Gray stood in the archive for three hours. Staring at the Master Template vial. Watching memory orbs cycle through their recordings—atrocity and peace, cruelty and cooperation, suffering and stillness.
Footsteps echoed. Shizuri returned carrying additional crystalline containers and a ceremonial apparatus carved with alchemical symbols.
"You're still here," Shizuri observed. "That means you're considering it."
"I'm thinking," Gray said. Blunt. Direct. The only way he knew how to communicate.
"Think faster." Shizuri began setting up the apparatus around the Master Template vial. "Ninety-three hours remaining until Stage Three progression. After that, I activate global distribution. The Eastern Territories receive the gift whether you help or not."
He arranged the containers in a circle. Each one glowed with bioluminescent spores—different concentrations, different potencies.
