After leaving Shadow.Q’s house, Rita walked through the streets of BS with Nivalis and B80 beside her.
Suddenly, B80 asked,
"Will you bring too?"
Rita did not answer.
"You’re going back, aren’t you?"
Calculation was B80’s instinct.
It had promised Rita not to expose the present and not to calculate the future.
But the things Rita had said to Deceitful Bloom and Shadow.Q were too revealing.
Possible outcos naturally erged within its processing systems.
It could not access the information of World Sigh or the illustration called Ga Invasion.
But it could still guess what had pushed Rita into hesitation.
And it could infer the only path left open to her.
Returning to the very beginning.
Even after obtaining authority, Rita still could not defeat an old order strengthened across multiple epochs.
Returning to the origin was the only solution.
She was uncertain whether success was possible.
Yet there was still hope.
That was why she hesitated.
She wanted to bring every world with her.
Yet feared the worst possible ending.
That was why she struggled.
Rita remained silent.
But the look she gave B80 was gentle and helpless.
That alone was answer enough.
"You want to return to the First Epoch, don’t you?"
For the first ti, B80 pressed for an answer.
"Will you take with you?"
Normally it was very considerate.
Its programming analyzed the emotional consequences of every sentence before speaking.
Its database stored every conversation it had ever shared with Rita.
Every story between Rita and everyone around her.
Every choice Rita had ever made.
It understood Rita better than anyone else.
Better than any BS player.
It had never wanted to trouble her.
But this ti, it refused to let go.
"Maybe we’ll et again in another way."
At last, Rita gave a vague answer.
"Take with you!"
B80 flew off Rita’s shoulder and blocked her path stubbornly.
The tiny robot hovered in front of her.
"I can help you!"
Long ago, when dealing with B80, Y128, and L12185511, Rita had always chosen honesty.
Even when the truth was cruel.
She did not care whether those answers hurt them.
She despised hypocrisy.
But now, for the first ti, she chose to lie.
She offered a beautiful excuse.
"You need charging to fight for long periods, B80. The journey back to the First Epoch is too far."
"I can recharge on the way! I can get plenty of power banks!"
"I don’t need helpers anymore. You can stay here and wait for ."
The cube on B80’s head began spinning rapidly.
Then it pointed at Nivalis.
"Will you take her?"
Rita fell silent for a long ti.
She despised her own hypocrisy.
Then she offered yet another excuse.
"If the final enemy really is the chanoids, what then? Things would beco difficult for all of us."
The cube spun faster and faster.
"I promise you! Even if the chanoids are truly behind everything, I’ll still stand on your side!"
Silence.
Longer and heavier silence.
The atmosphere between them grew increasingly painful.
B80 always understood what she was thinking.
Calculating her had beco instinct.
For a hundred years, it had sat on her shoulder while she painted.
During that century, it had spent more ti beside Rita than even Nivalis.
After Rita once jokingly complained that it would eventually make her shoulders uneven from always sitting on the sa side, B80 began switching shoulders every day.
From Quiet Mountain’s spring into sumr.
Then through autumn and winter together.
Nivalis was loyal to Rita.
But she loved fun.
She had countless friends and hobbies.
She chatted with Sea Pony.
Played mahjong with Mistblade.
Returned to Dragon Island to celebrate festivals with Holy Cup and North Year.
But B80’s entire world consisted only of the person who had brought it out of the Scrap Heap.
Just like the countless B80s in other tilines.
Only after eting BS Rita would they leave the abandoned zones.
She was always the only choice.
Back then, the chanoids had constantly complained about Rita’s honesty.
Why wouldn’t she simply tell comforting lies?
Now, years later, Rita was finally lying.
One beautiful excuse after another.
And sohow, that hurt far more.
But she could never bring B80 back to the First Epoch.
The chanoids had disguised themselves as harmless tools controlled and destroyed by gods.
Who knew whether so hidden protocol existed within them?
What if they awakened under specific conditions?
If the root of everything truly was the chanoids, then bringing this epoch’s B80 into the First Epoch could expose every secret she carried.
Programs could exchange information instantly.
She would be completely exposed.
Rita took a slow breath and closed her eyes.
Then softly spoke the cruelest truth of all.
"Programs can be rebooted."
"mories can be erased too!"
B80 suddenly shouted.
"What’s the difference between losing mories and rebooting a program?!"
"We are not so different!"
"WE ARE NOT SO DIFFERENT!!"
Its oversized cube spun violently.
Rita refused to et its gaze.
"Your calculations should already tell you this decision gives us the best possible ending."
"I cannot bring any chanoid from this epoch back with ."
"And regardless of whether I succeed or fail, you will survive."
Returning to the past was the only answer.
But resolving everything at the source inevitably created a paradox.
No matter whose authority the Order Clock belonged to, she could never destroy it completely during the First Epoch.
Because that would erase every epoch afterward.
Perhaps she could only seal it.
Or alter so underlying process.
But no matter what happened, B80 would not cease to exist.
Yet if she brought B80 or any chanoid into the past, then betrayal at a critical mont would beco fatal.
B80 stared at Rita.
At Rita closing her eyes.
At Rita refusing to communicate.
Then it said quietly,
"So this is why you could never trust ."
"You think every emotion I have, every sentence I speak, is rely the result of calculations."
"You think I’m no different from BS’s artificial intelligence."
"You’re wary of ."
"You believe that after a reboot, I would no longer be B8017913."
"You told not to expose the present and not to calculate the future."
"Were you afraid I’d betray you early?"
"Or did you simply want another hundred years as friends with B80?!"
Rita slowly opened her eyes and looked at the robot hovering inches away.
Then answered calmly,
"I was afraid you’d betray early."
"Lies lies lies!!"
B80’s chanical voice roared at maximum volu.
It pointed furiously toward Nivalis.
"Why aren’t you afraid of her?!"
"One skill is enough to control living beings, just like Deceitful Bloom controlled you!"
"But I would never do that!"
"I can write a core protocol that forbids harming soone forever!"
Nivalis pressed herself tightly against Rita’s ear without speaking.
This was not the first ti she had seen B80 display intense emotion.
It was intelligent.
Perfect.
Capable of simulating every emotion so convincingly people forgot it was a machine.
But this was the first ti Nivalis truly felt fear toward B80’s existence.
And for once, even Rita looked cornered.
She regretted it now.
She should not have softened.
She should have ended things decisively from the start.
So she delivered the final blow.
"But even after spending so long with , you never awakened a divine gifted talent."
"Every version of you that left the Scrap Heap with across every tiline failed to awaken one."
"Your program has no possibility of changing."
At that exact mont, the cube exploded with crimson light.
The radiance spread instantly across B80’s entire body.
Under Rita and Nivalis’s shocked gazes, the tiny robot’s form stretched taller.
At the sa instant, Rita felt the Order Pendulum in the distant sky completely break free from her restraints and begin swinging once more.
Several minutes later, the light faded.
A terrifying figure now stood before them.
Nearly two ters tall.
Humanoid.
Its body was entirely encased in black iron armor, like a massive chanical knight.
Only the joints glowed dark crimson.
At the center of its chest floated a cube woven from blood red threads, slowly rotating.
No breathing.
No warmth.
Its face remained hidden beneath a black iron helt.
Only two thin crimson lights shone through the eye slits like dried blood.
Then the armored hand extended into empty space.
A cube robot materialized instantly within its grasp.
L12185511.
Crack.
Before Rita could speak, the cube shattered into dust inside the iron gauntlet.
Several strands of red light drifted into the cube embedded within B80’s chest.
Then the cold chanical voice echoed from behind the mask.
"Forget defective products."
"You will take with you."
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