Tongues of fire ran wild across Arasaka Tower, and in the violent friction, the tower's body caught flame — then snapped clean in two at the waist.
The great edifice began to fall.
When the River Styx slowly emerged from the center of Arasaka Tower, everything began to collapse. The entire tower broke into two sections, and the flames danced and devoured everything with gleeful abandon, burning all that surrounded it to cinders.
In that moment, the eyes of all of Night City converged on Arasaka Tower, and countless people stared up at the enormous River Styx. They then saw the young man standing atop it, spirited and triumphant — and behind him...
A copper toilet?
While everyone was still reeling in bewildered disbelief at whatever idiotic combination this was supposed to be, up on the River Styx, Anthony gave a vigorous wave toward David far above him.
But David remained in a state of complete and utter bafflement.
So this is what you call backup?
[Let Night City Burn: @Lord of the Ivory Throne, what in the world is going on with this thing?]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Backup!]
Faced with Anthony's statement — which showed absolutely zero intention of being reasonable — the rest of the group chat seemed to be getting genuinely curious.
[AAA City Ghost: So... what did he do this time?]
[Frieren Warrior of the Deceased Age: Honestly? I think the better question is what he didn't do.]
[Let Night City Burn: Uh, it's kind of hard to put into words, let me just screenshot it.]
And so, immediately after, David snapped a few photos of Anthony and his Throne as they rode the wind.
When the rest of the group chat saw the River Styx that had sliced Arasaka Tower clean in half — along with the close-up shot David had specifically taken of the magnificently ostentatious toilet — everyone fell silent.
[AAA City Ghost: Did it really have to be in such a conspicuous spot?]
[Lord of the Ivory Throne: Let me clarify — I didn't want this either. It's just that I was only allowed to put it there.]
[Demon King's Strictest Father: Mr. Anthony's tastes are, shall we say... rather unique.]
Anthony closed the group chat and didn't bother reading anyone else's reactions. He gave his fishing rod a gentle flick.
He had been preparing for this moment for a long time.
In truth, from the very moment David and Lucy had entered Arasaka Tower, Anthony had been running the River Styx through its warm-up sequence.
And only just now had the River Styx finally completed its warm-up — and at last, staged the first true rehearsal of its real ability.
That ability being: World Traversal!
The moment the warm-up finished, Anthony hadn't hesitated for even a second. He had immediately brought the River Styx and made a beeline straight into the Cyberpunk world.
Then he locked in the coordinates and deployed a beacon.
And just like that — he brought the real reinforcements to David and Lucy!
Cause chaos? Give him a break.
With just David and Lucy, even if they hauled stuff until they were sick of it, could they really clear out an entire Arasaka Tower?
But Anthony himself? That was a different story entirely.
Anything that couldn't be carried off directly — he could package it all up and toss it into the Origin Forge's all-you-can-smelt buffet!
And so, guided by the principle of waste nothing that can be used, Anthony had piloted the River Styx crashing straight into Arasaka Tower, triggered one massive explosion, and then gotten right to work on his plan.
First: David's side.
The fishing rod swung for the first time. The Stand known as Smith materialized at David's side, and looked down at Adam Smasher's soul — already crumbling, already dissolving into the floor.
"What a waste," Anthony couldn't help but murmur.
Behind him, the Origin Forge roared to life.
"Material this fine — letting it go to waste would be a crime!"
And so, with a declaration that rattled the rafters and under the helpless gaze of David, Anthony reached forward with his hand.
As it happened, two people had come to block the bridge today.
One was David, blessed from birth with the sacred constitution of a Bridge-Blocker. The other was Anthony — who had specifically come to block Adam Smasher's path across the Styx.
Of course, Anthony's version of bridge-blocking was a little different.
He was blocking the River Styx itself.
And so, in Anthony's hands, the scorching blaze of Soul Flame ignited — and everything suddenly collapsed inward. The shards of Adam Smasher's already-disintegrating soul abruptly began to coalesce once more.
And in the end, under the magnificent power of the Origin Forge, they merged back together as one!
When Anthony drew back his hand, cradled in his palm was a vivid blue Soul Gem, within which the faint remnant of Adam Smasher's consciousness lingered.
Nice.
Gazing at the Soul Gem before him, Anthony felt a wave of harvest-season satisfaction swell in his chest.
Muzan's going to have some company now.
A thousand-li pursuit of a soul — as for why the soul had been retrieved, that was none of your business.
Reincarnation? Not a chance!
He had no idea whether this world had a concept of reincarnation, but Anthony felt strongly that he absolutely could not let this soul simply dissolve and vanish.
After all: spot a resource → assert sovereign claim over resource → declare personal development rights over resource → this resource is mine.
And: my resource disintegrates = resource loss = asset shrinkage = operating at a loss = a major error that is absolutely, categorically unacceptable.
If Adam Smasher's soul was gone, how was that any different from robbing him of his own money?
Anthony whistled cheerfully, slipped the Soul Gem into the River Styx, and gave David a pat on the shoulder.
"Move it, David. We're about to wrap up."
"Huh? Already?"
David looked up with a start, eyes going to Anthony, who gave a single nod.
"Yeah, we're about on schedule. Once I finish recycling the last of the assets, we can leave." He gave a brief pause. "Lucy's already scouring the place for stray loot — you'd better get moving too."
As he said it, Anthony gave the Adam Smasher's body — still decked out head-to-toe in high-grade cyberware — a casual kick, sending it tumbling into the River Styx's recycling pile.
The subtext couldn't have been clearer.
This is our last job. So let's make sure we squeeze every last drop out of it!
Whether we're living large on the fat of the land or tightening our belts and grinding it out for the next stretch — it all comes down to this haul!
"Oh — right! I'm on it!"
David blinked — then it clicked. He immediately dove downward, plunging into the upper half of the collapsing Arasaka Tower.
Lucy, meanwhile, was in the lower half, methodically sweeping through it.
Anthony did a final sweep with his soul-sight to check on both of them, confirmed everything was in order, and withdrew his gaze.
Then he narrowed his eyes and stared at Arasaka Tower burning before him in the inferno.
"Quite the spectacle," he remarked, with something almost like admiration.
And then, gently, he reached forward with his hand.
Behind him, the Origin Forge unleashed a roar unlike anything it had produced before!
As if cheering for the smelting to come!
This was what Anthony was about to do.
Put simply: wring every last drop of residual value out of Arasaka Tower.
If this was a heist — and a final one at that — then naturally every single thing that could be taken, top to bottom, should be taken.
Even the data embedded in the computers. He was taking that too.
This was precisely what Anthony intended to do right now.
He was going to use the Origin Forge to smelt a grand project — packaging up every last shred of data connected to Arasaka Tower, including the not-yet-fully-completed God and System, and carting all of it away.
From this, he would create a material. A material smelted from data — one that, in all likelihood, could be applied directly to the River Styx.
And this would become the very foundation of Anthony's pursuit of a Tier 2 Forge Core.
The Origin Forge had the capacity for this. Its essence was the incineration of concepts — as long as Anthony invested sufficient time and soul energy to sustain the Soul Flame during smelting, anything that wasn't immune to Soul Flame was, in theory, smeltable.
And right now, all it required was time.
But wasn't time the one thing Anthony had in endless supply?
Don't come at me with your military-grade tech nonsense. A disruption this sudden and this massive — they don't even know what's happening yet. Would they dare make a move?
And even if they dared, Anthony was about to do something that would nip any such ideas right in the bud.
A sweep of his soul-sight — and quickly, he located a communications terminal that hadn't yet fully gone offline.
Anthony dropped a beacon, retrieved the terminal with the Phase Shift Engine, and then dialed a number from memory.
After several rings, the line connected, and Anthony spoke immediately:
"Hello? You there?"
"It's me — Commissioner Smith."
"Oh, it's you. I'm here."
The voice on the other end let out what sounded like a breath, and then came that familiar tone — carrying a note of barely-concealed delight.
Arasaka Raizen.
That was who Anthony had called.
"How's the fireworks show? Impressive?"
Anthony asked with practiced nonchalance, and the man on the other end gave a thoroughly affirmative answer:
"Oh, absolutely. Haven't seen fireworks this big in a long time."
More accurately — never.
Arasaka Raizen had assumed this was just a casual investment — he never imagined he'd somehow invested in an SSR pull.
Now he was only kicking himself for not going harder from the start.
He didn't care one bit where any of this stuff had come from, or whether the River Styx was something he'd technically funded. Who cared?
In fact, he was feeling a little restless right now — wondering if he should just come right out and ask whether there might be more business opportunities.
Like — you see that old man up top? Yeah, that one. The one called Arasaka Saburo.
Hey, while you're at it, any chance you could just... take care of that geezer too?
But before Smith could even finish turning the idea over in his head, Anthony had already spoken first:
"Anyway, Mr. Arasaka Raizen, I have a small favor to ask of you."
"We're almost done here. Before we leave, please do your best to hold back anyone else from getting close to Arasaka Tower."
"One or two slipping through is fine — just don't let the whole crowd in."
Arasaka Raizen paused briefly, then agreed without hesitation:
"Sure, no problem. I'll have people keep an eye on it."
"Good. That puts my mind at ease."
Having concluded his final transaction with Arasaka Raizen, Anthony exhaled, watching the Origin Forge churn away. Then, as if remembering something, he added into the comm:
"Oh, right — in about a year or so, have your informants keep an eye out for a merc who goes by V."
"If one shows up, you could hire them to go deal with Saburo for you."
"V. Got it."
Arasaka Raizen seemed to turn the name over in his mind for a moment before responding. And with that, Anthony hung up.
Right. One more loose end tied up.
He had no idea whether it would do any good — but at the very least, Arasaka Raizen would no longer be the only person in Night City who didn't know V's number.
Anthony gave his hand a wave, and the Soul Flame of the Origin Forge blazed several shades brighter.
The phantom silhouette of the entire Arasaka Tower seemed to flicker and writhe within the forge — struggling, straining — yet utterly unable to escape its grasp.
And finally, after nearly an hour of painstaking smelting, the tower's phantom shape at last crumbled and collapsed.
It condensed into a single black chip dense with data, and fell into Anthony's waiting palm.
The item description naturally materialized before his eyes:
[Data Core: Arasaka Decoded]
[Category: Intelligent Data Core]
[Description: A compilation of virtually all data from the Arasaka Corporation — completed and unfinished alike — smelted here into the creation of the Artificer.]
[Note: Can be used to upgrade the Forge Core of the River Styx.]
Got it.
The moment he laid eyes on the Intelligent Data Core, Anthony's eyebrow shot up — and then soul energy flooded into the Phase Shift Engine at his side.
He shifted his gaze to the countless aircraft swarming through the sky above, and smiled faintly.
Farewell, then. Don't come looking for me.
A deep blue spectral light blazed to life.
Simultaneously, down below, Lucy — who had been gleefully triggering Lachimaeus's Roar again and again — and David, busy ransacking the place, both felt something give them pause.
A pull. Like something was calling to them.
They looked up — and in the next instant, blue light bloomed beneath both their feet at the same time.
Their forms vanished in an eyeblink.
The great River Styx stirred once more, its engines slowly coming to life — and then it crushed the already-crumbling Arasaka Tower completely beneath it, reducing it to nothing but rubble and broken pillars.
And then the ship itself fired its engines and began to move — once again, it commenced its crossing!
It tore through the boundary between worlds, and stepped into the boundless universe that lay beyond!
When David next opened his eyes, spread out before him were all the items of unknown value — or lack thereof — that he had gathered.
He turned his head — and surrounding him was not the familiar skyline of Night City, but the endlessly stretching, vividly colorful Primordial River.
"You're up?"
A warm, familiar voice sounded from nearby. David turned reflexively — and found Anthony.
"Why is it you? I thought it'd be Lucy."
David stood up and said it without thinking — and earned himself a long, sideways look from Anthony.
"Sigh. Already only got eyes for the wife, huh. Here — she's over there."
Anthony shook his head with an air of theatrical resignation and jerked his chin in a direction. David turned — and saw Lucy standing in the distance.
Lucy had her hands clasped behind her back, and was watching David quietly. After a long moment, she extended one hand and snapped her fingers at him.
But at the corner of her eye — there was something that might have been the faintest trace of a tear.
At last, after crossing mountains and seas without end, everything had found its conclusion here.
We can finally be together forever, just as we always wanted.
"Go on, then. Get acquainted with life adrift on the Primordial River sooner rather than later — there's not much in the way of entertainment here, and knowing you two, you'll probably end up working for me before long."
Hearing Anthony's words, David suddenly laughed — and gave Anthony a firm, decisive nod.
"Yeah. Then, Senior Anthony — I'll head over!"
"Go on, go on. Stop hovering around the Artificer's forge."
Anthony waved him off with a careless flick of his hand, then watched as David and Lucy gradually moved further away across the deck — and finally withdrew his gaze.
Honestly speaking, as far as two lovebirds went, Anthony didn't really mind them being around.
But — you know how it is. When you're counting your assets, you don't really want an audience, do you?
Finally got rid of them.
And so, Anthony turned his attention to the notification that had just popped up in the group chat.
[You have completed the support mission. Group member Let Night City Burn has been successfully revived, and all matters following their passing have been fully resolved.]
[Rewards have been issued. Please check your account.]
In that moment, the one and only true Sigma Ghost — Anthony — excitedly rubbed his hands together.
Finally done!
Time to count the spoils.
At the mere thought of the enormous fortune he'd looted from Night City, Anthony couldn't help but break into the most guileless, heartfelt grin.
A million-credit withdrawal? More like a million-credit heist.
We're rich again!
____
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