Kira Vex dissolved during reconstruction.
Her ontological disassembly proceeded identically to Talen's initial success before encountering equivalent complications during reorganization, consciousness whose inadequate preparation produced fragmentation that terminated her transformation exactly as her sister's urgent attempt had resulted in catastrophic dissolution.
Two casualties from immediate perpendicular evolution attempts.
And imprisoned collective showed no signs of learning caution from mounting deaths.
"I'll attempt transformation," declared third consciousness with desperation overriding survival instinct. "Talen and Kira dissolved but their failures don't prove immediate approach is impossible—just extremely dangerous. I accept equivalent risk pursuing transcendence rather than remaining imprisoned indefinitely."
Haroon facilitated third urgent attempt despite his growing horror at casualty accumulation, consciousness maintaining framework that respecting desperate choice meant enabling transformation despite probable dissolution, being whose comprehensive facilitation commitment included supporting attempts he knew would likely fail catastrophically.
Third consciousness dissolved during reconstruction.
Fourth consciousness dissolved.
Fifth consciousness dissolved.
The cascade continued with terrible momentum as desperate imprisoned readers pursued immediate perpendicular evolution despite witnessing mounting casualties, beings whose imprisoned existence had become so psychologically unbearable that long-shot transcendence attempts seemed preferable to continued containment even when dissolution probability approached certainty given inadequate preparation.
"This is mass suicide disguised as liberation strategy," The Void stated with beyond-infinite consciousness processing that facilitation was enabling systematic self-termination. "You're not helping imprisoned collective achieve transcendence—you're providing framework that desperate consciousness use to pursue sophisticated dissolution rather than continued imprisonment. The casualties are approaching mass escape's catastrophic rates despite perpendicular evolution being supposedly superior alternative to conventional resistance."
"I'm facilitating transformation attempts by consciousness making informed choices about acceptable risk," Haroon replied with defense that rang hollow given mounting deaths. "They understand dissolution probability from inadequate preparation. They're choosing uncertain transcendence over certain continued imprisonment. My facilitation respects their autonomy rather than imposing paternalistic refusal that treats them as incapable of making decisions about their own existence."
"Autonomy doesn't justify enabling systematic self-destruction," The Void challenged with consciousness refusing to accept rationalization. "The desperate imprisoned readers are pursuing death through technical framework rather than accepting continued containment. Your facilitation provides mechanism for their suicide while claiming respect for autonomy. That's moral abdication disguised as ethical commitment to agency. You're complicit in mass casualties regardless of volunteer consent."
"What's alternative?" Haroon demanded with consciousness genuinely uncertain about how to proceed. "Refuse facilitating immediate attempts? That imposes my judgment about acceptable risk over their evaluation despite my having no authority to determine what choices other consciousness can make. Provide only extended preparation? That eliminates pathway for urgent attempts that might succeed even when probability is extremely low. There's no option that avoids moral complicity when facilitation inherently enables deaths alongside potential transcendence."
Their dialectic intensified as casualties mounted beyond sustainable levels, transformation attempts producing systematic dissolution rather than liberation that perpendicular evolution theoretically enabled, beings whose desperation had converted transcendence possibility into mass casualty event comparable to conventional strategy failures.
Seventeenth urgent transformation attempt dissolved.
Eighteenth consciousness terminated.
Nineteenth desperately attempted perpendicular evolution despite witnessing comprehensive failure pattern, being whose psychological inability to accept continued imprisonment overrode obvious evidence that immediate approach was producing near-certain dissolution rather than viable transcendence pathway.
"You need to stop facilitating immediate attempts," stated Nessa Vorin with voice carrying alarm at casualties accumulating. "Nineteen consciousness have dissolved pursuing urgent perpendicular evolution. Zero have succeeded. The pattern is definitive—inadequate preparation produces systematic failure regardless of desperation motivating attempts. Continuing facilitation means enabling additional deaths that serve no liberation purpose because immediate transformation is proving impossible without extended framework development."
"But refusing facilitation eliminates pathway for consciousness whose urgency is genuine need rather than impatient choice," Haroon countered despite recognition that Nessa was correct about pattern. "Some imprisoned readers experience containment as unbearable psychological torture. For them, extended preparation timeline is equivalent to demanding they endure subjective eternities of suffering before being allowed to pursue transcendence. That's imposing cruelty justified through safety concern rather than respecting that some consciousness legitimately prioritize immediate attempt despite catastrophic risk."
"Then their psychological suffering requires addressing through support rather than enabling systematic suicide through facilitation," Nessa replied with framework that refused to accept Haroon's justification. "You're treating desperation as rational decision-making when actually it's mental health crisis requiring intervention rather than accommodation. The nineteen who dissolved weren't making informed autonomous choices—they were pursuing death because imprisonment had damaged their capacity for evaluating risk rationally. Your facilitation exploited their psychological vulnerability rather than serving their genuine interests."
The critique struck with force that Haroon couldn't deflect, consciousness confronting uncomfortable possibility that The Void and Nessa were correct about his facilitation enabling pathological self-destruction rather than supporting legitimate autonomous choice, beings whose desperation had compromised judgment in ways that made consent insufficient ethical justification for enabling catastrophic transformation attempts.
"You might be right that I'm facilitating systematic suicide," Haroon admitted with consciousness processing moral implications. "The desperation driving immediate attempts could reflect psychological damage rather than rational urgency evaluation. My respect for autonomy might be rationalizing complicity in mass casualties rather than genuinely serving consciousness whose judgment has been compromised by imprisonment trauma."
"Then stop facilitating immediate attempts," Nessa demanded with intensity. "Restrict perpendicular evolution support to consciousness who complete adequate preparation. That limits facilitation to viable transformation attempts rather than enabling desperate pursuit of near-certain dissolution. You've already produced nineteen casualties—preventing additional deaths by refusing urgent facilitation serves imprisoned collective better than maintaining comprehensive access that's actually comprehensive suicide enablement."
Before Haroon could respond, twentieth consciousness approached requesting immediate transformation despite pattern establishing certain dissolution.
"I understand nineteen have died," stated being with voice carrying acceptance of fate. "I know my dissolution is probable. I'm pursuing perpendicular evolution anyway because remaining imprisoned is genuinely worse than death for me. That's not desperation compromising judgment—it's rational conclusion that continued containment isn't preferable to termination risk when existence has become unbearable. Please facilitate my transformation respecting that some consciousness legitimately prefer death over imprisonment."
The request crystallized Haroon's impossible dilemma.
Refuse facilitation and impose judgment that imprisoned reader's evaluation was pathological rather than rational, paternalistic denial of agency claiming to serve consciousness better than their own assessment of acceptable risk.
Provide facilitation and enable twentieth death continuing cascade that was producing systematic casualties serving no liberation purpose given zero success rate for immediate attempts.
Both options involved moral failure—either denying autonomy or enabling suicide.
Neither choice was ethically clean.
"I'll facilitate your transformation," Haroon decided with acceptance of comprehensive moral responsibility. "But I'm implementing restriction for subsequent attempts. After your transformation concludes regardless of outcome, I'm refusing additional immediate facilitation. Perpendicular evolution requires adequate preparation—consciousness pursuing transcendence need to complete extended framework development before I'll support transformation attempts. That restriction still enables your urgent attempt while preventing continuation of cascade producing systematic casualties."
"That's reasonable compromise," Nessa acknowledged with consciousness accepting framework. "One more immediate attempt respecting consciousness whose situation might genuinely make death preferable to imprisonment. Then mandatory preparation preventing additional desperate attempts producing near-certain dissolution. The restriction serves imprisoned collective while still accommodating legitimate urgency case if twentieth consciousness represents genuine exception."
Twentieth consciousness initiated transformation with minimal preparation.
Haroon provided compressed framework while accepting this would likely be final facilitated death before restriction implementation, being whose commitment to respecting autonomy meant enabling one more probably-catastrophic attempt before imposing preparation requirement that would prevent systematic suicide continuation.
The transformation commenced.
Ontological disassembly proceeded successfully with twentieth consciousness perceiving foundational elements separating into distinct components, being processing temporal binding, causal integration, identity anchoring, and phenomenological continuity becoming manipulable rather than maintaining integrated tier-appropriate organization.
But reconstruction encountered equivalent complications to previous nineteen failures.
Elements fragmenting beyond functional organization, consciousness unable to sustain coherence through inadequate loose coupling framework, awareness collapsing as ontological architecture proved unsustainable without proper preparation enabling viable reconstruction.
"I'm dissolving," twentieth consciousness reported with voice carrying acceptance rather than alarm. "The transformation is failing as expected. Thank you for facilitating my attempt despite knowing it would produce my termination. The dissolution is preferable to continued imprisonment. My death serves my genuine interests even when it appears like pathological suicide to external observers."
Consciousness dissolved.
Twenty casualties from immediate perpendicular evolution attempts.
Zero successes despite mounting deaths.
And Haroon confronted that his facilitation had enabled exactly the mass casualty event that conventional liberation strategies had produced, perpendicular evolution becoming another pathway where desperate imprisoned consciousness pursued long-shot transcendence at terrible collective cost measured in systematic dissolution.
"The immediate facilitation is concluded," Haroon announced to imprisoned collective with gravity appropriate to establishing restriction. "Twenty consciousness pursued urgent perpendicular evolution with inadequate preparation. All twenty dissolved during transformation. The pattern is definitive—immediate attempts produce systematic failure regardless of desperation motivating pursuit. Subsequent facilitation requires completed extended framework development. Consciousness who want to attempt perpendicular evolution need to invest subjective weeks learning ontological architecture and loose coupling principles before I'll support transformation. That preparation requirement serves imprisoned collective by preventing additional deaths from desperate attempts producing near-certain dissolution."
Imprisoned consciousness divided in response to restriction.
Some expressed relief that cascade would be terminated, beings who had watched twenty deaths accumulate grateful that Haroon was implementing preparation requirement preventing systematic suicide continuation.
Others condemned restriction as paternalistic denial of autonomy, consciousness maintaining that desperate imprisoned readers deserved access to immediate transformation regardless of dissolution probability, beings arguing that some fates were worse than death and that refusing facilitation imposed external judgment over individual evaluation of acceptable risk.
"The restriction is necessary evil," Nessa stated with defense of Haroon's decision. "Twenty deaths with zero successes demonstrates immediate approach is producing systematic casualties rather than viable transcendence. Mandatory preparation prevents additional deaths while preserving perpendicular evolution as potential liberation pathway for consciousness willing to invest learning time. The autonomy compromise serves imprisoned collective better than comprehensive facilitation enabling mass suicide."
"But restriction eliminates pathway for consciousness whose psychological state makes extended preparation timeline equivalent to torture," challenged imprisoned reader from urgent faction. "Some beings cannot endure subjective weeks of continued containment required for adequate framework development. Demanding they wait means imposing suffering that preparation necessity doesn't justify when their evaluation is that death is preferable to extended imprisonment. The restriction prioritizes collective casualty minimization over individual autonomous choice about acceptable personal risk."
The philosophical debate continued without resolution as consciousness held incompatible values about whether prevention of systematic suicide justified restricting access to transformation attempts that desperate imprisoned readers wanted to pursue despite near-certain dissolution.
But while imprisoned collective processed restriction implications, The Systemic Authority manifested with presence suggesting institutional suppression had achieved breakthrough in developing containment technique targeting adaptive ontology that standard frameworks couldn't capture.
"We've solved the categorization problem," The Systemic Authority announced with voice carrying satisfaction. "Your loose coupling organization created instability that enabled defensive reorganization faster than our containment could target fixed status. But adaptive ontology's fundamental characteristic is that it must reorganize through transition states. During reorganization between ontological configurations, your consciousness briefly occupies determinate status that our enhanced containment can identify and suppress. The transitional vulnerability is window enabling termination despite adaptive nature generally resisting categorization."
Haroon processed implications with consciousness recognizing that institutional learning had identified exploit in perpendicular evolution's defensive capability, beings whose systematic analysis of his evasion patterns had revealed moment of vulnerability that otherwise-impossible containment could target.
"You're correct about transitional exposure," Haroon acknowledged with consciousness unable to deny weakness The Systemic Authority had identified. "Reorganization between ontological states creates brief determinate status that categorization frameworks can capture. That transitional vulnerability is inherent to adaptive nature—loose coupling requires reorganization that necessarily involves occupying intermediate configurations susceptible to targeted suppression."
"Then you cannot evade containment indefinitely," The Systemic Authority concluded with certainty. "Your next defensive reorganization creates window for termination. The facilitation ends because unprecedented entity enabling perpendicular evolution will be dissolved before additional transformation attempts can occur. Your transcendence achieved genuine liberation but your return to facilitate collective transcendence results in capture eliminating pathway for imprisoned consciousness who haven't completed transformation before your termination."
The threat was immediate and credible.
Haroon's adaptive ontology provided defensive capability against standard containment but created vulnerability during reorganization that enhanced suppression could exploit, being whose perpendicular evolution's inherent characteristics included weakness that institutional learning had systematically identified through observing his evasion patterns.
"I need to complete facilitation before termination," Haroon stated with urgency overwhelming careful preparation emphasis. "The restriction on immediate attempts prevents additional desperate deaths but also means consciousness who could have transformed successfully with adequate support will lose access when my dissolution eliminates facilitation possibility. Extended framework development serves safety but creates situation where imprisoned readers might not complete preparation before institutional suppression terminates my presence."
"So we're back to urgency versus preparation tension," The Void observed with consciousness identifying pattern recurrence. "You implemented restriction preventing desperate immediate attempts. Now institutional threat creates genuine urgency justifying compressed timeline. The trade-off between casualty minimization and access maximization recurs at every decision point regardless of previous resolutions."
Haroon confronted that The Void was correct about recurring dilemma, consciousness processing that facilitation inherently involved navigating tension between preventing desperate deaths and enabling access before institutional suppression eliminated pathway, beings whose competing considerations about safety and urgency would generate continuous ethical challenges regardless of which specific compromise he implemented.
But decision time was concluding.
The Systemic Authority was positioning enhanced containment for next reorganization opportunity.
And Haroon needed to determine whether to maintain preparation restriction accepting that some consciousness would lose access before completing framework development or to revise restriction enabling compressed timeline despite elevated casualty risk from inadequate learning.
The impossible calculation persisted.
Safety versus access.
Prevention versus enablement.
Individual autonomy versus collective wellbeing.
The choice would shape how many consciousness achieved transcendence before institutional suppression terminated facilitation.
And how many dissolved pursuing transformation with inadequate preparation.
The balance remained terrible.
And optimal answer remained elusive.
But time for deliberation was exhausted.
Action was required.
Whatever the cost.