"What the hell are you-"
"I'm just saying, you're right." Anathasia turned, her back facing us as she stared up at the disk of stars in the sky.
"In a sense... maybe I am being ungrateful." She shook her head gently, white strands of hair swaying with the wind.
"I have everything we both ever wanted... and I'm the source of everything too. Normally, anyone would be satisfied with all of that."
"So I wouldn't blame you for feeling that way."
Our surroundings shifted, flaking away from the edges as everything was washed apart like paint.
And in the next instant, we stood before countless spheres covered in lines of text. Some of them cracked and ruined, swirling around a looming presence between the spheres themselves.
"Each sphere you're looking at..." Anathasia took a step forward.
Liscia remained rooted in place as the presence slowly approached.
Dread flickered across her face, eyes widening while remaining fixed on the multiple heads sprouting from the entity.
"That's...?"
"Recreator."
The presence among the broken spheres spoke, its voice alone enough to vibrate through my transparent skin as I looked toward one of its heads.
"...Kagariel."
It stopped the moment I spoke.
Slowly, it turned toward me before falling completely still. The dark swirls across its heads expanded as it gazed down at me.
"The Absolute Stillness... and The Recreator," it murmured, before glancing toward Liscia standing nearby.
"And... the iteration of the Recreator. The Endpoint."
"What brings beings such as yourselves within the Ruins?"
One of its heads tilted.
Its body was nowhere to be seen, yet its necks stretched across the entirety of the Ruins themselves. Turning everything around us just as dark as it was, with luminescence existing only from the spheres.
"We're just visiting." Anathasia casually raised a hand, waving at Kagariel with a smile.
The leviathan paused.
Then all of its heads nodded lightly before receding back into the darkness.
"I see..."
"...please take your time, then."
And with that, it disappeared completely from sight.
Not even the broken spheres orbiting around it remained.
Anathasia turned back toward us before stepping aside.
"What you're seeing... are meta-narratives. Or Collective Spheres. Each one contains a number of Demiurge Images too vast for us to count. And so on and so forth."
She stared toward one of the Collective Spheres.
One displaying familiar faces.
A pink-haired girl flashed across its surface.
"Grace...?"
Anathasia nodded before looking back toward the sphere again.
This time, it showed a woman with long black hair helping a white-haired girl with homework inside a distinctly familiar living room.
My eyes widened.
"Lena and Fran..."
More faces flickered across its surface.
Some people I knew.
Others I didn't.
They continued endlessly, as if I were watching fragments of countless memories flash by in a single instant.
"Inside just one of those spheres," Anathasia said softly, "are countless lives living each day. Surviving, suffering, enjoying their lives."
"And some suffer merely because of the choices of others."
She turned toward us again, her expression unreadable.
"Suffering was existence's design. I never once intended for it to be like that. But..."
"Free Will exists."
"If existence were perfect, Free Will could never exist. And if Free Will exists, then a perfect world can never exist."
Her gaze slowly lowered as she let out a quiet breath.
"Free Will and the concept of a perfect world can never coexist."
"Because Free Will allows individuals to choose for themselves... and those choices may or may not result in others suffering the consequences of them."
"The Law of Equivalent Exchange," she murmured.
"...that's what humans called it."
The Ruins fell silent, allowing her words to settle as I continued watching more faces and events flicker across the surface of the sphere.
Every other sphere surrounding us did the same.
"Of course, I know suffering isn't directly my fault. I already said that earlier." She let out a soft sigh.
"It stings, yes. Because I'm the one who allowed it to happen... but if I interfere, Free Will would just become an illusion."
"And even if I'm not omnibenevolent, it's not that I feel nothing knowing that somewhere... others are dying. Suffering not necessarily by design, but as consequence."
Slowly, she lifted her head.
Her gaze met Liscia's as she offered her a gentle smile.
"You're not any different from myself, aren't you?"
"You're my iteration, yes. But you are still yourself... my life is not your life, just as much as yours isn't mine."
"We're not the same person anymore. Even if we once were."
Liscia froze at her words, her hands reluctantly tightening. I stayed silent nearby, occasionally glancing toward the spheres surrounding us while reaching out to touch a few.
They were no bigger than my fingertips.
Delicate enough to seemingly crack apart from the slightest graze.
"That said..." Anathasia continued, turning toward the surrounding spheres as they drifted around us.
Uncontrolled.
Unrestrained.
Free.
"I know they're not my fault, but... even I don't understand why I still feel guilty about everything happening."
"I'm not obligated to prove anything. Nor am I obligated to make others see me as this... all-loving, all-powerful, all-seeing God they keep trying to frame me as."
Anathasia fell silent as the words left her mouth.
Her gaze drifted elsewhere, avoiding Liscia's eyes as they slowly began to shimmer.
"I'm sorry if I sounded ungrateful."
"And I don't blame you for thinking I am either... not when I know what you've been through."
"And I just... overwrote everything to save myself."
Her voice softened.
"In the end... I was just being selfish."
"I'm only now beginning to understand what it means to feel."
"This... burden I chose to take on, just for another chance."
Our surroundings gradually began to wash away.
Darkness was replaced by tall blades of grass and the endless plains we once stood upon earlier.
The tiny marble-like spheres resting in my hand disappeared alongside the Ruins as I looked back up toward the stars.
...Are we really living inside those tiny things I could just... crush between my fingertips?
My gaze shifted before finally settling on Anathasia standing before us.
Liscia remained completely silent now, staring down at the grass beneath our feet.
"We both wanted the same thing... we just tried to reach it in our own ways."
Anathasia slowly turned toward Liscia.
"I don't think what you did was wrong. Nor do I hate you for thinking I'm being ungrateful for complaining about things when I already have everything we wanted."
Liscia quickly raised a hand before Anathasia could continue.
Her head slowly lifted as she stared directly at her, jaw tight.
"Are you kidding me right now...?"
Anathasia stopped in her tracks, even as she began walking toward Liscia.
"What... you think..."
"After everything you just said, I'd still think you're some stupid piece of work?"
Liscia gently shook her head, one hand pressed against her chest as she glared at Anathasia.
"Am I really that dumb in your eyes, Anathasia Veridielle Augthoria...?"
"That I wouldn't understand what the hell you were trying to imply earlier when we both know damn well..."
"...we grew from the same starting point?"
Her voice trembled slightly.
"That you think *I'm* unreasonable enough... blind enough to keep hating the person whose shadow I've been hiding behind just to finally see..."
"...everything?"
She scoffed.
Her hair whipped against her face as the wind grew harsher, despite the complete absence of clouds overhead.
"I hate it. I hate how I understand everything you were trying to say."
"And I absolutely despise how I can't keep hating you no matter how hard I try convincing myself you simply had it easier."
Her voice wavered.
"Because I know..."
"I know what I was trying to do back then."
"The fact that I was willing to sacrifice millions... countless lives... just to obtain what I wanted."
Her hands slowly balled into fists, fingers paling as she glared at Anathasia.
"You're so damn unfair... Anathasia Veridielle Augthoria..."
"...so damn unfair."
"You knew we were both aware of how we ignored the consequences of our actions just to justify our cause..."
"And you chose to use that against me..."
Her shoulders trembled.
Then suddenly, her hands shot forward, grabbing Anathasia by the collar even as the latter remained silent.
At that moment, for reasons I didn't understand...
...I couldn't take my eyes off them.
"I despise you with all my existence..."
"You... Anathasia Veridielle Augthoria..."
"...you manipulative..."
Liscia's grip loosened.
Her hands slowly fell from Anathasia's collar back to her sides.
A quiet sob escaped her lips.
The silence was gradually replaced by the sound of her restrained crying, while the rustling leaves around us seemed to fade further into the distance as Liscia stared down at the ground.
I stayed rooted where I stood.
Meanwhile, Anathasia stepped closer toward her.
Her arms slowly opened before gently wrapping around the dark-dressed woman, pulling Liscia into a careful embrace.
"There's nothing wrong with being human," she murmured softly, allowing Liscia to lean against her as she spoke.
"In the end..."
"We both used to be human."
"We simply forgot what it meant to be one."