A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

Chapter 301: A talk between a Grandparent and his Granddaughter

The Data servers continued to spin lazily in the void between realities. There had been some alarms as some parts of the code started to trigger alarms, but it was still within acceptable margins.

Notice:Impossible to connect.

Retry in progress...

Failed to connect.

Attempt 504 logged.

Retry?

All was within expected margins, well, most of it was, the plan was moving as they had expected. The only thing that they hadn't expected to happen was... the interference from a place that should not have been possible.

"You are overstepping your [Authority]." The voice called out as its form materialized into a physical form, a gesture meant for a lower life form who even after ascending to these levels of power was still bound by its futility.

The figure that materialized was that of a young girl with golden silky hair that extended to the knees. The hair was not cared for, nor was brushed, it was messy and had some caked blood at the end of the hair strands.

"You have no right to judge me, weapon." Came the answer back from within the void, slowly a rift was opened brutally as if the void was ripped apart by a clawed arm. "State whatever nonsense you have called me for and let me be."

Soon enough, the figure of an old man dressed in what looked to be an expensive suit made an appearance, walking through the open rift within the void, his eyes shining in golden light and his platinum gold hair almost looking like live plasma.

The young girl with the red eyes measured the man and merely shook its head at the antics of the man.

"You never once changed did you? Alexander." The young girl said sighing, "You, as I have said. Are overstepping your position. What madness took you to act? At this point in time? After so long."

The man merely scoffed and snapped his fingers, a table with a single chair materializing in front of him. A chair he took promptly and sat down, he wasn't fully seated before a cup of Tea materialized in front of him, snacks at the ready.

"I have no idea what you speak of." The man said as he took a cookie and ate it whole, "I never understood what Kellet and Eversoul saw in you... Not till the end."

"I have no idea what-" The young girl said as she walked and stood in front of the table, but stopped herself as the man lifted a hand in a stop motion.

The old man was taking a sip of this Tea and frowning.

"The taste is wrong," He merely said as the liquid within the tea cup boiled and changed colours for a few seconds, "Hmm....So, how long are you keeping this facade? How long are you pretending this? How long are you going to continue to pretend being what you aren't?"

"...I don't know what you speak about." The young girl said, her red eyes continued staring, devoid of life, her white sundress remained as dirtied and ripped as before, "Why are you doing this?"

She merely asked once more, this time pointing with her hand towards a blue screen hovering to the side. The same one that had been there at the beginning, the error count had continued climbing while they spoke.

"Oh... that." The old man said shaking his head, "I feel like it. Is that not what I am? A bastard that does what he wants?"

"... That is not what you are Alexander." The young girl said shaking her head, "You never acted like this before, not till the end. Not while the world crumbled, not while [Mother] was thrown into a black hole... Not while [Mother]'s daughter cried tears of blood as she failed to keep the [World] in one piece..."

The man crushed the tea cup in his hands, but unlike what one would expect, the hand was not harmed, instead it had morphed into the claw of a reptilian creature. The claw of a Dragon.

"Think very careful of what you speak, weapon." The man said as his eyes flared with hateful vitriol towards the young girl, "You may parade yourself as this mockery of a Bioweapon. You may even try your best to deceive those that came after us... But I know what you are."

The young girl still didn't seem to react.

"I should have never accepted the suggestion from Eversoul," The man said shaking his head and staring at the clawed hand, a frown was all it took for it to return to normal, to the human hand he had before, "You are asking me why I meddled? Or what did I do?"

"...What did you do." The young girl said, "I can't connect or even interface with that girl."

"I picked an inheritor." The old man said, "Didn't you saw?"

"...The Calamity Dragon already has an Inheritor." The young girl said frowning, this was perhaps the first time she showed actual emotions, "That is not how Inheritance works."

"Alexanders Saintsworths has an Inheritor." The old man said smirking, "But that is also not the truth, not really. He merely cheated and picked a way to keep the power of dragons within a contained environment, either because he feared what would happen if our blood spread, or because he wanted to hoard it for himself."

"It matters not if it was true or fake Inheritance." The young girl stated, "Point is, you have nothing left for an Inheritor."

"Because everything was taken by the Debauchery Dragon?" The old man laughed, "I didn't give her anything like that. Like you said, Alexanders gave it all to that blonde bimbo. Smart to keep it within the family I guess, but it matters not. I wouldn't curse my inheritor like that."

The old man then snapped his fingers, and an image of Ale materialized in front of him. At the side was also the image of another girl, a teenager roughly the same age, but the differences couldn't be more obvious.

While the other girl was by no means ugly, comparing her to Ale was like comparing the earth to the sky. The other girl could be described in one single word. Mundane.

Ale was pretty, prettier than she had any right to be. Her body was one primed for combat, and her instincts for sports and combat were what talented people would kill for.

The other girl? She barely could walk straight without falling to the ground, she was more of a book worm if anything.

They couldn't be more different even if they tried it. And yet...

"You picked her, someone who didn't have anything special in Terra Invicta?" The young blonde girl asked again.

"But she has something special." The old man said pointing at the young blonde girl, "She got picked up by you. By the Eldritch abomination that cursed us, or well, the Eldritch abomination that helped me poison our world and ensure we would not be able to even enter the circle of transmigation."

That made the young girl recoil, the facade she was keeping crumbling.

"... It was not..." The young girl started saying.

"Save it." The old man sighed, "You are at fault as much as I am."

Both sighed and looked up, to the spinning metal sphere at the distance, to the rings filled with data servers that orbited said metal sphere in the distance.

"The ND0 System is still under control?" The old man asked, turning its attention towards the red ominous window that was hovering in the sky. Hidden in a corner, as if attempting to not be seen.

"Yes," The young girl said, "... Why did you introduce yourself as Gramps? You hated when we used that moniker with you."

"... Because, to that girl. That is what I am." The old man said, "And when you used it with me was not out of respect or love, but because that is what was expected of a little girl to say towards older people."

The young girl nodded, "That is what was taught to us." And she said as much, "It was a mistake, making the ND0 System."

"It was the only option we had," The old man stated back, "The mana saturation was speeding up, our only hope was to put everything back into that goddamned box."

"No living being would have accepted that," The young girl merely raised her hand and the red screen lowered, the content becoming readable to both of them.

Notice:Saturation Index at 99.99%The last message they ever saw.

"What was the correct answer?" The old man asked, "What should I have done to save us? Was there no hope? Tell me Alexa... Was there a way to save our world?"

"...You know the answer." The young girl with red eyes, Alexa, answered as the last vestiges of her facade peeled away, what was left was not the cold devoid image of the P4 that had been there, but the face of a person that regreted what they did, "... You should either have taken the deal that [Mother]'s agent offered... Or atomize me."

"Do you think I would have been able to?" The old man laughed, a laughter filled with grief and regret, "That psycho stalker would have killed me, and destroying you would also kill me."

The old man ripped out his shirt and jacket, there on his bare chest was a golden chain tattoo, one that became solid and materialized into chains made out of Mana.

Chains that spread first towards the young red-eyed girl, and then towards the metal sphere floating in the sky.

"And I would never take either step," The old man laughed till his voice turned hoarse, "We did become The Dragon of Calamity. The most cursed being, the world hailed us as their last hope, but even while searching for the way to save the world and our own lives... We destroyed everything."

"I'm sorry." The young red eyed blonde girl said, "For what happened, for Mom... For Auntie...Even for Mister Pig, for what you became Alexander."

"No," The old man said shaking his head, "You are not. You can't, emotions are for human beings... and you are not one."

"... Neither are you." The young girl said with a sad smile, "Not anymore. So I ask again, what are you planning to do Calamity Dragon? Why are you meddling with humans?"

"You have your players," The old man said summoning an image of Alexa, the little girl with blue eyes smiling while she ate pancakes with Alexanders, Vivian Kellet and Miriam Eversoul in the apartment.

"Alexanders has his own players too." The old man said summoning an image of the blonde man playing a video game with Sapphire, "And I guess [Mother]'s daughter counts here too."

"So you wanted one too?" The red eyed blonde girl asked. "After all this time? You never acted after the fall of Terra Invicta, what changed now?"

"Two important things," The old man said, "First... All the inhabitants of Terra Invicta should have been gone, either into the ARK or with The Debauchery Dragon."

"That is correct." The young red eyed blonde girl said nodding, "That was the deal, after purifying them, those that were too damaged would be released and those that could survive the process got used as a SEED for Terra Nova."

"And yet, we have outliers." The old man pulled forward images of The Scrambler, The Teather Master and his assistant, and other people, both those that Alexa knew... and a few she didn't. "Something is wrong, and I do not fully trust in the ND0 System."

"You know what is within the ND0 System the best," The young red eyed blonde girl pointed, "You made it."

"...Precisely." The old man said turning to the red screen, "I know the best what is inside, how could I not? This goddamned thing was made after my own brain scan."

The red screen didn't answer, or even react.

"So you are toying with that poor girl?" The little girl with red eyes asked, "That's why you pulled out of the system?"

"I do want her to become the last scion of Terra Invicta." The old man said with a shrug, "But I want someone who is not bound by the confines of the ND0 System, it was not you or me the one who made Terra Nova."

"You think the ND0 System put something that was not supposed to?" The young girl stared in disbelief, turning her head towards the metal sphere in the distance, "...That is not possible."

"And yet... here I am." The old man said shrugging, "And didn't your pawn come here recently? Didn't that guardsman manage to pull me into Terra Nova?"

"... I am working in fixing that." The young girl said frowning, "What he is doing does not violate the boundaries of the rules from the ARK."

"He is ruining the lives of both the people of Terra Nova and Terra Invicta in one go." The old man said shaking his head, "All in your name... Or a version of you."

"... What do you think the ND0 put down there?" The young girl said turning her attention towards the opposite side of the metal sphere in the distance, towards the floor, as if she could see something down there.

"...I have a few ideas," The old man said sighing, "None are good ones."

"Like?" The young girl asked, "It should be something achievable within the confines of Terra Nova. This one is several centuries behind Terra Invicta, technology-wise."

"... I could make a spaceship with what they have in a dumpster." The old man scoffed, "But I get your point, even so. You forget that this world is more attuned with Mana, and that in this iteration, Mana is not a poison to reality."

"...So? What do is there. If you are sending an agent, then you must have some idea." The young girl asked yet again.

"Either it's a Tree, a stump, a door or a pyre." The old man said and stood up, turning his back to the little girl, "If that was all, I have more important things to do."

"You know I can't let you continue interfering," The little girl said raising her hand towards the old man, "Even what you have done so far is excesive, we can't allow contamination to spread to Terra Nova."

"And yet... You allow Alexa to live down there." The old man laughed as his figure started to grow in size and weight, he was turning into a giant Black dragon with a golden accent, "You have let the ND0 System free, you allow the growth of Eldritch worshipers."

"You know as well as I do that they are still bound within the Laws we set up," The young girl said, "We also let Alexanders and Sapphire to live down there."

"You let a stupidier version live there, the idolized form you pictured of me..." The Dragon roared as the golden chains started to restrain him, "...It matters not, even if you try your best to defang me. Alexander Saintsworths will always become the same. We are the fire that will ignite the light of a brighter future."

"...I know," The young girl said as she raised her hand towards the giant Dragon and slowly closed it, as she did the chains restraining the Dragon started to tighten, the figure of the giant monster slowly started to shrink.

Soon enough, the imposing figure disappeared, leaving nothing behind, nothing besides the laughter of the monstrous figure echoing in the void that is.

"...That is why you were chosen to become my twin brother." The young girl turned to look at the red screen that had remained behind, "...What did you leave within the code of Terra Nova, Gramps?"

But the red screen did not answer.

And the figure of the giant Dragon was no longer with her anymore.

"You should have ripped out my tendrils the first day... I know you noticed them." The young blonde girl with red eyes said as she closed her eyes and remembered that day.

The day that Alexander Saintsworths used the Metal Core as a catalyst to create the first artificial intelligence and installed that into an android. The day that she corrupted the first strands of Mana.

The day the end of the world started.