[Zoe's POV: ]
[{( "Creator has always been a playful one." )}]
It was a new voice, but I still did not feel like it was new.
For so reason, I felt like I had known this voice for a long ti. Almost as if I had known everything about this voice.
[{( "When she was creating , there have been tis when I did not know my own purpose. I gained myself much later. I beca an entity far later, when she had long finished building ." )}]
From the way this voice was speaking, it first confused a little. But then I looked at Big Brother and the way he was observing his surroundings.
We were supposed to be under the ground floor right now. We were supposed to be in a place where the innermost core of the tower, or in better words, the foundations should be.
'But we weren't in any cave or in so kind of old structure.'
We were in a room right now.
A pretty-looking room, sitting on pretty-looking chairs. With a certain pretty-looking person sitting right before us.
"You're… the tower's Ego, right?" Big Brother guessed it first, and then I realized it as well.
My eyes were already seeing the unique form of life that this being sitting before us possessed, there was sothing about her that wasn't human or anything like the humans.
She also wasn't like , so why was soone who did not belong to this tower in the foundational sections of this tower?
The answer was actually simple…
'An illusionary space…'
We were going below but we were transported to sowhere else. And this person– sitting before us was the one that brought us here.
[{( "Creator was a genius and creator has always praised her successor highly. All the ti you had been here, Eon, even I had realized there was sothing unique about you that not many humans will ever possess.
But you, child of creator… drilling a hole in the ground without testing the causal effects? Had I not brought you here, you would have been thrown into a matrix of dinsions. That would have been much worse than destroying this tower or summoning a cosmic horror to this world." )}]
Ever since we ca back to the tower, we have had this thought– was soone helping Anna before we arrived?
Mr. Rice, yes. He is programd to do a lot of things but he has his limitations. In the tower, he isn't all-powerful and doesn't really know how to handle so of the things.
Yet, Anna ended up in a room of elents. She was inspired and she started learning from there.
Which was a good start.
Even after that, be it during many of our training sessions, when sister Elle was finding Big Brother's room, or when we were summoning Anna's friend, there have been multiple tis when we had strangely felt a unique presence around us.
But before this, we had never confird the existence of that presence… though now it seems like we know who, or what it must have been.
[{( "I waited, I waited until the last mont so that at least one of you realizes this isn't what you were supposed to do, but no. Nothing.
That youngest of yours is right, you're a bad big brother. And you, my dear creator's child, are also a bad big sister." )}]
We were being scolded right now. And the being that was holding us… well…
[{( "Haaa… thankfully nothing happened." )}]
She had a golden skin, not like the actual gold, but like those who had never been impacted with even a speck of dust.
She was in a humanoid form but she had long pointed ears like an elf.
Her appearance was so pretty that for a mont, even I was stunned. She was so pretty that she seed like the morning sunrise, the first rays of sun that touched a vast grassland and announced the beginning of the new day.
She was so pretty that if I were to make the prettiest jewelry I could, then go to the best enchanters and enhancent masters of the world, and get their help, even the resulting piece would not be a match for her beauty.
'There was no charm, yet looking at her evoked the kind of emotions within her that I didn't know I was capable of feeling.'
It was a strange first impression, but then I realized she was a manifestation of the grand tower's ego that Mom had spent millennia creating.
'She's an entity that represents the struggles of my mother, soone that represents the hardships that she had lived, the passion and heart that she poured into this place.'
Even though she is rely a materialized image, the fact that this person is the representation of this great tower my mom made, makes her appearance even more attractive.
'Her deep eyes though do not have any pupils, contain a kind of light that makes wonder what would happen if I look into them from up close.'
Will I be able to see what she sees?
'Will I see the tower and all the parts of the tower like she might see, hehe. How cool would that be~!'
I bet Anna would love sothing like that~.
[{( "Ahem." )}]
"Oh, yes?"
I got distracted there for a mont. I should focus.
[{( "The thod was right, the thought was right as well. But you cannot access the core's energy BY DRILLING A HOLE IN THE GROUND!" )}]
She did not shout. Her words simply hit us differently.
"But why's that? What did we do wrong exactly?" Big brother's question was exactly what I wanted to know as well so I eagerly nodded my head while looking at her.
"We weren't trying to temper with the ground itself but with the space-."
[{( "What do you take for, Eon." )}]
"..."
The way she suddenly cut him off surprised my big brother as well as . It was out of the blue.
'And what do we take her for?'
She's the tower's ego, so she's the manifestation of the tower itself. What's so complicated– oh. Oh, wait.
[{( "At least you two understand." )}]
The tower and everything around it is a manifestation of hers. The space, the things present inside, even the things that aren't practical… if she's the High Ego of the tower, then she certainly knows more about everything that goes on in this tower.
[{( "Your intentions were not wrong, you are still innocent. Ultimately, you were trying to create an imbalance in a highly balanced system.
It was the sa back when you were trying your summoning as well, I had to look after a lot more processes that you two would not even have known about.
There will co a ti when you realize there are things that you have to look after that you do not understand right now, but until then, just stay put will you?" )}]
She seed tired… yeah it seed like she had been working a lot.
As an ego, she should not actually be like this. In fact, if she's the physical manifestation of the entire tower, then along with all the things that she's doing, there should also be a lot more empowering elents that help her with her work.
'And the equilibrium that she ntioned…'
She must be working constantly, by herself, doing things that we don't even know about, and this is the first ti we're eting yet she knows all about us…
[{( "You think a lot, you know, little one?" )}]
"Hmm? ?"
Was she talking to right now?
[{( "Of course silly, who else?" )}]
Now, with a sudden new smile, she shook her head and looked back up at .
[{( "My creator didn't think much. That's why she was more of a troublemaker in her younger days." )}]
Saying that she looked at Big Brother with the sa smile that almost seed like a smirk.
[{( "And you. You focus on the others a lot… if you don't take care of yourself and get better like the others, I'll have to lock you away, understand?" )}]
She smiled again, and then she turned around.
[{( "Don't worry. You'll have what you want when you need it." )}]
Walking up from her place… right, I realized she was wearing a black dress that seed just like the tower's outer walls.
"Hmmm?"
But the words she spoke were her last words. She took one step and starting from the next, her body started vanishing into particles of light.
"Zoe?"
Big Brother was looking at , confused about what we were supposed to do now. We were still in this illusionary space, and we still did not have the power source that we had been looking for.
Without that, we couldn't go back!
"What do we do now, Zoe?" She said we would get what we want when we need it. Those were simple words, but… how are we supposed to know if the artifacts will even work or not?!
"I have no idea anymore… big brother…"
The artifacts that I made with such hardship, the artifacts that I won't be able to fix if we wait till the ti to go back co, the preparations I made in case we do find the energy source now were all for naught.
'The tower itself won't give us access to the energy core…'
She must have had her reasons as well. It was obvious that she cared about us. We saw it in her eyes… she will sohow help us, but… what now?
What do we actually do now that one path has been closed down…?
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