened to reveal the inside.
"If you put a battery in here, it will work."
if it's a battery.
Are you talking about the small battery used on Earth?
But that machine is way too big for batteries.
It was large enough for a person to enter.
"Grandpa is awesome. You made this all by yourself."
"…what are you doing?"
"If you manipulate this, a special defense system is said to be activated. A dimensional barrier on a cosmic scale is spreading!"
Ikar opened his hands wide.
"I can stop it. Even if that disaster strikes, you can block it with the dimensional barrier!"
My sister's eyes were shining.
like dreaming
"Wouldn't Hegrian-nim change his mind when he sees this machine? And that's not all. It can connect the earth and the portal."
ah.
You mean the problems Hegrian pointed out at yesterday's meeting?
Two of them can be solved by using this machine.
what.
Was it that simple?
"You can make a game a hit too!"
Ikar continued with excitement.
"I know. What I envisioned was that it wasn't fun. But my sister's is different. Hey, Grandpa told me this morning. You said you secretly submitted a plan? Very ingenious and groundbreaking!"
"…."
"A game worthy of box office success!"
Ikar's words continued.
"Itzy's grandfather said he was developing the game based on my sister's plan from the beginning. My plan was just a fake! Hehe, isn't it great?"
Tell remembered the past.
Obviously, when I first conceived the game, I submitted a plan to the inspiration.
But that proposal…
'I thought it was cancelled.'
Because it was a system that Ikar would never accept.
"My grandfather solved all the problems of my sister's project! You didn't have to worry! So…"
"Ikar."
"huh?"
Tell said with a languid expression.
"You are crazy."
"Are you crazy?"
"Is it from then? When the wave of emotions intensified as Moebius was destroyed."
A torrent of emotions spread as countless dimensions collapsed.
Ikar, the goddess of mercy, was exposed squarely to the torrent.
'Why should this guy feel so worthless?'
empathy.
Accepting other people's feelings as your own.
Therefore, Ikar ended up sympathizing with the fear of death that hundreds of billions of lives exude at once.
because it is mercy
Because the Goddess of Mercy is like that.
"sister."
Ikar said.
"I was thinking yesterday. I've been thinking about it all day what is right and wrong what am i supposed to do."
"so?"
"I didn't know what it was, so I consulted with my grandfather."
"so?"
"You got the answer."
Ikar smiled at his sister as if he was blissfully happy.
"I decided to give my life."
"…"
"Because that's more important. Because I can't give up on those children's last wishes."
Ikar said.
"Unnie, this heart is my innocence."
pure.
Ikar, the goddess of mercy, finally gave up one for another.
It was to purify one's heart.
"I'll ask you to do the next job."
"Why me?"
"Because my sister loves me."
Ikar laughed.
"Because you love me purely. Because I was born that way."
"…"
"But not me. Those children are more important to me than my sister. So I decided to abandon my sister and become pure with the children."
Tell stood firm.
Ikar was walking into the machine.
how to use that machine
In fact, I was noticing it from the beginning.
"You can't refuse my request, can you? It always has been."
Ugh.
The lights on the mechanism started to light up.
It detected a high-density energy source.
Tell held out his hand.
"Are you going to stop me?"
"…"
"I can't do that. You are the goddess of innocence."
because you're not human
Because she respects purity of heart.
Unstoppable.
I can't stop my brother from leaving.
"Because I am not human."
Ikar smiled like a flower blooming.
and said
"hi."
clap.
As Ikar entered, the cylindrical machine began to close.
A yellow liquid fills the inside of the glass wall.
Inside, the Goddess of Mercy slowly closed her eyes.
Whoa!
The device detects the energy source and activates.
Lights came on everywhere. Lines connected to the wall began supplying energy to the system.
That energy source is
the Goddess of Mercy itself.
As the highest-ranking deity, her existence itself was a mass of dense interference power.
He used himself as a battery.
"…."
Ikar inside the machine has his eyes closed.
He had already lost consciousness.
Didn't die.
was alive
However, the interference force was being absorbed as it was alive.
'indeed.'
Tell thought.
If you use your sister as a source of bio-energy, you can cover the enormous energy required for the project.
No one was forced to take on this role.
she chose herself
"Why didn't you stop?"
Tel muttered.
Subduing Ikar was simple.
But it didn't.
"Because there is no point in blocking it."
heart is dead
The sister's dead heart does not come back until the dream is fulfilled.
"dream."
bubbling.
Bubbles bubbled up from the liquid inside the machine.
The goddess inside is probably dreaming.
"Pure Dream."
I want to save those children.
I want to see those kids one more time.
I want to reverse the fate of Mobius.
The weight of the dream is heavier than the tell that was the other half.
Mercy is the abandonment of half the body.
because it is pure
Because innocence can give up everything for one thing.
"I see."
Tell agreed.
He did not resent Ikar for leaving.
Everyone is like that.
Even if there are many precious things, there is always a superiority or inferiority among them.
Ikar threw everyone else away for the one goal of bringing Mobius back to life.
"Are you… using me?"
Tell's mouth widened.
She knows how her sister will behave if she says so and disappears.
It was sacrificed under thorough calculation.
"Because I can't. because it doesn't seem possible Did you pass it all on to me? dirty work. ugly thing. Leave everything."
Beetle.
Tell stumbled.
A somber monologue leaked out.
"Are you asking me to take over your selfish dream and sacrifice it to the end and die?"
Moment.
Hatred raged in the girl's heart.
thud!
Tell hit Ikar through the glass on the forehead.
Darkness rose from the crimson eyes.
"Because I don't want to get my hands dirty. Because I don't want to play a petty role. Pretending to make a good sacrifice. Do you want me to do the rest?"
Jureuk.
Tears of blood flowed from Tell's eyes.
"I don't care what Mobius is like. It doesn't matter if this world perishes or if the entire universe is destroyed."
hypocrisy. hypocrisy. hypocrisy.
Anyway.
You said it was for those children, but in the end, you wanted to make up for your own loss.
You packaged your heart's desire as mercy, but the inside was terribly selfish.
"Answer me, huh?"
Tell said, pressing his forehead to the glass.
Ikar inside the machine said nothing.
plural. resentment. Hatred.
All kinds of dark emotions rush like a storm.
have to throw it away Tell thought.
If you grant the wishes of such a psychopath, you will be destroyed unconditionally.
Tell staggered back from the machine.
In fact, you may have known.
That Ikar behaves like this.
I didn't stop it even though I knew it.
"Ahaha."
A dry laugh leaked out.
"Because I am not human."
can't hate
You cannot turn affection into hate.
Because I was born that way.
The goddess of innocence, Tell, had one thing imprinted on her soul from the time she was first created.
It is
pure love for Ikar.
impossible.
Just like Ikar can't throw away Moebius' lives.
Tell also cannot abandon Ikar.
I cannot forsake my beloved sister's last request.
"Whoa whoop whoop whoop…"
Tell laughed, clutching his head.
Sharp nails dig into the scalp.
His long black hair was disheveled, and blood flowed through it.
"Ahahahahahahahahaha…"
Mad laughter filled the basement.
"Oh yeah. that's right. I can't deny you because I love you Your favor, your last will. It can't be helped."
Tell looked at Ikar with twisted eyes.
"I will do whatever you want. I won't let Mobius go down no matter what you do. Is that what you want?"
Blood trickled down Tell's face.
"Kihihi kihihihi…"
The goddess walks down the aisle with a limp.
Oh yeah.
conclusion like this.
It seemed like it would be like this from the beginning.
"Relaxed, relieved, relieved."
It's made simpler.
It made things very simple.
Now you only have to pursue one goal.
Tell laughed.
It was only when mercy disappeared that she was able to become completely pure.