I went up to the six levels, used the transfer team to move up to the sixteen levels, and caught up with the Zests.
And they accompanied him to the twenty-first floor, where they returned once to the earth. I kept searching - I broke through the labyrinth in about an hour, one hierarchy at a time, with dramatic changes in the environment and the way things were done.
I never meant to go outside the labyrinth. The Transformation Magic Team left in each of the five tiers took time to recover by my hand - the Transformation Magic Team was unavailable and it took me a few days to get off the ground, and I even kept going.
Dive twenty levels in one day and take a few hours of nap in a safe zone. Beyond the fifty hierarchy, the lord of the hierarchy could have blocked the way by a monster of SS rank comparable to Dragon Kimira, or even a hierarchy like hell filled with dragon tribes that spit out the flames of S rank, but I couldn't stop. I'm only looking at the heat of the banning, it's just a lukewarm calorie.
The sword I brought along broke, I switched to the sword I got along the way, defeated only monsters that had to be fought, and kept going.
Beyond seventy levels, every time you leave one level, you start to feel anxious that you can't find Sphere.
Was my guess off? [M] Yuma's senses are, as she says, created by desire.
Was it - whenever such a mistake arose, I shaken it off and kept lurking.
◆ ◇ ◆
By the time I recorded every dive and lost my sense of time, perhaps a little over three days, I had reached that level.
97th floor - the spread of the grasslands. Strangely enough, no monsters can be seen on this level alone, and only the sound of wind blowing through the grasslands can be heard.
Looking up, the phantom sky is spreading. It can't be seen in this basement, but it's as beautiful as the sky on the ground and as blue as breath.
I'm going up the meadow hill - it's a white flowering field.
It is too different from the sight of a demon cave after eighty levels. Yuma's promised land of souls - a place to imagine words like that.
I'll never come here again. When the power of the fairy was still borrowed, I visited once after defeating the Snake - to mourn Diane with my master.
But I am here alive, and there must be another Promised Land led by Albain's God.
--At that time, I felt that the flow of wind had unexpectedly changed.
"... Sphere..."
I feel nostalgic. I know I lived in her and fought with her.
She's here. But when I look around, I can't find it anywhere.
"Sphere... it's me, it's Dick! Show me where you are!
Only my voice resounds vaguely in the empty sky. The wind is flowing again, and the signs of Sphere are about to disappear.
"--Please, Sphere... please come out... please...!!
It can't be reached by words alone.
Or maybe I'm just chasing a phantom.
I stick my knees to the ground. I can't help it, I can't do anything more.
There's no way Sphere disappeared from that place.
With that in mind, I believed that hope was here. I just blindly tried to believe that the "near and far place" was this place - that's what I wanted it to be.
"... Sphere... I..."
"... Dad"
It was a small, whispering voice.
I look up. There was a small fluorescent light in the place that had never existed before - something very similar to that produced by "Small Soul (Small Spirit)".
"Sphere... is it...?
There are no answers. However, the shaking light increases the amount of light so dazzling that the vision is dyed white.
And after the light calmed down.
----There was a girl (Sphere) who kept asking for it.
"... Sphere... why are you inside this labyrinth..."
"I... was born with the magic of my father and mother. But what I need to be is... what I gave you..."
Spirits other than natural spirits have no personality. If you call that personality the mind - where does it come from?
Why Sphere is here. And before Sphere was born - before my magic separated, there was a presence nearby.
"... fairies..."
Sphere nodded. A tear spilled from his eyes, and he turned into a shizukushi of light flowing in the wind.
"That flying warship fairy was asleep... it was a very permanent sleep. Fairy must sleep one day. It was the same with the fairies your father met."
--The fairy's life was running out.
Then it was the fairy who disappeared. It was before me that she disappeared.
"The fairy said she always regretted it. I saw a lot of people die in this labyrinth... and I just don't want to let them see me out there. I can't let it happen...."
The day Sphere went out alone - perhaps it was that day that the fairies and Sphere spoke.
I went out into town at night without knowing anything, with Sphere, who knew the fairy's determination.
We spent the night together in the park in the eleventh ward. And he flew through the sky of the king's city, and ran through it in the moon.
---Sphere didn't know that he was ready at that time.
"... Kvarlis was stopped... because the fairies interfered. It was the fairy that controlled Kvaris...."
Sphere nods.
What we thought we lost back then was a fairy entrusted with Sphere's magic.
No, it's not. Sphere did say that then.
- Dad, it's okay. I'll protect you.
Sphere was going to die then. But the fairy didn't let him.
"... at that time... at the end, you switched. With fairies....."
Sphere covers his face. Your shoulders tremble and cry - without restraining your overflowing emotions.
That's why Sphere couldn't come back to us. That's why I thought you shouldn't go back.
The fairy was trying to bring Sphere's heart back to this place.
It's the same principle as when I used the "Small Spirit" magic - leaving a part of Sphere's power in this place, I can pull it back no matter how far away.
The fairy who lived in Sphere finally borrowed Sphere's magic. Then, Sphere's heart and soul moved away to a safe place.
"Fairies... even though I could live... for me... they gave me heart... as daughters of my fathers..."
The fairies created Sphere. Probably by using the finite 'Fairy Soul' vessel to give heart to the magic of me and my seven allies.
The fairy gave everything to save me. If it hadn't been disconnected from me, it might still not have stabilized.
"My name... is actually... what the fairy should have received... if I hadn't been here... the fairy would have been happy..."
Sphere blames herself. I wish I could replace the fairy.
We know Sphere's kindness best. How much you blame yourself, the pain, the path you will choose.
"... is that why... you can't come back to us...?
"The fairy was the other me... I might have been happy. You can't let the fairy die, and I can't be in Sphere...."
If I hadn't come here, if Yuma hadn't noticed, Sphere might have been here all along.
- Just imagine how lonely it is.
The fairies were the same. In this labyrinth, in a long solitude, I met people from time to time, watched them die - and then met us.
The fairy tried to protect me - all humans. While being the administrator of a floating island where people are considered only small.
Maybe it wasn't because all the people of the floating island hated the people on the earth.
I don't know everything. There's still a lot I don't know - but there's no doubt that Alvin was saved by a fairy.
But if Sphere stays here as atonement for the fairy's death,
As her parent, I have no choice but to deny her destiny.
"... Sphere is Sphere. It doesn't change, and you can't change our precious daughter forever."
"... that's not true... I'm not your real daughters..."
If you say such a thing now, you'll laugh. I don't know who that seriousness resembles - I don't think it's me, but objectively I can't deny it.
"Whatever Sphere says, Sphere is our daughter. You can't just leave your daughter at the bottom of the labyrinth... can you?
Sphere is listening to me.
Compared to when I called and didn't respond, the situation is a big improvement.
We can never give up. I'm here to take Sphere home and wait for everyone.
"If you don't want to come back soon, I'll come here many times. Your father is persistent. I was stupid, so I didn't want anyone to be my wife when Sphere grew up."
"... Dad..."
There is no further light. Just tell them everything you think.
"It takes a lot of time to get out of here and see Sphere again. In the meantime, you may make Sphere feel lonely... but your father will come many times without giving up. Make it quicker and faster so you can come here every day."
"Nh... even though it's so deep... there are so many monsters..."
He's not a good-looking father or anything. He's just a pathetic father asking his daughter to come home with his head down.
--Still, if Sphere comes back. I don't care how pathetic I am.
"The Alliance Master, who can't convince my daughter, can't show us. So... please come home. We can't even walk properly without Sphere."
"......!
Me, Miralka, Eileen, Yuma, Cody - Master, Verlaine, Shelley.
Whether we're connected as parents of Sphere, or the people we met, everyone who's close to us will be waiting for us.
Come on, Sphere.
In the end, there was nothing to say. Sphere rushes in - the hugged body was light but warm.
"I'm sorry... Dad, I'm sorry..."
Sphere leans on my chest and repeats over and over again. Nothing to apologize for - what you did here, what you showed me. I can only thank you for everything.
"... I want to be with my father... all of us... and yet I... can't be with you anymore..."
"It's okay. It's all right now... let's go home together, Sphere"
"... yeah... I'm sorry, Dad... I'm a bad boy..."
Our newborn daughter. An artificial spirit, inspired by fairies - but more powerful than a blood connection.
I won't let you say you can't be with me again. Don't let me say that.
The wind flows through the white flower fields. The little flower seemed to be watching us as it swayed in the light.