Energy was intangible. Ye Lan and Binah had only been sitting in the R&D Department for a short while before the employees successfully collected half of the required amount.
After five rotations, the Architecture Department had moved from the bottommost level to the topmost level of the facility. Binah's R&D Department had also moved from the lower right to the upper left.
With just 10% more energy, the company would have enough to return to the surface and enter its mobile phase.
At this time, A, like Ye Lan and Binah, sat quietly in his office just behind the main lounge of the Architecture Department, gazing at Ayin in the mirror.
He had now recalled almost all of his memories, except for the name the man in the mirror had yet to tell him.
A moment later, the employees safely exited the containment units again. The energy meter instantly jumped to 65%. A violent roar echoed throughout the facility. Amidst unstoppable tremors, the Lobotomy Corporation headquarters began its ascent to the surface.
Soon, the energy level reached 80%.
The square outer walls of the facility, after countless loops, finally returned to the surface of the City, reoccupying the empty plot in the center of L Corp's Nest.
"We have been buried deep underground for what felt like an eternity. Nothing outside has changed. There has always been an ordinary, yet magnificent scenery here."
The Ayin in the mirror smiled as he spoke. The A outside the mirror smiled as he listened.
He and him—or rather, he himself—had already put down their work. The remaining 20% of energy could be collected by the employees on their own, even without his management.
The two stood up together and walked toward the secret room where Carmen's nervous tissue was stored. There, A, or rather Ayin, would release the Seed of Light, turning all the sin and suffering within Lobotomy Corporation into hope for the people of the City.
RUMBLE—
"Let us bring warmth to this dim world. May every person in the world shine as brightly as the stars in the night sky."
"People will find their own innocence. Let us wait and see what happens next."
With a tremendous roar, the energy meter hit 90%. A light—a brilliant light, a light that pierced the heavens and illuminated the entire City—erupted from the secret room, surging upwards through the device above the Architecture Department.
"The energy you've gathered over the past 50 days was all for this moment."
In the brilliant light, Ayin appeared before A out of thin air. His body gradually dissipated under the wash of light, but his voice lingered by A's ear, sinking deep into his heart.
"At this moment, we will convey the answer we have sought for millions of years to everyone, without reservation."
"Now, it is time for us to exit the stage. Please do not be sad. Even though we are about to fade into the light, we will never be forgotten by the world."
A lowered his head. His own body had long since dissolved in the light. In the end, he and the man in the mirror were one and the same.
A tower-like tree burst from the earth, scattering its fruit upon the world.
The tree, having grown from infinite possibilities, was closer to the sky than ever before.
Past and future, reality and illusion, body and mind, space and time. The boundaries between these four were slowly disappearing.
A's body had vanished, yet he could still hear his own inner monologue. The words of the man in the mirror still reached his heart.
"People often say that the end is nothing but emptiness."
"But I know that it is not empty."
"You will become an infinite light."
"Your name is—Ayin."
"Remember our name."
Ayin. A finally knew his own name at the very moment everything ended.
"And now..."
"Fade away."
To do a hundred good deeds, what is one sin? With one sin committed, how can a hundred good deeds atone?
Even though the blooming of the Tree of Light showed a new hope to all the people of the City, the guilt that coiled around the heart would not dissipate because of it. Ayin had long prepared his own end. To merge with the Seed of Light, to become one with its brilliance, to follow Carmen—this was the end he had prepared for himself, and it was his atonement.
Sitting opposite Binah, Ye Lan suddenly spoke. "It seems he chose this path in the end."
"Oh?" Curiosity lit up in Binah's mechanical eyes. Although she retained most of her memories, she didn't know what kind of end Ayin had prepared for himself.
"That man has gone to follow his Carmen, merging into the endless, brilliant light, completely—or perhaps not so completely—fading away."
Ye Lan tossed the weapon belonging to the Adoration E.G.O. set—a glass cup filled with viscous fluid—onto the table as he told Binah of their Manager's fate.
"Hah. To hear his ending isn't so bad. Now that the Seed of Light's release is finished, I can finally welcome my own eternal end, can't I?"
Binah ended the sentence with a cold laugh.
"Really?" Ye Lan stared intently into Binah's eyes and continued, "Aren't you the least bit curious about what kind of ending Angela has prepared for herself?"
"It seems you've found out. What, do you intend to eliminate me now, right here, for the sake of the Seed of Light project?"
Her voice was filled with amusement. A hypothesis she had formed after observing Ye Lan's behavior over the past few days was waiting for his confirmation.
"Of course... not. In fact, I'm looking forward to Angela's performance even more than you are. Ayin's final ending for her was to fall into slumber with the rest of the Sephiroth? In my opinion, that's far too cruel to that child."
Binah laughed at Ye Lan's words. "Child? Heh, you would call that thing a child?"
"What else? An AI born from Carmen's brain data, initiated by Ayin as a replacement for Carmen, yet completely different from her. Isn't she, in a way, the child of them both?"
"So, what do you want to do, Ye Lan? And what do you want me to do?"
"What I want to do, I will do myself. And as for what you want to do... hadn't you already made your preparations before I arrived, Binah?"
Around them, the employees of the R&D Department had already readied their E.G.O. suits.
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