Wriothesley and Sigewinne finally reached the outermost gate of the Forbidden Zone, only to find a scene that defied their expectations.
Instead of a gate breached by Gardemeks, they found a portion of the Gardemeks stationed outside, maintaining the stability of the Pneuma Energy Barrier, while the remaining units tirelessly replenished its energy.
This energy was being supplied through a combination of transportation and recycling from the Gardemeks Wriothesley had personally destroyed.
After witnessing this scene, even the most obtuse person could see what they were doing, but the outcome utterly surprised Wriothesley. Sigewinne, however, wore a renewed smile.
"It seems my judgment was correct, Duke."
Sensing movement behind him, the Overseer turned around and spoke with a weary sigh, "Miss Sigewinne, why have you returned again?"
"We're here to help!" Sigewinne declared, stepping past Wriothesley to approach him.
Worried, Wriothesley followed closely behind her.
"No need for help. You should leave the Fortress of Meropide immediately."
"According to Miss Emily's calculations, a barrier of this strength should hold for much longer..."
Before the Overseer could finish, the main gate shuddered violently, and hairline cracks began to appear in the Pneuma Energy Barrier.
"See? We arrived just in time, didn't we?" Sigewinne quipped.
Hearing this, the Overseer's expression turned grave.
"That's impossible... It shouldn't be weakening this quickly."
"Something seems to be affecting the Primordial Sea Water, making it increasingly volatile!"
In just a few words, Wriothesley realized something astonishing: even though he couldn't be entirely certain the water below the valve was indeed Primordial Sea Water, the girl had already precisely calculated the time it would take for the water to breach the valve.
"Now's not the time to dwell on that. We need to hold out longer so everyone in the Fortress of Meropide can evacuate."
Hearing Sigewinne's words, Wriothesley nodded and reinforced the Pneuma Energy Barrier with his Cryo Elemental Power. The cracks in the barrier seemed to have completely healed.
But suddenly, Wriothesley felt a sharp pang of dread. He immediately reached out to grab Sigewinne.
BOOM—
The barrier, jointly maintained by Pneuma Energy and Cryo Elemental Power, held for less than a second before being shattered. A torrent of Primordial Sea Water surged toward the trio.
Wriothesley's pupils constricted sharply. In this situation, he could barely evade the Primordial Sea Water himself. If he tried to bring Sigewinne and the Overseer along, they would surely be engulfed.
Just then, orange-red flames erupted from the Gardemeks guarding either side of the Overseer. The Gardemeks darted toward Sigewinne and Wriothesley, then hoisted them up and rocketed toward the exit.
Their modified equipment granted them astonishing speed, whisking them beyond the reach of the Primordial Sea Water's advance in the blink of an eye.
Finally, the Overseer waved farewell to Wriothesley and Sigewinne, who were already far away, before being silently engulfed by the Primordial Sea Water.
A suffocating dread surged through the two escapees...
-
"Listen, Lady Furina."
"This alarm is most likely caused by the Primordial Sea Water."
"Although the Primordial Sea Water hasn't flooded over yet, how many people have already dissolved in places we can't see?"
The girl's words sent another shiver down Furina's spine, her mind flooded with vivid images of innocent citizens being dissolved by the Primordial Sea Water.
Isn't this the very scene that has haunted my nightmares so many times?
If I don't stop her here, will the Primordial Sea Water flood all of Fontaine?
"Now, Lady Furina, do you wish to kill me?"
The girl's smile grew even brighter.
"Just kill me, and all of this can end."
"Everything... can end..."
"Exactly, Lady Furina. That's right."
"If I die, the Primordial Sea Water will be contained, and no one else will have to die."
"If Lady Furina is worried about lacking a suitable weapon, please take this."
With those words, the girl placed a controller in Furina's hand.
Furina stared blankly at the controller, completely bewildered.
"I know you're a kind and benevolent Archon, Lady Furina. That's why I prepared this especially for you."
"Simply press the button on this controller, and my heart will stop beating."
"You won't have to witness any bloodshed. Just a gentle press, and it will all be over."
Upon learning the controller's exact function, Furina nearly dropped it in shock.
However, she quickly regained her composure and clutched the controller tightly.
Then, fearing she might accidentally press the button, she hastily relaxed her grip.
"What are you still hesitating for, Lady Furina?"
"Every moment you hesitate, more innocent people will die."
"I can't..."
Furina shook her head, her eyes filled with wavering resolve.
The crowd, unable to break through the encirclement, watched Furina's indecision with mounting fury.
"Hurry up and do it! Do you want more people to die?"
"That person is a cold-blooded, heartless murderer! Someone like that shouldn't even be alive!"
"Aren't you the Hydro Archon? Do you really just want to watch us die?"
"You'll be fine yourself, but we don't want to die!"
"Press it already!"
Not knowing when the Primordial Sea Water might flood this place, the crowd was on the verge of collapsing under the weight of their mounting terror, their emotions reaching a fever pitch.
"I can't..."
Furina stared at the controller in her hand, which held the power to easily control the girl's life and death. It felt as heavy as a thousand tons.
Even now, having seen the truth, she lacked the courage to press the button.
To everyone else, pressing the button would be the right thing to do.
But this was Emily! The Emily who had been by her side these past few weeks, understanding her, supporting her, and encouraging her!
Furina recalled every moment she had shared with the girl over the past few weeks. She couldn't bring herself to believe that Emily had been deceiving her the whole time. It felt as though everything she had experienced today was a nightmare she couldn't wake from.
"Press it! What are you waiting for?"
"Do you want us all to dissolve into water before your eyes before you'll be satisfied?!"
The crowd watched Furina, who hesitated to press the button, their anxiety mounting like ants on a hot pan. Every second she wasted brought them closer to death, and they desperately wanted to rush forward and press the button for her.
"Lady Furina, to die by your hand would be my final wish."
"Rest assured, you don't need to feel guilty."
"In fact, this act will earn you the praise and respect of countless people..."
Before the girl could finish speaking, Furina's eyes hardened with determination.
"Praise and respect—I've received more than enough of that in the past five hundred years!"
Furina carefully placed the controller on the ground and threw herself into the girl's arms.
"Emily, I believe you would never do such a thing. The time we spent together before was not a lie."
"If my judgment proves wrong, I will pay the price for my choice."
"I will die alongside these ordinary people here!"
Furina's words struck the crowd like a thunderclap.
Though her decision and choice were utterly incomprehensible to them—they couldn't fathom why she held such a special affection for the girl, even refusing to unleash Divine Punishment despite knowing the girl's atrocious actions—they could all clearly sense the unwavering resolve in Furina's heart.
Yet, despite her resolute tone, Furina's heart trembled with anxiety.
She was gambling. Though she could no longer be certain whether the girl would carry out these horrors, she sensed her unique place in the girl's heart from her words. So when she declared she would live or die with the crowd, she believed the girl wouldn't let any harm befall them.
But this was a desperate gamble based solely on Furina's intuition. If she lost, she would not only doom these people but also forfeit her own life, extinguishing any chance of altering the Prophecy. In that case, all of Fontaine would be dissolved by the Primordial Sea Water.
Furina knew she had made the wrong choice. She should have pressed the button in her hand without hesitation, ending everything.
But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Taking a young girl's life with her own hands—she simply couldn't.
This was the best solution she could come up with in this critical moment...
"Sigh..."
The girl sighed in exasperation.
"Lady Furina, why do you always deviate from the script I prepared for you?"
"You're giving me such a headache."
"But it's alright. I anticipated you would make this choice and prepared a second plan in advance."
Furina lifted her head from the girl's chest, her eyes still glistening with tears.
The girl's gentle smile remained unchanged as she raised a hand to wipe away Furina's tears.
Just then, an Overseer broke through the encirclement and lunged for the controller.
He got it.
A surge of elation flooded his heart, but he quickly suppressed it. Without hesitation, the Overseer slammed his hand down on the controller's button.
"It's over, you demon!"
"No!"
Seeing this, Furina cried out and her legs moved involuntarily toward the Overseer, but the girl held her back.
"Emily?"
The girl smiled serenely as she watched the Overseer press the button. Moments later, the Overseer's smile froze.
"You liar! This controller is fake!"
Enraged, the Overseer smashed the controller to pieces and roared at the girl.
Furina's heart wavered at the sight.
The controller was fake? Then what was all my inner turmoil for?
"It's not fake," the girl said, ordering her guards to restrain the Overseer again. She then smiled at him and explained, "Didn't I already tell you? Lady Furina must press the button for my heart to stop."
Her gaze shifted to Furina. "My heart will only stop for Lady Furina."
"E-Emily! Stop saying things that could be misinterpreted!"
Hearing this, Furina immediately buried her face in the girl's chest, desperate to hide her crimson blush from the others.
"Emily, you truly never intended to endanger anyone's lives, did you?"
The girl smiled, about to explain, when a dull, muffled sound of water reached their ears from the distance.
Hearing this, Furina saw the girl's smile vanish for the first time, replaced by a look of panic.
"No, how could it be this fast?"
"Emily?"
Seeing the girl's uncharacteristic agitation, a sense of foreboding stirred in Furina's heart.
"Lady Furina, we must evacuate immediately," the girl said urgently, pulling Furina forward by the hand.
"I've prepared a lift here that will quickly bring you to the surface."
"As for the others in the Fortress of Meropide, don't worry too much. The Mutual Aid Network will do everything possible to help them evacuate."
The girl spoke urgently, tugging Furina's hand as she led her forward.
"Wait, Emily, my head's spinning."
The girl's sudden revelation left Furina dizzy. The overwhelming joy had come too abruptly, catching her completely off guard.
"It's alright, Lady Furina. You can think while we move."
"Okay... Wait a minute! So all those things you said earlier were lies?" Furina demanded, her voice rising in indignation. "That's too much, Emily! Why would you do something like that? I almost believed you were really No. 8!"
"I really am No. 8, Lady Furina."
"No. 6 and I come from the same faction."
"But I'm just a failed prototype..."
As she said this, the girl's expression turned somewhat melancholic.
Just as Furina was about to ask more questions, the girl pushed her onto the elevator.
"Hold on tight."
"We're short on time, so the device is a bit rudimentary, but it's better than nothing."
Hearing the girl's warning, Furina instinctively gripped the nearby railing.
The crowd, brought here by the girl's followers, could now hear the approaching roar of water growing louder. With no chance of survival if they tried to escape on their own, they had no choice but to trust the girl and her group.
Charlotte, still dazed from being ambushed by two Vision users, was unceremoniously dumped onto the elevator platform. The attackers thoughtfully placed her camera and notebook in her hands.
What puzzled them was that, despite everyone being on the elevator, not a single one of the girl's followers boarded with them. For a moment, they grew restless, believing they had been deceived again.
But then, a tremendous commotion erupted overhead.
As the girl activated the mechanism, the wall above began to split apart horizontally. Only then did the crowd realize why the girl had insisted on holding this "Judgment" to gather them here, and why she had chosen this particular location for the trial.
At last, the crowd fell silent.