[Endgame: rise or DROWN]

[warpweft]

[How long have you been exploring Nessa's palace now? You've met her family, viewed her memories, learned how to fight as a witch and tried to find the source of her power and the Treasure of her palace: the Voidheart. And along the way, you've tired your best, with mixed success, to avoid the incarnation of her eldest cousin and the representation of her trauma and fear, the Nightmare of Esmau.]

[Wherever you are in the Palace right now, you feel the ground briefly shake under your feet. Little shakes here and there haven't been out of the ordinary - Esmau is trying to blow the place down to the studs, after all. But that felt different. That felt....worse.]

[Your phone beeps as you receive a message.]

Comments

[voidhearts]

...

...

[Nell is still crying. She sniffs once.]

Do you really think...Nessa believes in me?

[You can feel the hole and the depths of its negative feelings shrink down just a bit more.

The warmth in your hand suddenly takes shape, becoming a white, pulsing orb of light. You feel a familiar memory radiating from it...]

[messianic]

I'm really, really sure of it.

[ a beat, and he looks down at the orb--and then back up at Nell, smiling a little to himself. He reaches out, gently, to offer it to her. ]

See? She missed you so, so much when you weren't in her life.

[voidhearts]

[Nell stares at the memory. She reaches out and tentatively puts a hand on it. After she does, she starts sobbing again.]

I...I missed her so much.

Grandmother Lilith was training us to fight her.

I just. I just wanted to see my cousin again...!

[The orb fades.....and so does the hole, completely closing up. Nell, for her part, just wraps her arms around Minato and cries into his shoulder for a couple minutes.

The haze around the two of them gradually begins parting.]

[messianic]

[ he's content to remain there, his arms wrapped around her in return as she cries. What else could he do? Nell has been so good to them this whole time--and it's heartbreaking to think of how much she's suffered. ]

You're really, really good family, Nell-san. Never ever doubt that.

[ It takes him a moment to realize the haze is parting, focused on Nell as he is, but eventually, he does look up to take in their surroundings. ]