A sculptor named Poeas.
He's one of the remaining unprocessed bioroids.
I'm sure you've heard
we're on 24-hour personal security duty starting tomorrow.
Papa! Papa! Papa!
Dear...
Do you not feel the sadness
of those who've been killed and those who loved them?!
Bioroids are things. Not human.
wow!
But aren't these...?
What's with that?
It's something aging sculptors often do.
His grip has weakened to the point
that this is the only way he can continue his work.
He wakes up every morning before sunrise
and works for fifteen hours on the dot, almost as if exactly measured out.
Apparently that's been his life here for three straight years now.
Three years?!
Good work, Deunan!
Hitomi! I didn't know you were here!
Uhm!
Situation report?
He ate a few pieces of bread, gulped down some water,
and went straight to bed.
Work really is all he does, huh?
I'm guessing that's just how he's always lived.
Bioroids are things. Not human.
Here!
Thanks, Hitomi!
But you didn't need to go out of your way to bring me extra clothes.
What about the baby?
It's okay, Yoshitsune is looking after it!
Plus sometimes I want to be free from the baby too, you know?
This is nice recreation for me!
They're simply puppets that hold no suspicion
as they smile with their make-believe families.
Bioroids are intriguing, huh?
Some are like me and will suddenly become a mother or whatever else Gaia wants,
while others are like that old man and will dedicate their entire lives to creating art.
Yeah.
Oh, no! It's almost past milk time!
Bye!
She calls this recreation but rushes back home in a tizzy...
Sheesh.
Maybe she came to see you because she was worried?
Because this Deia stuff's taken a toll on you.
That concludes my report.
However, sending ES.W.A.T. members to guard me
has certainly made things at home a bit lively.
You're certainly a worrywart, Prime Minister Athena.
A worrywart, you say...
I'm nothing compared to the Judicial Bureau, though.
I assume they intend to utilize both FBI and ES.W.A.T. surveillance.
Wouldn't that be advantageous for the Administrative Bureau?
You believe it's vital that you give the impression
that you have a handle on the situation, do you not?
Are you saying being overly cautious could prove detrimental?
Not at all.
I'm simply admiring your prudence.
Well, I must be going now.
Neuro-augmentation should give you processing capacity
that surpasses that of current Hekaton cheires.
However, the resultant neural strain and heat generation
will be far worse than anything before.
I have no time for hesitation now.
I'm your business partner. I'll cooperate in any way possible.
If you lost the man you loved and it was your fault,
could you stay as you are now?
Such sad eyes...
Do you know what this is?
The Hydra.
Hydra?
In Greek mythology, the hero Hercules was cursed by the goddess Hera,
leading him to slay his own sons.
As atonement for what he'd done, he performed twelve "labors"
The Nemean Lion...
The Ceryneian Hind...
The Erymanthian Boar...
The Augean stables...
The Stymphalean Birds...
The Cretan Bull...
The Mares of Diomedes...
The girdle of the Queen of the Amazons...
The Cattle of Geryon...
The golden apples of the Hesperides...
The guard dog of the Underworld, Cerberus...
And this, the Lernaean Hydra.
So once you finish sculpting this, they'll all be done?
No, I might not be able to sculpt this one.
Why not? It's the last one...
Sculpting is not about digging into stone,
it's about finding the breath of life residing within and revealing it.
But, for whatever reason,
I just can't seem to grasp the breath of life within this stone.
It's a keepsake from my late husband.
The sadness of losing someone is nothing like that.
So Hercules was a hero who was cursed by a god
and made to kill the ones he loved...
You mentioned sad eyes just now.
I suddenly got a sense of such overwhelming sadness
that the future doesn't seem worth living for.
Giving up on living because of overwhelming sadness, huh...
Oh, I'm sorry for saying something so strange
even though I don't know anything about art...
No, it's all right.
Might I ask your name?
I'm Deunan Knute.
I'm a member of ES.W.A.T., sent here to protect you.
Miss Knute, huh?
That's a strong name. Like you're someone who never fails.
Naturally!
The Hydra is a snake beast with nine heads.
Even if you cut one head off, two will quickly grow in its place.
So Hercules and his friend Iolaus teamed up to defeat it
by burning its heads with torch flames and preventing them from growing back.
Does that not strike you as the truth of this world, too?
A single feeling of hate leads to even more and more hate,
which eventually turns against oneself, leaving salvation for none.
True sadness produces hate.
I, too, know someone
who was so filled with sorrow that she was overcome with hate, like the Hydra.
Maybe the Hydra's hate was born from sadness too, just like hers was...
Why did Hercules battle with hate that kept being born?
Was it out of a sense of responsibility?
Or maybe for redemption?
This Hercules sculpture was modeled after someone.
It was?
His name was Ercole. He was a sculptor too.
We were a lot alike in many ways.
Except that he was a human, not a bioroid.
We joined the same workshop
and polished our skills as if competing with each other.
However, a clear difference between us began to show.
Even when we made similar sculptures,
he would always have many supporters while I would have none at all.
He was the only one who acknowledged my works.
He would try to cheer me up with a smile.
But at some point he made the realization
that his skill wasn't the reason his works were so well-received.
Gaia had produced bioroid supporters to keep human artists in Olympus
feeling satisfied, regardless of the art they created.
Ashamed of his vanity, he ended his life.
There hasn't been a human artist in Olympus ever since,
because Gaia has cleverly avoided the risk of humans committing suicide
upon feeling the despair of utter barrenness and futility.
However, for bioroids it's different.
I was told that I was a bioroid specifically engineered
with the appropriate genes for overseeing and honing his skill.
Ever since, it has been my job to do the work that he would have handled.
And when Gaia asked me to create a monument based on the Ark Project,
I was reminded of the dream Ercole told me about with a smile.
He dreamt of us working together on sculptures of a hero
battling and overcoming all obstacles as he moved toward the future
as a way to represent the history of this world
as it will hopefully develop and progress toward the future.
I had hoped creating these twelve labors of Hercules would be
a way to share that divine smile and dream of his
with all the humans, bioroids, robots, and cyborgs
who come to Olympus in search of paradise.
But, however hard I try,
I just can't seem to sculpt this statue of Hercules battling the Hydra.
Given that I wasn't able to do anything for Ercole then,
perhaps the task is beyond me.
I feel that Ercole could've sculpted it, though.
He gave me a dream and good cheer.
I know he could've created a masterpiece that would've emboldened the people.
You aren't alone.
You've sculpted all alone all this time
to achieve the dream you two couldn't before, right?
You inherited that ambition from Ercole.
I know you can do it. Because your art has cheered me up.
You can do it.
Trust me, I'm Miss Knute!
Together with Ercole, you say...
She's appeared at Eurys' manor!
She's after Eurys?!
Request backup!
Ercole... Just a little more...
Just a little more!
--Don't let her escape! --Oh, I was about to say the same to you.
Same here!
No life signs?
The cockpit is unmanned!
113! This one's a decoy!
Head back!
Don't tell me she can control that Landmate remotely?!
Deia!
It's done...
As long as people, bioroids, cyborgs, and robots are striving for the same goal,
I consider them all treasured family members.
Deia!
I never imagined there were two of those Land-mates.
It's not your fault.
Even a Hekatoncheires would have a hard time
controlling two of those Land-mates simultaneously.
It's quite possible Deia is no longer human...