#ascension.

I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.

There's always a Man. There's always a city.

                                                                Stage 3 → Stage 4                                                                   Supergiant → Hypergiant

Congrats! You meet the requirements to reach Hypergiant rank!

All of your powers and abilities have been completely unlocked. You’ll also have all of your personal weapons and items returned to you.

You’ve taken your place among the stars. Shine bright and guide the world to a better tomorrow.

Beyond temporary releases of restraints, an eternity has passed since her circuits had completely cooperated, since she had felt her potential possible. Not from Galahad’s reluctance or unfortunate circumstance which bound her, but forces in rule of the land. As easily as they were placed and loosened had they disappeared outright, allowing free rein of her power; her skills restored in full and Lord Camelot’s unshakeable walls rebuilt.

REASONABLE MINDS COULD DISAGREE ON THIS POINT—BUT BURNS HASN'T BEEN ACCUSED OF BEING REASONABLE ONCE IN HIS CHAOTIC LIFE.

He's exhausted, too. This doesn't happen often, but when it does—it hits fucking hard. He goes from the guy he loves being—the guy who thrives on violence and chaos—to some husk of someone he doesn't even recognize.

"Yeah, sure, whatevah you fuckin' say."

He's not so worn out that he can't sound bitter. He does sound bitter.

It is not the Chaldea of Antarctica, and it stands in the same plot — the building modified not beyond recognition of its predecessor. But it possesses now a name known across various networks in Spirale.

A monument to Humanity’s resilience, a sanctuary in which its surviving resistance could fan from dying embers to a roaring blaze. It cannot and will not ever replace what has been lost; in structure and in personnel. The home of a girl emptied of its additional occupants, not that different a tale of that after which is in inspired. With Charles Patricius looming, Chaldea stands in union. Not relinquishing its original function as home, but doubling as reminder. As testament to those who have come and gone, those fallen in the battle, whose spirits may be conjured in Radiale to live one more, painfully brief, fantasy life. And from which, she will see them off.

Even if it had been constructed the spitting image of the mountaintop observatory, it would be nothing more than hollow imitation, a farcical grasp for something long out of reach, candlelight long since faded into darkness. It would not bring Roman back, it would not reverse time and the damage done to the Ritsukas. ‘Home’ was something they had all lost long ago, and this building could not hope to fill the void. But nostalgia might breed some comfort before the vicious drop of the guillotine upon the next sacrifice. A very... human clinging on to what ruins remained while resisting change. This Chaldea, it could never be that of Antarctica or SE.RA.PH., but a place chosen to reside in Spirale, of days so innocent lost. A reminder of how far they had come, how much no more, and what it was all in the name of.