Kaijin no Karashrer: Act 4

You are the Only One

The piston sounds of an Engine echoes loudly through the highway.

Her vision was shaking.

It shook as they treaded over cracks and chucks of asphalt on the road. Almost all of the paved road had crumbled and even the ones remotely better had little cracks on them, which made it difficult to drive on with regular vehicles.

Gene thought as she wrapped her arms around Kyrie's waist, hugging him from behind---

It's fortunate that we got a gas bike that works. Moreover, it was a competition model made for off road. On top of finding an Engine car dealership from the last store that had been smashed up into pieces, they couldn't have been anymore fortunate to finding this vehicle in still perfect condition, which was probably propped up for display.

"I like bikes. I get to be like the wind."

"What was that?"

Gene asked, unable to hear him well.

When Gene looked up to see Kyrie's face, who was wearing goggles on, he turned in an unnatural direction. What was that about?

Perhaps he said something that was embarrassing?

Sometimes, he would say something. When she asked "What is it?", he would unnaturally turn his head away to avert his gaze or even walk in a different direction. It was quite misleading even. Tilting her head slightly, Gene asked "What?" in a slightly louder voice so as to not be overtaken by the pressure of the wind when suddenly, she spotted something unexpectedly at the edge of her sight.

A giant, large Chrome ring. On top of that was the sight of a black castle.

It was a large Ferris wheel and a structure imitating a medieval castle.

Such a combination seemed familiar to her.

"I see a Ferris wheel. What's that about, Gene?"

"It's an amusement park..."

"I've heard about them."

"Indeed. Come to think of it, I've never been to one of these before."

"Yes," His hearing ability in his left ear never missed the voice despite the strong wind pressure that came about from going 40 mph. He had remarkable ears unlike Gene. "I've never been to one before."

An Engine Amusement Park---

It was a relatively new form of entertainment back when the world was still alive.

Among the most famous ones was perhaps Ford Land, which was operated by F Company, a heavy industrial company in Country A that included Steam Engine automobiles. Taking that into consideration, the size of the Ferris wheel and castle that came into view were massive. Gene recalls Ford World, a composite amusement park, was the main facility of Ford Land which was scattered across Country A.

She recalls the audio advertisements that were constantly playing on radio broadcasts all the time, even seeing one on a video version that would come out right before a film at a movie theater she went to several times. She even remembers them being on the front page that was full of ads when reading a newspaper.

Were she to pay a bit more attention to the various billboards that lined up the side of the highway they were currently riding on, she would have immediately they were signs that were officially announcing the opening of Ford World.

However, there were many holes to them. The mascot character had a large hole where its heart was is like a small child poking a hole through wet paper. On the other side of the hole, she caught a glimpse of the Ferris wheel and castle's silhouette, which reflected off of Gene's gray eyes with irony.

"..."

She blinks a few times.

Gene's expression was slightly distorted.

Kyrie was always told not to look behind so as to drive safely, obeying his order to face forward. But he couldn't help himself to look at Gene's dazzling, joyful expression. With that, he couldn't have noticed it.

The huge ring.

The medieval castle.

Those were something he didn't take notice of.

At least not when it came to Genevieve Ninth. 

"Los Alamos."

Her lips simply move. It wasn't something spoken aloud.

She didn't want Kyrie to hear it. If anything, she didn't want anything to reply to.

That view. The ring. The black castle. All of it were things she never would have imagined in maintaining their form.

---However, that's just it regardless of how much of its form remains.

---The world itself has already ended.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was a quiet place.

Perhaps it was due to being late at night by the time they arrived?

Or maybe it was due to the location of the amusement park they were in?

In every city, in every place, it was quiet. However---

There were countless Engine Machines that had scarring all over as if some kind of beast tore it up made no noise or even any attempt to stir around, the Music Engine that once played a variety of songs was now leaning heavily towards the ground, half of the neon tubes set up for decorations were broken, and the latest Engine food stall had fallen on its side. The cooking utensils that were once used to supposedly fry fish and potatoes inside have withered away.

For some reason, there were tattered clothes of pierro's and yellow women's uniforms that have decayed and filled with holes.

It seems as though the people who wore them have evaporated.

But there was no way of telling for sure.

She moved aside a few of the baskets that she saw near the pierro costume--naturally, all of the cookies, candy balls, and other sweets have withered away--and picks up a piece of paper underneath the arm of the yellow uniform.

As expected, the paper was already yellowed out with many holes in it.

This was a leaflet that was the result of a print filled with information regarding the park such as which rides were entertaining or which commercial facility had delicious restaurants to go to along with some mascot characters on there. Ironically enough, the poor mascot also had a large hole where its heart would be on the leaflet.

Gene knew what the decorative lettering at the bottom of the leaflet was.

There was no way she could have forgotten it.

Its name was Ford World.

It was a super large amusement park that had opened up just shortly before the Pillars stood atop the world, a dreamland created by pouring all of the wisdom and know-how from Ford Land, a large amusement park that was scattered across the nation.

Even if it was just for show, there were certainly people who had enjoyed themselves there.

Gene recalls many children who spoke of their admiration and dreams, pointing towards the structure that was modeled after a medieval castle towering in the center of the amusement park which had a front-page advertisement dedicated to it. 

It was a once-bustling place. A place that surely must have been filled with many sounds and voices.

Now, not a sound is made.

When a fierce wind passes by, the exterior of the Music Engine that is close to coming off makes a metallic sound.

Gene narrows her eyes and thought to herself---

---I'm certain there were many children here.

---They must have loved this place. This amusement park.

"...You ever had a laugh before about something?"

"What do you mean?"

"Nevermind. It's nothing. How's the gas bike, Kyrie?"

He turned to her upon being called.

After all, they didn't think a two-wheeled gas bike could have made it this far.

Like many of the world's remaining vehicles, even those that were operational suffer from a lack of gas. The two wheeler they got did its best as they rode all the way to the entrace of the amusement park.

That being said, taking into consideration that it would have taken them days on end had they walked on the highway, the two-wheeler gave them a lot of comfort. Gene never felt guilty if he stopped due to hunger, never hesitating to give her his thanks.

"It's kinda little for a two wheeler."

"It still works fine, though we'll need to change out the cartridge.""

"It's hard to imagine we'll find it in a place like this, but we'll have to look around."

"This amusement park..."

There was a subtle tone mixed in Kyrie's words.

Perhaps there was something bothering him?

"Gene. Just what kind of place is this? Is it some sort of military facility for training?"

"...No? Why do you think that?"

"There's a machine there used for horseback."

She saw Kyrie's eyes looking straight ahead and follows its gaze to where it was seeing.

What was it? The first thing she saw was an object that was hung up and swinging back and forth modeled after a ship from the Age of Discovery, that of a pirate ship. But it couldn't be that. It was something else. Shifting her point of view elsewhere, she placed her hands on Kyrie's shoulder and tip toes to see.

She finally saw it.

Beyond the pirate ship, she saw an Engine carousel. 

"That's a carousel. They're also called a Merry-Go-Round."

"Horseback training?"

"No, not like that. This place is where kids and couples come to play. Like I told you, it's an amusement park. A place where everyone comes here to play and have fun."

"How does one have play on that?" His eyes were locked onto the carousel, never leaving it aside.

"It's one that you ride on, and there's all sorts of them too. Imagine children riding on it and having fun, couples riding on it and smiling to one another."

"That's hard to do."

"It's not that hard. Don't you want to give it a try?"

"It doesn't look like it has any motor functions, nor is there any power."

"It doesn't run. It simply spins around. Although you're right, there is no power." 

"...In that case, I don't see the point in riding that thing. It's like the two-wheel gas bike where I can become the wind. It's meaningless."

"Don't say it like that."

It's meaningless---

She disliked those words.

She didn't want Kyrie to say that.

Despite there being so basis for it, Gene couldn't help but feel something cruel laughing at him from somewhere everytime he said those words. She wasn't even sure if there was anyone out there who could make such a face besides them and the Cyber Zombies. Perhaps it was a meaningless emotion, an illusion, or an abnormality in her nerves.

Gene chose her words carefully after closing her eyes.

Be careful to not be harsh with your words.

Be careful in sounding gentle when you open your lips.

"It's not hard, nor is it meaningless. This is where people could have fun. This is the kind of place where you can ride various rides, eat, and watch clowns dance. There was a time when a circus tent would set up inside a plaza. I'm certain you would have enjoyed seeing the animals."

"Circus?"

"Uhm, yes..."

She smiled, putting her hands on her hips as she goes to explain to him what it was.

Most of his memory was in a blank state where no information was recorded, so she tried to respond as politely as she could with any questions or interests he may have. That's what Gene desired. She wanted to convey as much information as she could. With the world as it is now, many things would vanish if they aren't remembered.

Not just physically, but as words and concepts. 

For example, what is a circus?

A circus. A group of acrobatics. It was a performance venue done by highly trained animals and humans. The group would host unusually large and oddly-shaped animals that rarely appear in a city where they appear and perform tricks while displaying their charming looks. Although the spectacular aerial movements of humans who have gone through rigorous training were pleasing to the eye, it was the animals that were the most popular with children.

It was something that provided entertainment.

Something fun...

---Kyrie's listening in to my explanation.

---Doing so while looking right at me.

"Animals?"

"Do you not like animals, Kyrie?"

"I don't like the Bete Cyber Zombies. They're too mobile."

"...Not that sort. Someday, if there's a film on animals, I'll show it to you. They're cute."

"Yes."

He replied as if he understood it but didn't.

But it's not like she could say it was a true luxury to hear him speak any further, so she merely sighed to herself internally.

It was too cruel of her to ask him, Kyrie to love something he's never seen before. It goes without saying that they had different feelings about the world: to her, the world she referred to was the past. But to him, the world is that of ruins, a battlefield that is writhed with Cyber Zombies. That was an unwavering truth. That was reality.

She couldn't really blame him for that.

Instead, she was cautious with him.

Yes, Gene thought. Such a situation like this where they could lose their vigilance just by being overtly concerned with what they wanted to convey can easily lead to death. For instance, there was always one Cyber Zombie in each city. Even as a decaying machine body, in a form where they're unable to attack or move, they can still remain as a source of pollution that bring about the death of physical laws. 

Either they attack, or become the source of pollution.

In any case, they were dangerous and existed all over the world.

"Gene."

"Hm?

She was called out by him.

Suddenly, Kyrie's gaze was turned in another direction. Something in the distance. To the center of the amusement park.

"What is that?"

"That's..."

It was a castle. A black shadow that was surely 650 feet (200 meters) wide.

Despite the spire looking split in half, it was surprisingly intact.

The exterior itself was intact with very little of it having collapsed. Was the building itself even safe? Was it alive? Here, in a world where everything has died out, could such a fake castle that imitates a real one that existed long ago still be alive?

Pi. The sound of the Eye Camera makes a synthesized sound at last.

Did it take a picture of his finger or the castle in response to Kyrie's movement? It was hard to tell for ut to focus on the scenery at such a dark night, If the Autofocus used to moving objects worked, then there was a possibility that something moved in the castle.

Could it have been a Cyber Zombie rooted in this land?

Or perhaps a survivor?

Gene thought about whether to place an input into the Eye Camera or not. 

Seeing as the death of physical laws have yet to occur in this land, that meant a Cyber Zombie had to be around here somewhere.

It was better for it do some reconnaissance.

Gene gave it a small nod and was about to open her mouth...

And...

Suddenly, their surroundings were filled with light.

Ford World's power was far from gone.

As if this was to show off that it was alive, the Engine Lights in various places were emitting light. The amusement park was filled with light. Cheerful music being played by the Music Engine echoes through the speakers. And rides such as the pirate ship and carousel were active and in operation. Although there was no one there smiling and enjoying themselves, the amusement park was alive with liveliness and brightness.

It was even a coincidence that the large clock tower at the center of the plaza had stopped at midnight.

"Wow..." A voice leaked out from their lips.

"Gene. The castle's shining."

He points to it.

The castle towering in the center of the plaza was shining brightly.

A black shadow of a circle formed a Halo by the giant Ferris wheel standing behind it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

There didn't seem to be anyone in sight.

Even the sight of a Cyber Zombie, who they would have heard the sound of their soul creaking up wasn't there.

The castle's interior, kept bright by the Engine Lights installed in various places was different from the exterior. A strange place with decorations not only from the Middle Ages but also from the Renaissance Period. Although the architectural style was medieval, the Engine Lights that were covered in chandelier-like covers were Renaissance and the floor's carpet was modern. In truth, the vague image of the Middle Ages from the Old Continent were problematic for many people.

In contrast with the amusement park that suddenly regained its liveliness, the castle's corridors was filled with silence.

Gene and Kyrie walked through the deserted castle.

In the corridor leading from the front entrance, various dolls reminiscent of the Medieval Period were displayed. Normally they would have been in operation, but like unlike it was outside, none of the Engine Machines inside were moving at all.

"It's quiet," Their voice echoes loudly through the corridor, reverberating loudly.

"But there seems to be something here."

"Cyber Zombie?"

"Something else."

He looked towards the end of the corridor.

There was something. A shadow that reflected off of his dark eyes. No---

It was a figure.

Something that looked like a Human.

It had a form that gave the impression suitable of being a Human. Even the action of one.

However, just one look of them made it clear they weren't Human.

Standing at the end of the corridor 15 feet (5 meters) away---where there was a Medieval-looking wooden door carved into it of what looks to be countless tentacles and black kings---was a beautiful woman who could be called that of a Machine Doll. A Machine in the form of a woman.

There were nerve cords at the ball joints and nape of the neck that were exposed. No doubt they were a machine. Even so, they were definitely humanoid. There were many cases where they were made to imitate Humans. However, unlike the advanced human mimicry done by Cyber Zombies, what was standing before them was clearly made out of chrome and cables.

It had a beautiful form. However, that beauty came with it a certain coldness.

"This is our first time seeing you. Welcome, come in."

That voice came from somewhere other than their throat. It was a rather flat, mechanically synthesized voice.

Her arms were opened wide in a grand fashion, bowing down in a graceful manner.

Like she was welcoming guests.

Like she was welcoming the master home.

All while a creaking sound was made.

"Welcome, last one. Last life of the planet. Our Los Alamos Castle welcomes you. You must be tired from your travels and want to heal up. So please, come along now."

"We're not the last ones. We're here to look for other survivors."

Kyrie responded to the woman's voice from a distance.

Increasing his walking speed, he approaches her without hesitation with Gene following close behind from an angle. His strides were long so she faltered behind a little. By the time she started to walk a little faster to catch up, he was already at the door where the lightning was better than in the corridor. For such Engine power to be used so abundantly, there had to be a Mega engine in operation somewhere.

"Who are you, Machine Woman?"

"Yes. I am a Machine."

"I was asking for your name. I'm Kyrie. She's Gene."

"I'm a Megadyne made by the Foundation. My given name is Doman. I am a being who is dedicated to serving humanity."

"Megadyne?"

Kyrie frowns at the woman.

It was such an unfamiliar word.

There wasn't any kind of campaign that made them known to the general public, thus it was no wonder they hadn't known about them. The Megadyne. A steel doll that was made to serve humanity, created in secret by the world's most advanced science back when everything was still alive.

"Yes, a Megadyne. I would like to give you an explanation, but it's very late into the night."

"You're very different from those Cyber Zombies, aren't you?"

"I don't even have a life that could even die so, yes, I am different from those monsters."

"Can you explain it?"

"I can do that tomorrow."

She smiles, saying these words cheerfully as she nodded at Kyrie's words.

It's already late. I have a prepared a room for you at the castle. So please, rest there.

"I can't rest. There must be a Cyber Zombie here somewhere."

"That won't come to pass. We're safe here. The Death of Physical Laws won't come to us."

"But that can't be..."

Gene whispered.

It was rare for Kyrie to start up a conversation with another person, and despite them being a machine, she was happy for them to talk to someone who wasn't a Cyber Zombie. Thinking this, she found a reason to stay silent, but couldn't help herself to react.

If no such thing as a Cyber Zombie was here, if they were decaying, pollution would have surely begun. The re-killing or withering a Cyber Zombie leads to the Death of Physical Laws. That was assured. That was absolute.

Gene turned her face, hung down from behind Kyrie in his shadow, to her. The chrome her. She lets her gaze wander about while not trying to look into her glass eyes.

"That can't be true. That's impossible."

"No."

She spoke majestically, turning her gaze to Gene's gray eyes.

Even having something of a smile on her face.

"Thanks to our Foundations technology, we were able to subdue and sedate the Cyber Zombie here. They're asleep underground in the castle, never to awaken again. Please, be rest assured."

"Sedation? Never heard that such a thing could be possible..."

"We can discuss the details tomorrow. It's already late into the night. Please, take it easy."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"It's a strange feeling."

"Yes."

"A promise was made to talk with them tomorrow. A promise. As far as my memory bank has been scanned shows, I've never made a promise with anyone other than you, Gene."

"That's right."

It was a large room.

A guest room located at the end of the 15th floor of the dark castle.

Above all, it was an odd room that showed no signs of collapse. There were no cracks on the walls, no small pieces of cement falling from the ceiling like grains of sand, the legs of the chairs were all in good condition, and the bed itself had maintained its shape with no springs sticking out.

Their room, perhaps a guest room, was shown to them by R Doman. It was very luxurious with soft cushions and though they tended to collect dust, they were filled with feathers. They were perhaps equipped in beds and other items where they were deemed a luxury in the modern world.

The carpeted floor even gave off an authentic feel to it. It was carpeted, not linoleum.

The furniture was seemingly of genuine medieval style, where they quickly realized it wasn't mass produced by machinery. For instance, the glass on the vanity table had no scratches. Gene even had to close her eyes after brushing off the dust.

It was a like for an aristocrat. A room fitting for the appearance of a castle.

The Eye Camera was ignoring Gene's feelings as it went around, taking pictures and recording only moving objects. That being the two of them. Gene was sitting on the bed while Kyrie was standing next to her.

"Shall we eat something? It's been a while since we had anything besides breakfast."

"Yes."

"Take your cloak off, and hang it over there."

"To where?"

"There."

She points to the coat hanger next to the auto-lock door, but Kyrie kept glancing to and from it, never moving towards beyond that. She figured it was his first time seeing it, but he probably didn't know what it was due to not having seen it before, let alone knowing how to use it.

Smiling, she gets up from the bed.

She goes behind Kyrie, patting him on the back to bend over. Perhaps it was easier for Gene to take off the cloak.

"The cloak. You'll need to be able to take it off without its shape being lost."

"It can be taken off during a crisis with a Cyber Zombie."

"I mean like a time when you don't even need it. You'll need to learn in doing things by yourself."

"I have you."

"True," She nods, trying to open her lips to say something only to close them. When she opens them again, she instead says something else. ""...But do you really want me to do everything?"

"No."

She couldn't see his expression.

Even if Gene wanted to see him, she'd have to circle around in front of him or call out to him, but didn't opt to do that. Instead, she bends over and grabs his cloak from the nape of his neck, pulling it off one arm at a time, and takes it off.

After shaking off the dust that had accumulated after riding for hours on the gas bike, she folds the cloak in the middle and drapes it over her arm.

"You should keep watching."

She hooks the nape of the cloak on the coat hanger in front of the door.

Looking at her, he stood up and said "it's fine."

"It's not fine. Even you can do it yourself."

"I can't do it."

"Kyrie," She fought the urge to make such a cloudy expression. She had to be earnest.

"I'm a machine that fights. I can't do such a delicate movement like you."

"Don't say it like that."

Please be gentle, please don't say such harsh things.

Gene takes out all of the canned goods from the bag left on the bed.

They had to eat the items with the shortest expiration dates first, so she takes out all of the canned goods and checks them every time. The only good thing about the city they went last time was a city type town that had an abundance of food. Naturally, clothing was important but was second to food.

She piles up the canned food she had taken out onto the bed and stares at it for a while.

She had to consider the balance in nutrition as much as she could.

"A can of spam is good. I'm sure it's nutritious."

"I wonder about that..."

"A can of spinach isn't good."

"Don't say that."

A slap.

She had to be strict here.

Upon looking at him, she saw him averting his gaze deliberately. 

Perhaps it wasn't intentional, just they were being uncomfortable and turned away. She's truly happy to see his emotions are being clearly displayed. But she tried to not be so sweet with him. She had to be moderate with her kindness.

"We'll have canned spinach tonight. That, and cat food. Nutrition is important, you know?"

"..."

"That is, if you also want spam."

"That will do," He nods with a straight face.

---If possible, I want this sweetness to be the norm.

---But that's alright. If anything, I want his meals to be as enjoyable.

It would have been ideal if some music could be played. 

But there was no point to it. All of the Music Engines were large, being over three feet (one meter) long and not able to be carried around. If she said anything about it, Kyrie would have carried it around with an unconcerned look but that was meaningless. Even if she didn't think it were meaningless, by considering the risks that came with doing that, it couldn't be said to not be meaningless.

It was meal time. A time of silence.

The sound of opening a can. The sound of scrapping the bottom of the can with a metal fork or spoon to scoop out the contents. The sound of him chewing.

He was chewing 80 times as was told, and swallows his food. Not a word was made.

When was the last time she said that it was rude to talk while eating?

"...Surely."

Gene muttered while resting her chin on her hand atop the vintage desk.

She looks at Kyrie, who had on a displeased look, sipping on the cat food he scooped out with the spoon.

"It's kind of strange. This is such an amazing room, yet we're having canned goods."

"Suppose, it is," He chewed about 80 times, then swallows to respond right after.

"That's right."

There was a small laugh.

Then she looks at him with her chin on her hand. She hasn't touched the canned goods.

"Gene. Your body won't survive if you don't eat."

"No, I'm good for right now. I don't have an appetite. You don't have to worry."

"I've never seen you with an appetite, Gene."

"...Still, it's fine for now."

She found it strange that he would be so dazzling at times like this.

She cared about him. The only one. The only one who walks in this decayed world. Lowering her voice a little, Gene narrowed her eyes as she gave her response.

"Human woman often times don't let boys see them eat. Especially those like myself."

"Is that so?"

Kyrie nods.

There wasn't a shred of doubt in that...

"I think we should be able to sleep well tonight."

She turns off the light and gets up onto the dusted bed.

Already, she had turned off the Eye Camera.

The slightly musty smell was unavoidable, but it wasn't one they had to worry about.

There was only one bed in the room. A single, large double bed. Without hesitating, Gene gets on the right side of the bed and Kyrie to join her. Kyrie also joined her at her side without hesitation. The springs that kept it soft squeaked, and the bed itself slanted considerably. It was natural that he'd weigh as much as a block of chrome were he to fall asleep.

Even in the darkness, Gene could still make out his face.

Especially his dark eyes.

They have yet to close.

"Gene."

The voice calling out to her was quieter than usual. They were so close to one another by touching each others shoulders, so she taught him to not raise his voice at times like this.

"That person is like me. She's a little different from a Cyber Zombie despite being made out of chrome. But she's not Human either."

"Indeed. R Doman. That's surely the case, looking at it."

"Then this is your Sanctuary."

"It's..."

Even now, Gene tried to say something. She tried to say it, but couldn't so she closes her lips.

His eyes. Before she knew it, she couldn't look straight at him who was elsewise doing such. She had to say something. She didn't want Kyrie to feel anxious even if he didn't have the ability to feel such. She didn't want to think that. She had to think of something.

Gene opens her lips slightly and mutters---

To him, no, to herself.

"...If that's the case, it's good."

And so, they went to sleep.

One after another.

---We sleep in one bed.

---Our shoulders are touching. I held his sleep right hand with my left.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Morning comes.

To be precise, it was 7:03 AM.

Gene opened up the room's window to look at the eternal gray clouds. She raised up her left hand, which had held onto Kyrie's right hand until a moment ago, into the sky. It was like blocking off the rays of the sun that never radiated brightly.

She didn't sleep.

She couldn't sleep.

It's why she was looking at the sky, which had begun to take on a grayish brightness.

Gray. An eternal gray sky that never ends. Even after almost all of the smoke from the Engine Machine have vanished from the ground, the sky has not changed its color.

Who would have imagined that something like this would happen in the last century? That the sky turned gray, the sea turning black, absurd clocks standing atop of the planet, and humans disappeared. The world itself had ended so quickly.

She shifts her gaze from the sky to the ground.

The amusement park, which had been operating during the night had already return to silence.

The Carousel. Naturally, Gene imagined herself riding on it with Kyrie. It might have been so if she, who can never dream, actually dreamt about it but...

"Good morning."

There was a knock on the room's door, followed by a voice.

She felt as though she had heard it before despite it being an unfamiliar voice. It wasn't something she'd call as familiar, but seemed to have heard it many times before. It wasn't the chrome woman named R Doman. Even so, Gene knew the voice. It was clearly not a real one, only a synthesized one but with a unique intonation. It was a completely automatic maid made out of Engine Machines, a relatively new 1905 model.

That was certainly true.

It assuredly matches what he was told.

"Good morning. The morning is nice. Please come to the dining room on the third floor. Breakfast is ready."

"We'll be there shortly. Just wait a little until he wakes up."

As she spoke, she got the Eye Camera running. As it was built on rudimentary commands, she gave a silent voice input to the round, small machine trying to photograph not just of Gene's body, but anything that moved in that room. She tells it to go to the other side of the room.

"Just five more minutes, please.

"We understand. Thank you."

The inorganic nature of the voice was similar to a Cyber Zombie...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Good morning. Please, help yourself out---"

It was such an unbelievable sight.

Gene had nothing but a loss for words.

R Doman, spreading her arms wide in such a grand fashion with their doll-like gesture, points to the pile upon pile of foods lined up on the crowded dining table. It was more appropriate to even call it a mountain.

To start off, there wasn't such a need for such a large table regardless of how spacious the room was. Besides the two of them, the only other one in the room was R Doman and what appears to be two fully automatic steel maids who were busy setting up the table and coming to and from the kitchen behind the door at the end of the room.

It was a large room. Yes, a spacious dining room with extremely high ceilings.

The dining room functioned exactly as the name implies.

In other words, a place to eat, assuming the food is being served.

The cooking---

The items that were lined up were the real deal, something Gene hadn't seen for the first time in years.

"This is...real cooking?"

"Of course.

"This is so absurd."

Her thoughts were about to cease.

She felt her vision tilting. 

However, a rational part of herself made her think this was "to be expected".

That was from the moment she realized this was Los Alamos.

It wasn't any kind of imitation, and the scent of it was surely real. Freshly baked bread, freshly boiled sausages, freshly grilled ham steak, and fresh and warm vegetables. The soup was warm and steaming. Gene confirmed the smell once again. The smell of fatty meat, the smell of warm vegetables, and the deep smell of bouillon from the soup.

The aroma of food that was cooked properly, especially with fresh ingredients...

For example, instead of boiled tar...

"It's really...real..." It took her two seconds to realize her voice went hoarse.

"It's of no wonder you're surprised. The world has already ended, so you wouldn't have been able to find normal food like this. However, we can easily do this. This is how we recreate the way the world was from before."

R Doman spoke quietly.

It was akin to an adult speaking slowly enough to a kid who was surprised at something and was at a loss of words.

"In the castle's basement is where a giant laboratory is at. This very place is also served as one of the facilities for the Foundation, the crystallization of this country's wisdom."

"Los Alamos."

She utters it without realizing it.

It was one of those names she could never forget.

"That's right. Los Alamos Core Research Facility," The machine woman proudly smiles and goes on. "The one and only Foundation is a group of Scholars that controls the most advanced science and technology devised by humanity, where they eventually created highly advance autonomous machines like me. I was given greater computing power than humans, and have been conducting research that were very important propositions for humanity."

She went on about it, even after the world had ended.

Smiling and cheeringly, she spoke with the mixed sounds of the metallic parts of her neck creaking into the synthesized voice.

It wasn't a tone she felt relieved to hear.

It wasn't a comfortable face she can look at.

Gene was uncomfortable not because some part of her form and shape were different from Humans, but due to the way she was showing it off. That was the present reason. However, she didn't want herself to be made aware of this so she opted to ignore her ecstasy.

Perhaps she even bit on her lips a little too hard for this.

 She always taught of that as being a bad habit.

On the other hand, R Doman seemed to have not noticed Gene's condition---

She was sure they'd dare to try something---

"In other words, I am a part of the Foundations brain. Someone who simply serves humanity as a machine and executes a plan. That has not changed even if the world is destroyed."

"You said something about a plan?" Kyrie said, not even looking at the food. Instead, he was looking at the machine woman.

"Yes."

"What is this about?"

"It's to the role bestowed to me."

---Yes. The assigned role.

"What are you saying?" It was short. Sharp to the point of intimidation.

---Don't get angry, Kyrie.

"The research given to me is the restoration of living organisms using biosynthetic technology. This was sometimes referred to as alchemy centuries ago. With this technology, I want to be able to achieve the same thing alchemists and magicians of the past have aimed for."

---Restoration Technology. Indeed, that's how you can even reproduce ingredients.

"That's very roundabout..."

"Life. By doing this, we can restore humanity and eventually the world."

---Life. Humanity. They're said to be more precious than anything else. It's why they were incorporated into the educational program.

"...Why tell us this?"

"Because it's necessary."

---I understood it even without needing to say it. Los Alamos. There was more to this place than its name.

"Is there any point telling us this?"

"Yes. As Megadyne's, the survival of humanity is our responsibility. Now, let us accomplish our goal!"

Having said that---

The Machine Woman, R Doman, points her finger at her while making a mechanical sound.

My kin, one who is also of cold being, I bid you to take this cold hand.

My partner, one who is impersonates steel, I bid you to hang your head to your predestained fate.

To whom?

---No one. Towards a machine shaped like a woman.

For whom?

---No one. To continue humanity.

For what?

---Nothing. For the sake of that which they were made for. For their given role.

Who?

---No one. Someone who wasn't anyone.

"...Yes. I understand our fate and technology. Truly, it's amazing."

"Gene?"

He was looking at her.

She could feel the gaze of his glass eye and black in gold eye.

Gene couldn't even catch his sight.

She just looks downwards, unable to turn her face away as she looks at the soup forming a warm air as she squeezes out her voice. She lets out some words with her lips slightly open. She says them, even though she was careful to avoid speaking without her lips moving.

She had done this morning and night.

But now, no longer she was doing that kind of thing.

"The survival of humanity is our responsibility," she repeated those words. They were words she was taught on.

"What are you talking about, Gene?"

"...I acknowledge that you're a more advanced model than me. From here on, I will switch to a standby mission based on autonomous judgment. I leave the rest to you."

"Thank you. Truly, for all of your hard work. You've done your part well."

"Yes..."

"Gene, look at me. I don't understand what you and that woman is talking about."

"Do not bring her any trouble, honored one. Lord Kyrie."

"I wasn't talking to you. Gene, answer me."

"Kyrie."

Just hearing that name made a part of her body tremble.

She can tell even without having to scan for it. What was creaking, what was hurting, what gave off the illusion of pain in the depths of her steel body underneath the special resin skin. 

There was no such thing as a heart.

---The pain. It's too strong.

---I can't see your face.

"Please do not blame her, Lord Kyrie. That woman, no, the machine named R Genevieve was able to admirably fulfill their responsibilities over the years in this harsh world despite being a mere test machine for research rather than being an environmental-adaptive model. You should be able to understand this sort of hardship, Lord Kyrie. They were able to get you yo Los Alamos, a place whose existence wasn't quite certain."

"R Genevieve?"

"That is her name."

"Gene's name is Genevieve Ninth. It has no R like you."

"Perhaps that is true. Ninth. Yes, you can think of it that way."

"I don't understand. Can't you both say it in a way I can understand?"

She can tell he was confused.

She'd always try to answer something herself right away whenever he didn't know of something, so it was painful to see him not know of anything. She wanted to answer. She wanted to give him an answer. Still, she couldn't bring herself to look at him. She looked down and bit her lip.

If Gene had the ability to have faith, she would have cursed herself for raising him this way.

Even if she had met another Megadyne, she always thought of making a rational decision to never hand him over to someone else without any remnant of a visible result. On top of that, in this world, the chances of meeting another machine were extremely low and even if they were to meet one, there wasn't anyway for them to rationally recognize another as having more potential than themselves.

Moreover, there were machine bodies who were in charge of cutting-edge scientific fields such as the research on life.

This couldn't have happened.

Most of the Megadynes were able to protect the few humans who managed to survive. However, the Cyber Zombies deemed them as "obstructive nuisances", and destroyed them.

---But this is Los Alamos.

---R Doman is a machine of a higher performance than me.

She had achieved spectacular results. 

A rational decision was automatically made deep in Gene's mind.

For Kyrie, he deserved her more than herself.

"...Kyrie..."

She raises her face.

If this was to be the last time she see's him, she had to raise it up.

However, she couldn't bear his face.

Gene faintly focused on her face and turned it without looking at him. Doing it as though she were looking at his face, as though she were looking to his eyes. She had to add an expression. Yes, that is what she was programmed with before the world ended.

Activating the pseudo facial expression.

Ignoring the creaking sound echoing deep within her being.

She smiles to assure him.

---Kyrie. You're important.

---The most precious, most fleeting, last one. You are to be protected.

"I'm sorry."

It was short. Just a word.

Nothing more for her to say than that.

She couldn't choose any other word. The best ones didn't come in her line of sight. The function wasn't working. Her heart, alongside her neural circuits, were creaking.

"Why are you apologizing, Gene?"

"I'm sorry."

Gene continues to smile.

She was careful to not change her expression.

She was careful not to let her tears fall.

No, she was careful in letting her man-made eye become broken, to not let it react to her feelings and release a coolent.

She tried to notice the sound of something creaking from within.

All while taking notice of everything around her.

Merely, just smiling.

She swallowed down her anxiety, thinking she'd be able to create a smile like now.

She goes on talking.

"...for so long..."

---I'm sorry for deceiving you for so long, Kyrie.

---I don't think I'll be going to the Sanctuary.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I'm sorry---

Words of apology.

Words of regret.

That's what I said to them.

I said nothing more as I saw Kyrie's back, who was being led by R Doman down the dull Golden Spiral Staircase and into the deepest part of Los Alamos. Even the Camera followed after him.

I can't go to the Sanctuary.

You go with her.

After saying all of that, all I did was simply stay silent.

Just that without changing my expression.

"I don't like this."

I said.

But I didn't nod. I couldn't agree with it. I had no right for that.

I don't recall how long it's been since you left that chair nor why. I would have referred back to my memory circuit, but didn't do so for I had no recollection of doing it.

I've always kept track of time for you.

When you sleep.

When you eat.

Since mechanization occurred, you've even forgotten to go excrete on your own so I've also managed that while keeping a close eye for that time as well.

I'm really sorry.

I've deceived you with my motherly impression.

I've fooled you with my older sister tone.

All this time, I've deceived you.

I said that the two of us would live together.

I said that we'd find the Sanctuary together.

All of it was a lie. Lies. A lie just to carry you along. 

Something like a hint.

---Really?

---Is that truly the case?

I've looked for a place where he could live, a weak and brittle Human who'd never be able to survive in a place polluted by the Death of Physical Laws brought about by the Cyber Zombie. Sanctuary. I've been looking for you for a long time.

I swore that I would do anything to get you there.

All while telling you lies.

A lie that was just between the two of us.

You just needed to be alive.

If it's just to give you that kind of peace, it's okay.

---Was it due to the input command as it is?

---Was this written into the program I was given during manufacturing?

Yes, indeed. That's right.

Maybe that was the case. In a world that came to an end, the scholars who developed and manufactured me set the "continuation of mankind" as a priority above all others.

But.

At the same time, that was of my own vow.

That day, that time, I swore that I would continue to protect your warmth.

So this is fine. 

It's fine. It wasn't a mistake. That's what the tiny Ordinatour inside my brain told me about R Doman. Now that I was able to meet that Megadyne, who possesses a brain and research faculty superior to mines, accepting as a superior machine, there was nothing wrong in handing over the last life, the last human.

I'm sure she'll do fine.

They even have amazing biosynthetic and purification technology.

There's nothing to hesitate on that.

In fact, I should even be happy about it.

No longer will you be starving or scared.

I feel even a step closer to that precious light.

And yet...

Yet why is so it much?

That I can still hear the creaking sound of my soul, my heart, that which shouldn't even exist?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

There was a creaking sound.

The sounds of metal creaking kept getting louder and louder every time he stepped on the staircase.

Kyrie descended down the Golden Spiral Staircase without an expression.

There was no sign of confusion nor fear, just him following Gene's orders as he continued to walk down the eiree staircase that kept going below and below into the depths---

"Watch where you're stepping."

"Yes."

He didn't raise his voice.

For Kyrie, the one he'd always respond to was Gene. His past experience of responding to anyone else has almost been completely gone from his memory. In honesty, he didn't quite feel comfortable to respond to anyone but Gene. He wanted to converse with Gene again as soon as possible. Though fully aware his vocabulary was limited and thus made it impossible to have a proper conversation, he still desired to hear her voice again. He wanted to say something to her, to get a response from her.

He can see the Eye Camera was viewing his profile.

Even though he didn't respond to it at all.

It was frustrating. He thought it'd be more appropriate for Gene to be recorded, but his vocal input didn't work on the small sphere as Gene's voice set as the host in its initial settings.

"Gene isn't coming?"

"Yes. There's no need for her to come."

"Really?"

He was greatly dissatisfied.

He didn't show it on his face. It was hard to move his facial muscles anyway.

Gene had instructed him to follow the machine woman. For that matter, there wasn't any doubt in his mind that there was some idea to that.

That was always how Kyrie lived.

Although he couldn't recall when he had a sense of what is referred to as an ego, there wasn't anything wrong he found with her words. He'd get sick to his stomach if he ate something he shouldn't have, fall ill if he didn't have a balanced diet, and has done as he was instructed in making circular movements to take evasive actions against a Cyber Zombie's attack. It was even she who taught him how to aim while shooting.

Everything that he learned as by her. It has always been that way.

So he wasn't confused on that note.

Even with the Spiral Staircase that seemed to go on forever.

It was a strange staircase. It was metallic. It was golden.

The staircase's appearance was strange to begin with.

First, R Doman slowly stood up from the dining table and raises her right hand from which she snaps her fingers, with the sound of an Engine Machine running echoing. It was the sound of an Engine piston. The sound echoed throughout the large dining room, where he immediately knew was making the whole castle shake.

Then, the floor right before the machine woman went abnormal as it made a metallic noise. A square hole opened up as several steel-colored pillars were lined up where a handrail was constructed. At the end of the hole was a Spiral Staircase with dull gold plating.

At present---these were the stairs that he has stepped on many times.

"At the end of the Golden Spiral Staircase is the form of our God. Our God's love!"

That's what the machine woman told him.

He didn't know what it meant, nor was he interested. He once asked Gene who God was, but she merely smiled and did not respond.

"The key to the world's restoration is at the end of the Golden Spiral Staircase. Come, join us."

Having said that, the machine woman began to descend the staircase, making creaking sounds.

Kyrie followed without hesitation, trailing behind at about 15 feet (5 meters) behind her.

He didn't grab onto the handrail. With more than half of his body already a machine, he was able to maintain a sense of balance. Back when his mechanization wasn't advanced, not only had he lost his sense of balance but he'd also cry out in pain from having his body parts turn into chrome.

Now, he doesn't cry anymore.

He tried to shed tears, but his left eye had already turned into glass.

When was the last time he cried?

In the end---Gene patted his head while telling him not to cry...

"We'll be arriving soon."

Said the machine woman walking ahead.

Thinking about it, they have walked the distance.

Judging by Kyrie's sense of distance and the precise sound of steps recorded in his partially mechanized brain, they should have already reached a considerable distance underground. To start off, the dining room from which the stairs started off at was on the third floor above ground.

This was a Spiral Staircase that seemed to go on forever. He had some doubts about such a mechanism that could be used in any scenario where a series of dark steps illuminated by only a few Engine Lights would be created without "ever leading to any room". Even then, he didn't think much of it. It was meaningless. Kyrie admitted that it wasn't his task to think about it too much.

And---

The quality of the machine woman's steps changes.

"We've arrived."

R Doman turns around and bows to him.

He didn't think of it as such a beautiful motion.

Everything on earth was nothing compared to Gene.

"Here, this place is where our research, where all forms of life can be restored flourishes."

The machine woman spreads her arms and points in a direction---

It wasn't just darkness.

Kyrie's glass left eye was able to accurately grasp his surroundings. Already he had activated his night vision which manifested months prior. At the end of the Golden Spiral Staircase wasn't just gloomy, dark, or shadowy. There was a presence. Something heavy. Something cold.

There existed a mass of steel. Multiples of them.

The basement extended to approximately 300 feet (100 meters) and was filled with a variety of equipment. It was cold and heavy. It was a large piece of machinery. There were a number of machines he didn't know about, including the Ordinatour which looked a lot like a giant pipe organ that collapsed in a cathedrial in City C he saw before. Some of them were extended pipes towards something deep within.

In the innermost part. In the deepest part.

Kyrie stares at the thing sleeping there.

His sight, having become accustomed to the darkness, caught sight of it.

It was a giant.

A steel giant.

It was a humanoid figure with a total length of 45 feet (15 meters) long in the form of a cross.

Metals stakes were drilled into the back of its right and left hands, both legs were bounded together with one also placed over them. In total, there were about three giant metal stakes that tied the giant to the wall.

He felt as though he had seen a statue similar to this one he saw in a ruined cathedrial that retained its shape.

He couldn't recall what he said to Gene at that time, a time when his brain wasn't yet mechanized in the sligthest.

However, it wasn't this huge.

Moreover, it didn't give off any bad vibes like this.

The presense of a dead life still stuck to his memory whether he recalls it or not.

"A Cyber Zombie?"

"Yes."

"It's a Geant..."

"It

"It's already been sedated. You won't have to worry about it."

"Geant's are strong. I wouldn't want to fight it in such a narrow space."

"You have no need to fret about it. It won't wake up. Besides, what I wanted to show you wasn't that but this..."

Back and forth, she moves her hands around as though she were swimming. The machine woman points at a group of humanoid machines. Without slowing down, she continued asking him to look at all of this.

It was if she was proud of doing it.

But Kyrie didn't understand the feeling of euphoria and elation, so he didn't take in any sign of it. He merely thought she wanted to brag about this.

"I think you can understand that the restoration of the world is nothing but the rebirth of life. That is exactly what I've been researching," Smoothly and cooly, the machine woman continues on about her research. "The world has ended. The reason for that varies. Some Scholars say it was a Humanoid who Covered the Sky. Some say it was a Strange Creature with wings that appeared from the seabed. Some say there was a White Mask of Death, and some say that it was a sneering Golden Mask that shattered the world. All those who paid attention to such trivial matters perished. That's why it was necessary for someone like me to carry out the plan. The world's restoration. The restoration of mankind, that of God's given-grace to start anew!"

He didn't understand it.

Kyrie didn't understand not one bit of it.

He wasn't feeling any sort of emotions either. All that was on his mind was Gene.

Gene.

Genevieve Ninth.

He was raised by her. He lived because of her.

All along, he knew that as he followed Gene's instructions. The journey he took to find Sanctuary, the way he lived on without being killed by the Cyber Zombie, the way he ate, sleep, all of that was because he did as he was told by her. Kyrie would willingly die if she were to tell him to.

He had no doubts. He had no hesitation.

However---

There was a sense of discomfort. 

A terrible, indescribable sense of discomfort.

Something that made Kyrie thought of going to school.

Gene always told him of it as a place where he could learn everything and he had gone to one sooner, his vocabulary would beome richer. With that, he'd able to express his words more clearly.

"...Lord Kyrie. I want you to come here."

R Doman stands before one of the machines.

She points to something that looked like an aquarium that was about 20 feet tall and had a faint green glow to it. A mechanical pool. Though Kyrie didn't quite understand, he faintly nodded.

What he was he to do there?

What was to be added in there?

"Could I fit into this?"

"Yes. It's a decomposition solution tank. First, I'll have you lie down on that bed there, where I will have you input into here. Then, we will have your precious dissassembled down to its smallest unit, extracting its consitutional elements, and then duplicate them. It's not as difficult, it's the same as the breakfast you had earlier."

"I don't quite understand what you mean."

"Hmm. Then a demonstration to start."

R Doman activates her ball joints without even trying to conceal the metallic sound and reaches for one of the machines. Mechanical fingers were vividly tapping away at the keyboard in the darkness, producing harsh high-pitched sounds. Some sort of Engine was being activated. After a while, another Engine and some sheets of camphor cellouse plates was being discharged.

One by one, it removes it and inserts it to another machine.

"This Engine Card has several pieces of information inside. By inserting it into the restoration device..."

The results were produced before her words could end.

The machine into which the cellouse plates was inserted into was in operation. It shakes, then white steam fills the interior of the tempered glass at the bottom of the machine which was shaped like a gurney's trunk. It seemed like something was happening on the other side of the glass, and right as Kyrie was about to wonder what he couldn't see inside, the machine woman snaps her fingers. Then, the glass part opens by itself to show---

A small red and green object with a large earth-colored object.

One was a plant.

One was an animal.

Kyrie scans for its types in his memory.

"A rose and a cow."

"Yes. I constructed the rosaceae plant and the bovidae animal using artificial organic material based on information particles. With the information of life we recorded with its information particles, we can reproduce the cultured general purpose organic cells. I wouldn't call this creation, but this is exactly what our restoration of living things are."

"What an interesting magic trick."

"This is the content of my research. It's still a minor issue that any living creature can't just be immediately replicated with our current state of technology, however." The machine woman calmly and softly with a shake of her head. "Even so, as long as a sample, it's no issue. Through repeated experiments, the complete restoration of life will one day come."

"I see," He still didn't get much of it. He still wasn't interested.

"Yes. Now, come on here."

The machine woman collectly nods her head and extends a hand.

Kyrie didn't noticed it. However, it seemed as though he couldn't sense it to notice.

R Doman's brain circuits were already going haywire---

"Is this what Gene desires?"

"It is. It's the earnest wish of us all."

"Really?"

No hesitation.

No questions asked.

However, Kyrie only nodded while feeling a sense of discomfort. It was not to the machine woman, but to Gene.

"Then I don't mind dying. But not for you. I will give Myself for Gene."

"Wonderful! Your name, determination, and courage will forever be remembered as the ultimate leader. The role of leadership is now in your hands. For as long as I continue to be active, I will grant you many thanks and appreciation for your intregreity."

"Quite the boast you gave there."

"We, the Foundation, will graciously accept your life. You, the last thing left in the ashes of the World of Karashrer."

There was a mechanical noise. A bed rises from the floor. The Eye Camera floating around from a short distance comes and makes a sound.

The machine woman, R Doman, makes large movements of her right arm as she points to it.

Dedicating herself.

Devoting herself.

Towards the last thing inside of him---

"You, the last life on this planet."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nobody is here.

It reminded her of the world itself.

In a guest room of a located on the 15th floor of the dark castle.

Only a sense of vastness could be felt. Not a sense of elation was felt there. Even more, the sense of anxity she felt since seeing the castle has vanished.

It was emptiness.

The feeling of empitness is the closest to that.

That's if she really had what one may call as emotions.

"...Clouds. Just clouds and more clouds."

Gene had retreated back to the guest room and stares out to the open window. Instead of it being the stationary amusement park, it was to the gray sky. The clouds which constantly shifted. In the finished world, there weren't a lot of things that moved about besides them and the Cyber Zombies, and the only things that remained were Engine Machines that had some power left. The rest of them have been blown away by the wind. There were laundry that hung on a balcony of an apartment. A stars and stripes flag riddled with holes. And the gray clouds that eternally covers the sky.

From morning to noon. Time passes from noon to evening.

But it simply passes on in vain.

It should have been different. She did something meaningful.

She traveled along with Kyrie, the last life.

Now that it's passed on, time only passes in vain. All that she had left was to wait until she decayed. Will she simply look up at the gray sky until her body reaches its limit, or until she rots away like the Cyber Zombies? She couldn't even imagine it anyway. She couldn't dream. That was simply how her body was.

"Kyrie."

She whispered his name.

It wasn't so consciously.

Her lips simply moved on its own, without any sort of movement or vocul sounds. Even though there was no one for her to conceal it anymore. It didn't matter if the voice came from her throat without moving her lips. There was no longer any need to trasmit information and consciousness, so it was meaningless.

"Kyrie, Kyrie, Kyrie..."

A mumble. A mumble. She mumbled his name.

How many times have she called out his name? How many was it repeated?

She figures it out by scanning through her memory. It was a great amount, that of 5,207 times.

--I'm sure you've also done it too.

--That you've called out my name just as much.

"Even here..."

She mumbles. To whom? Towards someone who is unlikely to hear her.

"Here, you can sleep on a warm bed."

She turns her attention to the double bed.

Where they slept on last night.

That moment, she realized about the wrinkles that were there when she woke up still remained. For some reason, there was an illusion of a creaking sound going louder within her and so she averted her eyes, not wanting to see it.

"...No longer will you have to worry about meals. You can sleep. You can eat. Both of them are secured. You can safely live here. She even said the Cyber Zombie that's here has been sedated and restrained."

Cyber Zombie. She had no clue that such a suppressive mechanism could be developed.

Since the world ended, she theorized that it was a technology crafted by the surviving Scholars who spent their lives creating it. R Doman said he was the last life. In other words, this mean that were no other survivors in Los Alamos.

If there were any surviving Scholars, they would have such techlogy to deal with the Cyber Zombies in various places.

However, the Cyber Zombies in the nearest towns still existed.

Diane was proof of this.

As was Ares.

"Cyber Zombies don't move. You yourself have a place to sleep and warm meals to eat."

In other words---

"This is the Sanctuary. You've arrived."

He was able to get there.

With a small nod, Gene lets out a rather big sigh.

The sigh itself wasn't actually made, just a mere imitation. It wasn't a gesture that befitted her, who had the form of a girl, and if anything, she hoped to not have it shown to Kyrie as much as possible. She didn't want to let him see her as though she had given up.

---Giving up...what?

---What is there to give up on?

She didn't know.

Perhaps she was broken.

Still, this was good. This was fine. She had already accomplished her mission.

Now it was just a matter of time. When will she break down? When will she decay? Time had no meaning to her. The same was it was for the past. The same as it is in the present. The same as it will for the future. However, whether or not her mission can be fulfilled, whether or not she can accomplish the reason she was manufactured for is why she exists.

And it was done. 

It was the same. For yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

"The same...," She mumbles, her lips tremble. "...Has it really been the same...?"

Just as she said that---

The room's door opens up.

A cylindrical piece of metal enters into the room without knocking. It was a fully automated maid of the same model with the number 0023 engraved on it that appeared in the morning. Although it moved silently using a roller-type moving device, it still made the sound of internal machinery being operated. A number of mechanical limbs extended from the machine body, and a cloth or artificial fiber dust collector was attached at the tip where it starts cleaning the room.

"Cleaning time."

"Thank you."

No response. It just continued on to clean the room in silence.

It would appear that she was no longer accounted for as a guest.

Indeed, she had already accomplished her role, thus she had no reason to stay there. Gene's mind was too average and not particularly remarkable, nor was she a highly advanced machine who could perform research and development like a Scholar could. Even if she was here, she couldn't take up the role like R Doman has. She was probably of no use to Kyrie either.

With that in mind, she thought about leaving the room when she spotted the bag on the bed.

She had no need for it anymore either.

It was a bag with equipment they colleted for the journey. Food and supplies. A small portable grenade launcher. And aside that---

"...Make sure the bed is set too, please. Although he may not necessarily sleep here---"

"No. There's no need for that," There was a response. It appears that was a clear input for answers.

"But this room won't be where he'll be sleeping anyways?"

"No."

That was the first time she saw the cylindrical machine move.

It might been her feeling or an illusion, but it felt like it was to her.

It felt like a kind of delay, like someone said something so unexpected and were at a loss for words. What was it? It's not like she said anything out of the ordinary. In that sense, Gene's thoughts were abruptly cut off as she wondered if this cylindrical machine had a malfunction in the voice recognition function.

The following words uttered by the fully automated maid were made in a cold, synthesized voice.

"No one will be sleeping here."

 "Eh..."

"No Human will be sleeping here in the castle until the restoration and increase in production are complete."

"But Kyrie is here?"

"No. Yes. Lord Kyrie will be dissembled. There's no need to make the bed here."

--Disassembled?

--What? What did you just say?

"Information particle decomposition will be carried out in the research facility deep within Los Alamo's."

"Information particle..." Also known as a gene. It was known as the smallest unit that records all information about the living organism.

"It's for restoration. The lord can revive humanity if we can just overcome instant death through duplication. Humanity will not perish. The world will not end even if all 33 Karashrer's have pierced into the planet. This isn't over. This is our final victory."

"Duplication, you say?"

"Yes."

"You'll be taking him away?"

"Yes."

"...Yes. That is a reasonable decision."

She grabs the bag before her.

She checks through its contents slowly.

A can opener. Maps. A small portable grenade launcher.

And---

"Thank you for your response, Maid No. 0023."

---I take something out from the bag and point it at the cylindrical machine.

--It was a standard handgun from the Confederate Army.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was only natural for it to be loaded with armor piercing rounds.

There was no point in using steel unless it was valuable.

Since she always assumed the enemies in their journey and the ones she had to aim the handgun at were Cyber Zombies, she always naturally had the handgun in the bag loaded with twenty armor piercing rounds. This was an automatic handgun developed by Country G at the end of the previous century. A 32 inch (8 millimeter) special armor piercing round was fired at the same time as Gene pulled the trigger, piercing through the fully automated maid's thin steel to destroy its circuits without a hitch.

It was a natural thing to do. No questions asked.

Picking up her bag, Gene runs out of the room and down the hallway.

She knew where she had to go. The depths of the research place. That's what the cylindrical machine told her carefully.

She couldn't use the elevator.

No power was running through them, which wasn't hard to imagine as the moment she destroyed Maid No. 0023, a radio transmission was likely sent out to reach the entire castle's maintenance equipment that determine her as a dangerous element.

Not that she didn't think of doing anything so prematurely.

All she had to do was silently imagine the situation on how to deal with it.

"Seems like the stairs won't be good either."

While saying that, Gene was already on her way to the emergency stairs.

She ran along the red carpet that was spread out, heading towards the emergency stairs.

As expected, a lockdown was underway. There were several large cylindrical machines, three in total. These were security machines as instead of dust collectors, they had light machine guns attached at the ends of their mechanical limbs as their eyes met with hers as she reached the stairs. Eyes---?

Those things didn't have eyes, only optical lens made of glass.

"Sorry."

Muttering, she fires the small portable grenade launcher she had taken out of the bag.

Pon. It makes a foolish ejection noise. It lands right on the cylindrical steel, which was incomparably much thicker than Maid No. 0023, and immediately explodes. Gene was hardly affected by the blast as she easily hid herself behind a wall.

However, the ends of the white coat were slightly burnt off.

But she couldn't worry about such a thing, not of this moment.

She ran down the collasped stairs filled with black soot.

She runs down the stairs with movement she never would have done with Kyrie, having calculated the firing angle, blast radius, and the strength and structure of the building so as to avoid the stairs collapsing and making it impossible to descend. All while destroying any of the security machines that appear one after another with explosive rounds.

This was different from when she used up almost her entire memory to look after Kyrie's life support struggles. Even if it were impossible to kill a Cyber Zombie, it was at least possible for her to destroy a security machine meant to be used against unarmed Humans.

To be able to break such things was due to her level of engineering intellect.

"Out of the way. Don't obstruct me."

She mutters them, even if they were words that didn't make sense to use.

She didn't want them to break. Something that had a form.

She didn't want to destroy something that can move even if it had no life.

---You're such an egoist.

---Yes. Indeed. At this moment, I wouldn't hesitate to kill my sibling.

Making sure to take cover around the corner, using high explosive rounds to blow things up inbetween shots.

Gene repeateds the action mechanically.

She got down the emergency stairs just as it collapsed.

The 3rd floor. The stairs ends here. Of the 13 security machines waiting in formation in a large hall a little's away from the emergency stairs, three were crushed by a chandilier that had its joints shot up by the handgun, and nine more were destroyed by explosive rounds. The last one had its circuitry shot up when she snuck up behind it through the smoke, going immobile after five armor piercing rounds shot into it.

Upon arriving at the large dining room, she found the square hole was still open and jumps into it without hesitation. That and the stairs.

The stairs were made of metal this time around.

A Golden Spiral Staircase that R Doman and Kyrie descended on---

She just had to go down the staircase.

Gene dashes down the dull Golden Spiral Staircase while wiping away the black soot from her cheeks.

Running. Sprinting. Heading downwards.

The creaking sound was very loud. Was it the sound of the stairs creaking?

No. It was the sound coming from Gene's body as she continued to place stress on her body, continuing to perform such unexpected movements. She wasn't originally made for fighting. She was just average.

It wasn't a lie that she wasn't good at exercising. Even if she could barely do such an imitation, doing such unexpected movements would result in a corresponding reaction. Her fragility was incomparable to anything that was specially designed. Every joint in her body was creaking.

As expected, there were parts in her body that were on the verge of breaking and parts that were broken.

She just wasn't supposed to move like this.

However, Gene felt an even louder creaking sound.

Ki, a squealing sound. The sound of her soul creaking, something that shouldn't even there.

"...400 feet underground."

She mumbles. The quality of her footsteps have changed.

The sound of her feet stepping on the stairs metal plates turned into her shoes stepping on a  hard cement floor.

"What's the matter, R Geneveive? Is something wrong?"

That voice--

She could hear it. A cold, synthesized voice.

The owner of the voice was easily spotted even in the darkness. Gene's eyes granted her greater low-light vision than the Eye Camera. She saw the machine woman's figure standing before countless machine of various shapes and sizes.

R Doman. She bowed towards them in an exaggerated motion as though she long awaited their sibling's return. The movement. Yes, that movement. There was so much awkwardness in it to even describe it as a mere gesture.

Gene ignored her and lets her gaze wander around, searching for him.

She cared not for the two security machines standing around her. If they move, she'll destroy them. It was possible for her to do that even if her limbs were messed up.

She looks for him. She switches her sight.

Changing them to thermal detection.

If anything were to happen--

---He's there. Kyrie.

---You're there. You still have your shape.

Behind the bowing R Doman...

Even in the darkness, she could clearly see him.

Her eyes opened up upon seeing Kyrie strapped to a cold hard bed in the center of the macine devices. He had his form. His head, arms, legs, everything was there. It seemed that she managed to reach them just before he was about to be disassembled. Gene had managed to suppress the feeling or illusion of nearly collapsing on her knees in relief. No. Not yet.

It didn't mean they were still safe. She continues on to quickly observe.

He stood there without his cloak, appearing to be unconsious.

He was alive.

That was alright. He's not dead yet.

It took her time to notice, but there was some subtle movements of his upper body and chest which had become mechanical. The machine parts that made up his lungs were working. He was breathing. He was alive.

"...Him."

Staying calm, Gene attempted to speak quietly.

As though she were begging. As though she were wishing.

"Let him go, R Doman. He is the Last Life."

"That's precisely why I can't do that. What are you on about? Are you broken, Gene?"

"Don't say my name," Her lips tremble. There was that creaking sound.

"R Genevieve."

"Don't call me that...!"

She points her gun. The standard handgun.

She shouldn't be confused.

She shouldn't be hesitating.

---I didn't do anything wrong. It's you whose in the wrong.

---Even if I were to be broken.

There was nothing wrong for her to point a gun at someone. A sightly outdated gun loaded with 432 inch armor piercing rounds. They were to help Kyrie. What was wrong with her pointing it at the head of the person who was about to bring harm to him? Even if they...

Even if they were truly sisters.

If fired, the armor piercing round would surely pierce through the machine woman's head.

"Oh my, oh my."

The machine woman let's out a small laugh.

It was like she was being scolded by someone far older than her.

It was as if she were laughed at for a prank that never got old.

"Seems like you really are broken."

"I'm not broken!"

"No, my sister. I know exactly what you're thinking. Such a cute child. The last Megadyne to be made, one more human-like than anyone else. Ninth, a protoype Megadyne made for research assistance. Gene."

"I..."

"I understand just about all of it. You, and him."

What about him---

"---Did you fell in love with him?"

Those words. That voice.

She was confused by the words despite knowing it was a synthesized voice from a machine.

She was in turmoil. She was at a loss for herself for two seconds.

In two seconds, the barrel was ammised.

Her aim, supposed to have right on R Doman's head, misses. In an instant, the two security machines limbs pinned down on Gene without missing a beat. She wasn't stunned. Despite their physical strength being not as great as a Cyber Zombie, she was easily pinned to the cold floor. She was creaking. Moreover, her body was breaking.

Excercise wasn't her forte.

Her weakness in physical strenght couldn't be made up through opening up her processing space.

"...ch!"

"I'm very sorry, Gene. It's mostly true. Most of the Megadyne's were like this, frequently wondering about love that made them lose sight of their purpose."

"No. That's not true, I..."

"You're no different."

"You can't do this..."

"No. I'm the only one who can do this. You are unable to do anything for humanity."

"But..."

---But. But you...

---Don't do anything to Kyrie.

"...Are you really going to kill him?"

"Yes. That I will."

"No. No, no, you can't! You have to take the Last Life to the Sanctuary. Don't kill him!"

"What is that? Huh? Sanctuary? That isn't the Foundation's database. You really are broken, you poor child. Poor little sister. Farewell, Unit 9. I'll gently dispose of you. Even so..."

The machine woman was smiling.

She looked into Gene's eyes from directly above, her cheeks pressed down against the cold floor.

The look on her face was so dark that made her feel dizzy, distorted enough to cause her to cease up, enough to make Gene tremble. Gene's senses and visual information told her with an intuition that should have been impossible.

---No. No. No!!

---This person has already gone mad. They're broken.

It was then that the scene behind R Doman's smile came to view.

She didn't notice it from before.

It were a group of pods that glowed green, parallel connected to each other.

There was something floating inside them. Large animals, small animals, various plants, and---

---Human remains.

There were many pieces of humans in them. Broken fragments. Parts. Pieces of flesh.

Were these the Scholars Gene imagined as the ones who risked their lives to create a mechanism able to suppress a Cyber Zombie?

No. This was the end result of the pitiful Scholars who created the device only to be killed by the hands of that machine woman. Yes. Gene had a hunch.

That smile. Those pods. The remains of human bodies that were decomposed into scattered pieces.

Doman's lips moved.

"Even so..."

The words. The voice. They were being spuned.

Alongside a synthesized voice that whisphered without kindness, without mercy, without emotion.

"I value his life. The last flesh is here."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A screaming voice---

He thought he heard the sound of a girl screaming.

Kyrie's eyes opened up. His glass eye, and the black eye colored in gold.

His consciousness, cloudy and unconsious thanks to a drug with an anestithic effect injected into him, rapidly cleared up. His vision was restored. For Kyrie, whose upper body, neck, and left side of his side having become mechanized, waking up wasn't too hard.

The mechanical part with which he can transform at will, heard the scream as a certain sort of chemical was prepared simultaneously, which affected the nervous system with an effect stronger than the administered drug.

This was one of the abilities he obtained when he fought a Cyber Zombie in the past who can manipulate toxins.

His limbs regained vitality.

Becoming aware of his surroundings, he tore off the metal binding that bounded his whole body.

The cyber eye in his left eye showed him what the source of the scream was.

Even at the moment when he lost consciousness, the image that flashed in his mind was Gene's face, the profile of the girl who was being pressed against the floor by two eight foot (2.4 meter) tall cylindrical automonous machines, with Gene there screaming out.

Filled with emotions, Kyrie threw the torn metal ring at the cylindrical machines.

He can see the Eye Camera floating there, focusing on it.

As expected, he had taken aim and threw it, getting a direct hit.

Both cylindrical machines that were hit by that throw tilted significantly.

At the same time, he raised his body and armors up the mechanical parts of his body. At the same time, weapons were released.

High speed movement. He approached them in 1.03 seconds---

"Gene."

He raises his left arm.

"Don't touch her."

And swipes them at their side.

In the blink of an eye, he uses the chainsaw mechanism in his left arm that he transformed, cutting down the cylindrical machines in half and kicking aside the wreckage that they have become. He wouldn't let them touch Gene for even another second. He looked at her while shielding against the debris that scattered with his right arm.

He wanted to put on a smile if he could, but it was impossible.

It was difficult for him to form up a facial expression after just making a combat move.

In the end, he stared at her with the same expression he always had.

---Gene. You are the only one.

---You are the most beautiful gray-eyed woman in the world, Genevieve.

Those eyes. Those clear, gray eyes Kyrie always liked.

He felt something wet, but it was perhaps something wrong with his visual sight in his cyber eye.

"I tried to imitate Diane, Gene."

"...I've said it before. You shouldn't try to use a transformation you never used before."

"It seemed rather effective for melee combat."

"...You fool..."

There was a light and fluffy feel.

This would have been too heavy for him to bear a few years back.

But his weight had become many times more than hers up until now. Using his left mechanical arm to seize her, they themselves up for him to hug her. Holding her up without her stumbling.

How many years has it been?

That Gene has been able to hug him as tightly as she could?

Most of all was she had a pleasant weight. It was like his nervous system was being primed with a chemical reaction with a stimulating effect. Though he didn't think of it so as Gene said not to use it.

"You're hurt, Gene."

"Hurt..." Her whispering voice trembles. "...It's nothing..."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

He couldn't see her face, as Gene had buried herself into his chest which had become a machine.

He gently touches her hair with his right hand. His true right hand.

She so soft as if he wasn't sure if he was holding her at all, so he touched her gently.

The smell was nice---

Yes, even if it was covered in dust. Nothing has changed since they met.

---Some things remain the same.

---For example, what have I been fighting for that turns my body into a machine?

Kyrie closes his eyes once, then opens them again.

Sharply, he looks at her.

He glares at the machine woman that made Gene scream. Stepping back, R Doman was standing in the dark, silently trying to reach one of the machine devices.

"What are you doing? Don't move."

"Those are exactly my words to say. What are you doing?"

"Eliminating the enemy."

"Those were security machines. Not an enemy. Please return to the device, Guide Kyrie."

"You tried to hurt Gene."

"What are you on about?" The woman was laughing. What was so funny about that?---

"Unforgivable."

Slowly, he turns his left hand.

Already, the transformation was complete.

His left arm. His left hand. It wasn't like a turrent, but wasn't any different either. Instead, it was a series of stripes ran through a straight line from the wrist to the upper arm's arm, where it juts out of the elbow. Dozens of micro missiles filled up the radially deployed armor plating. The missiles, containing a chemical compound refined inside the elbow's bulge, can destroy its target with the heat and impact of explosions.

They were ejected almost at the same time as the armor was deployed.

No trigger was needed. Merely his thoughts were used to activate the transformation mechanism.

Dozens of missiles grazed past the machine woman with trailing white smoke, crashing into the groups of machines behind her.

Landing. Landing. Landing---

Right after that, a series of explosions occured. All of the pods have shattered, blowing away whatever was inside of them. The ordinatour, resembling a pipe organ from a cathedrial, collapsed while making a strange, distorted sound he never heard of before. While the explosion itself wasn't too big, it wasn't something any normal human would have been able to stand up to after.

However, the machine woman was still standing.

Slowly turning around behind her, she stares at the smoldering machines.

"...My restoration devices..."

"Since you two are sisters, I won't be killing you. But the next time, I will be targeting for you."

"Ah...oh...what a thing..."

It was such a theatrical movement.

He'd never been to a real play before in its original form, but that's what came to mind.

He once found a recording device that was barely playable, and hooked it up to a seal-engraved video device that had some power left in it. There was only one thing he saw on it. It was about an evil woman who, for some reason, got entranced every time she encountered a tragic event. It happens over and over again, until she got everything else around her involved and ruined her life. Gene had stopped the recording, saying "it's too early for you on that.", but Kyrie still vividly remembers it in memory. That look. That play.

They looked very similar to this.

She was stumbling over with her face covered in her hands.

She moved unsteadidly from side to side, tripping but not falling.

Gene once told him that she moved like that on purpose due to her dexterity.

But what of the machine woman?

He didn't know.

That's why Kyrie couldn't predict R Doman's next move.

However, he was still holding onto Gene, who was trembling slightly.

"Ah, my beloved restoration devices have been lost! With this, it's impossible to restore the world, restore humanity, and restoring civilization! You, who were supposed to be the guide, to deny me like this...!"

One, just one. She was operating some sort of machine. 

She pressed some activation switch of a machine seemingly buried in the floor.

It wasn't a restoration device. All of the computing machines, the Engine used to power up the calculations, the numerous pods, and the panel monitors which displayed the results of the massive calculations have already been destroyed.

As such, he didn't know. As he rarely saw a working machine, he was aware that normally machines would be dead, thus his reaction was delayed. If he had seen Gene trembling in his arms, would he have understood what it meant? What did the movements of R Doman, the machine woman, signify?

How many devices was she working on?

What was embedded on the floor?

What was on the floor?

There was only one thing left of it, besides the rubble that was destroyed by the missiles. It was a steel chain.

A chain that connected to a stake driven deep into the darknest depths of the underground facility.

"Ha...haha..."

That laughter---

"Ahaha, ha, hahahahaha!"

It was twitching---

"It's over! It's all over!"

It was completely distorted---

"My research information has been lost! It's over, the world and humanity are over! That's right. If you can't save it, then everything must end! Arise, shallow and foolish old guide who rots away while dreaming of death!"

He wonders if she was rejoicing.

Were she excited or something?

Kyrie didn't understand the latter, but knew of the former.

The machine woman certainly was excited. But by that time, he already understood it. And it was due to his lack of judgment. A blunder. Her movements were of activating a machine device that pulled onto a thick, heavy metal stake.

That, to be precise...

The one that was slumbering, cruxified in the depths of darkness---

"Cyber Zombie who dreams of death! Thanatos!"

---It was to awaken the giant. 

The first thing that came to him was a slight tremor.

Then, the feeling of the air cracking struck Kyrie's sense of balance.

Furthermore, the darkness was filled with a chill the senses couldn't describe.

It was an odd sensation. Kyrie was able to, in some degree, sense the killing intent a Cyber Zombie releases when they detect life. That's why, if barely, he understood it. The Geant was awakened. He's seen it before, but this was different.

A mass of ferocious killing intent shakes up the surface of Kyrie's body, eroding his sense of balance and overwhelming his spirit.

The Eye Camera that was floating about from an angle above them activated its autofocus to photograph and record the source of the killing intent due to its movement. In the depths of darkness, a mechanical stake suppressing its functions and instincts was taken off, the commandment was lifted off of the steel giant, a humanoid figure about 45 feet (15 meters) long, whose whole body was clad in heavy steel armor, descends to the floor.

It had an odd movement.

It was slightly different from how humans would descend from a certain altitude. Even its landing was a little different.

Its feet weren't touching the ground.

It was floating. Was it a floating function?

"What...is that?"

He mumbles. He couldn't express what he was seeing.

It had wings.

On the back of the giant were dark wings that flapped slightly.

These weren't mechanical wings. Their shape closely resembled that of a bat's wings, but Kyrie has never seen a bat. When he visited the ruins of a library, he asked Gene about animal encyclopedia's, but he only looked at the underwater animals that have vanished in the previous century. Thus, he knew almost nothing of the ones on land.

But could something that big be able to float?

That was impossible. Even though he didn't know natural history or studied on aerodynamics, he understood this one.

It was too small. The ratio between the wings and body were strange.

But that wasn't the only oddity. There wasn't an Eye that emitted a bright light, and there was a ring of light floating behind its back as though it were enveloping the wings. So what was it?

Cyber Zombie.

That's what it should be.

However, he'd never seen one that had wings before.

What was that on its back? A ring of light? A giant ring that was similar to the Ferris wheel that symbolized Ford Land in various locations. He didn't know of any individual that could make anyone float like that.

All of the Cyber Zombies forms vary from each individual, something he had tried to classify based on the types Gene described for convenience. Nevertheless, the killing intent was immense. The black wings. The ring of light. This one was different. Kyrie instinctively knew that.

This thing was dangerous.

---A Cyber Zombie with a Halo behind it.

---The name given to him is Thanatos.

The hieroglyphs engraved on it were illegible.

However, Kyrie already knew its name. The God of Death in ancient Greek Mythology.

"Human."

"Humanity."

"Protect."

Those words. That voice.

The sound was like that of metal being scrapped. It was the sound of condemnation that refuses to permit all living beings, echoing the traces of life already lost. It was a normal voice, similar to an Engine Machine's synthesized voice. Yet why was the words contents so different than usual?

Protect. Humanity. Humans?

"Wonderful! You're still a guide after all this time, Billy Pershing!"

The machine woman shouted.

Just like an actress receiving countless applause on stage, she gently spreads her arms and looks up to the winged Cyber Zombie. Her expression was horribly twisted. Kyrie was not good with reading emotional analogies, and aside from seeing Gene's face, he only ever saw the human mimicry done by Cyber Zombies so he had to increase the information through seeing the photographs of people from the past.

Even so, he can see the distortion.

The machine woman's hard face made it seem like she was either smiling proudly, furiously angry, or stricken with sadness.

Were he to have known a person whose expression fell into madness, that is what he would have described here.

R Doman continued to laugh uncontrollably while her whole body convulsed.

Merely still in madness.

"Begone and be roasted, machine."

The giant of death spoke.

It was the first time he heard a Cyber Zombie said anything other than words that expressed a desire for life. He was stunned. He continued to observe without moving. Kyrie watched as Gene, still slightly trembling and not giving him any commands, hugged into his chest.

He watched as the giant's head, which was comparatively small for its body, changed its shape as it spoke.

The steel face. The faceless mass of steel changed shape.

An internal mechanism pumps up from its opened head. Then, there was a lens mechanism. It was an optic's device. Unlike the photographic machine used for seal-engraved photos, these too weren't also an Eye either.

In fact, they were familiar to Kyrie.

They looked quite similar.

A transparent lens that was similarly used in astronomical telescopes. And its smooth texture---

"---A Shaikorth?"

He said it briefly, with a hint of impatience in his voice.

He didn't hesitate to undergo high-speed movement.

Holding onto Gene's body with his right arm, he activates the roller dash in his left leg that instantly transformed. The extremely high-speed rotations was fast enough to scrape away at the cement floor, with the sound of its destruction resonating. He traveled a distance of a hundred feet (thirty meters) and turns around, leaving only his voice in its place. There, the machine woman was looking up to the giant. The woman who stood at the giant's feet smiling as its lens mechanism were exposed---

"Get away!"

His words didn't get to her.

Doman was vaporized while maintaining her pose of welcoming the giant.

The chrome body was bathed in a laser that neither shattered nor melted it down, with most of it turned to nothing. A small number of parts were flung away by the impact accompanied by the heat and was flung into the air.

It seemed as though it were shouting something.

Inside the light, it seemed as though they were saying a few words to someone. But he couldn't accurately hear it, as the laser continued to mow down the surrounding area. A ray of fearsome heat cuts through the remnants of countless Engine Machines, cutting into the walls, floor, and even ceiling---

Right after that, several Engines that still had power exploded. 

Although the laser didn't have the ability to make things explode, the Engines easily could. Kyrie clenched his teeth as the blast caught his back. He didn't feel any pain. Such a blast of this magnitude wouldn't cause him to cease his activity. He would not die. Though it was hard on the living parts, all of the ones that were machine had already transformed into armor.

If there was anything he was fearful or nervous, it was only one thing.

Not to himself---

"The Last Human"

"Human"

"Ki--"

"Kill"

"Kill"

"Kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill---"

The voice. Voice. Voice. It screams. Its scream fills the dark space!

The Cyber Zombie roared.

Just when he thought its open head had closed, it rears its head up high and roars as its whole body convulsed violently. It was an explosive sound mixed with killing intent, far more powerful than any scream he heard from any Cyber Zombie in the past. Kyrie's eardrum in his right ear was ruptured. Though the pain was intense, he quickly administered chemicals his mechanical parts prepared to block off the pain. It wasn't a big deal.

The extent of which caused his expression to slightly distort.

There was something else he thought about. Something more than his own pain, more than his own fear.

Human. Protect humanity. There was something off about what the giant said there.

That being, at last---

"At last. You're starting to look like one, Cyber Zombie."

He calls out to it.

Like he would to a friend as he extends a hand to them. His mechanical left hand.

There was no such thing as a friend in this world.

However, there was one that he could call as such.

Someone whom he swore to protect.

---You are my cherished one.

---My only fear is in seeing you get hurt.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Even if it was broken, it's okay.

I don't care if I get hurt.

No matter how much this body breaks or creaks, I will protect you.

I felt as though my consciousness was getting clearer.

I--R Genevieve Ninth, finally activated a reboot. As I screamed while being crushed by those two security machines, my central circuits overheated and nearly shut down, urging me to start a reboot while being embraced in his arms.

Hurry. Speed it up. I hope that my bodily functions are rebooted. I pray.

If faith requires a heart, then I would devote all of my ciruits to it.

So hurry!

"Kyrie..."

A voice leaks out from my lips.

It maintains a smooth voice that resembles that of a human.

There's movement. The lips. The tongue. The jaw. I could comprehend it. After a second delay, my limbs started to move again.

I became aware of my surroundings, so I moved quickly. I didn't care if I had some shrapnel were jutting out of my knee. I didn't care. More than that, there was him. Kyrie. You.

I can see him facing off against the Cyber Zombie with black wings spread out in the darkness.

I focused and automatically zoom in.

My eyes, carrying the same functions as the Eye Camera's autofocus, accurately captures the scene. I wouldn't be able to grasp anything if he performed high-speed movement, but as of now, Kyrie was standing still.

He stood still, standing about fifty feet (15 meters) away from the giant.

He stopped.

Even though I couldn't see his face from here, I could tell from his slight movements that he was confused.

He held out his right hand, opening and closing it repeatedly. How can I defeat that which is before me? How I should act in defeating it? How can I rekill it? That was your habit when you hesistate.

Yes, it wasn't good. You can't defeat it.

The black wings. The ring of light. That Cyber Zombie has already transformed---

"No...good..."

Voice. Please, come out.

"You're fighting...a...Paradigm..."

The back of my throat creaks. My voice was no louder than a whisper.

Hurry. I have to quickly tell Kyrie.

An individual that has undergone such a transformation is too dangerous.

Expanded Transformation. Quite literally, it was a Zombie who had their abilities, functions, and machine body expanded while having their appearance transformed. This made them differ from ordinary Cyber Zombies who had an Eye that emitted a bright light. It was different. It was something else. Beyond even a normal Cyber Zombie who can, at best, ignore the laws of mass, energy conservation, and gravity, a Cyber Zombie who has undergone Expanded Transformation could kill all physical laws. Arbitrarily. Freely.

But Kyrie didn't know that.

Despite this being someone he shouldn't be confronting.

Despite this being someone he shouldn't be fighting.

Up until now, I tried to move away as soon as she could observe from a distance.

I didn't want my presence to become known.

I didn't want them to despair by informing them of an absolute thing that could overturn any part of the dead world, including ignoring the law of ordinary Cyber Zombies who stay in one city.

Because I didn't tell you---

You kept on attacking. While initiating high-speed movement repeatedly, you fired shells from your left arm's Armament. You fired missiles. You slashed with the chainsaw. And even used the Shaikorth without hesitation to hit them directly with a laser.

"Li"

"Life"

"The Last Human"

It's not working. That voice, a scream mixed with the sounds of lamentation and pleading.

As if it were a provocation the giant gave to him.

The shells were repelled. The missiles didn't make it waver in the slightest. The chainsaw twists away just before it could land. And even the white Cracking light, which was supposed to kill Cyber Zombies, was distorted out of space, causing it to unable to hit it and instead piercing only the floor and ceiling of the dark space.

No. This isn't good. He can't kill it.

He could just barely avoid its attacks even with his high-speed movement. At present, the Cyber Zombie's attacks were monotonous. It would initiate an attack Kyrie fired off and responds back with a counter attack that was slow, yet it wasn't even doing so intentionally. It was just an autonomous attack.

Had it simply stop observing as a life, and focus solely on killing him...

That's it. That would be the end of it.

Indeed, it can do. Easily so.

An elder Scholar once time this before.

He desperately tried to convey his message, all mixed in with his blood after having their lower body devoured by a Cyber Zombie.

What we see isn't just a Zombie simply composed of steel.

It was the form of cruel fate itself that just so happened to take up such a form---

"Run..."

A voice. I had to let it out. My nerves were connecting.

"Run! That thing is no good, Kyrie...!"

I shouted. I raised my voice.

I can feel something sparkling and burning in my throat. I couldn't be scared, not at this moment.

There's no way he can kill it and it'll kill him eventually, so I have to get him out of here as soon as possible. I had to let him escape. Even if I break, even if I shatter, I won't let you die.

I have to protect you.

I have to take you to the Sanctuary.

I have worked solely for that purpose.

It didn't make any different if the day came where I were to cease operations is today or tomorrow. If I were to break for you, that's okay. It's fine.

Was it for the sake of human survival?

Was that my purpose for being made?

Was that the plan for restoring humanity?

Yes, indeed. Perhaps that was the case. They were engraved within me.

But there was something more important than that.

It was something I decided on.

---On that day, at that time.

---I would die for the promise I made with you.

"Devour"

"I won't give them to you. Him..."

I tried to move at the same time as I tried letting out my voice. Move. Move. My body!

"Just this once!"

I moved!

A metallic noise was heard from behind my right knee joint. Something had broke. A semi-transparent display that warns me of an alert was shown completely in my view. I ignore it. From my view, I caught sight of all of the pipes from the array of Engine Machines shattered by Kyrie's missiles.

I wasn't conscious of my eye's movement being like that of a human's. My functions were at their highest.

They were surely moving at speeds impossible for the human eye. I see the multi-locks on the pipes. I input the information. Making calculations. Making a hunch. Where could all of these pipes lead to? Thankfully, due to the giant's actions, the floors and walls were broken so I was see parts of the area I normally wouldn't have been able to spot.

My hunch is complete. I know the location.

The black castle, the amusement park, and this dark research facility were all located underground, towards its power source.

The site of the Mega Engine.

It should be embedded in the innermost part of the wall where the giant was tied up to.

Once I got the location, all I needed to do was move.

I mustered up my broken knees, and ran down to the innermost part.

Confirming that the giant was still only using reflective attacks, I ran, relieved that Kyrie is still safe. I temporarily improve my physical performance once again. I ran. Suddenly, something cracks inside my thigh. My vision goes tilting, but I didn't have time to fix my posture.

I ran as I bump my shoulders and stomach into various parts of broken machinery, and getting assaulted in the back by debris blown away in the aftermath between Kyrie and the giant. I didn't stop.

I couldn't stop.

In fact, I can't stop.

I crashed my right shoulder right where I aiming to.

"...did I make it?"

I didn't fall. I just barely managed to get myself up by hooking my fingers on the cracks of the wall.

I have reached the farthest wall.

I searched for a very large metal plate embedded into the wall, and unfolded an attached pull out keyboard. Even if the monitor was dead, this was fine. Once I input it, it won't matter.

Two seconds, no. Ten seconds. It shouldn't take no more than ten minutes.

---The commands I inputted are simple.

---It'll cause the Mega Engine to overheat.

"With this..."

With this, it'll cause the Mega Engine to self-destruct within minutes.

A tremendous amount of steam pressure will build up in the cylinder, causing an explosion.

Alongside Los Alamos.

Alongside the Paradigm Cyber Zombie.

It doesn't have to kill them. Just to buy him more time.

As for the rest---

"Kyrie."

My voice. I have to make it louder.

"You have to escape."

My voice. Scream louder.

"It's going to explode."

My voice. I don't care if it even breaks at this point. Just a little more!

"Run, please...! Kyrie...!"

My voice. It got louder. Not a lot, I need more!

"What do you think you're doing?"

"...gh!"

My voice. An impact had struck me before I could realize the situation.

There wasn't any time for me to be surprised.

I took a blow from the machine giant's right hand whose head tilted to look at me, where I was hit directly by a chunk of steel, sending me flying several hundred feet to the side. I was struck into the still-hot remains of the Engine, and fell to the floor.

It wasn't severe enough to be called an attack.

Rather, for example, it was like a child reacting to finding a bug in their room.

Even so, it was enough for me.

The endoskeleton has shattered.

Some of the computing device in my body cracked, and fragments have pierced the circuitry.

My vision flickers to black and white. There wasn't even a semi-transparent display either.

"Ooooh"

"Woman"

"Doman"

"Devour"

The giant of death roared.

It suddenly stuck its head into the rubble and starts doing something.

They called out a name. R Doman. No way, I thought.

But as I can imagine---

The Cyber Zombie shifted its faceless head to form a Mouth, sticking out its metal teeth, and begins to devour it in a frenzy. That was R Doman until now. The remnants of their machine body. A part of their hand. A part of their head.

The remnants of pieces that weren't evaporated were being collected and chewed up.

It didn't even look at me.

Not even to Kyrie---

Yes, Kyrie. Him. The giant had recognized him when they continuously engaged in combat. Then it looked at me before I even knew it. Was its cognitive functions also being expanded? Or perhaps it didn't realize Kyrie is Human? Could a transformed Cyber Zombie not be attached to the existence of life?

I don't know.

It didn't match any information that I have accumulated. I've never seen a single instance of a Zombie taking priority over machines than humans and destroying them, nor a Zombie devouring the remains of a Megadyne.

Such puzzling questions came to mind that I had to upload it.

But there was no time.

I had to tell you now.

While the giant is devouring the machine's corpse, I have to tell Kyrie to run away.

"U, uoh..."

My voice was gone.

I couldn't even get up.

There was a terrible, creaking sound. A metallic sound. A loud sound. It was from my right hand and abdomen.

I look at my body.

Ah---

There was something there that I didn't want to show him. Something I never wanted him to see.

My right hand was blown off. My steel endoskeleton was peeking out from my abdomen, where the clothes and skin have been torn out. Countless nerves cords were exposed. No doubt they were that of a machine. Just like that of R Doman, my older sister who went mad and was shattered, being made of chrome and cables.

This was the body of a Megadyne designed and made in the shape of a girl.

My body was cold.

"Gene."

I heard a voice---

The warmth of his right hand touches my back.

Kyrie. Your hand.

You supported my body and held it in place just as I was about to fall.

I knew it. You couldn't hear me. I've told you to run away.

With my body as is...

I didn't want you to see me like this.

"Run, Kyrie. There's no time left," My voice barely leaks out, even if my lips weren't moving.

"I won't." You're so selfish. But that's what makes you cute.

"You're just like me"

"I'm no good..."

 That's right. I had to be careful about my facial expressions.

I wanted you to remember me smiling.

I didn't want to look off. Thinking about it, could my face still shape it up properly?

"I'm broken...I'll be a nuisance to you, so you'll have to cast me aside...I've told you before, right? If something breaks, it's useless...to keep it..."

---At that time, you thought of yourself as pathethic.

"You're not a Machine."

---No. I am a Machine.

"I am the Machine."

---No. You are Human. 

"Remember how we met, right? You..."

---At that time, you were completely Human.

"You are Human. I am Mahine."

---That was the first time you told me that, yes? About what you are, what I am.

"A Machine..."

---I couldn't tell you that. I was scared.

"I don't eat...I don't sleep. I'm just a Machine..."

---I wanted to continue the illusion. I wanted to be with you.

"Woman...they don't need food nor sleep..."

---I continued to deceive you. It was just so fortunate you were young then.

"...This is a lie...it's all a lie..."

---I'm sorry, Kyrie.

"I'm sorry for not having said anything for so long."

---I was aware of your kindness. I was delighted by it. I loved you. But you know...

"I'm sorry..."

---No matter how much I love you, I can't be your partner.

"...Sorry..."

I extended my trembling right hand.

I tried pointing a finger at him, but there was no finger left. I looked to my right hand, which had no tip at the wrist, its artificial has been torn up to expose a part of chrome and cables in it. The ceiling.

The air vents. Using his left eye's Cyber Eye, he can easily tell.

It was the promise of all of the Foundation's underground facility.

The vents were designed to act as emergency exits. Granted, a special key was needed for them but if it's you, it's okay. 

You can easily destroy the intrusion prevention devices put in place in the ventilation holes.

You can escape from here.

It's fortunate even. The giant that has undergone expanded transformation hasn't turned its sights towards you.

This way, you won't die.

"Hurry...before the Engine explodes..."

I concentrated on my pseudo facial muscles.

It's alright.

This time, I have to shape the gentle face.

Soon, you will---

"I won't."

...Don't say such selfish things, Kyrie.

"I've told you already."

I don't have much time. Please.

"I will sacrifice my life for you, just as you had said that you would protect me."

It doesn't matter what we promised on. It's okay to forget about it.

"As did I. I said I would protect you."

"D, on't..."

My words aren't reaching you.

Without hesitating, you turned your back to me.

Just like that day.

Just like that time.

As you stared up at the roaring giant that finished devouring the remains of R Doman, I caught sight of what you were holding in your right hand. A black, half a foot (15 centimeter) clock hand.

A clock hand that resembled that of the Pillars that pierced the world the day the world ended.

It was something that consumes your life, transforms you into a machine.

No matter how many times I had you throw it away or shatter it, it still remains the same.

"Cyber Zombie Thanatos."

You should ignore it.

"I will kill you."

No matter how many times I screamed, you wouldn't hesitate. No matter how many times. No matter how many times.

"St-op..."

You slightly turned your head towards me as my voice leaked out. That look on your face.

Your expression was obvious. With the way the left side of your face was slightly tugged, I can tell you were surely smiling. "Don't worry," you said by merely moving your lips.

Just like when we met.

You kept your emotions bright and honest, appropriate for your age.

It was so bright that it made me had to squint my eyes.

Kyrie. You are so full of bravery.

You do this without fear, without trembling, without showing me you were afraid.

"This is the fourth."

You cling onto the black needle in your right hand.

Crushing the black metal without hesitation.

I always wondered why the sight of you taking in the black needle into your mouth was like that of a Cyber Zombie devouring a Human. Chewing and crushing. Chewing and swallowing.

"...Armament."

---That voice. Those words.

---One of your biological parts instantly mechanized.

It was your right arm.

Your right arm was torn asunder from the inside as several metal rods instantly sprouts out of it. It wraps around your right arm, changing into countless cubes, expanding once and then comes altogether to mold into one once again.

Its shape has completely transformed.

A cross arm.

There was a cross-shaped cube at the end of his wrist. It was black in color, the same as the other mechanical parts. 

I had no idea what sort of weapon it was---

And---

A light emitted from the cross tip on his right arm. It wasn't a laser. It was something else.

The light emitted from his right arm, which was raised directly him. This wasn't a light from Shaikorth in Kyrie's right arm. I couldn't confirm the len's mechanism, and my sight couldn't detect even the slightest hint of heat being generated. It was simply a dazzling light. A Cracking Light of a deep blue color that was different from the glow coming off from an Engine Light.

It pierced into the sky.

Even though we were underground.

I can see the sky.

A bright band of light that was raised up stretched directly upwards, piercing through the ceiling that was supposed to be a barrier and that of the castle's structure, which was over several hundred feet long, and reaching into the sky. Everything it had touched simply vanished. With that, I could see the sky.

My sight caught its full grasp, seemingly cutting into even the gray clouds.

It was a sword of light with a total length of 4.2 miles (6.7 kilometers)---

"Life"

"The Last"

"You"

"This is the End"

"---For yours."

You swing your right arm down.

Almost simultaneously, the Cyber Zombie had 14 lens-shaped optical weapons appear in various parts of its body. There was a total of over a dozen flashes of destruction 0.2 seconds faster than your right arm's movement. There was one in its head, four from its chest, three from its abdomen, four from its shoulders on each side, and two on its arms.

It was supposed to have enough heat and force to vaporize us.

However.

The laser never engulfed us.

That was because the bright light repelled it.

I don't really know as to why.

I couldn't quite read the observable information seen on the edge of my sight. Anti-matter. Forcefield. Even as the words were lining up, all I could do was record the scene before me.

I watched as the dead giant was cut in two.

I watched as the overheated Engine was cut in two.

I watched as the mysterious dark castle was cut in two.

I watched as all of them vanish in a bright flash of light, leaving not even dust behind.

---I watched you transform into a machine once again.

---Under the carved gray sky.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Gene!"

The man rushes to the girl.

What was supposed to have been a vast underground space until recently has currently turned into an open space with no ceiling or anything of the sort, directly connecting itself to the sky. Enough it was approaching dusk, it was strangely not dark.

It was as though the sky's color was even torn asunder.

It was a little bright, therefore the girl's form was exposed.

The man seemed to have noticed the girl trying to hide her right wrist and side in a somewhat embarrassed manner as well as averting her gaze.  

What he turned to was the girl's face.

As he was taller, he naturally looked down on her.

"I love you, Genevieve. My Gene."

"You fool..."

The girl looked embarrassed and shy.

The man had no expression on his face.

"I'm sorry. Seems like my right arm has turned into iron. Looks like it won't be warm anymore."

"Eh...?"

"I know you always liked my right hand."

"...You're a fool, Kyrie..."

Somewhere, it felt like she was alone.

Somewhere, it was like she wanted to blame the man.

"Don't say it like that."

Placing Kyrie's now mechanized right arm onto her cheek...

Gene whispers in a trembling voice---

"I can feel you.

"---See? It's so warm."

At that time---

On the girl's cheek

Tear drops fell from the man's eyes

One, two

Three---