The Choice
Before Conan and the others could recover from Focalors's performance, a blinding white light flashed across their vision.
When they came to their senses, they found themselves in yet another space—and Ran and the other children, who had vanished earlier, were there with them.
The two groups compared notes on everything they had each been through, and only then did the full picture come together: the prophecy hanging over Fontaine, and the Hydro Archon's plan to avert it.
As though it had been waiting for them to finish, the moment everyone understood, the voice of Noah's Ark suddenly rang out. "Hello, everyone. First, some unfortunate news: of all the players with the ability to reach this point, your group is the only one left. You've done remarkably well—so far, only a single player has been eliminated."
Moroboshi frowned. "What's that supposed to mean? We haven't cleared the game yet? Didn't we just fulfill the clear conditions you laid out at the start—solving the prophecy and resolving the Fontaine crisis?"
Noah's Ark answered, unhurried and even. "Please, don't be anxious. In fact, you have not resolved Fontaine's crisis..."
Before Moroboshi could press the point, Genta couldn't hold himself back any longer and shouted, "What do you mean by that?! Are you planning to welch on the deal like some little kid?! The Hydro Archon and Focalors both went that far—she was even ready to sacrifice herself—and you're telling us Fontaine wasn't saved?! Waaah... I'm sorry... I was kind of mean to her earlier..."
Ayumi's eyes were red as if she'd just been crying, her voice thick and choked. "Th-that's right! Focalors and Lady Furina both tried so, so hard—how can you say it all ended in failure... *sniff*..."
By the time she finished, Ayumi could no longer hold herself together. She flung her arms around Ran's leg and burst into loud sobs.
Ran had already been heartbroken watching the Hydro Archon dance; she had always been a girl of delicate sensibilities. Now, learning just how much Focalors had given to break the prophecy's curse, the sorrow pressed down on her all the heavier.
She had been forcing her emotions down, wanting to seem dependable as one of only two adults present—but at the sound of Ayumi weeping, her composure finally cracked, and her own eyes began to glisten.
"Yeah... this game isn't fun at all. There's nothing enjoyable about it..." Kikukawa's eyes had gone slightly red too, though his reaction was nothing like Ayumi's.
Xia Yu stood at the back of the group, watching everyone else come apart over the game's story, one after another, all of them rounding on Noah's Ark in outrage—and she couldn't help feeling a little helpless about it.
Ah, well. Everyone here was still sunk deep in the story, too raw to think straight. Tears streaming, eyes rimmed red all around—which made her, the only one unmoved, look positively cold-blooded.
But that's hardly my fault, is it? She had already lived through this story once in her previous life—and in the uncut version, at that. Sure, she'd burned through a good handful of tissues back then, but going through it a second time, with experience on her side... and honestly, she'd had to rebuild the whole game environment from scratch, so time had been tight and the details were less polished than they should have been.
So when the same scenes played out again, Xia Yu still felt a stir of emotion—but the tears simply wouldn't come.
Fortunately, everyone's feelings were in too much turmoil for anyone to notice her reaction was a little off.
Well—not quite everyone. Aside from her, there was one other person whose response wasn't quite right either... Moroboshi...
At that moment, even Noah's Ark seemed not to have anticipated the scene before it. It paused for a moment, then—ignoring the children's demands—hurried on with what it had been saying. "You have not resolved Fontaine's crisis—because the Hydro Archon has not yet made her sacrifice."
"What does that mean?" Conan was the first to recover, brow furrowed. "Going by how the story unfolded, we really did solve the prophecy crisis..."
Conan had already steeled his emotions. In all his years, he'd handled hundreds of cases large and small, and more than a few of them had come with genuinely moving stories attached.
He'd felt the ache of the Hydro Archon's and Focalors's sacrifice too, along with a flicker of regret—but he was, at his core, a man of reason and logic above all. As long as Ran wasn't involved, there was virtually no situation that could make him lose his head.
Noah's Ark spoke: "That... is the choice you must make."
At once, two buttons materialized in front of every person there—one red, one blue.
And as the group stared in bewilderment, wondering what on earth these could be, Noah's Ark explained: "Each of you must make a choice. Before each of you stand two buttons. Press the red button to consent to the Hydro Archon's sacrifice—the guillotine suspended above her head will fall, Fontaine will be saved, and you will clear the game and return to reality."
As Noah's Ark spoke, an image abruptly appeared in the air above the space: the final scene Ran and the others had witnessed of the Hydro Archon's dance—Focalors bowing her last farewell, the water-blue guillotine descending toward her...
"But press the blue button, and you forsake her sacrifice. Fontaine's prophecy will come to pass, the Hydro Archon's plan will fail, and she will fail to protect the people of Fontaine. Your game, of course, will end in failure—and you will never wake again..."
This time, the scene that bloomed above them was of the sea swallowing Fontaine whole—the entire nation submerged beneath the waves, only the crown of the Opera Epiclese breaking the surface, faintly betraying what Fontaine had once been.
Beside it hung a second image: every player in the "Cocoon" beta lying motionless inside their pods—as if to say, choose wrong, and that is where you will remain. Forever.
"Now then. I will give you ten minutes to decide which button to press. Your choice must be made within ten minutes. I suggest you think carefully."
"The countdown begins... now!"
The instant Noah's Ark finished speaking, a blood-red countdown flared into being overhead—10:00, then 09:59, 09:58... 09:50...
Time slipped away, second by second—like a countdown on their very lives.
The space fell quiet for a moment. Then Moroboshi spoke first. "What is there even to hesitate about? Isn't there only one real option here? Press the red button, obviously!"
Even as he said it, Moroboshi's left hand was already reaching for the red button, moving to press it down...