"Her intent is probably to imabuse the Ether to attract a Nephilim here."
Amphelise caught on that immediately.
"But Nephilims aren't stupid or brainless, they won't just come here and start killing people. Besides, Ismael knows two of them, and they never attacked us. Universalis was personal to Ambroise Ler."
"Yes, but you're thinking of Nara and the Bringer. The rest of them are out of their minds. All of them. Nephilims are a weird case of a species that loves entertainment, hunting their preys and slaughtering them later. I used to use the Ether for fun, crossing over worlds for my own isolation and silence. But then, soon enough, I realized it is not in my best interest to communicate with these beings in the first place. They hear, they listen, they watch. They stare. They wait patiently until we lower our guards, then they attack."
"We'll stay sharp", Ismael intervened. "I'll talk to them when I see them. They obey to Nara, and Nara owes me one. For now, let's just find a way to the Dead Zone. We don't even have to stay here."
"Oh, we do. Me and Influenza. We live here, Ismael."
"I know. I was talking about me and my people. This place is more like a gas station to fill up my gas and get the fuck out. We'll soon be back on the road. Don't think I care too much about your tragic backstory, we got a place to explore."
Ismael exiled the area fast, leaving them dumbfounded. Genova sighed and caught on to him further on, leaning on a circular fence, where he could see the stairs beneath.
"Hey. Did soething happen with Grid?"
"Yesterday we went outside, we walked to the entrance of the Dead Zone. Far, but still."
"Alone? Just you two?"
"Yeah."
"What did you see?"
"There isn't much to say. It might just be Helios times a million. The entire atmosphere around it is poison. The insects have strong venom, the trees are thorned to the extreme. Every step leads to doom. And I know, I just know it, I could have sworn I saw someone staring back at me in the distance."
"Any weapon?"
"Yes. I tunnel visionned my eyes into it, the scope was on my face. I couldn't tell you if it was a man or a woman. Or a monster of some sort."
"Ismael, what's your goal after this?"
"Depends on what we find."
"Even then, after that. Don't you want a normal life?"
"No. I'd rather die a billion times than wake up and do nothing with my day. This, right here, is why I breathe."
"This...what?"
"Whatever the hell is going, that's what I like. I've come to realize this hell I'm in is mine to work with. Even killing me won't take me out of it, that was the price to take down Helios. Hundreds of millions of lives to lose to numerous threats."
"I thought...you know. A family, a meaning."
"You're just like Yael. I can respect that she was trying to get something out of me, messing with me. But this? Are you serious? This family thing is disgusting. Settling? Fuck."
"Come on, Ismael. You've saved a lot of people, you've managed to do the impossible."
"And you? Aren't you Genova? The top of all mountains. The best killer on Earth?"
"I want to put all of this past me. I want to change and expiate my sins."
"Admit it was fun. Go on, say it. A life of chase and blood. There was so much to live for. And I rejoice in excitement for what's about to come."
Genova sat on the fence, miles above the ground.
"You're nostalgic of an era where we hunted down and killed our friends."
"Yes. Of course I am. But I would be ever more so nostalgic of the time I was fighting Helios if I could remember most of it."
"Do you remember that one morning? Sitting in the lobby. The sun was shining on us."
"I remember."
"Do you remember the bench, Ismael?"
"What?"
"I asked you if you remembered the bench. I'll kill you, Ismael. As many times as necessary. Until you're mine. You won't go in hellish places just to suffer, I'll save you from yourself."
"Genova what the fuck are you saying? I don't need you to do anything right now."
"We're in the heart of the world. In the heart of life. In the heart of reality. It's just us, everything here is about us two and no one else. Right now, you don't know it, but you're on a dangerous path. And I'm here to help you."
"I don't need your help and I don't see what you're talking about."
"You don't see your own suffering? I don't want you to go. You'll just keep on dying. Again and again. Helios was your father, and there was soe more context to it, but this? What's your reason? Aren't you here to kill the Cardinals?"
"I am a Cardinal. Am I supposed to kill myself?"
"No. We'll ask Anaïs to take the title out of you."
"I want to keep it. Within me. I don't want anyone to interfere."
"I'm not interfering I'm saving you. Your vision is clouded at the moment."
"I'm sering just fine."
Ismael is in front of her, right now. He's looking at her and in an invisible, swift move, he cuts both her hands and kicks her down. In her falling, which seems atrociously long to her perspective, she knocks her head against the staircases and the fences to finally crash down the ground and die.
A person was here, she was listening to their conversation the whole time, she saw Genova falling with a tornado of blood around her.
"This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. But no one will ever understand."
Ismael exited the area, pretending to explore the gigantic university, door to door. In a different location, the girl had entered June's room. The girl, seeing her, let out a scream which the other one muffled in her hand.
"Shh. Something unbelievable is happening."
She slices her throat and holds her down to limit the oxygen. In a few seconds, after begging with her eyes, June died and the girl disappeared in the Ether.
She re-appeared on the circle at the Structure, and immediately ran away, her memories of the place pushing back in her brain.
She runs on the right side and stumbles upon the body of Helios holding his head. June crawls away from him as he places his head on the circle.