.hack//AI Buster - Volume 2 - Chapter 2.3

.: 3 :.

My report on the Lycoris incident was sent to upper management, but I had omitted several details, including my final conversation with Lycoris and her secret hiding place.

The memory of her face as she spoke to me still haunted me.

'As long as I exist, Morgana will continue to whisper my location to you, until I'm deleted. But that's over now. I've given up."

"But why?" I asked.

"I am the product of a failed dream. I must die. I have jailed to achieve his dream. Therefore, I'm afraid this is the end of your event with me."

But the encounter was too real, her death too meaningful. I wallowed in regret, thinking that there had to be a better conclusion, a different way to end the event. But just like in life, there was no reset button. I couldn't replay this moment in the hopes of find ing a happier ending.

I was reacting as if she had died in reallife. In fact, her passing affected me more than the death of my own grandmother a few years ago. Was I going crazy?

I had begun to question everything: What were the rules? What was the system? What was the meaning of my encounter with Lycoris? Where was God? Lycoris had tried to answer that last one for me.

"Morgana Mode Gone."

"What?"

"That's the name of God, Albireo. It's what lurks in the Inner World, which Harald attempted to create. God exists. God gave you the Divine Spear of Wotan and sent you the message telling you where I was. God tried to delete me."

"God ... tried to delete you?"

She looked so sad. "T hat's right. I am an unwanted child. Even God doesn't want me."

"I don't understand."

"I was hiding from Morgana, not you."

The conversation ran through my head as I thought about The Divine Spear of Wotan. It was an item specifically designed for debugging, designed to delete Vagrant Als. I'd obtained it during the beta version of The World. But who provided the spear? According to Lycoris, God created the spear in order to protect The World.

By God, did she mean Harald Hoerwick? He was the original programmer of the beta version of The World, the authority on AI research, and an all-around genius.

Originally, the game data of the The World was stored in the Harald system, a blackbox folder to which Harald attached a lock. Few knew of the folder's existence. Actually, only those who were deeply involved with the game's development had ever heard of it. When I found out about the system, I had to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Perhaps Vagrant Als came out of the Harald system, which would mean Harald and Morgana were the father and mother of Lycoris. But then why would Morgana want to delete her own child? Did Harald intentionally include a contradictory idea in the program?

I just couldn't wrap my head arOlUld whatever technological alchemy he was trying to accomplish in The World. The only certainty I held on to was that the spear was created to protect The World and as a knight, I was sworn to that duty--even if it meant the death of Lycoris.