Lea

The protagonist of CrossCode.

**Lea** is the main protagonist of *CrossCode*. She has lost her memory prior to the beginning of the game, and she was logged into CrossWorlds in an attempt to recover it. Her identity and past are revealed over the course of the main story.

A problem with her Avatar's speech synchronization has caused her to be effectively mute. To work around this, she has certain words hardcoded into her avatar thanks to Sergey, starting with "Hi" and expanding over the course of the game. Lea's class in CrossWorlds is Spheromancer, a highly versatile but generally unpopular option due to being balanced as opposed to being overpowered.

## Appearance

Lea's avatar is a short (156 cm), pale-skinned girl with red hazel eyes. Her hair is bright blue, and is tied back in a waist-length ponytail, with cheek-length side locks and pointed bangs covering her forehead. She has a prominent scar across her nose. She wears an unusual headpiece consisting of a metal headband connected to ear covers and two prominent horns. Her standard clothing consists of a long white sleeveless jacket with grey trim and metal shoulder guards over a red shirt and short gray shorts. She also wears red armbands and thigh-high stockings, vambraces and white shoes.

Her avatar was at least partially designed by Sergey. In particular, he is heavily implied to have added the horns, which Lea is not overly fond of. In Rhombus Square, a player will ask to trade her flower hair cosmetic for Lea's horns cosmetic. Lea is ecstatic and agrees, but the player's friends reminds her that cosmetics cannot be traded anymore. Needless to say, Lea is not happy.

## Personality

Lea is an enthusiastic and skilled fighter, jumping into combat and proving herself to be very quick to recall the basics of playing CrossWorlds. She is a very expressive person, which helps her overcome the communication difficulties associated with her muteness. Given her amnesia, and subsequent lack of knowledge about both CrossWorlds and her past, she is frequently out of her element and confused by her surroundings, and occasionally shy around new people, but she is quick to take action, especially against opponents. She frequently gets annoyed by the aspects of her situation over which she has no control, such as her muteness and her avatar's appearance, or Sergey putting aside questions that she has about the dreams she has when logged out.

If the 'Sergey Hax' option is enabled in a New Game Plus playthrough, Lea will develop a bloodthirsty side to her during combat due to the massive amounts of damage she deals to enemies, much to the comedic chagrin of her friends and rivals. This is a clear reference to the "genocide routes" in many games such as Undertale.

If the 'Prepare to Hi!" option is enabled in New Game Plus, Apollo will become confused during battle when she consistently gets defeated in one hit. Of course, he accuses her of cheating, but is sceptical and even sympathetic since it would not make sense to hack something like that into the game. Sergey comments during the first fight with similar dialogue to the genocide route, saying that something "had to go wrong".

## Relationships

### Sergey Asimov

Sergey entered Lea into CrossWorlds, and is responsible for the technical details of setting up her avatar, including working around her malfunctioned speech synchronization. He continues to serve as her personal assistant, as well as her primary source of information about CrossWorlds. Lea is appreciative of his help, but is often exasperated by his overly technical explanations.

He eventually tells Lea that her real body is in a coma, and that she is playing CrossWorlds as a form of therapy after no other method worked. When this is revealed to be false during her imprisonment in Vermillion Wasteland, her feelings toward Sergey turn hostile, although she eventually forgives him as he works to help her escape and explains why he had to withold the information. After they work together to defeat The Creator and achieve their final objective, she entrusts him with negotiating with Instantainment about her fate.

If he is successful (Lea must talk to Ivan and get the good ending), in the events of *A New Home*, he is able to log Lea back in after several months, and after being let down by the floatation device Lea immediately hugs and repeatedly thanks him (he made a new account to avoid relying on Direct Link, starting at LVL 1 implying he hacked past Rookie Harbour). He helps Lea as they work with C'Tron to discover his true identity.

### Emilie-Sophie de Belmond

Emilie bumps into Lea while on Newcomer's Bridge, and assuming her to have made it through the tutorials swiftly, challenges her to a race in the Rhombus Dungeon. Afterwards, she chooses to accompany Lea as a party member while they journey together through CrossWorlds, engaging in more dungeon races, joining the First Scholars guild together, and becoming Lea's closest friend. Emilie is annoyed when she finds out that she was the only member of the guild who didn't know about Lea's speech module issue, but refuses to hold it against her due to Lea's inability to explain the issue.

When Lea is kidnapped and becomes uncontactable for a week, causing the Para Island raid to fail, Emilie was infuriated at first believing that Lea had blocked her, and is frustrated at Lea's muteness preventing a clear explanation when she returns. They eventually reconcile after C'Tron helps Lea explain that it wasn't her fault and that she had missed her friends. When Lea reveals the truth to the First Scholars, Emilie is the first to stand in support of the plan to storm Vermillion Wasteland, continuing to value Lea as a dear friend.

If Lea is banned by Instantainment in the bad ending, Emilie is distraught. If the negotiations are a success, she tearfully reunites with her in *A New Home*, and later asks Lea to race her through Ku'lero Temple. She demands to be included in plans to help C'Tron, and advocates for his right to stay in Homestedt.

### Apollo

Apollo is a fellow Spheromancer, who first meets Lea when he accuses her of cheating for having a level higher than what is normally possible after clearing the Rhombus Dungeon. He strikes up an immediate rivalry with her, challenging her to a duel at the bottom of Bergen Trail and later in front of Faj'ro Temple. His overbearing personality tests Lea's patience, although she enjoys the duels. In Gaia's Garden, he has a third duel with her, after which he accompanies Lea at his close friend Joern's request. Lea's relationship with Apollo becomes generally more amicable as a result. He later wins the race held at Grand Krys'kajo, after which he reveals that he has played CrossWorlds before.

After Sergey invites Apollo and Joern to the meeting where they reveal the truth about Lea, Apollo's sense of justice makes him firmly support storming Vermillion Wasteland. In *A New Home*, Lea and Apollo have another duel in Rhombus Square.

### C'Tron

C'Tron is a fellow member of the First Scholars, and meets Lea in Maroon Valley to accompany her as they are around the same level. Lea is initially annoyed by his scientific nitpicking of CrossWorlds' enemy and world design, but it soon becomes endearing. She is extremely grateful to him after he makes her and Emilie make up, and is sad when he leaves before she can properly say goodbye.

Lea's relationship with C'Tron is central to the events of *A New Home*. She continues to consider him a friend regardless of what they find out about C'Tron's past, and she is left with the final say on whether he gets to stay in Homestedt.

### Luke

Lea meets Luke in Vermillion Wasteland. She at first assumes him to be Schneider. He gives her a tour to try and cheer her up, and they work together to complete the placeholder quest of the location, and bond over their shared amnesia. When Lea finds out the truth about her, she is traumatized, and eventually breaks down in tears, with Luke consoling her. She grows attached to Luke over the course of their imprisonment, and his musings on their shared situation comfort her anxieties. They enter the Vermillion Dungeon together, and Lea is upset when they are separated. She manages to reach his instanced area through Sergey's hacking, and they attempt to escape, only for the Blue Avatar to freeze him in place, forcing Lea to escape alone, while he is left to be interrogated.

After encountering Schneider in the First Scholar guild, Lea immediately hugs him, to his confusion. Luke's captivity is a major factor in Lea's motivation to storm Vermillion Wasteland. Before crashing the Evotar server to prevent Sidwell from using it against them, Lea is briefly reunited with Luke, hugging him and apologising before he is disconnected.

In *A New Home*, the two are reunited, and become neighbors in Homestedt. The nature of their relationship becomes implicitly more romantic overall, most notably with Luke inviting Lea on a date that takes place in the ending sequence, if the player chooses to accept it. During the ending sequence, Luke notes that Evotars should have access to cosmetics while at the beach, and Lea replies with a smug face; "Swimsuits."

### Shizuka Sakai

Shizuka is a girl with a very similar appearance to Lea. She is initially extremely hostile, blaming Lea for the situation she is trapped in. She introduces herself by forcing her way into Lea's room in Vermillion Wasteland and traumatising her with the truth about Lea's existence. When they meet again at the Old Hideout, Shizuka begins a perpetual series of duels in an effort to prevent her from reaching Satoshi, but submits when he tells her to stop. Despite Shizuka's actions, Lea tries to forgive her, and Shizuka, realising that she would never be so merciful, accepts and apologises while recognising Lea as her own person.

In *A New Home*, Shizuka has a far more amicable relationship with Lea, treating her like a sister the same way Satoshi does. When the truth is revealed about C'Tron, she is outraged and demands that he leave Homestedt, and if Lea sides against her, she logs off out of anger. Shizuka appears to have gotten over it by the time of the ending.

### M.S Solar Crew:

Carla quickly befriended Lea after meeting her, and designed an obstacle course to help her get used to CrossWorlds, encouraging her and providing her with advice along the way. Carla is later revealed to have known the truth about Lea from the beginning, and chastises him for being thoughtless when it comes to her worries about the future.

Captain Jet is initially critical of Lea, due to how her presence disrupts the ship's operations and invites danger, but nonetheless helps teach her more techniques, and is fiercely defensive of her when the Blue Avatar arrives.

### First Scholars:

Schneider serves as Lea's guide around Rookie Harbor, and extends an invitation to her and Emilie to join the First Scholars. His teasing sometimes gets on her nerves, but she considers him a friend. He is confused by Lea hugging him, but doesn't make a big deal out of it. In *A New Home*, he additionally teases her about the time she spent with Luke.

Hlin is the leader of the First Scholars. When she finds out about Lea's speech condition, she redesigns the entrance test to suit Lea better, and acts as a motherly figure to Lea. She is disappointed that Lea's disappearance caused the raid to fail, but does not hold it against her.

Beowulf initially appears aloof to Lea, but is happy to talk about CrossWorlds to her, and in the good ending keeps her secret and arranges a meeting with Ivan Vestorovich to secure her future.

Buggy enjoys playing practical jokes on Lea, although if she contacts him during Chapter 9, his joke will cause Lea to cry, and he will attempt to make it up to her, demonstrating a relationship akin to an older brother to Lea.

### Antagonists:

The Blue Avatar becomes highly interested in Lea shortly after she logs in. He recognizes her from his past and attempts to eliminate her. He returns after interrupting the raid to battle Lea, and then captures her. After she successfully escapes his dungeon, she earns his respect, and he ultimately allows her to complete her goal against his superior's orders, after she faces him one last time.

Sidwell once had a close relationship with Lea, but when they meet again, Lea is disgusted with his actions. He is nonetheless pleased with how Lea is now free.

## History

### Backstory:

Lea is the first Evotar, created by Satoshi Sakai using his sister Shizuka's recorded neural patterns and memories obtained from her Avatar in CrossWorlds. He had the aid of Gautham Ranganathan, while his other friend, Sergey Asimov, chose not to defy their employer, Instatainment Ltd., who had refused to back the project. Their new benefactor was Benedict Sidwell, who also served as Lea's personal tutor and parental figure. Due to the unprecedented nature of her development, unlike later Evotars, she cannot speak, and due to a language disorder reminiscent of anomic aphasia combined issues with precise motor controls, alternative forms of communication proved difficult for Lea. She spent her early life in Vermillion Wasteland, an abandoned expansion to CrossWorlds. She was unaware of the blackmail Sidwell placed the other members of the project under, or the goals of forced information extraction he had in mind for Evotars. He was sympathetic to her alone, as she reminded him of Manuela, a former coworker of his.

Satoshi, now an Evotar himself after his death from a congenital heart disease, eventually realised that Lea presented the only opportunity to end the project while preserving his own existence and his colleagues' safety. He faked a malfunction of Lea, and convinced Sidwell to connect her to the Evotar server for debugging purposes. To do this, she was provided with the access key. When this attempt failed, she was relocated to Satoshi's own server, but claimed her to be unfixable, and was tasked with deleting her However, Satoshi instead sent her into the CrossWorlds servers, masked as a data corruption strong enough that only his old friend Sergey would be able to undo it.

As he predicted, Lea would eventually be found by Sergey, who realised that Lea represented a lead on finding his friends, who had disappeared when the project began years ago. He enlisted the help of Captain Gerald "Jet" McFly and Carla Salvatore of the M.S. Solar, and prepared to log Lea into the game unofficially.

### Chapter 1: Awakening

Lea awakens in the Cargo Hold of the M.S. Solar, with no memory of her past beyond a few central mechanics of CrossWorlds related to her class, the Spheromancer. She makes her way through the tutorial Carla designed for her, and meets Jet, who agrees to help train her. Out on the deck, Sergey and Carla explain to Lea what CrossWorlds is and tell her that she has lost her memory and they are helping her achieve it. Sergey is unable to fix her muteness, and opts instead to hard-code specific words into her, starting with "Hi". Jet's training session then takes place, but is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of the Blue Avatar.

The Blue Avatar recognises Lea and forces her to fight the Huge Hostile Crab to verify her identity. Jet ambushes the Blue Avatar with the Solar Fist and rescues Lea, ordering Carla to help her escape. She successfully escapes through a teleporter despite the pursuit of powerful enemies spawned by the Blue Avatar.

### Chapter 2: CrossWorlds

Lea appears near the end of Newcomer's Bridge, a tutorial area in CrossWorlds. She is informed that it is highly important that she does not raise suspicion due to her unofficial status, and that her speech issues are an uncommon but well-known issue among players. She bumps into a female player, who challenges Lea to a race through the last tutorial area, the Rhombus Dungeon. Their races are kept independent by the instancing system used in dungeons and other areas. After defeating the boss, Sergey adds "Lea" to her vocabulary to help her introduce herself. The girl beats her to the finish, and introduces herself as Emilie. Suddenly, another player named Apollo accuses Lea of cheating due to her level being too high, but he is rebuffed by his friend Joern, who apologies on his behalf. Lea and Emilie travel to Rookie Harbor together.

### Chapter 3: Into the World

Emilie takes Lea to meet with her friend Schneider, a veteran player who gives them a tour of Rookie Harbor. She is introduced to the Track of the Ancients, the main questline in CrossWorlds, and tasked with journeying through Autumn's Rise and optionally completing quests. Emilie accompanies her, while Schneider chooses not to due to his high level. In Autumn's Rise, they encounter Apollo once again, who challenges Lea to a duel to be held at the start of their next destination, Bergen Trail, which Lea accepts. Regardless of the outcome, Apollo demands that they hold another duel in the future. Emilie has to log off, and promises to play with Lea more. Just before she leaves, Sergey adds another word to Lea's vocabulary, "Bye". Lea is then logged off by Sergey, and has her first dream.

### Chapter 4: Dungeons & Guilds

Lea is logged back on the next day, and is immediately contacted by Emilie via the Direct Link system, who extends an offer to make a party with her. She also challenges Lea to race the Temple Mine dungeon at the top of Bergen Mountain. After arriving in Bergen Village and being briefed about the upcoming dungeon, they are invited by Schneider to join his small guild, the First Scholars. Going to their headquarters in Autumn's Rise, they meet the guild leader Hlin, as well as Beowulf and Buggy. They are tasked with passing a test based on the lore provided at the end of the Temple Mine in order to join.

The duo begin their second dungeon race, and the first that Lea can prove successful in. Lea acquires her first Element, Heat, and completes the dungeon. Lea and Emilie return to the First Scholars HQ. Sergey notes to Lea that passing the test without speech will be difficult, but Hlin improvises and alters the quiz to be multiple choice, allowing Lea to complete it fairly, and join the guild alongside Emilie, before logging off for the day, experiencing another dream.

### Chapter 5: The Ancient Desert

Lea logs back in, and Sergey tells her that her dreams are an indication of her memories returning to her, before providing her with two new words, "How" and "Why". She is contacted by another new member of the First Scholars, C'Tron, who asks to join Lea the next day. Emilie meets Lea and they explore the next area Maroon Valley together, as Emilie discusses how the length of their previous session had caused issues in her college group project. She is grateful for Lea hearing her out, and after reaching the village of Ba'kii Kum, Emilie logs out to deal with her assignment.

Before being logged out herself, Lea demands an explanation from Sergey about her condition outside of CrossWorlds. Sergey claims that her real body has been in a coma for several months, and CrossWorlds causes her to temporarily regain consciousness, so it is being used to help her recover. He apologises for witholding this information, and logs her off for the day.

The next day, Lea is contacted by C'Tron, who offers to join her as they complete a quest needed to access Faj'ro Temple. After defeating the quest's boss, Emilie logs in, quickly completes it herself, and the trio return to Ba'Kii Kum. They are confronted by Apollo and Joern again, and Lea accepts another duel to be held in front of Faj'ro Temple. After completing the duel, Lea, Emilie and C'Tron compete in another dungeon race, and acquire the Cold Element. Emilie, who has a fear of insects, is left terrified after defeating the Master Magmoth. Lea hugs her to calm her down, and asks Emilie about her life outside of the game. C'Tron, who was told about Lea's speech issues before contacting her, informs Emilie of the issue. She is frustrated by the fact that no-one told her, having assumed Lea to just be shy. Emilie promises to find out more about Lea using simple questions, and the trio log off.

### Chapter 6: Raids and Ruins

Sergey informs Lea when she's logged back in that she has been absent for three days. He provides her another word, "Wait", and questions her about the dream she'd just had, realising that she is remembering the late-game location Sapphire Ridge. Lea meets Emilie and C'Tron at Rookie Harbor, who reveal that the First Scholars had scheduled a raid for tomorrow, and Lea accepts the invitation. They note that they've already completed the main quest in the next area, Autumn's Fall, in Lea's absence, but offer to join her anyway.

The following day, the First Scholars go to Para Island in Autumn's Fall and begin the raid. However, visual glitches begin to appear as they get deeper into the raid, concerning Sergey. When Lea enters the teleporter to take her to the final stage of the raid, she is suddenly taken to an inaccessible area near Bergen Trail. There, she is confronted by the Blue Avatar, who is responsible for taking Lea out of the raid, and battles her for his amusement. Sergey tries to help Lea escape, but Lea is either defeated before he can intervene, or the Blue Avatar blocks her exit. Either way, Lea is captured and taken away.

### Chapter 7: Isolation

Lea awakens in a strange room that appeared in her dreams. She is visited by Gautham, who recognised her, although she didn't remember him. She is allowed outside, and finds herself in Vermillion Wasteland, unable to teleport back into the normal CrossWorlds locations, or contact her friends. Lea unexpectedly meets Schneider, who forms a party with her as they explore the area and start to complete its barebones questline. After finishing the first stage, Schneider attempts to log out, only to find he can't. They decide to go to sleep, and Sergey tells Lea that he is employed by Instantainment, and is a developer of the game, having used this information to discover that it's a scrapped area. Lea becomes suspicious of whether she really is in a coma, and is logged out instead of being offered an explanation.

After another dream, involving Sergey, Gautham, and Satoshi, Sergey explains that the three were all Instantainment employees five years ago, with Satoshi being Lea's brother, but they all disappeared a year later, with Lea suddenly reappearing in a coma recently, revealing that their other goal was to find Satoshi and Gautham. Lea reunites with Schneider, who gives Lea another tour to attempt to raise their spirits, including pointing to a large tower, from which people never return. Upon re-entering her room, Sergey tells Lea that her existence in CrossWorlds is unofficial, so he can't turn to authorities or the company to aid him.

After waking up the next day, an intruder breaks into Lea's room, revealing herself to be Shizuka. She angrily tells Lea that she's an AI copy of Shizuka herself, not a real human, and then accuses Lea of causing the entire situation she is stuck in. This triggers memories of Lea that confirm her to be an AI, causing her to experience a mental breakdown. Sergey begs her to believe that Shizuka is lying, but remembering his deception, she screams at him to leave her alone. Visibly shaken, she reunites with Schneider, who attempts to ask her if she's okay, but receives silence. When Schneider later tells her that they'll escape eventually no matter what, she breaks down in tears, and Schneider consoles her, reassuring her that they are both missed by their friends, and they decide to return to their rooms. Sergey attempts to apologise, but is rejected angrily by Lea.

She is logged back in for her fourth day in Vermillion Wasteland, but Sergey does not attempt to communicate. Her and Schneider complete the quest, and discover a messy apartment in the final room, which Schneider embarassingly realises is his, much to Lea's amusement. Lea and Schneider continue bond as he discusses his memories of real life and how their life still has meaning, even stuck here. She returns to her room, and is logged out without contact from Sergey again.

The next day, Sidwell arrives to interrogate Lea about any outside help she has, but she does not remember him and does not answer his questions. Sergey reappears, and instructs Lea to head for the tower with Schneider if they wanted to escape. Sneaking their way in, she finds herself separated from Schneider by an instanced dungeon. Sergey reveals his plan to hack the dungeon to allow Lea to break through walls to find Schneider and escape. She encounters another player bound to a machine, seemingly being tortured, and is interrupted by the Blue Avatar, who once again chases Lea, until he blocks her way with the Gastropolis, which Lea defeats with Sergey's help.

She reunites with Schneider, and the two make it out of the dungeon, only for the Blue Avatar to reappear, freezing Schneider in place and trapping Lea. Lea is saved by Jet's sudden arrival, who grabs Lea and flies back to the M.S. Solar with his jet pack, leaving Schneider behind. Back on the ship, Sergey tells Lea the truth about her origin and why it was kept from her. Before they log out, Sergey informs Lea of his long-term plan to create a place in CrossWorlds for Evotars, which comforted her.

### Chapter 8: Through the Jungle

Lea returns and is told by Sergey that she can re-enter the official game. She is immediately contacted by a frustrated Emilie, who tells Lea to come to the First Scholars HQ. Emilie is upset that Lea disappeared for so long and caused the raid to fail, and attempts to interrogate her to little effect except distressing Lea. When Schneider walks in, Lea embraces him, believing that he managed to escape from Vermillion Wasteland after all and that he can explain everything, but he doesn't seem to remember any of it. Mortified and embarrased, Lea runs away, and Sergey reveals that the Schneider in Vermillion Wasteland was also an Evotar.

Lea continues onto the next area, Gaia's Garden, alone. Apollo confronts her once again, and challenges her once again. After watching the duel, Joern suggests that the three form a party after realising her speech issues and that she seems to be alone and sad. They spend the day completing a quest for the Mayor of Basin Keep to get access to the next two dungeons, So'najiz Temple and Zir'vitar Temple.

C'Tron contacts Lea the next day, asking her to run the next dungeons together. When she arrives, it becomes clear that C'tron also invited Emilie, and wants them to make up. C'Tron carefully questions Lea to reveal that it wasn't her fault and that she missed her friends. Lea and Emilie are able to tearfully reconcile, and Lea is grateful for C'Tron's help. Immediately after, Sergey adds another word, "Sorry", which comes too late to be of much help.

The trio complete the two dungeons, acquiring the final two Elements, Shock and Wave. Between them, they meet up with the rest of the First Scholars, and Lea's apology is accepted. After completing a quest related to an apparent glitch, the trio are granted access to the current final dungeon of CrossWorlds, Grand Krys'kajo. C'Tron has to log out and Apollo competes in his place, winning the race due to his past experience with the game, and they log out for the day, having finally unlocked the area that Lea remembers, Sapphire Ridge.

### Chapter 9: Searching the Night

When Lea logs back in, she talks with C'Tron, who has just beaten the dungeon, and they return to the First Scholars HQ, to be invited to another raid. Sergey encourages Lea to decline, as the same exploit that got Lea captured could be used again. Lea explores Sapphire Ridge and completes the area's trials to unlock Rhombus Square.

Lea identifies an area from her memories, and is asked by Sergey to return alone. Together, they unlock the way to the Old Hideout, another unofficial location. There, she encounters Shizuka, who forces Lea to duel her to prevent her from making it to a building at the end. She yields after being contacted by an unknown person, who soon reveals himself to be Satoshi, or rather his Evotar. Lea is briefed on how she ended up with Sergey, told she is the first Evotar and that her speech difficulties are derived from this, and why only she can put an end to Sidwell's plot for good. Shizuka remains hostile to Lea, and Satoshi asks that the two spend some time together. Lea attempts to apologise to Shizuka for how she feels uncomfortable with Lea's existence, and when Shizuka attempts to reject this, she finally realises that Lea is her own person, and they reconcile.

Satoshi and Sergey reveal their plan to Lea and Shizuka, to recruit a group of players to storm Vermillion Wasteland through a secret entrance. Lea logs off at the First Scholars HQ.

### Chapter 10: The Final Raid

Lea wakes up, and briefly meets C'Tron, who reveals that he won't be able to play for the next few days, which prevents him from being part of their plan. She also learns that the guild member Beowulf is meeting his friend Ivan Vestorovich in Rhombus Square, and has the option to intrude on their meeting. If she chooses to, Sergey will recognise him as a shareholder of Instantainment and a supporter of A.I. technology. Lea meets with Beowulf, who is introduced to Sergey and agrees to remain silent for the time being about Lea's status to the rest of the guild. They successfully arrange a meeting with Ivan before he leaves on a several-month business trip, and if Lea successfully impresses him, he will promise to support Evotars moving forward.

Whether or not this occurs, Lea makes her final preparations before the plan moves ahead. Lea learns of their plan to crash the Evotar server using the Evotars in Vermillion Wasteland, and Shizuka is asked to focus on relocating herself physically to avoid becoming a hostage. The next day, Lea is tasked with recruiting the First Scholars (minus C'tron), as well as Apollo and Joern, using two new words, "Meet" and "Thanks". They arrange a meeting where Sergey reveals the truth about Lea, her past, and her time in Vermillion Wasteland. The group are surprised to learn Lea is an A.I., but it does not change their friendship and they universally support the plan. They meet in Sapphire Ridge and reveal the secret entrance that takes them to Vermillion Wasteland.

There, they execute the plan, and successfully crash the Evotar server with Shizuka's unexpected help. Lea reunites with and tearfully embraces Evotar Schneider moments before he and the rest of the Evotars are removed from the game by the server crash. Sidwell reveals that he has had the Evotar server instanced in Vermillion Tower, preventing Lea from using it without his will. However, Gautham arrives as the Blue Avatar, declaring that he has control of the dungeon as its creator, not Sidwell, and giving Lea full access if she can overcome his creation.

Lea makes it to the dungeon's end, and engages Gautham in combat once more, proving victorious against his Blue Avatar form, leading to him transforming into The Creator, who Lea defeats with Sergey's aid. Finally satisfied, Gautham emerges to congratulate Lea in-person, and then jumps off the platform they were on to his death, with Lea unable to stop him. Lea arrives at the Evotar server, and confronts Sidwell, who admits defeat and justifies his actions against Evotars as being the only way they can exist while creating value, to Lea's enragement. Satisfied with seeing Lea, whom he still fondly remembers from their time together, succeed, he leaves, to the anger of both Lea and Sergey. Lea accesses the Evotar server, and secures the data, ending Sidwell's programme for good.

Lea returns to the others, and is informed by Sergey that they cannot proceed in securing a future for Evotars without Instantainment's support, so he intends to negotiate for their existence. Lea will have to leave the game while this happens. After spending time with her friends and hugging them all one last time, she is logged out.

What happens next depends on whether Lea was successful in convincing Ivan to support Evotars, or was either unsuccessful or did not meet with him. If the latter occurs, Evotars are banned by Instantainment after Sergey is unable to find support for them, and Lea is confiscated, with her future locked away. If the former occurs, Lea will be allowed to return with Instantainment's support, setting up the events of *A New Home.*

## Gallery

* Character art from the TechDemo title screen
* Concept art
* Sprite
* In-game portrait.
* Old in-game portrait.
* Menu Graphic
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art
* Stream art

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/lachsen/status/1294026684723757056