The Siege of Evermere: Aftermath

Itsuki stood in the medical bay, horrified at the sight laid out in front of him. 

He was looking into a large cylinder of liquid - just like something out of a sci-fi movie. Within this alien healing chamber was Yuna. At least, he was told that it was Yuna...

In reality, it was a half-cremated husk with no limbs. What remained of its 'skin' was a mixture of blood and burnt ghoulish flesh. It was hooked up to dozens of machines in an attempt to stabilize its life. 

The only thing convincing Itsuki that it was still alive was the occasional inhale and exhale, and even that seemed like it was mechanically forced. 

"It's unbelievable," Shin noted, standing next to Itsuki while viewing Yuna's condition. "She might just be the luckiest girl alive..."

Shin didn't have any time to react as Itsuki slammed a fist into the side of his jaw. It had enough force and surprise to send Shin tumbling to the ground. 

"What the hell?!" Itsuki shouted. "What coerced you to send her in with a weapon like that!?"

The mechanical guards that stood watch in the medical bay seemed to come online with Itsuki's strike. Shin quickly held up a hand, however, to denote that he was fine. His expression seemed unfazed and unsurprised by Itsuki's reaction. 

He stood, wiping blood off of his face and straightening his clothes. 

"Being that close to the detonation spot, it should have been a near-instant vaporization," Shin explained. "For her to survive - even in this state - means that the timing between the blast and the teleportation must have been unimaginably close..."

"She shouldn't have been at risk to 'vaporize' at all!"

"That was not the plan that her and I discussed. She was to make contact with the Heart, and then be teleported away before the weapon was brought in. I didn't even tell here about her ability to override Ada's safety protocols. She must've figured that out through her temporary connection with the God of Truth..."

"So what happens now? There's no way Yuna can just ... exist like this!"

"Of course not. As unfounded as this may seem to you, we are more than capable of reversing the damage she has undergone."

Itsuki was taken aback by Shin's claim. There was nothing - even in the old world - that would recover someone from this kind of bodily damage. Was the Directive really that far ahead in technology?

"Right now, we have to stabilize her and wait for the radiation poisoning to heal," Shin continued. "Once that's complete, we can start regenerating the body itself. It will take a handful of months, but she will make a full recovery."

Shin had a cold and calculated expression on his face. It felt distant, but it also carried authority and confidence. If he was declaring so earnestly that Yuna would make a full recovery, then Itsuki felt he could trust the claim. 

"The trickier one will be Amane..."

Both he and Itsuki turned their attention to another healing pod in the room. Her full body was present, at least, but it looked like they had just unwrapped a century-old mummy. Only destroyed strands of blonde hair held resemblance to what Amane had once looked like. 

"Her body was not damaged by the blast due to the coffin containing it," Shin explained. "The body was in this state already when Yuna found her. This is the cost for serving as the Goddess' tether for the last several years. To undo years worth of damage from a divine source will be no easy task."

Shin then turned his attention to Itsuki. 

"When you told me you had managed to sneak into the Goddess' archives, I wasn't sure just how much you had learned," he admitted. "The fact that you were unsurprised about Amane's condition means that you were already aware that she was serving to 'anchor' for the Goddess to remain in this world..."

"Yes," Itsuki confirmed. "Your historical books mentioned how the deities left after a certain point. More accurately - they were forced to depart for some reason. The Goddess of LIfe found a workaround to remain in the Fallen Lands - by summoning a vessel and consuming its life. She then built the city of Evermere to defend her tether, and ..."

Ituski didn't finish. He thought about his time in Evermere, viewing it from above and exploring it in earnest with Yuna. It seemed so alive, and yet...

"It was all a lie," Shin finished his thought. "The Goddess built a false city with false people to serve as her bastion. With her powers protecting from the Cataclysm, it was her hope that it would some day attract great numbers of real people, so that she could bask in their prayer and grow stronger..."

"It doesn't make sense, though," Itsuki chimed in. "If that was her goal, then why turn away people who came to her city? That settlement at Firefly Pond was full of people who wanted to go..."

"That was likely our doing," Shin admitted. "Once the Goddess began to realize that we were watching and infiltrating, she expunged all those who were not part of her illusion. It delayed her plans greatly, which is why she was so determined to snuff us out. The constant back-and-forth culminated in today's events. It will take her a long time to recover from what has transpired..."

Itsuki's brain jolted at Shin's final note. It was like a 'record scratch' sound clip used in funny videos. 

"Are you surprised that she survived?" Shin questioned, reading Itsuki's dumbfounded expression. "You shouldn't be. Whether they are true deities or not, one certainty is that these beings are incredibly powerful. She will need to find herself a new 'Heart', and then slowly rebuild Evermere, but I'd estimate the process will only take a handful of years..."

"Then what's stopping you from finishing her off while she's weak?"

"Because the Directive also took a brutal beating. Thousands of mechanical soldiers were lost. I could not afford to have them retreat prior to the bomb's detonation because it would reveal our trump card. I knew going into this that the army I sent into Evermere would never return..."

That was not what Itsuki had hoped to hear. What Shin failed to mention, despite likely already knowing, was that the Goddess' final objective was to rule the entirety of the Fallen Lands as a monarch. Perhaps not the worst outcome if she had pure intentions...

But Itsuki had read several of her own personal notes and scribblings. The Goddess viewed humans as playthings, and did not have any intention of treating them nicely.

"Then it's a bit of a race for us to rebuild our strength before she can rebuild hers?"

"It is a race for me," Shin corrected. "With the God of Truth backing the Directive, I can continue to keep her occupied for some time. As the Judge, however, you have a different responsibility. You must travel, make a determination about the fate of the Fallen Lands, and then choose what comes next."

"That role keeps getting brought up to me..." Itsuki admitted, somewhat irritated. "Is it really all that important? What good is that decision if the world ends up ruled by a deranged being?"

"It is beyond vital that your mission be carried out," Shin declared, another cold expression on his face. "There's a lot of the world still left to explore - a lot left for you to learn and to uncover. There are likely many things even I don't fully understand about what befell our world thousands of years ago. What I do know is that your final decision is the catalyst for it all to finally come to an end - if we deserve such an ending."

"That's...ominous," Itsuki noted. "If that's the case , I can't just sit around here and wait for Yuna to recover."

"Oh? Is there something you have in mind, then?"

"I have some ideas," Itsuki admitted. "But it will require a bit of negotiation. You're also going to have to be willing to cooperate."