zeta-4.0

Project Infinix

IV — Zeta 4.0

1. Eyes on the Prize

• Ana, walking alone, suddenly encounters Lupus, and she’s terrified.

Lupus

• At last.
• Don’t worry. I’m alone.
• He fully believes it, you know? That you’re the one.
• And he can’t think about anything else besides you.
• And I sure am curious, now more than ever, of what you can really do.
• We encountered some irregularities in our framework due to the incident with your friend a few months ago, but I believe it was just an Energy mismatch.
• Yours however, is it really divine? Is it really incorruptible?

• Lupus and Ana hear someone approaching.

Lupus

• Well. I guess that’s something we might have to unveil.
• Till the next time.

• Lupus disappears and Marie shows up.

Marie

• Something wrong?

• Ed, Marie, Ana, Syrox, Rui, Jeco, Masi and Kate find Zetania’s main control center, but they aren’t allowed to get inside.
  • They try to get in through a hidden passage.

2. The Oracle

• Ed and his friends encounter an ancient woman - the Oracle, telling Ed that she was expecting him and his group. She wasn’t expecting Rui, though.
  • She says that they’re not ready to touch the Terminal yet.

3. The Thread of Life

• Ed talks to the Oracle.

Ed

• I’m looking for answers.
• What will happen to Ana?

The Oracle

• Ana is quite the outlier in this System, isn’t she?
• I see you have noticed it as well. Although you did so because you’re blind.

Ed

• I’m what?

The Oracle

• Don’t worry. You’re meant to be. You two are.
• Your heartbeats are supposed to be in sync, and your heart just figured it out:
  • She has a pure and incorruptible heart.
• But is that really what they’re targeting at?
• You two were mindlessly reborn in this world, and for this world.
• Clotho, the Spinner, spun the thread of her life.
• Lachesis, the Allotter, measured that same thread and assigned her destiny - her share of fortune, suffering, achievements and fate.
• Eventually, Atropos, the Inflexible, will make use of her shears, and cut the thread.

Ed

• Is Ana in danger?

The Oracle

• Very few gods have managed to trick or negotiate with the Moirai, for fate is unavoidable, and if tampered with, the cost is high.

Moirai

In Greek mythology, the Moirai (often called the Fates) are the three goddesses who control the destiny of all beings, mortal and divine. They are Clotho, who spins the thread of life; Lachesis, who measures its length; and Atropos, who cuts the thread, determining death. Born in some traditions from Nyx (Night), the Moirai operate even above the authority of the Olympian gods, representing the inevitability of fate, time, and the limits of existence.

4. What Am I to You

• Ana talks to Ed.

Ana

• What am I to you?

• Ed gets embarrassed as he doesn’t know what he should answer.

Ed

• Uh?

Ana

• I found Lupus.
• He said you believe I’m the one.

Ed

• Uh.
• I guess there’s something in you that I haven’t seen in anyone else.
• Besides you not knowing who you really are, I believe you’re what Aether is supposed to be, as although you seem to have a Water Energy Cell, you can’t really harness it, and Lupus is trying to take over Aether, so he’s after you.
• But Null Energy can’t affect a pure and incorruptible heart.

Ana

• I have a pure heart?

• Ed blushes.

Ed

• Uh…
• I guess.

Ana

• Thank you. For everything.

5. Roaming

• Ed sneaks into the Terminal’s room and turns the screen it on.

• Installing patch zeta-4.5: Roaming - digital twins may hop between planets without disconnecting while…

Roaming

Roaming - a service in mobile telecommunications that allows a mobile device to use another network outside its home network’s coverage area. Roaming enables calls, texts, and data usage when traveling domestically or internationally, often subject to additional charges or agreements between network operators.

• Ed doesn’t understand what it means.
• Ana reveals she’s set to leave Zetania in a few weeks, to live in Tauland.

6. At First Chaos Came to Be

The Oracle

• At first Chaos came to be - a yawning, endless void, dark and silent, pressing against all that might be. I shivered in its emptiness, for it seemed to swallow even thought itself. The darkness stretched farther than the mind could wander, heavy and hungry, as if nothing could ever emerge from its silent depths.

Chaos

In Greek mythology, Chaos refers to the primordial void or the first entity from which the universe and all things originated. It represents the state of formlessness and emptiness that existed before the creation of the cosmos, from which the first gods and elements emerged.

• And then… a pulse stirred within the void, slow at first, then wild and insistent. Eros appeared, radiant with longing, a living fire of desire and attraction that pulled at the emptiness itself. Wherever his touch reached, the void quivered, drawn together by his irresistible force. Love and yearning flowed from him, shaping the first bonds, awakening the world from nothing. In that trembling, I felt it: the irresistible power of desire had begun, and nothing could resist its pull.

Eros

Eros is the god of love, desire, and attraction. Often depicted as a youthful, winged figure carrying a bow and arrows, Eros has the power to inspire passion and affection in gods and mortals alike. In some traditions, he is considered one of the primordial beings, while in later myths he is portrayed as the son of Aphrodite.

• The Oracle gives Ed an Eros Cell, able to save a loved one’s life if their hearts are aligned, with the sacrifice of both their memories of each other.

The Oracle

• A soul for a heart.

7—11

• Ed and Ana are getting really close.

12. Consumed by the Shadow

• A group of Null Miners shows up and starts attacking Ed and his friends.
• Ana is missing and Ed faces Lupus.
  • Ed asks Lupus where is Ana, and as he tries to hit him with his staff, it gets easily blocked and Ed is levitated by a floating shadow coming from Lupus and thrown to the air.
  • Lupus disappears.

---

13. Impending Doom

• Ed is desperate as he tries to find Ana but Null Corp.’s old hideout was destroyed by Jake.
• Ed notices from afar a light beam striking somewhere so he heads there.
• He enters a facility and hears some noises.
• Eventually he finds Ana struggling to get up, panicking and crying.

Ana

• I am so sorry.
• They did some things and I couldn’t stop it.

Ed

• Don’t worry.
• It’s all good now.

• Ed and Ana hug each other, and a weird liquid starts leaking from the ceiling and the corridors.
  • As it touches Ed, it hurts him as it looks like some acid.

Ana

• I couldn’t stop it.

• Ana levitates Ed and throws him to the wall. Then she directs a huge stream liquid against him and pierces the wall, throwing Ed away from the facility.

14. Corrupted Heart

• Ed finds X.

X

• No one is pure in this world.

• Ana gets nullified and sides with Lupus, X and Null Corp..
• She unleashes an immense power that no one could imagine she ever had.
  • This confirms that Ana was able to be corrupted, dismissing her chance of harnessing Aether Energy.
• Ed finds Lupus.

Lupus

• You look disappointed.
• Did you really think no one can be corrupted in this world.
• If you want a force capable to transcend everything - something divine, you shouldn’t expect the System to provide it for you.
• Sometimes you gotta do things yourself.

15—17

• Ana is hostile against Ed, his friends and everyone who stays in her way.
  • Her immense strength looks apocalyptic and unstoppable.

18. Unleashed

• Ana’s signs are finally revealed.

Ana

Null Miner null#2401aa00 @Null Corp.

Shell Sign Kernel Sign Energy Andromeda Ursa Minor Null

Andromeda

In Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of Aethiopia. She was chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster sent by Poseidon but was saved by the hero Perseus, whom she later married. Andromeda is a northern constellation representing the princess, and it contains the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way.

Ursa Minor

Ursa Minor represents Arcas, the son of Callisto, who was transformed into a bear. To protect him and his mother, Zeus placed Arcas in the sky as the smaller bear, forming the constellation Ursa Minor. It is a northern circumpolar constellation best known for containing Polaris, the North Star, which marks the direction of the north celestial pole.

19. Dragon Dance

• Ed loses another duel against X.

20. Galaxies Colliding

• Hoping he can snap her out of her Null Energy the same way he did to Jeco, Rui faces Ana in a duel, but his arrows keep getting deflected when they approach her.

21—22

• As Ana is causing immense havoc, it seems that Ed has to make the hardest decision to stop her, and according to Rui, snapping her out is out of the question, as nothing can suppress her Null Energy.
• Ed faces Ana in an inevitable duel.

23. Galactic Proportions

• In their clash, Ed’s staff is split into two sharp halves which Ed uses to lethally pierce Ana, right as she declares herself to him, confirming their hearts were indeed aligned. She says her last words.

Ana

• I’m sorry.

• Marie tries to confort Ed.

Ed

• I guess it really is a myth.
• Maybe no one can really be pure nor incorruptible.

Marie

• And that’s what makes them human.
• If we try to reach perfection, we’ll just be another pawn of the System, one compliant, predictable, and most of all, heartless, without a soul of our own.

Ed

• Maybe no one can really harness Aether, or maybe they shouldn’t.
• But I still have to find answers, for me and for her.

24. A Soul for a Heart

• Lupus and X suspend the Null program and disappear. Null Energy apparently vanishes.
• Ed uses the Eros Cell to resurrect Ana, with the expense of both losing memories of each other.
• Ed’s staff’s halves transform into a Kat’Ana enchanted by their memories.
• Ed’s XP seems to be half-way from the necessar threshold to reach a supposedly Null-free Alphantia.
• Ana and Ed, unknown to each other, both depart in different ways.
  • Ana is seen boarding a spaceship departing to Tauland.

Post-credits

• A group of mysterious agents seem to be gathering in an unknown place, which looks like a dark destroyed Earth.
  • They’re different from Overseers, though; they’re 3 meters tall, have face-less heads filled with a starry/cosmic canvas, and some feature a single large eye, others more than two arms, up to eight; and others also have a second head.
  • They seem to be serving an unknown being with a black cloak and a scythe.

??? (mysterious face-less agent)

• Atropos has cut her thread, and he stitched it back.

??? (black cloak being)

• Did she? Could she really have influenced his actions, and the most powerful free will?
• He was supposed to set his own fate - the conscientious one.
• Regardless, he didn’t stitch it, it just branched off to a new growing thread, and he is now paying the price.