The scent from backstage strikes her as odd.
Something neglected within her stirs to life, pulsing in her chest—constantly pulsing, pulsing, pulsing.
Marcus: ... Madam ... Hofmann?
Marcus stands stunned, watching her role model sink back to the ground.
Heinrich: Fortunately, the Guiding One has heard our cries and promised us salvation.
Heinrich: The "Storm" will put a stop to this frenetic melody before all the good, artistic, heartfelt things in life are destroyed before our eyes.
Heinrich: It will wash away the unwanted, the unimportant. The creators of this chaos will be severely punished.
Heinrich checks his watch expectantly.
Heinrich: It's still a little early for what Mr. Forget Me Not has planned. But the actors and actresses are in place.
Heinrich: Don't worry, Ms. Angelotti ... We won't leave anyone behind ... Nor will we leave any enemy spared.
Heinrich: I will eliminate the obstacles for you, and help you better understand yourself.
Marcus: What? What are you talking about?
Blood courses through her in rapid fire.
The sound grows louder and more intense until she can hear it pounding in her ears.
Heinrich: The "sifting" has begun, ladies.
Heinrich: Enjoy! The potion specially made by Mr. Forget Me Not—a gift from the Picrasma tree.
Heinrich: For those who have arcanist blood, it will undoubtedly enhance their powers, both physically and mentally.
Heinrich: But for the powerless mixed-blood humans ... It is lethal poison.
Watching the young arcanist stupefied by the smoke, Heinrich only chuckles.
Heinrich: People sometimes forget how different humans and arcanists are, don't they? Marriages between the two races have been common for some time.
Heinrich: The mixed-bloods have become the majority of society. Those with less than one-fourth arcanist blood, some with even less, have blended in amongst the humans because they don't have any arcane power.
Heinrich: And so, they are seen as humans both by the public and by themselves ...
Heinrich: And now, the punishment for betraying your own kind! You should've stood with us, but instead you sided with the enemy and watched your own kin suffer.
Heinrich: The blood that you have ignored and forsaken will awaken, explode, and tear you apart from within.
Marcus stubbornly supports Hofmann's arm, but Hofmann raises a hand to refuse her help.
Hofmann: ... I'm fine ... I'm just a bit ... I can still stand.
Heinrich: Sadly, you won't be fine for long.
Heinrich: Mr. Forget Me Not is one of the best potion-makers. The formula is carefully designed to prolong your suffering until sweet death finally spreads its wings over you.
Heinrich: But resent not! Your pain is fleeting compared to what my people were made to endure.
Heinrich: As for you, Ms. Angelotti, a choice lies before you.
In the oddly scented smoke, Heinrich raises his hand.
Marcus: Me ...?
Heinrich: You have been lied to. Humans have whispered lies through their petty, made-up history. There has been genocide, the lengthy, vicious kind, under the banner of high-minded reason.
Heinrich: They tried to split the world in two, so that the progressives cannot be stopped by the "non-progressives," so that the irrational cannot speak against the rational. When they do, death and destruction follow.
Heinrich: You're one of us, an arcanist child abandoned at an orphanage. You must've heard your heart pounding like a knock on the door; it's the sound of a long-lost soul coming home.
Heinrich: It calls to you to rid your shackles of reason, to expose the lies of history, to embrace your primal passions, and unleash the powers of your gift!
Heinrich: You should be one of us, as you always should have been!
Marcus: ...
The aroma of the Picrasma tree comes to mind.
Yes, she hears it.
Echoes up from the reptilian brain, reverberating along tangled knots of reason and knowledge.
He's right, Marcus! This is the missing part of history that they didn't let you go through!
Hofmann kept everything from you, didn't she? She's a liar!
You're here because you want to find the truth. You don't have to work for a human institution!
The invasion of thoughts continues without end.
*thud*
A dagger is thrown to the ground, spinning on its handle.
Heinrich: Pick it up. Drive it into your mentor's heart. Show us your resolve.
Heinrich: An opportunity has arisen. Take it. A chance to learn who you really are, where you came from, and why you were abandoned.
Marcus: ...
She picks up the dagger with blade pointing outward.
Hofmann: Marcus ...
Heinrich: Very good, Angelotti!
Heinrich: Before the High One of Midnight sheds merciful tears and washes away the sins of man—pass the test and join us.
Heinrich: And we will take you through the "Storm," back to our era.
Marcus: Our ... era?
A tear slides across her face.
Marcus: But my era has already come.
Marcus: 1914, the year you once wiped out with the "Storm," is my era!
Heinrich: ...?
She holds the dagger, looking up at the dome in despair.
Marcus: I waited in the abandoned lighthouse of that island, I waited in the marble house of the Foundation, watching the time go back to 1966, to 1929, and finally back here ...
Marcus: You say this is salvation, but you're just replacing one annihilation with another.
Marcus: The Foundation wants to stop the destruction, but you are speeding it up. You don't care about this era, nor the people living in it.
Marcus: You abandon them. You hide in your empty kingdom, in-in your garden that doesn't yet exist, with your, haha, with your art, your-your poems, and your pianos, hahahaha!
Marcus: And me, I just wanted to go home for a visit. Why would you take away even that?!
Hofmann: Marcus, don't lose control of yourself!
It's too late.
She charges toward the man.
Marcus: ... I'll kill you, Heinrich!!!
COMBAT
Isolde: ... Someone is calling me.
Isolde: Leave here with me, doctor. Let the rain wash away the old world, so we can build your dream in a new one.
Isolde: I thought we were on the same side of liberating our repression, giving freedom to the arcanists.
She stretches out her hand to her.
Kakania: ...
But Kakania stands stiff, clenching and unclenching her fist in futile repetition.
Kakania: I just …
Kakania: I never thought that you would take people's lives, Isolde.
Isolde looks up with a maddening joy plastered on her face.
Isolde: Is this why you hesitate?
Isolde: Because I killed a person who shouldn't be killed? A person from the Foundation? After you befriended the young lady?
Isolde: Is it because you made peace with the Foundation, and yet I became associated with Manus Vindictae?
She found her answer. Her eyes twinkle with delight.
Isolde: I see now, I understand, doctor. I will correct my mistakes.
Kakania: ... Isolde?
Isolde: I killed a man of the Foundation, thus you thought I was imposing Manus Vindictae's cause over yours. It displeased you, am I right?
Isolde: ... Then I shall prove myself to you.
She produces a pistol out from beneath her skirt.
It once helped end Theophil's suffering, and now it will take on a greater mission.
Isolde: I will take Heinrich's life, for that would make it fair.
Isolde: Please come with me and witness my commitment, doctor.
Kakania: ...?!
Kakania: What? What did you say? ... You're going to kill ... who?
But Isolde has already lifted her skirt, bowing gracefully to the doctor.
The familiar surge of arcane energy—the same teleportation incantation that brought Karl to the stage.
After a brief flash of light, they find themselves on the other side of the stage.
Where a fierce battle has just taken place.
Hofmann: ... Ugh ...
Hofmann kneels in agony, tearing off her scarf to reveal the terrifying pattern of toxic veins that has spread from her heart across her chest.
The potion is indeed lethal—forcefully activating her already weak blood vessels, turning her body into an overburdened machine, ready to explode on the slightest movement.
Heinrich then did not lie—she was destined for a long, unavoidable, agonizing march toward death.
Marcus: growls I'm going to kill ...
And Marcus, pulled as if by fate, finds herself caught in an all-consuming emotional whirlwind from her revelations.
Her gift was not meant for battle—its misuse only makes her lose control even more.
Heinrich: Ms. Angelotti, if you still don't see the big picture after returning to your true self, you are not one of us.
Heinrich: Enjoy the "sifting" before the "Storm."
Heinrich kicks her away with indifference, no longer regarding the novice arcanist with any concern.
And at this moment, Isolde descends from the void, as if possessed by some strange deity.
Heinrich: Isolde, you're just in time. These two are hopeless—
The zealot's words hang in the air ...
As she smiles and raises her arm.
The deadly firearm is aimed at her once-friend, with a straight baseline and graceful arc.
Isolde: ... Goodbye, Heinrich.