Gate of Memoirs/The Path of Silence

You reject Kranus, and decide to put down the errant Voidling.
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "A God" 	Music: "A God"
 	
*You take a deep breath, and steel yourself.
*This is it. This is your final choice.
*Your ultimate judgement, in which hangs the balance of the universe.
*Who are you to decide who lives, and who dies?
*Yet decide you must—for the fates have seen it fit to foist this burden upon you.
*And so, you train your weapon on Kranus.
 	
*Kranus: ... ...
*Kranus: ...
 	
*Kranus: I am...disappointed.
*Kranus: I thought better of you; that you would—no, you MUST—see this madness, and do everything in your power to stop it.
*Kranus: And yet here you are... Here we are. Our swords, pointed at each other.
 	
*You shake your head.
*You know just as well how this would end.
*Kranus will not relent; not even if you are the one standing in its way.
*You hope in your heart of hearts that its self-preservation would win out, and that no more Slivers need to be condemned to nonexistence.
 	
*But the strange pulsing in Kranus's faceless visage draws your attention.
*Never have you felt such an aura of apprehension around the normally stoic Sliver.
*Kranus: Do you truly believe in the Queen, ?
*Kranus: That condemning this universe to silence is a better fate than the violence we are accustomed to?
 	
*Kranus inclines its head at you, and its gaze seeps into your soul.
 	
*Kranus: We are...creatures predisposed to struggle. To fight for our survival in worlds that care little for us.
*Kranus: But more than that—we are capable of change. Of growth, of death, and of rebirth.
*Kranus: Despite all the pain and suffering...surely you will not deny the compassion, the healing.
*You mull over those words, but the Queen's derisive, quiet laughter sounds somewhere next to you.
 	
*S'eljah: Laughable. Absolutely laughable.
*S'eljah: How very noble of you to rely on such *human*sentiments...
*S'eljah: The better to tug at their heartstrings, perhaps?
 	
*S'eljah: Or to mask the fact you are merely an abstract *thing* masquerading as something human?
 	
*The Queen's voice lowers to a whisper in your ear.
 	
*S'eljah: Do you see, ?
*S'eljah: An otherworldly creature that by all rights should not exist—one that should have perished along with Athensphere...
*S'eljah: ...Extending its corrupting influence into other worlds, and invoking the chaos within.
 	
*S'eljah: That, is the true nature of these ravaging cycles. Naught but corrupting strife.
 	
*You close your eyes. For all your efforts in aiding the people of other worlds...were you, too, one of these foreign meddlers?
 	
*You turn, and strangely, the Queen is sporting a benevolent smile.
*S'eljah: I know what you are thinking, my dear. You are not.
*S'eljah: For you were always meant to do so. Why else were you given the mantle of Summoner?
 	
*S'eljah: Not so for a Sliver. They were never meant to achieve self-determination.
*S'eljah: All must be as it should be; a force equal to you, , would only collapse our fragile balance.
 	
*S'eljah: Its potential has already exceeded what I feared. Everlasting prosperity can never be; you know that.
 	
*If even that which cannot die is destroyed, the ramifications are...dire.
*Nothing will know the embrace of nonexistence, nor what lies at the end of these interminable cycles.
*Everlasting prosperity may well become everlasting torment...
*You cannot allow such a fate to pass.
Music: "Transcendence"	Music: "Transcendence"
 	
*Kranus: ... ...
*Kranus: If this is what you truly want, ...
 	
*Kranus: Neither will I yield to your will.
Portrait	Dialogue
 	
*Kranus flares white-hot, reminding you of that fateful last moment of Athensphere.
*The plane shifts, shedding its molten carapace for a cosmic rift.
*A distant rush of sound reminds you of countless, endless battles—what is to come, and what will ever be.
 	
*You look up at the Sliver, whose blazing halo reminds you of gods and demons both—
*And once again, a struggle to survive begins anew.
 	
*Only this time, the universe is at stake.
*For if this fate is not carved in silence, then it will languish in suffering.