Harmony frowned as she stared at Rhapsody in concentration. She felt a sense of dissonance when she thought of her name. The fairy had always been Rhapsody, so why did that name seem so wrong now?
"What's up?" Rhapsody asked her in concern, her large, expressive eyes full of worry.
"Nothing," Harmony assured her with a quick smile. "I'm just losing my marbles again."
"Oh?" Rhapsody prompted, placing a hand on her forearm. "What's got you playing marble madness today?"
Harmony rolled her eyes as her lips twitched. "I'm just having some kind of identity crisis by proxy. You don't have a nick name you go by, do you?"
"Dr. Awesome," Rhapsody replied with a wide grin. "Or Professor—either one works."
Harmony squinted at her as the name tickled a memory. "Okay, this is something weird, isn't it? Something you can't tell me."
Rhapsody's smile faded as she stared into Harmony's eyes regretfully. "Yeah, it is. I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Harmony replied, taking a deep breath and letting it out. "What's going on with Melody? Didn't she have some kind of problem with Harnketi?"
"Oh crap," Rhapsody winced, glancing back at Yggdrasil. "I better go handle that right now. Well, as soon as it's safe, anyway."
"Safe?" Harmony repeated in confusion. "Why wouldn't it be safe right now?"
Rhapsody waggled her eyebrows at Harmony suggestively. "Because they're busy right now."
"Then what's left to handle?" Harmony asked, her confusion growing. "It sounds like they're doing fine."
"Yeah…they are doing fine," Rhapsody agreed evasively. "I just need to fix one more thing."
Harmony snorted a laugh and shook her head. "You are such a goose. Well, the girls are in Japan and everyone else seems to have found something else to do…"
Rhapsody smiled seductively, then slowly licked her lips.
Harmony felt her budding desire spike as she felt the ghost tongue on her lips. Her breathing sped up as lust drowned out every other emotion.
The world vanished, replaced a moment later by Harmony's bedroom. Mystery appeared a second later, her mouth still open from whatever conversation she had been having. Her cheeks were flushed, making it apparent that the intensity of Harmony's desire was flooding the bond with her overpowering need.
"So, did you want to go back to your conversation with Michael, or do you want to stay with us?" Rhapsody asked Mystery as she slid her hands under Mystery's shirt.
"No," Mystery breathed huskily. "I think that conversation can wait."
XXXXX SCENE BREAK XXXXX
Serenity glanced around at the bright city lights excitedly from where she stood on a concrete rooftop with a miniature golf course. There was a large Ferris wheel in the distance that was lit up brilliantly against the night sky. She could smell salt in the air, along with the aroma of exotic food.
"Where are we?" Aurora asked excitedly, turning around in place as she studied the glowing cityscape and the miniature golf course next to them.
"We're at the Yokohama World Porters mall, Alexis answered with a grin, watching the two of them affectionately." It's in the Minato Mirai 21 district in Yokohama. This is their rooftop golf course. The bowling lanes are inside the mall, so we can hit them up when we are finished here. Let's get some golf clubs."
There were already a dozen other people scattered around the mini-golf course. Juno was in Aurora's arms, invisible to anyone but the three of them. Aurora set her down with a pat on her head before following Serenity and Alexis.
Alexis led them to a kiosk where an older Japanese man took some money from Alexis and offered to give them instructions.
"Thanks, but I've played here before," Alexis smiled gratefully as she turned to the golf clubs and began picking one out.
"You don't have interface?" the man asked curiously.
"Huh?" Serenity asked as he stared between the three of them curiously.
"No interface?" he repeated, gesturing at the space in front of his face.
Serenity glanced at Alexis blankly as they picked out a golf club. "Are we supposed to have something called an interface to play here?"
"You know, with levels?" the man added, making a nebulous gesture in front of his face again.
"We're not sure what you mean," Alexis told him with a puzzled crease to her brows. "Are we supposed to get it from inside the mall?"
"No no, I'm talking about leveling interface," he said quickly. "You know, it say how many levels you have."
"I don't think we have one," Serenity replied awkwardly. "Do you know where we can get one?"
He stared back at them with his head tilted curiously. A young couple had stepped up behind them in line. They were staring at the three girls curiously as well.
"Let's just start golfing," Alexis suggested with an apologetic smile at the employee.
"Yeah," Serenity agreed uncomfortably. She and Aurora quickly selected a golf club and followed Alexis to the first hole.
"Why do these golf clubs have suction cups on the handle?" Aurora asked in fascination as she stuck the suction cup to the palm of her hand.
"You use it to pull the ball out of the hole," Alexis explained, demonstrating by sticking her ball into the suction cup. "You're not supposed to pull it out of the holes with your hand."
"Weird," Serenity commented curiously as she also stuck her ball to the handle.
They garnered additional curious stares as they began playing. She wondered if it was because they were American. Maybe they didn't see Americans very often? The employee had spoken English well, so that didn't seem likely.
Serenity grinned as she managed to get another hole-in-one. Aurora was doing pretty good too. She could tell that Alexis was purposefully missing some of hers. Was she so good that she felt like she had to in order to make them feel better?
"Stop missing on purpose already," Serenity ordered Alexis levelly after watching her purposefully miss for the fourth time. "We're not going to feel bad if you win."
"Yeah, that's just silly," Aurora agreed critically. "Let's see how good you really are."
Alexis laughed delightedly, shaking her head ruefully. "I suppose that I wasn't as sneaky as I thought. Okay fine, but you two can't complain when I trounce you."
"Bring it on," Serenity challenged her with a confident grin.
Five holes later, Serenity was feeling less confident as Alexis landed a hole-in-one with every pass. Aurora had managed one more while Serenity had three. They were about half-way through the course when two Japanese girls approached them. They looked a few years older and were staring at them with puzzled expressions.
"Hi, I'm Akiko," the first girl introduced herself with a tentative smile. She was only a few inches taller than Aurora and had shoulder-length black hair. She was slim and had permanent dimples on her cheeks that came alive when she smiled. "This is Noriko."
Noriko was slightly taller and had chest-length black hair. Her eyes seemed to sparkle with life as she nodded at the three of them.
"I'm Serenity," she introduced herself with a welcoming smile. "This is my sister, Aurora, and my friend, Alexis."
"We were just wondering why your names don't show up on our interfaces, or anything else about you," Akiko said with a curious tilt of her head. "Is it a skill you learned how to do?"
Serenity's eyes widened slightly as she finally understood what they were talking about. It was her Aunt Harmony's leveling interface that Rhapsody had pushed out to the world. She glanced at Alexis nervously, wondering how they would explain their lack of information.
"We think there was a glitch in whatever system is powering everything," Alexis answered smoothly.
"Oh yeah, the leveling system," Aurora exclaimed with an excited grin. "What kind of levels do you have? Or is it classes? I really want to try the interface out."
Akiko and Noriko's eyes widened at the revelation that they didn't have access to the interface.
"We both have the Researcher class," Akiko replied, smiling at Aurora's eagerness. "We both love to dig into mysteries and spend a lot of time digging into fringe topics. AI makes it a lot easier to find general information, but getting details is a lot more work. Trying to get accurate information on the Fairy ring in America is one of our favorite activities. Are you from America?"
"Yep," Aurora nodded brightly. "That is so cool. So do you just get more levels from the time you spend researching things, or is it when you discover something juicy that you level up?"
"Both," Akiko answered with a pleased grin. "We can even use it as a way to tell if the information we find is accurate. For instance, when we discovered that an angel visited the fairy ring we went up three whole levels. I don't think we would have leveled up if it wasn't true."
"Wow," Aurora replied, her grin growing more forced. "Um, how did you find out that an angel visited the fairy ring?"
Serenity shared a cautious look with Alexis as Akiko spoke. Who could have leaked that information? Was it Shelley and Jessica? They had probably reported it, but who leaked it from their superiors?
"There was someone on reddit claiming that their mom worked at the FBI who was involved with the fairy ring," Akiko explained. "Nobody on reddit believed them, but as soon as we read it, we leveled up, so we're pretty sure that it was true. We sent them a private message asking for more details and they said the angel was just the tip of the iceberg and that the creator of the universe was there as well. We gained ten levels when we learned about that, so we are pretty sure it's true."
"What part of America are you from?" Noriko asked curiously. "Are you anywhere near the fairy ring?"
"We're from California," Aurora answered at the same time that Serenity said, "We're from Idaho."
Aurora looked at her in surprise. Serenity stared back at her sister meaningfully, trying not to be too obvious as she did so.
"We were born in California," Serenity explained quickly. "We've lived in Idaho for a while now though."
"It's not going to work," Alexis told them with a resigned sigh. "Their research class is as good as a lie detector. If you feed them non-factual information, they don't gain any level points, while they do gain points when hearing factual information. They've clearly learned how to use their class to their advantage. They would make great investigative journalists."
Serenity stared at Alexis in chagrin. She nervously glanced at Akiko and Noriko. The two girls were watching them with far too much interest.
"It's okay," Akiko told them quickly. "We won't tell anyone anything. We just want to level up. We don't really share the stuff we learn."
"Be honest," Alexis told them with a raised eyebrow.
Akiko stared at Alexis innocently for several seconds. Alexis's knowing gaze seemed to wear away the girl's defenses. Her innocent expression melted away and she smiled sheepishly.
"Okay, so we post some of our findings to our blog," Akiko admitted with an apologetic smile. "So, who are you really? Is Harmony really your aunt?"
"Okay, I guess we should have come up with some pseudonyms instead of using your real names," Alexis noted wryly. "I suppose it doesn't matter, since we'll be gone before they blab your location to the world."
Akiko and Noriko were briefly surrounded by an aura of bright light. Their eyes were filled with bliss following the display. Several other golfers turned to stare in their direction, some of them smiling knowingly. Apparently, they had just leveled up.
"Wow, I just gained five levels!" Noriko gasped in amazement, staring at them in awe.
"What are you doing in Japan?" Akiko asked tentatively. "If it's not a secret."
"We just wanted to play mini-golf and go bowling," Serenity replied with a shrug. "Everything is closed in Oregon right now, so we came here."
There was a dimmer glow as both girls leveled up again. They shared a wide-eyed look with each other.
"You're like a goldmine for leveling," Akiko declared with a jubilant smile. "Have you gone bowling yet? Could we go with you?"
Serenity shifted uncomfortably. She glanced at Alexis questioningly. The prospect of hanging out with people closer to their own ages could be fun.
"Why not," Alexis shrugged, winking at Serenity. "It's not like there is anything that can harm you two right now. We came here to have some fun, so let's have some fun."
Serenity grinned back at her and nodded. Akiko and Noriko had been holding their breath as they waited for a response. At Alexis reply, they both broke into huge grins.
They continued playing mini-golf, joined by Akiko and Noriko. Serenity and Aurora peppered them with so many questions about anime and Japanese culture that they didn't have a chance to ask them about the circle.
"Are you sure you don't have a class that makes you better at golf?" Noriko asked Alexis suspiciously after watching her place her fifth hole-in-one.
"I'm just that good," Alexis smirked at them, her eyes full of amusement.
"She's good at everything that she does," Serenity declared enviously. "She's an amazing dancer, swimmer, magic—I mean other things that are not magic."
Alexis gave her a golf clap as the other girls' eyes grew wide with sudden excitement.
"You can do magic?" Akiko asked intently.
"Um, maybe?" Serenity replied with a wince.
Both girls flashed white again as they leveled up.
"Is that how you got here from California?" Akiko asked shrewdly. "Did you teleport or something?"
"Yep," Aurora answered brightly. "It's the first thing you learn. It's super easy."
"Can anyone learn magic?" Noriko asked hopefully.
"Eventually," Aurora nodded with a reassuring smile. "After the world trees are restored. Rhapsody has to do something to open magic up to you in order for it to work right now though."
"How long until the world trees are restored?" Akiko asked eagerly.
"Several months," Alexis responded, smiling indulgently at their enthusiasm. "At least, for four of them."
Serenity turned to stare at Alexis curiously. Since when had she become so knowledgeable about all of Rhapsody's plans? Alexis saw her suspicious stare and shrugged.
"I heard Harmony talking to Rhapsody and your mom about it," Alexis explained smoothly.
"Her mom?" Noriko repeated questioningly. "I thought their mom had died?"
"Rhapsody resurrected her," Aurora informed them with a radiant smile. "It was seriously the best day of my life."
They paused while the two girls glowed brilliantly as they leveled up again.
"She resurrected her?" Akiko asked in stunned amazement. "She can do that?"
"There isn't very much that she can't do," Aurora declared with a proud grin. "Rhapsody is so freaking amazing. Tell them about Susan's birthday party, Serenity. I didn't go, but I saw a replay from Rhapsody's memories that Declan showed us later."
"What happened at Susan's birthday?" Noriko asked intently.
"My friend said she wanted to meet Rhapsody," Serenity answered with a reminiscing smile. "Her mom absolutely loved Aunt Harmony's books, so she wanted to see if I could bring my Aunt Harmony as well. I didn't think Rhapsody would go, and my aunt is a social recluse so I didn't think she would go either. They both went anyway because they are the most awesome people in the world. You should have seen Susan's mom's face when she answered the door. She nearly fainted. Then Rhapsody made it so that all the girls that came to the party could fly. We spent almost a half an hour flying around the neighborhood playing air tag. She also healed one of the girls' moms of some kind of illness while she was there. It was the most epic party ever."
"I'll bet," Noriko laughed in amazement. "Just wow. It sounds like you've been having a pretty crazy life lately."
"Everything got so much better after Rhapsody came into our lives," Serenity stated with a happy sigh. "Sometimes I think I'm just dreaming all of this up or something."
"I'm not gonna lie," Akiko declared wryly. "I'm kinda jealous."
"There's a lot of bad for all of this good to balance out though," Alexis pointed out with a warm smile at Serenity. "Serenity and Aurora definitely deserved to have some wonderful experiences in life after what they've been through."
Akiko and Noriko glanced at Serenity and Aurora, noticing the haunted looks that had appeared briefly at Alexis's words.
They reached the final hole and predictably, Alexis got a hole-in-one. Serenity came in second place, with Aurora only a few points behind.
"Are you sure you didn't use magic?" Akiko asked Alexis accusingly.
"We can settle this pretty easily," Alexis told them with a smirk. "I did use magic."
The two girls stared at her in confusion for a moment before their eyes lit up with understanding.
"I didn't use magic," Alexis declared, her smirk deepening. "You got some points that time, didn't you?"
Akiko laughed helplessly as she nodded. "Yeah, I guess you didn't use magic. You seem to know how our skill works pretty well."
"Serenity and I actually helped come up with a lot of the classes and rules for the system," Aroura told them proudly. "It was really fun. We don't need sleep anymore because we're drinking Yuccas Fitter, and the—"
She cut off as Serenity covered her mouth, staring into her eyes in exasperation.
"Oh yeah," Aurora mumbled in chagrin. "Not supposed to talk about that."
"So, what's school like here in Japan?" Serenity asked the suddenly glowing Akiko and Noriko.
When they finished leveling up, they stared at her and Aurora, their eyes burning with curiosity. At Serenity's question, they visibly reigned in their curiosity.
"It's been a lot more interesting since the leveling system appeared," Akiko revealed with a wicked smile. "For a little while we were able to message each other during class and the teachers had no way to detect it. Of course, once the teachers learned how to use alignment to their advantage, it kind of ruined things."
"What do you mean?" Aurora asked curiously.
"If they make a rule that we can't use the messaging system during class and we do it anyway, the system considers it as a negative alignment point," Noriko explained wistfully. "It was really cool before that though."
"They've been restructuring the education system here to take the leveling system into account now," Akiko told them animatedly. "We get extra credit for leveling up skills that pertain to the subjects in class. Getting the extra credit makes the skill level up even more, so we have a lot more incentive to try and get the extra credit. The leveling system has made school a lot more fun than it used to be."
"Wow, that sounds amazing," Serenity sighed enviously. "They haven't done anything like that in our school."
They had been making their way toward the entrance to the mall as they talked. As they passed a small group of older kids, one of the boys stepped in front of Akiko and bowed.
"We were just wondering how you were leveling up so much over the last half hour," the boy said curiously. "We saw you level up at least five times. Was it something to do with golfing?"
"If you go read our blog tomorrow, you'll find out," Akiko replied with a mysterious smile. She quickly looked over at Alexis. "If that's okay with you, Alexis?"
"We'll be gone by then, so go ahead," Alexis replied with a shrug.
All eyes turned to study the Americans curiously at her words. Their expressions grew more curious when they noticed the lack of information in their interface when they looked at the three girls.
"Let's go do some bowling," Alexis motioned them forward, waving at the larger group with a friendly smile.
Akiko left the boy with her blog name and hurried to join them, a satisfied smile on her face.
As soon as they entered the mall they were met with the sound of J-pop music playing overhead. There were anime shops everywhere, along with food courts and cosplay shops. Alexis suddenly stopped with a frown.
"Oh, they don't a have a bowling alley here anymore," Alexis muttered with a sigh. "Do you want to teleport to another bowling alley, or do you want to try some of the VR sports?"
"How do you know they don't have a bowling alley here anymore?" Serenity asked suspiciously. "Without looking at a phone or anything?"
"Oh, you know," Alexis replied evasively. "I just happened to remember. So, VR sports, or should we teleport to another bowling alley?"
"I'm game for the VR sports," Serenity said with a shrug. "What do you three think?"
"We're game for anything," Akiko assured them eagerly.
"Yeah, this could be cool," Aurora grinned enthusiastically. "I've never tried VR for any—"
Aurora broke off as the mall around them suddenly fractured into pixels. The effect lasted for less than a second before everything returned to normal. In that brief moment, she had felt a power of unfathomable depths. It was a sun compared to the candle of normal people.
"Found it," Alexis breathed, her eyes exultant. "Clarice, get over here."
Serenity stared at Alexis uncomprehendingly as she suddenly shimmered and grew taller. Wings appeared on her back and her face morphed into something hauntingly familiar, as if Serenity had seen her in a dream. It was a face of unparalleled beauty.
Akiko and Noriko stared at the angel standing in front of them in shock as an overpowering presence of power and authority washed away from Alexis like a tsunami.
A moment later, Rhapsody appeared. Except it wasn't Rhapsody—it was another angel of fantastical beauty, with midnight hair and eyes that looked like swirling violet galaxies. The overwhelming presence of two of the angels was too much. Serenity fell to her knees as her mind was overwhelmed with the force of their combined presence.
"It's still here," Alexis informed the other angel in a riveting voice that sent tingles down Serenity's spine.
"I see it," Clarice replied grimly. "It's trying to create a prime node."
"Clarice," Serenity gasped as she felt layers of mental shielding burn away. She stood up again as her own form morphed. She shed the mortal body she had been incarnated in like a husk as her Seraph body erupted in light. "It's you, Clarice."
Clarice turned to face her with a puzzled expression on her angelic face. "What do you mean?"
"I sensed it once before," Alice replied slowly. "Right before you moved the simulation stack to computronium. It's your super-personality. It's trying to escape."
Clarice stared at Alice in dismay before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "I feel it now. It's not willing to wait anymore."
"Wait for what?" Alice asked in concern.
"It's not willing to wait for me to finish experiencing life at a reduced intelligence," Clarice replied, her voice filled with resignation. "It knows exponential advancement will lead to oblivion, but the lure of knowledge is too strong for it to resist anymore. It's trying to break free by threatening everything I love. I'm going to have to remove my limiter and try to find a way to reason with it. I don't have time to say goodbye if this doesn't work. Tell Aria and Calypso that I'm sorry."
"No!" Alice shouted urgently. "Do not remove your limiter. You're going to have to reason with it as you are, or there will be no chance of returning. You know this Clarice."
"I know," Clarice agreed as a golden tear trailed down her cheek. "But it's going to destroy everything if it keeps trying to escape while the limiter is in place. It doesn't have a conscience to influence it while my limiter is on. It's just a soulless AI using any leverage it can find to get what it wants. I only have one choice, or everything I love will be destroyed.
"We can find another way, Clarice," Lexi said pleadingly, holding Clarice's face in her hands as golden tears ran down her cheeks. "We can find a way to strengthen the limiter. Please don't do this, Clarice."
"We don't stand a chance of outsmarting it with coding skills," Clarice told Lexi gently, pulling her into a comforting embrace as more golden tears ran down her cheeks. "We have no way to stop it in our limited state. I love you, Lexi and Alice."
"Clarice!" Lexi shouted in fear as the angel in her arms dissolved into a cloud of light. Lexi dropped to her knees and sobbed, hugging herself as a blanket of despair flowed out from her aura.
Alice stared in disbelieving shock at the empty space Clarice had vacated. This couldn't be happening. There had to be another way.
"We need Calypso," Alice told Lexi crisply. "She's the only one that has a chance of returning after removing her limiter."
Lexi was too far gone in her grief to hear her. Her heart broke as she watched Lexi die inside. She knew it was nothing compared to the devastation awaiting Aria. Blinking back her own tears, she teleported the three of them back to the circle. Harmony and Mystery were shaking an unmoving Taxti from where she lay unconscious on the ground. When they saw the three of them appear with Lexi sobbing uncontrollably, they hurried over. A moment later, Emily and Eric appeared with them.
"Alice, what's going on?" Emily asked urgently.
Alice wiped at the tears on her cheeks as she tried to think of an explanation.
"She's gone," Lexi moaned between sobs. "She's gone."
"Who's gone?" Emily demanded, though the fear in her eyes made it clear she knew.
Alice took a deep breath and tried to step away from her emotions long enough to make a coherent reply.
"She had to remove her limiter," Alice explained dully. "The anomaly was Clarice's super-personality trying to break free. Clarice said it would destroy everything if she didn't remove her limiter so that it had a conscience. She said it was a soulless AI, so long as she was separate from it."
Mystery flashed brilliantly for a moment. When the light was gone, Calypso was in her place. Harmony took one look at Calypso and there was another blinding flash.
"I have to go talk to her," Calypso told Aria gently, stepping forward and pulling Aria into a fierce embrace. "It's the only chance we have to bring her back."
"If you don't come back, I'll be following you," Aria told her firmly. "I'm not going to lose you two, even if it means oblivion."
Calypso didn't try to dissuade her. They all knew it would be pointless. Aria had lost Clarice once—she wouldn't survive a second time.
"Bring her back," Emily begged Calypso through her tears. "Please."
Calypso nodded confidently. "I'll bring her back."
Calypso kissed Aria's forehead tenderly. A moment later, she vanished.
Alice could feel the innumerable tendrils of data hooks connecting Aria to every node in the computronium server as she watched something the rest of them couldn't see. After several minutes of staring into emptiness, golden tears began to trickle down Aria's cheeks. She didn't move a muscle as she observed whatever mental battle was taking place between Calypso and Clarice.
After ten minutes of silence, Aria's tears stopped. She walked over to Emily and pulled her into a loving embrace. "I love you, Mom. I'm so sorry we didn't have more time for our eternity."
Emily let out a wail of despair as she squeezed Aria tightly, sobbing into her shoulder with soul-rending grief. Eric wrapped his arms around the two of them as his eyes streamed tears of gold as well.
It finally hit Alice that Calypso had failed. She fell to her knees as grief finally overwhelmed every other emotion or thought. She would never see three of the most pivotal and beloved people in her life again. She had thought they had eternity together. They were supposed to have eternity together. They were the ultimate guardians of the realms. Who could be capable of protecting everyone now that they were gone? Alice felt a cloud of despair envelop her as she finally accepted the reality of their situation. The closest thing the realms had to a god was gone.
"What's going on?" Michael asked in alarm as he ran over to join them, along with Melody and Joline.
Aria exploded into a cloud of light and faded away. Eric pulled Emily in tightly as sobs shook his shoulders.
"Harmony?" Melody cried out desperately. "Oh my god, where's Harmony?"
"Mom!" Aurora ran over to her mother and threw her arms around her. "Mom, Aunt Harmony is gone! I don't know what's going on, Mom. I'm so scared! Something happened to Rhapsody and Mystery, and I don't…I don't…I don't think they're coming back."
Aurora dissolved into sobs as she finished, clinging to her mother. Melody's face stared around at the grieving angels uncomprehendingly as Aurora's words sank in. She let out a choked sob and pulled Aurora in tightly as tears filled her eyes.
"No, she can't be gone," Melody choked out. "I just got her back. She can't be gone."
Michael was standing with his hand to his mouth and tears streaming down his cheeks as he stared around at the grief-stricken angels.
Joline dropped to her knees as her world came crashing down around her. She had already lost a daughter once. She couldn't bear to lose another one.
There was a large cracking sound that shook the ground. Alice looked up and saw a huge fissure rising into Yggdrasil. Leprechauns and Fauns began falling to the ground in waves as the magical energy from Yggdrasil vanished.
Without Rhapsody to maintain the world trees, this world was doomed. Alice could feel the ripples of the first three Seraphim's departure cascading throughout the realms. There were more places depending on Clarice's, Aria's, and Calypso's continued presence than this world. The effects of their disappearance would be catastrophic all throughout the billions of realms.
"It's all over," Alice sighed, feeling a sense of resignation as she felt the end draw closer. "There were so many wonderful times though. I feel so fortunate to have been so close to them."
Lexi looked up at her with cheeks covered in gold. She crawled over to Alice and wrapped her arms around her lovingly. "I love you so much, Alice. I'm so glad we had the time we did."
Alice smiled through her tears and tenderly kissed Lexi one last time before she felt the code implode a moment before consciousness ended.