'...Shit, we're back here again,' Greynar silently thought, finding himself inside the small tube once more. This time, though, he understood more or else about what he was experiencing

  He gnced around the room. It was still the same, presumably from the moment he was about to be tested. Then, he heard footsteps approaching—two people, talking. The door opened automatically, revealing a man and a woman, both in their mid-thirties or forties.

  "I told you, Assistant needs more time to develop it!" the woman argued.

  "But we've done everything. Even during your whole 'Vacation' we still haven't determined if it's safe to complete or not," the man responded in a sigh.

  "Arrgghh... I don't get it. This is like one of many things we're trying to solve, but it all still feels like a bnk canvas!" The woman threw a tantrum, frustration evident in her voice. "I just need my children to come here sometimes so I can spoil them."

  The man, with a resigned tone, replied, "You and your weird 'motherly' act. I can't believe this is what you've turned into, Anzeel."

  'Anzeel?' Greynar listened quietly, his curiosity piqued as he slowly opened one eye.

  In front of him stood a man with white hair, a thin beard on his chin, gsses perched on his nose, and his hair pulled back into a ponytail, though the rest was cut short. He seemed vaguely familiar to Greynar, though he couldn’t quite pce where he’d seen him before. Beside the man stood a woman in a b coat over a tank top, her brown hair also tied back in a ponytail, with gsses resting on her face. Greynar briefly noticed her chest that seemed big, but his attention quickly shifted.

  "Oh, come on! It’s not like this is the first time I’ve been like this. Sophia even told me to remind you to rex when you're stressed," the woman, Anzeel, said with an exasperated tone.

  "Did she? Zero has been managing my schedule, so I haven’t seen much of a benefit of doing it," the man, Aoste, replied, gncing at the tube.

  Anzeel groaned. "How about this—me, you, and Assistant grab dinner at a nice restaurant. It'll help us unwind," she suggested.

  "But we still have work to do. Speaking of dinner, you didn’t even get anything to eat yesterday," Aoste countered, then briefly muttered under his breath, "And you've been forcing a smile ever since her disappearance..."

  Anzeel’s expression faltered for a moment, but she quickly tried to shrug it off, looking away. "That’s not— well, maybe you’re right. But I can’t just sit around and do nothing. We have to keep moving forward."

  "Even so..." Aoste gnced at the tube once more, a hint of doubt in his voice. "I wonder if he’ll be able to carry on the legacy we’ve predetermined..."

  Anzeel sighed, her smile tinged with bitterness. "Well, we can only hope. None of us here will st much longer, but we’re still the remnants of the golden age."

  "That’s true. I don’t even know where to start, but I believe it’s only a matter of time before both pns are set in motion," Aoste said, then gnced at Anzeel. "And I heard you’re headed to NY? Something about helping out there?"

  Anzeel nodded. "Enterprise needs assistance. She’s been feeling unwell after her st encounter with them. I’ll also be bringing my Assistant, just in case something urgent comes up. You've still got your hands full with that new Arbiter model, don’t you?"

  "Now that you mention it, yeah, it's still a work in progress. Zero’s been a big help with organizing the blueprints for them," Aoste replied with a thoughtful hum.

  "Heh, and most of them have white hair," Anzeel teased, giving him a pyful nudge.

  "You..." Aoste sighed, exasperated. "Never mind. Since I’m done checking on 0999, let’s head back. I’m starving."

  "Sure~ I'll go ahead and invite Assistant out. He’s been feeling a bit lonely tely, especially since his work with the girls is so crucial to our pn." Anzeel said, heading off with a pyful bounce in her step.

  As the door closed behind them, Greynar sighed inwardly. It seemed there was no end to the strange encounters awaiting him, and he knew this wouldn’t be the st scene he'd have to witness. Refocusing his thoughts, he tried to lighten his body, mimicking the way Shinano's astral form moved within her dreams. With a deep breath, Greynar opened his eyes, watching as his consciousness detached from the vessel still lying in the tube, and drifted out of the room.

  "This feels... nicer," he muttered, gncing at the door. "Now then..."

  Curious to test his new state, he raised his hand and reached out toward the door. To his satisfaction, his hand passed through the solid surface. Without hesitation, he floated through the door and found himself in a long, dimly lit hallway that curved at the far end. With a newfound sense of freedom, Greynar flew smoothly down the corridor, his ethereal form gliding effortlessly as he veered right and then turned left, continuing his exploration.

  Looking left and right, all he could see were doors—rows upon rows of them. It made sense, given that this was a testing facility. He drifted onward until he came upon a staircase. Slowly, he ascended and was greeted by an unexpected sight—an underwater view. The entire facility was submerged beneath the ocean, the scene outside the gss walls revealing the deep, dark expanse of the sea.

  It reminded him once again that they were on the ocean floor, and this pce was eerily simir to the Sanctum.

  "As I suspected," he muttered under his breath. "All of this is connected to the Sanctum."

  He floated down another corridor, curiosity pushing him to find this so-called Assistant. He focused on identifying a room where the top brass of the facility might be. Passing through the mechanical door effortlessly, he found himself in a room with a man in his twenties, sporting bck hair that looked strikingly familiar. He slept like an exhausted person, with a paper scattered across his desk.

  '...Noir?' Greynar thought, startled. 'No... it’s not him...'

  Greynar floated beside the Assistant, taking a closer look at what he was working on. There, among the scattered papers, was a blueprint of a round mechanical device. Greynar recognized it instantly—it was the design of his watch. The pattern was identical, down to every detail.

  "My... watch...?" he whispered, moving closer to read the blueprint.

  The text on the blueprint described how the device would reset time to "point zero" where existence would cease, only to reform at the original starting point. It sounded like something straight out of a fanfic, but Greynar knew all too well that this was a power simir to how S.A.V.I.O.R. functioned.

  "Resetting time..." he murmured quietly. "That means it would require a tremendous amount of energy to actually reset time. But..." He gnced at another blueprint. "It seems something it's missing a power source to make it work."

  As he skimmed through the content, he found an expnation detailing how to create a dangerous device to combat the X. It stated that a sacrificial human must be paired with a strong vessel for the device to function. The device itself remained in disabled mode until it could activate and grow in power. It was designed to assist the vessel in correcting their mistakes and aid in the research of Awakening.

  One phrase caught his eye: "The vessel needs to have a strong body and mind before being subjected to the experiment."

  "Sacrificial human... strong vessel..." he muttered, racking his brain. Suddenly, it clicked. "Ah... that was the reason."

  The hazy mist began to clear, revealing the truth, the reason S.A.V.I.O.R had activated was that the Commander, already dying, sacrificed himself to it. This was what Volga had seen on her timeline before the reset occurred. On that day, he was activated, fulfilling the requirement for a timeline reset and S.A.V.I.O.R activation.

  While the vessel already inhabited the device, the missing piece was a sacrificial human soul to power it up.

  "So that's why, when I met with him, his form had already changed for better or worse," he muttered.

  The human soul had partially interacted with the high-dimensional wave activity during the timeline reset, causing its nature to transform into something resembling a high-dimensional being. It had nearly taken over his body before. However, the consciousness of the soul remained separate from S.A.V.I.O.R once its vessel was emptied.

  Greynar sighed, uncertain of how to process the information before him. He recognized that this was an inhumane thing to do, which only reinforced his belief that his own existence was too good to be true.

  He decided he had gathered enough information and moved on to another location. As he returned to a familiar hallway, he encountered Aoste, who appeared to be in conversation with Zero. They were discussing an additional backup pn for the ANTI-X program to be implemented when Project Dawn was initiated which he didn't understand that well.

  "...I should get going." He closed his eyes, waiting for the light to appear, but then—

  The arm bred, and the red signal lights activated. All illumination vanished, plunging everything into darkness. His mind shifted to the pressing situation at hand as someone shook him awake. Gremyashchy loomed over him, her expression tense like she has seen something dangerous.

  "Wake up! Hurry, Commander! We've gathered all the information we can, it’s time to get out of here!" the destroyer urged, her frown deepening.

  "Huh?! An enemy attack?!" He bolted upright as the arm grew louder and more insistent. "Expin what happened!" he shouted at Gremyashchy while sprinting down the corridor toward the Gate to evacuate.

  "A few moments ago, a rge-scale enemy force of unknown origin and model suddenly appeared in the previously deserted sea area outside," she expined urgently. "Belorussiya and the others have already led the fleet out to engage them while we sort through the recovered data. We're waiting for them to clear out the first batch of enemies before we can evacuate."

  "Then we need to hurry!" he shouted, leaping over an obstacle and heading back through the Gate. They emerged to find Belorussiya's fleet standing by.

  "Comrade! We're surrounded, and we still haven't found a way out! We're in deep, deep trouble here!" Belorussiya grimaced.

  "What should we do, then? We'll be annihited for sure if we stay here just to defend ourselves." Kirov frowned, partially deploying her rigging. "Fighting in this enclosed space is going to be a real hassle."

  "Then everyone should evacuate to the other side immediately!" Murmansk urged. "We need to ensure those enemies don't come after us, and we need to hurry!"

  "It's too te for that." Tallinn nonchantly said. "They will know that we will stuck there."

  "I've got the data!" Gromky shouted as she presented it to Greynar and gave it to him. "Commander will keep it safe!"

  "Then it's time to make a breakthrough!" Belorussiya decred, firing an ice bullet at the entrance, followed by an explosive shell that shattered the door, sending debris flying. "Kirov, Gromky, protect the Commander! Murmansk, Gremyashchy, provide fire support for the fleet. Tallinn and I will take the front. Commander, please direct us from inside the Icebreaker."

  The Commander nodded, heading toward the command ship as explosions echoed through the battlefield. His gaze locked onto the enemy—a Siren-like creature unlike any model they'd encountered before. This one emanated a dark, grotesque aura, swirling menacingly around it, reminiscent of the Siren summoned by the White Tower.

  "These Sirens... They're unlike anything we've seen before!" Greynar shouted, his voice filled with urgency. "Everyone, don't let them hit you! Unleash all your firepower!"

  Belorussiya, startled by the Commander's armed tone, immediately nodded. She could tell this was something he'd likely faced before. Without hesitation, she charged ahead, and the fleet followed in formation. The Icebreaker submarine moved into position, trailing behind to provide support and intercept any enemies closing in from the rear.

  Tallinn fired her rigging, ying down suppressing fire as Belorussiya advanced with a sword gripped tightly in the jaws of her rigging. She seized it with both hands, the bde transforming into a frosty, ice-encrusted weapon. Belorussiya lunged forward, attempting to ssh one of the Sirens to test their durability. However, the strike was met with a metallic cng as the sword bounced off the Siren's impenetrable armor.

  "Tch, their armor's too tough for sshing," she muttered in frustration. Undeterred, she sshed again, then commanded her rigging to unleash a bst of frost, freezing the surface of the Siren's armor.

  The battleship retreated as Tallinn charged toward the frozen Siren. With precision, she swung her Morning Star chain, aiming for the weakened enemy. The spiked ball crashed into the Siren, causing a massive explosion on its armor. Ice and metal debris scattered in all directions, but Tallinn wasn’t done yet. She spun on her heel, continuing the momentum of her swing. The Morning Star smashed into another nearby Siren, sending a shockwave through the area and damaging its heavily armored exterior as well.

  "Nice one, Tallinn!" Gromky cheered.

  "Whew, their armor is tough. It took quite an effort to break through with my weapon," Tallinn commented with a sigh of relief.

  "I agree," Belorussiya added. "Even with my turret’s firepower, it's barely enough to dent them."

  The Commander scanned the battlefield, his gaze sharp with focused concentration. These weren’t the usual enemies he had faced before; these Sirens were an enhanced Mark-II variant, far more dangerous than the standard models. Despite their pitch-bck color and the eerie bck mist swirling around them, he noticed subtle design elements that mirrored the familiar Mark-II series.

  "This thing showed up at the worst possible time. But what the hell is really going on...?" he muttered under his breath.

  He scanned the radar and noticed a rge red dot far behind. Focusing his gaze, he spotted a singur humanoid Siren that seemed distinctly out of pce. While it wasn't unusual to see a humanoid Siren, this one was definitely not like any he had encountered before.

  'Is that, an Enforcer?'

  The Siren wore a hood that framed her face without concealing it entirely. Her purplish eyes glinted beneath, and her twintails cascaded in a blend of blue and white hues. A bra-like armor shielded her voluptuous form. She surveyed the battlefield with a mechanical expression, her rigging releasing a strange breath that summoned a blue coloured drone-like aircraft, which it unched into the air.

  'I see... That's clearly an Enforcer,' he thought, directing the ships to remain vigint against any potential anti-air attacks.

  Gromky and Kirov spotted the flying drone in the distance above them and quickly readied their anti-air turrets to shoot it down.

  "Those flying things pack a serious punch with their bullets!" the Commander warned. "Everyone, scatter if you don’t want to get hit!"

  Upon hearing the warning over the comms, Belorussiya signaled to her ally. "Tallinn."

  "Yeah, I know," Tallinn replied, frowning. "These Siren look-alike fleets aren’t ordinary enemies."

  "That Siren at the back—could it be a carrier?" Belorussiya specuted, studying its rigging. "No, with that setup, it might be more of an aviation battleship."

  "So, what's the pn, Belorussiya?" Tallinn asked.

  Belorussiya smirked. "Simple, we break through this fleet and go straight for their commander at the back."

  "Easier said than done," the cruiser sighed, turning to the girls behind her. "Murmansk, Gremyashchy, we’ll need support from the rear."

  "Alright, good luck, you two~" Murmansk called out encouragingly.

  "Hmph, go and smash them to bits," Gremyashchy replied with a smirk.

  Belorussiya and Tallinn exchanged a nod before unching forward, slicing through the Siren fleet with impressive speed. Belorussiya tightened her grip on her dual swords, each strike freezing the armor of the surrounding enemies as she carved a path. Beside her, Tallinn wielded her Morning Star, swinging it with powerful force to smash into the nearby Siren ships, clearing their route as they barreled toward the ominous commander in the rear.

  The Siren recognized the two as a threat, darting toward them with incredible speed. Tallinn aimed her weapon and fired at the approaching Enforcer, but it deftly dodged, weaving through her shots with ease. In response, the Enforcer activated its rigging, unching a counterattack that sent a barrage of bullets crashing toward them.

  "Cover me, Tallinn!" Belorussiya shouted, her voice cutting through the chaos.

  "Got it," Tallinn replied calmly, bracing herself.

  Using a piece of wreckage from a downed Siren as a springboard, Belorussiya unched herself at the Enforcer. Her sword gleamed as she closed in, rigging at the ready to smash through any defenses the Enforcer might throw up. Tallinn assisted her using her firepower as they closed into the Enforcer.

  A split second ter, Belorussiya swung her sword at the Enforcer, but it dodged, veering just out of reach before deploying several drones in her direction. Unfazed, Belorussiya leapt into the air using her turret that was aimed below her, slicing through the drones with precision, using each one as a foothold to propel herself higher and closer to the Siren.

  Belorussiya refused to give the Enforcer any respite, lunging forward for another ssh. But before her bde could nd, a shimmering shield flickered around the Enforcer, deflecting her attack. Then, with a barely audible murmur, the Enforcer seemed to vanish into thin air, reappearing high above in the sky moments ter. Belorussiya quickly aimed her turret upward, firing rapidly in an attempt to bring the elusive foe back within reach.

  "That Siren is going to do something! Everyone, back me up!" Belorussiya shouted, rallying Murmansk and Gremyashchy to assist her in taking down the Enforcer's shield.

  Seizing the moment, Tallinn leaped onto a nearby Siren carrier's pne, riding it like a rodeo. With a triumphant smirk, she steered the pne toward the Enforcer. Once positioned directly above her target, she swung her Morning Star down with all her might, shattering the Enforcer's shield and sending her crashing to the ground.

  Belorussiya rushed forward, sword poised to behead the Enforcer. Just as her strike seemed inevitable, the Enforcer vanished, taking her head with her in an instant. Blinking in confusion, Belorussiya stepped back, waiting for any sign of an attack. But after a tense minute, nothing came.

  To one surprise, the Enforcer had reappeared—this time, inside the Commander’s command ship. None of the girls were aware of her presence as Greynar found himself face-to-face with the Siren.

  He drew his gun and pointed it squarely at her, eyes narrowed. "What do you want?" he demanded with a cold voice.

  The Enforcer stepped back slightly and bowed. "Greetings, S.A.V.I.O.R."

  His eyes widened at the name she mention, it does seems like the Enforcer knew him. "Which Arbiter are you working with?"

  "Arbiter?" She chuckled, a low, mocking sound. "I'm here alone, using this Enforcer to pay you a visit."

  "You... you're using an Enforcer’s body?" He tensed, his finger poised on the trigger.

  "Precisely," she replied smoothly. "I am Empress, ANTI-X generation Arbiter series," she introduced herself with a wicked grin. "And I've been rather... interested in meeting you, S.A.V.I.O.R."

  He cautiously lowered his gun but kept a firm grip, ready to react if things took a turn. "So, what do you need from me?"

  The Enforcer’s purple eyes glinted, and Empress spoke in a tone that was almost soothing. "As you can see, Zero has taken a certain... interest in this test site. She knows that you're here, that's why she wanted you to help her managing this test site and not to get in her way"

  He narrowed his eyes. "And if I refuse?"

  "Then so be it," she replied with a soft chuckle—not a ugh of amusement, but one tinged with curiosity. "If this timeline veers off from the initial pn, of course, then at least you’ll know exactly what happens next," she murmured, her gaze intense, as if relishing the unknown consequences.

  "I understand..." he murmured, his voice was firm as if to confirm it. "But if that’s all, then give Zero a message for me. Tell her not to make things worse. This pce... it's my home now."

  Empress’s smile widened as she spoke through the Enforcer’s body. “Then I’ll also pass Zero’s message for you,” she told him. “'May fate bring us together in the future, Grey.' That’s all from her. Now, I hope we meet again in the future, Commander.” With that, the Enforcer vanished as if she had never been there at all.

  The Commander let out a deep sigh, holstering his weapon with a shake of his head. "This is really making me crazy," he muttered silently.

  Without warning, the City of Light erupted in a blinding fsh, its glow intensifying into a burst of radiance that surged out, swallowing the surrounding area in a wave of light. The Commander shielded his eyes, heart racing as the brilliance consumed everything in its path, then his vision blurred once again.