As I am now, will my presence inconvenience you? Will I remind you of past miseries? I... long for being with you. When the time comes, we will leave this place together, okay?

You thought we could not survive if away from the sea? A myth, it is. My kin and I will soon be able to swim through the air. In the end, even those places devoid of anything will be our ocean. We simply need to evolve, and we only need to adapt.

My former friends tried to grant me my eternal rest with their hands. They refused to confront their true selves, but I do not resent them, and I could not hurt them, even if they rejected and attacked me so vehemently... Perhaps everything I did was bringing them harm. My regrets died along with them.

This box? My past lies within it...the fragments of my past. Fractured as they are, they still suffice to tell that I am not an empty puppet... that I am not a phantom. Gradually, I was reborn into what I am now, bit by bit.

Dr. {@nickname}, was a future like this also in your past vision? You may have nothing but hatred for me now, but I do not fear it. Hate me as your heart desires... while you are still able to.

Your companions, Kal'tsit and Amiya, said that you are worthy of my trust until the very end. But one can never save the others. I failed to save my friends, and you failed to save yours. We both have lost everything, but I was granted a rebirth, and following that, a new future. This... is just unfair to you.

Long ago, my family was murdered when I was still in Ægir. I always assumed the sea monsters did it, but I never expected to learn that it was all the handiwork of the Ægir. My blood kin and my songs are scary, they all say, but they are wrong. It is the people who are scary.

I did struggle, I did resist. But to what avail? When the tide rises, no traces of lesser lifeforms will remain undrowned. You are my very last friend. Will you also be like them, rejecting the ocean for a futile end, even if it costs you everything? Do you wish to be what I used to be?

Am I sick? Or am I still dreaming? I dreamt that the black sky was our ocean. When the others and I swam up, we did not feel ourselves sinking at all. Strange, so strange. Is this our future? Their faces are so blurry, they... They... No, no.

Dream... What kind of dream will you have? Where are you now? Will you find it there... just another dream?

Dr. {@nickname}, I have been waiting for you. It's been so long, far too long that... I have forgotten why I am waiting for you here... But none of this is important anymore. It's not that important anymore.

These things... I have seen them too many times. Nobody needs things like these anymore.

Formalities of the past... what good are they now? Nothing has survived, except you and me. We will cast those aside, and all we need is to be a step closer... Join me, Dr. {@nickname}, and be my blood kin.

Nevermore shall my eroded sword cleave, Nevermore shall my former friends breathe, and nevermore shall I feel the warm blood flow inside me. Still, I am satisfied. I have become one with the ocean. Doctor, come with me — your true form is still waiting for you beneath the waves.

Fight alongside the others? Against whom?

No more lives should be lost.

What will it feel like... when their arms penetrate this body?

Treat me not as a calamity, for death is not my wish.

What do you wish to do? I shall obey.

No longer do I walk alone. My blood kin are with me.

Now, harken to the song of the distant sea...

Rest at ease. The tide also rises.

The sky and the land... both a drought to relieve.

May the song seep into your souls.

With me, to our eternal home we will return.

Fear not, my kin… The time is nigh.

They will become our blood kin. They no longer need to feel the suffering of aridity. Their prior existence was already too painful.

Will you treat me the same way? Is this also the ending you designed for me? If that is what you wished for, I will not deny it.

Why must you flee? This futile struggle will only bring about more senseless terror.

Run, Doctor... Run away, from here, from me... Leave.

Sooner or later, this place too will return to its primordial form.

...Why am I still wearing this hat?

We failed to protect everything. The harmonious future is our only hope.

Arknights.

I still remember this day... but time has no more significance at this point. The sea and sky, and all life, will never change anymore...

Doctor... Come, with me.

Doctor, leave. There's nothing left in these ruins. Everything familiar has vanished. The memories still sting us... Doctor, do you hate what I say? But we've both lost our families, all of them... Would you become family with me, as I am now?