Lightning Rod (after battle)

So there isn't anyone left...

I won't last much longer.

This is how I was born. How I've lived my entire life.

Yeah. Glad you know that. So why don't you -

What... admit my sins and... surrender...?

Ha ha... why would any of that ever matter to me?

Linton looks up with a lighter expression, as though a burden has been lifted from his shoulders.

This is as far as I will go.

Then, with the gentlest voice, he begins speaking to... someone.

His voice was overflowing with intense, fervent affection.

As I have always told you... I have no regrets.

I merely think that... we were both walking in different paces.

And you always happened to walk ahead of me.

Yet, even a sight of you from behind summoned butterflies in my stomach.

This man will die without immediate and appropriate medical attention from a professional doctor. He is extremely weakened.

Still...

Catherine, I wish you would...

... I wish my death would bring you even a trace of sorrow.

Even before I first laid my eyes upon that child, Linton...

... he was watching me.

Unable to look away, even for a moment.

That child is wealthy. He looks like the prince charming from fairy tales of my childhood.

And he loves me so, so much.

See? His eyes glimmer like the very stars of the night sky with every second he lays them upon me.

I love Linton who loves me.

His eyes that twinkle for no one else but me.

His flaxen locks that flow for no one else but me.

His radiant smile that flashes for no one else but me.

Linton, who finds happiness through nothing else but me.

When light returned to the manor, when I could finally see again...

There stood Linton, wearing the brightest, happiest smile I had ever seen.

... The machines of the laboratory were linked to his body.

Ah... did you hear... the thunder...?

…!

Catherine weeps for me.

Oh... Catherine!

Linton musters every strength in his body and reaches out toward Catherine's coffin.

Wait, what are you -

So now... is the right moment to...

... STOP!

I thought I saw tears of joy rolling down his cheeks, but...

<…!>

... they were his flesh beginning to melt off his face.

Even if you will not permit me into your chambers... It's all right.

I will await you within its walls forevermore.

To bring forth the pure form of humanity that once existed... was quite the simple task.

…….

You never had any talent in the culinary arts, Yi Sang. So you wouldn't understand.

Any kind of Identity could safely and securely be applied to it, as long as the 'dough' is in its purest form.

What happened to... Linton?

Can't you see? He's become a dough, a batter; a pure being free of dregs.

So that it would always yield the finest results, regardless of what other ingredients you mix into it.

You call that mass of flesh... human?

... No. Creation of a new human is but a stepping stone in that process.

Their ultimate goal must be to go even further beyond that 'dough'; they seek to reach the very origin... the primordial human. This is but a part of that process, merely an experiment along the way.

Oh…

Consider yourself fortunate that there aren't any other surviving researchers here other than myself.

If Director Hermann or any of the other higher-ups heard what you said, I'm sure they would be pulling all kinds of strings to take you in.

Mother... dammit, I knew that woman would be...!

The 'dough', the being you refer to as a human... I presume that one could apply any Identity from any possibility, no matter how distant and irrelevant the world, to that being...

Yes, Yi Sang. I knew that you would be most overjoyed to hear of this breakthrough.

This is the apex of what the Mirror technology is capable of.

Now all we have left to do is to leap from that apex, to soar beyond its limits.

From what we know, there is... another Golden Bough located inside the manor.

This 'dough' is a part of an experiment that can be conducted only with a preposterous magnitude of energy output.

So the Golden Bough to accumulate that much energy...

... must be located on the rooftop of this manor.

…….

Correct. The Golden Bough acts as a lightning rod, draws the merciless strikes of lightning, then harnesses it into a form of energy for itself. Your breadth of knowledge is starting to get unsettling.

Well, now that everything is in order... I must really make my exit.

Not so fast! I'll get you and find out everything you know about what mother is planning -

Please, let us not waste each other's time by playing this pointless game of cat and mouse.

When the perfected Identity is applied over a dough, one such opaque, murky mist emerges. What a picturesque moment, most apt to bid you all farewell, is it not?

Director Hermann's son, was it? I hear that you are a veteran of the Smoke War. Then perhaps this may be a familiar sight to you, if a tad different in a few places.

And Yi Sang, my dear fellow.

Live. So that I may have aught to look forward to in the time I have left.