Rescue Fantasy (32)
"What... what is this?"
Celestia staggered, unable to keep her balance. I hurriedly caught her as her legs nearly gave out beneath her.
It seemed she didn't even register that I was holding her. She just tried to move forward, toward the terminal panel displaying the phrase 'disposed'.
"... Celestia."
"This... this can't be."
"Celestia."
"It doesn't make sense. They said my brother was alive. There couldn't be such a meaningless ending."
"..."
"I can't accept this. You have no idea how I've lived all this time, what was on my mind as I kept going. It can't end like this. There must be other information...!"
Celestia tapped frantically on the panel, each press revealing more hidden details.
「Ian Myosotis.」
「Age: 15.」
「Exceptionally high assimilation rate.」
「First to surpass phase 6. Confirmed closing in on a pure existence.」
「Successfully manifested Supernatural Power: Psychokinesis and fairy-type abilities.」
"Other information..."
「Continued experiments accelerated physical collapse.」
「Assimilation rate increased, but potential for violent rampage observed to have risen sharply.」
"Other..."
「Disposal scheduled for the year he turned 22.」
"..."
Celestia, rifling through the lab log after log, gradually slowed until she eventually stopped. Even her breathing, her fingers' movement, the blinking of her eyes—everything stilled. Her gaze was fixed on the message that it had been three years since the disposal.
At some point her once-vivid eyes had turned dull and lifeless, completely unmoving. Time itself seemed to freeze. But I couldn't even think to call her name. I was afraid if I did, I would be swept away by the raw torrent of emotion raging from within Celestia.
A suffocating silence stretched on before Celestia finally managed to open her mouth, her voice trembling.
"... Hyun-woo. I think I've been mind controlled. I keep seeing things that don't make sense."
"..."
"So, would you knock me out? I think if I close my eyes and open them again I'll be okay. Please? You'll do that for me, right?"
She was desperately trying to sound calm and collected, but I couldn't hide my sorrow. Since I couldn't bring myself to answer, Celestia turned her head to look at me. I could almost hear her joints creak.
"Hyun-woo. Why aren't you saying anything? I told you something's wrong with me. I'm seeing impossible things."
"... Celestia."
"Why—why do you keep calling me like that? Just... just knock me out. Ah, never mind. I'll do it myself. That'll work, won't it?"
Celestia seemed like she might do something rash any second. It was a good thing I was already supporting her, allowing me to stop her from acting unpredictably.
Celestia struggled, trying to push me away.
"Let me go! This can't be real! It can't be! I have to snap out of this hallucination right now!"
The shock from a sudden, cruel truth always struck where it hurt most. In most cases, the mind reflexively denied it at first to prevent emotional overload, but realization would inevitably follow. Reality doesn't change for anyone.
Celestia's eyes fell back onto the panel.
"... No. No... No—!"
"Celestia, calm down!"
"How?! How am I supposed to calm down?! Everything I've been searching for...! It's all turned to ashes!!"
Celestia broke down, sobbing in panic. She abandoned her attempt to pull away, slumping as if her strings had been cut.
"Hyun-woo, please. I'm begging you..."
"We haven't checked everything yet! Data can be manipulated at any time! ... You only know for sure if you check with your own eyes."
"How can I check, when three years have already passed? Should I dig through the incinerator? Should I try to figure out which pile of ashes might have been my brother? Knock knock, are you my brother? Ah, it's you. Brother, hello. Sorry I kept you waiting so long. But it's okay now. I'm here! Let's get out of here together. Even like this, there must be another way! Isn't that what hope is for?! What, is that how you want me to react?! Is that what you want?!"
Celestia completely broke. Letting out a laugh mixed with self-mockery, she lowered her head and muttered.
"How could you say such a thing to me...? That's just too cruel..."
I couldn't deny it. Still, it was something I had to say. Without even saying words like that, Celestia would have lost her grip even more.
"Where is hope in all this? Where? Too much time has passed. It's not just a week, but three years—there wouldn't be even a trace left. What could I possibly do here now?"
"..."
"I barely made it through ten years. I lived only for this one thing. Now it's all over. Everything is over."
"..."
"Hyun-woo. What should I do? What am I supposed to do now? It feels like my chest is burning, like someone is burning me alive. It hurts... it hurts so much. I just... want to die..."
Celestia, drained of all strength, let her head fall heavily against me as she muttered. With a hand that could barely close into a fist, she pounded her own chest, as if unable to bear her frustration.
"I hate the pureblood supremacists so much, and I hate myself for being so pathetic. I don't even understand my own feelings anymore. I can't... do anything..."
She alternated between laughing maniacally and crying. Seeing her like this, I clenched my teeth in frustration at my own helplessness.
Celestia Myosotis. The woman who endured ten years to rebuild her fallen megacorp. What she truly wanted was not to rebuild Myosotis itself, but to gain the power to find her brother.
That one wish alone had led her to take risks following me, and to endure the mockery of the pureblood supremacists who destroyed Myosotis. All for the single goal of finding her brother.
Celestia had been certain her brother was alive, but reality proved merciless. Presumably dragged away by the pureblood supremacists, he met his end after torture disguised as experimentation.
The one ending she didn't want. Celestia denied it, but in the end, she was forced to understand. I couldn't even begin to imagine the depths of what she was feeling.
"Ugh... ugh..."
Celestia gasped for breath as if she was suffocating. But she wasn't crying out—she was swallowing it down. The sky reflected in her blue eyes was now drenched by an endless rain of dark clouds, so heavy that it showed no sign of clearing.
As Celestia's emotions spilled over, she suddenly collapsed against me. I managed to knock her unconscious with a chop to her neck before it was too late.
In the end, this was the best I could do for her.
I pressed my lips into a thin line and settled Celestia by the wall. Even as she lay unconscious, her tears wouldn't stop. Thankfully, her breathing, previously constricted, was finally returning to normal.
I looked at her for a while, then likewise slid down to sit with my back against the wall. In this state, there was nowhere I could go. I didn't know when Celestia would wake up, or if she'd be calm when she did.
'How tragic.'
For both her and me—really, for all of us. I stared blankly up at the ceiling. What a damnable world. The current reality, ensnared by pureblood supremacists, was hell itself.
It was all from just glimpsing the truth lurking one layer beneath the surface, yet each breath tasted of ashes. The smell reminded me of Lobelia—a scent of someone always searching for fuel, even after burning everything.
'I could easily have been an experiment too.'
Swallowing a sigh, I made myself stand. I'd found information about Ian Myosotis here. It wasn't what I wanted, and it wasn't pleasant, but since there was data on Celestia's brother, there was a good chance there was data on me as well.
Moving with heavy steps, I approached the panel. Thankfully, Celestia's access credentials hadn't been revoked yet. I entered my own name into the empty field. When the search results came up, I let out a bitter laugh.
「Transferred to another laboratory for management, data deleted. Access to this path is unavailable.」
So I really did spend time here, even if management had been transferred. No longer just a possibility, it was confirmation. No wonder the layout felt familiar—I'd subconsciously expected as much, so the shock wasn't as sharp.
The deletion date was about three years ago—around the time Ian Myosotis was disposed of. At one point, I'd even wondered if I was the person Celestia was searching for.
But this made it clear: I was not who she was looking for. I didn't even look the same, and it was only that I had been here during the same timeframe as Ian Myosotis.
「Responsible party: Lobelia.」
My eyes caught on the word 'Lobelia'. Or rather, that was all I could see. I remembered how Cystus would call me Lobelia's plaything—and how Lobelia would whisper that I wasn't a toy, but a present.
Before I knew it, my hands had balled into fists. Whether I was just a toy or not, there was no denying that I was being dragged along by the situation.
I'd had enough. How much longer did I have to be yanked around? How much longer did I have to keep questioning everything, just watching helplessly?
'I have to get to the Archive.'
The Vessel of Information on Titan. Since all data was stored there, even records erased from here would likely remain.
Made through cooperation between the Earth Government and the SSTC, the related information was apparently among the most tightly guarded secrets—only a handful of people even knew of it.
I just knew it was created to pass on to future generations, and so there were restrictions on access. That must be why it survived at all.
If anyone could access it, it would have been burned to the ground long ago. The pureblood supremacists would never leave alone an ark filled with the information of their enemies.
Since Licorice seemed to know its location, I needed to go there to learn what the pureblood supremacists had done, what they wanted, and what their next moves would be.
'I'm going to turn everything upside down.'
Not even one of their desires would I let pass—not for Cystus, or Lobelia, or anyone else.
With that resolve, I turned to leave.
Whoosh...!
I instinctively sensed a bizarre wave surging in the direction we hadn't gone yet. Almost instantly, the wave swept through the records room where Celestia and I were.
Without realizing it, I blinked—and when I opened my eyes, I was standing in a completely different space.
"...!"
It looked like the corridor of a mansion, decorated in an antique style. Outside the windows, a blue lake and grassland spread beneath a clear sky.
The mansion itself wasn't familiar, but the landscape outside was. It resembled the world I remembered from Earth, hazy and indistinct, yet haunting—a vision that inspired my desire to reach Earth.
For a moment, I wondered if I was seeing this because I'd been mentally manipulated, but I quickly realized the person who should have been at my side was gone. Celestia had disappeared.
We'd definitely been in the same space, yet she alone seemed to have been dropped somewhere else. Or perhaps I'd been separated.
"Celestia!"
Panicked, I called her name as loudly as I could to try to find her. But my words just dissolved into the emptiness. Hoping a blow to the wall might shatter the illusion, I struck it as hard as I could—only to have my hand simply pass through.
Everything felt real. I didn't even notice any awkwardness moving around. It was scientifically inexplicable. This had to be the work of a miracle or psychic phenomenon—the very things the pureblood supremacists obsessed over.
I didn't know who or what was responsible, but my urgency to find Celestia and figure out how to escape grew stronger by the second.
'So relentless.'
They'd taken advantage of the moment my mind weakened. My insides roiled with fury. As if my mood weren't bad enough already, this monster's interference drove me to indescribable heights of frustration.
Just then, the sky outside instantly turned red. A torrent of water shot up from the lake, the grassland caught fire, and a booming explosion swept across everything. An air raid had begun.
I clearly heard a scream woven into the blasts. It sounded very much like Celestia's voice.
'Celestia...!'
I concluded she must be outside. If this was a real space, there was only one thing I could do—search everywhere she might be. First step: get outside.
Suddenly, a promise I'd made surfaced in my mind. The more recent promise to help—and the older one, to find her, no matter what.
A ringing sound echoed in my skull.
「Kiiiaaaah!」
Whether illusion or reality, I could hear mutant creatures approaching from every direction. The flames, now consuming the entire mansion, made the temperature inside rise unbearably high. The heat was palpable as everything began to burn.
Would dying here mean dying for real? It didn't matter. I had no intention to die anyway.
'Celestia, just hang on. I'll come find you.'
Human willpower wasn't as strong as people supposed. It was resilient enough to seem tough, but when pushed past its limits, everyone broke. Celestia was already in her worst possible state. If she was isolated, something terrible was bound to happen.
I checked my gear. The plasma cutter ignited a blue blade. I plunged it into the forehead of a ghoul charging at me. The creature thrashed, desperate to tear the deeply embedded blade free.
I shattered its core with a kick, and only then did it finally go still. Viscous bodily fluids sprayed when I yanked the blade free. And that was just the first wave—more monsters were already swarming toward me.
The mansion was collapsing. Antique furniture burst into flames, walls crumbled. The fire showed no sign of dying out. Even my breath was searing hot.
In that chaos, I gripped my weapon and faced them all.
"Come on, you monster bastards! I'll kill you all!"
「Kieeee!」
As if in response to my roar, the mutants of various types surged at me. I didn't just stand there—I used every weapon and tool at my disposal to fight them off.
I hurled the military sword, slashed with the plasma cutter, even used brute strength for direct combat.
That was how I pressed forward—always toward the single dot visible in the distance.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Is it a mind space?
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】