In the distance.
Although the last shard of the Mystic Fruit's shell had fallen away, strangely, the blood-red mist shrouding the Mystic Fruit showed no sign of dispersing.
This seemed to indicate that it had not yet fallen completely out of order!
"Why was that? Was the shell falling not the prelude to disorder?" The Inspector was somewhat startled and doubtful. Judging by the effects produced when the shell had fallen earlier, complete disorder should have come at the very moment the last piece fell. Yet the current situation seemed somewhat different from what they had guessed.
Had they overlooked something?
Were there other steps before complete disorder?
Just as the Inspector began doubting himself, a startling change occurred in the distance.
No. 03, whom they had been overlooking all this time, suddenly let out an incomparably shrill scream!
Like the howl of a suffering banshee from an abyss of darkness, it carried visible shockwaves of sound that spread in every direction.
When the soundwaves reached them, Angel's brow twitched slightly. The dancing Green Patterns around them filtered away all the destructive energy within the soundwaves. What entered their ears was only that hysterical cry.
Within that scream, Angel heard exceedingly complex emotional signals.
Wailing, pain, fury, defiance... and profound regret.
From the emotions he discerned, it seemed that No. 03 might have retained a sliver of reason all along. It was merely that she had previously been suppressed by the Mystic Fruit's power. That suppression had caused No. 03's emotions to accumulate without end, until they were finally released at this moment.
However, releasing her emotions did not mean that No. 03 could be saved.
She herself knew that death was inevitable.
Perhaps this wail was only her attempt to vent her stifled grievance, to voice her unwillingness through