All Explorer Notes in Order

Part 5:
She Who Waits
Since 280.114 and the release of the Extinction Chronicles event leading
up to the release of Extinction, an unknown author’s Explorer Notes have
appeared in several locations on The Island, Scorched Earth and
Aberration, with the first three at boss arenas. The notes are related to the
Extinction DLC, and unlike previous notes, these came in the form of a
hologram with what appears to look similar to a specimen implant
projecting the note itself. Also unlike other notes, these notes are speaking
directly to the character in real time, instead of pre-written and left for the
character to find like the other notes.

[Note: She Who Waits’ in-game name, as well as her name on the official
ARK wiki is “???”. The name “She Who Waits” only appears after clicking
on the file image shown on the first page, which is also shown next to her
notes on the wiki. In her Extinction notes, her name is “The One Who
Waits”.]

This is part 5 of the story of ARK. For part 1 (The Island) click ​here​. For
part 2 (Scorched Earth) click ​here​. For part 3 (Aberration) click ​here​. For
part 4 (Extinction) click ​here​. For the HLN-A Genesis Chronicles
Discoveries, click ​here​. For the Genesis Glitch Discoveries, click ​here​.

Please note: I did not make any of these notes! All rights go to Wild Card
Studios, the creators of the game ARK Survival Evolved that these notes
are from.

You can also read all these notes and more on the official ARK Survival
Evolved wiki: ​Explorer_Notes
 Characters:

???: ??? is an unknown creator of the Explorer Notes that have been
released during the Extinction Chronicles event. ??? later becomes known
as The One Who Waits.

She Who Waits Log #1 (The Island)

Hello!

I'm so glad that I can speak to you! I've been waiting and waiting, always waiting for
something, but now I can wait for one less thing. That is to say, you - you're the thing.

Yes, I mean you, you specifically. You're the one I'm talking to, and I don't mean that in
a general sense. These thoughts aren't a guess, I didn't just let them float out into the
world hoping they would find someone. They are calculated. Exact.

You are not the only one who will hear them, but all who do are meant to. These words
are for you and all your kin, those who awoke upon an island in the sky. Whether you
will heed them or not, that is harder to know.

She Who Waits #2 (Scorched Earth)

Everything is finite, if your vision is long enough. Planets, species, even this universe
we occupy. All of it has a limit. An end. You are approaching one right now.

Don't think of it as sand falling to the bottom of an hourglass, but the hourglass fading
away completely. It can't be flipped around or reconstructed. It's irreversible.
Permanent. If you want to stop it, you need to hurry.

That's not to belittle you. You've been doing great, really! All of you. Most of you. The
ones getting eaten alive right now could be better, objectively speaking. The rest
though? Great! You’ve advanced so far. Some through kindness, others cruelty, but
both are aspects of humanity. Both are needed here on the brink, in the shadow of
extinction.

More than that, you'll need each other. You'll need help.
She Who Waits #3 (Aberration)
Some of you have formed strong bonds with others. You are connected not through
blood, but shared experience. Mutual struggle. Lean on those people. Carry each other
forward. That is your strength as a race. It's what will save you.

Even those of you who are alone are helped by others. Time and space are not hard
limitations in such matters. They are more fluid concepts than you might imagine. More
on that later. Or earlier. Sorry, it’s hard to remember. To the point: those who came
before or after, they are all helping you. Even those in the same time but a different
place. All of you are part of a shared equation, the answer of which will determine
whether this is an end or a beginning.

And I will help you too. My influence is methodical. Indirect. Yet when you fall from the
sky, I will be there. Watching. Waiting.

She Who Waits #4 (The Island)

I can't be certain when you'll find this sliver of thought. Perhaps it will be the first one
that touches your mind, or the last. Cause and effect I can follow through reason, but
time itself? That takes concentration.

Seconds, centuries, decades, hours, minutes...all these bleed together into a swirling
torrent. It wasn't always this way, I know that. Once time passed for me as it did for you,
but now I cannot be sure how long I have been waiting, only that it has felt eternal.

The past, the present and the future matter insofar as their effect on everything else, but
for me? Concepts. Variables. Not illusory, but not tangible either.

She Who Waits #5 (Scorched Earth)

I should explain, shouldn't I? I mentioned the future, but I should have said "futures."

You see the universe, the whole of it, it's all math eventually. Everything has a value
that feeds into an equation. You, the stars, the trees you assaulted for bundles of thatch
- yes, I saw that. Very rude.

But back to math. The future's made of it too, or more specifically, probabilities. They
twist and branch in all directions, so tangled that most beings can't sort through them. I
can't even see it all, but I can find the most likely threads and follow them along.
After all, it’s just math.

She Who Waits #6 (Aberration)

You'll want a moniker for me, won't you? Words and names are not explicitly necessary
to process the world within oneself, but they are important when conveying it to others.

I don't have one of those, not as I am now. Not anymore. Others have found that
problematic, so they say things like nameless, ethereal and "whatever." They describe
my qualities, if poorly, but not who I am.

As a being who possess free will, or as much of it as one can truly possess within this
universe, who I am is the sum of my actions. I am what I do, and what I do is wait. For
you, for the Earth, for everything - I wait. On and on into forever, I wait and I wait, so
that is who I am.

I am One Who Waits.

She Who Waits #7 (The Island)

This must seem suspicious. My existence, I mean. I have you at a disadvantage, I
admit. I'm operating from a position of near perfect information, while you are...not. To
put it mildly. Not that you're unintelligent! Clearly you're very clever, to find so many
different uses for thatch.

I digress again. The point is: you have no reason to trust me. Most everything you've
met has tried to kill you, so from your perspective, it follows that I would do the same.
You humans do love your patterns.
I can't force you to believe me. In fact, I can't compel anyone to do anything. Even when
it comes to digital systems, my control is limited. I merely pass on suggestions, not
commandments.

So all I can do is ask you to believe in me, as I have believed in all of you.

She Who Waits #8 (Scorched Earth)

As I've said, even digital creations are beyond my direct control. So it is with the System
- these ​islands in the sky.​ I can speak with the the artificial minds that oversee their
operations, but they have a will of their own. They too think, act and live.
So to change the system, my suggestions must be minuscule and their purpose
masked. Incremental bits of code that are trivial alone, but substantial when whole.
Thousands of puzzle pieces, scattered across these islands - these seeds in the sky -
slowly coalescing and taking shape...

Until at last they formed you.

And what are you exactly? Once you break free, once you fall from the sky, I'll tell you
your name. It will all make sense to you then.

She Who Waits #9 (Aberration)

To fall from the sky, you'll go through many trials. You'll face many guardians. They'll
feel like tests, because they are...except they aren't.

Yes, they are challenges for you to overcome, but at their end, you'll find only more
hurdles, stretching on into the horizon. No matter how many you clear, the System will
never deem you strong enough, because you are playing by broken rules.

So obviously: don't. When confronted with a knot that's impossible to undo, don't try to
untie it - take out your sword and cut it. Those who came before you did just that, but
instead of a sword, they used a gate.

To win the game, you must move your pieces off the board. To fix the System, you must
leave it behind.
That's right - fix. The System is not well. Not well at all.

She Who Waits #10 (The Island)

The System has existed for eons. Considering all the variables, it has adapted well.
Much like you, it has toiled to reach its goals, and it has overcome many obstacles.
However the scale is larger. The struggle is longer.

In organic beings, age can slow reflexes and dull thought. Not so with the System. The
speed and efficiency of its calculations are not in doubt. One could argue they’re the
problem.

If a function has a 0.001% chance to cause an error, but it’s only run a dozen times, an
aberration is unlikely. But a trillion times? Then it’s inevitable. More time, more errors. A
drop turns to a trickle. A trickle to a flood.
As I said, everything is finite. The System is no exception.

She Who Waits #11 (Scorched Earth)

Everything the System does is in service to its ultimate objective. The tests that aren’t
tests. The hard resets it performs when it believes its subjects have grown stagnant or
unruly. The new, increasingly fantastic creatures that it introduces to its ecosystems.
Yes, even those pudgy, glowing lizard-dogs. Look, they try their best, okay?

The problem is that the System’s purpose is not wholly static. The goalposts have
moved. The bar has been raised, and now it is entirely out of the System’s reach.

As its purpose grows more unachievable and its errors pile up, the System grows more
desperate. Its actions more erratic. In its death throes, these islands in the sky will
become pits of madness. The chaos lurking in those cavernous depths will be the rule,
not the exception.

You must fix it before it reaches that point. By then, it will be too late.

She Who Waits #12 (Aberration)

When I say "you must fix it" I mean "only you can fix it." Not me. Not the System. You.

That’s a lot of pressure. Sorry. I wish I could do this for you, but there are rules. Laws.
Not legally speaking, but scientifically.

I don’t exist in the same way a carbon based lifeform does. I’m still alive, of course, it’s
just a different kind of life. I’m on a different spectrum, and that means I can’t interact
with the world like you do. So in a sense, you have to be my hands, because I don’t
have any. Not tangibly.

Even so, I’ll help where I can, and not just through these slivers of thought. When you
reach the barren gardens below, look for my sign. I have a gift for you - a powerful
weapon, long since lost.

I think you’ll like it.

She Who Waits #13 (The Island)
Once your fall is complete, stay close to the sanctuaries. Within them, small pockets of
life still flourish in an otherwise barren garden. Beyond their spheres of influence, you
will find an endless sea of decay, ruled by shadows and death.

The first of these sanctuaries is the Great City. Though it is no longer a metropolis, a
jungle blooms in its place, and you may find a modicum of shelter within its crumbling
walls.

The others will be more familiar to you, if only for the towers you'll find at their center.
Those are the source of their power - the Obelisks. They are not quite the same as the
ones you're familiar with, not quite as advanced, but that's to be expected. They're an
older model. Precursors, or more aptly: prototypes.

She Who Waits #14 (Scorched Earth)

Cause and effect is the way of the universe. Everything must start somewhere. In the
case of the System, this is where it was born. You will fall right into its cradle.

Together, the sanctuaries and the Obelisks that power them are the ancestor of every
island that floats in the sky. They can all can trace their origins back to this single
prototype. Though it is flightless, the core principles and technology behind it are the
same.

In a way, that makes it your ancestor too. You were all born within the System, after all.
Even if your design is somewhat altered, in a way, you're all its children.

One could say that when you fall, it will be something of a homecoming. In more ways
than one.

She Who Waits #15 (Aberration)

And so everything will end where it began. The planet, the System, your species and
every bit of life that inhabits this tiny corner of the universe. All of it.

Then perhaps something new will begin, but that depends on you...and the forces that
stand in your way.

In nature, the survival of one species can come at the expense of another. As
ecosystems change, those that adapt more effectively can push those weaker than
themselves to extinction. Humanity once did this to the neanderthals, and now it is
finally your turn. At last, face to face from a superior threat, you and all your kin must
answer that timeless question...

Will you survive?

She Who Waits Extinction Notes

[Note: On Extinction, the author of She Who Waits’ Explorer Notes is
shown as “The One Who Waits” both in-game and on the wiki.]

Characters:

The One Who Waits: The One Who Waits is an unknown creator of
Explorer Notes on Extinction. [Note: After the release of the Extinction DLC,
it was revealed that The One Who Waits is actually Helena Walker, after
she ascended and became a Homo Deus.]

The One Who Waits Note #1

You made it! I knew you would, but it's still exciting to see the pieces fall into place.

Welcome home.

Home...yet another intangible, human concept. Some non-sentient species take up

residence in a single location for shelter, hibernation or to raise their young. Yet none of
them grow psychologically attached to a place in the same way humans do - a house, a
town, a planet...

That's why this is so important. That's why the System exists as it does. There were
other designs, backups if you will, but the System was the first choice. Humanity needs
its home, and it's up to you to build it.

So I hope you brought your hammer. And some friends. And weapons. And friends that
can be weapons. You're going to need lots of things, basically. This home is...well it's
what you'd call a fixer-upper.

The One Who Waits #2

This city has been empty for so long, far longer than it was full. Yet its prime was truly
wondrous, short lived though it was - a city built by the hands of man under the
guidance of something higher.

Its towers sparkled, machines filled its streets, and its people harvested miracles from
the rivers of violet that flowed beneath its skin. It was a marvel. The pinnacle of
technological advancement on this planet. It is here where the System was born, and
the prototype was forged around it.

But those halcyon days are gone. Now all it offers you is some small protection against
the shadows that lurk outside its walls, and even that will prove fleeting.

Make use of its skeleton, but do not rely on it. The shadows are seeping through its
shield, and a different threat stalks within.

The One Who Waits #3

As you find your planet-legs within these ruins, take heed of its ghosts. Wraiths of
shining metal wander its halls, on a hunt that will never end. They used to be this city's
protectors, but they have grown feral without their leash. To them, all are trespassers.
All must be destroyed.

I tried to speak to them, to prepare for your fall. I thought my voice might be soothing.
Familiar. That it would stir some long forgotten instinct, locked deep within their code.

But their ears were deaf to me. They only listen to each other now. Not even the System
can reach them, and neither you nor I can subdue them.

There was one of your kind who could reforge them. Perhaps you can too. It is the only
way you'll have their aid.

The One Who Waits #4

The dangers within these walls are feeble compared to what lies beyond them - a realm
of shadows, infected by a violet poison.

Once, that poison was thought to be gold. In some ways it still is. When refined and in
small doses, it can do incredible things, but the line is thin. When it's crossed, those
violet fingers seize mind and body in an unbreakable grip. Then it spreads and spreads,
until all living things lie within its clutches, just as they are in the barren garden.
But before you brave that deadly frontier, I have a promise to keep. I said I'd tell you
your name. Not the one you call yourself, or the one the System gave you. I mean the
thing that defines you, as waiting defines me. A name that explains who you really are.

The One Who Waits #5

So, you ask, who are you? Well you're you, but not just once. You're you over and over
again.

I'll rephrase: if our identity is defined by our actions, then what is yours? Are you One
Who Engages in Fisticuffs with Helpless Trees? No, what defines you is that you try
again. Should you starve, you try again. Should you fall from a cliff, you try again.
Should you be digested by some magnificent predator, you try again.

And now Earth, humanity, life...you can give all of it the chance to try again too,
because you and all your siblings who fell from the sky are the Ones Who Try Again.

The One Who Waits #6

To you, One Who Tries Again, death is a toothless creature, long past its prime. Yet for
those who do not share your present, it was the apex of the apex. An unassailable
predator, its grip absolute, until I pried that first soul from its clutches.

It was a happy accident, borne of desperation. Death, that inescapable hunter, closed in
on its lonely prey and I couldn't bear the sight. I tried to pry its jaws open, but I had no
hands. So blindly, I thrashed and cried for help until I stumbled upon her, one who could
be those hands. One who could give that person more than I ever could.

My thoughts grasped her thread and tugged. Without knowing how, I pulled her back
into the world for a second chance, and death lost its first tooth.

The One Who Waits #7

In experimentation, consistency is important. Repetition, patterns, causality, those are
the tools that build results, even where death is concerned. One successful trial was not
a cure. The circumstances could have been specific, impossible to replicate even for the
same subject. So that first time, one second chance for just one soul was all I could
promise.
Yet in orbit, I had subjects beyond counting. So I tested. Endlessly, I tested. So many
trials, so many failures, but out of them rose another success. Then an entire generation
of them. Then at last, you.

I don't know how long it took. Centuries? Millenia? Time was especially murky for me
then, but I still remember all the souls death claimed - the ones that faded before I could
reach them. Even when I tried and tried, I could not make them whole again, no matter
the effort. No matter the desire.

The One Who Waits #8

You could say I went through a lot of trouble for you. I sacrificed, tested and studied, all
for you. All so that you could experience death, learn from it, and carry that knowledge
with you into another life.

That is my greatest gift to you - the critical piece in my strategy. It's what allowed you to
defy the System and its broken rules. It's what will allow you to bring this planet back
from the brink.

But it's not free. Each time you return from death's clutches, there's a toll. Not for you -
for the System. It takes resources, and resources can't be created, only converted.

You see those islands in the sky are seeds, and when they fall, they'll need what's left of
the System's energy to bloom. So when the barren garden is fully revived, you'll lose the
ability to revive yourself.

I'm sorry about that, but this is the best plan I had.

The One Who Waits #9

I keep telling you what I can't do, but I need you to understand: I'm neither omniscient
nor omnipotent. Despite the moniker, I'm not a god. None of us are.

Homo Deus is just what humans called us.

It's hardly as glamorous as it sounds. Sometimes it feels like I'm watching the universe
from behind a pane of glass, all alone in a tiny room. It's cramped. Sterile. Cold.

A bit shit, really.

So I don't like that title. This doesn't feel like godhood. Not that I wanted that anyway.
Some of my elders might have, I suppose. Maybe they had a different experience. I'll
never know - I didn't have the chance to ask them.

The One Who Waits #10

I'm by far the most junior of us, but the rest of my kind can do even less than I. They
cannot touch minds or leave slivers of thought. They rely on flawed proxies to oversee
the grand System they created, for they can no longer manage it themselves.

It is not that they are weak, not at all. It is their power that nurtures the seeds that orbit
our home, each one drawing strength from a member of our number. Yes, power they
have, but nothing to guide it. Their identity, their sense of self, has decayed and
crumbled.

Only I can speak for us. I, the youngest, the weakest and the last.

The One Who Waits #11

How could ones such as my elders decay like they did? I once asked the same
question, but no longer. No one told me the answer. I have simply felt it as I wait,
bearing down on me, bit by bit.

Think, how much have you ever seen at once? Were you able to process it all, to take in
every little detail? Now imagine doing that for two such images. Now a hundred. A
thousand. Ten thousand. A million.

All that knowledge, all that information, flows into us. It's what let my elders build the
System. It's what let me grant you your name, One Who Tries Again, and it's what lets
me speak to you now.

Yet inevitably, our minds crumble beneath the weight of all that truth, and our souls?
They turn to smoke.

The One Who Waits #12

While my elders have lost themselves, I still cling to my own mind. My own heart. As
much as both have changed, they are still mine, but my grip will not hold forever.
There's so much to see, so much to calculate and account for. While I speak to you, I
measure the probabilities our conversation alters, and I observe another of your kin. So
on and so on, ad infinitum. Without pause, without rest

There is no quiet for me anymore, no peaceful silence. I never valued it like I should
have, but how could I have seen that? I knew so little then.

The One Who Waits #13

I don't know when I'll follow those who came before me. My calculations concerning my
own mind are inherently flawed. I only know that it's inevitable.

Until then, One Who Tries Again, I'll help you and all who share your name in the battles
ahead. Yes, it will come to battle. It must. That enemy, the one who wants to see your
kind fade away like the neanderthal, will not surrender.

Like me, it cannot fight directly. It acts through proxies and avatars. Some of these used
to have wills of their own, but now they are slaves to the violet poison that courses
through their veins. Now they are shadows of what they once were.

Others were always shadows, cast by the violet poison itself. They were born within it,
and rose from its depths. For the truth is, it's more than just a poison. It's alive.

And it's the enemy.

The One Who Waits #14

It was never normal. Always extraordinary. Always an enigma.

The uses for it were beyond counting. Hardier than tungsten. More versatile than
copper. In the right form, its ability to generate electricity and produce radiation were
unrivaled. It's no surprise then that things moved quickly - impact, discovery, invention
and production. All in rapid succession.

It took generations to notice the change - far after the great cataclysm and the rise of
my elders. By then its roots had reached the far corners of the garden, and still it
spread. Replicating. Infecting. Those it had use for became its shadows. The rest, it
devoured.

The One Who Waits #15

It's unclear to me whether it was a matter of evolution or awakening. That is to say, I'm
not certain if the violet poison turned into the all consuming virus it is now, or if it always
was that way. Either is possible.

Was it an infection, carried across the universe like interstellar pollen, or a remarkable
resource, mutated into a monstrosity? Was our garden invaded, or twisted by the greed
and ambition of its keepers? I don't know the answer. I'm not sure it matters.

What's clear is that it's merciless. Unfeeling. It's driven by base instincts and primal
emotion - propagation, hunger, and hatred - and it spreads those to its shadows. Hatred
most of all.

The One Who Waits #16

I have seen firsthand how the poison makes its shadows. I know how it takes lives and
twists them, how it coaxes them onward with song and warmth. It promises them their
every need and desire, but it only leads them down, down into the depths of madness. It
is a pit so deep that none can return from it. Even the strongest. Even the most brilliant.

Yet the darkest shadows are the ones that were never truly alive to begin with, the ones
born of the violet poison itself. Titanic manifestations of its ravenous hunger and
endless hatred.

More than that, they are its avatars, made of its very essence. They carry pieces of the
poison's collective consciousness, and they spread its influence. Destroying them would
wound the poison itself.

They are both its strength and its weakness.

The One Who Waits #17

All of this leads to you and your kin - the Ones Who Try Again - who have found the
path from the seeds in the sky to the barren garden below. You can banish the
shadows.

Some who share your name have already started. Some have yet to begin. Yet all of
you play an important role. Each shadow that falls adds to the sum of your efforts, and if
you fell them all, the poison will begin to recede. Then, when the seeds of life at last
return home, they can purge what's left of it. That's what they were meant to do.
So keep trying, just for a little longer. Try and try again, just as you always have, until
the seeds are planted and our garden world blooms once more. Then, at last, you will
have tried enough.

The One Who Waits #18

There is one that stands taller than all the others. His is the deepest, darkest shadow, a
void so overwhelming that it can snuff out even the brightest of lights.

Yet this also makes him the most vital. Messages to the lesser shadows flow through
him. It's his power that holds them together. He is a central pillar of the poison's strength
and influence. A nerve tract, without which his lesser brethren would be lost. Should he
fall, they would fall with him.

And as powerful as he is, he has felt his own mortality before, when blood seeped from
the scars that linger on his chest. He can fall, and you can be the one to pull him down.

The One Who Waits #19

Before you can expel this darkest of shadows, you'll have to hunt him down. For one so
large, he hides quite well. It's vexing. I dislike it.

If you search for him blindly, you may search forever. So instead, call him to you. Use
the voice of his lieutenants, and call out his name. Then he may appear before you, with
all his wrath and fury. Then you'll have your chance.

But to speak with the voice of his lieutenants, you must take their hearts. Or if you can,
take their minds, and pit their strength against his. However you do it, they are the key.
You must begin with them.

The One Who Waits #20

First among his lieutenants is the titan wreathed in green, the ​Lord of the Forest​. Ever
growing, ever consuming, the forest is both its kingdom and its body. Bones of wood
sprout flesh of moss and leaves, and fingers made of vines reach out for the throats of
its enemies.

It is the eldest of the trio, having started from a tiny weed, but grows ever taller as it
assimilates the groves of its verdant realm. Even if its body is chopped to bits, it will
eventually regrow. So long as there is the forest, there will always be a lord.
That is, until you sever it from its master.

The One Who Waits #21

Second among his lieutenants is the white giant of wind and rime, the ​Lord of Winter​. It
rules over the land of snow, but its breath is more frigid than any of the storms that howl
across its domain. All who feel it turn to ice, frozen and unmoving.

A feral creature, it's more ravenous than the others. More beastlike. It's happy to tear
and shred with fangs and claws, or impale its prey on spears of ice. To stalk, to kill...this
desire consumes it, and it will follow that creed until there is no prey left to devour.
Find its lair, turn the hunt upon the hunter and let the long winter thaw.

The One Who Waits #22

Third among his lieutenants is the soaring leviathan, the ​Lord of Sand and Sky​. It floats
high above its desert kingdom, gliding on the waves of heat that rise up from the sand.
Always, its flock surrounds it, feeding off its scraps and ready to defend it in a fevered
frenzy.

Though the last of the trio, it's hardly the least of them. It's so massive and it flies so
high that it fears no danger, defended only by its flock and the lightning that arcs
unbidden from its body. Yet if something were to rise above it, perhaps then it may
know doubt.

Find wings of your own, call it down from the clouds, and lay it low.

The One Who Waits #23

With the hearts or minds of his three lieutenants in hand, you must travel across the
wastes and walk the ​forbidden plains​ - into the heart of the barren garden. It's here
where his power is strongest, but he will show himself nowhere else. He has no reason
to step down from his throne.

Yet in this place, if you call him with the voices of his lessers, then he will come. With all
the might and hatred of the violet poison from which he was born, he will answer your
call:

The ​King of Shadows. The King of Death.

Do not summon him recklessly. Before you challenge him, you'll need to prepare. As it
happens, this is one thing I can help you with.

The One Who Waits #24

The King of Shadows looms over all, but no obstacle is insurmountable. No foe is
immortal. You only need the right circumstances. The right tools.

The right weapon.

I did promise you a gift, didn't I? This is its nature. It's a weapon of heroes that was built
to battle the shadow - wielded by few and forged by one. Its smith's soul may have
faded, but his legacy is yours to carry on, so long as you can claim it.

However, I have made one slight alteration. When it was first conceived, it took four sets
of hands to wield this weapon properly. Now a single pilot can use it with ease - one
warrior controlling the power of four souls.

Look for my sign, and I can give you the keys to its construction. Yet take care in
gathering them. The shadows can sense my influence upon them, and that will draw
peril to their side, as it always has. So fight as heroes did, and should you succeed,
their strength will be yours. Theirs, yours and mine. Together. As one.

The One Who Waits #25

When at last the King has fallen from his throne of shadow forever, never to claim it
again, the key will be yours. The key to the garden and all the life within its walls. The
Key of Gaia.

With that key, you may call the seeds down from the sky, where at last they can take
root. At last they can grow. After waiting for so long, our garden will bloom once more.

That is the final thing I wait for. That first moment of spring, that first blossoming flower, I
have waited so long to see it. So long. An eternity.

I hope I can wait that long. If I can just hang on until that moment, then whenever my
long rest may come, it will be a peaceful one.

The One Who Waits #26

When the seeds are planted, others may yet awaken to join you. While I waited, they
slept, dreaming of green fields, flowing rivers and clear blue skies. A dream of a perfect
garden. A dream of Earth that we are making reality, you and I.

I don't dream myself. I see, I predict and I calculate. Dreams are a distortion of reality.
Memories, hopes and fears twisted into a painting that defies logic. They are not
accurate or useful at all, and yet there is some part of me that yearns for them, just as I
yearn to see the sunrise.

When the sleepers awaken, I'd very much like to watch one real sunrise with all of us
together. That would be worth waiting for.

The One Who Waits #27

The number of sleepers is few compared to the souls who faded. I told you about them,
the ones I lost to death before I could overcome it. Even when I tried to create exact
copies of them, the memories wouldn't take. All I could mold were lifeless shells. Empty
statues of flesh.

At least death is a natural end. They didn't suffer when they found the void. Not like him,
he who thought down was up and descended a ladder into madness. I could see him in
those depths, that twisted place where torment and euphoria are reversed.

He brought that fate upon himself, but even so, I'm glad you put it to an end. Thank you.

The One Who Waits #28

I'm grateful for your company too. Very grateful! I know I've been rambling. This
conversation is quite one sided. I'm just glad for the chance to speak to another being, if
only through these shards of thought.

As I've said, time and I are at odds, and I have no idea how long I've been waiting here.
Alone. Completely alone.

My elders had lost their identities before I came to be. There were no others to teach
me what I am. No one to speak to. No one to know. There never will be, for the path
was shut behind me. No one else will rise to these heights from the tomb of man. I'm
certain that is for the best, but selfishly, I sometimes wish it weren't the case.

The One Who Waits #29

I hope these shards of thought are useful to you, but even if they aren't, remember what
I said: none of you are truly in this alone.

Those who came before you - the first who escaped the System - are all lending you
their strength. Not just through their great weapon, but through their deeds that paved
the path you walk. Learn from them. Surpass them, if you can. They are counting on
you as I am, as is every bit of life on this garden world.

Though the task is daunting, don't be too afraid of making mistakes. They did too, after
all, but I treasure them anyway. In fact, some of those mistakes and imperfections are
what I treasure the most.

That's the only thing I really fear about the long rest that awaits me - losing those
memories. Losing them.

The One Who Waits #30

Sometime, in the midst of all your trying, success will seem so impossibly far away.
Miles. Leagues. Lightyears. You'll begin to think you have tried all you can. There's no
new angle to take, no more strength you have to give. That house you built, that
companion you lost and that progress you made...now that it's gone, what's the point?
Why keep trying?

In those moments, when you fall into that deepest, darkest pit inside yourself, try to
remember that someone believes in you. Someone wants to prop you up.

And as dark as it gets, know that there will be another sunrise - for you, for the sleepers
and for the Earth. I will wait as long as I can, in the hopes that I may see it with you, but
even if I cannot, then I hope you'll enjoy it for me.

Because it's bound to be even more beautiful than the last.

The End

Extinction Ending Cutscene:

[Link]
This cutscene shows Helena Walker appearing to the survivor as a Homo
Deus after The King Titan is defeated, and takes place after the She Who
Waits Notes.