It was a blistering summer day, the sun’s rays white against the sterile blue sky. Boring, generic, but peaceful. It is a problem for the most well-off, the boredom of peace. In my life, I’ve always strived for something different, a lateral shift — equal in value, but different. Perhaps described in a wave function, rotating. Will I be bored then?
I was alone as always, on a bench beside my outdoor copy of the Elyinomi-Canvas. It was a smaller copy, portable and simple, but I’ve always carried the words of the Goddess on me at all times. If there was anyone in this world I loved, it was her. If there was any perfection, it was her — but I did not know back then that she was not the only one.
I was at the old campus site, at a spot where not many people wandered. As I felt my back stiffen, I decided to take a small stroll and recollect my thoughts. I remember always thinking about something — anything. I still do, but back then, it was extreme in degree — insanity. I don’t remember exactly what I was thinking about that day. Perhaps it was about the Goddess or the ugliness of human souls or his own soul, but the nature of the thoughts did not matter.
After turning to enter the courtyard, and there I saw the person who would change my life. I did not know her name, nor had I ever spoken with her before, but from the look of her soul, she was perfect. The embodiment of perfection. She was beautiful and elegant and kind and intelligent, but I am sure these were just delusions conjured by the sight. I was too stunned to approach or think about anything else back then.
But I learnt that humans can indeed become perfect.
We were engaged for a few months.
Kyriekaos Project, to put it simply, is the creation of the perfect human. By combining souls of different psychological criteria; high obedience, high rebellion, high emotion and high logic, I believe one could achieve the perfect balance of qualities. Not only that, we could adjust the parameters for each, and create any person we want by inserting false memories. For example, someone like you, Reginn, could be recreated by increasing the authority of high obedience and high logic and inputting your memories. This roughly simulates the process of your birth, with a genetical disposition for behaviour, as well as the factor of memory and experience.
The first three were simple to decide. Each near-ideal candidate, each highly specific in qualities of the soul. The final candidate was me. In my life, I could not find a person more logical than me — none. In the end, I was not afraid but honoured to be one of the components of a perfect being. If everyone in Avangarden was perfect, nothing bad could ever happen again. This was the new high he was looking for, not a simple lateral shift, but ascension.
Tragedy. My wife had been ill from an unknown disease.
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…I included my daughter in the project. I was not going to lose any more people. She would be immortalized along with me.
The church, the party, all this did not matter.
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The most important part of the Kyriekaos project you see… is self-improvement. I used to use a clay doll, and I think it’s the perfect analogy. The clay doll slowly but surely approaches perfection, but if one does not erase the figure occasionally, one becomes stuck in one trajectory, which may never yield the result you want. You need to reset it — a punishment in the form of wasting hours of my precious time — in order to perfect it. Punishment is a sculpting tool, and it allows you to infinitely approach a state you desire. Again and again, and with enough time, perfection is inevitable.
…That’s not what punishment should be. To me, punishment used to be a simple law, as natural as it came. Only now did I realize I have been following a law that prioritized instinctual reaction and emotion, rather than logic. Punishment should be what people need, not for moulding what you want the people to be.
Punishment is not the focus of my ideology. It’s the perfection. Perfection is not possible without punishment and restraint, it’s simple. Unless you are born perfect, one must tear away the flesh that rots, the blood that boils and the skin that grows coarse. Without the removal of cancer, people — society will never be perfect.
…Kyriekaos isn’t perfect. Far from it. She is the proof that your ideology is flawed, can’t you see?
No, she’s just the first copy. I know the initial project was a failure, but if we just try again more… It’s inevitable that we will reach perfection.
The prisoners… You, and even your daughter… Is that all they are to you? Simple mistakes to be erased and revised?
You have NOT seen what I have! Even if it takes a million sacrifices, just one perfect being, created through a repeatable process — that’s worth infinite lives!
…I’m afraid I have. Nothing is more perfect than the Goddess, and only when you are her child, can you see her imperfections. I’m sorry, but it seems that your feeble mind has let zealously foster.
D-don’t call me feeble-minded! I know more than you ever will! My plan was perfect, only if Kyriekaos wasn’t appointed as the hero — she could’ve been perfect!
Nothing is. Nothing ever will be. I will leave you be here to suffer in your sin…
No! Come back here! We’re not done yet! The project isn’t done yet! My ideology will live on, and the people will see…!
They will see!