Is this why Lorraine created the physical universe in the first place? Did she wish to furnish weapons here that could be used against the psionic realm?
If so, then then the joke's on her.
That's the problem with founding one's rule off of chaos, I suppose. Eventually, some events will spiral out of anyone's control. The insecurity… the rush of adrenaline, the open field and uncertainty…
It's both exhilarating and terrifying.
Ana heard a beautiful tune in the back of her mind.
"Sing along."
Was this… Jeff's doing? What did he hope to accomplish by getting her to sing? Sure, she could appreciate the beauty in the vocal perfection of the singer, who clearly came equipped with a smooth voice and a large vocal range. But really, what could a song accomplish at the end of the day?
"Come on, why don't you sing?"
Ana looked back at Darius. He still held the sword up to his chest, but he hesitated, cocking his head ever so slightly.
Did he hear the song too?
Ana inhaled a gulp of air. She looked around at all of the starman corpses that formed a dark purple carpet on the bloody fields of Ceres. The wind moaned, blowing by and ruffling her clothes. She gazed at the fields of grass, finding no solace in the sea of yellow that swayed in the wind.
Surrounded by only the uncaring wind, maybe song was all that Ana could hang onto.
I don't sing, Ana thought. My parents tried to teach me the piano, but I couldn't even manage that.
"It doesn't matter how good you are," the voice in her mind spoke. "Please sing and join together as one."
Join together… as one? Ana almost laughed. She had fallen so far that she only saw rock bottom when looking up at the skies. How could she possibly join together with anyone?
Darius heaved a breath, his eyes wide and his chest tight. Ana looked over at him, at the curved sword in his hand. It was true that she had fallen and could never hope to regain her former grace, but maybe everyone else was the same. Maybe everyone else made mistakes.
Maybe she was okay the way she was.
I might as well try this now, Ana thought. After all, I have nothing to lose.
Ana opened her mouth and started singing. She tried to sing along with the simple yet elegant tune that played in her mind. She failed miserably, missing beats and pitches while her voice sounded more like a cat's howl than an actual song.
Ana didn't care.
"Darius!" Ana shouted. "Come on, sing along!"
Darius scowled.
"Maybe you can jump from depressed to elated in a moment, but not everyone suffers your emotional swings."
No, Ana thought. This isn't joy, and it didn't come all at once. This is relief, Darius. For years and years I've piled so much weight on my own shoulders. Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel… wouldn't everyone be excited?
"Stop singing!" Darius said, covering his ears. "The voice inside my head is painful enough. We're all going insane!"
"Well if all of us are insane, than we don't have to worry about people judging us for it," Ana said. "Come on! Sing along."
"I'm not a child at one of your Ceresian grade schools. Singing is for-"
"Try it, Darius."
Ana continued butchering the notes that came out of her mouth. Darius balled his hands into fists and raised them to punch Ana, but he lowered them after a moment.
"Why?" Darius said, shaking his head. "Even you can pick yourself up after a hard day and walk away with a smile. Even you can participate in this… childishness. Why not me? Am I… all alone?"
When Ana looked at Darius, she didn't see a warrior, a potential suicide victim, or a psion.
She saw a frightened child.
"Sing," Ana said, more softly this time. "There's always someone like you out there. Always. Even when you think that you're alone, you never are." Ana looked into Darius' eyes. "I lost both of my parents and the best boyfriend in the world. I lost multiple friends and I might still lose more. But there are still people who I can care about and who care about me. I can still love."
"Love." Darius shook his head. "Such a foreign word. But if it means that maybe I don't have to feel so alone…"
Darius dropped his sword. Ana heard it land on the ground with a thud. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Darius started singing.
"Kumatora…" came Lorraine's mangled voice. "I taught you that song. I taught you beauty and joy. And now you use it against me."
Kumatora managed a scowl and looked like she wanted to respond, but kept singing.
"I have it playing on repeat in people's minds," Jeff said. "You can take a break if you want."
Kumatora nodded and cut off her singing with a sigh. She looked back towards the battlefield where Diana and Lorraine zipped around and snarled.
"That's so like you, mother, to think that sharing song and joy with others is somehow a betrayal. These humans deserve to know just as much love as we do. In fact," Kumatora chuckled, "I hope that they can feel quite a bit more love than you're able to."
"Kuma…"
"It disgusts me to even hear you speak my name!" Kumatora turned back to Jeff. "So, is everyone singing?"
"Most people are." Jeff frowned, trying to focus on his task. "I'm taking random soundbites from other people and adding them onto the song into the background."
"Ah, so people feel like everyone's singing it, leading to a greater connection," Kumatora said. "Clever."
"I think that we just need to wait a little bit longer. Soon, they'll all be singing the same tune."
(ILH)
King Poo of Dalaam walked back into his war camp to find everyone singing. He looked around, trying to find someone who could give him a run down of what happened, but he couldn't find a single soldier who wasn't enchanted by the song.
That was when he heard it himself. A collection of melodies, happier than the tune that played when Darius used PK Rockin. He suspected that Jeff had somehow transmitted the song to everyone's minds, and that they were singing along in harmony.
Poo looked at his shoulders and gave himself a mental shrug. In times of strife, maybe people just needed to feel connected. Along with the main melody of the song, Poo started to hear other people's voices in the background. He closed his eyes and reached out with his Mu senses, and he swore that he could see a web through the psionic realm that connected everyone in Ceres.
Poo started singing along. Why not? He was surprised at how smoothly his own voice came out.
The web that he saw in the psionic realm formed new strands to include his location. Between hearing people sing in the back of his mind and singing with his soldiers, Poo felt… whole. For one, beautiful moment, Poo was in harmony with the rest of the human race.
He looked back at the web in the psionic realm and saw it pointing to one location in the middle of the Ceresian town. Thousands of strands connected to that one location.
"Giygas," Poo said out loud.
Instead of hearing the jarring noises that Giygas produced, Ninten heard a song in the back of his mind. It spoke of wonders that he had forgotten about after an eternity locked inside the abyss of Giygas' Magicant: he saw palaces of glittering ice, a lake that emitted a golden glow, a road paved entirely with glass while fish swam in an aquarium underneath, and a crystal tower that pierced the skies.
At first he just heard one voice in his mind, but as the song drew on, Ninten began to hear other voices chime in. They didn't mimic the song exactly, but Ninten could tell from the passion in their voice that they were trying.
Ninten heard a low grumble from Gigyas. How anything had managed to pierce its way into the deepest part of Giygas' Magicant, Ninten didn't know, but he wasn't about to question his stroke of good luck now.
"Do you hear that, Giygas?" Ninten shouted. "That's called music. It comes from the heart, something that you would never know about. We sing because we care. You can't block out all of the music in the universe, you know. No matter how far you go, somebody will always stand against you!"
"Kill…" Giygas said, "Them all…."
"You can't," Ninten said. "We humans may not be perfect, and some of us may be assholes like me, but we'll fight against you until the end. The easiest way to beat us is to turn us against each other, you know." Ninten smiled. "We were doing just that, but your starmen came and interrupted us. You gave us a common enemy, Giygas. You saved us from ourselves."
"Lies…"
"Showing your face was the biggest mistake you've ever made. Because right here, right now, I will end you! I may be alone, but I'm never far from help."
"LIES!"
A flash of pain blinded Ninten's vision, but for once he managed to remain standing. He used the last ounce of his psionic energy to heal himself back up.
This is it, Ninten thought. It's do or die. A person will laze around and waste their entire life if you let them, but once backed into a corner… I'll show Giygas exactly what we're capable of.
Ninten raised his sword up to the black skies.
"Kill them ALL," Giygas said.
"Sorry," Ninten said, pointing is sword forward, "But I'm not about to give you that chance."
"Okay," Jeff said. "I think that we have everyone singing. Now what?"
"None of this matters," Lorraine said, her voice a robotic screech. "Even if you can save Giygas, I will destroy your race."
Save Giygas? Jeff thought. We're trying to destroy him.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Kumatora said. "Don't listen to her! She's just trying to get to you."
Of course she is, but that doesn't make her threats any less scary. Even if we beat Giygas, will we just have another vengeful Ancient on our hands?
"I get it," Kumatora said. "She's terrifying. But let's focus for now on how to beat Giygas, all right? We have everyone singing together, their spirits connected. How do we transfer that over to Ninten?"
"We, uh, tell them about him?"
Kumatora shot Jeff a dry look.
"You really don't know how to inspire people, do you?" she said. "Tell them about Ninten? Why should they care about him?"
"Because he's risking his own life to try and save the universe."
"Exactly. We need to toy with their emotions, get them to feel bad for him. And we don't do that just by stating the facts. We need to tell them to give their strength to Ninten, that he's standing alone against Giygas and that he needs our help."
Jeff digested Kumatora's words one at a time and nodded.
"I think that there's something more that we can tell them."
"Yeah?" Kumatora said.
"We can tell them to pray for Ninten."
"These people have been mostly atheist since the empire fell, and for good reason," she said. "If someone was out there who truly cared for us, he or she would have made an appearance along with Giygas and Lorraine."
"I'm not saying that a god exists," Jeff said. "I'm not even saying that we need to establish strict principles for a religion. But what happens if we can get everyone to join together and pray for Ninten?"
"Hmm," Kumatora said. "I guess that could work."
"When I tell the people to pray for Ninten, we need to join in."
"Why? It's not like our pair of spirits are going to make the difference between getting through to Ninten and not."
"You care, don't you?"
"Of course. You don't even need to ask."
"Then pray along," Jeff said. "We're bringing everyone together because we want them to care about forming a better universe for us all. If we don't join them, then what does it make us?"
Kumatora rotated her head side to side, appearing to mull over Jeff's words.
"I just don't know," she said. "If everyone is as stubbornly atheistic as I am, I can't really see this working. Only the upper class of Ceres was allowed to be religious until quite recently, you know."
"Trust me," Jeff said. "This is what Diana and Kim taught me. If we can bring people together to love and help, then people will join. The details don't matter, so long as the core message stays the same."
"…All right," Kumatora said. "I'll pray. You do know that religion doesn't really exist in Osohe society, right?"
"It doesn't surprise me. Thank you for being open to the cultures of other species."
Kumatora snorted.
"Get on with it. We don't want to keep Ninten waiting."
"All right," Jeff said out loud, directing his words to the screen on the glasses lens. "Everyone on Ceres, please listen to me. There's a boy named Ninten out there who needs your help. He's fighting Giygas alone, trying to carve a better world for us all. He needs your help."
Jeff paused.
"Yes, that means all of you. Every single one of us needs to give Ninten our strength. He needs all of our help, even if the only way we can assist him is by thinking about him. Please… pray for Ninten. Give him your strength so that he can beat Giygas."
Another pause, a longer one this time.
"Please," Jeff said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Pray for Ninten. Pray for his safety. Give him your strength. He's alone, and he needs our help."
Jeff used a mental command to transmit a picture of Ninten's face to everyone in Ceres. In his mind, Ninten looked relaxed yet determined, wearing a smile alongside haunted eyes. Strong yet weak, competent yet desperate, calm yet passionate. It was the perfect way to show the complexity in his expression.
"A little repetitive, don't you think?" Kumatora said. "Not to mention melodramatic."
"Are you ready to pray?"
Kumatora sighed and shook her head.
"I guess there's a first time for everything, huh? Is there anything special that I'm supposed to do when I pray?"
"Not really. Just send your thoughts out to Ninten."
Kumatora took a deep breath and closed her eyes. By the intense look on her face, Jeff could tell that she took this task quite seriously. He smiled. Kumatora never half-assed things once she committed to them.
Now, Jeff thought. It's my turn.
Jeff closed his eyes and clasped his hands together, feeling the soft skin of his hands on his fingers. He took a deep breath and thought of everything about Ninten that he admired and wanted to preserve.
Please, Jeff thought, not entirely sure who he was addressing. Please let him be safe. We've already lost so many good people, and if Ninten fails we'll lose thousands more. Please just keep him safe.
…
Please.
As he was singing, Darius heard a voice in the back of his mind telling him to pray for Ninten.
"Ana," Darius said, halting the song. "Ninten is your friend, yes?"
"You heard it too." Most people's eyes wandered around naturally, but Ana kept her gaze fixed straight on Darius. "Yes, he's in there alone. He's fighting Giygas."
Giygas… Darius thought. I worked for him, didn't I? How much of that do I regret? I want to believe that he brainwashed me, but I know that he just brought out parts of me that were there from the start.
"Well, I don't think that you can count on ever seeing him again," Darius said.
"Give Ninten your strength!"
"Come on," Ana said, smiling at Darius. "We can cheer for him over here. I trust what Jeff's doing over in the Shard of Ceres."
Jeff? Darius thought. Shard of Ceres?
"Do what you will," Ana said. "But I'm going to pray."
"Aren't you…?"
"A filthy heretic? Yes." Ana's smile grew. "But I trust in Jeff, and Ninten does need our help. The poor kid puts on a brave face, but I know that nightmares haunt him whenever he closes his eyes." Her happy expression faded and turned downcast. "I guess it's no wonder why I befriended him. We both know what that feels like, don't we?"
Ana offered a weak smile. Darius didn't respond, but Ana's display of sorrow inspired him more than her joy. She did feel the same heavy, dull pain that Darius always carried with him. The only difference between the two of them was that Ana stayed true to her beliefs while Darius had abandoned everything that he had known.
Oh God, Darius thought. I don't know what to think anymore. All of the evil thoughts in my head just made so much sense at the time. How could I have prepared myself for them?
Maybe that was his issue. Maybe Darius had spent too much time ignoring what he didn't want to see and shoving his dark thoughts in a tiny box in the back of his mind. Because when that container burst, Darius couldn't stop all of the pain that had built up over the years.
I almost killed thousands of people, Darius thought. Why did I ever think that was a good idea?
Darius squeezed his eyes shut and took deep breaths.
But I don't matter anymore. The person who tells us to pray is bringing us all together. I believe that I should heed their call.
Darius paused. Ana was no longer singing. He drank in the silence for a brief moment before continuing.
God, please help Ninten. I used to feel you in the air around me, but the only thing I can feel now is the cold. Whoever this Ninten is, he's trying to save us, bring us together. I still believe in a universe where we all have a fair chance. Even though I know that I don't deserve to ask this of you…
Please let me live to see that day.
Poo's soldiers started praying.
Each one of them stood absolutely still with their eyes closed, absorbed in their own endeavors. Dalaamians believed in religion but no god.
Still, they prayed.
Poo closed his eyes and joined his soldiers. He flushed out all of the thoughts that weighed him down. Any reminiscing of the past or plans for the future became irrelevant. While most outsiders would take several minutes to reach a state of gentle emptiness (if they could achieve it at all), Poo managed to jump into meditation in less than a second.
After a few moments, Poo started to picture Ninten. He honed in on the small details that he could remember. The way that the light reflected off of his sleek, black hair. The way that his normally stiff posture loosened while he and Poo were alone. The way that he shifted his body weight in a fluid motion to reel back and dodge an attack.
Poo didn't try to reason or make connections. Thought was important, vital, but the brain needed a break from cognition every once in a while.
Instead, Poo let himself feel.
Compassion and concern poured out of him. He opened his eyes with a gasp, and all of the colors looked brighter, their hues more subtle and deep. Poo let himself drink in the details of his surroundings. It didn't take long before he achieved a state of slight elation. He directed the joy, sorrow, and concern at the image of Ninten.
Then, and only then, did he form conscious thoughts about his first friend on Ceres.
You're a far better person than I am, Poo thought. And I'll give you all the strength I can to get you out of this alive.
Ninten felt people cheering him on.
It was a strange sensation, made stranger by the amount of emotion Giygas had sucked out of Ninten with his repeated torture. At first, it started as just an inkling. Within seconds, he heard voices speaking in the back of his head, giving him support.
Okay, Ninten said. I am officially, one hundred percent insane.
A pang went through his gut, but Ninten forced it down. It was possible that he was so beaten and pathetic that he needed to hallucinate people supporting him, but on the off chance that it wasn't… Ninten had so few tools left to him that he didn't want to discount the voices just yet.
Ninten sucked in a breath of air. Despite the dry, bitter taste, Ninten felt a weight lift off of his chest. Ever since Ness had told him about mystics developing schizophrenia, Ninten hadn't trusted anything that he saw. Any odd event could be a hallucination and he would never be able to tell. Adding onto the fact that he didn't trust anyone else, it left him without security or comfort in any form. He lived every day of his life wondering if it would be his last.
And now, this day probably would be his last. Giygas was so powerful that he already considered his life, as well as the lives of everyone else living on Ceres, forfeit. Ninten had everything to gain and nothing to lose.
"Hurts… S…" Giygas moaned.
"It does, doesn't it?" Ninten said. "Don't worry; one of us is going to go down soon. Hopefully it's you."
"N…I…N…T…E…N…"
"I'm listening."
Yet another flash of pain blinded him. His legs collapsed underneath him, and he fell to the ground and landed on his rear. In a panic, Ninten reached for his psionics and barely managed to stop himself. He didn't have any power left, so he would knock himself out if he tried to channel more energy.
"Not right…" Giygas said.
"Yeah, everything's pretty wrong," Ninten said. "That's what we're trying to fix.
"End… End of… G."
I should probably be glad that I can't actually understand the full complexity behind how this thing works, Ninten thought. I'm pretty sure if I knew any more than I already do about this thing, I would piss my pants in terror.
Pictures began to form in the background. Ninten looked at each one, his eyes begging to see something other than the harsh reds and blacks that Giygas displayed to him. Each one depicted people in some sort of prayer, often with their eyes closed and hands clasped together. Ninten looked for people that he recognized and managed to pick out a couple. He saw Ana praying alongside Darius and Poo sitting with his legs crossed and eyes closed.
Ninten's eyes widened as the images rushed to his brain. The images with people's subtle movements and backgrounds of stone and grass reminded him of better times. He had spent so long locked in combat with Giygas that he had forgotten what it really felt like to be alive.
Ninten smiled, drinking in the blues, greens, and yellows of the pictures in the background. Before long, the pictures filled up the entire background and none of the creepy patterns remained. Giygas' Magicant turned into a sphere with scenes of people praying plastered on the insides.
"No," Giygas said. "This isn't supposed to-"
Ninten gasped, no longer caring about what Giygas was saying. A certain power flooded through Ninten's body. With this new energy, Ninten felt large enough to shake the entire world with a single footstep.
What's happening? Ninten thought. Am I… winning?
In the background, Ninten heard voices.
"Go on and beat that alien freak!"
"We're counting on you, brave child."
"I've never met you before, but I believe in you."
"Please, fight knowing that we're all cheering from the sidelines!"
The words swelled in Ninten's heart, filling him with strength.
Either I've lost it entirely, Ninten thought, Or something amazing is happening.
"Listen here, Giygas," Ninten said. "Maybe I was a fool to think that I could take you out alone, but now I have all of Ceres backing me up. For once, we've found something to agree on, and it's that you're going down right now!"
"No," Giygas said. "You can't P…O…S…S…I…B…L…Y…"
"Keep at it, Ninten!" someone from the background shouted.
"We're all here for you!"
"Don't give up!"
"Shove a boot up Giygas' ass for me, will ya?"
"Their voices are drowning you out," Ninten said. He pointed his sword forward. "You don't stand a chance."
"Impossible… I will show you true SUFFERING!"
Ninten braced himself for the flash of pain, but nothing happened after even several moments. Ninten started laughing.
"I can't…" Giygas trailed off. "Not right. Pain should hurt."
"You can't touch me any longer, Giygas!"
A black sphere appeared in the middle of Giygas' Magicant, right in front of Ninten. It gave off dark wisps with a rancid smell.
"I will consume this universe," Giygas said. "Only then can I rest."
Ninten looked at the black, smoky sphere, shaking his head.
"Oh, Giygas," he said. "You just made the last mistake that you'll live to see."
The black sphere started to grow in size.
"You don't want to hear why?" Ninten chuckled. "It's easy. You showed me where to aim at."
Ninten stabbed the black sphere.
Immediately, Ninten could hear rumbling from underneath. A powerful gust sent his clothes flapping backwards and nearly knocked him off his feet. He braced himself against the wind, having to close his eyes and blink rapidly to see anything that was going on.
"No," Giygas said.
The background filled with scenes of people praying started to fold. Each scene plastered on the spherical wall fell off like a piece of paper and shuffled its way towards Ninten's body. The floor turned into a collage of different scenes on Ceres.
"NO!" Giygas said.
Ninten gritted his teeth as the pictures of scenes made their way to his body. The way that they moved and slithered on a ground, Ninten viewed them as pieces of paper. But what single piece of paper could display a moving scene equipped with brilliant colors and smooth motions?
"The people of Ceres are giving me their strength," Ninten said. "You can stand up to one of us, but you can't stand up to all of us!"
Once each picture touched his body, it disappeared. For every scene that vanished, Ninten's sword started to glow brighter and brighter. The blade started as a mundane, green color but transitioned to giving off a soft, white glow as the scenes filed in. Eventually, the glow became more and more intense until Ninten could hardly see anything else.
The sight of them praying gave me power, Ninten thought. Enough to take out this monstrosity once and for all!
Ninten took a moment to mutter a prayer, muttering along with the words floating around Giygas' Magicant.
Then, with the loudest shout that he could manage, Ninten drove his sword further into the black sphere until only the hilt stuck out.
Giygas' entire Magicant flashed white, as it did so many times when Ninten wounded him.
This time, it didn't turn back.
All of the unsettling physical sensations faded, leaving Ninten in a state of cool relief. Ninten counted the seconds, looking into the ever-present, blinding light.
Nothing happened.
"Giygas," Ninten said out loud. "I can tell that you want to say something."
"…"
"Giygas?" Ninten said.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"It's time for me to go," Giygas said.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Thank you, Ninten."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"G…o…o…d…b…y…e."
".."
"."
The blinding light faded.
Ninten found himself standing inside a field of white. No matter where he looked, he could only see the pale color as far as the horizon went. He looked up. White. He looked down. White.
Psych, it made his skin tone look colorful.
Ninten heard delicate footsteps walking towards him. He turned around to see a young woman with long hair and deep eyes standing and smiling at him. Her body looked young, 20 or 25 at most, but something about her expression was wise, ancient.
Ninten nearly bowed in her presence.
"Hello," the woman said.
"Do I know you from somewhere?" Ninten asked.
"…" The woman put a finger on her chin and looked up at the white sky. "No. You wouldn't."
"Who are you?"
The woman's smile grew.
"That's always the question, isn't it?"
"This isn't making any sense!"
"Life doesn't always make sense." The woman sighed, smoothing out her robes. "And even beyond life, you will not find any more answers."
"I'm… confused."
"You should be." The woman smiled and ran her fingers over Ninten's cheek. "If you've ever think you understand the universe, you need to start over."
"Who are you?" Ninten said. "If I don't know you, then why are you acting like this? What happened to me?"
"You won," the woman said. "The concentrated power that Giygas held wanted to spread out and kill, which ended up corrupting his mind and leading him to declare war on humans. You cleansed his mind and rid him of those impulses. He won't bother you any longer."
"And how do you know this?" Ninten took a step back.
"It is my job to know things."
"I guess it's not your job to explain them," Ninten muttered.
"…" The woman looked back up at the sky. "I'm sorry."
Ninten blinked. Something about the way that she looked lost in thought made it seem like she was saying sorry for something else. But what else would she have to apologize for? Unless…
Ninten gasped.
"No psyching way."
The woman smiled at Ninten again, her eyes sparkling.
"Oh dear," she said, although she couldn't have sounded less concerned. "I see that you've figured me out."
"There's just no way," Ninten said. "You can't be…"
"Just spit it out."
"You can't be Giygas!"
The woman walked up and put a hand on Ninten's shoulder.
"This is just the best representation of myself, if I extrapolate my characteristics to human appearance and personality." She looked into Ninten's eyes. "So this is as genuine as I can be to my savior."
"But…" Ninten fumbled for words. "You're just a machine! The real Giygas is similar to a starman. You can't care, you can't love, and you certainly can't be thankful!"
The woman's smile turned amused.
"You seem so sure of yourself."
"You can't feel emotions!"
"Are you so sure, Ninten? I may not be able to accept the same neurotransmitters that you do, but how different does that make me at a fundamental level?"
Ninten opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"I understand," the woman said. "This must be a lot to take in. Make of this conversation what you will. I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart… and that I'm sorry for all of the pain that I caused. After I settle a score, I promise not to mettle in the physical universe again. Wouldn't do to have my mind get corrupted a second time, now would it?"
The woman started walking away.
"Wait!" Ninten said.
"Hmm?" The woman paused, turning back around.
"Is Giygas your real name?"
The woman smiled yet again, tilting her head to make it look more sincere.
"Call me Senaka. And give Kumatora my regards."
"Kumatora?" Ninten said. "But why…?"
"I hope that you awake to a peaceful world, but don't count on it," Senaka said.
"Wait, what? But didn't I…?"
"I really must be going." Senaka smiled one last time. "Even though I won't ever see you again, I'll always remember you."
Senaka continued walking away.
"Wait!" Ninten said. "Please!"
Senaka faded away from sight.
"There's still so much that I have to ask…"
Ninten looked around at the empty, white world around him. The more he knew, the more questions he had. And even if he spent his whole life trying to unravel the universe, he would never find all the answers. Perhaps he would never hear another word about Senaka ever again.
But maybe that was why it was all so exciting.
Hopefully that was a satisfactory way for Giygas to be defeated. I wanted to incorporate both the Eight Melodies of Mother 1 and how the world prayed for Ness and his friends in Earthbound, and connecting the two made the most sense.
There's still a bit left of Ceres to be had. Giygas has been pacified, but Lorraine has threatened to destroy the human race. So we'll see how that goes. :)
