MEMELAND

The Outlaws scattered throughout the ruins.

Some climbed collapsed towers.

Others pried loose metal plates from half-buried buildings.

A few shouted whenever they found something valuable.

"Got another conduit!"

"Don't bend that!"

"Persia! Is this worth anything?"

Persia adjusted his glasses before taking a glance.

"Keep it. Munnu can probably turn it into something."

Munnu laughed.

"See? I told ya. Even dead cities pay taxes."

His men laughed along.

Kai forced a smile.

His attention, however, wasn't on the ruins.

Ever since arriving...

He had been feeling it again.

That faint sensation.

The same one that had guided him through the laboratory hidden within the Forest.

Not a sound.

Not a smell.

Not even an instinct.

It felt...

Like something was calling him.

He quietly stepped away from the group.

Nobody noticed.

Or perhaps they simply assumed he had gone looking for salvage.

The further he walked...

The stronger the sensation became.

The buildings around him slowly changed.

Most of the ruins the Outlaws searched were broken almost beyond recognition.

These...

Were different.

Tall structures leaned against one another, half-swallowed by dunes.

Fragments of glowing blue lines still traced across cracked stone walls.

Broken windows reflected nothing but sand.

Collapsed bridges connected buildings that no longer stood.

Kai stopped.

His fingers brushed one of the walls.

The texture...

The faint glow...

The strange patterns engraved beneath centuries of dust...

He had seen them before.

His eyes widened.

"...The laboratory..."

He looked around again.

"The walls..."

"The conduits..."

"The magic circuits..."

"They're the same..."

He slowly lowered his hand.

"So that laboratory..."

"...was connected to Oheyo."

The realization settled quietly within him.

He continued walking.

The feeling grew stronger.

Step after step...

Until the ruined streets suddenly ended.

Before him lay a massive crater.

Its edges were uneven.

As though something unimaginably powerful had exploded from its center.

Sand had filled much of it over the years.

Yet even now...

The destruction remained impossible to ignore.

Kai slowly climbed down.

The air felt strangely still.

No wind.

No voices.

Only silence.

He reached the center.

And stopped.

"...Here."

He couldn't explain why.

He simply knew.

This was the place from his dream.

He knelt.

Closing his eyes.

The strange sensation beneath the sand pulsed faintly.

He placed his gloved hand against the ground.

Mana flowed naturally.

Not because he intended to cast magic.

But because his body simply...

Responded.

The sand shimmered.

The faint pulse beneath the earth answered.

And then—

Pain.

A violent headache exploded inside his skull.

Kai grabbed his head.

"Ngh...!"

The desert vanished.

...

......

.........

Heat.

Wind.

Voices.

He stood beneath a blazing sun.

Not as himself.

But as someone else.

His clothes were different.

Black robes.

A hood.

Beneath the sleeves...

Magic circuits glowed across both arms.

Several hooded figures stood behind him.

One stepped forward nervously.

"Sir Kai..."

"Are you certain the Archive is beneath these ruins?"

Silence.

Then—

"Doubting me?"

The words came from Kai's own mouth.

Cold.

Sharp.

Emotionless.

The cultist immediately fell to one knee.

"N-No, sir—"

Before he could finish—

Kai grabbed him by the head.

Magic circuits ignited.

Blue light surged across his hand.

The cultist screamed.

"Aaaaaaah!!"

Smoke rose.

The smell of burnt hair filled the air.

When Kai released him—

Every strand of hair had been scorched away.

Leaving behind a perfectly smooth bald head.

The man collapsed onto the sand.

Shaking.

"T-Thank you for sparing me!"

Kai looked down at him.

His expression never changed.

"Do you want some more?"

The cultist's face turned white.

"N-No!"

He scrambled backward before running as fast as he could.

Kai watched him leave.

Without the slightest hint of amusement.

He simply knelt.

Placing one hand upon the sand.

The circuits across his arm brightened.

The desert around him seemed to answer.

Mana spread outward beneath the ground like invisible threads searching every grain of sand.

Kai frowned.

"...Tsk."

"My emotions are getting in the way."

His eyes narrowed.

"That damned Winged Goddess..."

"I'll find a way to kill her."

"...once I obtain the Archive."

Before he could continue—

A distant shout echoed across the ruins.

"SIR KAI!"

"We found the entrance!"

The memory shifted.

One moment Kai stood still.

The next—

He was already standing before the shouting cultist.

So fast...

That it barely looked like movement.

The cultist smiled nervously.

"W-We finally—"

"Good."

A magic circle appeared.

No chant.

No warning.

Only light.

The blast swallowed the man whole.

When it faded...

Nothing remained above the ankles.

Only boots.

Feet.

And a pair of severed lower legs standing upright upon the sand.

The surrounding cultists froze.

Nobody dared breathe.

Kai turned away as though nothing had happened.

"Guard the entrance."

"No one follows me."

"Yes, Sir!"

The memory shattered.

...

......

.........

Kai stumbled backward.

His breathing was ragged.

Sweat dripped beneath his desert goggles.

He stared at his trembling hands.

"What..."

"...was that?"

He looked toward the ruins.

His heart pounded.

"I'm..."

"With the Cult?"

He immediately shook his head.

"No..."

"That wasn't the point."

He forced himself to breathe.

"The Archive."

"They were looking for something called the Archive."

He looked around.

The crater.

The ruined buildings.

The dream.

The memory.

They all pointed here.

Kai slowly closed his eyes.

The faint sensation beneath the ground still remained.

Weaker now.

But present.

He followed it carefully.

Step by step.

Until he stopped before an ordinary patch of sand.

Nothing seemed unusual.

Yet...

His instincts refused to let him leave.

Kai knelt.

Using the gloves Munnu had given him.

He began digging.

Sand.

More sand.

Then—

Thunk.

His fingers struck stone.

He cleared more away.

A staircase.

Half buried.

Just like the memory.

He continued digging until enough had been uncovered to squeeze through.

Cool air escaped from below.

Kai hesitated only briefly.

Then descended.

Darkness surrounded him.

Yet faint blue lights still glowed along the ancient walls.

Much weaker than those in the Forest laboratory.

But unmistakably similar.

The corridor stretched endlessly.

Collapsed support beams blocked portions of the passage.

Skeletons lay buried beneath debris.

Some wore unfamiliar uniforms.

Others...

Still clutched rusted weapons.

Whether they had been Oheyo's defenders...

Vaan's personnel...

Or cultists...

There was no longer any way to tell.

Time had erased their identities.

Kai walked deeper.

The silence became almost suffocating.

Until...

He saw it.

A faint light.

Far ahead.

He quickened his pace.

The corridor opened into a circular chamber.

Broken pillars surrounded its center.

Collapsed stone hung suspended in midair.

As though frozen the instant it had fallen.

At the center—

Floated a single orb.

No larger than two hands.

It glowed softly.

Wrapped within a translucent barrier that shimmered like flowing water.

Despite the destruction surrounding it...

Not even a grain of dust rested upon its surface.

Kai slowly reached out.

"...Is this..."

His fingertips touched the barrier.

The world turned white.

Fragments.

Voices.

Faces.

Laughter.

Screams.

Then—

Silence.