[White Holy Throne: Hold on a moment.]
After typing the message in the group chat, Anthony channeled some points into the Glass Window in his hands. Almost instantaneously, the Glass Window activated — and within it, the myriad possibilities surrounding the bucket before him began to manifest.
At that same moment, Carmen — her Soul Foundation still tethered to the bucket — found herself gazing at the Glass Window, watching as an infinite cascade of possibilities unfurled across its surface.
It must be said: the Glass Window was an incomplete form of this Singularity Technology. Compared to the Mirror, it was missing a considerable number of functions — and even in its core purpose of observing other possibilities, it was profoundly unstable...
And yet, the moment Carmen fixed her gaze upon the Glass Window, she felt — almost instinctively — the presence of something like a pull. The next instant, it was as though some binding upon her soul had suddenly snapped free.
Around her neural pathways, the Cogito she'd carefully dressed herself in seemed to boil and churn. In that moment, Ein's expression flickered — and he turned his head sharply toward Anthony.
But Anthony held his composure, his expression unchanged. If anything, he looked like he'd just let out a quiet sigh of relief. "Don't rush. We're almost there."
"...What exactly is happening right now?"
Ein forced down the impulse rising in his chest and addressed Anthony directly. Anthony, faced with the question, paused briefly in thought before speaking again:
"She's ascending."
"?"
"It's fine. If everything goes smoothly, you'll be able to see her very soon..." Anthony said quietly. Then he glanced toward the door, swept a gaze across it with his soul's vision, and let out a soft sigh. "Oh, right — do me a favor and intercept Carly."
"Wait...."'
Ein reflexively started to say something — but Anthony cut him off. The next moment, the door burst open and Carly strode in, already speaking the instant she crossed the threshold:
"I just heard something off coming from in here... Ein, what's going on? Do you need me to handle something?"
Before she could finish, Carly's eyes landed on the boiling vat in front of her. Her pupils contracted sharply. Her hands moved faster than her brain, reflexively raising her Mimic weapon...
"Carly." Ein's quiet voice rang out, calling her to a stop. There was a faint note of resignation in his tone.
"...Just wait a moment."
"But..."
Carly opened her mouth with a frown — and then, before she could finish, something whispered past her ear. A soft, familiar sigh.
So achingly familiar.
In that instant, the Mimic lowered in her hand — not even a conscious decision. Carly's eyes went wide.
Finally, in a voice threaded with a faint tremor, she whispered:
"Carmen...?"
Carmen felt, in that single instant, as though she had fallen into an extraordinarily long dream.
The moment she saw the Glass Window, it was as if fate had already written the outcome. Guided by some current, some flow, Carmen drifted toward the infinite possibilities shimmering within it.
There was no Light here — and so she lacked the ability to interfere with those infinite possibilities. But with the Glass Window's assistance, Carmen could see.
And so, the next moment, she stepped into that boundless expanse of possibilities.
One possibility after another — she crossed cities, passed through Lobotomy Corporations built across different spans of time, containing different Abnormalities, glimpsed laboratories under different possibilities... and so she wandered, one step at a time, through them all.
It was as though, in this moment, her soul had already slipped free of its tether to the well and drifted ahead, deep into the infinite reaches of possibility...
A wandering spirit.
When the realization came, Carmen found, strangely, that she felt not the slightest surprise. As if this had always been her gift to begin with. As if being capable of this was simply... natural.
And so, after walking through the infinite parade of possibilities, the Glass Window's supply of possibilities finally reached its end.
At the terminus of all possibilities, Carmen found her final destination.
She stepped into the river.
As naturally as breathing — the moment Carmen expressed her intent to enter the city's subconscious river, the river welcomed her with open arms. Like greeting home a soul that had always belonged there.
And after stepping into the river, Carmen felt, at last, that her long journey had reached a certain end. She lifted her head within the current and could still see the infinite possibilities she had walked through stretching above her.
She was deep within the city's river now. Above her was an endless canopy of stars. Each star she counted contained a possibility — and within that infinite star-field, countless more stars had yet to be lit.
Among those stars, the one brightest and closest to her radiated a sense of affinity... as though she need only reach out and that place would become an extension of herself, like a limb.
So, without a moment's hesitation, Carmen did exactly that.
And as she did, her sight, her tendrils of awareness, finally stretched and reached — into this suburban laboratory.
Then she let out the first soft sigh of her return.
---
The scene returned to the interior of the laboratory.
Carly stood rooted in place, looking up in near-disbelief, glancing around frantically — tense, searching — yet no matter where she looked, Carmen was nowhere to be seen.
"Carmen, is that you? Was that your voice just now?"
"She spoke to you, didn't she?"
Ein watched Carly, and quickly collected himself. He asked the question calmly.
If Anthony had been right, then he'd already heard Carmen's voice a few times before now — which meant he ought to be able to steady himself faster than Carly could...
...Yeah, right.
Anthony glanced back at Ein's hand and noticed the arm hanging at his side was trembling, faintly but unmistakably. Which told him that Ein was about as calm right now as he was pretending to be.
"I... I'm not sure if it was her. But — that should have been her voice..."
Anthony let out a breath, and went ahead with something a bit more direct.
Open the group chat, @Carmen, send message — all in one fluid motion.
[White Holy Throne: @AAA City Ghost — so, how'd it go? Did you ascend?]
[AAA City Ghost: "Ascend" — what kind of way is that to put it? But honestly, the feeling right now is something else. I'm still getting used to what's going on...]
[White Holy Throne: Handle the situation in front of you first. You should have open-mic access now, right?]
[White Holy Throne: Chat with Ein for a bit, then have Ein run some tests — good timing to see exactly what you came away with from all that.]
[AAA City Ghost: Sure, works for me.]
Anthony closed the group chat and turned to Carly: "Don't panic, just relax — she should be settled in any second now, and then she'll be able to talk to you."
Carly turned to look at him, not quite managing to get a word in — before a soft, gentle woman's voice drifted into her ear, and with it, a tone of complete exasperation:
"You already said everything I was going to say. What am I supposed to say now..."
This time, Ein heard the voice too. His pupils contracted for just an instant.
Carly, meanwhile, froze again — and then heard, right by her ear, a familiar voice absolutely brimming with smug satisfaction:
"Carly, Ein — long time no see!"
"I'm back!"
Carly drove her Mimic into the floor, took a long, deep breath, and tilted her head back.
"If you feel like crying, you don't have to hold it in..."
"What do you know!"
Carly immediately snapped her head down and shouted at Anthony, who'd offered the quiet words of comfort.
"It's okay, Carly. I'm here."
It was Carmen who spoke — gently, softly, in that moment. "I... won't be disappearing on you without a word anymore."
"Ah... I only feel the regret when I'm about to die, don't I. Carly, being able to come back — it really does feel wonderful. And you're still here. That's all I could ask for."
"Mm..."
For a moment, Carly bowed her head, pressing her lips tightly together, covering her face with her hands.
Finally, after a long moment where her shoulders trembled — she snapped her head up, and broke into a wide smile at the empty air in front of her, not knowing whether Carmen could even see it:
"Mm — Carmen, welcome back!"
Anthony was left utterly speechless.
Good grief. A Carmen fanatic, through and through. Was this really the same person who treated him like furniture?
As he clicked his tongue internally a couple of times, Anthony could have sworn he heard Carmen's voice somewhere in the background, absolutely reveling in schadenfreude — and felt even more at a loss for words.
After the laughter died down, Carmen turned, her voice shifting toward Ein:
"What's wrong? Why have you gone quiet again?"
The gentle woman's voice drifted past Ein's ear — and then, feigning a pout: "Why is it always like this? Acting like you can't be bothered to acknowledge me..."
"...I'm sorry."
Ein lifted one hand — then had no idea where to put it. His other hand was shoved into his lab coat pocket, fingers curling tight without thinking.
"It's just..."
"Oh, I know, I know. You never could get words out when it mattered."
Carmen cut him off, and laughed. "But — coming back and seeing that you're alright, that's more than enough for me."
"And... I'm really glad. That you found your own path."
"The things I couldn't see through — no matter what, I'll always believe that what you're doing is right."
"...Thank you."
A thousand things surged to the tip of his tongue and then dissolved. Emotions crashed in waves. But in the end, when the words finally reached his mouth, Ein only bowed his head and said that one quiet thing.
"Why are you always such a hopeless mess about this..."
Even Carly seemed to have run out of patience. She stepped forward and made to give Ein a couple of solid smacks — and from both their ears, the silver-bell sound of Carmen's laughter rippled through.
So beautiful...
Until two deliberate coughs broke the moment.
"Ahem, ahem... Look, I know nobody wants the tender reunion to end, and that goes for everyone here — but we do still have actual business to take care of."
Anthony let out a long sigh, then turned to Ein and Carly with a helpless expression: "Shouldn't we confirm Carmen's current status first?"
In an instant, Ein seemed to snap back from a dream, giving a small nod. Carly, after a beat of silence, shot Anthony a withering glare.
Seriously, Carmen fanatics — every last one of them...
Anthony's eye twitched slightly. He watched as Ein hesitated for a brief moment — and then turned away.
"Please follow me... I imagine you also have quite a few things you'd like to discuss?"
Ein said it calmly as he turned, walking ahead.
This visitor from beyond the stars... he had no shortage of questions for them, either. But with Carmen's arrival, many of his plans had been thrown into disarray. Now, while he had the chance, he could settle both matters at once.
"I'll go stand guard outside. Call me when you're done."
Carly tucked her Mimic under her arm and stationed herself by the door. Watching her go, Anthony relaxed slightly, exhaled, and met Ein's eyes — a somewhat roguish smile spreading across his face.
"Ahem. You're right about that... I do have a few things I need to say."
Recalling the circumstances of his fall — and the events that, with high probability, were about to unfold — a note of gravity settled into Anthony's expression:
"Important things."
---
Approximately twenty minutes later.
Having listened to Anthony's account in full, Ein's face had gradually taken on the expression of a man in profound suffering.
In that account, Anthony had introduced himself as Prometheus — a visitor. And at the same time, he had laid out one critical fact for Ein...
The truth was, because of the creation of non-human cognizant entities in the suburbs — and because of the defector "mole" operating inside the laboratory — the Executive would be paying them a visit before long. In his heart, Ein had always known this. It was only ever a question of sooner or later.
Only — Ein had been quietly reminding himself, all this time, not to think about it. Not to let himself confront it head-on.
But now, with Anthony's reminder, he had no choice but to think about it — to face it directly...
Because, according to Anthony, given that he had landed near the laboratory, there was a ninety percent probability that the Executive was already on her way.
First: there was a laboratory here that had crossed every line it wasn't supposed to cross.
Second: here was also a visitor from beyond the stars — a newcomer with a very high likelihood of being an Impurity.
For the Executive, this was already the kind of situation that warranted a suffering-face in triplicate.
And that suffering-face had now migrated squarely onto Ein's expression as well.
"How much time do we have?"
Finally, Ein rubbed his temples with a complicated look and asked.
"Uh... I'd guess no more than three days. If things are moving faster, the Executive could show up at any time." Anthony mulled it over, then offered his estimate: "To be more precise — probably around tomorrow."
"..."
Looking at Ein's rigidly stricken face, Anthony decided to shift the subject.
"Don't worry — it's not like we're going in blind, right?"
A small smile crossed Anthony's face. He glanced over at Carly standing guard by the door, then thought of Carmen's current state — and with a quiet, easy smile, said:
"Carmen's situation might just be the key to breaking through all of this... and besides, I'll be helping you."
As he said it, a trace of genuine delight crept into his expression.
After their research, Anthony and Carmen had worked out the true nature of the ability Carmen had actually gained — after observing the multitudes of possibilities.
From the countless possibilities she had witnessed...
Extraction — and the ability to overwrite the possibilities of any existence her soul could reach.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting in The Long Dark with My Waifus
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