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[At the last little stop the White Chalice had, a particular man took the opportunity to come aboard. His reasons, as explained to the captain and Ayame, were perfectly simple; one of the pilots had inherited the legacy of a good friend of his, and he wished to help clear a few things up for him. And thus now he was just waiting in a small conference room, a briefcase to his side as he waited for the man of the hour to show...]

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[...And in comes Roads, taking a seat at the table with a laptop and a flash drive.]

Hey.

So...you actually knew Dr. Reinhardt?

Indeed I am and indeed I did. And you must be Mr. Blackmore!

[Nicolai reached over, offering the man his hand.]

It's a pleasure to finally meet you; I would have done it sooner but unfortunately my own affairs are fairly complicated.

Uh, it's Blackwell, actually...

[Roads shakes his hand, though his heart's not in it.]

We've been pretty busy around here, too...So, mind if we get to business right away?

Indeed we can. And... apologies. I actually know so many Blackwells and Blackmores it's sometimes hard to keep track of which is which.

[Now that the little big of an ice breaker was taken care of, Nicolai reached into his briefcase and pulled out some papers, before turning back to face him.]

Now, according to the account you first met the members of the White Chalice on the 22nd of October, yes? That was also the time you met Dr. Reinhardt and first piloted the Zweilicht.

I suppose you must have quite a few questions that my friend wasn't able to clear up for you before his unfortunate passing, so please. Let's start with what you want cleared up and then I'll work from there.

Yes, it was...Quite an eventful night, to say the least.

...First off, the whole mansion was attacked by this weird regenerating monster. We've taken to calling it Fleshenstein, but...it could help if you explained where it actually came from.

The doctor seemed to know about it, but his files have so far been...unhelpful.

[Nicolai chuckled only half-humorously at the mention at the end.]

I always tried to tell him to...

Reinhardt was a good man, I won't deny that. But he never could keep his affairs in the best or most coherent of orders. And now you're paying the price for it; though I'll try to do what I can to help.

[His expression hardened as he began to take more papers out of his briefcase, each displaying strange, giant monstrosities battling with conventional armed forces.]

The creature that took his life was actually part of a whole, a terrible entity that existed and terrorized humanity in its distant past. Too powerful to be killed by the means available to humans at the time, a group of wizards nevertheless were able to break the demon, Ahriman, into fragments, and seal all of them away.

Roads, I have every reason to believe that the seal on these fragments has begun to break... and these monsters we've begun to see are those fragments, given physical form.

That...is not the craziest thing I've had to deal with in the past few months...

...Let me guess. The Zweilicht was built to combat them specifically, like the Fafners for the Festum.

[A nod.]

Dr. Reinhardt wanted to create a specialized machine for the occasion. Fortunately these creatures are nigh directless, just engines of destruction burning themselves out as time goes on... fragments of Ahriman's Id, most likely.

The parts can't function without being one, or at least not indefinitely. As immense as their stores of energy are, they continually bleed them off, and damaging does it even further. And the Zweilicht, I suppose, is a bloodletting machine for them; channeling energy it can then use as a weapon to inflict tremendous harm on them.

... Unfortunately, I've compared the Zweilicht as it is now with the notes Reinhardt shared with me... and it's incomplete.

...Incomplete? How so?

Work on the Zweilicht had been going on for many a year prior to you meeting the good doctor, Mr. Blackwell. Reinhardt saw the signs, he was right in guessing that Second Impact had damaged Ahriman's seal sufficiently to begin letting fragments of the demon's Id spill into this world.

And I'd met him many times... but always in different locations. Like... he'd work on something somewhere, only to drop it and move halfway across the planet before resuming.

I think he was being followed. Or under observation from people or things he didn't want to be. And whenever he'd change locations, he'd leave behind everything he could, including weapons he'd designed for the Zweilicht. Maybe he intended to go back for them some day; though obviously he won't be now.

Yeah, the encryption on those files he gave me seems...a tad paranoid.

...Did he ever tell you what had him scared?

No. Looking back now, I think he could have done that for my own safety. To tell you the truth, ever since his passing I've started to feel like I've come under observation too.

That could be why Reinhardt never shared the data with me; in an attempt to keep me from being targeted by these people.

At any rate... please. If anything, if you find these other labs and weapon caches, sack them for everything they're worth. Keep what's in them from falling into the wrong hands.

Right, I will. Already cleared out the base near his house, though we haven't found any others yet.

...You know, if you want it, I can hand you what he gave me. Much of his original data is unusable without some serious cracking, but there's still my notes and what I've gotten to decode so far.

I... would appreciate it. We might be able to find out a lead to the other labs this way.

Still, only trust me with what you'd be willing to risk falling into the wrong hands. Whoever wants the Zweilicht's power would have that much less work to do to take it from you.

[Roads fiddles with the laptop for a bit, then pulls out the flash drive and hands it to Nicolai.]

Here you go. It's got the original, encrypted files that Dr. Reinhardt handed off to me-evidently, they're something he'd trust a random hobo with. I'll hang on to the actual combat and schematic data I've gathered so far, since that'd involve some of the more practical weaknesses of the machine.

...Even if one of the doctor's enemies does get their hands on it, it'll take ages to turn it all into a useable form. And I've got a three-month headstart, along with actual combat data, so we should be okay.

Thank you. Between all of this, we should be okay for the time being.

And in the event my own investigation into the files provides something, I will see to it you're informed of any breakthroughs.

If we're lucky, no more good men will have to die to these monsters.

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