Neige and Silva arrived in Sepide's world but were a bit surprised to see the Kronos in a perfectly good state. The two were even surprised when they found Polyetta in her leader's outfit, looking at them with curiosity.

"Silva? Neige? How did you... End up here? I swear I saw you in my office a few minutes ago."

Neige was about to ask Polyetta about the strange situation but quickly got interrupted by Ada's voice in his head.

~Don't forget, aside from Sepide, no one is real here.~

Neige nodded, even if he knew that it still felt weird to him. And was it really Sepide's perfect world? It seemed like a normal day on the ship.

"We were just searching for Sepide, we lost her on the way."

"She's probably in the world 24084284. You know, where your mission is! You should hurry, don't leave her alone."

The false Polyetta left the two friends alone. Silva turned toward Neige, satisfied with the way it turned out.

"That's easy, we just have to go to this world then."

"No, it's not that easy." Answered Neige "I doubt the real Polyetta would let Sepide go in other worlds. I think this world is a miniaturized version of our old universe, if we use our watch, we'll leave this world."

~So it's... A world with worlds inside?~ Ada asked, confused.

"The technicality doesn't matter, all that matters is to find Sepide. We could try to search for her but I think we should make her come to us, it seems more practical."

"I still have my watch." Noticed Silva "Maybe it's the same for Sepide. We should be able to call her!"

"It's possible, but she's probably with the fake me and the fake Silva."

~Please, I beg of you, leave this world! I can't understand what you're talking about...~ The anomaly said on the border of tears.

"Let's just call Sepide, we can see the rest after."

Silva hurried and used her watch to call her friend. A few minutes passed until Sepide finally answered.

*Silva? Is that you?*

"Yeah, can you come to the ship for a moment?"

*You're on the ship? But I saw you a few minutes ago.*

"Don't think too much, just come, it's urgent."

*Alright, I'll come.*

The call stopped, leaving Silva with a proud smile on her face.

"Too easy, now we have to wait for her."

"And then? How will we explain to her that everything here is a lie? She'll probably think we're messing with her."

"We'll see when we get there, you just need to have some 'faith'." Silva laughed, leaving Neige completely confused. Neige was about to wait for an explanation but was instead stopped by Sepide's voice behind him.

"N-Neige!? Silva!? Is it actually you? How is it possible?"

Silva and Neige turned toward Sepide but didn't plan for the fake Neige and Silva to also be there. The two fakes took their weapons in hand, ready to fight at any moment. The fake Neige looked at the real one, a tad disgusted.

"Why is the fake me dressed like a nun?"

"It's not by choice... Sepide, you have to believe us, those two are the fake ones!"

Sepide looked back and forth between her two friends behind her and the real ones in front of her. The girl looked confused, unable to understand what was happening. She took her firearm and pointed alternatively at the two Neiges.

"Say something only the real Neige would know!"

The fake one smirked and looked in the direction of the first one with confidence.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Kronosian contains more than 200,000 words."

"Kronosian? The Ship's language?" Sepide asked with confusion "How am I supposed to know if it's true?"

"And it's not even true." Answered the real Neige "There's a bit less than that. It's closer to 190,000 words."

Sepide looked at the two Neige, still having no idea which one was the real one. Neige quickly noticed that this wasn't how he would manage to convince Sepide and instead tried to convince her another way.

"Sepide, the leader trapped you in this world and erased your memories! She's trying to make a perfect world by destroying everything we worked so hard to protect!"

"She did?" Sepide paused for a moment before answering Neige "It doesn't matter, my role isn't to judge, only obey."

"What? But it means that the old universe is-"

"I will let you leave, whoever you may be. Don't come here ever again."

Sepide left along with the two fakes. Neige and Silva stood in silence for a moment, unable to understand what just happened.

~It's a shame, she didn't remember you...~

"Still, the way she acted was weird. Why would she leave if she thought we were fakes? Maybe she did believe us, at least a bit."

The two friends turned around when they suddenly heard footsteps behind them. The real Polyetta was standing there, looking at them in her divine outfit.

"See, Sepide is happy here. She doesn't need to trouble herself with the problems of this world, she can live adventures forever, without ever thinking about the future."

Silva took her weapon in hand and was ready to attack her former leader but was quickly stopped by Neige, grabbing her arm.

"Neige!? Don't tell me you agree with her!?"

"Of course not but have you seen what she can do? There's no way we can stop her."

"Why don't you agree?" Asked the woman "Everything is good for her, maybe Silva wasn't suited for a life where all of her wishes are granted, but Sepide is doing well. Why don't you leave her in this world?"

"We're not letting our friend in this creepy place!" Silva yelled with conviction "Those aren't her friends, they're just puppets made for one thing!"

"Isn't Sepide the same?" Asked Polyetta "A puppet made for one thing, she's at home here."

"How dare you!? Sepide's our friend!"

Silva struggled to punch Polyetta while Neige still managed to hold her back.

"Silva's right, even if she's a bit mad."

"A bit!? I'm enraged that she's treating Sepide like that!"

"Yeah... Sepide lived through so much, she's more than what she was made for."

Polyetta felt visibly bad after seeing how much the two friends cared for Sepide. The woman looked away in shame, unable to find the strength to look at them in the eyes.

"About that, I'm not really sure you can say that Sepide is the one you knew. Unlike the others, I ripped the page I wrote her on and threw it away. All the things she lived through and her memories are in the trash now."

"What!?" Silva pushed Neige to the side and ran toward the woman. She tried to grab the woman but the latter dodged easily, enraging the blind girl even more "You created her, and now you just treat her like garbage!? You're no better than my parents, getting rid of your child when they become a burden for you..."

"It's not like everything is gone forever, the page with her memories is with the old universe in a very special place."

"Is the special place a trash bin?"

Polyetta looked away at Silva's words, trying to dodge the question.

"C-Come on, why don't you go save the others? You can see that Sepide isn't interested."

"We'll save them." Neige said, taking Silva back to his sides "You said you threw Sepide's memories with the old universe. Those that mean we can recover both of them?"

"The old universe maybe, I didn't burn it yet."

"Did you burn Sepide's memories!?"

"Only a part of it! They were only a burden for her, you should see how happy she is now that she lost all her memories. I wanted to make sure she wouldn't get them back."

Neige and Silva stared into space in disbelief, unable to fully comprehend the meaning of Polyetta's words.

"So... The Sepide we know is gone?"

"What are you saying Neige? Of course she's not gone." Silva turned toward her former leader with hate in her eyes "I'm going to bring Sepide's memories back and ruin your world! After that, I'll get everything like it was before! It's not a threat, it's a promise."

"If that amuses you." The woman said, still feeling a bit guilty "My break is over, I'll resume my perfect world. Once it's over, you'll see how great it is!"

Polyetta disappeared in a flash of light. Silva stayed focused on the place her former leader was, still furious at her. Neige managed to calm her down and the two prepared themselves mentally to continue their hard task to save Sepide. However, Sepide walked toward them, astonishing the two friends.

"Was that... The leader?"

"No, she's a dick, and even Emely won't be able to make me say a softer word."

Sepide shyly looked at Neige and Silva before walking closer to them.

"I... Don't really understand what is happening, I don't have any reason to leave this place and deal with this problem. But at the same time, I feel like there's something missing, like a part of me is empty. This empty part, it's your Sepide, right? That's why you want to bring my memories back, to see your Sepide again."

"You're our Sepide." Said Neige with a comforting voice "Once you get all your memories back, everything will become clearer to you."

"The logical solution for me is to stay here. Not only I am happy, but I don't risk my life. And yet, my heart wants to follow you."

"So you'll follow us!?"

Sepide nodded to answer Silva's question, leading the blind girl to take her tightly in her arms.

"We'll get all your memories back, I promise. And we'll make this cunt regret what she did."

"Hey, she's still my friend." Neige said with a sad tone "I'm sure she never meant anything bad."

"Maybe she didn't mean anything bad, but she's putting my friends' lives at risk, I'm never going to forgive her." Silva stayed silent for a moment, noticing Neige's sorrow, and took him in her arms "It's fine, your friend's probably very confused or something."

"Don't worry Silva... I'm alright. We should go back now, I don't want to waste time."

Silva nodded, and along with Sepide, the two friends returned on the empty Kronos. Including Cinnamon the cat, five members were missing. It would be hard for them to find everyone before the end of the day, but leaving anyone behind wasn't an option for them.