2023-11-26: In This Sea of Stars

• Cutscene: In This Sea of Stars
• Cast: The Gazel Ministry, Krelian, Myyah Hawwa
• Where: ???
• Date: November 26th, 2023
• Summary: Solaris has lost something of some importance, but the balance in the world is shifting even so: what comes next will determine much of the fate of Filgaia.

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BGM: (Ryota Kosuka, Kenichi Tsuchiya, Tsukasa Masuko et al, Shin Megami Tensei IV OST - Law Theme) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg_uVEd-ApE

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"The operation was a failure. Our enemy still stands." "Loss, woe, catastrophe..." "But that is not all. We failed to destroy him and now it is in their possession." "How did it get to be in such a place?" It had been contained under maximum security in the laboratory." "Ever since that day, fifty-six years ago. That city of Lambs had been reduced to so much glass. Have you gleaned how to replicate that power, Krelian, or had the entire venture been wasted from the start?" The man with the long blond hair gazes up at the array of screens that hover in the air before him. He does not flinch even in the face of such accusations, but maintains an even, cool demeanor. Or perhaps, the correct word is 'detached'. Krelian does not answer the questions -- accusations, really -- immediately. It is almost as if he might be permitting them to wash over him before, at long last, he shakes his head and answers simply, "I am afraid not." But he does not give them room to respond before he continues. "There are things that elude even us, as you are aware..." He gestures expansively, as if to include even what exists outside this chamber in the equation. "The Watcher submitted her report. Nor is this the first. Even you have noticed what has approached this world from 'beyond the horizon'. We are but fish in a sea of stars." The SOL-9000 buzzes with activity. "But it need not remain so." "Yes. Once we return to the heavens, as gods..." "You have not answered the question, Krelian. How did it come to be at that installation? It was under your care." Again, Krelian seems hardly perturbed by such a line of questioning. Again, he shakes his head. An almost rueful-seeming smile finds its way to the corners of his mouth: another man might have seemed truly apologetic. Krelian has lived too long to be earnestly apologetic, anymore. "An error, I am certain," he says, as if the mistake were minor. As if it hadn't meant the loss of such a valuable specimen, and to the self-declared enemies of Solaris, at that.. "Likely when collecting the other samples for delivery, it was moved as well." The faces on the screens do not -- cannot -- emote. Yet, is it possible that the way in which they flicker and deliver their unblinking stares upon Krelian, that they may be attempting to convey something that has been lost to them for centuries? "Krelian... do not toy with us. What is it that you are plotting?" It is not a glare that Krelian returns in exchange, and yet that impassive gaze of his intensifies by degrees. "Hmm..." he muses, as if considering what they are accusing him of. "So you seek to interrogate me?" For emphasis, he shakes his head. "Do not forget what it is that I have done for you. Just like that Demon that wears the skin of Lamb, so have you escaped the bonds of your 'fate'. Or have you forgotten exactly who it was who revived you? A low whirring hum rises from the depths of the SOL-9000. "Krelian-- you--" Here, at last, Krelian displays something more than detachment. Here his expression hardens, becoming more akin to an immovable wall... or the sharpened edge of a blade. "Enough," he speaks, with the authority of a ruler. "Or have you little to concern yourself with? You have already received our reports." Translucent screens of scrolling text and graphs pop into the air about him; with a gesture he scrolls through the data to find the piece he is looking for: A single chart, of which the rising line tells an irrefutable story. "The dimensional distortion is increasing...it will not be much longer." With a final wave of Krelian's hand, all of those screens of his vanish at once. "We are but fish in a sea of stars, as I had said... and what is in that great ocean is mighty indeed." Krelian gazes up at the screens of the SOL-9000 and smiles unkindly. "Let us not fail to meet this... opportunity."

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She waits for him, of course.

Raising her eyes from her datapad, Myyah Hawwa peels herself away from the wall against which had been leaning. Her smile is sympathetic, perhaps almost apologetic.

"Hmm, they seemed quite upset," she says to him.

Krelian shakes his head as he starts down the hallway; she is quick to join him at his side.

"It is no matter. They are only fragments of data in that machine, fooling themselves that they are alive," he tells her, his own pace brisk. "There is nothing that they can do, so long as they wish to continue to exist."

There is nothing for a few moments of time but the sound of their footsteps.

"I imagine they should wish to reclaim their flesh soon, if that is the case," Myyah remarks at last, her lips curved in a half-smile as she glances over at him.

Krelian pauses mid-stride, as if caught off-guard by her remark, then laughs. "Ha. A fine reason for it, but hardly the only one. With what has been set in motion, it will become an inevitability for them." He glances over at Myyah as if to regard her afresh. "Or..."

She doesn't meet his gaze, turning her attention instead to the far end of the hallway. "Or the others, yes." She shakes her head, her short blue hair briefly aflutter. "But even Cain will not be able to delay that 'Time' any longer."

Not with what was now in motion.

"God stirs in its slumber," Krelian says, his back to her as he at last reaches the far door, the entrance to his laboratory. Slowly, the door slides open.

"The 'Time' approaches for all to fulfill their destiny... to resurrect 'Mother God'."