181 ...Its All Screwed. (2/2)

That alone spoke enough about what was going to happen if they didn't stop the nodes from doing what they were now prepared to perform. Not even Chosen would be exempt from what was to come.

It'd swallow the whole of Mulia, with the exemption of those fortunate enough to have been outside in the Shadowlands at the time.

”Define the phrase 'Main sequence retrogression' and anything else associated with its implementation.”

”In the event of a scenario where the loss of life to the Conduit over an estimated value of ninety percent, emergency failsafe systems are automatically set to perform a complete wipe of all quantum information except for the Central Core.”

Lu'um bluntly said, ”It's going to erase everything and reboot reality from the ground up. As in, starting off from square one, even if it comes at the cost of all the progress made here...”

”Can't we just reset things back to a prior point, before this happened? Like just after the Twilight War, for example? I wouldn't be opposed to doing that if it were possible...” said Reed, hoping that he could resolve things as quickly as possible.

”Negative. The Conduit is non-operational. Anima reserves are presently insufficient for a sequence correction procedure. Lifesigns declining. Contamination has almost reached the critical threshold.”

The system responsible for managing the female titan's health would not change its mind, regardless of whatever proposed alternative they'd be able to come up with. It was solely focused on protecting what it had been assigned to supervise.

In comparison, the people of Mulia were of secondary concern to it. As long as it could safeguard the required minimum amount, it would consider its objective successfully completed. The safety of the Central Core its highest concern.

As such, Reed deemed the conversation they had with it over. There was nothing more to gain from wasting time pestering it with explanations. They even discovered that they had less time than they initially thought available.

Had Lacrima been incorrect in her assessment or was all of this still as she had foretold? Had they erred somewhere along the road or perhaps, had something changed instead? Reed didn't know and couldn't be bothered to contemplate it out any longer.

Forty-eight hours remained.

Their entire time schedule had been pushed forward dramatically. The damoclean sword that threatened Mulia had finally descended to the point where it hovered only a precious few millimeters above it.

Reed had enough.

When he started to take off his pressurized environmental suit, Lu'um questioned his motive for doing so. There was nothing to gain in losing an additional layer of protection, even if it was slightly uncomfortable and... restrictive in certain respects when to came to wearing it.

”It's unnecessary anymore, right? Besides, I feel that I'll probably get a better connection to the titan doing it like this. The suit was starting to bother me. And I also don't want anything distracting me for what I'm about to do, no matter how trivial it may be.”

Reed stretched a bit and said, ”I'll leave the physical loading to you as planned, alright? Get it into position and then I'll take over from there. After that, I'll ride the blast on the way out and set everything to collapse.”

Lu'um still had more to say, but Reed had already turned his attention inward as he began to prepare himself for what was to come. Though she did not want to do it, there was no time left to debate it anymore and there weren't any better alternatives on hand.

Shit. To think this how it turned out. Hehe... I can't believe it...

She cursed herself for a brief second and took a final glance at Reed before she flew upwards towards the surface. The disconcerting feeling in her chest was something she couldn't shake off. As much as it secretly excited her, the fear of not knowing — much less, not being in control of the situation at hand — terrified her inside.

It was a humbling thing to experience, especially from someone such as her, who had long since gotten accustomed to being in total control of everything around her.

...When the plan finally commenced, an enormous change occurred above the city of Itroch.

Over in the Spirit of Bountiful Charity, Velvund and Haydn had not progressed in the slightest over their civil discussion over who would claim rights on the geode of souls. Had it not been for the alarming sight in front of them, they would have never believed the spectacle that had begun over Itroch could have happened.

Out in the distance, a familiar figure had reappeared along with the signal from her environmental suit. Lu'um had returned.... alone, much to the confusion of both Velvund and Haydn, along with the rest of the staff monitoring the situation.

”Hmm? Where'd the boy go? How very peculiar. It's just the wife this—”

Hadyn choked on his words yet again, for the nth time in a single day as his eyes popped out of their sockets.

It shouldn't have been possible and yet, it happened nevertheless.

The geode of souls had begun to move as it tilted upward towards the sky. Several hundred million tons of ice and crystal slowly arched up in a display of unprecedented power, never before seen in history.

And the person responsible for that event didn't even seem that concerned about it. In fact, she seemed rather unfocused when it came down to her expression.

”Goddess help us, what in the world is she doing!” said Haydn in alarm. ”How is that even possible?!”

Velvund let out a depressed sigh. He had just been given more work to do. My day couldn't get any longer, he thought.

....If he knew the truth, it would have probably broken him. That his suffering had barely just begun.

Hell was about to break loose... quite literally, in fact.