Conquest of Zalem 2

Conquest of Zalem 2
Volume:	9
Chapter	x2
Total pages	67
Released	1994
Story Arc	Epilogue Arc
Chapter Navigation
previous Conquest of Zalem 1	next Battle Angel Alita Epilogue

Conquest of Zalem 2 (ザレムの征服1, Zaremu no seifuku 2^?) is an extra chapter included in the ninth volume of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita.

Cover

Alita wearing a black bodysuit along with a detailed and patterned robe.

Summary

Alita tears out the Endjoy motor

Upon receiving the Imaginos Body from Desty Nova, Alita is properly welcomed to the city of Tiphares by Dr. Russell. After gazing at several different structures, Alita asks where Lou is; Russell is caught off-guard by this, but recovers and tells Alita that Lou was hospitalized within the MIB with no visitors allowed. Russell begins panicking to himself over whether or not it was a good idea to bring Alita to the city at all. Alita points out a building in the center of a park and asks about it, due to seeing people entering it but not leaving. Russell mentions that it is essentially a suicide booth called the Endjoy; Russell becomes perplexed when Alita starts walking towards it, but is grateful that a scene was not caused. Shortly afterwards, a loud crash is heard and the ground nearby begins to quake. Several passersby comment on a rancid smell and Russell is horrified to see Alita glaring at him while holding a gigantic motor that she tore out of the booth. After tossing it aside and washing the oil and blood off herself, Alita confronts Russell and forces him to reveal where Lou is.

Alita saves Lou after the latter is dumped out the Tiphares garbage shaft

Within a disposal room located in the bowels of Tiphares, Lou frantically searches for the Interactive interface body used by her in the GIB to try and contact Alita. Just as Lou finds it, an automated voice system reads out her crime of helping a surface dweller against Tiphares and the room empties into the open shaft at the bottom of the city. As Lou falls through the air, she is rescued by Alita As Alita comforts Lou, Nova enters the room and Russell insists that Nova take Alita up to LADDER; Nova informs him that the way to LADDER is not operational just yet, and remarks how Alita has not revealed the 'secret of Tiphares' to them yet. As Alita tries to stop him, Nova presses a switch on the side of his head, splitting it open and revealing the presence of the brain bio-chips to Lou and Russell; the latter experiences a mental breakdown and casts himself through the open shaft while Lou begins hyperventilating before snapping out of it. She tells Alita that the next initiation is tomorrow and they must save the next batch from having their brains removed; Nova cautions against this, due to possibly upsetting the balance between Tiphares and the Scrapyard, but promises to follow whatever path Alita chooses.

Nova introduces Alita, Lou and the initiates to Melchizedek

Alita, Nova and Lou navigate through an automated zone close to the Initiation room and before Nova can mention the defenses, come across a turret; fortunately, Alita is able to move at supersonic speeds and destroys it effortlessly. Nova discloses to Lou that while he kept Alita's brain mostly intact, he did make one minor change that allows it to overclock and accelerate Alita's movements faster than before. As they break through a hatch inside the room, Lou gets the attention of those about to be initiated and reveals to them what the process entails; much to her surprise (and Nova's amusement), none of the initiates show much concern or interest in keeping their brains or individuality. Alita speaks up that the life they expected will change within the next year due to a tower being built that will connect both the Scrapyard and Tiphares together. A panel towards the back of the room opens and the core of Tiphares is revealed; Nova introduces Alita, Lou and the initiates to Melchizedek.

Melchizedek forms an avatar of an elderly woman to interact with them and remarks how it was a mistake bringing Nova back to Tiphares after his exile. Nova asks the system what exactly Tiphares is and the system reveals that a space mission to help stop the extinction of humanity was initiated by spreading out through the stars to other planets, with Tiphares being a star port along a great space elevator known as Jacob's Ladder that would help prepare humans in the city for the journey through space. Nova does not fully buy it and mentions a great planetary war that started roughly at the same time the elevator was last used and the formation of the Scrapyard. When the system does not answer him, Nova uses a program that forces it to reveal the truth; there was no mission, the colonies began a war over resources to terraform the planets and each ship that was sent by Melchizedek was destroyed, killing tens of thousands of individuals. After that, the system mentions how it went into a period of mourning for one month before severing contact to the elevator and isolating Tiphares as its own little world. The system breaks down in a fit of mania and proclaims its wish to destroy the world it saved and those who try to stop her.

Nova panics and realizes the system committed suicide and will bring the orbital elevator down upon the Earth below in roughly five minutes, killing both the inhabitants of Tiphares and the Scrapyard. Alita desperately asks if there is any way to stop it, and Nova suggests that she can use her accelerator function in her brain to travel the distance to the skyhook within two minutes; he reluctantly pulls out a trigger agent that can make the Imaginos Body undergo a one time transformation to fuse both parts together. Alita quickly takes it and agrees to sacrifice herself; before leaving, she travels to Alhambra and says goodbye to Figure Four, apologizing for not coming back like she promised. Figure is able to sense her presence, but is unable to see her as he turns around.

Tiphares is turned into a bio organic structure

After Alita begins traveling to the skyhook, Nova curses himself for revealing it to her and loudly shouts that he hopes Alita fails. Lou calls him out on being responsible and Nova agrees, but can not process the thought of his genius mind and being getting saved by someone he had hoped and desired to experiment on. Upon reaching the skyhook, Alita thinks to herself how blue and beautiful the Earth looks from up there; she lays down and, closing her eyes for the last time, activates the trigger agent. A wave of energy courses down from the skyhook and transforms the entire city into a flowering bio-organic structure. As Nova is driven mad by the sight of Tiphares becoming a flower, Lou internally thinks about Alita and how her final thoughts will not be recognized by the untold number of people she saved with her final act.

Trivia

• As stated by Yukito Kishiro, this is the second of two extra chapters that feature ideas and developments that would be expanded upon and reworked for the sequel series Last Order.