“Finished! Ah, what an effort!” Y stretches her arms joyfully.

“Now, what do we do?”

“Let's go back up and wait~”

I stand up on the back of the [Whalelich].

The Resetstar is ready. At first glance, I do not notice the difference from the remains of the Corestar.

Maybe the rough edges, but it is a superficial vibration.

Maybe I am wrong.

“Look…”

“Um?”

“As the Yellow Queen, why don't you help us in battle? You will be of a high standard.”

“Ah—Um, no. To be honest, I have a less than low level.”

I put my hand on her shoulder.

I disperse the sperm whale.

[Dungeon path]

The veranda onto which we emerge has broken boards. Overlooking the abyss but less inclined.

“How do you have a less-than-low level? And all your skills?”

Y looks away. “I have them by default. We didn't level once, I told you. Skills, ability, and so on—decided at the moment of generation.”

“So, in case of comparison—”

“I understand what you mean. I'm strong. I'm strong. But Irferno is beyond my capabilities in case of confrontation.”

I leave her shoulder. “Will Resetstar do everything itself?”

“Yes. But you fight anyway. You are immortal anyway.”

“Huh? It's not that I like to suffer.”

“If Irferno realizes the trap, it's over. Pressure it, pretend to defend the star, but in reality, attract it.”

I nod.

A simple plan. Efficient.

Ci-cin.

Agree. Agree.

“Let's play?” Y has low ears. The tails fluctuate.

“Agree.”

♦

Playing keeps us busy for a while.

It is not that it is not fun, I suppose.

…but I cannot stay as relaxed as the [Yellow Queen].

There are too many loose ends. The very idea of the plan leaves me perplexed.

“How will we know when to make our move?” I ask while sipping from the cup. Amazingly, the sink continues to run.

Y does not know when it was built. Nor because it is all charred.

But the sink works. There are cups in the cabinet, and I can make berry infusions for both.

I look at her steaming cup.

Even the berries have almost disappeared. The coral error has infected them, making them difficult to touch.

“The electromagnetic area of the Resetstar is linked to me, don't worry… With this move, I think I lost~ ugh~” Y places a [f] to be able to take my [G] next turn.

It is a [f] defended. It is the only attack Y has left to make.

But the game is over.

I move [G] back, revealing it for a checkmate.

“Ah! You're too good!”

“Look, we're five to four for me, with sixteen draws… it's not—”

“But that's exactly the problem!”

“Meaning what?”

“How can I win easily if we are equal? So, it gets challenging, hehe.”

Oh understood. Winning is difficult. Not as hard as beating Lajal, but still hard.

“Do you want to do another one?” I'll arrange the pieces on the board.

“Hmm, no. I think someone's coming.”

One of her tails points behind me.

Ci-cin! Ci-cin!

“Gron?” The agitation takes over. My heart is pounding.

And—

“No, he's like an elf. He's having a hard time crossing those rocks and—”

[Dungeon path]

I appear just beyond the veranda.

The delusion. The sense of loss that resurfaces. For a moment, I thought it was Gron.

He is an elf. From where I am, I see him, and he sees me.

With his legs apart to maintain balance on the slope, he greets me by raising his arm.

Thick mustache. Missing ear.

“Fulzo!”

[Dungeon path]

♦

“What happened here?” Fulzo looks around.

We are back on the porch, and Y is looking at him thoughtfully.

She will be wondering whether to send him home instantly or give him time to make a misstep.

I have no idea.

Sigh.

“Destruction, destruction, and the dungeon will take millennia to get back into shape…”

Sigh.

Fulzo nods. “I did not think. I mean. I used the liminal journey—not even an hour later… everything is different here.”

Y removes the wax from one ear, which she shakes contemplating the brownish mass on his little finger. “The time discrepancy, nothing surprising.”

“N, Kavfyra is—”

“I imagine. She wasn't in a good place.”

“Will it rain?” Fulzo points to the sky.

Er, will it rain?

I give Y a questioning look. The [Yellow Queen] shrugs.

Fulzo sighs. “I get it. It's a bad time.”

“No, come on.” I blurt out but lower my ears. “I'm sorry, I did not want to.”

“Fulzo, shouldn't you go home? And yes, I've already sent you there.”

“Y, right?”

“Yeah, just me. Hehe.”

Fulzo scratches his remaining ear. “I don't have a home anymore. The world is big, true… but in that half hour, I noticed that everyone was dead. At least we survivors.”

“It's no excuse to stay in the Underwasteland.” Y's tails start making sinister clanks again.

Fulzo looks at me sighing. The sadness of his gaze, the demeanor of his expression.

I just do not know how to help him.

“I'm sorry,” I murmur.

“N. I wish you would take me with you.”

I frown.

“Listen, don't make that face. I no longer have a home. Even taking me back… I think I'm going to die soon. It's all corrupt. The infection has corrupted everything.”

“Like here, I guess.”

He shakes his head. “No. Much worse. Much worse. The floor, the walls, the sky. Everything is a chaotic miasma of absurd shapes, textures, and colors. Everything is intertwined—Kavfyra is…”

Fulzo takes a deep breath and blows. But he does not finish the sentence.

Something terrible must have happened. Too terrible.

Something that not even an elf accustomed to war can understand.

I am sorry.

I am so sorry. But what can I do?

I look at Y appealingly. Maybe she has some solution.

“Hm, we could turn him into an undead.”

Not grasping the technical meaning of the [Yellow Queen]'s words, Fulzo rolls his eyes in alarm.

“You would like—”

Ci-cin.

“Fulzo, listen… what Y means is different from what you think. She is undead.”

“What!?”

Y puts a hand to her chest and shakes her ears. “I am an undead~”

What a proposal! Who would want to turn into a battery-powered creature?

Fulzo looks at me with a nervous smile.

“Don't worry, no one will turn you into an undead.”

«Fsss.»

“Uh, thank goodness. For a moment—”

“But we can't keep you here. This place is dead at the moment.”

Broken.

Useless.

Painful.

Damn it, I feel like I will not be able to keep calm much longer.

I clench my fists and try to show a calm expression.

“My world has ended.”

“It's no different here.” I look away, looking at my feet on the charred boards.

“Can't I help you?”

“No.” Y pricks up her ears and comes between us. “You don't belong here. In your interstitial condition…”

“Are you referring to the fact that I'm here with Astral journey?”

“Should I pretend that you are here as deceased?”

I stop listening to them. Their bickering continues.

Their points are clear.

Who is right?

I do not know. I do not know. I do not know.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Ci-cin.

I look at my tail's head. It is scanning the horizon. The distant storm steadily approaching.

What does it matter now? In the end, it is just a storm.

Cannot destroy a wasteland.

Underwasteland.

My home.

The underworld.

The hell.

I walk to the edge of the porch. Telluric noises come from the precipice, full of memories.

Thinking back to Sylviette, the [Devil], and those hectic times in general…

I miss the serenity of the past. When I judged the dead. I told them encouraging, deceptive, or pleasant things. They were different times.

Now?

Now what use am I for?

«Defending.»

That is the purpose. But what purpose would that be? I have never wanted to defend an Interface.

I defended my home. My father's house.

The home of all of us.

Sigh.

I sit on the edge, letting my legs dangle in the air.

With my hands, I untangle some tufts of hair.

I know they're watching me. They are waiting for my opinion. An opinion I cannot give them.

So? Should I pretend to be ignorant?

More it already is.

I turn slowly, remaining seated. In profile, I see Y with her hands on her hips. Fulzo looks straight at me.

“We'll keep him here.”

“WAIT? Those—”

“We'll keep him here…”

♦

For some time, nothing happens.

Wait.

Anxiety.

A weight in the chest that becomes more oppressive.

I have a hard time looking Y and Fulzo in the face. Not knowing what happened to Dal does not improve the situation.

He could be free falling into the great void. He could have fallen into the Resetstar cylinder… maybe Irferno ate him.

It is just an additional piece to the picture of anxieties.

Y and Fulzo barely speak to each other. They do not despise each other, but the [Yellow Queen] is disturbed by his presence. He, however, is cautious. He fears being sent home.

‘Home’.

The remains. Memories.

I am making yet another infusion. I check the berries. I have a handful left.

Finish. Afterward, it will not be easy to find others. Not until the Underwasteland returns to its form.

I put the bone berries in the water and—

“Here we are! N, here we go!”

I look at Y. She is in the dim light checking an invisible screen.

“From which direction?”

♦

[Dungeon path] makes me emerge from the absolute darkness.

The fall is immediate.

The Resetstar is not the gravitational center of the Underwasteland.

At the edge of the universe, the closest gravitational center is in the depths of the Ocean.

Everything tends towards the ocean in these parts.

Everything disappears in it.

Ci-cin, Ci-cin, Ci-cin, Ci-cin, Ci-cin, Ci-cin…

My hair sways freely, like bells. The Resetstar is behind me and projects its dim, yellowish light with my shadow.

A shadow and a halo are lost in the deep black.

It takes a few minutes.

The pall of smoke clears, and I see the flaming lights.

The hum of a distant star. Behind me is drowned out by the approaching ominous screech.

Irferno.

The zigzag flight of an infernal entity.

I raise my arm. Tingling electric arcs between the fingers.

[Blue jet]

[Blue jet]

[Blue jet]

The shots explode in the air. Far from the target.

I am ready. I bring my arms to protect my chest. As useless as it is instinctive.

The shock wave sweeps me away.

I see its glowing jaws open. A white-hot spot in the absolute cold.

The spots appear. All around and more agglomerated and larger.

Regenerated.

[Blue jet]

[Blue jet]

[Dungeon path]

I appear behind its back. The [Blue jets] explode far ahead in the darkness. The Resetstar seems like a beacon from this point.

Irferno is full of metallurgical energy. Its joints sparkle and produce hideous screeches.

Jammed.

From behind, I see its jaws open.

It shoots.

The recoil pushes it back, and I am struck by one of its six steel wings.

It notices me and turns around quickly.

Its flaming eyes—larger than my head—burn and emit tears of molten metal.

[Red sprite] would be useless. I just have to make it think it has the advantage.

I raise my arm.

[Blue—

A flick of the tail. A whip.

Flight I was cut in two in the darkness.

The spots around me emit lights and depict landscapes.

My body regenerates, but—

Plotch.

♦

As soon as my legs have reformed, I try to swim out of the hole.

The water transforms into air, and the gravity changes, making me fall onto a meadow of iridescent flowers.

The hole is in the sky, unreachable.

[Dungeon path]

[Shadow wall]

Nothing.

Nothing, damn it.

I ended up in that being's digestive system.

The air is normal, a light breeze, and little brick and wooden houses in the distance.

But it is a trap.

My skin dissolves. I can feel it heating up until it burns.

Sores and boils—but I try not to mind the pain. As snakes molt, [Immortality] continues to provide me with new meat to sacrifice.

The hole begins to widen and liquify. Slowly.

Ci-cin, Ci-cin…

I have to find a solution.

[Dungeon path] and [Shadow wall] do not work because this place is not in the dungeon.

But [Necromancy]?

[Blue jet]?

I raise my arm towards the hole in the sky.

[Blue jet]

The blue bullet goes through the hole without any problems. The sky vibrates as it passes, full of the dissolving membrane.

It does not matter.

[Necromancy]

The [Fiend] appears and smokes, dissolving. It does not emit any signs of distress.

[Cosmic regeneration] guarantees it excellent regenerative abilities, which—added to being undead—make him practically immortal.

I cling to it.

The white demon takes flight, and we escape from the trap.

I search for Irferno in the dark and find it without difficulty.

I try to get closer, but I stop.

I dissolve the [Fiend] and let myself fall.

I know what is happening.

Far away, the jaws of being are filling with a mass of flame.

It fires a very dense beam that hits the Resetstar after a few seconds.

A pulse makes the darkness vibrate.

The star begins to warp under the force of the beam, taking on twisted, senseless shapes, swelling masses of pale fire, and—

Incinerator

Irferno disappears in a mass of dark blue fire.

Almost indistinguishable from the dark I…

[Dungeon path]

…I find myself on the veranda.

I look at my hands recomposing themselves from the ash.

What? Why!?

“N!”

Ci-cin.

I raise my head. Y applauds and smiles at me.

“I…”

“The values on the registers have jumped. I deduce that the star has now returned to its original state. Hehe, great job.”

“Ah, going back in time, but…”

“Don't worry, Irferno was worn out by the process.”

I feel my neck to crack it. “Actually… it feels so surreal.”

“You were incredible. Your resistance rushed it. If Irferno realized it wasn't the Corestar—”

“It would not have acted. Sure, sure…”

Nothing has changed.

Y is joyful, but nothing has changed around here. The star, the engine of the Underwasteland is reborn. True, but…

…here it is the same as before.

“How long before the dead—”

“N, don't think about it now. Let's celebrate!” Y takes my arm and drags me into the other room.

“Actually…” I try to resist feebly, but she leans close to my ear and whispers.

“Give me a few dozen hours, and we'll be there. Now, I can calmly work on restoring your memories. Uh-huh!”

♦

[Dungeon path]

[Necromancy]

Since I have to wait, I go back to the scene of the battle.

I put myself on the [Fiend]'s shoulder and glide into the great void.

This has not changed. Who knows how many millennia will pass before it will return to how it originally was?

The Resetstar has disappeared. The gigantic Corestar has taken its place.

Despite having emerged thousands of miles beyond the crash site—indicatively given that there are no reference points—I still cannot see the perimeter of the dark blue star, which I imagine as a vast cylinder.

No trace of Irferno.

Has it been consumed? By temporal retrocession?

Now, is it a series of chemical elements inside the star?

Are the undead [obliterated]?

And Gron?

Where is Gron now? What is it doing? Is it unconscious, waiting for the membrane to function properly again? Or is it out here, walking with Dal?

Sigh.

What I think…

…not to mention that Dal too… [Red sprite] will not be served against Irferno, but perhaps against a Dal not at his maximum capacity…

Ci-cin.

The [Fiend] takes a flying leap. It makes a noise and grimaces as it continues to pant.

I decide to dissolve it. I do not want puppets by my side. Not at this moment.

Back.

I let myself fall into the void and close my eyes.

How deep will this abyss be? How much? It is something I keep asking myself.

I relax my arms and legs and leave my hair, tail, and skirt free.

I leave them free and feel like I want to relax.

I slow down my breathing. I close my eyes.

I relax.

♦

Time passes. Twice, I wake up from a light sleep.

I lost perception of my body.

Where am I? What are? What am I doing? Wait?

The Corestar remained viable.

I must be under the base because now it appears as a circular disk. Flat but full of roughness and whims produced by the flames.

Without even realizing it, I reach out a hand towards that mass. I glimpse the outline of my fingers and close my eyes again.

The [Yellow Queen] said that the Corestar has enough energy. The building that powers it is the well under the glacier.

They will return to their place. They will feed it again.

I feel a weight in my chest. I reopen my eyes.

I do not believe it. I do not trust Y's words. She's not in bad faith. She was right about Irferno, but…

…she is not a living being.

Its nature is supremely obscure to me. I cannot trust her, although I cannot distrust her either.

I.

A series of explosions in the distance catches my attention.

Small and orange. A constant bombardment into nothingness, which is absorbed into nothingness.

What does it mean?

[Dungeon path]

♦

The chaos of the barrels makes me dizzy.

[Dispel]

[Dispel]

I delete some and follow the trajectory of others.

They come from below. A dot lights up before the bursts. It moves away with each volley of shots.

[Dungeon path]

I appear lower than the target still shooting skyward.

[Necromancy]

The gathering of darkness makes the [Whalelich] on which I lean appear.

The dot crashes. The sperm whale arching.

Ci-cin!

A stocky body, not very tall. Long hair that comes out of the helmet and mixes with the crest.

The leather gloves. The shroud.

The facelifts reveal the mirrored mask. My face is reflected in the distant starlight; blue eyes and black hair.

I struggle to hold back the emotion.

“DAL!”

Ci-cin, Ci-cin, Ci-cin…

“N.”

“Oh, sorry. Casting Red sprite—”

“Don't worry,” he takes off his helmet. “The important thing is that Irferno was defeated.”

“Yes. Thanks to Y… she changed the star.”

Dal nods and looks at the pale, distant disk. “I saw the nova. I'm impressed.”

“Yeah…”

He will ask now. Gron.

Where is Gron? And what will I answer?

“N, I'm glad you saw my spells. I feared. I would be condemned to fall forever. Hehe.”

“Ha-ha, no. Don't worry…” there is always the bottom of the abyss.

“Is there something you're not telling me?”

I nod. I lower my ears and gaze. “Gron…”

“I can fix it if it's damaged.”

I shake my head and shrug. “Irferno assimilated it, and Irferno was assimilated to restart the star. They do not exist anymore.”

Silence.

Ci-cin.

When I raise my head, Fulzo puts on his helmet again. He is wrapped in the shroud and remains motionless.

“I am sorry.”

“The living dies. This is how the universe is. That's how it is.”

“I'm sorry…” I feel stupid repeating myself.

I am not talking to a living person. I am not talking to someone who can understand me…

…and yet, I feel that Gron is an unbridgeable loss.

But I do not understand. I do not remember why.

My head is starting to hurt. I grimace and try to focus on Dal's leather boots.

What does he feel?

He does not say anything. He does not even seem to move. As an undead, he certainly does not breathe. But what does it mean in this case?

“Gron… isn't it dreaming?”

“I don't know. I guess it's obliterated. I guess—it's not dreaming. Gron is not existing anymore.”

“I can rebuild it.”

Ci-cin.

“Really?”

“I can rebuild it.” Dal-Dazzer approaches the sperm whale's fin. “I have to rebuild it.”

“Dal, can I…”

“What do you want more?” Even with the mask, I can feel the sudden wave of hatred.

Or freed. What is he feeling? Is he feeling something? Is it just a simulation?

What am I feeling? Anger, sadness, nostalgia, or sorrow?

Why cannot understand it? It is such a thick mix that I doubt my intellect.

That I am faking it myself?

I…

“N. I… sorry, I didn't mean to contradict you. I didn't mean it, sorry, you're sorry. The pain has clouded my thoughts, and please don't punish me. Don't punish me.”

Dal kneels and bows his head.

The inability to resolve the two directives that guide it is thus clear.

From the undead who fears the [Eldritch Entities] due to the latest experiences as an ‘un-undead’. Against Dal, the creator, the divine mind, the friend of Gron.

He must simulate sorrow. He must simulate reverence.

A wave of disgust rises from my lower abdomen. What creature is this? Y? Irferno?

What are? Am I the antecedent of life?

Which design? What purpose did the System pursue?

The more time passes, the more I do not understand. I have a hole. A big hole in my mind that dulls and hurts when I try to think.

Dal.

…Dal.

Dal launches himself from the sperm whale's back.

I do not even try to chase him. At the bottom Gron…

…It would not be bad at all if it came back.

♦

[Dungeon path]

I emerge back into my room.

I am standing on the bed and watching the advance of the corals. They regrow more quickly than normal Underwasteland.

I notice that the boards join poorly around the errors and generate small puddles of burnt colors.

Did it start this way in Fulzo's world?

A drop of error, a stain, a torrent, and an indomitable ocean.

Ci-cin.

I get out of bed and head to the kitchen where I find the chair and table. The room is dark except for the luminescence of the corals.

A tug at the heart.

It is not just the darkness but the nostalgia. The melancholy of the time spent together with the deceased and friends.

Finding the kitchen empty is painful.

The weight I felt before, which disappeared during that liberating fall, reappears now and hurts.

It hits hard and brings tears to my eyes.

Is it possible that she is so emotional?

Is it for Gron?

But we knew each other so little. It was a [Priest] of mine, but despite that…

…it claimed we had been friends.

♦

Fulzo and Y are playing chess on the veranda.

There is little light, and I recognize the usefulness of corals in this sense. A lava eruption is a few dunes away.

The typhoon wind has become stronger. And Y's hair is constantly braiding and untangling.

Gold and orange reflections and green eyes lit by flames.

“Oi, hi N. We couldn't find you anymore.”

Fulzo waves his hand, focused on what to move.

Ci-cin.

“Hi.” I sit with them, crossing my legs at the side of the board.

They use the porch step as a chair.

Who knows where the cushions ended up? I hope they have not fallen into the abyss.

I look at the board.

“I'm winning thirteen to two, but the elf isn't bad.”

“Oh, I see.”

Fulzo turns to look at me. “She told me about your cat friend. I am sorry.”

I hold my breath. “You don't need. Thanks anyway.”

Silence falls again.

The match continues.

Y moves her head to the side of her, fumbling with one hand in the air.

Surely, she is working while playing. I would like to see the [Yellow Queen] privileges screen.

Maybe there is a choice. A [Yes]/[No] option to respawn the obliterated and—

What am I thinking?

I shake my head. I blush in fear of my thoughts.

I go back to looking at the board.

Y moves [F] and eats Fulzo's [W]. The field is set. They are in the midgame, but I can understand how the game will evolve.

The elf will never win.

♦

Later, Y calls me aside. We go behind a small rock dune near some bubbling bitumen pits.

“Look, for Fulzo…” she squeezes my wrist.

I wriggle free. “For Fulzo, when the membrane is there again, we will think about it.”

“Okay, okay. I tested the waters. Look, I have something different to tell you.”

“I listen to you.”

“I can restore your memory.”

I blink. “Did you manage…?”

“Yeah. You might be left with some gaps, or maybe some things will seem strange at first glance.”

“Why should my memories be strange to me?”

“I said they might. Only part. Not all. That's how it is. There is some surreal information, incomprehensible if analyzed superficially.”

With one foot, I roll a stone from the dune.

Plop!

The stone gets stuck in the puddle. I follow it sink, and disappear. Gray on black. Black, and that is it.

“Have you read my memories?”

“Of course, but soon you'll see them too.”

I nod. “What should I do?”

“Kneel.”

I obey and try to kneel on the ash sliding down the hill.

“Patchwork.”

“Um?”

“The editing technique I'm using. Stay focused and try to keep your mind clear. You may feel drowsy, don't worry.”

Drowsiness?

Like the fall?

I do not know, but I feel dizzy. It gets heavy. I feel my skull dilate and my veins pulsate.

I instinctively reach out to my temple, but nothing happens. My hand does not move.

Not even breathing continues. It is dilated.

I feel my eyelids falling, and an image forms in my head.

There is a city. Of the fog. The Golden Doors Cave. The poem, The Loves.

Further back, still I see [Leviathan], the rain of fish, Gron.

Gron at the time?

Gron tells me about its ambitions and hides during the fight with Kirlh'iau.

It was there even at that moment. And before that, it tried to escape…

The speeches, the songs, the games, and the feelings resurface.

Suddenly everything makes sense. I want to cry, but the tears won't come out.

Gron was linked to the Golden Doors.

The Golden Doors are related to it. The great forgetfulness, the absent sleeper.

The God.

The God of Wisdom.