"More wine, Miss Natal?"

"Yes. Yes, please."

The Duchess' assistant may not have been the most elegant of men, but the artistry he demonstrated when pouring the fruits of Leanbox's finest harvest into the sparkling glass it deserved was nothing short of perfection. Relera, on the other hand, had no qualms about simply knocking back half of the glass' aromatic contents in a single gulp. She practically slammed the glass back down when she was done, her gaze staring off elsewhere.

"If I may, Miss Natal…" The assistant's words faded away as he studied the pensive look the Duchess wore – it was becoming all too familiar. He cleared his throat before resuming, "It would appear as poor form for the gracious leader of Leanbox to allow herself to become inebriated during working hours."

"Yes, yes, I know. The world didn't fall apart the last time I got drunk, did it?"

"Ah…no, but quite some effort indeed was spent recovering from that…incident." The assistant took a moment to place the bottle of wine in his hands on the opposite end of the table, far out of his leader's reach. "Speaking of which – how fares Your Grace's health after her most recent…incident?"

"I'm fine. And no, I'm not going to recite the multiplication tables again."

"Ah. How very curious it is that you have recovered so quickly, if I may be so presumptuous, Your Grace."

A wry smile managed to appear on the Duchess' face. "The Oracle said the same thing."

The assistant's brow shot up. "Did she, now? Ah, but surely it is not out of the question for the Goddess' Oracle to fuss over Your Grace's health as well? These bouts of forgetfulness of yours are proving to be worrisome indeed as of late."

Relera's response was interrupted by a series of staccato beeps. She reached somewhere into her dress, retrieving a phone that was currently rumbling and generally creating enough racket to make it obvious that attention needed to be directed its way. "Fifteen minutes." She leaned back as much as she could in her chair – extravagant didn't always mean comfortable – and deflated with a sigh before tossing the now-silent phone onto the table. It made a muted thump as it hit the tablecloth.

Realization clicked instantly for the assistant. "Shall we open the sunroof, Your Grace?"

"Sure. Why not. That's what I'm up here for, anyway."

The lights within the tiny room faded to a dull warmness before turning off completely, leaving them in the dark. The telltale sound of a mechanical whirring then met their ears. Soon, light began to spill in through a slit in the ceiling, slowly widening as a dome opened overhead. A brilliant green glow washed into the room, eventually being revealed as the grand cityscape of Leanbox, a seemingly endless labyrinth of glittering lights and towers of concrete. All that now protected them from the outside air was a thick layer of bulletproof glass, the walls of the room having been folded away. One might be forgiven for being stricken with vertigo – peering down, one would see a geometric array of lights outlining the roof of the Basilicom far, far below.

"It's more of a moon parlor right now, don't you think?"

The assistant made sure to give a chuckle at the Duchess' comment. "Perhaps that would be so, Your Grace, were it not for even the moon being obscured during this venerable Festival of the Union."

"Alright. So it's a dark parlor. Built for staring into the abyss. Great."

Several moments passed as the Duchess sat in silence, her eyes giving a cursory look over the sight around her before settling upon a spot on the table. Her assistant wanted very much to bring up the elephant in the room, as it was, but he knew that it was far from his authority to do so. Still...

"How much longer do you believe you-know-who will be able to evade capture, Your Grace?"

"Too long." Relera's gaze briefly flitted over to meet her assistant's. "I have…oh, say, ten minutes until it's too late." She abruptly jumped up to her feet, her chair sliding back slightly from the motion. Her eyes were firmly locked to a point in the distance as she stepped over to the edge of the dome, placing a hand upon the glass. "I can see them. They're right there – the key to…well, everything. Why does she have to make this so difficult?" The Duchess shivered as a hauntingly familiar sensation suddenly went up her spine. She didn't bother turning around as she said, "Oh. Speak of the devil."

"I have been addressed by many titles, but 'devil' is not one that typically leaves its speaker with the ability to utter it once more."

Relera's assistant gave a deep bow. "Your Reverence! How delightful it is for you to join us as we witness the end of this wondrous Fe—"

"Silence. Better yet – begone."

That spine-chilling feeling from earlier was replaced by a painful tingle of static. Relera, suddenly feeling quite a lot more awake, spun to see that her assistant had vanished from the room without a trace. "That's a little extreme, don't you think? I mean, not that I care much for the old man, but he has his uses every now and then."

"He will live. He has merely been displaced." The Oracle straightened what had long since become her trademark hat. "Ordinarily, I would be pleased to be engaging in a verbal exercise with another, but time, as you are well aware, grows short."

"Better keep your monologue just as short then, huh? Well? Go on."

The slightest hint of annoyance flashed across the Oracle's face. "Very well, Duchess. The next act in this land's tortuous history is fast approaching. I am sure that you are feeling it. No one can know how the balance of power will fare in this frightening new world, but our wonderful Duchess of Leanbox is seeming to have done nearly everything within her abilities to tip the scales into her favor."

Relera's entire body gave a noticeable flinch. "Is that an accusation, Oracle?"

The Oracle abandoned all pretenses of politeness as she stepped forward, shoving her face dangerously close to that of Relera, who was forced to lean back. "Do not take the Oracle of Gamindustri for a fool, Duchess. Beneath my own plans has formed a multitude of others, each an intermingling current within a single stream, all seeking to diverge at a point deemed advantageous before they are swept into the ocean. And I am well aware that one of these currents is the result of your own actions. The only unknown is the extent of your disobedience."

Relera forced out a laugh that had been welling within her – but it was impossible to deny the unconscious shaking that was causing her limbs to jitter. Her laugh kept on and on, growing in fervor and mania to the point where it blew out of her own control. She was forced to step away and press her hands to the table, her chest heaving with a terrible ache by the time she managed to calm herself. "Hah! Have fun figuring that out, because I sure can't."

"Hmph. I will admit that you are performing an admirable job in covering your tracks. Causing damage to one's own mind and memory is a plan just harebrained enough to earn even this Mage's respect. So long have you played the role of the vain, incompetent Relera, all in the name of diverting my suspicion. How unfortunate for you that the Oracle relies upon more than just her all-seeing Eye. After all, what use is a mage who knows only a single parlor trick?" The Oracle slowly stretched out a hand, her fingers forming a clawed cup. That sense of static in the air again grew to an uncomfortable level as the space above the Oracle's palm appeared to bend and warp ever so slightly. "Precious little time remains, but there is more than enough for me to rip the fragments of conspiracy from your mind. No doubt it will be proving an interesting puzzle to piece together."

"It would be a waste of your time."

The Oracle faltered at the words that had been hardly more than a whisper. She lowered her hand, the magic above it vanishing from existence. "What do you mean?"

Relera gave a little chuckle, which was far preferable to the manic laughter she had unleashed before. "Do you honestly think that I'm any kind of threat? You've already said it before yourself, haven't you? The web of fate allows us to see countless possibilities, even as the fate we're given is inevitable. Who am I, a mere human, to deny that I am powerless in the face of such a truth?"

There was a pause as the Oracle narrowed her eyes in thought. "'A mere human,' you say. How strange. I do not recall there ever being a confirmation of such. It is merely a convenient assumption."

"Hah. Just as human as someone like you, right?"

"But of far more malleable form than I."

Time had grown even shorter than thought. As fate would have it, in that very instant, the sky above Leanbox began to shimmer and twist in a manner that resembled the magic within the Oracle's hand, playing tricks upon one's eyes in ways that a stretch of darkness most certainly should not. Seconds later, a burst of light swept soundlessly down from the heavens in one sudden, bright flash. Yet, it was not the golden disc of the sun that first met the star-struck denizens of Leanbox. The sky was not the beautiful clear blue of noon, nor even the tentative dimness of morning.

Relera blinked reflexively when she looked up to notice that the glass dome around her was being splashed by a torrent of water from above. Her vision was still reeling from the shift in brightness, and she took a moment to wipe her eyes clear before confirming what she was seeing. "It's…never rained at the end of a Festival before, has it?"

A hellish shade of orange in the form of an overcast stretched across the city, painting a most disconcerting image, especially across the coastline, where the waves appeared to have the consistency of a tangy soda. The sight was enough to replace any onlooker's previous emotional state with one akin to a fugue.

But such a feeling would be interrupted when the quietness of the event was compensated for with a belated punctuation of fanfare that could be heard all across the city, blaring from the Tower that still stood tall at its heart. At last, the capital of Leanbox was free of its darkened shroud, and the first dawn of a new age could be cast upon it.

Relera's own sense of surprise only grew when she saw the dumbfounded look that was placed upon the Oracle's face as the mage stared up at the rain.

"Impossible. It has ended before its allotted time? What manner of influence has caused this anomaly?!" The Oracle took a second to compose herself, straightening her hat once again. "Hmph. It is no matter. I will simply need to refine my hypotheses to compensate for this new observation."

A noisy buzzing suddenly filled the room, causing both occupants to turn their attention to the table.

"Well?" said the Oracle. "It is your phone, is it not?"

Relera hesitated, exchanging a glance with the Oracle, before reaching for her phone. "Hello?"

"Your Grace! There is an emergency!"

The Duchess jerked the phone slightly away from her ear. "Alright, alright. What kind of emergency is it this time?"

Her Basilicom's chief of security took in a deep breath before continuing, "The Mascot! It has gone missing!"

Relera raised a brow. "The Mascot?" It took a second before realization hit her. "Oh. That old thing? Well, find out where it went. That's your job, isn't it?"

"But, Your Grace—"

Beep.

The Oracle's brow was furrowed as if she was contemplating some great mystery. "Another prediction gone awry. She has never succeeded before…"

"Oh, my. Something else you don't know? What a surprise. Really."

A scowl formed on the Oracle's face as she turned her gaze back to Relera. "This has gone too far to be simple happenstance. An unknown variable has entered the equation. Perhaps several." The mage stretched out her hand as she had before, again summoning the magic that promised to have ill effects upon whatever it may touch. "It is my hope that these variables lie somewhere within you. I do not ordinarily rely upon a simple hunch, but…"

Again, the Oracle's efforts were interrupted, this time by a series of loud booms that shook the floor beneath them. The noise was muffled by the enclosure of the dome, but it still pounded unpleasantly against one's ears.

"Huh." Relera took the opportunity to step over to the glass and look out upon the storm-drenched city. "I don't remember there being any fireworks last time, either."

By chance, a great gust of wind blew across the ocean, creating a gap in the clouds shrouding the horizon. It was then that Relera's eyes feasted upon the welcome that awaited Leanbox – a series of masts and smokestacks in the distance, forming the ghostly outline of a fleet that stretched as far as any onlooker could see. If one strained their eyes, it was possible to make out an array of glowing dots fading in and out through the rain and fog, appearing much like the fabled will o' the wisp, or perhaps like a particularly massive swarm of fireflies.

In the next moment, the world became one of chaos as the dome around the Duchess burst open in an explosion of glass and noise.

A smile came to Red's face as she watched the destruction through her binoculars. She focused on the most famous piece of the city's skyline, that hideous table-obelisk of a Basilicom, as it was torn in half and utterly destroyed.

"Does this not seem a little excessive, er…Ms. Red?"

The woman lowered the binoculars and turned her head to look at the man standing beside her. A single glance was enough to tell any onlooker that he was a high-ranking military officer, decorated with countless medals upon his pristine suit.

"You would question me, admiral?" Her words were punctuated by the firing of yet another shell packed full of explosive powder from one of the ship's many turrets.

The man took a step back and made a slight bow in apology. "No, Ms. Red. It just seems that the collateral damage resulting from this attack will be…well, extreme, to say the least."

Red studied the admiral for several moments. His face was unreadable, but the sweat upon his brow betrayed the emotions of even this hardened veteran. "Leanbox cannot be saved. It is a land poisoned by heretics. By the order of the Goddess of Gamindustri, they must all die. It is as simple as that."

The man bowed again. "Yes, Ms. Red. Of course, Ms. Red."

She brought the binoculars back up to further examine the wreckage of the city. "What?" the woman gasped as something caught her eye.

What appeared to be four large, colorful birds emerged from a pillar of smoke and dust. Their forms were indistinct at such a distance, but it quickly became clear that they were not natural creatures. She zoomed in and unsuccessfully attempted to follow one of them as it moved about. Then, it halted in the air…and its true nature was revealed.

"What is it, Ms. Red?"

She turned back to the admiral, her expression blank. "Press the attack with everything we have. We cannot afford defeat. Not this time."

End of Experiment Log S-H-540: Null Heart, Part 1. Please insert the tape marked Experiment Log S-H-540: Null Heart, Part 2 to continue.

AN: Anddddd...that's a wrap. I hope it was an entertaining journey reading through this novel-length story. I definitely had fun writing it, as many pains as I went through to revise and revise and revise until it was just how I wanted it. This story started out as an entirely different beast, all the way back when Re;Birth 3 wasn't even available on PC!

Now, you may be wondering…what's up with the cliffhanger ending? Well, the answer to that is that this is just the first part of a trilogy! We'll next be switching gears to Lastation, where heresy most foul is afoot. Rumors that the Decadent Devils have returned spread through the darkest corners of the seediest bars, and ASIC only grows bolder in its activities in the wake of its old enemy's revival. Enter Cave – private eye. Does she still have the chops to peel apart a world-wide shadow war of conspiracy? Or will the ghosts of her past overwhelm her?

If you enjoyed this, then head on over to Null Heart: Reference Exception! And if you didn't enjoy it, leave me a review and tell me why so I can do better next time!