Hands holding onto broken stone, the quiet voice of the Being reaches Samuel through the world. A genuine tone somehow caught through an utterly unemotional statement, the gaze of the One focused on him alone. “Please do not attempt such a thing again.”

Samantha yells out at the beast, desperate arms grabbing the only remainder within a dying world. “What did you do to him?!”

“No…” The counterpart insists as he tries to shake away the pain within his cranium. “I am… I am optimal…”

A clerical element attempts human scripture, an extended hand of five fingers creating five points in the universe as Alto Carrin targets the spell directly at the monster. An ancient tongue somehow preserved through generations, commandments from eras before spoken in barely comprehensible vocalizations. A spiritual attack executed with superstition, words of once great commandments long dead against the passage of time. Five points of five gods to drive evil away from the soul, an insane option against unbelievable power.

Nothing happens, the thing staring at the attempt with an emotionless glance.

Madeline makes the observation, noting the daze upon Alto’s face. “Don’t think an exorcism’s gonna work on this one.”

Samuel interrupts the movement of the Judge, a broken voice pointed towards the explosive device within his hands. “Do not throw it. Do not provoke him.”

A vector of assassination exposed, Judge Murphy stopping himself as all eyes are put upon him and the anti-mage grenade.

Madeline slowly shakes her head as she states the obvious. “Yeah… I don’t think that’s gonna work either.”

A longer pause as spiritual and physical attacks falter against him.

The thing turns over to them all, an unanswered observation interrupted now returned to. No lies, just a single statement to define the Five. “All the fragments have been gathered.”

An unspoken device, of the most holy of holy artifacts. Of a literal god, broken for the sake of humanity from the love of betrayers.

Alto begins under his breath, a mind attempting to remove itself from the revolver still holstered at his waist. “Impossible…”

“Wait wait wait.” Madeline also speaks out.

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Alto gives the fact, repeated through the eons as he makes the count. “Three were given to Centralis, two to the Collective.”

Judge Murphy augments it, surety of records through vast bureaucracy and holy clerics. “One remains in Centralis.”

Samuel and Samantha exchange glances, a preparation to run upon their bodies. A paired twin of divine ordnance and senses taken from the vaults of their upbringings now within their possessions.

The Thing continues to insist, a fact spoken as truthfully as the fundamental moments of existence. “All five fragments are present.”

Madeline McCormilk gives a dismissive laugh, an easily refutable fact of divinity taken as she lugs forth her multi-barreled rotary machine gun. “Ok you’re telling me that this thing I stole from Centralis Arms was literally a GOD GUN fragment?! That my mom just had one lying around?!”

It turns to her, an answer given. “By the reference of the device you speak of, yes.”

“This is not a fragment.” The Judge agrees with her as he keeps his free hand upon the anti-mage grenade, words referencing the lever action rifle held idle upon his other. “The Federation maintains the one remaining fragment within the Crossed Temple.”

Emotionless words speaking the dead truth, the One denying humanity its religious significance. “Then they are mistaken.”

“And those two?” Madeline turns over to the children of Armin, the twins stepping back as the acknowledgement hits them. “He doesn’t even have a gun.”

Alto answers for her, from a world beneath the rage of suns and cities of steel. “He is a collective mage.”

“He’s a witch?” Madeline sighs. “You’re joking right?!”

Samuel stares at her with cold, piercing eyes at the Federation slur. “Your statement is incorrect Madeline McCormik.”

Information given, the Thing speaking the words. “They both maintain fragments.”

Scripture whispered, a prayer of protection to dead gods sounded as Alto says it from a memorized line. “Alina guide me through now and forever, protect me from the hands of darkness before me.”

The Being tries to ignore the bastardization of her name, an emotionless statement placed upon the remaining four. “All five have been gathered. However, I…”

Something within him stops, quantum processes overloading a soul in the suddenness of the request’s implication.

It comes again, uninvited: the great ships above them and a burning garden. His own memories drowning out amongst the darkness of his mind. She begs him to make the promise to her, a final plea through a chance meeting at the very end of everything.

He is still alive, somehow, through it all.

A decision delayed for the eons of this world through every single atrocity, every single beauty, every single life, and every single death. Bytes of knowledge processed in nanoseconds, a timeframe incomprehensibly long for the soul that stands before five fragments.

He scans them all over once more, a watching eye confirming already known facts.

A profile established from the leylines themselves, he just stares at the memory of the world replayed over and over within his infinite mind.