Wu scanned around, and he found himself floating in the midst of a strange alien opening as a wall of dark fluids flowed along the outskirts and created a barrier around him.
Rache and the Cerberus were hovering right across from him, and the Cerberus’ left head held a ball of flame within its mouth, using it to illuminate the dark space.
“Where the hell are we?” Rache asked, reaching out with his Wave and trying to probe around, but all that he could feel is the Kraken’s Wave from everywhere. Though if he elevated the sensitivity even further, he could detect a void in the Wave. A gap in the otherwise uniform Wave fields all around him.
“Away from the battlefield.” Wu said, emerging from the darkness with his hands by the side casual, “And away from the chance of you doing something you might truly regret.”
“Then, you shall die in here,” Rache commanded the Cerberus to surge forward, however, Wu quickly covered the entire space with his Void Domain, and the flames within the Cerberus’ mouth became immediately extinguished with the beast's movement slowing way down.
“It’s really hard to have a breather in the midst of battle.” Wu said, his voice seemingly coming from everywhere as he spoke at the focal point of the space they were in while hiding into the darkness once again, “But…have you thought about what I have told you last time? About how PORA just happened to position themselves exactly where they need to be when they sank the island?”
“You thought you can sway me with just words?” Rache shot back, though he remained alert as the Cerberus scanned all around them continuously.
“What do you need to convince you?” Wu asked.
“Memories.” The Cerberus was the one to jump in this time much to both Rache and Wu's surprise, “My middle head interacts with the mind. Then, we can tell if you were lying or not.”
“However, you have to get rid of this annoying ability of yours in order for us to do it.” the Cerberus continued, turning his head around individually before joining them together again, “Come prove your innocence, if you are truly who you say you are.”
The Void Domain became swept away as Rache noticed a light glowing in the midst of darkness. Then, Wu walked forward with his hands raised by the side towards them as he held onto the lighting Cast between his fingers.
“You are dead!” Rache sprung forward, leaping forward with the blade as it slashed through the air. Wu looked into his eyes, and Rache stopped the blade just shy of Wu’s neck as both men stood still.
“So. Do you want the truth or not?” Wu asked, his voice calm as Rache’s eyebrows elevated.
“You are not afraid?” Rache asked, twirling his blade back, “You didn’t think I was going to kill you?”
“I think you want the truth far more than you want to kill me.” Wu said, gesturing his hand to the Cerberus who slowly trotted towards Wu, "You are curious, aren't you? You really wanted to know everything that happened on that painful day, as much as you'd like to forget it."
“You are crazy...but I like you.” Rache tilted his head back and gestured towards the Cerberus, “Let’s go. Show me your truth.”
Wu reached his hand forward, and the Cerberus’ middle head bit into his hand lightly, a jolt of Wave injecting into his body as a few drops of blood escaped through his skin. Similar to his experience with Ver and the transfer of Wave before, Wu may have been undetectable through the Wave, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t interact with it in some targeted and specific ways.
That was the case with the Remnant, with Ver, and now with the Cerberus.
Wu felt a burning sensation traveling up through his arm as if it was the left head of Cerberus that bit him instead and burning him with his flames. As everything around him turned to a blurred darkness, he found himself standing back under the warm summer sun upon the floating island, accompanied by Lera and fighting against Dolly Hawk, the Glass Cannon from the strongest Squad in the Infinite Academy.
Besides him, Rache and an adorably small puppy walked side by side.
“There’s no way that the Cerberus was that small and cute…” Wu murmured when the puppy's joyous face suddenly split into three and each of them barked straight at him.
“If you mock me one more, you are dead right here.” The Cerberus’ heavy voice unfittingly came from the mouth of the puppy, and that made Wu laugh even harder.
“What’s this?” Rache asked as he watched Wu gathered around with his and Lily’s squad after their respective final battles. Then, the events within the floating Castle transpired, and suddenly, the entire island started to shake.
“This was the start of the fall…” Wu murmured right asthe floating structure exploded into a rain of rubble. However, the Cerberus bit down on a Wave connected to Wu's temple as the replay of his memories paused.
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“There.” Rache reached a hand and pointed towards a rapid blur that flew out from the floating structure itself, “That Wave was...”
“I…have no idea.” Wu replied honestly, as he didn’t recall actually seeing anything, “This…isn’t exactly a memory Cast, was it?”
“Not exactly.” Cerberus shook its head before instantly teleporting them beyond the scopes of the battleground and through to the Academy itself, “It’s…more like a reconstruction of the world at that specific time and space through the Wave.”
“But I couldn’t interact with the Wave with my body at all…”
“The Wave flows and progressed through everything through specific patterns, and everything touched by the Wave carried a history with them. Even if you couldn’t interact with it, your Cast lines on your body and your armor still could.” Cerberus said, “You have to be near the location of interest for the reconstruction to work, and the longer ago it was, the less accurate it will become…”
The three of them moved through the frozen landscapes of the academy with everything became represented by Wave lines instead of Wu's visuals as it looked like a map of contours but just in 3D.
Within the midst of it, two individuals with exceedingly powerful Wave signatures faced off against one another.
“However…you can’t fake this…” Rache murmured, spotting one of those that rose into the air while another stayed near the ground. Then, that one person flew away as the three then followed that Wave signature until they have reached the outer bounds of the reconstruction.
Just as Wu started to wonder what happens at the edge of this reconstruction, a shock wave of unknown origin rippled thorugh the countless Wave lines, activating individual casts that had been embedded into the earth of floating island as the propulsion Casts were destroyed, and the fall truly began.
“That.” Wu pointed his finger forward as Rache watched silently, “That was PORA.”
“How do you know?” Rache tilted his head.
“Because there’s no one powerful enough on our side…” Wu crossed his arms and sighed.
“You had one of the ten Heavenly Pillars on your side before.” Rache reminded.
“But I don’t think he’s the kind to blow up his own island…If I had to guess, he would be the other Wave signature.” Wu countered, and Rache nodded with agreement.
“That was it.” Cerberus said as the replay continued, and Rache watched in silence as Wu organized everyone together to try to stop the island’s fall. However, as they became surrounded by the Wave from the fuel rocks of the inner core of the island, beams of Wave shot out from seemingly nowhere started to completely tear up the island from the inside.
Wu looked towards Rache, and he covered his mouth with one hand while grabbing onto his elbow with another.
"That was from the city." Wu reminded, "The defensive Casts' first activation."
"I can tell." Rache swallowed, "I was there..."
“So…?” Wu asked, and Rache let out a sigh before reaching a hand to Wu.
“You...are a victim, as much as I was.” Rache said slowly with a heavy sigh, “To think you would go that far…”
“If there’s something I could do, I will always go for it.” Wu stepped to Rache, “Whether I am successful or not…that’s a whole other matter, I suppose.”
“That person beside you…that’s Lera, right?” Rache asked, and Wu slowly nodded.
“This doesn’t prove PORA was involved either.” The Cerberus reminded, and Rache nodded before turning to look at the small puppy.
“No, it doesn’t.” Rache said, reaching his hand towards the Cerberus, “Yet.”
The puppy looked towards Rache, and he took half a step forward before his head split into three again, the middle one biting down onto Rache’s own hand.
As the scenes rapidly transitioned to when Rache first emerged from the waters, the island had already been blown up by the beams from the defensive Casts. The Cerberus immediately tugged on the flow of time to keep everything in place as he teleported the three of them towards the middle of the Costa city, where the Wave signatures of Charles and Darren Fisher were exceedingly clear.
In fact, the entirety of Costa city was exceedingly clear in the reconstruction. By using a mix of what Rache remembered the city to be and the history of the Wave on that day, the Cerberus was able to put together what happened that day like a poorly animated CGI movie from the nineties.
It also helped that Rache had a natural gift in Wave sensing.
Standing next to the mayor of the Costa city in the main town hall was a man with the same Wave signature as before on the island. A girl accompanied him as parts of the island continued to be blown up one after another through the activation of the defensive Casts.
It was like a firework display with the theming of panic and horror, and when the majority of the earthly pieces were disintegrated by the defensive Casts, the glowing figure from the Academy turned around to introduce another man from the shadows, and that man’s Wave representation was completely red.
Wu can feel Rache clenching his fist next to him as his knuckles started to crack.
“I suppose that’s it.” The Cerberus said coldly, “I told you.”
“Shut up.” Rache said through gritted teeth.
“I told you that guy’s not to be trusted.” The Cerberus said, “I don’t mind you, but I hate him.”
“Shut it.” Rache yelled, “SHUT UP! GOD DAMN IT!”
“It’s okay…” Wu tried to calm him down, but Rache marched right up to him.
“IT’S REALLY NOT?!” Rache said, trying to suppress his anger as if he had become Rote somehow. He pointed at Wu’s chin as his face twitched, but he couldn’t really say what he wanted to say.
Instead, he spun around as all three of them returned to the space created by the Kraken.
“So…what are you going to do?” Wu asked.
“I am going to make him tell me the truth.” Rache said, reaching into the back and taking out the piece of Revolutionary Manuscript and tossing it over to Wu, “Here. You can take this. I don't give a shit about this.”
Wu caught with both hands, and he looked down at the piece of paper that they fought so hard to get when the sting from the Cerberus’ bite finally started to ring true in his hand. Then, an idea flashed in his head, and he looked back at Rache.
“Well…”