Chapter: 169. The Other Protagonist, The Possibility of Overlapping
The gentle breeze brushing against Nagi’s cheek carried Garuda’s final warning.
The storm’s lingering wrath still existed, and the chaotic airflow tore apart all domains that unfolded in Kawano City. Thus, both Mana, standing beside Nagi, and Kanade, who was originally enveloped in another domain by the Special Agency SEMA, witnessed the power Nagi displayed.
Everyone present, except for Adam, stood in shock and disbelief.
However, Nagi’s attention was not focused here.
Deep within her heart, an incredibly familiar sound surged forth—
Thump thump.
That low rumbling resembling a heartbeat seemed to resonate with her soul, echoing deep within her consciousness.
As an avid player of the “Starlight” series, Nagi was more than familiar with this sensation.
It was a precursor to “awakening.”
—No… I can’t awaken…!
She suddenly bent down and covered her chest with her hand, furrowing her brows in pain. Her voluptuous body trembled slightly as she tried to forcibly suppress the magic force surging from the depths of her soul.
Nagi knew very well what would happen if “Star Palace Nagi”, the female protagonist of “Starlight 2”, awakened, so she absolutely couldn’t awaken at this moment.
The soul fluctuations triggered by Garuda’s departure were far stronger than she had anticipated—strong enough to create a void in her psyche and split her soul apart.
Perhaps deep in her heart, Nagi had come to regard Garuda and the other contracted beasts as her true family.
At this moment, darkness enveloped all of Nagi’s senses.
She struggled in the depths of her consciousness as if drowning, desperately trying to grasp a life-saving straw.
But nothing responded to her calls.
This time.
In that pitch darkness.
Nagi could not feel the “starlight” that Kanade had bestowed upon her, nor could she see the “promise” that Kanade had made to her in another world line.
In the end, what responded to her was—
Tick tock—tick tock—
Star Palace Nagi, the selectable female protagonist in the original game of “Starlight 2”, was seen as a “chosen individual” along with the male protagonist “Tsukimi Kanade” in the original story. And the very term “fate” represented—Kaula’s Box.
—————–
Nagi felt a sensation of falling, as if she were endlessly dropping into the darkness until she gathered the only glimmer of silver starlight within her, the shard of starlight’s authority momentarily separating her soul from her self, allowing her to calmly examine herself from a “third-party” perspective.
Unlike the pure white space of Tsukimi Kanade’s Kaula’s Box, the space held by the female protagonist “Star Palace Nagi” resembled a deep and infinite universe. The designs of the two reflected a certain level of opposition.
“Kaula’s Box… is it?”
Calmly, Nagi straightened her body from this endless universe. Unlike Kanade’s space, there was no concept of direction; it was as if she were truly in a universe where her curvaceous figure floated weightlessly, surrounded by countless dazzling and radiant stars.
In contrast to the pitch-black flames floating at the center of Kanade’s pure white space, before Nagi now hovered a pure white star, pulsating as if it were a living heart, its glow illuminating her eyes adorned with starry pupils.
Beneath the white star was a series of circular tree-like diagrams presented in starry rings, with shooting stars crossing different rings at every moment, creating the “branches” connecting each ring.
If Kanade were present, he might have noticed that the number of rings in front of him exceeded the dark fire streams in his space by one ring.
That represented collapsed possibilities.
Results that had become determinate.
Garuda’s departure inscribed a new course for the possibilities experienced by the “protagonist”.
Perhaps Kanade’s consistent behavior had led Nagi to gradually overlook a crucial detail.
That is, there was not just one protagonist in the original “Starlight 2”. Although Nagi didn’t know what bug had occurred in this world that allowed her to exist alongside Kanade, and Kanade possessed the “fate” and “power” that only a “protagonist” could hold, her preconceptions hindered her thinking.
The unique existences in the “Starlight” original series might also exist in plural due to this bug-like development.
As a player who had always used bugs and unorthodox methods to clear games, Nagi should have considered that earlier. Perhaps it was her unwillingness to accept and acknowledge that result that led her to selectively ignore its possibility.
Until this scene truly unfolded before her eyes.
“…This can’t be, why now… why at this node…” Nagi’s starry eyes flickered crazily, as if this power could not maintain stability within Kaula’s Box.
Her gaze was now fixed on the outermost layer of the beautiful star rings.
As Nagi stared at these possibilities, aided by the authority of the stars, she could peep into the potential and retain consciousness from a “third-party” perspective.
But this was the result Nagi wanted to see the least—
Her existence as another “protagonist”, the disappearance of her first contracted beast “Garuda”, had become the node of possibility collapse.
The last star ring had just been drawn with the sacrifice of Garuda.
Once possibilities collapsed into reality, even the Kaula’s Box, which could provide infinite “backtracking”, could not change it.
Now, even if Nagi wanted to use the power of Kaula’s Box to backtrack the world line, she couldn’t alter the result that had already been settled.
Not just Nagi; even if Kanade wished to “backtrack” through his Kaula’s Box, the nodes of this world’s possibilities had already been recorded and covered by her. Thus, Kanade could only infinitely relive the moment of “Garuda’s departure”.
“Garuda, you idiot… you really didn’t need to…” Nagi bit her lip and bowed her head. In her weightless state, her bangs could no longer obscure her eyes, and the tears flowing down slowly ascended like stars.
Thump thump.
【Do you wish to make a transaction?】
The pure white star expanded and contracted.
A deep voice resonated from the depths of Nagi’s heart.
Nagi naturally understood what this question represented; it was the key to “activating” Kaula’s Box.
As long as she activated “it”, she would gain the ability to “backtrack”.
This meant—some form of “immortality”.
This was not the outcome Nagi desired.
This world did not need her, a “bomb that could explode at any moment.” Kanade would take her past place, helping her fulfill her true wish to “save this world.”
So—
“No, I refuse.” Nagi reached out to wipe away the last of her tears, revealing a resolute expression.
This world only needed one protagonist.
With Nagi’s answer, the sensation of falling struck her again.
It made her slowly close her eyes, enjoying the feeling of falling like a shooting star.
She knew what awaited her next.
She had long since prepared herself mentally.
What arose in her mind was the scene from when she first discussed and finalized this plan with Garuda.
She saw the helplessness on their faces back then and the smirk that resembled the dawn breaking through darkness.
—Is that so? So this is what the plan felt like back then?
—At least in the end, let me keep this feeling… and complete our final plan, shall we?
