Leon had noticed several guards laying on the floor with their eyes open.

’Damn, just what was that drug?’

Whatever it was, it was highly effective.

On thor way, Irene explained to him that there is no direct route connected to the Akashic Record’s control room.

Leon already knew that.

To go there, they needed to use a teleportation platform, which was linked directly to the room.

As they walked down, the interior started to change to something more modern. The normal lights on the ceiling got replaced with yellow and blue neon lights, and the flooring had turned to cold metal.

It was producing so much chill that Leon was able to feel it across his boots.

And just like above, the basement had guards in military uniform lying on the floor with their eyes wide open.

Leon felt chill, wherever he looked at those wide eyes staring in their direction.

"What work Xuo did before working for you?"

Irene blinked at his sudden question.

"He worked as a candy chef just behind my agency."

Her answer made it worse.

It sounds like Xuo had some wild past.

’A candy store?’

He shook his head and let the thought dissolve before it went anywhere further.

Irene stopped in front of a door framed by strips of neon light. A numeric keypad sat flush against the wall beside it.

Leon was about to reach for the device when Irene stepped forward and entered six keys without hesitating.

Beep.

The door slid upward.

Leon briefly stared at Irene, but he didn’t ask how she knew the code.

He entered the room.

The room beyond was vast.

Blue lighting ran across the ceiling in long even strips, casting everything below in a cold clean glow. Rows of machines lined the walls, and the translucent monitors were all still active.

The guards and working staff were scattered across the floor and slumped over their desks, eyes open, completely under the drug.

And in the centre of the room, sitting on a raised platform, was a teleportation unit.

Leon recognised it immediately.

It was the same kind that had been inside the Blood Tower. And also the same kind he had found inside that cave leading to the forest where Lumina’s corpse was found.

It would have been useful if this connected to the Blood Tower. But until the loop ended, none of that was possible.

They did not waste a second.

Irene led Leon to the platform and told him to step on first.

He did. Revolver in hand, he watched as Irene moved to the operator’s table, entered a coordinate, and started the teleportation sequence.

Before the countdown hit zero she was already standing beside him.

"Ready?" She asked quietly, and extended her hand.

Leon followed standard teleportation protocol and took her hand.

In a single blink the room around them was gone.

What replaced it was a wash of bright light that slowly settled into formation.

Dozens, then hundreds of translucent screens materialising around them, each one floating above a desk in a room that stretched far wider than anything the building’s exterior had suggested.

They had landed on an elevated platform near the centre.

Leon blinked several times, adjusting his crystal contact lens before looking properly.

More than a hundred translucent screens filled the space, each hovering above a desk. The people in lab coats seated at those desks were all under, slumped forward or leaning back, eyes open.

At the centre of the room the golden pillar ran floor to ceiling, pulsing with plasma and current, thick cables branching from its base and running to every desk in the room like roots.

Leon let go of Irene’s hand.

His eyes caught a single screen where something was playing.

He focused on it.

A figure was floating in the air.

Long golden blonde hair loose around her beautiful face. Bright greenish gold irises glowing as she extended both arms outward, channeling a massive combined flow of Mana and Astral Matter into a giant magic formula forming on the ground below her.

Leon went still.

"Silvermoon?" He muttered.

He looked at the other screens. It was all from different eras, and different moments in time. All of them belong to Evana City.

This was what an actual Akashic Record did. Even as a replication, this one was doing something close enough to the real thing to make the difference feel academic.

Leon turned his head.

Irene had already moved to a particular desk. She pulled the keyboard toward her and typed a sequence of commands. The screen in front of her shifted, displaying a clean stream of code in binary.

"Ahh. It is still here."

She exhaled with quiet relief and turned to Leon.

"You are a genius, Leon. Look. Your written code is still here. It went exactly as you predicted. 7305 days ago."

"What did you just say?" Leon looked at her steadily.

The words she was saying had pieces that connected to what he had already figured out. But there were still things missing.

As he was turning it over, Rumi’s voice cut through his thoughts like a sharp sound.

’Ah. This is it! We found it!’

"Rumi?" Leon said her name out loud.

’The code on that monitor. It is the decryption key, which Irene showed. It matches every property of the Astral memories that were floating around her. Every single one.’

It was just two missing pieces. That was all it took for Leon to understand everything.

Leon brought his hand slowly to his lips after he realized it.

He had it now. The full picture of everything. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The person behind all of it.

The one who had structured every event Irene had been following.

The one who had fed Ethan’s quest progressed at that speed without him ever having to earn a single step of it.

It was all one person.

"No way." He said, looking at Irene.

Irene smiled at him.

"Leon Valentine. Let’s get all your memories back."

.

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A/N: 2 extra chs for every 100 Golden Tickets.