The Creator of Survival Evolved

"Huh? What's that?" Ultima asked, wondering about the term 'Survival Evolved' that came from Fico's mouth. Cynthia interjected before she lost her mind once more.

"Survival Evolved is the name of the game that our family participated in during the Old World. It was a game that tested the brutality of humanity, expanding upon their most grievous deeds to attain power. It purposefully took advantage of humans to justify the birth of the Arkian Species. During that game, those things that we know as Strands had been blooming in the bodies of Asterios, the people who ran the world and obtained the most power in the game," Cynthia said. Her eyes were dull while explaining, recalling the events of the past that she was forced to relive.

"Contrary to popular belief, Sky wasn't the one who even blew up the family's Strand usage. It was Ali Asterio, our mom. Her expansion was transferred to Sky and he lost his mind. His friends died after a while, and he was left alone with five girls you might know of. Hikari Asterio, Umbra Asterio, Illya Asterio, Faith Asterio, and his newly created A.I., Avie Asterio. He had planned for them to house some of his power, which is where most of the future was decided already. His power expansion was so severe that Oberon Slicious had to interfere and recruit a team of people who would 'top the leaderboard' and stunt his growth until somebody could come back to finish the job. That's why you call yourselves, 'Leaderboard Ten', isn't it? Well, it was supposed to be Twelve," Cynthia finished.

"This all started from a game? The ruin of the world? A game?" Netsu asked. He was almost irritated but was too confused to decide what he was feeling. 

"It was much more than a game at the time. It is integrated into our government systems. It became a pinnacle of the economy. If you didn't play it, you died. Sky knew, and tried to shut it down," Cynthia confessed. It made her look bad that she was so hellbent on putting a stop to him, at least to Ultima, but it made Fico feel even worse. The entire time, she thought she had been doing a good thing.

"So, how about now? Has the future changed? Is my life forfeit to Sky Asterio--"

"Even more so now than before. You've unhinged him further. I see that Dani Asterio will perish under the hand of her own father, and it will set him into a rage nobody will stop," Cynthia interjected before Fico could finish her question, and it made everybody standing around them silent. Oberon opened his throat to the sound of his daughter, Dani Asterio, dying.

"Dani Asterio... is that the name my daughter has taken up?" Oberon asked. He looked at his hand, clasping it closed over and over again as Cynthia nodded.

"I see... then, I will have to stop her from interacting with Sky Asterio any further," Oberon stated. It was just as Cynthia feared: Oberon would lose his mind even more than Fico has, all because his daughter fell under the grasp of Sky Asterio. The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.

"DAMMIT!" Fico kicked a hole into the ground even wider than the span of her body as she began to fume with rage. All of her hard work resulted in her death, and she couldn't conceive of a reason to stop it from happening. Oberon and the others were looking around at the damaged world, witnessing what looked to them like the Apocalypse all over again.

"This kid... this young ass kid, he's the one causing these all of these problems? I mean what the hell, it's just a kid," Twilight Autumn spoke up next. The mother to Carl, Twilight Autumn had several unknown abilities that she hadn't even revealed to the people who played Survival Evolved, and abilities she didn't plan on revealing due to the nature of her fighting style.

"This young ass kid took out an entire group of people planning to hunt him and enacting a plan to take him down for over four hundred years in the making! There's no way he should be alive! Not even anything like it! Yet, he is! We don't know his trick... we don't know how he keeps doing it..." Fico screamed out toward Twilight. She nodded, remaining silent as Oberon had been because of her confusion toward the bird girl. 

"Have we ever just considered that the boy knows what he's doing? I mean, he wouldn't have made it this far if he didn't... and what's with your obsession with killing him? Is this like a crush thing?" Lucius Pinewell spoke next. He was unsure of the circumstances but upset Fico instead of accomplishing anything else.

"Don't be ridiculous, I don't feel love. I can't, I wasn't made to. I was only made to take down Sky Asterio, and if I'm not doing that, then I don't have a purpose," Fico explained.

"You'll understand when you see him. Sky Asterio is my brother by blood, and he's extremely impressive. Don't let Fico's inflated explanation of his talents misconstrue you. He's powerful, extremely so," Cynthia said. She was emotionless, watching the future in her eyes pass by without her control.

"So, you're the man who created Survival Evolved...? Why? What did you gain from that one, Oberon?" Ultima asked next. She was sick of remaining silent in the group of people, looking up and interjecting with a question that had been burning in her mind.

"What did I gain? Besides the ability to live a life like this? To give life to my daughter once more? What reason would I need besides that? I originally was the team lead for the scientists at SAS, Strand Association of Secrecy, and developing a test for the public was what I needed to disguise it as a game before me and my Intern deployed it to the public," Oberon told everybody else. Cynthia knew the identity of this person he mentioned, but not as well as Fico.

"And that Intern was Eirikr Asterio," Fico dropped the information, stunning everybody around her.