The thread is caught.
Caught in a state of bewilderment, Cassie began manipulating the red thread.
At first, she thought it was a hallucination.
But—
Icannotunderstandthemeaningofthisfragilethread,human. I cannot understand the meaning of this fragile thread, human. Icannotunderstandthemeaningofthisfragilethread,human.
When she realized that Laplace could see the thread as well, she became convinced it wasn’t just an illusion.
‘Then this is…’
Instead, her doubts only deepened.
She swung her spear, conducting various experiments on the thread.
Other than the fact that its durability varied, she had learned nothing substantial.
If there was any functional advantage, it was that Laplace’s offensive pressure had weakened due to his wariness of the suddenly appearing thread.
Then, she noticed something peculiar.
‘Why has Laplace suddenly become an idiot?’
It wasn’t just that he had slowed down out of caution.
Laplace had undeniably become foolish.
He was making incomprehensible choices, leading himself to ruin.
Like a puppet, enacting the very future Cassie envisioned.
She conducted a few more experiments with the red thread.
Like a curious cat toying with a string, she tested it in different ways.
The more she manipulated the thread, the more her suspicions turned into certainty.
‘This isn’t a thread that forces fate.’
It had no such power.
If it did, then it wouldn’t be a prophecy at all.
Instead, this red thread had the ability to show prophecy.
By tying it to someone’s body, it allowed them to see the red thread of fate that Cassie herself glimpsed.
It seemed trivial and insignificant, but the effect was astonishing.
‘So that’s how ridiculous I looked.’
The more one relied on foresight, the more they became trapped by the future shown by the red thread.
Laplace, who had unwavering faith in his ability, followed the laughable futures she presented without question.
What was even funnier was that despite repeated failures, he continued to obey the red thread’s prophecies.
***
Watching him, she recalled a piece of advice her father once gave her.
Seeing the future means narrowing your own choices—turning subjective questions into multiple-choice ones.
That is why the greatest prophets, paradoxically, do not believe in the future.
It is their way of ensuring they are not controlled by it.
And with that, she realized one virtue.
‘Faith.’
Foresight was an obsession for those who feared the future.
Just like she once did.
But those who believed in themselves—or had someone who believed in them—had no reason to be shackled by it.
‘Then what about me…?’
Cassie thought of her comrades.
‘By my side…’
As the faces of Amon and Sonia came to mind, ‘I have people who believe in me. A fearful future was never something I needed to worry about in the first place.’
The thread began to weave.
The red strands interlaced above her head, forming chains.
Before long, those chains became a halo, floating above her.
“Does this make me a little more like Sonia?”
Cassie let out a small chuckle.
No wings, no dazzling spectacle like Sonia’s.
But this was enough for her.
‘Because this is the faith I need.’
Her belief in others, and their belief in her.
That was all she required.
A satisfied smile spread across her lips.
Having realized this virtue, she moved her fingers, showing the surrounding Laplaces a glimpse of the future.
The vision became a self-fulfilling prophecy, controlling them.
Like puppets in a grand marionette show, the Laplaces moved according to Cassie’s hand.
Yet even as they were subdued in the most absurd manner, they never once doubted their own ability.
They couldn’t.
Being AI designed for foresight, denying the future was an impossible concept for them.
To reject their ability was to deny their very existence.
***
Clearing the surrounding Laplaces, Cassie immediately pursued the thickest red thread.
The one leading to the person she had longed to meet—
Her future husband.
Returning to the present—
Cassie conjured the red thread before Amon.
The Laplaces, forced into action by her fingertips, moved like puppets in a surreal performance.
“This is really dreamy,” Amon murmured, mesmerized by the unreal sight.
Cassie, however, shouted urgently, “Amon! I know you’re tired, but capture that Holy Knight Commander!”
“Why?”
“If we take him down, it’s checkmate! I’ll explain later!”
“Got it!”
Amon dashed forward, breaking through the ranks of holy knights to reach the commander.
Trusting Cassie, he pushed himself beyond his limits to get to his target.
“Mmrrrghh!”
His cumbersome right arm flailed annoyingly, so he bit down on it to steady it.
Forcing his exhausted body forward, he spurred himself on with a war cry, charging at the commander.
The Laplace controlling the commander’s body hesitated for a moment.
“Foolishbravado?Foolish bravado?Foolishbravado?”
But then, it quickly dismissed the thought and began calculating the optimal response.
“Dodgewithapropulsion−assistedsidestep. Dodge with a propulsion-assisted sidestep. Dodgewithapropulsion−assistedsidestep.”
Calculating…
“Wait.WhydidIcometothatconclusion?Wait. Why did I come to that conclusion?Wait.WhydidIcometothatconclusion?”
‘If he jumped into the air, he would be left defenseless for as long as he was airborne.’
The doubt was brief.
Laplace, as a foresight AI, reaffirmed its own nature and, without further question, leaped.
Countless questions tore through the data, but Laplace clung to its sense of identity—
Unaware that everything had been orchestrated by a single conductor.
“Cassie! Now!”
Cassie’s red thread wrapped around Amon’s wrist.
No words were needed.
The future she showed him was her plan.
Amon used a triple jump to seize the airborne commander’s back.
Spotting a port at the nape of the commander’s neck, he declared, “This is the end!”
He took the USB Cassie had stashed in her pocket and plugged it in.
The moment the slightly worn USB was inserted, the knight commander’s body convulsed.
Laplace, now using the commander’s vocal cords, spoke.
Aperfectdefeat.A perfect defeat.Aperfectdefeat.
Barely managing to steady its failing body, Laplace took a seat—
And, in a manner reminiscent of a Japanese samurai, sat in seiza.
“Strikemedown!Strike me down!Strikemedown!”
It bared its neck for a clean execution.
Amon grimaced at the unexpected display.
“What is this supposed to be?”
‘Did Laplace get illegally copied from Japan or something?’
The Laplace he knew wasn’t this sentimental.
In the first place, it was strange to expect any sense of romanticism from an AI that had nearly destroyed the world.
Yet Laplace simply sat there, silently awaiting execution.
As Amon remained wary, Cassie provided an explanation.
“Right now, Laplace is trapped inside the knight commander’s body.”
At those words, Amon found it hard to believe.
‘A super AI, defeated by a mere USB?’
But this entire situation had played out exactly as Cassie had planned.
“We forced its main body into the commander’s, deactivated its replication function, weakened its firewall…”
Little by little, her red thread had guided Laplace into revealing its own weaknesses.
“That was possible?”
“AI live by their identity and die by it.”
Laplace had lost so many times that it had begun to doubt its own foresight.
And the moment a foresight-based AI questioned its own predictions, countless algorithmic contradictions—
‘Or what could be called an AI’s natural enemy, a paradox—arose.’
To resolve those contradictions, it had to disable many of its own defense protocols.
“And that’s when I uploaded an appropriate virus.”
Laplace had weakened itself so much that even a crude USB was enough to neutralize it.
Hearing this, Amon nodded.
“I get it now.”
“Really?”
“You’re seriously smart. Stuff like this is way too complicated for me.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you. It worked because you trust me this much.”
Cassie smiled brightly.
As if reflecting her emotions, the red halo above her head spun fiercely.
Amon watched the glowing ring whirl and voiced the question that had been nagging at him.
“But why a samurai, of all things?”
He gestured at Laplace, still waiting in its samurai-style execution pose.
Cassie let out a dry chuckle.
“I, uh… repurposed a USB I grabbed from a random store as a virus, and…”
“What kind of store?”
“A video rental shop…”
“And it just happened to be a samurai movie?”
“The other options were… prostitution, murder, and… gay romance.”
“…Isn’t this supposed to be the Vatican?”
“Now that you mention it… yeah.”
“You remember the store’s name, right?”
Cassie nodded.
Amon let out a deep sigh.
“There are way too many heretics here…”
***
As Amon lamented the city’s corruption, Sonia and the squinting priest finally arrived.
“Huh? Cassie? You too?”
The moment she joined them, Sonia pointed at Cassie’s halo.
Cassie nodded in confirmation.
“Yeah, it happened.”
“What was yours?”
“Faith. What I needed… and what I’ll always need.”
“Ohoho~”
Sonia beamed, genuinely happy for her.
“Then, does that mean…?”
“I’m not going to be a saint.”
After all, the power of the red thread hardly qualified as a saintly gift.
It was miraculous in its own way, but unlike Sonia’s, it didn’t heal or aid others.
It was merely a personal achievement, insufficient to meet the criteria of sainthood.
Sonia seemed to understand and nodded.
“Got it. So, what happened to Laplace?”
At her question, Amon and Cassie both turned toward the knight commander.
Laplace remained kneeling, still awaiting execution.
When his gaze met Sonia’s, he bellowed in his mechanical AI voice, Areyoumockingme?!Strikemedownatonce!Are you mocking me?! Strike me down at once!Areyoumockingme?!Strikemedownatonce!
As if the unnecessary gravitas wasn’t enough, he sounded downright indignant.
“???”
A Vatican knight commander, possessed by Laplace, now role-playing as a samurai.
Sonia’s pupils trembled at the sheer absurdity of it all.
Meanwhile, the squinting priest let out a quiet chuckle, seemingly beyond caring.
And so, the AI that once set an entire city ablaze—
Met its end as a samurai.
A somewhat anticlimactic conclusion for a super AI.