Karabell inhaled deeply, and the fragrance exuding from the plants caught his attention. It oddly reminded him of perfume. The aroma was that pleasant. They were in a forest, that much was obvious. He couldn't tell if it was the same one, but it was highly unlikely. Karabell took another deep breath, and a scent that was a lot less pleasant reached his nostrils. The Captain flinched as he took in that foul smell he'd grown all too familiar with. The scent of blood was everywhere. And he was able to identify the source immediately. The Fake was leaning against a tree, bleeding heavily. The creature's breath choked in its throat. It looked like it'd just cut its own arm off. Despite the pained expression plastered across its face, the Aberration was smiling. It tossed the amputated limb into the air. The arm landed softly on the bloodstained grass in front of the creature. The Fake closed its eyes in concentration. Karabell's mouth fell open as he watched the creature's arm grow back almost instantly. It closed and opened its fist repeatedly, as if to make sure that its new hand was working.
"Take a look over there, Captain," he suddenly heard Een say.
Karabell followed his gaze to see that the severed limb had started twitching. Slowly but surely, it began to change shape. Furthermore, it was rapidly growing in size. Karabell stared, completely dumbfounded. That thing was regenerating as well. It looked like two invisible hands were trying to mold the arm into... The whole process didn't take more than a minute. He was fascinated by what he'd just seen. The creature's severed arm was nowhere to be seen. It had developed into a fully grown Aberration. Unlike the griffin-like Fake, however, that one was covered in feathers. It was a regular, feathered Aberration. One that Karabell recognized immediately. He scratched his head as he studied the creature. Things were getting stranger and stranger. At that point, however, nothing surprised him anymore.
"Something wrong?" Alice asked, noticing Kar's reaction. She was trying to put on a brave font, but she didn't quite get it either. What did the Ringleader want to show them?
"That's Gull," Karabell replied simply as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm sure of it."
The Captain had to be joking. They'd fought countless feathered Aberrations. They all looked the same. That Superior couldn't possibly be Gull. Assuming it even was a Superior. What were the chances? Een's face dulled as he glanced over at the Ringleader. Realizing that it was being stared at, the creature nodded affirmatively. A sigh escaped Een's lips. Hadn't he learnt not to take anything for granted? Of course that thing was Gull.
"Well, that's impressive. Seriously, how can you tell them apart?" he asked in an exasperated voice. "And what's Gull doing here, anyway?"
The answer came sooner than expected. The Fake approached the newly born Aberration and scrutinized it carefully. It shrugged, obviously pleased.
"What is my purpose?" the feathered creature asked.
"Whatever you want it to be. Do we have the same goal? Do we share the same desires? I don't know. I don't think so. We're more different than we're alike," the Fake said and a faint smile appeared on its face. "But I'll continue to learn. I'll continue to deepen my understanding. And you... You are free. You can do whatever you want in this world."
"Understood. I thank you from the bottom of my heart," Gull replied as it raised its head.
The Fake watched as the Superior slowly stepped away from it. The creature pressed its back against the same tree and muttered, "Looks like the first one turned out just fine. Now, to make more..."
The space around them began flickering, and Een shuddered. The sensation was different. They weren't moving on to another memory. The Ringleader clutched its chest, and the Fake vanished. The forest was starting to fade away. The bushes and trees turned transparent, and the sky grew dark. Karabell could clearly hear Frederick chuckle as he moved closer to the Aberration.
"We're running out of time," it said, sensing the Captain's concern. "Time flows differently here, but I'll still reach my limit soon. I should be able to show you the important bits, though. I'll have to settle for that." The Ringleader exhaled slowly, trembling. Much to Karabell's surprise, the forest returned to normal. "Gullinkambi was the first of my creations. That is why I decided to give it complete freedom. I wanted to see if its actions would show me another way. Superiors lack the ability to reproduce, but they cannot be killed. Their bodies will eventually regenerate, no matter what happens to them. Depending on the amount of damage sustain, they might lose their memories in the process. That is what makes them so different compared to regular Aberrations or Garglings. That, and their ability to speak. But it seems like you already knew that. As for the the other creatures... I was bleeding earlier, remember?"
"You blood developed into Aberrations," Een suddenly said. Even he realized how crazy that sounded. Crazy enough to actually be true... "That is how regular Aberrations and Garglings came to be. In a way, they are incomplete creatures. They're weaker, and they can't regenerate as well as the Superiors. That's why, even though they can think and move like you do, they can't speak. Garglings can, for some reason, let out those strange noises, but that's about it. You only wanted to create the Superiors. The regular Aberrations' emergence was nothing more than coincidence. A convenient one, since they could increase their numbers by themselves. I'm right, aren't I?" he inquired, scratching his head.
"That's about the gist of it, yes," the Ringleader admitted. "I have created over a hundred Superiors... and perhaps thousands of incomplete Aberrations. And I loved them all equally. I still do. When I first came to this world, I didn't know anything. Love and hatred were foreign concepts to me. Little by little, I started to learn. I started to understand that we didn't belong there. We had no place in that world. But it was my duty to create one. There wasn't any other way, was it?" the creature asked, looking Een straight in the eyes. "At first, we didn't eat humans. We didn't want to hurt them, let alone kill them. Everything we knew, we'd learned from humans. Why would we want to kill them? However, they wanted to erase us. We had no choice but to fight back. Unfortunately for them, their weapons proved ineffective. But humans are cunning creatures. They ambushed us, lured us into traps, to no avail. Nothing could hurt us. This went on for almost a century. Eventually, most of my Superiors got sick of it. They gathered as many Aberrations as they could in one place and launched their attack on the city. But they hadn't completely lost faith in humanity. They were hoping that, by showing them what we were capable of, they'd make humans understand how meaningless trying to get rid of us was. They refrained from destroying the buildings and spared the civilians. But, just as I had anticipated, that plan didn't work. If anything, it made matters worse. Full of anger, the Superiors decided to attack other cities. There were some who opposed the idea, like Kirru and Gull. But that didn't stop them. I understood then that I'd been wrong. That world wouldn't accept us, no matter what. And now, there was no way out. The Aberrations couldn't accept mankind either. I had to create a new world, where humans and Aberrations could lcoexist. But I knew that would take a long time."
"So you're trying to play the victim, creature?" Frederick suddenly yelled. "What's with you all, thinking you're the good guys... You wanted to live, so you wanted to kill everyone?"
"No. No matter how you look at it, we're the ones that destroyed this world. Gull chose to side with the humans," the Aberration continued, unperturbed. "It willingly became a test subject, helping them with their experiments. Other Superiors attacked the research bases, rescuing him over and over again. But Gull went back every time. Perhaps his desire to aid humanity was that strong. Eventually, the scientists were able to develop a poison that could kill us. Naturally, that resulted in Gull's first death. That day, I felt a tremendous amount of pain. It hurt so much I thought I was going to lose myself. Despite that, though, I was happy. Humans had finally found a way to counterattack, which enabled me to set my plan in motion. I ordered the Superiors to attack. They first destroyed the prefecture once known as Tokyo, leaving few people alive. Using my telepathic powers, I had been able to gather large amounts of information. Enough to know what I needed to do. I couldn't erase those people's memories. But, in a way, I could make those memories disappear. By erasing humanity's past. The Aberrations ravaged everything in their path. I bestowed upon the survivors only the knowledge I deemed necessary. But I wouldn't let humanity go extinct. You see, I wanted to create some sort of balance." The creature paused, as if to make sure they were following everything it was saying. "Before I knew it, I'd started to question whether or not we could return to our world. So I started looking for answers. When I'd first arrived there, humans were discussing the idea of infinite worlds, or parallel dimensions. The multiverse theory. It seemed the most logical way to explain it. We'd somehow come here from another world. I spent a lot of time researching the possibilities, and I arrived at the same conclusion each and every time. A dimensional rift of sorts had briefly opened between your world and ours. However, this was all based on speculation. I had no way of proving my theory. But it didn't matter. I couldn't turn back at that point. I'd destroyed the very world that had saved me from that eternal darkness. The least I could do was try to fix that," the Ringleader continued, struggling to get up. Its knees shook violently, but it managed to stand. "We didn't want to be killed either. Of course we didn't. I knew I was in the wrong, but I couldn't do anything about it. Like I said, humans are cunning creatures. The Agency of Aberration Disposal, or AAD. Does that name ring a bell? The Agency's soldiers went after me, and Gull was with them. Needless to say, they wanted to get rid of me. Needless to say, they failed. They were ill prepared, but I refrained from killing them. I managed to simply seize their weapons and drive them away. The AAD blamed Gull for their failure and had him killed again. I realized then that I needed to keep an eye on the Agency. They'd gotten too cocky. Letting humanity recover, only to destroy it again. Making sure the AAD wouldn't get too strong. Ensuring that the Aberrations wouldn't kill everyone. Struggling to maintain a balance. That is how I spent the next one thousand five hundred years. Now, it almost feels like a very long dream. Then you showed up." Their surroundings begun flickering for the third time. "I'm sorry, I got carried away. I wanted to show you one more memory, but I don't think I have the power to do that anymore. I'm sure there are a few things I forgot to mention, but..."
Alice sat down in the grass, trying to process everything. There were so many things she couldn't understand. Her brother followed her example, plopping down heavily next to her. Alice glanced at the others. Gull was still weeping. Frederick and Karabell were staring at the Ringleader, shocked looks on their faces. She couldn't blame them. Multiple worlds, Gull being the first Superior, the Ringleader trying to maintain a balance by having the Aberrations wreak havoc over and over again. Who wouldn't have been shocked after hearing all that? Alice wondered how much time had passed since they'd entered the Ringleader's memories. They needed to hurry up and go outside.
"What about us?" she suddenly heard Kar's voice say. "I'm talking about those of us who fell asleep that night and woke up hundreds if not thousands of years later. You explained pretty much everything, but didn't say a word about that. What happened to us?"