Lynn glanced at her.
"The promise from our backroom deal still stands. If you run into trouble, just give me a shout. And even without that deal, for my Ex-Girlfriend's sake, of course I'd be duty-bound to help."
The Intelligent Brain trembled, but the chaotic flow of data finally stabilized for the moment.
"Th... thank you-but Miss-Miss isn't here-she went to find the Light Banquet Machines-it's dangerous-but I can't help her-I'm broken-I..."
"Please, you have to bring her back-"
Trembling, she grabbed Lynn.
"Whatever the cost-anything at all-"
She was becoming more and more human.
This obsession born of emotion had finally blossomed and borne fruit within her. For so long, she had pushed Silver Fantasy toward a reset again and again, then watched her grow up again and again. This repeated torment over a thousand years had also nurtured the first shoots of emotion within her rational mind.
From the moment she decided to violate protocol to help Miss Machine Intelligence, she had ceased to be a cold, unfeeling mechanical AI.
"Don't worry."
Lynn looked up and said softly,
"Isn't that exactly why I came here?"
Lynn passed through the overlapping layers of Data Network Passages as fast as he could. Along the way, most of the accumulated, jumbled data had already been devoured by the Aetheric Surge ahead of him.
Then, at last, a moment later.
Carrying the damaged Intelligent Brain, Lynn burst through a node and arrived at the sector containing the Pastoral World.
Lynn abruptly looked up and said,
"Looks like we're not too late!"
The leading portion of the aether had already arrived. Like thick banks of cloud, the red tide blanketed the skies over the entire Pastoral World, beginning its final consumption of this ruined virtual world.
Vast swaths of forest turned