[ Historical Museum, Southern Vaizen / September 22, 0078 12:40 ]

The spacious central hall housed an exhibition of ancient Belkan weapons—the ones the Bureau deemed safe and inactive. That made the presence of a good hundred of Gadget Drones inside rather ironic.

The hall had multiple entrances on each side, so the almost two hundred civilian visitors were rounded up in the middle of it, behind a hastily erected barricade, and instructed to sit down and keep their heads low. The barricade was manned by a few dozen security guards, Ground Forces, and trained civilians commanded by Sergeant Marsh.

The Gadgets surrounding the barricade didn't attack. They were scuffling around the perimeter, looking for weak spots and only occasionally daring forward. The defenders were quick to repel them.

"They're not trying to kill us," Signum scowled. "They're just to keep us pinned down and out of their way while they search for the Crown."

They were floating in the air several meters above the huddled civilians, keeping an eye on all exits.

"But without us, they'd overrun the barricade in an instant," Fate nodded. "Where is Zafira?"

"Almost done at his end. When he returns, we can try taking the civs outside."

Fate looked down. All of them were sitting quietly as she instructed, except for an occasional whimper. There was one girl, though, who was looking up at her, her mismatched eyes brimming with a mix of admiration and bitterness. Fate remembered her: she tried joining the others on the barricades but she sent her back. She looked nothing like Vivio, Fate kept telling herself.

"It's no use. The streets must crawl with these things, too. We can protect them better inside."

"I don't like the look of that dome," Signum shook her head.

Fate looked up. The giant dome above the central hall took a lot of beating today, especially after some Gadgets tried scaling it to literally get a drop on them. Thin cracks were running across its base.

"It will hold," she said without much certainty.

"Zafira just found two more civs," Signum informed after a pause. "I'll go."

Fate watched her fly into a narrow hallway. The Gadgets didn't even try to intercept her anymore.

She couldn't have been gone for more than a minute when loud screeching and cracking noise came from above.

"The roof! The dome!" Multiple voices cried from below.

Signum was right, after all. The massive old building couldn't handle the strain anymore and started to collapse upon them. Reflexively, Fate pointed Bardiche up with both hands and poured all her mana into a spell:

"Convex Shield!"

A second, golden dome sprang under the collapsing concrete one, taking its weight upon itself. Fate felt it on her own shoulders immediately, pushing her down a couple of meters but she held on. That was the weight of two hundred lives.

The only upside was that the Gadgets retreated from the collapsing hall, making a clear path for Signum returning with more civs.

She stopped on the edge of the hall, accessing the situation, then flown closer.

"C'mon, help me hold this up," Fate panted.

"No," Signum replied blandly, staring at her motionlessly.

"W-What…"

"The whole time, Testarossa, I've been wondering how to prevent you from following me without hurting you. Now you've solved that dilemma for me."

"Following you to where?"

"The Kaiserkrone and the Cradle," Signum reminded her gently.

"B-But… I thought…"

"Nothing has changed, Testarossa. We are still enemies and all this was just a side trip to appease a guilty conscience."

Fate's lips began to tremble.

"You are leaving me no choice again…"

"You always have a choice, Testarossa. Let go and follow me—and we will face each other on the Cradle. Abandon pursuit—and the people you protect will live. The choice is yours."

Fate looked down. All the civs were on their feet again, staring up at her with hopeful eyes. They probably couldn't hear what she and Signum were saying. The small girl with silvery-green hair was among them. Tears ran down Fate's cheeks.

"Why do you have to be so cruel?!"

"Farewell, Fate," Signum whispered, as she turned around and flew away.