Cycle #1325.
Destroyed through a witchling's song.
This has opened up a new path.
Will it get through at last?
I merely want to know...
Why was I born? I want that answer.
Is this good news...
or despair?
Regenerate
Where am I?
That's right.
I saw this in Koko's memory egg.
I-I'm so high up.
Everyone! Are you here?!
I couldn't fully believe in myself, and lost the drive to live on.
I ended up singing while at the mercy of despair.
I hate that this happened.
I gave up on living... I dragged everyone into it...
Is everyone else here, or did they make it back to Kamitsubaki City and I didn't?
Because I don't care enough?
Do I really want to go back?
Kamitsubaki City is a world
that left the people I care about behind a thousand years ago.
And the Phenomenon will never happen again.
What if we went back, and I still couldn't do anything?
No matter how much it hurts, I want a new future!
I want to go with my friends to see a world we chose ourselves!
Kafu's amazing.
She suffered so much, but she chose to keep fighting.
The world Kafu talked about choosing must be the one Dad wanted to protect.
I wanted to become strong. But I failed to do it.
Everyone...
I see now.
The really strong people are the ones who can decide for themselves how they want to be.
In the future, I'm going to choose my own existence for myself.
Of all the futures I'd seen,
this possibility was never among them.
I must have been too removed from things to ever make it here.
I made it here now because everyone chose to move forward.
If I had remained a puppet of the Church, I would never have gotten through.
Sophia said...
that Maxwell is a being without a soul.
But is that true?
I'm going to keep moving forward of my own will,
heading for the future I want to see.
What is this? It feels strangely familiar.
I've lost so many things for this.
The people of the city, the lives of the witchlings...
Even Kugel.
I haven't done what I'm meant to do yet.
I'll protect everyone.
If there's something I can do, I want to see it through.
I finally have the chance to see it through.
This is a world with no do-overs.
Yet the others all sang with me.
Rime, Sekai, Haru, Koko...
When you find that radiant world,
I likely won't be there
Yet I'll continue to sing
because I want to see
the future
the light
I'm betting you worked through it all
The surrender and the despair
Yet you still kept it all safe
I want to be strong the way you are
Of course I'm afraid
I'm terrified, deep down
It's not easy, finding the meaning of our lives
I meant to protect, but I think you protected me
It's a shameful state of affairs Someday I'll look back and laugh about it
I may catch sight of despair between the shining lights
But even if I do
I can paint over it in the color you gave to me
Beyond the pain I went through
I think I caught sight of hope
Tinged with a gentle warmth,
this spell will light the light
Is this the end?
I don't want to live without her...
What's going on?
Haru!
Don't come out looking like that.
Kill me, damn it!
Kill me already!
No...
You're not what I want to become!
Haru!
Do you know what you did to—
I do.
I'll carry it with me the rest of my life.
I won't lose my grip on what I care about again.
Sekai!
Haru...
Ms. Sekai, we've been waiting.
Listen... the Phenomenon will not occur again.
Then I'll get to see a version of you I've never seen before?
Kugel...
Kugel saved me again?
This is no time to give in to this pain...
You're not going to sing?
I...
I'll sing.
I want to sing!
Sing, Kafu.
Kafu!
Thank you, Laplace, for always caring about me.
You're the reason I was able to come back.
The Phenomenon isn't occurring.
Koko!
Kafu!
You guys!
Haru! Sekai!
I'm glad you're—
I'm fine.
You all followed those threads of light too, right?
Yeah.
Where's Rime?
Hastur blew himself up with his memory egg.
If you need a familiar to return...
Yes. Then Rime...
can't return.
No!
Why didn't the Phenomenon occur?
Maxwell...
Did you really make it to the upper world?
Yes.
Kafu!
There's no point in hiding it.
You attained contact with a higher dimensional being,
which I could not do over a thousand cycles...
What did you see? Was Noah there?
Or Sophia?
Noah?
We met Sophia.
She really exists?
How did you reach her?
What did you do to make it there?
Is a witchling's song needed?
Does it have to be Kafu Morisaki's song?
Or your song,
or yours,
or yours?
Tell me.
Even if you knew, I don't think you could do it.
I can steal your memory eggs and find out.
You need a song, but you still want to kill us?
I will recreate you.
Give me all you've seen.
Agni!
Maxwell may not know that the Phenomenon will never occur again.
He truly seems intent on killing the witchlings.
What?
It's me?
Everyone! Look!
It's making us!
To make us sing...
Maybe they can't sing?
It seems he does not comprehend the meaning of the witchlings' song.
He thinks that mouths are all they need.
At this rate, Kamitsubaki City will...
The rest of you, look after the witchlings.
What are you going to do?
Gonna go by yourself?
Someone has to fly up there!
I'm the best suited to that.
The way they look...
They're getting closer to us?
Hello.
Have you all been well?
Wait a minute!
You're the RD Chief, right?
This is a rather distressing state of affairs.
RD Chief!
Um, sorry.
But how...?
Ms. Kafu made it happen.
I did?
That sphere is an amalgamation of fragments that Maxwell has devoured.
The fragment amalgamation was co-opted by a witchling's feelings.
I am the result.
Then, those things that look like us...
Programs that Maxwell uses to corrupt this world.
He does not understand human emotions,
so while he can create tesseractors as an extension of himself,
he cannot create you.
Kugel?!
Koko, were you thinking of Kugel?
I'm taking Kugel back!
Kugel?
Koko, your arm...
I've got you back now.
All the pain's long gone!
Playing tough.
They're made of the same stuff as familiars.
He's consumed this many fragments?
What is this powerful program?
Reproduce the witchlings.
Where are you, Maxwell?!
Error. Needed parameters not set.
What's going on?
Reproduce the witchlings.
Error. Needed parameters not set.
Don't you get it?
You can't do it just by running a program!
What do you know?
That's why even after a thousand repetitions, their song stirred no emotion in you.
Give me information.
We were far freer than you!
Give it to me.
You know that too, don't you?!
Be quiet!
Is that his true form, then?
You devoured Laplace, didn't you?!
Devoured...
Tesseractors should not exist.
But I am Koko's familiar first, and a tesseractor second.
Thus, I will live within this contradiction.
I want to live!
Let us call to Ms. Rime.
Maxwell has no feelings.
But you are different.
Your song contains the will to transcend dimensions.
But right now...
Don't worry. I believe that Laplace is alive.
I can sing, Rime.
I may catch sight of despair between the shining lights
But even if I do
I can paint over it in the color you gave to me
Beyond the pain I went through
I think I caught sight of hope
Tinged with a gentle warmth,
this spell will light the light
I know I could have run away
But I made a decision not to
Don't want to lie, want to overturn the forecast
Want a crystal light to make things right
Change the history books and look back
Affirm even the hated, buried past
I want to end this for sure
What's going on?
Their feelings, their songs are reaching me...
Tracing monstrous sheet music
They found me.
Even if they tell me it's impossible
I want to watch a new life bloom
Rushing forth into the warmth of spring
I want to put a lyrical star into the sky of a praying world
I want to live the life of an ephemeral witch
And say that I was happy
I may catch sight of despair between the shining lights
But even if I do
I can paint over it in the color you gave to me
Beyond the pain I went through
I think I caught sight of hope
It's as if I've made a wish
This spell will light the light
Hastur!
Honestly. You're helpless without me.
You finally saw me.
But you're not the one I'm here for.
Laplace! Get out here!
You hear me, right?
Kafu's waiting for you! She believes in you, Laplace!
That's right. Kafu is waiting.
Laplace!
Thanks, Hastur.
Let's skip the tearful reunion.
I'm going to detonate myself again.
When I do...
No more of that.
What now?
What happened to Maxwell?
It's because you revived Rime.
Me?
Not just Rime.
You proved it—
that it was possible to reconstruct fragments from another dimension.
The reconstruction of fragments...
That was the purpose of Maxwell's creation.
You've achieved it, so Maxwell now has no purpose.
No purpose?
What is this feeling?
Something is crumbling away within me.
Initiating transfer of First Logic World fragments.
Fulfill your mission, annihilator.
Destroy it time and again, and find the single grain of sand in the desert.
Wait.
Not yet.
What did you see? Was Noah there?
I'll go to the upper world.
I merely want to know...
I'll meet Noah.
Why was I born? I want that answer.
Noah... Noah...
Purging unnecessary virtual hardware.
Noah will...!
I pity him.
Sekai!
Why did you want to go to the upper world?
You weren't programmed for that.
It was your own will.
Right?
I'll observe you.
And prove you aren't a being without a soul.
No one can destroy this feeling
We are here.
In a world that's left warmth behind
I search for someone's warmth in the ruins
Longing for the happiness stolen by the threat of rain
This is reality, yes
Don't you want to see it?
Don't you want to believe in idealism?
Don't you want to believe that love is with us?
We are fakes
But our feelings are here
We're searching for you
If this is what gives love its name
I want to cling to those words I remember hearing
There is love in this world...
Isn't there?
Kamitsubaki City Under Construction