Amid the radiance of countless streams of data.
In the end, he had slowly become the boy she held in her heart.
Just as she still yearned for the Pastoral Era of old, she would sometimes sit alone in an empty subway car, riding it over and over again. Perhaps that was the most beautiful scene in her heart, and she, too, hoped that someone she longed for might share that loneliness with her.
Lynn lifted her broken body into his arms.
He paid no more attention to the consciousnesses around him. Calmly carrying the girl, he walked away from this place of strife, one step at a time.
[You are far too calm-]
He heard that mechanical voice behind him.
At some point, the Intelligent Brain's manifested data body had appeared behind him, watching this consciousness whose shaping was now complete.
But Lynn did not stop.
He walked past the Chief, step by step, without so much as looking at him. The Chief knelt on the ground, hollow-eyed, the disorder in his data streams making him look like an old man in his twilight years.
But at last, Lynn stopped.
He said softly:
"I don't blame you, Chief. As a leader, if killing an innocent person can eliminate a threat to the collective's survival, sometimes you have to do it, even against your own wishes. I understand."
He closed his eyes and walked past him, step by step.
"But you still lost."
"Because I'm not that demon, and you don't understand that demon either."
He walked farther and farther away.
No one came to stop him again.
Everything had been settled. This had been an absurd farce from the start, and they no longer had any reason to question him. Just as Lynn had understood from the very beginning,