[Stocke shakes his head.] And if you disappear? [That's what he meant. It was always the people trying to build them vanishing - and then, as the old monsters among them grew more and more jaded to such attempts - having trouble even recruiting.]

[Not that he's trying to discourage Rin. But that is Rin's answer - why did they fall apart?]

[- ah.]

[Stocke's tendrils jag, faintly.] ...we've been here this long without finding any way to harm her. Affect her at all. I wanted to see if hitting her version of Dyster would do anything.

I set it aflame.

[Or blew it up. Semantics.]