At that moment, Sunday's voice rang out again.
"[Please forgive my rudeness.]"
"[I forgot to tell you: only this final play was written long ago.]"
The puppets continued their praise:
"Let our king of old tell you the tale."
"Now, the final ritual shall begin."
The puppet playing the [King] declaimed:
"From an endlessly winding spiral staircase, I slowly fell toward the future."
"You need not remember me forever, nor try to find me."
"The shape of my heart will surely intertwine with other experiences."
The next instant, the King commanded the puppets to charge the three members of the Express Crew.
"You really do love making things difficult."
Mr. Yan Huan hurled grenades, blasting the oncoming puppets away one by one.
Watching puppet limbs fly everywhere, March 7th cursed through a face blackened by the blasts:
"What century are those pull-string grenades from? Your weapons keep getting more primitive!"
"It's a reenactment."
The puppets had been so close that the grenades had exploded close to them, too.
The blasts had blackened the faces of Mr. Yan Huan, Himeko, and March 7th alike.
He kept throwing grenades for a while.
Seeing his puppet army routed, the puppet playing the [King] bowed to the three of them.
"I left scarcely perceptible traces as I passed through a quiet night."
"You need not remember me forever, nor mourn the soul of a dream."
"What is mine will surely fade, and you will rise above its frailty."
With those words, the [King] puppet dissolved into points of light and vanished.
Himeko looked toward the passage that had appeared ahead and said thoughtfully:
"That was the final act. It was much easier to understand than the earlier stories."
"He wants to drive out [Harmony] and build an empire of [Order]."
"Let's go."
"Once the