Raoul’s gaze lingered on Cer like he couldn’t decide whether to allow her to follow them, or to tell her to leave.

Instead, he left Cer to her own devices as they passed through the more lavish part of the city controlled by the White Midnight Syndicate.

Broken gravel paths were replaced with white bricks. Eyes followed them through tinted windows of grandeur buildings that flanked long roads. The buildings in this part of the city were built like fortresses.

A total of eight buildings were present, and they alone made up for 10% of the entire city.

Members of the White Midnight Syndicate populated these buildings. Among the eyes were those that belonged to slaves and prisoners; people no doubt kept for experimental purposes.

Was Raoul trying to help her with her mission? The Syndicate members, who were decorated with the same pale artefacts of the people she murdered earlier, turned a blind eye to Raoul.

Cer believed it was because they knew of his identity as the founder of the Solemn Paw. Ara figured that they knew of Cer’s identity rather than Raoul’s. In the end, only Raoul knew the answer as they approached a cylindrical-shaped building made of white alabaster.

It lacked windows or ventilation. The massive structure was closer to a prison. When Cer asked where they were heading, Raoul answered with:

“Where you’ll learn a thing or two about me.” He spoke. “Isn’t it tiring for you to still be flailing as the Jester of the Nexus?”

“Is that how you still remember me?” Cer laughed, but Raoul did not find this as humorous as her. “It’s different now. Things have a changed a lot since the last time you’ve been to the Nexus. Do you know what they call me now? Try to guess. Heh.”

“What is it?”

“The Electric Fang, one of the Three Heads of Security. There’s no Moon bigger than us in the Nexus. Stars don’t even get the same say as we do.”

“Interesting. Whoever gave you that title?”

“Frost, the Amalgam! Who else? Raoul… you can’t tell me that you don’t even know who that is.” Cer tried to get a read on him, but Raoul kept his gaze fixed on the pale building ahead.

Occasionally, he’d look over at Ara with a mournful expression. The bass of an oboe played from somewhere deep underground before trumpets joined it within the walls of flanking buildings.

It was like they were being greeted by the Syndicate.

“A dirge?” Ara recognized the tone.

“That was the girl that first arrived in the Nexus. I remember her face. Nothing like Iscario’s sister, despite what the bastard tried to pull over my eyes.”

“He tricked you too, huh.” Cer said.

Raoul didn’t answer until they reached the footsteps of the enormous, cylindrical building. He paused abruptly and clasped a small item within his right pocket. It faintly shone with a blue light, reminiscent of a CognitO Filter.

Cer winced as a high-pitched interference meddled with her CognitO Transmitter and Receiver. She tried to cognitively message Frost but all she received was static.

A CognitO Scrambler?

“Cer. To what extent will you go to bring back something that cannot return?”

“What’s this about all of a sudden?” Cer tilted her head as she was forced to remove the earpiece temporarily, unable to bear the noise.

The walls of the building were far sturdier than it looked. Her instincts hinted at an unnatural force dwelling within. If she listened carefully, she could make out the sound of individual keys of an out of tuned piano.

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With no response from Raoul, she answered somberly.

“I’d try my best to stop it from happening in the first place. Run as fast as I can. And if I can’t make it, then they’ll have to live on in our memories. You can’t bring back the dead, or you’ll get what happened to Res and mom.”

Again, he didn’t respond.

The 5-meter-tall doors groaned open, revealing a hollow interior that spanned the entirety of the building. The vacant structure was no more than a seatless auditorium. And there, in the center of the pale world, stood a green figure with six arms.

He tapped on the heads of kneeling prisoners like they were the keys of a piano. The grotesque acapella caused Ara’s skin to crawl, wondering just what that thing was.

The music seemed to hypnotize her, causing her eyelids to become increasingly heavy.

A steep, stairless divot lay just behind the door. The drop was more than five meters deep and required one to leap to enter.

“Resignation is the easiest path. I wish I had the luxury to delve into a world of delusions. Lament is my keepsake, and penance but a road long gone from my reach. A pendant of memories remains of all the things that have slipped away from my hands.”

Raoul took a step forward, urging Ara to follow as he wore a face of equal amounts of displeasure and understanding.

“Infinite punishments await me in hell when this is over.”

“What… the fuck are you talking about? You gotta stop with that!” Cer said with concern as Ara tried to reach for his arm to help calm him down. “Raoul. RAOUL!”

However, Ara collapsed into his arms. The music had caused her to enter a deep sleep.

“Cer.” Raoul began, his voice complementing the music.

Members of the White Midnight stationed beyond the building dropped to the ground as the music intensified.

“When are you going to stop pretending to be something you are not?”

The tempo of the acapella quickened as a choir of murmurs came from within the walls.

“You became a Moon solely to gain my attention. Created problems so that I could look your way. I’ve always noticed it, but I never gave you the acknowledgement in hopes that you would one day stop dreaming and go back to a Cer that didn’t know this kind of life.”

When Ara was held in a bridal carry in Raoul’s arms, the music entered a crescendo, blasting Cer backwards with an unbelievably powerful force.

No. It was not that it was powerful. It was that Cer was rocked by a state of immense shock that she did not even attempt to counter it.

“Raoul… What are you… talking about…?” Cer brought a hand to her chest, clasping at her heart with unblinking eyes.

“You’ve always been that way, creating tales for the sake of turning my head towards your direction. Haven’t you noticed it by now? That it’s only been you who has been looking my way. How I despised you, my sister, for trying to reach these heights.”

Raoul finally turned to face Cer.

“You don’t deserve to be a Moon. Lowly muts like us can only howl in infinite lament under its light. Cer… you chased the wrong wolf, and you became a Cer I no longer recognize. All because of me.”

“You’re wrong, Raoul… I made this choice myself! I’m a Moon because I made this choice! But you… you… distanced yourself from us because we just wanted to get closer to you…?” Cer couldn’t understand his logic. “This is how you felt for 30 years? RAOUL!? You thought of us like that…?”

“I only wished that you would’ve stopped chasing me like the rest of your sisters. You are no Moon, Cer. No Three Head of Security. No Electric Fang… seeing you still latch onto the idea of being a Moon despite still chasing it is the reason why I wished that you could go back to the way you were!”

Raoul finally roared as black sparks formed along his body. His shadow grew into the shape of a giant wolf. It materialized and guarded the front gates of the building, snarling at Cer and promising to defend it at all costs.

“That way, none of you would have ever needed to be hurt in the first place!”

Similar sparks illustrated Cer’s clenched teeth.

“You… don’t know anything about me if you think that I want to go back to the way things were! Raoul… just how much did we diverge to reach this point? You’re working with them, aren’t you…? Why? Why?”

Raoul, after hopping into the pit and gifting the Bee-Insectid Maestro, spoke loud enough for his voice to echo multiple times beyond the walls of the auditorium.

“Bzzt. Spectacular. Bzzt –” Beethoven was immediately interrupted by Raoul’s commanding voice.

“I work alone for my own sake. Cer. I’ve made too many mistakes. I want to make amends. Mother. The twins. Fallen friends. The sisters I nearly lost. It all begins with one wish!”

The shadow beast roared, preparing to keep Cer at bay no matter what.

The sorrow in Cer’s heart was replaced with hatred as she tried to understand him.

But how could she understand someone who didn’t even understand her in the first place?

“Broken thorns and petals can recreate the shape of a rose. Stop me if you can. This will only end in one way! Be burdened by the weight of my shadow and know the lament that eats at us both for the precious time we’ve lost!”

At the dawn of their bloody reunion, Frost’s faint, scrambling voice screamed through the CognitO Transmitter in Cer’s breast pocket.

“CER! DO NOT TRUST RAOUL! I REPEAT AND I SAY AGAIN – DO NOT TRUST RAOUL!”

The warning came too little too late.

It was time to make up for their lost time.