Chapter 2: The Fire-Bringer

Chapter 2 "The Fire-Bringer" is the second among four narrative chapters that compose the main plot of the videogame Dry Drowning. Its introduction provides a brief recap of the consequences of Mordred's final actions in Chapter 1, including the ultimate result of the elections and how the detective became affected by chronic insomnia, still blaming himself for failing to save Pandora's last victim.

Since Dry Drowning features a choice based system that influences both how the plot evolves and specific dialogues that take place within it, some parts of this page have been *\*\*\*labeled with asterisks and set to Italic, implying a different version of a given dialogue also exists\*\*\**. The Alternative Dialogues sections associated to each narrative branch provide a full list of the possible alternatives.

This chapter also comes in four different variants that directly depend on choices made by the player while playing through the previous one (more information on route spawning is included at the end of Chapter 1's page). The final choice has also very relevant consequences (listed in the related sections at the bottom of this page) but won't spawn additional routes, instead setting in motion one among two catastrophic events that will take place during the ending (regardless of which one the player will eventually unlock).

## JailedBaker Freya Route (spoilers):

Slightly less than two months have passed since the events of Variagian 47. With no more than two additional months separating them from full bankruptcy and their reputation problems still preventing them from finding new jobs, money has somehow managed to remain the last one among Mordred and Hera's concerns. Blaming himself for the death of Abigail (whose throat-slitted corpse was eventually found in a garbage pile near her house), the detective has been unable to sleep properly. While Freya decided to support his intent of letting Baker be framed (blaming an unknown accomplice for the murder of Abigail), Mordred knows the real killer is still on the loose, his next strike being nothing but a matter of time. Baker had eventually been convicted, but his political power allowed him to dodge the death penalty to receive instead a life sentence that in no way whatsoever would ever prevent neither his influence nor his wrath from eventually reaching Mordred and Hera. Looking at the bright side, Baker's conviction also caused the Black Bands to lose the elections, sparing Nova Polemos yet another wave of violence. The detective found in his relentless pursuit of Pandora the only way to cope with his sense of guilt, still unable to fathom why he'd ever let a maniac go just to save the very person who had formerly tried to ruin his life.

This obsessions yielded no results up untill the moment a secret informer of Mordred finally decided to show up with a lead, calling him to schedule a meeting at Talon Square. Hera joins the rendezvous and is astonished to find out said informer is actually none other than Freya herself, who finally managed to make her move after having been forced to remain under the radar for a while. She now intends to return Mordred the favor, in that in addition to rescuing her at Variagian 47 the detective also helped her destroy the only existing evidence of her past before fleeing. Freya reveals that following Mordred's request she spent the past weeks investigating the encrypted emails found on Abigail's laptop, ultimately succeeding in identifying the sender in someone connected to Haephestus Tech, the largest company in Nova Polemos. While both Pandora's real identity and the real nature of his connections to the company remain hidden, Freya suspects he might actually be employed there, specifically in the medical division (given the surgical precision displayed at Treasury Park). Unfortunately, there's an even more convincing reason: Pandora has killed again, his last victim being coincidentally one of the company managers. The murder actually dates back to the day of Baker's final speech (with more than ten days having passed since) but unsurprisingly no one aside from the most highly ranked police officers are aware of it since the related information has been kept strictly confidential. Despite the risks associated with doing so, Freya chose to disclose said information with Mordred believing him to be the only one who could provide meaningful help due to his past experiences with the serial killer. She also subtly implies the dire situation Mordred and Hera found themselves into (regarding both Pandora and Baker) has prompted the police (or at least those within it who oppose the Black Bands) to keep an eye on them on a full time basis to ensure their safety. She thus expects them to return the favor by helping the investigations on Pandora's last murder, a proposal Mordred is ultimately more than willing to accept as long as he is also granted free access to all murder-related locations as well as some urgently needed money. Freya jokingly replies the two must be really desperate to ask the police for funding but does ultimately accept Mordred's conditions, providing him the coordinates of the crime scene. She also asks Mordred to immediatly report to the police station once he's done, mentioning the two of them also have some unfinished business that needs to be addressed privately.

The conversation is abruptly interrupted by the tremendous roar caused by the explosion of a bomb. Freya quickly points out the source were the nearby Black Bands' headquarters. It doesn't take her long to confirm a bomb had effectively just blown up the front of the building, supposedly also causing casualties. Realizing her services as a police officer would soon be needed she immediatly proceeds to leave, quickly followed by Mordred and Hera. Mordred insists he should go to the crime scene alone, asking Hera to go back to their office as he deems the situation too dangerous for her. She naturally protests against this decision, but Mordred cuts her short and starts running towards his destination. Only halfway through his travel he finally picks up one of the many phone calls Hera kept sending him, resuming the argument. Hera (now safe at home) scolds him for having yet again treated her like a child but eventually sets aside her feelings to focus on the imminent work to do, forwarding the police data to Mordred's AquaOS. She also asks Mordred his opinion on the bombing they witnessed minutes earlier: why would someone blow up the headquarters of a political party that was just defeated at the elections? Mordred is however just as clueless and suggests the two should keep their focus on Pandora and Pandora alone.

The detective finally arrives at the crime scene: a room belonging to Five Twins Hotel, still splattered in blood despite the removal of nearly every piece of evidence, corpse included. Using his AquaOS to generate a holographic projection based on the police data, Mordred makes a first, shocking discovery: the victims were actually two. Only one however was murdered following the ritual methodology typical of Pandora: an old man revealed to be none other than Cornelius Huber, the inventor of AquaOS. The victim had been drugged using "Morpheus", an anesthetic produced by Hephaestus Tech and typically used on patients about to undergo surgery: the police found several bottles of it on the bedside table despite the fact the product can't be sold and is usually only available to physicians and Hephaestus staff. Handcuffs had then been used to tie both the victim's ankles and his hands to the bed, preventing his escape. Finally, the victim's liver had been stabbed multiple times, causing his death. Eagle feathers were also found at his feet, implying the killer had gone to great lengths to create his scene since eagles are almost extinct and their feathers very valuable and hard to find. Using a red marker (or possibly lipstick) the killer also wrote a latin phrase on the mirror above the bed: "Prometheus Iapeti filius, primus homines ex luto finxit" (which translates to "Prometheus, son of Iapetus, first shaped men out of mud"). It is thus clear this time around Pandora's actions ultimately tried to reenact the myth of Prometheus. Mordred however also notices that unlike Alicia Hart's the victim's eyes had not been removed and his mouth had not been sewn. The biggest mystery remains however the second victim as not even the police could determine his identity and unlike the first man he was killed with a simple headshot, fired using his own gun. Said gun was found in his left hand and had apparently shot two additional times, the missing bullets not being anywhere in the room. The only way to enter the room was a single door that could only be opened using the associated key card, also emitting a beeping sound every time someone does so. Mordred concludes this murder looks even worse than the one at Treasury Park and that his first move should be heading to the police station to find out more about the victims, expecially the second man. Hera suggests he should allow her to join him since the situation has likely calmed down enough, and the player has to pick Mordred's ultimate response. If he accepts, Hera will thank him for finally showing some trust in her ability to look after herself. If he refuses, Hera will once again be upset and accuse Mordred of not being the same anymore after what happened to him in the last few months.

At the police station Freya confirms the police has no lead whatsoever on the second man, aside from the assumption he might have acted to save the first victim (only to end up killed himself). Mordred objects that had the second man really arrived with the killer still there he would have died near the door rather than on the other side of the room. He also points out the problem of the missing bullets: even though the killer might have taken the shell cases, there'd still be no way for him to cover the holes made by them. One possibility would be to assume the second man shot the killer twice in reaction to an ambush (since gunpowder traces were found on his hands), however the blood found in the room was confirmed to belong to the victims only. Moreover, this scenario provides no explanation regarding how the killer managed to kill the victim using his own gun: the premise of the second man arriving first would automatically rule out the possibility of the killer catching him off guard since the door emits a beeping sound everytime someone opens it. Freya concludes Mordred's objections are reasonable and grants him permission to interrogate the Hotel owner to find out more. In regards to the first victim she also confirms he was indeed the inventor of the AquaOS system in addition to being one of the most relevant figures in Hephaestus Tech altogether, corroborating the hypothesis Pandora might be an Hephaestus employee himself. Specifically, Freya suspects Huber might have discovered crucial evidence connected to Pandora's use of encrypted emails, prompting the killer to act in order to preserve his safety. Mordred however feels something is still missing, so Freya grants him permission to visit the company's headquarters as well as the home of the victim's two assistants in order to conduct additional investigations (albeit with the appropriate degree of discretion).

\*\*\**Finally, Freya gets to the point in regards to the unfinished business she mentioned in Talon Square, explaining how after Treasury Park both her and her subordinates were put under review by the police. She subtly accuses Mordred of being responsible for it (since he was the one in possession of the glove the police had failed to find) and now wants an explicit answer related to whether or not he actually gave David the glove, thus exposing her team's misconduct. The player has to pick Mordred's response, choosing between pretending he knows nothing about it or admitting his guilt. In the first case, Mordred will try to make up a story on how the glove was somehow stolen from him (as hard to believe as it may sound), but Freya will immediatly see through it and acidly remark she regrets having tried to trust Mordred only to see him go back to his old deceptive maneuvers. In the second case, Mordred will admit being responsible for it, explaining he couldn't know whether Freya could be trusted just yet. In either case Mordred will also specify that as far as he knew Freya could have tried to hide it on purpose herself, to which she will jokingly reply he'll never find out.\*\*\* (UNFINISHED BUSINESS Dialogue, triggered if the player gave David the glove in Chapter 1)*

Freya will then move on, mentioning there's also some news regarding Abigail and Mrs. Baker, which can however wait untill Mordred has completed his investigations. Before the detective leaves she also gives him a police report containing details about the two victims' time of death and the specific moments the room's door was opened, allowing Mordred to learn the two men died at 00:45 AM and 1:00 AM respectively. Finally, Freya points out Hera is missing and asks Mordred about her wellbeing following the events of Talon Square.

*\*\*\*Mordred vaguely replies she's fine with a frowned expression, prompting Freya to ask whether the two are having problems, to which Mordred gives an even more rude answer to end the conversation once and for all, claiming it's none of her business. Freya will thus allow him to take his leave, but not before remarking such an attitude would only cause Mordred trouble.\*\*\* (MISSING HERA Dialogue, triggered if the player asked Hera to stay at home earlier on)*

Mordred's first destination is Hephaestus Tech. Here he tries asking the reception desk for a meeting with someone who can share with him details on the murder, only to receive an automated response from a robot that puts him in an endless queue. He tries to protest claiming he's investigating on behalf of the police, but to no avail. After two hours have passed, his attention is suddendly caught by an ongoing argument between two people passing by. Eavesdropping, he learns a woman is trying her best to prevent a man from running away. She begs him to help her since he owes Cornelius for his current position, but he refuses and leaves, claiming giving her credit would only cause him to end up killed too. Mordred thus proceeds to approach the woman once she is alone, correctly presuming she may be tied to one of the victims: she introduces herself as Thalia Wells. Speaking with her allows Mordred to understand the reason behind the amount of security he met: Hephaestus Tech is a crucial cornerstone of the political system of Nova Polemos, and the servers of AquaOS and Caligula (as well as all data related to Patterson test) are kept inside its main building. More importantly, the woman's bond with the first victim is revealed to be a significant one: she was actually his girlfriend and the two were even planning to get married. Cornelius had purposefully kept their relationship hidden as he feared for her safety, suspecting someone inside Hephaestus Tech wanted to kill him. Thalia explains she was also the one who gave the alarm the evening he went missing (the gps signal of his AquaOS being also unresponsive): when the police eventually found him, it was unfortunately too late. She then shares information regarding Cornelius' two assistants: both were very close to them since they were endlessly competing over who would become Huber's successor. One of them, named Dean, had in the end prevailed thanks to his gentle manners and the popularity gained by a famous videogame of his creation, called "Be a good citizen" and actually used by Hephaestus to gather people's private data. The other, named Eugene, was instead a cybersecurity expert and none other than the man Mordred saw running away a few minutes earlier: Thalia is convinced he's refusing to help out of spite, still disappointed for his rejection. She advices Mordred to speak directly with them if he wants to find out more and also explains he has no chance of finding anyone else willing to speak with him at Hephaestus as everyone is too afraid of ending up investigated themselves. Before allowing him to leave though, she also entrusts him with a crucial piece of evidence she's not willing to share with anyone else: Huber's very own AquaOS, which she found herself in a trash bin next to the hotel. Its data is inexplicably corrupted and she wants Mordred to find someone capable of restoring it as she doesn't trust the police, fearing they could just destroy the evidence if it points to someone too powerful (such as another manager of Hephaestus Tech). The detective thus proceeds to leave for his next destination, aware he can trust Thalia since he didn't spot any mask on her.

The next place Mordred proceeds to visit is Five Twins Hotel once more, in order to ask its owner information related to the night of the murder. He finds her right in room 237, where she introduces herself as Nadine Stirling. Nadine explains she founded the hotel fifteen years earlier together with her husband, inheriting it after his death. She now runs it along with nine other people, most of which however leave the hotel after 23:00, implying almost no one was there when the murder took place. Out of sheer prejudice she is firmly convinced the currently ruling political class must be behind both the murder and the bombing at the Black Bands' headquarters. Mordred however asks her to keep her focus exclusively on her memories of the night, ready to press her further if he hears details he finds particularly relevant (in order to have Mordred do so, the player may click any part of the text that is highlighted). Nadine explains she always sleeps at the hotel as she doesn't feel safe walking home on her own. The night of the murder she was thus in her room when she suddendly heard several gunshots around 1:00. Mordred promptly presses her on the multiple gunshots, as this would confirm the victim's gun shot more than once: Nadine specifies they must have been two or three, all shot in rapid succession. Resuming her recap she explains she immediatly proceeded to call the police, which arrived roughly 20 minutes later (implying the killer fled very quickly). Satisfied, Mordred moves on and asks her about the hotel's security protocols. She explains the hotel doesn't use security cameras as access during the night hours is only possible using a personal card. Any given room becomes accessible only after identification and its door emits a beeping sound every time someone enters. According to the records, Huber allegedly entered his room at 16:00, 20:00 and 1:00. Astonished, Mordred asks how it would be possible for Huber to have accessed his room at 1:00 given he was already dead at that time. Nadine assumes someone else might have entered the room using Huber's AquaOS, thus revealing access is also possible using a registered AquaOS instead of the key. She apologizes for forgetting to mention it earlier and asks Mordred if there's anything else he would like to know about. Satisfied with what he was able to discover (though at the same time puzzled by how things are turning out to have gone), Mordred replies what she mentioned will be good enough. He thus thanks her for the help and allows her to go, proceeding to take his own leave right after in order to pay Dean Smith a visit at his place.

Once Mordred arrives at the house of the Smith brothers he finds quite the surreal place: a very dark environment decorated with weird statues and masks, resembling the stereotypical serial killer hideout. He is immediatly greeted by Dean Smith, who introduces himself as the former assistant of professor Huber and grants him permission to ask questions and take a look around if necessary. Mordred begins by asking where his brother's at, to which Dean replies Eugene hasn't come home in weeks and also stopped answering phone calls, proving yet again he's immature and childish. Mordred asks him to elaborate more on this point, so Dean explains that unlike him his brother had always been extremely committed and serious in both his work and their endless competition to win their mentor's favor. Eugene's emotional investment had given him a total breakdown when Dean was ultimately able to beat his efforts with a videogame, something Eugene considered too trivial and unworthy of surpassing his own work. Dean however also clarifies "Be a Good Citizen" is a lot more than a videogame, in that it was a powerful tool capable of both scouting and influencing people's preferences and habits. Mordred doesn't hide his negative opinion of such a creation, but Dean dismisses his critics as too naive, as according to his own opinion manipulating people is an inevitable part of building personal success. The detective thus moves on and asks Dean about his relationship with the victim. Dean sadly replies Huber was akin to a father and that his death was the worst shock he ever experienced in his life. Dean, Eugene and his fiancée Thalia were the three people that loved him the most, but he was widely respected by the rest of the city as well, implying Dean couldn't fathom why Pandora would ever want to kill him. Mordred is confident Dean is being truthful since he sees no masks, so he moves on and asks him about Hephaestus Tech next. Dean expresses his concerns for the monopolistic position held by the company: since Hephaestus filters all information coming from the outer world, he wouldn't be surprised if it actually turned out to be a lot different from how local media describe it. What Mordred was really after though is information regarding the encrypted email circuits used by the company: unfortunately Dean can't help him since cybersecurity isn't his field. Mordred thus moves on and shows him the corrupted AquaOS received by Thalia, asking Dean whether he'd be able to restore its data. Dean is confused as corrupting an AquaOS' data should be impossible to begin with but is confident he may be able to repair it. He also invites Mordred to give "Be a Good Citizen" a try while he waits. After the player has completed at least one level of the videogame, Dean will explain he figured how to repair the damaged AquaOS but that doing so would take him some hours: he thus advices Mordred to continue his investigations elsewhere in the meantime.

Mordred thus heads back to his office, finding Hera still angry for his former behaviour. She sarcastically asks him if he came back to check on her again and make sure she hadn't left home in the meantime. Mordred doesn't hide his own annoyance for the shot.

*\*\*\*Hera justifies her words claiming she knows Mordred can do better, as he already proved so by keeping his word and refusing to help Baker and the Black Bands.\*\*\** *(ANGRY HERA (PROMISE) Dialogue, triggered if Mordred made his promise at the beginning of Chapter 1) (Grants a Reconciliation score of +2)*

She also points out the last case has changed him profoundly.

*\*\*\*Mordred replies that despite any change he always kept his main focus on ensuring Hera's safety, even while they were working together on the Treasury Park case. Hera in turn says she understands Mordred's concerns but he must learn to accept her as a colleague and an equal, respecting her own decisions without imposing his own will.\*\*\* (ANGRY HERA (TREASURY PARK) Dialogue, triggered if the player refused to hang up on her while examining the scene at Treasury Park) (Grants a Reconciliation score of -1)*

*\*\*\*She also remarks she's still furious at him for having asked her to remain at the office after he finished analyzing the hotel room.\*\*\* (ANGRY HERA (LAST STRAW) Dialogue, triggered if the player asked her to stay at home earlier on) (Grants a Reconciliation score of -1)*

Mordred thus tries to reconcile with her, claiming he's tired of arguing and admitting he has been tremendously afraid of losing her ever since the events of Variagian.

*\*\*\*Hera jokingly asks Mordred if it ever occurred to him she might want to protect him too and that all she needs from him is his support: even facing xenophobic political parties and serial killers will be possible as long as the two of them succeed in remaining together. She then asks him to tell her what he found out while investigating.\*\*\* (RECONCILIATION Dialogue, triggered if the total sum of the Reconciliation scores is not a negative number)*

Listening to Mordred's recap rings a bell, confirming a suspicion Hera always had ever since she first saw the crime scene. She asks Mordred if the two still have any of the old photos depicting Pandora's former victims to make a direct comparison. Mordred replies not much is left since the police seized almost everything in order to look for evidence to use against him, yet a single picture survived: it depicts the crime scene of the Keaton case (Pandora's first male victim and fourth in chronological order), reenactment of the myth of Narcissus. Hera thus proceeds to reflect on the Treasury Park, Five Twins Hotel and Keaton cases together in order to think about which elements are recurring or unique (the player has to manually move them on the associated pictures), ultimately spotting a big discrepancy between the current case and the other ones: while in his past murders Pandora never left any direct reference to the myth he was reenacting (almost as if he wanted people to figure out themselves), the quote on the mirror left this time reveals his intentions way too easily, ultimately ruining his own artistic efforts. Hera's final conclusion is that the culprit behind this murder is actually not the real Pandora but someone trying to pose as the serial killer in order to put the blame on him. While the two are busy debating the implications of such a discovery, Morded's AquaOS will receive two new messages: one is from Dean Smith (who has successfully repaired the damaged AquaOS and is ready to see him again), the other is from David Casey (who wants to meet Mordred in his office to discuss something very important).

Mordred decides first of all to visit the Smith house again. Dean agrees to transfer all the data he was able to recover directly to Mordred's own AquaOS but also specifies the restored information dates back to no longer than a few days before the professor's death, the rest being unfortunately lost. In the first among three log files now available to Mordred the professor references a new breakthrough he was able to achieve thanks to the genius of his assistant, though he also seemed worried about its potential consequences on the city since it's actually a virus. He seemed expecially terrified at the thought it could kill Thalia, enough so he was suffering from sleep deprivation and apparently about to accept some kind of offer from an unspecified stranger. In the second log he confessed being more and more tempted by said offer, suggesting despite the fact he hadn't much left to live he had to act nonetheless in order to protect Thalia, even at the cost of dooming everyone else. He also mentions his biggest regret was his past choice of keeping Thalia close to him despite knowing she would eventually face danger because of his selfish decision. In the third and final log he claimed he and Thalia were about to flee towards their new life thanks to a safe-conduct, the departure being scheduled for the day after. Mordred immediatly demands answers from Dean, who however claims to be just as oblivious, suggesting Eugene must be the one involved instead. Unfortunately for him a mask becomes visible to Mordred, making it clear he must be hiding something. The detectives decides however to play along and leave for now, believing the evidence in his possession to be not enough just yet.

He thus heads to David Casey's office to figure out what the lawyer is up to this time. After greeting Mordred with just as much irony as usual, David turns serious and gets straight to the point: he has reason to believe him and Hera are in serious danger. According to the lawyer, Baker never stopped looking for revenge despite the fact the bomb at the Black Bands headquarters delayed his plans quite significantly.

    Mordred asks him if he has any clue regarding who might be responsible for the attack, but David replies he has no useful information as of now.

*\*\*\*He also specifies that as if Abigail's death wasn't enough, Baker's wife also divorced him after realizing his affair with Alicia was a real thing. Needless to say, this did nothing but fuel Baker's hatred for them even more, prompting Mordred to question his former choice of telling Anne the truth.\*\*\* (ANNE SHERMAN Dialogue, triggered if the player told her the truth in Chapter 1)*

Hera proceeds to explain they have no reason to be worried since the police already anticipated such a possibility and guaranteed them protection. Unfortunately David isn't quite as optimistic and believes the police would never be enough to stop someone like Baker. Fortunately for Mordred and Hera though, he is ready to offer them his own support. He refuses however to tell them why he is so eager to help (claiming he has his own reasons) and doesn't specify what this proposal actually consists of either (save the fact it's going to have a price and involve breaking the law). Mordred objects he's not willing to trust him this easily since David used to work for Baker himself in the first place, demanding more information. David replies he can't tell him anything just yet but that once the time comes everything would be clear, asking if the two are ultimately interested in his offer. The player has to pick Mordred's answer. If Mordred accepts, David will gladly tell him the two of them would soon hear from him again, prompting the detective to wonder whether it was actually a good idea to trust him. If he refuses an astonished David will ask him to reconsider (also implying the choice would have very negative ripercussions) but Hera will reply the two of them already have enough problems as it is and his stubborness in keeping details for himself only makes it harder for them to trust him. In either case the lawyer will let Mordred and Hera go back to their investigation.

Mordred will then visit Hephaestus again, this time around being lucky enough to meet a manager right away: he introduces himself as John Deckard. He explains the police had already prepared him for Mordred's arrival beforehand, so the detective begins asking his questions right away, starting from information regarding the first victim. John confirms he was widely respected both within and outside the company, wondering himself who could ever want him dead (expecially since he was about to get married). He also claims he had mostly been doing medical research aimed at developing mechanical prosthetis as of late, implying not even his most recent activities could provide any clue capable of explaining why someone would suddendly want to kill him. Mordred thus moves on and asks John to tell him what he knows about the professor's two assistants. John describes Eugene as shy and bad-tempered, a person so obsessed with success and surpassing his brother he would often lock himself up in the server rooms for days just to grind away at his projects (even at the cost of his own physical and mental health). John was thus not surprised when Eugene had a breakdown since Dean had managed to become Huber's successor in spite of his devious habits. Hera immediatly asks the manager to better describe these "devious habits" of Dean: John explains he often looked at Thalia with a maniacal gaze and never even tried to hide the fact he felt a deep attraction for her. In light of this Mordred can't quite understand why Huber would still choose him, but John explains Dean was clever enough to never cross the line in ways that would be deemed too inappropriate. Mordred concludes he should probably ask Thalia personally about this issue and moves on, tackling the most important topic: Huber's virus. When the detective asks John whether Hephaestus was working on a biological weapon of some sort the manager replies with anger at what he considers an outrageous allegation, which convinces Mordred only the professor and his assistants must have known about the project since he doesn't see any mask on John. He thus changes topic again and asks John's help in order to investigate the encrypted emails found on Abigail's laptop. Unfortunately John explains he cannot access any information without an authorization issued directly by the government. Mordred has thus no choice but to focus again on the current case, this time showing John pictures of evidence. He first shows John the sleeping pills found next to the victim's bed: John confirms they are produced by Hephaestus and normally not accessible to anyone but a selected few. They are capable of inducing a semi-comatose state that lasts for no less than seven hours, corroborating the assumption the victim was drugged before being killed. Mordred then shows John the damaged AquaOS belonging to professor Huber, asking the manager to confirm the device's data is actually directly processed by the central server located at Hephaestus. John confirms this is how the technology works, suggesting the only way to corrupt an AquaOS' data would be to tamper directly with the main server itself. Since the only ones who have access to it are the police, the government or Hephaestus staff members assigned to it, Mordred concludes only one of the Smith brothers could have sabotaged it without being noticed. Finally, Mordred shows John a picture of the second victim, causing him to panick visibly. John admits the second man was known to Hephaestus Tech: his name was Demetrius Sievers and was actually an ambassador sent to Nova Polemos by NeoEurope (one of the city's neighbouring superpowers) a couple of days earlier. Sievers was Hephaestus' foreign contact for commercial partnerships and technology exchanges and as such had diplomatic immunity and was protected directly by the government, who had gone to great lengths to hide his real identity (up to a point not even the police could determine it). John finally understands why it seemed like Sievers had suddendly disappeared and also realizes that if news of his death were to become public a very serious diplomatic incident could break out. He thus orders both Mordred and Hera to remain silent, suggesting he would personally take care of informing the police and those involved who needed to know. Mordred speculates Huber could have possibly made contact with Sievers using his own encrypted email account, but John is unable to corroborate such a claim as this type of information is unfortunately beyond his reach. Nevertheless, the detective is finally seeing the puzzle come together and now also understands the reason behind Dean's mask. He concludes he must now find Thalia to get the last missing piece before he can force Dean to confess the truth.

Mordred is eventually lucky enough to stumble in Thalia while crossing Talon Square. She immediatly asks for updates regarding Huber's AquaOS, so the detective shows her the terrible truths he was able to unveil. Thalia is shocked at first but when Mordred begs for her help she proceeds to answer the detective's questions without hesitating. Mordred first asks her to confirm the rumors related to Dean: Thalia admits he was kind of obsessed with her but at the same time never did anything out of line either, as his weird behaviours consisted mostly in the creation of videogame characters and pieces of poetry dedicated to her. Huber was aware of this and the two had consequentially argued on more than one occasion, but despite everything the professor had still decided to nominate Dean his successor. Still uncapable of understanding such a decision, Mordred asks Thalia if she was aware of Huber's secret plan to make a deal aimed at having them flee the city undercover. Thalia admits Huber had expressed the desire to leave with her on many occasions but had also been always aware leaving Nova Polemos would be almost impossible, expecially since he was a senior manager of the city's most important company. Lately he had been expressing his happiness for their imminent marriage in such a repetitive way it almost seemed like he was actually hiding something that made him very sad. He hadn't ultimately told her of any secret plan to escape but had indeed started to send a conspicuous amount of encrypted emails, mostly to foreign recipients. Satisfied, Mordred finally tackles the most important topic: the virus. While Thalia is still traumatized by the idea his fiancée could contribute to such a horrible project, what Mordred actually wants to know is whether the professor had any other assistants aside from Dean and Eugene. Since Thalia confirms that is not the case, Mordred is now fully convinced one of them must have been responsible for the creation of the virus. Realizing he had not been able to speak with Eugene just yet he also asks Thalia if she had any news in regards to him. Unfortunately she replies he's seemingly impossible to find, but also mentions having an idea on how to possibly determine his location. She doesn't want to be more specific about the details but promises to send Mordred the address as soon as she succeeds. The detective thus thanks Thalia for her help and departs, now finally ready to confront Dean.

At the Smith house Mordred opens up the conversation with Dean by explaining he's well aware Pandora was actually not the person behind the professor's death (since he would have never left the phrase on the mirror). Dean can't quite understand what Mordred is pointing at, so the detective proceeds to reconstruct all the events in order. To begin with, the professor was trying to flee the city with Thalia by making a secret deal with Demetrius Sievers, the second victim. Sievers was the perfect opportunity because his ambassador privileges allowed him to bypass the city's security with ease. Moreover he already happened to be in Nova Polemos due to business related to Hephaestus. Mordred concludes Huber must have asked him to meet at Five Twin Hotels, and that Sievers must have consequentially arrived at 20:00 (the former access of 16:00 being just a security check made by the professor on his own). Since the professor died at 0:45 and since the police report made it clear the room's door was never opened again untill 1:00, Mordred also concludes Huber must have been killed by the only person who had been with him all the time: Sievers himself. Hera still doesn't get why Sievers didn't simply flee the hotel after killing him so Mordred explains his final deduction: Sievers was actually waiting for someone, whom he had made a different agreement with before killing Huber and who was very likely either Eugene or Dean (which would also explain why at 1:00 the opening door didn't scare him). Dean feels insulted by Mordred's allegations, claiming the detective has no idea of how important Huber was for him. Mordred however ironically replies he has conversely quite a clear idea of Dean's feelings for Thalia, suggesting Dean could have conspired to kill the professor in order to have her for himself. Hera however suggests Eugene had even more reasons to do so: assuming the virus was effectively one of his creations, he might have discovered the professor's plan to sell it and not liked the idea (let alone being already furious for being ditched in favor of Dean). Regardless of which one among the two, Mordred is nevertheless convinced the murder was indeed planned with the help of one of the Smith brothers, the sleeping pills being the ultimate evidence that confirms it (since they are almost impossible to retrieve for people who are not employed at Hephaestus). Moreover, few people aside from Dean or Eugene could have sabotaged the data on Huber's AquaOS after using it to open the door and kill Demetrius.

Dean however has enough and experiences a complete breakdown, also pointing out he was the one who helped them repair it in the first place: he claims Mordred and Hera must be two incompetent idiots since they keep accusing him without knowing what his brother would actually be capable of. He then starts screaming frantically saying the two should find him and kill him as soon as possible before he manages to kill everyone else. Mordred tries to calm Dean down and asks him where his brother might be but a new mask appears on his face (this time representing his breakdown) just as he proceeds to run away, claiming he hates everyone. After witnessing this, Hera is fully convinced Dean had nothing to do with the murder after all. A few moments later Mordred receives a message from Thalia: she was successful in tracking down the signal of Eugene's AquaOS despite his attempts at hiding it. Unfortunately, the signal is still not clear enough and points at a very broad area: the exact location will only become available after the player manages to isolate the exact source by solving the associated puzzle game. Eugene will be ultimately revealed to be hiding inside one of Hephaestus Tech's most peripheral labs, to which Mordred rushes immediatly.

As soon as he arrives the detective realizes the place must be signal proof for security reasons (thus finding himself prevented from contacting Hera or anyone else) but is fortunate enough to find Eugene right away. Eugene is startled by Mordred's arrival but also claims he was actually not hiding since he hadn't done anything wrong. Unsurprisingly a mask shows up on his face but an unrelenting Mordred begins pressing him immediatly. He first accuses Eugene of having known Demetrius Sievers all along: it was ultimately him who had made a secret agreement with the ambassador, offering him the virus to draw his attention. Eugene starts to crumble but still pleads his innocence, claiming he had indeed broken into Huber's email account and discovered his plan to escape but had afterwards merely tried to talk him out of it, with no success. Mordred however doesn't buy it and suggests he instead proposed Sievers an even better plan, aimed at silencing the professor permanently and put the blame on Pandora: the ultimate proof of his involvement is the professor's damaged AquaOS since only Eugene had the skills and knowledge required to corrupt its data. According to Mordred's reconstruction Eugene entered the hotel room using a virtual copy of Huber's AquaOS. He then killed the unsuspecting ambassador and remotely corrupted the data on the real device in order to remove any reference to him or the virus, throwing it away afterwards. Eugene replies he had no reason to kill Demetrius too if he was just looking for revenge on Huber, but Mordred points out killing Demetrius would let him get his virus back as well. Eugene thus objects the evidence implies Dean could be the culprit just as much as him, but Mordred explains he trusts his gut: Dean would never be able to betray his mentor but Eugene, being a lot like Mordred himself, wouldn't hesitate to murder him in cold blood if it helped him reach his goals. Eugene is baffled at the comparison and asks Mordred if he's aware of how much of a genius the person in front of him is: in the attempt to surpass his own brother he had managed to develop the most secure IT system the city had ever seen, impenetrable even to foreign superpowers. Moreover, although he had chosen Dean as his successor Huber had no choice but to rely on Eugene in order to develop the virus, implying he had finally managed to beat Dean as well.

Mordred loses his temper when Eugene nominates the virus again, accusing him of having developed nothing but a way to kill them all. Eugene almost bursts into laughter due to a fatal blunder on the detective's part: while he confirms he intends to use it to get his revenge on Nova Polemos, what he developed was actually not a biological weapon of mass destruction but a computer virus specifically designed to destroy the AquaOS system. Mordred is caught off guard and doesn't believe Eugene at first, claiming the professor had no reason to destroy his own greatest creation. Eugene however clarifies Huber's greatest creation was actually life itself, in that a secret research he had been working on unbeknown to Hephaestus itself had led him to successfully create androids capable of adapting, learning, evolving and experiencing human emotions: the incredulous Mordred has no choice but to believe him once the whole lab is revealed to be full of mechanical bodies. Eugene explains the professor was so scared by his own achievement he decided to help him develop the virus just to have a readily available kill switch for the worst case scenario since all forms of artificial life depend on the AquaOS central server. He also specifies the ones surrounding them are flawed prototypes that were quickly ditched once the professor's final masterpiece had been successfully born, implying one android was already active and fully functional: a terrified Mordred realizes the one Eugene is speaking of is Thalia. Recollecting his memories the detective understands this must have been the real reason Huber kept their relationship hidden and also figures Thalia had likely lied to him multiple times (yet no mask ever appeared on her face due to her artificial nature). He also realizes the heartfelt terror expressed by the professor in his logs was due to the computer virus being lethal to Thalia, her connection to AquaOS being incidentally also the reason she was able to trace Eugene's signal so quickly. Eugene confirms such are the powers of Thalia, a monster permanently linked to AquaOS' central server and capable of accessing and modifying its data at will. Adding on top her ability to learn and adapt, Eugene suggests the only reasonable thing to do would be destroying her immediatly, dragging down the whole corrupt system of Nova Polemos in the process: once his virus erased all government controlled information, citizens would have no choice but to awaken from their slumber. Incidentally this also implies all evidence connected to Mordred's shady past would be lost forever, allowing the detective a new start.

The conversation is interrupted by the frantic arrival of Dean, who begs Mordred not to listen to Eugene and confronts his brother about his intention to destroy the professor's greatest achievement. Eugene in turn vents his anger, explaining after the lengths he had gone to just for the sake of being noticed by the professor he couldn't stand how Huber had decided to betray him by trying to escape with a monster, the same one that incidentally had also killed Sievers. Before Mordred can even formulate an answer, Thalia herself enters the room and starts confessing her crime, confirming what Eugene just said is true. She explains after the gps of Huber's AquaOS stopped working she retrieved its last recorded position by linking with the server herself, immediatly rushing to the place. The AquaOS' data had already been damaged but she could still create a virtual copy of its profile in order to enter the hotel. Upon doing so she saw Huber's dead body and immediatly assaulted his killer, eventually killing him with his own gun but not before he had managed to shoot her twice. The bullets are still inside of her, thus explaining why Mordred had failed to find them: being no one aware of her real nature she had no way to remove them and being no one capable of repairing her damaged body her mobility had been severely compromised ever since. She decided to join everyone at the lab mostly out of guilt, ready to face the consequences of her actions and aware that being her time at hand she had no reason to keep hiding regardless. Dean appeals to Mordred claiming Thalia doesn't deserve to die: her impulsive and emotion driven decision to avenge her creator was the ultimate proof she is perfectly akin to a real person. Being her the greatest invention in human history, destroying her would also imply destroying the possibility of recreating something so unique and perfect. Eugene in turn replies she is nothing but a murderer and that her so called emotions are just very sophisticated simulations aimed at making her follow behavioural schemes enforced by others. Thalia objects the same applies to humans since they think and act depending on experiences that are shaped according to models imposed by society. Dean offers his help to stop Eugene's virus and asks Mordred to cooperate, claiming he would then escape with Thalia while the detective proceeds to arrest Eugene and blame him for Huber's death. Eugene instead asks Mordred to cover him while he finishes the virus upload: the two would then let Dean be framed for everything while they enjoy their newfound freedom from Nova Polemos' oppression. Mordred must thus choose whether to side with Dean or Eugene, a choice that is ultimately left to the player and that will conclude the narration of Chapter 2. The consequences of this choice will once again be massive as they will trigger two different Chapter endings, influence the plot of subsequent chapters quite substantially and cause one of the main characters to die in either case. Contrary to what happens at the end of Chapter 1, the choice won't however spawn new narrative branches within the main plot: it will instead set in motion one among two possible city wide catastrophic aftermaths that will follow any given ending. (More information is included in the Consequences sections below and in pages dedicated to the endings).

## Alternative Dialogues (JailedBaker Freya Route):

* **UNFINISHED BUSINESS:** *\*\*\*Finally, Freya gets to the point in regards to the unfinished business she mentioned in Talon Square, explaining she wants to know what happened to the glove Mordred showed her at Treasury Park (since that piece of evidence disappeared ever since and was never found by the police to begin with). The player has to pick Mordred's answer, either claiming he kept it as a trump card or claiming he hid it in order to protect Freya. If Mordred claims he kept it as a trump card, Freya will ironically point out there's no need for that anymore but Mordred will also reply he didn't know wheter Freya herself could be trusted since as far as he knew she could be the one responsible for making the police miss it. Freya will be saddened by Mordred's allegations but also thank him sincerely since revealing the existence of the glove would have put in a bad situation her and her team. Mordred will ironically remark a policeman shouldn't thank him for hiding evidence, but Freya will ask with a very irritated tone to take the issue seriously and not to talk about it with anyone, ever. If conversely Mordred claims he hid it to protect her, he will explain he couldn't be sure whether Freya had anything to do with the police missing the glove, suspecting some of her colleagues could have actually tried to hide it in order to ruin her career. He will also explain he didn't want her to hate him even more since he was trying his best to win her trust. Freya will jokingly reply that she still considers him a terrible hero but that she should probably change her opinion of him as a person.\*\*\* (triggered if Mordred refused to give David the glove in Chapter 1).*
* **MISSING HERA:** *\*\*\*Hearing Freya's words Mordred realizes Hera hasn't arrived yet and starts panicking, fearing she could be in danger and losing control despite Freya's attempts at calming him down and reminding him he must keep an appropriate behaviour while inside a police station. Hera will however suddendly show up, just in time to see Mordred's lost temper before he realizes his big mistake. He will try to pretend nothing happened but before he can begin his update Hera will angrily turn back and leave, claiming she'd return home and ask Freya the details from there before Mordred brings down the whole place. Freya will comment Mordred is possibly a decent detective but terrible with relationships and people, ultimately advicing him to give her some time to calm down. The detective will thus leave for his next destination.\*\*\* (triggered if Mordred asked Hera to join him earlier on)*
* **ANGRY HERA (PROMISE):** *\*\*\*Hera justifies her words claiming she knows Mordred can do better, as he already proved it by refusing to exonerate Baker despite not making any promise.\*\*\* (triggered if Mordred refused to make his promise at the beginning of Chapter 1) (*Grants a Reconciliation score of +1*)*
* **ANGRY HERA (TREASURY PARK):** *\*\*\*Mordred replies that despite any change he always kept his main focus on ensuring Hera's safety, even while they were working together on the Treasury Park case. Hera in turn says she appreciates Mordred's concerns but he must never dare to cut her off ever again.\*\*\* (triggered if the player chose to hang up on her while examining the scene at Treasury Park) (Grants a Reconciliation score of +1)*
* **ANGRY HERA (LAST STRAW):** *\*\*\*She also remarks the last straw was Mordred's overreaction at the police station, begging him to admit he has a problem and to listen to her for once.\*\*\* (triggered if the player asked her to join him earlier on)* (*Grants a Reconciliation score of +1*)

* **RECONCILIATION:** *\*\*\*Hera points out that as cruel as it may sound it's actually Mordred's own behaviour that might eventually make him lose her, and not just as a colleague. Due to the terrible things that keep happening around them she needs him now more than ever, yet he keeps making everything a lot harder. She also finds it pointless to continue the conversation any longer and moves on, asking him to tell her what he found out while investigating.\*\*\* (triggered if the total sum of the Reconciliation scores is a negative number)*
* **ANNE SHERMAN:** *\*\*\*He also specifies that as if things weren't bad enough Anne Sherman also committed suicide after Baker's conviction: in her last note she apparently claimed she couldn't go on anymore after losing both her sister and her beloved husband, prompting Mordred to question his former choice of not telling Anne the truth about Baker's affair with Alicia.\*\*\* (triggered if the player refused to tell Anne the truth in Chapter 1)*

## DeadBaker Freya Route (spoilers):

Slightly less than two months have passed since the events of Variagian 47. Following Baker's full exoneration thanks to Abigail's video, Mordred and Hera received the reward they were promised and were finally able to enjoy some financial stability. Nevertheless, money remained the last one among their concerns. Still blaming himself for the death of Abigail (whose throat-slitted corpse was eventually found in a garbage pile near her house), the detective has been unable to sleep properly ever since, well aware the killer is still on the loose and that his next strike would be nothing but a matter of time. Even worse, Baker's exoneration allowed the Black Bands to politically exploit the false accusations used against him, which added to how they were already the favored party inevitably meant their landslide victory at the elections. Any grim prediction regarding how Nova Polemos had to expect nothing but violence as a consequence saw immediate confirmation when first blood was drawn as early as it could: Baker was brutally assassinated during the speech he was holding in celebration of his party's victory. Its killer remained unknown and the Black Bands immediatly promised serious ripercussions, turning Baker into a martyr to furtherly legitimize people's growing scorn against oppositions and minorities. Hera suffered these consequences the most as she fears Nova Polemos might turn into a dictatorship and is now scared to even walk outside on her own. Mordred on the other hand found in his relentless pursuit of Pandora the only way to cope with his sense of guilt, still unable to fathom why he'd ever let a maniac go just to save the very person who had formerly tried to ruin his life.

This obsessions yielded no results up untill the moment a secret informer of Mordred finally decided to show up with a lead, calling him to schedule a meeting at Talon Square. Hera joins the rendezvous and is astonished to find out said informer is actually none other than Freya herself, who finally managed to make her move after having been forced to remain under the radar for a while. She now intends to return Mordred the favor, in that in addition to rescuing her at Variagian 47 the detective also helped her destroy the only existing evidence of her past before fleeing. Freya reveals that following Mordred's request she spent the past weeks investigating the encrypted emails found on Abigail's laptop, ultimately succeeding in identifying the sender in someone connected to Haephestus Tech, the largest company in Nova Polemos. While both Pandora's real identity and the real nature of his connections to the company remain hidden, Freya suspects he might actually be employed there, specifically in the medical division (given the surgical precision displayed at Treasury Park). Unfortunately, there's an even more convincing reason: Pandora has killed again, his last victim being coincidentally one of the company managers. The murder actually dates back to the day of Baker's death (with more than ten days having passed since) but unsurprisingly no one aside from the most highly ranked police officers are aware of it since the related information has been kept strictly confidential. Despite the risks associated with doing so, Freya chose to disclose said information with Mordred believing him to be the only one who could provide meaningful help due to his past experiences with the serial killer. She also explains with the city on the brink of collapse the police needs every bit of help it can get: understanding the gravity of the situation, Mordred accepts cooperating with her. Freya thus provides him the coordinates of the crime scene but also asks him to immediatly report to the police station once he's done, mentioning the two of them have some unfinished business that needs to be addressed privately.

The conversation is then interrupted by the sudden arrival of a police truck: speaking through a megaphone the squad leader demands everyone to freeze and prepare to be brought onboard for identification, while his subordinates proceed to storm the whole place and immobilize whoever dares to move. An astonished Hera asks Mordred why innocent people are being taken away but Freya immediatly tells her to remain focused on speaking with her without ever looking at them directly. Mordred points out the three of them should flee as quickly as possible, also suggesting Hera should immediatly go home escorted by Freya while he proceeds to investigate the crime scene alone. Freya accepts, claiming she would wait for him at the police station. Hera thus begs Mordred to be careful as the three proceed to split up as planned. Halfway through his destination Mordred receives a phone call from Hera: safe at last, she can now forward him the police data and assist investigations from home. She also asks Mordred his opinion on the police crackdown they witnessed earlier. Mordred speculates it could be connected to Baker's assassination: still uncapable of catching the killer, the police prefers to relentlessly target weak minorities to interrogate random people rather than admit its own incompetence. Hera sadly replies she doesn't understand whether he said that because he was trying to reassure her or because he refuses to face the sad truth.

The detective then arrives at the crime scene: a room belonging to Five Twins Hotel, still splattered in blood despite the removal of nearly every piece of evidence, corpse included. Using his AquaOS to generate a holographic projection based on the police data, Mordred makes a first, shocking discovery: the victims were actually two. Only one however was murdered following the ritual methodology typical of Pandora: an old man revealed to be none other than Cornelius Huber, the inventor of AquaOS. The victim had been drugged using "Morpheus", an anesthetic produced by Hephaestus Tech and typically used on patients about to undergo surgery: the police found several bottles of it on the bedside table despite the fact the product can't be sold and is usually only available to physicians and Hephaestus staff. Handcuffs had then been used to tie both the victim's ankles and his hands to the bed, preventing his escape. Finally, the victim's liver had been stabbed multiple times, causing his death. Eagle feathers were also found at his feet, implying the killer had gone to great lengths to create his scene since eagles are almost extinct and their feathers very valuable and hard to find. Using a red marker (or possibly lipstick) the killer also wrote a latin phrase on the mirror above the bed: "Prometheus Iapeti filius, primus homines ex luto finxit" (which translates to "Prometheus, son of Iapetus, first shaped men out of mud"). It is thus clear this time around Pandora's actions ultimately tried to reenact the myth of Prometheus. Mordred however also notices that unlike Alicia Hart's the victim's eyes had not been removed and his mouth had not been sewn. The biggest mystery remains however the second victim as not even the police could determine his identity and unlike the first man he was killed with a simple headshot, fired using his own gun. Said gun was found in his left hand and had apparently shot two additional times, the missing bullets not being anywhere in the room. The only way to enter the room was a single door that could only be opened using the associated key card, also emitting a beeping sound every time someone does so. Mordred concludes this murder looks even worse than the one at Treasury Park and that his first move should be heading to the police station to find out more about the victims, expecially the second man. Hera suggests he should allow her to join him since the situation has likely calmed down enough, and the player has to pick Mordred's ultimate response. If he accepts, Hera will thank him for finally showing some trust in her ability to look after herself. If he refuses, Hera will once again be upset and accuse Mordred of not being the same anymore after what happened to him in the last few months.

At the police station Freya confirms the police has no lead whatsoever on the second man, aside from the assumption he might have acted to save the first victim (only to end up killed himself). Mordred objects that had the second man really arrived with the killer still there he would have died near the door rather than on the other side of the room. He also points out the problem of the missing bullets: even though the killer might have taken the shell cases, there'd still be no way for him to cover the holes made by them. One possibility would be to assume the second man shot the killer twice in reaction to an ambush (since gunpowder traces were found on his hands), however the blood found in the room was confirmed to belong to the victims only. Moreover, this scenario provides no explanation regarding how the killer managed to kill the victim using his own gun: the premise of the second man arriving first would automatically rule out the possibility of the killer catching him off guard since the door emits a beeping sound everytime someone opens it. Freya concludes Mordred's objections are reasonable and grants him permission to interrogate the Hotel owner to find out more. In regards to the first victim she also confirms he was indeed the inventor of the AquaOS system in addition to being one of the most relevant figures in Hephaestus Tech altogether, corroborating the hypothesis Pandora might be an Hephaestus employee himself. Specifically, Freya suspects Huber might have discovered crucial evidence connected to Pandora's use of encrypted emails, prompting the killer to act in order to preserve his safety. Mordred however feels something is still missing, so Freya grants him permission to visit the company's headquarters as well as the home of the victim's two assistants in order to conduct additional investigations (albeit with the appropriate degree of discretion).

\*\*\**Finally, Freya gets to the point in regards to the unfinished business she mentioned in Talon Square, explaining how after Treasury Park both her and her subordinates were put under review by the police. She subtly accuses Mordred of being responsible for it (since he was the one in possession of the glove the police had failed to find) and now wants an explicit answer related to whether or not he actually gave David the glove, thus exposing her team's misconduct. The player has to pick Mordred's response, choosing between pretending he knows nothing about it or admitting his guilt. In the first case, Mordred will try to make up a story on how the glove was somehow stolen from him (as hard to believe as it may sound), but Freya will immediatly see through it and acidly remark she regrets having tried to trust Mordred only to see him go back to his old deceptive maneuvers. In the second case, Mordred will admit being responsible for it, explaining he couldn't know whether Freya could be trusted just yet. In either case Mordred will also specify that as far as he knew Freya could have tried to hide it on purpose herself, to which she will jokingly reply he'll never find out.\*\*\* (UNFINISHED BUSINESS Dialogue, triggered if the player gave David the glove in Chapter 1)*

Freya will then move on, mentioning there's also some news regarding Abigail and Mrs. Baker, which can however wait untill Mordred has completed his investigations. Before the detective leaves she also gives him a police report containing details about the two victims' time of death and the specific moments the room's door was opened, allowing Mordred to learn the two men died at 00:45 AM and 1:00 AM respectively. Finally, Freya points out Hera is missing and asks Mordred about her wellbeing following the events of Talon Square.

*\*\*\*Mordred vaguely replies she's fine with a frowned expression, prompting Freya to ask whether the two are having problems, to which Mordred gives an even more rude answer to end the conversation once and for all, claiming it's none of her business. Freya will thus allow him to take his leave, but not before remarking such an attitude would only cause Mordred trouble.\*\*\* (MISSING HERA Dialogue, triggered if the player asked Hera to stay at home earlier on)*

Mordred's first destination is Hephaestus Tech. Here he tries asking the reception desk for a meeting with someone who can share with him details on the murder, only to receive an automated response from a robot that puts him in an endless queue. He tries to protest claiming he's investigating on behalf of the police, but to no avail. After two hours have passed, his attention is suddendly caught by an ongoing argument between two people passing by. Eavesdropping, he learns a woman is trying her best to prevent a man from running away. She begs him to help her since he owes Cornelius for his current position, but he refuses and leaves, claiming giving her credit would only cause him to end up killed too. Mordred thus proceeds to approach the woman once she is alone, correctly presuming she may be tied to one of the victims: she introduces herself as Thalia Wells. Speaking with her allows Mordred to understand the reason behind the amount of security he met: Hephaestus Tech is a crucial cornerstone of the political system of Nova Polemos, and the servers of AquaOS and Caligula (as well as all data related to Patterson test) are kept inside its main building. More importantly, the woman's bond with the first victim is revealed to be a significant one: she was actually his girlfriend and the two were even planning to get married. Cornelius had purposefully kept their relationship hidden as he feared for her safety, suspecting someone inside Hephaestus Tech wanted to kill him. Thalia explains she was also the one who gave the alarm the evening he went missing (the gps signal of his AquaOS being also unresponsive): when the police eventually found him, it was unfortunately too late. She then shares information regarding Cornelius' two assistants: both were very close to them since they were endlessly competing over who would become Huber's successor. One of them, named Dean, had in the end prevailed thanks to his gentle manners and the popularity gained by a famous videogame of his creation, called "Be a good citizen" and actually used by Hephaestus to gather people's private data. The other, named Eugene, was instead a cybersecurity expert and none other than the man Mordred saw running away a few minutes earlier: Thalia is convinced he's refusing to help out of spite, still disappointed for his rejection. She advices Mordred to speak directly with them if he wants to find out more and also explains he has no chance of finding anyone else willing to speak with him at Hephaestus as everyone is too afraid of ending up investigated themselves. Before allowing him to leave though, she also entrusts him with a crucial piece of evidence she's not willing to share with anyone else: Huber's very own AquaOS, which she found herself in a trash bin next to the hotel. Its data is inexplicably corrupted and she wants Mordred to find someone capable of restoring it as she doesn't trust the police, fearing they could just destroy the evidence if it points to someone too powerful (such as another manager of Hephaestus Tech). The detective thus proceeds to leave for his next destination, aware he can trust Thalia since he didn't spot any mask on her.

The next place Mordred proceeds to visit is Five Twins Hotel once more, in order to ask its owner information related to the night of the murder. He finds her right in room 237, where she introduces herself as Nadine Stirling. Nadine explains she founded the hotel fifteen years earlier together with her husband, inheriting it after his death. She now runs it along with nine other people, most of which however leave the hotel after 23:00, implying almost no one was there when the murder took place. Out of sheer prejudice she is firmly convinced the immigrants must be behind both this murder and Baker's assassination. Mordred however asks her to keep her focus exclusively on her memories of the night, ready to press her further if he hears details he finds particularly relevant (in order to have Mordred do so, the player may click any part of the text that is highlighted). Nadine explains she always sleeps at the hotel as she doesn't feel safe walking home on her own. The night of the murder she was thus in her room when she suddendly heard several gunshots around 1:00. Mordred promptly presses her on the multiple gunshots, as this would confirm the victim's gun shot more than once: Nadine specifies they must have been two or three, all shot in rapid succession. Resuming her recap she explains she immediatly proceeded to call the police, which arrived roughly 20 minutes later (implying the killer fled very quickly). Satisfied, Mordred moves on and asks her about the hotel's security protocols. She explains the hotel doesn't use security cameras as access during the night hours is only possible using a personal card. Any given room becomes accessible only after identification and its door emits a beeping sound every time someone enters. According to the records, Huber allegedly entered his room at 16:00, 20:00 and 1:00. Astonished, Mordred asks how it would be possible for Huber to have accessed his room at 1:00 given he was already dead at that time. Nadine assumes someone else might have entered the room using Huber's AquaOS, thus revealing access is also possible using a registered AquaOS instead of the key. She apologizes for forgetting to mention it earlier and asks Mordred if there's anything else he would like to know about. Satisfied with what he was able to discover (though at the same time puzzled by how things are turning out to have gone), Mordred replies what she mentioned will be good enough. He thus thanks her for the help and allows her to go, proceeding to take his own leave right after in order to pay Dean Smith a visit at his place.

Once Mordred arrives at the house of the Smith brothers he finds quite the surreal place: a very dark environment decorated with weird statues and masks, resembling the stereotypical serial killer hideout. He is immediatly greeted by Dean Smith, who introduces himself as the former assistant of professor Huber and grants him permission to ask questions and take a look around if necessary. Mordred begins by asking where his brother's at, to which Dean replies Eugene hasn't come home in weeks and also stopped answering phone calls, proving yet again he's immature and childish. Mordred asks him to elaborate more on this point, so Dean explains that unlike him his brother had always been extremely committed and serious in both his work and their endless competition to win their mentor's favor. Eugene's emotional investment had given him a total breakdown when Dean was ultimately able to beat his efforts with a videogame, something Eugene considered too trivial and unworthy of surpassing his own work. Dean however also clarifies "Be a Good Citizen" is a lot more than a videogame, in that it was a powerful tool capable of both scouting and influencing people's preferences and habits. Mordred doesn't hide his negative opinion of such a creation, but Dean dismisses his critics as too naive, as according to his own opinion manipulating people is an inevitable part of building personal success. The detective thus moves on and asks Dean about his relationship with the victim. Dean sadly replies Huber was akin to a father and that his death was the worst shock he ever experienced in his life. Dean, Eugene and his fiancée Thalia were the three people that loved him the most, but he was widely respected by the rest of the city as well, implying Dean couldn't fathom why Pandora would ever want to kill him. Mordred is confident Dean is being truthful since he sees no masks, so he moves on and asks him about Hephaestus Tech next. Dean expresses his concerns for the monopolistic position held by the company: since Hephaestus filters all information coming from the outer world, he wouldn't be surprised if it actually turned out to be a lot different from how local media describe it. What Mordred was really after though is information regarding the encrypted email circuits used by the company: unfortunately Dean can't help him since cybersecurity isn't his field. Mordred thus moves on and shows him the corrupted AquaOS received by Thalia, asking Dean whether he'd be able to restore its data. Dean is confused as corrupting an AquaOS' data should be impossible to begin with but is confident he may be able to repair it. He also invites Mordred to give "Be a Good Citizen" a try while he waits. After the player has completed at least one level of the videogame, Dean will explain he figured how to repair the damaged AquaOS but that doing so would take him some hours: he thus advices Mordred to continue his investigations elsewhere in the meantime.

Mordred thus heads back to his office, finding Hera still angry for his former behaviour. She sarcastically asks him if he came back to check on her again and make sure she hadn't left home in the meantime. Mordred doesn't hide his own annoyance for the shot.

*\*\*\*Hera justifies her words claiming she's getting tired of Mordred's lies, ultimately blaming his decision to help the Black Bands for everything that's happening around them: despite his initial promise of reconsidering, he ultimately never cared about her opinion nor the consequences of his actions.\*\*\** *(ANGRY HERA (PROMISE) Dialogue, triggered if Mordred made his promise at the beginning of Chapter 1) (Grants a Reconciliation score of -2)*

Mordred replies reminding Hera the two of them took their decision together, concluding they had no right to influence the city's future. Hera however points out it would have been better if they did given the terrible consequences that followed, also claiming the last case has changed him profoundly.

*\*\*\*Mordred replies that despite any change he always kept his main focus on ensuring Hera's safety, even while they were working together on the Treasury Park case. Hera in turn says she understands Mordred's concerns but he must learn to accept her as a colleague and an equal, respecting her own decisions without imposing his own will.\*\*\* (ANGRY HERA (TREASURY PARK) Dialogue, triggered if the player refused to hang up on her while examining the scene at Treasury Park) (Grants a Reconciliation score of -1)*

*\*\*\*She also remarks she's still furious at him for having asked her to remain at the office after he finished analyzing the hotel room.\*\*\* (ANGRY HERA (LAST STRAW) Dialogue, triggered if the player asked her to stay at home earlier on) (Grants a Reconciliation score of -1)*

Mordred thus tries to reconcile with her, claiming he's tired of arguing and admitting he has been tremendously afraid of losing her ever since the events of Variagian.

*\*\*\*Hera points out that as cruel as it may sound it's actually Mordred's own behaviour that might eventually make him lose her, and not just as a colleague. Due to the terrible things that keep happening around them she needs him now more than ever, yet he keeps making everything a lot harder. She also finds it pointless to continue the conversation any longer and moves on, asking him to tell her what he found out while investigating.\*\*\* (triggered if the total sum of the Reconciliation scores is a negative number)*

Listening to Mordred's recap rings a bell, confirming a suspicion Hera always had ever since she first saw the crime scene. She asks Mordred if the two still have any of the old photos depicting Pandora's former victims to make a direct comparison. Mordred replies not much is left since the police seized almost everything in order to look for evidence to use against him, yet a single picture survived: it depicts the crime scene of the Keaton case (Pandora's first male victim and fourth in chronological order), reenactment of the myth of Narcissus. Hera thus proceeds to reflect on the Treasury Park, Five Twins Hotel and Keaton cases together in order to think about which elements are recurring or unique (the player has to manually move them on the associated pictures), ultimately spotting a big discrepancy between the current case and the other ones: while in his past murders Pandora never left any direct reference to the myth he was reenacting (almost as if he wanted people to figure out themselves), the quote on the mirror left this time reveals his intentions way too easily, ultimately ruining his own artistic efforts. Hera's final conclusion is that the culprit behind this murder is actually not the real Pandora but someone trying to pose as the serial killer in order to put the blame on him. While the two are busy debating the implications of such a discovery, Morded's AquaOS will receive two new messages: one is from Dean Smith (who has successfully repaired the damaged AquaOS and is ready to see him again), the other is from David Casey (who wants to meet Mordred in his office to discuss something very important).

Mordred decides first of all to visit the Smith house again. Dean agrees to transfer all the data he was able to recover directly to Mordred's own AquaOS but also specifies the restored information dates back to no longer than a few days before the professor's death, the rest being unfortunately lost. In the first among three log files now available to Mordred the professor references a new breakthrough he was able to achieve thanks to the genius of his assistant, though he also seemed worried about its potential consequences on the city since it's actually a virus. He seemed expecially terrified at the thought it could kill Thalia, enough so he was suffering from sleep deprivation and apparently about to accept some kind of offer from an unspecified stranger. In the second log he confessed being more and more tempted by said offer, suggesting despite the fact he hadn't much left to live he had to act nonetheless in order to protect Thalia, even at the cost of dooming everyone else. He also mentions his biggest regret was his past choice of keeping Thalia close to him despite knowing she would eventually face danger because of his selfish decision. In the third and final log he claimed he and Thalia were about to flee towards their new life thanks to a safe-conduct, the departure being scheduled for the day after. Mordred immediatly demands answers from Dean, who however claims to be just as oblivious, suggesting Eugene must be the one involved instead. Unfortunately for him a mask becomes visible to Mordred, making it clear he must be hiding something. The detectives decides however to play along and leave for now, believing the evidence in his possession to be not enough just yet.

He thus heads to David Casey's office to figure out what the lawyer is up to this time. After greeting Mordred with just as much irony as usual, David turns serious and gets straight to the point: he has reason to believe the Black Bands were behind Baker's assassination and wants to cooperate with Mordred to investigate the issue. He explains all hell broke loose following Baker's death and that whoever is going to succeed him is definitely going to be much worse. Given these premises it is natural to presume the party itself might have wanted to turn him into a martyr in order to justify a coup d'etat, which could have catastrophic consequences in the long run. Hera immediatly claims the hypothesis sounds more than plausible, fearing more than ever a return to the violence she witnessed as a child.

*\*\*\*David also specifies he tried asking Baker's wife for help, but to no avail since she apparently fell into a deep depression after she realized Baker's affair with Alicia was a real thing and also lost her sister shortly afterwards. Reflecting on his past actions, Mordred questions his decision of telling her the truth as he now believes it made things worse.\*\*\* (ANNE SHERMAN Dialogue, triggered if the player told her the truth in Chapter 1)*

Knowing David more than well, Mordred is however not willing to trust him just yet and asks him what would be his ultimate gain. David skirts around the issue claiming he just wants to prevent Nova Polemos from falling into the abyss, also explaining Mordred's help is fundamental in order to succeed. The detective is still baffled since the lawyer refuses to share any detail, but David explains once the time comes everything will become clear (even though he can't disclose anything just yet). He ultimately asks Mordred if he's interested in his offer and the player has to pick Mordred's answer. If Mordred accepts, David will gladly tell him the two of them would soon hear from him again, prompting the detective to wonder whether it was actually a good idea to trust him. If he refuses an astonished David will ask him to reconsider (also implying the choice would have very negative ripercussions) but Hera will reply the two of them already have enough problems as it is and his stubborness in keeping details for himself only makes it harder for them to trust him. In either case the lawyer will let Mordred and Hera go back to their investigation.

Mordred will then visit Hephaestus again, this time around being lucky enough to meet a manager right away: he introduces himself as John Deckard. He explains the police had already prepared him for Mordred's arrival beforehand, so the detective begins asking his questions right away, starting from information regarding the first victim. John confirms he was widely respected both within and outside the company, wondering himself who could ever want him dead (expecially since he was about to get married). He also claims he had mostly been doing medical research aimed at developing mechanical prosthetis as of late, implying not even his most recent activities could provide any clue capable of explaining why someone would suddendly want to kill him. Mordred thus moves on and asks John to tell him what he knows about the professor's two assistants. John describes Eugene as shy and bad-tempered, a person so obsessed with success and surpassing his brother he would often lock himself up in the server rooms for days just to grind away at his projects (even at the cost of his own physical and mental health). John was thus not surprised when Eugene had a breakdown since Dean had managed to become Huber's successor in spite of his devious habits. Hera immediatly asks the manager to better describe these "devious habits" of Dean: John explains he often looked at Thalia with a maniacal gaze and never even tried to hide the fact he felt a deep attraction for her. In light of this Mordred can't quite understand why Huber would still choose him, but John explains Dean was clever enough to never cross the line in ways that would be deemed too inappropriate. Mordred concludes he should probably ask Thalia personally about this issue and moves on, tackling the most important topic: Huber's virus. When the detective asks John whether Hephaestus was working on a biological weapon of some sort the manager replies with anger at what he considers an outrageous allegation, which convinces Mordred only the professor and his assistants must have known about the project since he doesn't see any mask on John. He thus changes topic again and asks John's help in order to investigate the encrypted emails found on Abigail's laptop. Unfortunately John explains he cannot access any information without an authorization issued directly by the government. Mordred has thus no choice but to focus again on the current case, this time showing John pictures of evidence. He first shows John the sleeping pills found next to the victim's bed: John confirms they are produced by Hephaestus and normally not accessible to anyone but a selected few. They are capable of inducing a semi-comatose state that lasts for no less than seven hours, corroborating the assumption the victim was drugged before being killed. Mordred then shows John the damaged AquaOS belonging to professor Huber, asking the manager to confirm the device's data is actually directly processed by the central server located at Hephaestus. John confirms this is how the technology works, suggesting the only way to corrupt an AquaOS' data would be to tamper directly with the main server itself. Since the only ones who have access to it are the police, the government or Hephaestus staff members assigned to it, Mordred concludes only one of the Smith brothers could have sabotaged it without being noticed. Finally, Mordred shows John a picture of the second victim, causing him to panick visibly. John admits the second man was known to Hephaestus Tech: his name was Demetrius Sievers and was actually an ambassador sent to Nova Polemos by NeoEurope (one of the city's neighbouring superpowers) a couple of days earlier. Sievers was Hephaestus' foreign contact for commercial partnerships and technology exchanges and as such had diplomatic immunity and was protected directly by the government, who had gone to great lengths to hide his real identity (up to a point not even the police could determine it). John finally understands why it seemed like Sievers had suddendly disappeared and also realizes that if news of his death were to become public a very serious diplomatic incident could break out. He thus orders both Mordred and Hera to remain silent, suggesting he would personally take care of informing the police and those involved who needed to know. Mordred speculates Huber could have possibly made contact with Sievers using his own encrypted email account, but John is unable to corroborate such a claim as this type of information is unfortunately beyond his reach. Nevertheless, the detective is finally seeing the puzzle come together and now also understands the reason behind Dean's mask. He concludes he must now find Thalia to get the last missing piece before he can force Dean to confess the truth.

Mordred is eventually lucky enough to stumble in Thalia while crossing Talon Square. She immediatly asks for updates regarding Huber's AquaOS, so the detective shows her the terrible truths he was able to unveil. Thalia is shocked at first but when Mordred begs for her help she proceeds to answer the detective's questions without hesitating. Mordred first asks her to confirm the rumors related to Dean: Thalia admits he was kind of obsessed with her but at the same time never did anything out of line either, as his weird behaviours consisted mostly in the creation of videogame characters and pieces of poetry dedicated to her. Huber was aware of this and the two had consequentially argued on more than one occasion, but despite everything the professor had still decided to nominate Dean his successor. Still uncapable of understanding such a decision, Mordred asks Thalia if she was aware of Huber's secret plan to make a deal aimed at having them flee the city undercover. Thalia admits Huber had expressed the desire to leave with her on many occasions but had also been always aware leaving Nova Polemos would be almost impossible, expecially since he was a senior manager of the city's most important company. Lately he had been expressing his happiness for their imminent marriage in such a repetitive way it almost seemed like he was actually hiding something that made him very sad. He hadn't ultimately told her of any secret plan to escape but had indeed started to send a conspicuous amount of encrypted emails, mostly to foreign recipients. Satisfied, Mordred finally tackles the most important topic: the virus. While Thalia is still traumatized by the idea his fiancée could contribute to such a horrible project, what Mordred actually wants to know is whether the professor had any other assistants aside from Dean and Eugene. Since Thalia confirms that is not the case, Mordred is now fully convinced one of them must have been responsible for the creation of the virus. Realizing he had not been able to speak with Eugene just yet he also asks Thalia if she had any news in regards to him. Unfortunately she replies he's seemingly impossible to find, but also mentions having an idea on how to possibly determine his location. She doesn't want to be more specific about the details but promises to send Mordred the address as soon as she succeeds. The detective thus thanks Thalia for her help and departs, now finally ready to confront Dean.

At the Smith house Mordred opens up the conversation with Dean by explaining he's well aware Pandora was actually not the person behind the professor's death (since he would have never left the phrase on the mirror). Dean can't quite understand what Mordred is pointing at, so the detective proceeds to reconstruct all the events in order. To begin with, the professor was trying to flee the city with Thalia by making a secret deal with Demetrius Sievers, the second victim. Sievers was the perfect opportunity because his ambassador privileges allowed him to bypass the city's security with ease. Moreover he already happened to be in Nova Polemos due to business related to Hephaestus. Mordred concludes Huber must have asked him to meet at Five Twin Hotels, and that Sievers must have consequentially arrived at 20:00 (the former access of 16:00 being just a security check made by the professor on his own). Since the professor died at 0:45 and since the police report made it clear the room's door was never opened again untill 1:00, Mordred also concludes Huber must have been killed by the only person who had been with him all the time: Sievers himself. Hera still doesn't get why Sievers didn't simply flee the hotel after killing him so Mordred explains his final deduction: Sievers was actually waiting for someone, whom he had made a different agreement with before killing Huber and who was very likely either Eugene or Dean (which would also explain why at 1:00 the opening door didn't scare him). Dean feels insulted by Mordred's allegations, claiming the detective has no idea of how important Huber was for him. Mordred however ironically replies he has conversely quite a clear idea of Dean's feelings for Thalia, suggesting Dean could have conspired to kill the professor in order to have her for himself. Hera however suggests Eugene had even more reasons to do so: assuming the virus was effectively one of his creations, he might have discovered the professor's plan to sell it and not liked the idea (let alone being already furious for being ditched in favor of Dean). Regardless of which one among the two, Mordred is nevertheless convinced the murder was indeed planned with the help of one of the Smith brothers, the sleeping pills being the ultimate evidence that confirms it (since they are almost impossible to retrieve for people who are not employed at Hephaestus). Moreover, few people aside from Dean or Eugene could have sabotaged the data on Huber's AquaOS after using it to open the door and kill Demetrius.

Dean however has enough and experiences a complete breakdown, also pointing out he was the one who helped them repair it in the first place: he claims Mordred and Hera must be two incompetent idiots since they keep accusing him without knowing what his brother would actually be capable of. He then starts screaming frantically saying the two should find him and kill him as soon as possible before he manages to kill everyone else. Mordred tries to calm Dean down and asks him where his brother might be but a new mask appears on his face (this time representing his breakdown) just as he proceeds to run away, claiming he hates everyone. After witnessing this, Hera is fully convinced Dean had nothing to do with the murder after all. A few moments later Mordred receives a message from Thalia: she was successful in tracking down the signal of Eugene's AquaOS despite his attempts at hiding it. Unfortunately, the signal is still not clear enough and points at a very broad area: the exact location will only become available after the player manages to isolate the exact source by solving the associated puzzle game. Eugene will be ultimately revealed to be hiding inside one of Hephaestus Tech's most peripheral labs, to which Mordred rushes immediatly.

As soon as he arrives the detective realizes the place must be signal proof for security reasons (thus finding himself prevented from contacting Hera or anyone else) but is fortunate enough to find Eugene right away. Eugene is startled by Mordred's arrival but also claims he was actually not hiding since he hadn't done anything wrong. Unsurprisingly a mask shows up on his face but an unrelenting Mordred begins pressing him immediatly. He first accuses Eugene of having known Demetrius Sievers all along: it was ultimately him who had made a secret agreement with the ambassador, offering him the virus to draw his attention. Eugene starts to crumble but still pleads his innocence, claiming he had indeed broken into Huber's email account and discovered his plan to escape but had afterwards merely tried to talk him out of it, with no success. Mordred however doesn't buy it and suggests he instead proposed Sievers an even better plan, aimed at silencing the professor permanently and put the blame on Pandora: the ultimate proof of his involvement is the professor's damaged AquaOS since only Eugene had the skills and knowledge required to corrupt its data. According to Mordred's reconstruction Eugene entered the hotel room using a virtual copy of Huber's AquaOS. He then killed the unsuspecting ambassador and remotely corrupted the data on the real device in order to remove any reference to him or the virus, throwing it away afterwards. Eugene replies he had no reason to kill Demetrius too if he was just looking for revenge on Huber, but Mordred points out killing Demetrius would let him get his virus back as well. Eugene thus objects the evidence implies Dean could be the culprit just as much as him, but Mordred explains he trusts his gut: Dean would never be able to betray his mentor but Eugene, being a lot like Mordred himself, wouldn't hesitate to murder him in cold blood if it helped him reach his goals. Eugene is baffled at the comparison and asks Mordred if he's aware of how much of a genius the person in front of him is: in the attempt to surpass his own brother he had managed to develop the most secure IT system the city had ever seen, impenetrable even to foreign superpowers. Moreover, although he had chosen Dean as his successor Huber had no choice but to rely on Eugene in order to develop the virus, implying he had finally managed to beat Dean as well.

Mordred loses his temper when Eugene nominates the virus again, accusing him of having developed nothing but a way to kill them all. Eugene almost bursts into laughter due to a fatal blunder on the detective's part: while he confirms he intends to use it to get his revenge on Nova Polemos, what he developed was actually not a biological weapon of mass destruction but a computer virus specifically designed to destroy the AquaOS system. Mordred is caught off guard and doesn't believe Eugene at first, claiming the professor had no reason to destroy his own greatest creation. Eugene however clarifies Huber's greatest creation was actually life itself, in that a secret research he had been working on unbeknown to Hephaestus itself had led him to successfully create androids capable of adapting, learning, evolving and experiencing human emotions: the incredulous Mordred has no choice but to believe him once the whole lab is revealed to be full of mechanical bodies. Eugene explains the professor was so scared by his own achievement he decided to help him develop the virus just to have a readily available kill switch for the worst case scenario since all forms of artificial life depend on the AquaOS central server. He also specifies the ones surrounding them are flawed prototypes that were quickly ditched once the professor's final masterpiece had been successfully born, implying one android was already active and fully functional: a terrified Mordred realizes the one Eugene is speaking of is Thalia. Recollecting his memories the detective understands this must have been the real reason Huber kept their relationship hidden and also figures Thalia had likely lied to him multiple times (yet no mask ever appeared on her face due to her artificial nature). He also realizes the heartfelt terror expressed by the professor in his logs was due to the computer virus being lethal to Thalia, her connection to AquaOS being incidentally also the reason she was able to trace Eugene's signal so quickly. Eugene confirms such are the powers of Thalia, a monster permanently linked to AquaOS' central server and capable of accessing and modifying its data at will. Adding on top her ability to learn and adapt, Eugene suggests the only reasonable thing to do would be destroying her immediatly, dragging down the whole corrupt system of Nova Polemos in the process: once his virus erased all government controlled information, citizens would have no choice but to awaken from their slumber. Incidentally this also implies all evidence connected to Mordred's shady past would be lost forever, allowing the detective a new start.

The conversation is interrupted by the frantic arrival of Dean, who begs Mordred not to listen to Eugene and confronts his brother about his intention to destroy the professor's greatest achievement. Eugene in turn vents his anger, explaining after the lengths he had gone to just for the sake of being noticed by the professor he couldn't stand how Huber had decided to betray him by trying to escape with a monster, the same one that incidentally had also killed Sievers. Before Mordred can even formulate an answer, Thalia herself enters the room and starts confessing her crime, confirming what Eugene just said is true. She explains after the gps of Huber's AquaOS stopped working she retrieved its last recorded position by linking with the server herself, immediatly rushing to the place. The AquaOS' data had already been damaged but she could still create a virtual copy of its profile in order to enter the hotel. Upon doing so she saw Huber's dead body and immediatly assaulted his killer, eventually killing him with his own gun but not before he had managed to shoot her twice. The bullets are still inside of her, thus explaining why Mordred had failed to find them: being no one aware of her real nature she had no way to remove them and being no one capable of repairing her damaged body her mobility had been severely compromised ever since. She decided to join everyone at the lab mostly out of guilt, ready to face the consequences of her actions and aware that being her time at hand she had no reason to keep hiding regardless. Dean appeals to Mordred claiming Thalia doesn't deserve to die: her impulsive and emotion driven decision to avenge her creator was the ultimate proof she is perfectly akin to a real person. Being her the greatest invention in human history, destroying her would also imply destroying the possibility of recreating something so unique and perfect. Eugene in turn replies she is nothing but a murderer and that her so called emotions are just very sophisticated simulations aimed at making her follow behavioural schemes enforced by others. Thalia objects the same applies to humans since they think and act depending on experiences that are shaped according to models imposed by society. Dean offers his help to stop Eugene's virus and asks Mordred to cooperate, claiming he would then escape with Thalia while the detective proceeds to arrest Eugene and blame him for Huber's death. Eugene instead asks Mordred to cover him while he finishes the virus upload: the two would then let Dean be framed for everything while they enjoy their newfound freedom from Nova Polemos' oppression. Mordred must thus choose whether to side with Dean or Eugene, a choice that is ultimately left to the player and that will conclude the narration of Chapter 2. The consequences of this choice will once again be massive as they will trigger two different Chapter endings, influence the plot of subsequent chapters quite substantially and cause one of the main characters to die in either case. Contrary to what happens at the end of Chapter 1, the choice won't however spawn new narrative branches within the main plot: it will instead set in motion one among two possible city wide catastrophic aftermaths that will follow any given ending. (More information is included in the Consequences sections below and in pages dedicated to the endings).

## Alternative Dialogues (DeadBaker Freya Route):

* **UNFINISHED BUSINESS:** *\*\*\*Finally, Freya gets to the point in regards to the unfinished business she mentioned in Talon Square, explaining she wants to know what happened to the glove Mordred showed her at Treasury Park (since that piece of evidence disappeared ever since and was never found by the police to begin with). The player has to pick Mordred's answer, either claiming he kept it as a trump card or claiming he hid it in order to protect Freya. If Mordred claims he kept it as a trump card, Freya will ironically point out there's no need for that anymore but Mordred will also reply he didn't know wheter Freya herself could be trusted since as far as he knew she could be the one responsible for making the police miss it. Freya will be saddened by Mordred's allegations but also thank him sincerely since revealing the existence of the glove would have put in a bad situation her and her team. Mordred will ironically remark a policeman shouldn't thank him for hiding evidence, but Freya will ask with a very irritated tone to take the issue seriously and not to talk about it with anyone, ever. If conversely Mordred claims he hid it to protect her, he will explain he couldn't be sure whether Freya had anything to do with the police missing the glove, suspecting some of her colleagues could have actually tried to hide it in order to ruin her career. He will also explain he didn't want her to hate him even more since he was trying his best to win her trust. Freya will jokingly reply that she still considers him a terrible hero but that she should probably change her opinion of him as a person.\*\*\* (triggered if Mordred refused to give David the glove in Chapter 1).*
* **MISSING HERA:** *\*\*\*Hearing Freya's words Mordred realizes Hera hasn't arrived yet and starts panicking, fearing she could be in danger and losing control despite Freya's attempts at calming him down and reminding him he must keep an appropriate behaviour while inside a police station. Hera will however suddendly show up, just in time to see Mordred's lost temper before he realizes his big mistake. He will try to pretend nothing happened but before he can begin his update Hera will angrily turn back and leave, claiming she'd return home and ask Freya the details from there before Mordred brings down the whole place. Freya will comment Mordred is possibly a decent detective but terrible with relationships and people, ultimately advicing him to give her some time to calm down. The detective will thus leave for his next destination.\*\*\* (triggered if Mordred asked Hera to join him earlier on)*
* **ANGRY HERA (PROMISE):** *\*\*\*Hera justifies her words claiming she's getting tired of Mordred's behaviour, expecially after he refused to make his promise on possibly reconsidering his decision to help the Black Bands. Mordred replies such trivialities should be the last thing to be worried about, but Hera points out those "trivialities" were what allowed the Black Bands to win in the first place.\*\*\* (triggered if Mordred refused to make his promise at the beginning of Chapter 1) (Grants a Reconciliation score of* -*1)*
* **ANGRY HERA (TREASURY PARK):** *\*\*\*Mordred replies that despite any change he always kept his main focus on ensuring Hera's safety, even while they were working together on the Treasury Park case. Hera in turn says she appreciates Mordred's concerns but he must never dare to cut her off ever again.\*\*\* (triggered if the player chose to hang up on her while examining the scene at Treasury Park) (Grants a Reconciliation score of* +*1)*
* **ANGRY HERA (LAST STRAW):** *\*\*\*She also remarks the last straw was Mordred's overreaction at the police station, begging him to admit he has a problem and to listen to her for once.\*\*\* (triggered if the player asked her to join him earlier on) (Grants a Reconciliation score of* +*1)*
* **RECONCILIATION:** *\*\*\*Hera jokingly asks Mordred if it ever occurred to him she might want to protect him too and that all she needs from him is his support: even facing xenophobic political parties and serial killers will be possible as long as the two of them succeed in remaining together. She then asks him to tell her what he found out while investigating.\*\*\* (triggered if the total sum of the Reconciliation scores is not a negative number)*
* **ANNE SHERMAN:** *\*\*\*He also specifies that as if things weren't bad enough, Anne Sherman also committed suicide after Baker's assassination: in her last note she claimed she couldn't go on anymore after her beloved husband had given his life to protect her, prompting Mordred to question his former choice of not telling Anne the truth about Baker's affair with Alicia.\*\*\* (triggered if the player refused to tell Anne the truth in Chapter 1)*

## JailedBaker Emily Route (spoilers):

Slightly less than two months have passed since the events of Variagian 47. With no more than two additional months separating them from full bankruptcy and their reputation problems still peventing them from finding new jobs, Mordred and Hera believe their choice of not helping the Black Bands was the right one nonetheless. Following Freya's death Abigail decided to keep testifying against Baker, perhaps also to show her gratitude for being finally free from the nightmare of Pandora. As a result the leader of the Black Bands was convicted and his party lost the elections, sparing Nova Polemos yet another wave of violence (though Baker's political power still allowed him to dodge the death penalty to receive instead a life sentence). Unfortunately, serenity still remained nothing but a memory for Mordred. Despite having died in the process Pandora had ultimately succeeded in his cruel plan, toying with everyone's lives and causing the detective a visible trauma he would likely never fully recover from. Memories of Freya and her horrible death kept haunting him despite the fact she used to be his enemy, preventing him from sleeping properly ever since. On top of that, the police refused to share any information related to Pandora's ultimate identity. Hera progressively grew more and more concerned with Mordred as she hasn't failed to notice he barely eats and sleeps in addition to smoking even more than he used to.

The only thing eventually capable of shaking Mordred in his desolation is the sudden call from a secret informer he had been in contact with, requesting a meeting at Talon Square. Hera joins the rendezvous and is astonished to find out said informer is actually none other than Freya's girlfriend, here introduced as sergeant Emily Boone. Emily begins the conversation by expressing her gratitude to Mordred and Hera, as the two of them are probably the only two people left who still sincerely care for Freya since the police decided instead to suspend all investigations related to her death (as thanks to the documents found at Variagian 47 the truth about her past had surfaced). In addition to that, as a reward for having tried to do everything he could to save Freya, Emily decided to share some confidential information with Mordred regarding the identity of the man he shot: his name was William Payne and he was one of the most skilled medics employed at Hephaestus Tech, the most powerful company of Nova Polemos (thus explaining both the surgical precision displayed at Treasury Park and how he had access to email encryption). Although his encrypted emails were lost following Freya's death (since Abigail also deleted her own copy to get rid of any evidence that would link her to Pandora), it is almost certain he was the real Pandora, or rather one of the two. Mordred and Hera's old theory of Pandora being actually two people had in fact found confirmation following the discovery that Payne was actually an immigrant: since he arrived in Nova Polemos no earlier than two years after Pandora's first murder, he could have been an accomplice at best (or alternatively some sort of apprentice of the original killer). Moreover, there was an even more convincing reason: following Payne's death Pandora had killed again. The murder occurred the same day of Baker's final speech (with more than ten days having passed since) and the victim was coincidentally one of Hephaestus Tech's managers. No one in Nova Polemos aside from the most highly ranked police officers is aware of it because the related information had been kept strictly confidential, but Mordred was given the privilege of being included for a very specific reason: the police has actually decided to create a dedicated task force in order to hunt down Pandora, and while the detective is still believed to be a criminal he also happens to be the only one who could provide meaningful help due to his past experiences with the serial killer. Mordred decides to accept cooperating with the police but also asks to be paid as if it was a private hiring due to his urgent need for money. Baffled by such arrogance Emily accepts this condition nonetheless and proceeds to forward him the coordinates of the crime scene.

The conversation is then abruptly interrupted by the tremendous roar caused by the explosion of a bomb. Emily quickly realizes the source were the nearby Black Bands' headquarters and proceeds to leave, commanding Mordred and Hera to go home and meet later at the police station, also mentioning they still have a lot to discuss. Mordred protests as she hasn't told them anything about the crime scene yet, but Hera points out now it's not the time to worry about it. Disagreeing with Hera as well, Mordred decides to rush to the crime scene alone. Only halfway through his travel he finally picks up one of the many phone calls Hera kept sending him, resuming the argument. Hera (now safe at home) scolds him for having yet again treated her like a child but eventually sets aside her feelings to focus on the imminent work to do, forwarding the police data to Mordred's AquaOS. She also asks Mordred his opinion on the bombing they witnessed minutes earlier: why would someone blow up the headquarters of a political party that was just defeated at the elections? Mordred is however just as clueless and suggests the two should keep their focus on Pandora and Pandora alone.

The detective finally arrives at the crime scene: a room belonging to Five Twins Hotel, still splattered in blood despite the removal of nearly every piece of evidence, corpse included. Using his AquaOS to generate a holographic projection based on the police data, Mordred makes a first, shocking discovery: the victims were actually two. Only one however was murdered following the ritual methodology typical of Pandora: an old man revealed to be none other than Cornelius Huber, the inventor of AquaOS. The victim had been drugged using "Morpheus", an anesthetic produced by Hephaestus Tech and typically used on patients about to undergo surgery: the police found several bottles of it on the bedside table despite the fact the product can't be sold and is usually only available to physicians and Hephaestus staff. Handcuffs had then been used to tie both the victim's ankles and his hands to the bed, preventing his escape. Finally, the victim's liver had been stabbed multiple times, causing his death. Eagle feathers were also found at his feet, implying the killer had gone to great lengths to create his scene since eagles are almost extinct and their feathers very valuable and hard to find. Using a red marker (or possibly lipstick) the killer also wrote a latin phrase on the mirror above the bed: "Prometheus Iapeti filius, primus homines ex luto finxit" (which translates to "Prometheus, son of Iapetus, first shaped men out of mud"). It is thus clear this time around Pandora's actions ultimately tried to reenact the myth of Prometheus. Mordred however also notices that unlike Alicia Hart's the victim's eyes had not been removed and his mouth had not been sewn. The biggest mystery remains however the second victim as not even the police could determine his identity and unlike the first man he was killed with a simple headshot, fired using his own gun. Said gun was found in his left hand and had apparently shot two additional times, the missing bullets not being anywhere in the room. The only way to enter the room was a single door that could only be opened using the associated key card, also emitting a beeping sound every time someone does so. Mordred concludes this murder looks even worse than the one at Treasury Park and that his first move should be heading to the police station to find out more about the victims, expecially the second man. Hera suggests he should allow her to join him since the situation has likely calmed down enough, and the player has to pick Mordred's ultimate response. If he accepts, Hera will thank him for finally showing some trust in her ability to look after herself. If he refuses, Hera will once again be upset and accuse Mordred of not being the same anymore after what happened to him in the last few months.

At the police station Emily confirms the police has no lead whatsoever on the second man, aside from the assumption he might have acted to save the first victim (only to end up killed himself). Mordred objects that had the second man really arrived with the killer still there he would have died near the door rather than on the other side of the room. He also points out the problem of the missing bullets: even though the killer might have taken the shell cases, there'd still be no way for him to cover the holes made by them. One possibility would be to assume the second man shot the killer twice in reaction to an ambush (since gunpowder traces were found on his hands), however the blood found in the room was confirmed to belong to the victims only. Moreover, this scenario provides no explanation regarding how the killer managed to kill the victim using his own gun: the premise of the second man arriving first would automatically rule out the possibility of the killer catching him off guard since the door emits a beeping sound everytime someone opens it. Emily concludes Mordred's objections are reasonable and grants him permission to interrogate the Hotel owner to find out more. In regards to the first victim she also confirms he was indeed the inventor of the AquaOS system in addition to being one of the most relevant figures in Hephaestus Tech altogether. She also explains she suspects a connection with the man shot by Mordred: Huber could have possibly found his encrypted emails, forcing the second Pandora to kill him in order to cover his partner. Mordred however feels something is still missing, so Emily grants him permission to visit the company's headquarters as well as the home of the victim's two assistants in order to conduct additional investigations (albeit with the appropriate degree of discretion). Finally, Mordred asks Emily what she wanted to know since at Talon Square she mentioned she wanted to ask him something in private. Emily explains she wants Mordred to confirm a suspicion of her own: whether Freya was killed by Pandora and Pandora alone or Mordred had something to do with her death as well. Mordred can reply by either telling her the truth or blatantly lie putting the blame entirely on Pandora, the ultimate choice being left to the player. If the player has Mordred tell Emily the truth, she will acidly remark things were just as she had suspected: Mordred could have actually saved Freya but chose not to. The detective will angrily reply he had no choice as letting Pandora go would have possibly meant the death of a lot more people: Emily will thus ask him if that's what he keeps telling to his own conscience as well. If the player chooses to have Mordred lie to her, he will claim he had nothing to do with her death as Pandora actually killed her while he was trying to save her, this despite his fake promise of letting her live as long as the detective would let him go (ultimately prompting Mordred to shoot him for this exact reason). Emily will apparently believe Mordred and thank him sincerely for trying to do everything he could to save her, claiming he changed for the better compared to his past self. In either case, Emily will then move on and focus on the case again. Before leaving, Mordred asks Emily for information regarding the two victim's time of death. Emily thus gives him a police report that specifies both the two victims' time of death and the exact moments the room's door was opened, allowing Mordred to learn the two men died at 00:45 AM and 1:00 AM respectively. She also notices for the first time Hera is missing and asks Mordred about her wellbeing following the events of Talon Square.

*\*\*\*Mordred vaguely replies she's fine with a frowned expression, prompting Emily to ask whether the two are having problems, to which Mordred gives an even more rude answer to end the conversation once and for all, claiming it's none of her business. Emily will allow the detective to take his leave, but not before reminding him he is speaking to a police officer: should he dare to disrespect her again she would make him regret doing so.\*\*\* (MISSING HERA Dialogue, triggered if the player asked Hera to stay at home earlier on)*

Mordred's first destination is Hephaestus Tech. Here he tries asking the reception desk for a meeting with someone who can share with him details on the murder, only to receive an automated response from a robot that puts him in an endless queue. He tries to protest claiming he's investigating on behalf of the police, but to no avail. After two hours have passed, his attention is suddendly caught by an ongoing argument between two people passing by. Eavesdropping, he learns a woman is trying her best to prevent a man from running away. She begs him to help her since he owes Cornelius for his current position, but he refuses and leaves, claiming giving her credit would only cause him to end up killed too. Mordred thus proceeds to approach the woman once she is alone, correctly presuming she may be tied to one of the victims: she introduces herself as Thalia Wells. Speaking with her allows Mordred to understand the reason behind the amount of security he met: Hephaestus Tech is a crucial cornerstone of the political system of Nova Polemos, and the servers of AquaOS and Caligula (as well as all data related to Patterson test) are kept inside its main building. More importantly, the woman's bond with the first victim is revealed to be a significant one: she was actually his girlfriend and the two were even planning to get married. Cornelius had purposefully kept their relationship hidden as he feared for her safety, suspecting someone inside Hephaestus Tech wanted to kill him. Thalia explains she was also the one who gave the alarm the evening he went missing (the gps signal of his AquaOS being also unresponsive): when the police eventually found him, it was unfortunately too late. She then shares information regarding Cornelius' two assistants: both were very close to them since they were endlessly competing over who would become Huber's successor. One of them, named Dean, had in the end prevailed thanks to his gentle manners and the popularity gained by a famous videogame of his creation, called "Be a good citizen" and actually used by Hephaestus to gather people's private data. The other, named Eugene, was instead a cybersecurity expert and none other than the man Mordred saw running away a few minutes earlier: Thalia is convinced he's refusing to help out of spite, still disappointed for his rejection. She advices Mordred to speak directly with them if he wants to find out more and also explains he has no chance of finding anyone else willing to speak with him at Hephaestus as everyone is too afraid of ending up investigated themselves. Before allowing him to leave though, she also entrusts him with a crucial piece of evidence she's not willing to share with anyone else: Huber's very own AquaOS, which she found herself in a trash bin next to the hotel. Its data is inexplicably corrupted and she wants Mordred to find someone capable of restoring it as she doesn't trust the police, fearing they could just destroy the evidence if it points to someone too powerful (such as another manager of Hephaestus Tech). The detective thus proceeds to leave for his next destination, aware he can trust Thalia since he didn't spot any mask on her.

The next place Mordred proceeds to visit is Five Twins Hotel once more, in order to ask its owner information related to the night of the murder. He finds her right in room 237, where she introduces herself as Nadine Stirling. Nadine explains she founded the hotel fifteen years earlier together with her husband, inheriting it after his death. She now runs it along with nine other people, most of which however leave the hotel after 23:00, implying almost no one was there when the murder took place. Out of sheer prejudice she is firmly convinced the currently ruling political class must be behind both the murder and the bombing at the Black Bands' headquarters. Mordred however asks her to keep her focus exclusively on her memories of the night, ready to press her further if he hears details he finds particularly relevant (in order to have Mordred do so, the player may click any part of the text that is highlighted). Nadine explains she always sleeps at the hotel as she doesn't feel safe walking home on her own. The night of the murder she was thus in her room when she suddendly heard several gunshots around 1:00. Mordred promptly presses her on the multiple gunshots, as this would confirm the victim's gun shot more than once: Nadine specifies they must have been two or three, all shot in rapid succession. Resuming her recap she explains she immediatly proceeded to call the police, which arrived roughly 20 minutes later (implying the killer fled very quickly). Satisfied, Mordred moves on and asks her about the hotel's security protocols. She explains the hotel doesn't use security cameras as access during the night hours is only possible using a personal card. Any given room becomes accessible only after identification and its door emits a beeping sound every time someone enters. According to the records, Huber allegedly entered his room at 16:00, 20:00 and 1:00. Astonished, Mordred asks how it would be possible for Huber to have accessed his room at 1:00 given he was already dead at that time. Nadine assumes someone else might have entered the room using Huber's AquaOS, thus revealing access is also possible using a registered AquaOS instead of the key. She apologizes for forgetting to mention it earlier and asks Mordred if there's anything else he would like to know about. Satisfied with what he was able to discover (though at the same time puzzled by how things are turning out to have gone), Mordred replies what she mentioned will be good enough. He thus thanks her for the help and allows her to go, proceeding to take his own leave right after in order to pay Dean Smith a visit at his place.

Once Mordred arrives at the house of the Smith brothers he finds quite the surreal place: a very dark environment decorated with weird statues and masks, resembling the stereotypical serial killer hideout. He is immediatly greeted by Dean Smith, who introduces himself as the former assistant of professor Huber and grants him permission to ask questions and take a look around if necessary. Mordred begins by asking where his brother's at, to which Dean replies Eugene hasn't come home in weeks and also stopped answering phone calls, proving yet again he's immature and childish. Mordred asks him to elaborate more on this point, so Dean explains that unlike him his brother had always been extremely committed and serious in both his work and their endless competition to win their mentor's favor. Eugene's emotional investment had given him a total breakdown when Dean was ultimately able to beat his efforts with a videogame, something Eugene considered too trivial and unworthy of surpassing his own work. Dean however also clarifies "Be a Good Citizen" is a lot more than a videogame, in that it was a powerful tool capable of both scouting and influencing people's preferences and habits. Mordred doesn't hide his negative opinion of such a creation, but Dean dismisses his critics as too naive, as according to his own opinion manipulating people is an inevitable part of building personal success. The detective thus moves on and asks Dean about his relationship with the victim. Dean sadly replies Huber was akin to a father and that his death was the worst shock he ever experienced in his life. Dean, Eugene and his fiancée Thalia were the three people that loved him the most, but he was widely respected by the rest of the city as well, implying Dean couldn't fathom why Pandora would ever want to kill him. Mordred is confident Dean is being truthful since he sees no masks, so he moves on and asks him about Hephaestus Tech next. Dean expresses his concerns for the monopolistic position held by the company: since Hephaestus filters all information coming from the outer world, he wouldn't be surprised if it actually turned out to be a lot different from how local media describe it. What Mordred was really interested in though is knowing whether Dean ever heard of an employee named William Payne: unfortunately Dean can't help him since the company has thousands of employess, most of which he never even met. Mordred thus moves on and shows him the corrupted AquaOS received by Thalia, asking Dean whether he'd be able to restore its data. Dean is confused as corrupting an AquaOS' data should be impossible to begin with but is confident he may be able to repair it. He also invites Mordred to give "Be a Good Citizen" a try while he waits. After the player has completed at least one level of the videogame, Dean will explain he figured how to repair the damaged AquaOS but that doing so would take him some hours: he thus advices Mordred to continue his investigations elsewhere in the meantime.

Mordred thus heads back to his office, finding Hera still angry for his former behaviour. She sarcastically asks him if he came back to check on her again and make sure she hadn't left home in the meantime. Mordred doesn't hide his own annoyance for the shot.

*\*\*\*Hera justifies her words claiming she knows Mordred can do better, as he already proved so by keeping his word and refusing to help Baker and the Black Bands.\*\*\** *(ANGRY HERA (PROMISE) Dialogue, triggered if Mordred made his promise at the beginning of Chapter 1) (Grants a Reconciliation score of +2)*

She also points out the last case has changed him profoundly.

*\*\*\*Mordred replies that despite any change he always kept his main focus on ensuring Hera's safety, even while they were working together on the Treasury Park case. Hera in turn says she understands Mordred's concerns but he must learn to accept her as a colleague and an equal, respecting her own decisions without imposing his own will.\*\*\* (ANGRY HERA (TREASURY PARK) Dialogue, triggered if the player refused to hang up on her while examining the scene at Treasury Park) (Grants a Reconciliation score of -1)*

*\*\*\*She also remarks she's still furious at him for having asked her to remain at the office after he finished analyzing the hotel room.\*\*\* (ANGRY HERA (LAST STRAW) Dialogue, triggered if the player asked her to stay at home earlier on) (Grants a Reconciliation score of -1)*

Mordred thus tries to reconcile with her, claiming he's tired of arguing and admitting he has been tremendously afraid of losing her ever since the events of Variagian.

*\*\*\*Hera jokingly asks Mordred if it ever occurred to him she might want to protect him too and that all she needs from him is his support: even facing xenophobic political parties and serial killers will be possible as long as the two of them succeed in remaining together. She then asks him to tell her what he found out while investigating.\*\*\* (RECONCILIATION Dialogue, triggered if the total sum of the Reconciliation scores is not a negative number)*

Listening to Mordred's recap rings a bell, confirming a suspicion Hera always had ever since she first saw the crime scene. She asks Mordred if the two still have any of the old photos depicting Pandora's former victims to make a direct comparison. Mordred replies not much is left since the police seized almost everything in order to look for evidence to use against him, yet a single picture survived: it depicts the crime scene of the Keaton case (Pandora's first male victim and fourth in chronological order), reenactment of the myth of Narcissus. Hera thus proceeds to reflect on the Treasury Park, Five Twins Hotel and Keaton cases together in order to think about which elements are recurring or unique (the player has to manually move them on the associated pictures), ultimately spotting a big discrepancy between the current case and the other ones: while in his past murders Pandora never left any direct reference to the myth he was reenacting (almost as if he wanted people to figure out themselves), the quote on the mirror left this time reveals his intentions way too easily, ultimately ruining his own artistic efforts. Hera's final conclusion is that the culprit behind this murder is actually not the real Pandora but someone trying to pose as the serial killer in order to put the blame on him. While the two are busy debating the implications of such a discovery, Morded's AquaOS will receive two new messages: one is from Dean Smith (who has successfully repaired the damaged AquaOS and is ready to see him again), the other is from David Casey (who wants to meet Mordred in his office to discuss something very important).

Mordred decides first of all to visit the Smith house again. Dean agrees to transfer all the data he was able to recover directly to Mordred's own AquaOS but also specifies the restored information dates back to no longer than a few days before the professor's death, the rest being unfortunately lost. In the first among three log files now available to Mordred the professor references a new breakthrough he was able to achieve thanks to the genius of his assistant, though he also seemed worried about its potential consequences on the city since it's actually a virus. He seemed expecially terrified at the thought it could kill Thalia, enough so he was suffering from sleep deprivation and apparently about to accept some kind of offer from an unspecified stranger. In the second log he confessed being more and more tempted by said offer, suggesting despite the fact he hadn't much left to live he had to act nonetheless in order to protect Thalia, even at the cost of dooming everyone else. He also mentions his biggest regret was his past choice of keeping Thalia close to him despite knowing she would eventually face danger because of his selfish decision. In the third and final log he claimed he and Thalia were about to flee towards their new life thanks to a safe-conduct, the departure being scheduled for the day after. Mordred immediatly demands answers from Dean, who however claims to be just as oblivious, suggesting Eugene must be the one involved instead. Unfortunately for him a mask becomes visible to Mordred, making it clear he must be hiding something. The detectives decides however to play along and leave for now, believing the evidence in his possession to be not enough just yet.

He thus heads to David Casey's office to figure out what the lawyer is up to this time. After greeting Mordred with just as much irony as usual, David turns serious and gets straight to the point: he has reason to believe him and Hera are in serious danger. Abigail shows up to back up David's opinion as well, revealing she had found protection under the lawyer's wing following the events of Treasury Park. According to the lawyer, Baker never stopped looking for revenge despite the fact the bomb at the Black Bands headquarters delayed his plans quite significantly. Mordred asks the lawyer if he has any clue regarding who might be responsible for the attack, but David replies he has no useful information as of now.

*\*\*\*Abigail also mentions her sister is also planning to divorce Baker after realizing his affair with Alicia was a real thing. Needless to say, this did nothing but fuel Baker's hatred for them even more, prompting Mordred to question his former choice of telling Anne the truth.\*\*\* (ANNE SHERMAN Dialogue, triggered if the player told her the truth in Chapter 1)*

Hera proceeds to explain they have no reason to be worried since the police already anticipated such a possibility and guaranteed them protection. Unfortunately David and Abigail aren't quite as optimistic and believe the police would never be enough to stop someone like Baker. Fortunately for Mordred and Hera though, they are ready to offer them their own support. Mordred asks them what they would gain from doing so, prompting Abigail to explain she wanted a chance to repay her debt as thanks to Mordred her assailant is now dead and Alicia's death was finally avenged. Unfortunately, David can't specify what this proposal actually consists of just yet (save the fact it's going to have a price and involve breaking the law), but also claims once the time comes everything would be clear, asking if the two are ultimately interested in the offer. The player has to pick Mordred's answer. If Mordred accepts, David and Abigail will gladly tell him the two of them would soon hear from them again, prompting the detective to wonder whether it was actually a good idea to trust David. If he refuses an astonished David will ask him to reconsider (also implying the choice would have very negative ripercussions) but Hera will reply the two of them already have enough problems as it is and their stubborness in keeping details for themselves only made it harder for them to trust them. In either case the lawyer will let Mordred and Hera go back to their investigation.

Mordred will then visit Hephaestus again, this time around being lucky enough to meet a manager right away: he introduces himself as John Deckard. He explains the police had already prepared him for Mordred's arrival beforehand, so the detective begins asking his questions right away, starting from information regarding the first victim. John confirms he was widely respected both within and outside the company, wondering himself who could ever want him dead (expecially since he was about to get married). He also claims he had mostly been doing medical research aimed at developing mechanical prosthetis as of late, implying not even his most recent activities could provide any clue capable of explaining why someone would suddendly want to kill him. Mordred thus moves on and asks John to tell him what he knows about the professor's two assistants. John describes Eugene as shy and bad-tempered, a person so obsessed with success and surpassing his brother he would often lock himself up in the server rooms for days just to grind away at his projects (even at the cost of his own physical and mental health). John was thus not surprised when Eugene had a breakdown since Dean had managed to become Huber's successor in spite of his devious habits. Hera immediatly asks the manager to better describe these "devious habits" of Dean: John explains he often looked at Thalia with a maniacal gaze and never even tried to hide the fact he felt a deep attraction for her. In light of this Mordred can't quite understand why Huber would still choose him, but John explains Dean was clever enough to never cross the line in ways that would be deemed too inappropriate. Mordred concludes he should probably ask Thalia personally about this issue and moves on, tackling the most important topic: Huber's virus. When the detective asks John whether Hephaestus was working on a biological weapon of some sort the manager replies with anger at what he considers an outrageous allegation, which convinces Mordred only the professor and his assistants must have known about the project since he doesn't see any mask on John. He thus changes topic again and tries asking John whether he knew an employee called William Payne. Unfortunately John's reply is that he doesn't, as the company has way too many employees: he explains he could ask his secretary to look into it but in light of the recent problems it could take her days to come up with something. Mordred has thus no choice but to focus again on the current case, this time showing John pictures of evidence. He first shows John the sleeping pills found next to the victim's bed: John confirms they are produced by Hephaestus and normally not accessible to anyone but a selected few. They are capable of inducing a semi-comatose state that lasts for no less than seven hours, corroborating the assumption the victim was drugged before being killed. Mordred then shows John the damaged AquaOS belonging to professor Huber, asking the manager to confirm the device's data is actually directly processed by the central server located at Hephaestus. John confirms this is how the technology works, suggesting the only way to corrupt an AquaOS' data would be to tamper directly with the main server itself. Since the only ones who have access to it are the police, the government or Hephaestus staff members assigned to it, Mordred concludes only one of the Smith brothers could have sabotaged it without being noticed. Finally, Mordred shows John a picture of the second victim, causing him to panick visibly. John admits the second man was known to Hephaestus Tech: his name was Demetrius Sievers and was actually an ambassador sent to Nova Polemos by NeoEurope (one of the city's neighbouring superpowers) a couple of days earlier. Sievers was Hephaestus' foreign contact for commercial partnerships and technology exchanges and as such had diplomatic immunity and was protected directly by the government, who had gone to great lengths to hide his real identity (up to a point not even the police could determine it). John finally understands why it seemed like Sievers had suddendly disappeared and also realizes that if news of his death were to become public a very serious diplomatic incident could break out. He thus orders both Mordred and Hera to remain silent, suggesting he would personally take care of informing the police and those involved who needed to know. Mordred speculates Huber could have possibly made contact with Sievers using his own encrypted email account, but John is unable to corroborate such a claim as this type of information is unfortunately beyond his reach. Nevertheless, the detective is finally seeing the puzzle come together and now also understands the reason behind Dean's mask. He concludes he must now find Thalia to get the last missing piece before he can force Dean to confess the truth.

Mordred is eventually lucky enough to stumble in Thalia while crossing Talon Square. She immediatly asks for updates regarding Huber's AquaOS, so the detective shows her the terrible truths he was able to unveil. Thalia is shocked at first but when Mordred begs for her help she proceeds to answer the detective's questions without hesitating. Mordred first asks her to confirm the rumors related to Dean: Thalia admits he was kind of obsessed with her but at the same time never did anything out of line either, as his weird behaviours consisted mostly in the creation of videogame characters and pieces of poetry dedicated to her. Huber was aware of this and the two had consequentially argued on more than one occasion, but despite everything the professor had still decided to nominate Dean his successor. Still uncapable of understanding such a decision, Mordred asks Thalia if she was aware of Huber's secret plan to make a deal aimed at having them flee the city undercover. Thalia admits Huber had expressed the desire to leave with her on many occasions but had also been always aware leaving Nova Polemos would be almost impossible, expecially since he was a senior manager of the city's most important company. Lately he had been expressing his happiness for their imminent marriage in such a repetitive way it almost seemed like he was actually hiding something that made him very sad. He hadn't ultimately told her of any secret plan to escape but had indeed started to send a conspicuous amount of encrypted emails, mostly to foreign recipients. Satisfied, Mordred finally tackles the most important topic: the virus. While Thalia is still traumatized by the idea his fiancée could contribute to such a horrible project, what Mordred actually wants to know is whether the professor had any other assistants aside from Dean and Eugene. Since Thalia confirms that is not the case, Mordred is now fully convinced one of them must have been responsible for the creation of the virus. Realizing he had not been able to speak with Eugene just yet he also asks Thalia if she had any news in regards to him. Unfortunately she replies he's seemingly impossible to find, but also mentions having an idea on how to possibly determine his location. She doesn't want to be more specific about the details but promises to send Mordred the address as soon as she succeeds. The detective thus thanks Thalia for her help and departs, now finally ready to confront Dean.

At the Smith house Mordred opens up the conversation with Dean by explaining he's well aware Pandora was actually not the person behind the professor's death (since he would have never left the phrase on the mirror). Dean can't quite understand what Mordred is pointing at, so the detective proceeds to reconstruct all the events in order. To begin with, the professor was trying to flee the city with Thalia by making a secret deal with Demetrius Sievers, the second victim. Sievers was the perfect opportunity because his ambassador privileges allowed him to bypass the city's security with ease. Moreover he already happened to be in Nova Polemos due to business related to Hephaestus. Mordred concludes Huber must have asked him to meet at Five Twin Hotels, and that Sievers must have consequentially arrived at 20:00 (the former access of 16:00 being just a security check made by the professor on his own). Since the professor died at 0:45 and since the police report made it clear the room's door was never opened again untill 1:00, Mordred also concludes Huber must have been killed by the only person who had been with him all the time: Sievers himself. Hera still doesn't get why Sievers didn't simply flee the hotel after killing him so Mordred explains his final deduction: Sievers was actually waiting for someone, whom he had made a different agreement with before killing Huber and who was very likely either Eugene or Dean (which would also explain why at 1:00 the opening door didn't scare him). Dean feels insulted by Mordred's allegations, claiming the detective has no idea of how important Huber was for him. Mordred however ironically replies he has conversely quite a clear idea of Dean's feelings for Thalia, suggesting Dean could have conspired to kill the professor in order to have her for himself. Hera however suggests Eugene had even more reasons to do so: assuming the virus was effectively one of his creations, he might have discovered the professor's plan to sell it and not liked the idea (let alone being already furious for being ditched in favor of Dean). Regardless of which one among the two, Mordred is nevertheless convinced the murder was indeed planned with the help of one of the Smith brothers, the sleeping pills being the ultimate evidence that confirms it (since they are almost impossible to retrieve for people who are not employed at Hephaestus). Moreover, few people aside from Dean or Eugene could have sabotaged the data on Huber's AquaOS after using it to open the door and kill Demetrius.

Dean however has enough and experiences a complete breakdown, also pointing out he was the one who helped them repair it in the first place: he claims Mordred and Hera must be two incompetent idiots since they keep accusing him without knowing what his brother would actually be capable of. He then starts screaming frantically saying the two should find him and kill him as soon as possible before he manages to kill everyone else. Mordred tries to calm Dean down and asks him where his brother might be but a new mask appears on his face (this time representing his breakdown) just as he proceeds to run away, claiming he hates everyone. After witnessing this, Hera is fully convinced Dean had nothing to do with the murder after all. A few moments later Mordred receives a message from Thalia: she was successful in tracking down the signal of Eugene's AquaOS despite his attempts at hiding it. Unfortunately, the signal is still not clear enough and points at a very broad area: the exact location will only become available after the player manages to isolate the exact source by solving the associated puzzle game. Eugene will be ultimately revealed to be hiding inside one of Hephaestus Tech's most peripheral labs, to which Mordred rushes immediatly.

As soon as he arrives the detective realizes the place must be signal proof for security reasons (thus finding himself prevented from contacting Hera or anyone else) but is fortunate enough to find Eugene right away. Eugene is startled by Mordred's arrival but also claims he was actually not hiding since he hadn't done anything wrong. Unsurprisingly a mask shows up on his face but an unrelenting Mordred begins pressing him immediatly. He first accuses Eugene of having known Demetrius Sievers all along: it was ultimately him who had made a secret agreement with the ambassador, offering him the virus to draw his attention. Eugene starts to crumble but still pleads his innocence, claiming he had indeed broken into Huber's email account and discovered his plan to escape but had afterwards merely tried to talk him out of it, with no success. Mordred however doesn't buy it and suggests he instead proposed Sievers an even better plan, aimed at silencing the professor permanently and put the blame on Pandora: the ultimate proof of his involvement is the professor's damaged AquaOS since only Eugene had the skills and knowledge required to corrupt its data. According to Mordred's reconstruction Eugene entered the hotel room using a virtual copy of Huber's AquaOS. He then killed the unsuspecting ambassador and remotely corrupted the data on the real device in order to remove any reference to him or the virus, throwing it away afterwards. Eugene replies he had no reason to kill Demetrius too if he was just looking for revenge on Huber, but Mordred points out killing Demetrius would let him get his virus back as well. Eugene thus objects the evidence implies Dean could be the culprit just as much as him, but Mordred explains he trusts his gut: Dean would never be able to betray his mentor but Eugene, being a lot like Mordred himself, wouldn't hesitate to murder him in cold blood if it helped him reach his goals. Eugene is baffled at the comparison and asks Mordred if he's aware of how much of a genius the person in front of him is: in the attempt to surpass his own brother he had managed to develop the most secure IT system the city had ever seen, impenetrable even to foreign superpowers. Moreover, although he had chosen Dean as his successor Huber had no choice but to rely on Eugene in order to develop the virus, implying he had finally managed to beat Dean as well.

Mordred loses his temper when Eugene nominates the virus again, accusing him of having developed nothing but a way to kill them all. Eugene almost bursts into laughter due to a fatal blunder on the detective's part: while he confirms he intends to use it to get his revenge on Nova Polemos, what he developed was actually not a biological weapon of mass destruction but a computer virus specifically designed to destroy the AquaOS system. Mordred is caught off guard and doesn't believe Eugene at first, claiming the professor had no reason to destroy his own greatest creation. Eugene however clarifies Huber's greatest creation was actually life itself, in that a secret research he had been working on unbeknown to Hephaestus itself had led him to successfully create androids capable of adapting, learning, evolving and experiencing human emotions: the incredulous Mordred has no choice but to believe him once the whole lab is revealed to be full of mechanical bodies. Eugene explains the professor was so scared by his own achievement he decided to help him develop the virus just to have a readily available kill switch for the worst case scenario since all forms of artificial life depend on the AquaOS central server. He also specifies the ones surrounding them are flawed prototypes that were quickly ditched once the professor's final masterpiece had been successfully born, implying one android was already active and fully functional: a terrified Mordred realizes the one Eugene is speaking of is Thalia. Recollecting his memories the detective understands this must have been the real reason Huber kept their relationship hidden and also figures Thalia had likely lied to him multiple times (yet no mask ever appeared on her face due to her artificial nature). He also realizes the heartfelt terror expressed by the professor in his logs was due to the computer virus being lethal to Thalia, her connection to AquaOS being incidentally also the reason she was able to trace Eugene's signal so quickly. Eugene confirms such are the powers of Thalia, a monster permanently linked to AquaOS' central server and capable of accessing and modifying its data at will. Adding on top her ability to learn and adapt, Eugene suggests the only reasonable thing to do would be destroying her immediatly, dragging down the whole corrupt system of Nova Polemos in the process: once his virus erased all government controlled information, citizens would have no choice but to awaken from their slumber. Incidentally this also implies all evidence connected to Mordred's shady past would be lost forever, allowing the detective a new start.

The conversation is interrupted by the frantic arrival of Dean, who begs Mordred not to listen to Eugene and confronts his brother about his intention to destroy the professor's greatest achievement. Eugene in turn vents his anger, explaining after the lengths he had gone to just for the sake of being noticed by the professor he couldn't stand how Huber had decided to betray him by trying to escape with a monster, the same one that incidentally had also killed Sievers. Before Mordred can even formulate an answer, Thalia herself enters the room and starts confessing her crime, confirming what Eugene just said is true. She explains after the gps of Huber's AquaOS stopped working she retrieved its last recorded position by linking with the server herself, immediatly rushing to the place. The AquaOS' data had already been damaged but she could still create a virtual copy of its profile in order to enter the hotel. Upon doing so she saw Huber's dead body and immediatly assaulted his killer, eventually killing him with his own gun but not before he had managed to shoot her twice. The bullets are still inside of her, thus explaining why Mordred had failed to find them: being no one aware of her real nature she had no way to remove them and being no one capable of repairing her damaged body her mobility had been severely compromised ever since. She decided to join everyone at the lab mostly out of guilt, ready to face the consequences of her actions and aware that being her time at hand she had no reason to keep hiding regardless. Dean appeals to Mordred claiming Thalia doesn't deserve to die: her impulsive and emotion driven decision to avenge her creator was the ultimate proof she is perfectly akin to a real person. Being her the greatest invention in human history, destroying her would also imply destroying the possibility of recreating something so unique and perfect. Eugene in turn replies she is nothing but a murderer and that her so called emotions are just very sophisticated simulations aimed at making her follow behavioural schemes enforced by others. Thalia objects the same applies to humans since they think and act depending on experiences that are shaped according to models imposed by society. Dean offers his help to stop Eugene's virus and asks Mordred to cooperate, claiming he would then escape with Thalia while the detective proceeds to arrest Eugene and blame him for Huber's death. Eugene instead asks Mordred to cover him while he finishes the virus upload: the two would then let Dean be framed for everything while they enjoy their newfound freedom from Nova Polemos' oppression. Mordred must thus choose whether to side with Dean or Eugene, a choice that is ultimately left to the player and that will conclude the narration of Chapter 2. The consequences of this choice will once again be massive as they will trigger two different Chapter endings, influence the plot of subsequent chapters quite substantially and cause one of the main characters to die in either case. Contrary to what happens at the end of Chapter 1, the choice won't however spawn new narrative branches within the main plot: it will instead set in motion one among two possible city wide catastrophic aftermaths that will follow any given ending. (More information is included in the Consequences sections below and in pages dedicated to the endings).

## Alternative Dialogues (JailedBaker Emily Route):

* **MISSING HERA:** *\*\*\*Hearing Emily's words Mordred realizes Hera hasn't arrived yet and starts panicking, fearing she could be in danger and losing control despite Emily's attempts at reminding him he must keep an appropriate behaviour while inside a police station. Hera will however suddendly show up, just in time to see Mordred's lost temper before he realizes his big mistake. He will try to pretend nothing happened but before he can begin his update Hera will angrily turn back and leave, claiming she'd return home and ask Emily the details from there before Mordred brings down the whole place. Emily will scold Mordred for his outburst but also tell him she will proceed to update Hera herself so the detective can continue his investigations, allowing him to leave.\*\*\* (triggered if Mordred asked Hera to join him earlier on)*
* **ANGRY HERA (PROMISE):** *\*\*\*Hera justifies her words claiming she knows Mordred can do better, as he already proved it by refusing to exonerate Baker despite not making any promise.\*\*\* (triggered if Mordred refused to make his promise at the beginning of Chapter 1) (Grants a Reconciliation score of +1)*
* **ANGRY HERA (TREASURY PARK):** *\*\*\*Mordred replies that despite any change he always kept his main focus on ensuring Hera's safety, even while they were working together on the Treasury Park case. Hera in turn says she appreciates Mordred's concerns but he must never dare to cut her off ever again.\*\*\* (triggered if the player chose to hang up on her while examining the scene at Treasury Park) (Grants a Reconciliation score of +1)*
* **ANGRY HERA (LAST STRAW):** *\*\*\*She also remarks the last straw was Mordred's overreaction at the police station, begging him to admit he has a problem and to listen to her for once.\*\*\* (triggered if the player asked her to join him earlier on) (Grants a Reconciliation score of +1)*
* **RECONCILIATION:** *\*\*\*Hera points out that as cruel as it may sound it's actually Mordred's own behaviour that might eventually make him lose her, and not just as a colleague. Due to the terrible things that keep happening around them she needs him now more than ever, yet he keeps making everything a lot harder. She also finds it pointless to continue the conversation any longer and moves on, asking him to tell her what he found out while investigating.\*\*\* (triggered if the total sum of the Reconciliation scores is a negative number)*
* **ANNE SHERMAN:** *\*\*\*Abigail also specifies that as if things weren't bad enough her sister also committed suicide out of shame after Baker's conviction, prompting Mordred to question his former choice of not telling Anne the truth about Baker's affair with Alicia.\*\*\* (triggered if the player refused to tell Anne the truth in Chapter 1)*

## DeadBaker Emily Route (spoilers):

Slightly less than two months have passed since the events of Variagian 47. Following Baker's full exoneration thanks to Abigail's video, Mordred and Hera received the reward they were promised and were finally able to enjoy some financial stability. Nevertheless, money remained the last one among their concerns. Despite having died in the process Pandora had ultimately succeeded in his cruel plan, toying with everyone's lives and causing the detective a visible trauma he would likely never fully recover from. Memories of Freya and her horrible death kept haunting Mordred despite the fact she used to be his enemy, preventing him from sleeping properly ever since. Moreover, the police refused to share any information related to Pandora's real identity. Baker's exoneration also allowed the Black Bands to politically exploit the false accusations used against him, which added to how they were already the favored party inevitably meant their landslide victory at the elections. Any grim prediction regarding how Nova Polemos had to expect nothing but violence as a consequence saw immediate confirmation when first blood was drawn as early as it could: Baker was brutally assassinated during the speech he was holding in celebration of his party's victory. Its killer remained unknown and the Black Bands immediatly promised serious ripercussions, turning Baker into a martyr to furtherly legitimize people's growing scorn against oppositions and minorities. Hera suffered these consequences the most as she fears Nova Polemos might turn into a dictatorship and is now scared to even walk outside on her own. Her biggest concern remains however Mordred, as he is smoking even more than he used to and barely eats or sleeps.

The only thing eventually capable of shaking Mordred in his desolation is the sudden call from a secret informer he had been in contact with, requesting a meeting at Talon Square. Hera joins the rendezvous and is astonished to find out said informer is actually none other than Freya's girlfriend, here introduced as sergeant Emily Boone. Emily begins the conversation by expressing her gratitude to Mordred and Hera, as the two of them are probably the only two people left who still sincerely care for Freya since the police decided instead to suspend all investigations related to her death (as thanks to the documents found at Variagian 47 the truth about her past had surfaced). In addition to that, as a reward for having tried to do everything he could to save Freya, Emily decided to share some confidential information with Mordred regarding the identity of the man he shot: his name was William Payne and he was one of the most skilled medics employed at Hephaestus Tech, the most powerful company of Nova Polemos (thus explaining both the surgical precision displayed at Treasury Park and how he had access to email encryption). Although his encrypted emails were lost following Freya's death (since Abigail also deleted her own copy to get rid of any evidence that would link her to Pandora), it is almost certain he was the real Pandora, or rather one of the two. Mordred and Hera's old theory of Pandora being actually two people had in fact found confirmation following the discovery that Payne was actually an immigrant: since he arrived in Nova Polemos no earlier than two years after Pandora's first murder, he could have been an accomplice at best (or alternatively some sort of apprentice of the original killer). Moreover, there was an even more convincing reason: following Payne's death Pandora had killed again. The murder occurred the same day of Baker's final speech (with more than ten days having passed since) and the victim was coincidentally one of Hephaestus Tech's managers. No one in Nova Polemos aside from the most highly ranked police officers is aware of it because the related information had been kept strictly confidential, but Mordred was given the privilege of being included for a very specific reason: the police has actually decided to create a dedicated task force in order to hunt down Pandora, and while the detective is still believed to be a criminal he also happens to be the only one who could provide meaningful help due to his past experiences with the serial killer. Mordred decides to accept cooperating with the police but also asks to be paid as if it was a private hiring due to his urgent need for money. Baffled by such arrogance Emily accepts this condition nonetheless and proceeds to forward him the coordinates of the crime scene.

The conversation is then interrupted by the sudden arrival of a police truck: speaking through a megaphone the squad leader demands everyone to freeze and prepare to be brought onboard for identification, while his subordinates proceed to storm the whole place and immobilize whoever dares to move. An astonished Hera asks Mordred why innocent people are being taken away but Emily claims there's nothing to be worried about as it's just a standard procedure aimed at improving security in light of what happened to Baker, also remarking the city could use some cleaning. Emily's last words terrorize Hera even more, prompting Mordred to suggest she should leave immediatly and return to their office. Hera accepts without questioning, leaving the detective and Emily alone. Disgusted, Mordred demands the sergeant to promise the police would take every necessary measure to ensure Hera's safety. He also acidly leaves for the crime scene as soon as Emily gives her confirmation, fed up with what he had to witness. Halfway through his destination Mordred receives a phone call from Hera: safe at last, she can now forward him the police data and assist investigations from home. She also asks Mordred his opinion on the police crackdown they witnessed earlier. Mordred speculates it could be connected to Baker's assassination: still uncapable of catching the killer, the police prefers to relentlessly target weak minorities to interrogate random people rather than admit its own incompetence. Hera sadly replies she doesn't understand whether he said that because he was trying to reassure her or because he refuses to face the sad truth.

The detective finally arrives at the crime scene: a room belonging to Five Twins Hotel, still splattered in blood despite the removal of nearly every piece of evidence, corpse included. Using his AquaOS to generate a holographic projection based on the police data, Mordred makes a first, shocking discovery: the victims were actually two. Only one however was murdered following the ritual methodology typical of Pandora: an old man revealed to be none other than Cornelius Huber, the inventor of AquaOS. The victim had been drugged using "Morpheus", an anesthetic produced by Hephaestus Tech and typically used on patients about to undergo surgery: the police found several bottles of it on the bedside table despite the fact the product can't be sold and is usually only available to physicians and Hephaestus staff. Handcuffs had then been used to tie both the victim's ankles and his hands to the bed, preventing his escape. Finally, the victim's liver had been stabbed multiple times, causing his death. Eagle feathers were also found at his feet, implying the killer had gone to great lengths to create his scene since eagles are almost extinct and their feathers very valuable and hard to find. Using a red marker (or possibly lipstick) the killer also wrote a latin phrase on the mirror above the bed: "Prometheus Iapeti filius, primus homines ex luto finxit" (which translates to "Prometheus, son of Iapetus, first shaped men out of mud"). It is thus clear this time around Pandora's actions ultimately tried to reenact the myth of Prometheus. Mordred however also notices that unlike Alicia Hart's the victim's eyes had not been removed and his mouth had not been sewn. The biggest mystery remains however the second victim as not even the police could determine his identity and unlike the first man he was killed with a simple headshot, fired using his own gun. Said gun was found in his left hand and had apparently shot two additional times, the missing bullets not being anywhere in the room. The only way to enter the room was a single door that could only be opened using the associated key card, also emitting a beeping sound every time someone does so. Mordred concludes this murder looks even worse than the one at Treasury Park and that his first move should be heading to the police station to find out more about the victims, expecially the second man. Hera suggests he should allow her to join him since the situation has likely calmed down enough, and the player has to pick Mordred's ultimate response. If he accepts, Hera will thank him for finally showing some trust in her ability to look after herself. If he refuses, Hera will once again be upset and accuse Mordred of not being the same anymore after what happened to him in the last few months.

At the police station Emily confirms the police has no lead whatsoever on the second man, aside from the assumption he might have acted to save the first victim (only to end up killed himself). Mordred objects that had the second man really arrived with the killer still there he would have died near the door rather than on the other side of the room. He also points out the problem of the missing bullets: even though the killer might have taken the shell cases, there'd still be no way for him to cover the holes made by them. One possibility would be to assume the second man shot the killer twice in reaction to an ambush (since gunpowder traces were found on his hands), however the blood found in the room was confirmed to belong to the victims only. Moreover, this scenario provides no explanation regarding how the killer managed to kill the victim using his own gun: the premise of the second man arriving first would automatically rule out the possibility of the killer catching him off guard since the door emits a beeping sound everytime someone opens it. Emily concludes Mordred's objections are reasonable and grants him permission to interrogate the Hotel owner to find out more. In regards to the first victim she also confirms he was indeed the inventor of the AquaOS system in addition to being one of the most relevant figures in Hephaestus Tech altogether. She also explains she suspects a connection with the man shot by Mordred: Huber could have possibly found his encrypted emails, forcing the second Pandora to kill him in order to cover his partner. Mordred however feels something is still missing, so Emily grants him permission to visit the company's headquarters as well as the home of the victim's two assistants in order to conduct additional investigations (albeit with the appropriate degree of discretion). Finally, Mordred asks Emily what she wanted to know since at Talon Square she mentioned she wanted to ask him something in private. Emily explains she wants Mordred to confirm a suspicion of her own: whether Freya was killed by Pandora and Pandora alone or Mordred had something to do with her death as well. Mordred can reply by either telling her the truth or blatantly lie putting the blame entirely on Pandora, the ultimate choice being left to the player. If the player has Mordred tell Emily the truth, she will acidly remark things were just as she had suspected: Mordred could have actually saved Freya but chose not to. The detective will angrily reply he had no choice as letting Pandora go would have possibly meant the death of a lot more people: Emily will thus ask him if that's what he keeps telling to his own conscience as well. If the player chooses to have Mordred lie to her, he will claim he had nothing to do with her death as Pandora actually killed her while he was trying to save her, this despite his fake promise of letting her live as long as the detective would let him go (ultimately prompting Mordred to shoot him for this exact reason). Emily will apparently believe Mordred and thank him sincerely for trying to do everything he could to save her, claiming he changed for the better compared to his past self. In either case, Emily will then move on and focus on the case again. Before leaving, Mordred asks Emily for information regarding the two victim's time of death. Emily thus gives him a police report that specifies both the two victims' time of death and the exact moments the room's door was opened, allowing Mordred to learn the two men died at 00:45 AM and 1:00 AM respectively. She also notices for the first time Hera is missing and asks Mordred about her wellbeing following the events of Talon Square.

*\*\*\*Mordred vaguely replies she's fine with a frowned expression, prompting Emily to ask whether the two are having problems, to which Mordred gives an even more rude answer to end the conversation once and for all, claiming it's none of her business. Emily will allow the detective to take his leave, but not before reminding him he is speaking to a police officer: should he dare to disrespect her again she would make him regret doing so.\*\*\* (MISSING HERA Dialogue, triggered if the player asked Hera to stay at home earlier on)*

Mordred's first destination is Hephaestus Tech. Here he tries asking the reception desk for a meeting with someone who can share with him details on the murder, only to receive an automated response from a robot that puts him in an endless queue. He tries to protest claiming he's investigating on behalf of the police, but to no avail. After two hours have passed, his attention is suddendly caught by an ongoing argument between two people passing by. Eavesdropping, he learns a woman is trying her best to prevent a man from running away. She begs him to help her since he owes Cornelius for his current position, but he refuses and leaves, claiming giving her credit would only cause him to end up killed too. Mordred thus proceeds to approach the woman once she is alone, correctly presuming she may be tied to one of the victims: she introduces herself as Thalia Wells. Speaking with her allows Mordred to understand the reason behind the amount of security he met: Hephaestus Tech is a crucial cornerstone of the political system of Nova Polemos, and the servers of AquaOS and Caligula (as well as all data related to Patterson test) are kept inside its main building. More importantly, the woman's bond with the first victim is revealed to be a significant one: she was actually his girlfriend and the two were even planning to get married. Cornelius had purposefully kept their relationship hidden as he feared for her safety, suspecting someone inside Hephaestus Tech wanted to kill him. Thalia explains she was also the one who gave the alarm the evening he went missing (the gps signal of his AquaOS being also unresponsive): when the police eventually found him, it was unfortunately too late. She then shares information regarding Cornelius' two assistants: both were very close to them since they were endlessly competing over who would become Huber's successor. One of them, named Dean, had in the end prevailed thanks to his gentle manners and the popularity gained by a famous videogame of his creation, called "Be a good citizen" and actually used by Hephaestus to gather people's private data. The other, named Eugene, was instead a cybersecurity expert and none other than the man Mordred saw running away a few minutes earlier: Thalia is convinced he's refusing to help out of spite, still disappointed for his rejection. She advices Mordred to speak directly with them if he wants to find out more and also explains he has no chance of finding anyone else willing to speak with him at Hephaestus as everyone is too afraid of ending up investigated themselves. Before allowing him to leave though, she also entrusts him with a crucial piece of evidence she's not willing to share with anyone else: Huber's very own AquaOS, which she found herself in a trash bin next to the hotel. Its data is inexplicably corrupted and she wants Mordred to find someone capable of restoring it as she doesn't trust the police, fearing they could just destroy the evidence if it points to someone too powerful (such as another manager of Hephaestus Tech). The detective thus proceeds to leave for his next destination, aware he can trust Thalia since he didn't spot any mask on her.

The next place Mordred proceeds to visit is Five Twins Hotel once more, in order to ask its owner information related to the night of the murder. He finds her right in room 237, where she introduces herself as Nadine Stirling. Nadine explains she founded the hotel fifteen years earlier together with her husband, inheriting it after his death. She now runs it along with nine other people, most of which however leave the hotel after 23:00, implying almost no one was there when the murder took place. Out of sheer prejudice she is firmly convinced the immigrants must be behind both this murder and Baker's assassination. Mordred however asks her to keep her focus exclusively on her memories of the night, ready to press her further if he hears details he finds particularly relevant (in order to have Mordred do so, the player may click any part of the text that is highlighted). Nadine explains she always sleeps at the hotel as she doesn't feel safe walking home on her own. The night of the murder she was thus in her room when she suddendly heard several gunshots around 1:00. Mordred promptly presses her on the multiple gunshots, as this would confirm the victim's gun shot more than once: Nadine specifies they must have been two or three, all shot in rapid succession. Resuming her recap she explains she immediatly proceeded to call the police, which arrived roughly 20 minutes later (implying the killer fled very quickly). Satisfied, Mordred moves on and asks her about the hotel's security protocols. She explains the hotel doesn't use security cameras as access during the night hours is only possible using a personal card. Any given room becomes accessible only after identification and its door emits a beeping sound every time someone enters. According to the records, Huber allegedly entered his room at 16:00, 20:00 and 1:00. Astonished, Mordred asks how it would be possible for Huber to have accessed his room at 1:00 given he was already dead at that time. Nadine assumes someone else might have entered the room using Huber's AquaOS, thus revealing access is also possible using a registered AquaOS instead of the key. She apologizes for forgetting to mention it earlier and asks Mordred if there's anything else he would like to know about. Satisfied with what he was able to discover (though at the same time puzzled by how things are turning out to have gone), Mordred replies what she mentioned will be good enough. He thus thanks her for the help and allows her to go, proceeding to take his own leave right after in order to pay Dean Smith a visit at his place.

Once Mordred arrives at the house of the Smith brothers he finds quite the surreal place: a very dark environment decorated with weird statues and masks, resembling the stereotypical serial killer hideout. He is immediatly greeted by Dean Smith, who introduces himself as the former assistant of professor Huber and grants him permission to ask questions and take a look around if necessary. Mordred begins by asking where his brother's at, to which Dean replies Eugene hasn't come home in weeks and also stopped answering phone calls, proving yet again he's immature and childish. Mordred asks him to elaborate more on this point, so Dean explains that unlike him his brother had always been extremely committed and serious in both his work and their endless competition to win their mentor's favor. Eugene's emotional investment had given him a total breakdown when Dean was ultimately able to beat his efforts with a videogame, something Eugene considered too trivial and unworthy of surpassing his own work. Dean however also clarifies "Be a Good Citizen" is a lot more than a videogame, in that it was a powerful tool capable of both scouting and influencing people's preferences and habits. Mordred doesn't hide his negative opinion of such a creation, but Dean dismisses his critics as too naive, as according to his own opinion manipulating people is an inevitable part of building personal success. The detective thus moves on and asks Dean about his relationship with the victim. Dean sadly replies Huber was akin to a father and that his death was the worst shock he ever experienced in his life. Dean, Eugene and his fiancée Thalia were the three people that loved him the most, but he was widely respected by the rest of the city as well, implying Dean couldn't fathom why Pandora would ever want to kill him. Mordred is confident Dean is being truthful since he sees no masks, so he moves on and asks him about Hephaestus Tech next. Dean expresses his concerns for the monopolistic position held by the company: since Hephaestus filters all information coming from the outer world, he wouldn't be surprised if it actually turned out to be a lot different from how local media describe it. What Mordred was really interested in though is knowing whether Dean ever heard of an employee named William Payne: unfortunately Dean can't help him since the company has thousands of employess, most of which he never even met. Mordred thus moves on and shows him the corrupted AquaOS received by Thalia, asking Dean whether he'd be able to restore its data. Dean is confused as corrupting an AquaOS' data should be impossible to begin with but is confident he may be able to repair it. He also invites Mordred to give "Be a Good Citizen" a try while he waits. After the player has completed at least one level of the videogame, Dean will explain he figured how to repair the damaged AquaOS but that doing so would take him some hours: he thus advices Mordred to continue his investigations elsewhere in the meantime.

Mordred thus heads back to his office, finding Hera still angry for his former behaviour. She sarcastically asks him if he came back to check on her again and make sure she hadn't left home in the meantime. Mordred doesn't hide his own annoyance for the shot.

*\*\*\*Hera justifies her words claiming she's getting tired of Mordred's lies, ultimately blaming his decision to help the Black Bands for everything that's happening around them: despite his initial promise of reconsidering, he ultimately never cared about her opinion nor the consequences of his actions.\*\*\** *(ANGRY HERA (PROMISE) Dialogue, triggered if Mordred made his promise at the beginning of Chapter 1) (Grants a Reconciliation score of -2)*

Mordred replies reminding Hera the two of them took their decision together, concluding they had no right to influence the city's future. Hera however points out it would have been better if they did given the terrible consequences that followed, also claiming the last case has changed him profoundly.

*\*\*\*Mordred replies that despite any change he always kept his main focus on ensuring Hera's safety, even while they were working together on the Treasury Park case. Hera in turn says she understands Mordred's concerns but he must learn to accept her as a colleague and an equal, respecting her own decisions without imposing his own will.\*\*\* (ANGRY HERA (TREASURY PARK) Dialogue, triggered if the player refused to hang up on her while examining the scene at Treasury Park) (Grants a Reconciliation score of -1)*

*\*\*\*She also remarks she's still furious at him for having asked her to remain at the office after he finished analyzing the hotel room.\*\*\* (ANGRY HERA (LAST STRAW) Dialogue, triggered if the player asked her to stay at home earlier on) (Grants a Reconciliation score of -1)*

Mordred thus tries to reconcile with her, claiming he's tired of arguing and admitting he has been tremendously afraid of losing her ever since the events of Variagian.

*\*\*\*Hera points out that as cruel as it may sound it's actually Mordred's own behaviour that might eventually make him lose her, and not just as a colleague. Due to the terrible things that keep happening around them she needs him now more than ever, yet he keeps making everything a lot harder. She also finds it pointless to continue the conversation any longer and moves on, asking him to tell her what he found out while investigating.\*\*\* (triggered if the total sum of the Reconciliation scores is a negative number)*

Listening to Mordred's recap rings a bell, confirming a suspicion Hera always had ever since she first saw the crime scene. She asks Mordred if the two still have any of the old photos depicting Pandora's former victims to make a direct comparison. Mordred replies not much is left since the police seized almost everything in order to look for evidence to use against him, yet a single picture survived: it depicts the crime scene of the Keaton case (Pandora's first male victim and fourth in chronological order), reenactment of the myth of Narcissus. Hera thus proceeds to reflect on the Treasury Park, Five Twins Hotel and Keaton cases together in order to think about which elements are recurring or unique (the player has to manually move them on the associated pictures), ultimately spotting a big discrepancy between the current case and the other ones: while in his past murders Pandora never left any direct reference to the myth he was reenacting (almost as if he wanted people to figure out themselves), the quote on the mirror left this time reveals his intentions way too easily, ultimately ruining his own artistic efforts. Hera's final conclusion is that the culprit behind this murder is actually not the real Pandora but someone trying to pose as the serial killer in order to put the blame on him. While the two are busy debating the implications of such a discovery, Morded's AquaOS will receive two new messages: one is from Dean Smith (who has successfully repaired the damaged AquaOS and is ready to see him again), the other is from David Casey (who wants to meet Mordred in his office to discuss something very important).

Mordred decides first of all to visit the Smith house again. Dean agrees to transfer all the data he was able to recover directly to Mordred's own AquaOS but also specifies the restored information dates back to no longer than a few days before the professor's death, the rest being unfortunately lost. In the first among three log files now available to Mordred the professor references a new breakthrough he was able to achieve thanks to the genius of his assistant, though he also seemed worried about its potential consequences on the city since it's actually a virus. He seemed expecially terrified at the thought it could kill Thalia, enough so he was suffering from sleep deprivation and apparently about to accept some kind of offer from an unspecified stranger. In the second log he confessed being more and more tempted by said offer, suggesting despite the fact he hadn't much left to live he had to act nonetheless in order to protect Thalia, even at the cost of dooming everyone else. He also mentions his biggest regret was his past choice of keeping Thalia close to him despite knowing she would eventually face danger because of his selfish decision. In the third and final log he claimed he and Thalia were about to flee towards their new life thanks to a safe-conduct, the departure being scheduled for the day after. Mordred immediatly demands answers from Dean, who however claims to be just as oblivious, suggesting Eugene must be the one involved instead. Unfortunately for him a mask becomes visible to Mordred, making it clear he must be hiding something. The detectives decides however to play along and leave for now, believing the evidence in his possession to be not enough just yet.

He thus heads to David Casey's office to figure out what the lawyer is up to this time. After greeting Mordred with just as much irony as usual, David turns serious and gets straight to the point: he has reason to believe the Black Bands were behind Baker's assassination and wants to cooperate with Mordred to investigate the issue. Abigail shows up to back up David's opinion as well, revealing she had found protection under the lawyer's wing after Baker's assassination. David explains all hell broke loose following Baker's death and that whoever is going to succeed him is definitely going to be much worse. Given these premises it is natural to presume the party itself might have wanted to turn him into a martyr in order to justify a coup d'etat, which could have catastrophic consequences in the long run. Hera immediatly claims the hypothesis sounds more than plausible, fearing more than ever a return to the violence she witnessed as a child.

*\*\*\*Abigail also mentions her sister too believes the Black Bands conspired to kill her husband, although she had already stopped trusting him after realizing his affair with Alicia was a real thing. Reflecting on his past actions, Mordred realizes telling her the truth was the right thing to do.\*\*\* (ANNE SHERMAN Dialogue, triggered if the player told her the truth in Chapter 1)*

Knowing David more than well, Mordred is however not willing to trust him just yet and asks him and Abigail what would be their ultimate gain. Abigail replies that preventing Nova Polemos from falling into the abyss should be more than valid as a motive, also explaining Mordred's help is crucial in order to succeed. The detective is still baffled since the lawyer refuses to share any detail, but David explains once the time comes everything will become clear (even though he can't disclose anything just yet). He ultimately asks Mordred if he's interested in his offer and the player has to pick Mordred's answer. If Mordred accepts, David will gladly tell Mordred and Hera the two of them would soon hear from him again, prompting the detective to wonder whether it was actually a good idea to trust him. If he refuses an astonished David will ask him to reconsider (also implying the choice would have very negative ripercussions) but Hera will reply the two of them already have enough problems as it is and David and Abigail's stubborness in keeping details for themselves only made it harder for them to trust them. In either case the lawyer will let Mordred and Hera go back to their investigation.

Mordred will then visit Hephaestus again, this time around being lucky enough to meet a manager right away: he introduces himself as John Deckard. He explains the police had already prepared him for Mordred's arrival beforehand, so the detective begins asking his questions right away, starting from information regarding the first victim. John confirms he was widely respected both within and outside the company, wondering himself who could ever want him dead (expecially since he was about to get married). He also claims he had mostly been doing medical research aimed at developing mechanical prosthetis as of late, implying not even his most recent activities could provide any clue capable of explaining why someone would suddendly want to kill him. Mordred thus moves on and asks John to tell him what he knows about the professor's two assistants. John describes Eugene as shy and bad-tempered, a person so obsessed with success and surpassing his brother he would often lock himself up in the server rooms for days just to grind away at his projects (even at the cost of his own physical and mental health). John was thus not surprised when Eugene had a breakdown since Dean had managed to become Huber's successor in spite of his devious habits. Hera immediatly asks the manager to better describe these "devious habits" of Dean: John explains he often looked at Thalia with a maniacal gaze and never even tried to hide the fact he felt a deep attraction for her. In light of this Mordred can't quite understand why Huber would still choose him, but John explains Dean was clever enough to never cross the line in ways that would be deemed too inappropriate. Mordred concludes he should probably ask Thalia personally about this issue and moves on, tackling the most important topic: Huber's virus. When the detective asks John whether Hephaestus was working on a biological weapon of some sort the manager replies with anger at what he considers an outrageous allegation, which convinces Mordred only the professor and his assistants must have known about the project since he doesn't see any mask on John. He thus changes topic again and tries asking John whether he knew an employee called William Payne. Unfortunately John's reply is that he doesn't, as the company has way too many employees: he explains he could ask his secretary to look into it but in light of the recent problems it could take her days to come up with something. Mordred has thus no choice but to focus again on the current case, this time showing John pictures of evidence. He first shows John the sleeping pills found next to the victim's bed: John confirms they are produced by Hephaestus and normally not accessible to anyone but a selected few. They are capable of inducing a semi-comatose state that lasts for no less than seven hours, corroborating the assumption the victim was drugged before being killed. Mordred then shows John the damaged AquaOS belonging to professor Huber, asking the manager to confirm the device's data is actually directly processed by the central server located at Hephaestus. John confirms this is how the technology works, suggesting the only way to corrupt an AquaOS' data would be to tamper directly with the main server itself. Since the only ones who have access to it are the police, the government or Hephaestus staff members assigned to it, Mordred concludes only one of the Smith brothers could have sabotaged it without being noticed. Finally, Mordred shows John a picture of the second victim, causing him to panick visibly. John admits the second man was known to Hephaestus Tech: his name was Demetrius Sievers and was actually an ambassador sent to Nova Polemos by NeoEurope (one of the city's neighbouring superpowers) a couple of days earlier. Sievers was Hephaestus' foreign contact for commercial partnerships and technology exchanges and as such had diplomatic immunity and was protected directly by the government, who had gone to great lengths to hide his real identity (up to a point not even the police could determine it). John finally understands why it seemed like Sievers had suddendly disappeared and also realizes that if news of his death were to become public a very serious diplomatic incident could break out. He thus orders both Mordred and Hera to remain silent, suggesting he would personally take care of informing the police and those involved who needed to know. Mordred speculates Huber could have possibly made contact with Sievers using his own encrypted email account, but John is unable to corroborate such a claim as this type of information is unfortunately beyond his reach. Nevertheless, the detective is finally seeing the puzzle come together and now also understands the reason behind Dean's mask. He concludes he must now find Thalia to get the last missing piece before he can force Dean to confess the truth.

Mordred is eventually lucky enough to stumble in Thalia while crossing Talon Square. She immediatly asks for updates regarding Huber's AquaOS, so the detective shows her the terrible truths he was able to unveil. Thalia is shocked at first but when Mordred begs for her help she proceeds to answer the detective's questions without hesitating. Mordred first asks her to confirm the rumors related to Dean: Thalia admits he was kind of obsessed with her but at the same time never did anything out of line either, as his weird behaviours consisted mostly in the creation of videogame characters and pieces of poetry dedicated to her. Huber was aware of this and the two had consequentially argued on more than one occasion, but despite everything the professor had still decided to nominate Dean his successor. Still uncapable of understanding such a decision, Mordred asks Thalia if she was aware of Huber's secret plan to make a deal aimed at having them flee the city undercover. Thalia admits Huber had expressed the desire to leave with her on many occasions but had also been always aware leaving Nova Polemos would be almost impossible, expecially since he was a senior manager of the city's most important company. Lately he had been expressing his happiness for their imminent marriage in such a repetitive way it almost seemed like he was actually hiding something that made him very sad. He hadn't ultimately told her of any secret plan to escape but had indeed started to send a conspicuous amount of encrypted emails, mostly to foreign recipients. Satisfied, Mordred finally tackles the most important topic: the virus. While Thalia is still traumatized by the idea his fiancée could contribute to such a horrible project, what Mordred actually wants to know is whether the professor had any other assistants aside from Dean and Eugene. Since Thalia confirms that is not the case, Mordred is now fully convinced one of them must have been responsible for the creation of the virus. Realizing he had not been able to speak with Eugene just yet he also asks Thalia if she had any news in regards to him. Unfortunately she replies he's seemingly impossible to find, but also mentions having an idea on how to possibly determine his location. She doesn't want to be more specific about the details but promises to send Mordred the address as soon as she succeeds. The detective thus thanks Thalia for her help and departs, now finally ready to confront Dean.

At the Smith house Mordred opens up the conversation with Dean by explaining he's well aware Pandora was actually not the person behind the professor's death (since he would have never left the phrase on the mirror). Dean can't quite understand what Mordred is pointing at, so the detective proceeds to reconstruct all the events in order. To begin with, the professor was trying to flee the city with Thalia by making a secret deal with Demetrius Sievers, the second victim. Sievers was the perfect opportunity because his ambassador privileges allowed him to bypass the city's security with ease. Moreover he already happened to be in Nova Polemos due to business related to Hephaestus. Mordred concludes Huber must have asked him to meet at Five Twin Hotels, and that Sievers must have consequentially arrived at 20:00 (the former access of 16:00 being just a security check made by the professor on his own). Since the professor died at 0:45 and since the police report made it clear the room's door was never opened again untill 1:00, Mordred also concludes Huber must have been killed by the only person who had been with him all the time: Sievers himself. Hera still doesn't get why Sievers didn't simply flee the hotel after killing him so Mordred explains his final deduction: Sievers was actually waiting for someone, whom he had made a different agreement with before killing Huber and who was very likely either Eugene or Dean (which would also explain why at 1:00 the opening door didn't scare him). Dean feels insulted by Mordred's allegations, claiming the detective has no idea of how important Huber was for him. Mordred however ironically replies he has conversely quite a clear idea of Dean's feelings for Thalia, suggesting Dean could have conspired to kill the professor in order to have her for himself. Hera however suggests Eugene had even more reasons to do so: assuming the virus was effectively one of his creations, he might have discovered the professor's plan to sell it and not liked the idea (let alone being already furious for being ditched in favor of Dean). Regardless of which one among the two, Mordred is nevertheless convinced the murder was indeed planned with the help of one of the Smith brothers, the sleeping pills being the ultimate evidence that confirms it (since they are almost impossible to retrieve for people who are not employed at Hephaestus). Moreover, few people aside from Dean or Eugene could have sabotaged the data on Huber's AquaOS after using it to open the door and kill Demetrius.

Dean however has enough and experiences a complete breakdown, also pointing out he was the one who helped them repair it in the first place: he claims Mordred and Hera must be two incompetent idiots since they keep accusing him without knowing what his brother would actually be capable of. He then starts screaming frantically saying the two should find him and kill him as soon as possible before he manages to kill everyone else. Mordred tries to calm Dean down and asks him where his brother might be but a new mask appears on his face (this time representing his breakdown) just as he proceeds to run away, claiming he hates everyone. After witnessing this, Hera is fully convinced Dean had nothing to do with the murder after all. A few moments later Mordred receives a message from Thalia: she was successful in tracking down the signal of Eugene's AquaOS despite his attempts at hiding it. Unfortunately, the signal is still not clear enough and points at a very broad area: the exact location will only become available after the player manages to isolate the exact source by solving the associated puzzle game. Eugene will be ultimately revealed to be hiding inside one of Hephaestus Tech's most peripheral labs, to which Mordred rushes immediatly.

As soon as he arrives the detective realizes the place must be signal proof for security reasons (thus finding himself prevented from contacting Hera or anyone else) but is fortunate enough to find Eugene right away. Eugene is startled by Mordred's arrival but also claims he was actually not hiding since he hadn't done anything wrong. Unsurprisingly a mask shows up on his face but an unrelenting Mordred begins pressing him immediatly. He first accuses Eugene of having known Demetrius Sievers all along: it was ultimately him who had made a secret agreement with the ambassador, offering him the virus to draw his attention. Eugene starts to crumble but still pleads his innocence, claiming he had indeed broken into Huber's email account and discovered his plan to escape but had afterwards merely tried to talk him out of it, with no success. Mordred however doesn't buy it and suggests he instead proposed Sievers an even better plan, aimed at silencing the professor permanently and put the blame on Pandora: the ultimate proof of his involvement is the professor's damaged AquaOS since only Eugene had the skills and knowledge required to corrupt its data. According to Mordred's reconstruction Eugene entered the hotel room using a virtual copy of Huber's AquaOS. He then killed the unsuspecting ambassador and remotely corrupted the data on the real device in order to remove any reference to him or the virus, throwing it away afterwards. Eugene replies he had no reason to kill Demetrius too if he was just looking for revenge on Huber, but Mordred points out killing Demetrius would let him get his virus back as well. Eugene thus objects the evidence implies Dean could be the culprit just as much as him, but Mordred explains he trusts his gut: Dean would never be able to betray his mentor but Eugene, being a lot like Mordred himself, wouldn't hesitate to murder him in cold blood if it helped him reach his goals. Eugene is baffled at the comparison and asks Mordred if he's aware of how much of a genius the person in front of him is: in the attempt to surpass his own brother he had managed to develop the most secure IT system the city had ever seen, impenetrable even to foreign superpowers. Moreover, although he had chosen Dean as his successor Huber had no choice but to rely on Eugene in order to develop the virus, implying he had finally managed to beat Dean as well.

Mordred loses his temper when Eugene nominates the virus again, accusing him of having developed nothing but a way to kill them all. Eugene almost bursts into laughter due to a fatal blunder on the detective's part: while he confirms he intends to use it to get his revenge on Nova Polemos, what he developed was actually not a biological weapon of mass destruction but a computer virus specifically designed to destroy the AquaOS system. Mordred is caught off guard and doesn't believe Eugene at first, claiming the professor had no reason to destroy his own greatest creation. Eugene however clarifies Huber's greatest creation was actually life itself, in that a secret research he had been working on unbeknown to Hephaestus itself had led him to successfully create androids capable of adapting, learning, evolving and experiencing human emotions: the incredulous Mordred has no choice but to believe him once the whole lab is revealed to be full of mechanical bodies. Eugene explains the professor was so scared by his own achievement he decided to help him develop the virus just to have a readily available kill switch for the worst case scenario since all forms of artificial life depend on the AquaOS central server. He also specifies the ones surrounding them are flawed prototypes that were quickly ditched once the professor's final masterpiece had been successfully born, implying one android was already active and fully functional: a terrified Mordred realizes the one Eugene is speaking of is Thalia. Recollecting his memories the detective understands this must have been the real reason Huber kept their relationship hidden and also figures Thalia had likely lied to him multiple times (yet no mask ever appeared on her face due to her artificial nature). He also realizes the heartfelt terror expressed by the professor in his logs was due to the computer virus being lethal to Thalia, her connection to AquaOS being incidentally also the reason she was able to trace Eugene's signal so quickly. Eugene confirms such are the powers of Thalia, a monster permanently linked to AquaOS' central server and capable of accessing and modifying its data at will. Adding on top her ability to learn and adapt, Eugene suggests the only reasonable thing to do would be destroying her immediatly, dragging down the whole corrupt system of Nova Polemos in the process: once his virus erased all government controlled information, citizens would have no choice but to awaken from their slumber. Incidentally this also implies all evidence connected to Mordred's shady past would be lost forever, allowing the detective a new start.

The conversation is interrupted by the frantic arrival of Dean, who begs Mordred not to listen to Eugene and confronts his brother about his intention to destroy the professor's greatest achievement. Eugene in turn vents his anger, explaining after the lengths he had gone to just for the sake of being noticed by the professor he couldn't stand how Huber had decided to betray him by trying to escape with a monster, the same one that incidentally had also killed Sievers. Before Mordred can even formulate an answer, Thalia herself enters the room and starts confessing her crime, confirming what Eugene just said is true. She explains after the gps of Huber's AquaOS stopped working she retrieved its last recorded position by linking with the server herself, immediatly rushing to the place. The AquaOS' data had already been damaged but she could still create a virtual copy of its profile in order to enter the hotel. Upon doing so she saw Huber's dead body and immediatly assaulted his killer, eventually killing him with his own gun but not before he had managed to shoot her twice. The bullets are still inside of her, thus explaining why Mordred had failed to find them: being no one aware of her real nature she had no way to remove them and being no one capable of repairing her damaged body her mobility had been severely compromised ever since. She decided to join everyone at the lab mostly out of guilt, ready to face the consequences of her actions and aware that being her time at hand she had no reason to keep hiding regardless. Dean appeals to Mordred claiming Thalia doesn't deserve to die: her impulsive and emotion driven decision to avenge her creator was the ultimate proof she is perfectly akin to a real person. Being her the greatest invention in human history, destroying her would also imply destroying the possibility of recreating something so unique and perfect. Eugene in turn replies she is nothing but a murderer and that her so called emotions are just very sophisticated simulations aimed at making her follow behavioural schemes enforced by others. Thalia objects the same applies to humans since they think and act depending on experiences that are shaped according to models imposed by society. Dean offers his help to stop Eugene's virus and asks Mordred to cooperate, claiming he would then escape with Thalia while the detective proceeds to arrest Eugene and blame him for Huber's death. Eugene instead asks Mordred to cover him while he finishes the virus upload: the two would then let Dean be framed for everything while they enjoy their newfound freedom from Nova Polemos' oppression. Mordred must thus choose whether to side with Dean or Eugene, a choice that is ultimately left to the player and that will conclude the narration of Chapter 2. The consequences of this choice will once again be massive as they will trigger two different Chapter endings, influence the plot of subsequent chapters quite substantially and cause one of the main characters to die in either case. Contrary to what happens at the end of Chapter 1, the choice won't however spawn new narrative branches within the main plot: it will instead set in motion one among two possible city wide catastrophic aftermaths that will follow any given ending. (More information is included in the Consequences sections below and in pages dedicated to the endings).

## Alternative Dialogues (DeadBaker Emily Route):

* **MISSING HERA:** *\*\*\*Hearing Emily's words Mordred realizes Hera hasn't arrived yet and starts panicking, fearing she could be in danger and losing control despite Emily's attempts at reminding him he must keep an appropriate behaviour while inside a police station. Hera will however suddendly show up, just in time to see Mordred's lost temper before he realizes his big mistake. He will try to pretend nothing happened but before he can begin his update Hera will angrily turn back and leave, claiming she'd return home and ask Emily the details from there before Mordred brings down the whole place. Emily will scold Mordred for his outburst but also tell him she will proceed to update Hera herself so the detective can continue his investigations, allowing him to leave.\*\*\* (triggered if Mordred asked Hera to join him earlier on)*
* **ANGRY HERA (PROMISE):** *\*\*\*Hera justifies her words claiming she's getting tired of Mordred's behaviour, expecially after he refused to make his promise on possibly reconsidering his decision to help the Black Bands. Mordred replies such trivialities should be the last thing to be worried about, but Hera points out those "trivialities" were what allowed the Black Bands to win in the first place.\*\*\* (triggered if Mordred refused to make his promise at the beginning of Chapter 1) (Grants a Reconciliation score of* -*1)*
* **ANGRY HERA (TREASURY PARK):** *\*\*\*Mordred replies that despite any change he always kept his main focus on ensuring Hera's safety, even while they were working together on the Treasury Park case. Hera in turn says she appreciates Mordred's concerns but he must never dare to cut her off ever again.\*\*\* (triggered if the player chose to hang up on her while examining the scene at Treasury Park) (Grants a Reconciliation score of* +*1)*
* **ANGRY HERA (LAST STRAW):** *\*\*\*She also remarks the last straw was Mordred's overreaction at the police station, begging him to admit he has a problem and to listen to her for once.\*\*\* (triggered if the player asked her to join him earlier on) (Grants a Reconciliation score of* +*1)*
* **RECONCILIATION:** *\*\*\*Hera jokingly asks Mordred if it ever occurred to him she might want to protect him too and that all she needs from him is his support: even facing xenophobic political parties and serial killers will be possible as long as the two of them succeed in remaining together. She then asks him to tell her what he found out while investigating.\*\*\* (triggered if the total sum of the Reconciliation scores is not a negative number)*
* **ANNE SHERMAN:** *\*\*\*Abigail also mentions her sister committed suicide after Baker was killed, claiming she couldn't keep living without her beloved husband. Reflecting on his past actions, Mordred questions his past choice of not telling her the truth as it apparently made things worse.\*\*\* (triggered if the player refused to tell her the truth in Chapter 1)*

## Consequences of Stopping Eugene (ends narration with a WayOut):

If the player chooses to have Mordred side with Dean, the detective will aim his gun at Eugene allowing Dean to start working on disabling the virus. Thalia will comment he made the right choice while Eugene will ask him why he's wasting his single chance to start over, only to have Mordred remark leaving the past behind is impossible no matter the efforts. One moment later Dean will announce the virus was successfully stopped and Mordred will advice him to take Thalia with him and run before the police arrives. The two will thus thank the detective and proceed to flee just as the police sirens begin to show up. Left alone with Eugene, Mordred will ironically comment he's pretty quiet for someone whose evil plan had just been thwarted. Just before the police breaks in though, Eugene will reply the most important part of his plan had actually already been completed before Mordred even arrived. Astonished, Mordred will ask the police to wait before taking Eugene into custody as he needs to figure out the meaning behind his last words, but to no avail. As he is taken away, Eugene will tell Mordred a devastated mind always follows different paths and that soon enough he would discover the meaning of his words by himself. A final cutscene will show a dialogue between Dean and Thalia, taking place some time later in an unknown location. Looking forward to their escape, Dean will invite her to enjoy their newfound freedom. Thalia will however reply the concept of free will is funny when applied to machines, also referring to Dean as "little brother" before strangling him to death.

## Consequences of Destroying AquaOS (ends narration with a BlackOut):

If the player chooses to have Mordred side with Eugene, the detective will aim his gun at Dean and Thalia, allowing Eugene to finish the virus upload. A furious Dean will ask him if he's really letting Nova Polemos fall into chaos, let alone allowing the destruction of one of mankind's greatest achievements. Thalia will beg Mordred to think twice about the consequences, claiming he's one step away from falling into the abyss but still in time to make the right choice. Mordred will however correct her, claiming he had long since already started falling into the abyss, his main motive now being nothing but delaying the final crash. He will then sadly remark this is all "humanity" ultimately consists of, mocking her lifelong wish of fully understanding its meaning. Contemplating her final moments while the AquaOS profiles undergo mass deletion, Thalia will point out a mechanical soul doesn't ascend to the clouds nor return to the heart: for man, unlike God, didn't arrange a paradise for his children. As the virus finally affects her too, her final words will be that she just wanted to live. Though not explicitly shown, it is later implied both Eugene and Dean are arrested but only Dean ends up being charged with all crimes because of Mordred's testimony (the police being more interested in finding a scapegoat rather than the truth). Since AquaOS is disabled, the player will also receive only damaged and fragmented information when trying to access psychological profiles and biographies from this point onwards.

## Trivia:

* The crime scene being located at room 237 is a reference to The Shining.
* Mordred's overreaction if he doesn't see Hera arriving at the police station is likely triggered by his memories of a past incident in which she was abducted, which is later fully recalled in Chapter 3.
* When Mordred confronts Eugene at the end of the Chapter he accuses him of being capable of killing an innocent in order to achieve his goals, claiming the two of them actually think alike. This is a subtle admission of guilt, since in Chapter 3 Mordred is revealed to have actually tampered with evidence as suspected (causing two people to be sentenced to death for crimes they had not committed).
* The giant poster hanging on the left in Dean Smith's house depicts the main character of Ergo Proxy, directly referenced as an "old animated series that was very popular 40 years earlier".
* Though not clearly distinguishable, the picture found on the chest of drawers right next to the wig in Dean Smith's house depicts Van Darkholme and is a hidden reference to the Gachimuchi meme. Investigating it will grant the player the "Change the boss of this gym" Steam achievement.
* Reaching level 10 in "Be a Good Citizen" will allow the player to unlock the "I feel like I've unlocked something" Steam achievement. Reaching level 30 will instead grant him the "Nova Polemos forever" achievement.
* Destroying AquaOS will allow the player to unlock the "Destroy the wheel" Steam achievement. The achievement's name is a reference to a famous quote from Daenerys Targaryen, from the popular TV show Game of Thrones.
* Stopping Eugene will allow the player to unlock the "Every life matters" Steam achievement.