The Commander did not directly answer Hood's question.
Instead, he asked:
"...How do you think hunters seek out their prey?"
"By scent? By tracks? Or by some other means?"
Faced with this strange question, Hood thought for a while before answering somewhat uncertainly:
"Perhaps all of them?"
The Commander did not deny his vague answer. Instead, he continued in an orderly manner:
"You should have read some records from when our race fled."
"Then take a guess—by what means does the Calamity of the Future hunt its prey?"
"In what form do the scents and traces it follows exist to us?"
An eagle relied on its powerful vision; a wolf relied on its keen sense of smell...
But the Calamity of the Future...
After pondering for some time,
Hood voiced his guess:
"Since it devours all things along time and Worldlines, I think it is very likely that it seeks prey by tracing back the marks left in time?"
After swirling the last of the wine in his cup, the commander nodded.
"Though you did not guess entirely correctly, you guessed part of it."
"According to our race's investigations, the Calamity of the Future does indeed possess a similar ability."
"But that is not what truly drove us to despair."
"It is a trait we call Mind Poison..."
Mind Poison...
Hearing this unfamiliar term, Hood's brows immediately furrowed, and the sense of foreboding in his heart grew ever stronger.
As though he had seen Hood's anxiety, the Commander stopped withholding the truth and continued:
"...It is a special power that we cannot eradicate."
"It comes from our thoughts, ideas, notions, records..."
"Whenever we observe or recall the Calamity of the Future, we become like some kind of signal transmitter, continuously sending special signals to it. This not only exposes our