2021-07-03: Lost Shards
- Cutscene: Lost Shards
- Cast: Emperor Cain, Citan Uzuki
- Where: ???
- Date: July 3rd 2021
- Summary: The recent activation of El-Regulus prompts discussion. The missing Anima Relics are also spoken of.
BGM: (Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - Stabat Mater: I. Stabat Mater dolorosa) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTHwodbnTrs
"So. It is as I thought. She had been reborn again as well," muses Cain, the emperor of the Holy Solaris Empire. "'As 'he' will return, so shall 'she'.' To think that she was born among our own people..."
"You are certain, my liege?" Citan asks, standing before him in this no-place.
"Yes. There can be no question regarding it. That Gear... it belonged to Sophia. Her previous incarnation, the last vessel of the 'Mother'... the one who was able to align with 'Dinah'... Who, with the Contact, shook even our throne... No. There can be no question regarding it," the Emperor repeats, then sighs. Even that exhalation through the golden mask comes out as a wheeze.
Cain, after all, is a dying man.
He will not die this day, nor even this year or possibly even the next. But as so much is fated in this world, so too is this simple fact: the amount of time that the Emperor has remaining to him grows ever more finite.
Ten thousand years will eventually draw to a close.
"...You had spoken to me before of Simeon's fate. To think that is where it had been... This means that only the whereabouts of a handful of the relics remain unknown: Reuben, lost to us so long ago; Levi and Issachar, taken from us on that same day as Simeon. Perhaps that may be a clue to where they may still remain."
"Should I then attempt to find them, your majesty?" Citan asks of his emperor.
Cain's response is swift enough: "No. Your duty remains as it stands." There is a lengthy pause. "However... should you happen to learn anything of their fate, I am certain the Ministry would wish to hear it."
"I understand," Citan replies, not so much as moving a muscle before the emperor's throne.
"They are... eager," the Emperor continues. The 'Time of the Gospel' draws ever nearer, and so many of the Anima Relics remain lost to us. They wish to reclaim them as swiftly as possible."
"But even Simeon alone will not be so easily reclaimed," Citan replies, briefly glancing downward. "The one who currently holds it is..."
"Yes," replies Emperor Cain. "Nevertheless, the difficulty of succeeding in the task matters less to them than its possibility. To bring about the revival of God as they wish, these scattered pieces must again be gathered. Indeed, it is inevitable."
This is a matter of which they have spoken before.
"But not only gathered..." Citan says, into the silence that has begun to settle upon this space, this controlled void of the Emperor's will in which the both of them may exist.
"Yes. An unaligned relic will suit them not at all. They are searching even now for the appropriate candidates."
And everything else that statement brings with it. The Ministry needs just one more thing once the relics are assembled to see to the revival of God.
It is not a fate that bears thinking about in great detail.
"...Of course," is his answer to the Emperor.
"Have you spoken to him of Sophia's Omnigear?" Cain asks then.
There is a pause. Citan shakes his head. "No. I had thought it best to report to you directly first. The Ministry does not know of the details, either."
The Emperor is silent then, a statue on the throne. "It is likely that they will be expecting a report from you soon. Do what you must," he says at last. "...He may be pleased by the news. Be careful."
"Yes," Citan says, his face not betraying so much as a twitch of emotion. "I understand."