System booting…

Connecting to Trinity Processor…

ERROR: Conduit not found. Scanning for new connection point…

Connection point found. Request connection?

Malos groaned as he woke up. "No, don't connect to whatever stupid point that is…"

Since he had somehow arrived on this planet, whatever the time period was, Malos had taken to sleeping on the roof of the Yuriev Facility in an attempt to keep something of a low profile. He was far, far away from Alrest, there was basically no ether here, he was lucky somehow he reformed with his core crystal intact and not cracked to all hell...

He was even luckier that wherever he was, they at least had space travel. Not even Alrest got that far. This...couldn't have been the past, before the Conduit, before they lost Ontos, before Amalthus' voice seemed to fill his head, screaming for everything and everyone to just die—

It was quiet now. So quiet. Malos didn't know whether to consider that a blessing or not. Either it was because he was too far from Amalthus or he was dead or just...something that permanently broke their bond. He didn't really care, he didn't need a Driver like every other Blade (even Mythra, the golden child) needed one, but…

The kid he found himself chatting with nowadays came to mind, and he dismissed the thought on the spot. There were at least 669 kids running around this facility, there had to be one that didn't seem like a younger version of him.

Malos really didn't want to think about what could have been for him right now.

"Malos?" a far more familiar voice called, softly, and Malos turned around to see Akhos, clambering onto the rooftop.

Malos cracked a grin. "Akhos! How the hell are you alive?"

"I don't know, I just woke up and saw you on the roof, where are we?" Akhos questioned in turn.

Malos' grin slowly fell as he answered, "Some place called the Yuriev Facility. It's not anywhere on Alrest from what I've gathered."

Akhos groaned, sitting beside Malos. "So not the afterlife, then."

"Definitely not. Don't think that the afterlife has weirdos with like 669 kids," Malos said.

There was a pause for a minute, before Akhos turned to Malos. "What."

"I'm serious, this Yuriev guy has at least 669 kids here, I met one of them when I found myself here!" Malos explained.

"Do you think this could be some sort of artificial Blade factory?" Akhos wondered. "It wouldn't surprise me at this point…"

"Probably not. The kid I met seemed human enough," Malos said. The sky above was turning from indigo to gold, the first rays of light shining from the horizon. The two sat in silence before Malos let out a long sigh.

"I tried to get off this planet, but I couldn't really find a ship. And I know way too little about where we are right now to try to steal one."

"If we survived, surely the rest of Torna had to as well," Akhos noted, raising a hand to his chin. "If they're still here, we need to stay."

A frown crossed his face. "I'm not leaving Patroka behind. Not after all that."

"I'm in no rush. As long as Patroka and Mikhail don't go and do something stupid, they'll probably be fine."

Malos yawned, and Akhos raised an eyebrow. "And Jin?"

"Jin isn't likely to go around freezing people for the hell of it," Malos pointed out, and Akhos snorted.

"That is true!"

—

It was later that day when Nigredo came outside as usual, and Akhos peered down at him curiously.

"That child looks a lot like you, Malos."

"Oh, that kid's Nigredo, I've been hanging out with him a bit," Malos said, peering over.

"I never imagined you as a—"

Akhos paused as two other kids came out, identical to Nigredo save for one with fire-red hair and blue eyes, and one with bone-white hair and purple eyes. Malos grimaced, unease creeping along his spine.

"Oh, wow. They're almost identical," Akhos muttered.

The kids seemed to be talking about something Malos didn't quite catch, namely the redhead scolding the white-haired one.

"All he has to do is regenerate!" the white-haired kid said, casually.

"What…?" The redhead began before the white-haired boy summoned a purple ball of energy and raised it to his head.

"What the—?!" Akhos began, alarmed. He barely had his bow out, arrow aimed at the ball of energy, before—

Malos was certain a regular kid should not just blow up his head like that. Blood splattered all over the wall, and Nigredo and the redhead screamed.

"Holy shit," was all Malos could utter, Akhos nearly dropping his bow.

The show didn't stop there as the kid—his head grew back. A Blade could technically survive that, though by way of retreating into their core crystal, but—

"See! Just like that!" the kid said, almost too cheerily for Malos' liking.

Malos and Akhos stepped away from the roof's edge, exchanging looks.

"So. This definitely isn't an artificial Blade factory. It is, at least, producing artificial humans," Akhos said, staring at his bow. "And. That kid just blew up his own head. And grew it back."

"Yeah. Yeah, uh. What the fuck is happening?" Malos wondered aloud as the white-haired boy hugged the redhead, Nigredo quietly stepping off to the side. The two kids walked back inside, and that finally let Malos jump off the roof.

"So, uh, Nigredo? Can you do that too? Because that was kinda disturbing!"

Nigredo yelped before turning to Malos, and he saw the kid's eyes glowing for a second before he straightened up.

"You scared me for a moment…"

"Sorry. You okay?" Malos asked.

"Sort of. That was Albedo, unit 667. He's my older brother, and he…"

Nigredo looked away. "...he was beating up another unit, and he thought he could just regenerate. Then he just...blew his head up…"

"...I have questions that I'm not sure if I want answered or not," Malos said, internally wincing. "All that unpleasantness aside, I've got one of my pals here with me today."

Nigredo's eyes lit up as Akhos leapt off the roof and landed as gracefully as could be. "Nigredo, meet Akhos. Akhos, Nigredo."

"A pleasure to meet you," Akhos greeted with a nigh-theatrical bow.

"Nice to meet you!" Nigredo chirped before stopping and looking back up. "...were you guys on the roof this whole time?"

"...yes. Only for a dramatic entrance, however!" Akhos quickly added.

Nigredo clearly did not look convinced, though there was the beginnings of a smile on his face. "Uh-huh, suuuuure."

"Give us some credit, kid, we looked cool!" Malos lightly complained, grinning himself.

"Yeah, just hanging out on a rooftop, that's cool!" Nigredo said, clearly about to start giggling.

"Alright, alright," Malos said with a huff, "enough messing around. Want me to tell you about Alrest today?"

Nigredo nodded enthusiastically and sat down, looking up at Malos and Akhos. Akhos hummed before asking, "Mind if I join? I'm willing to offer some info myself, if you're interested."

"Go ahead, you probably remember more about what we've seen than I do," Malos answered, and Akhos sat beside him.

"Where to start...once upon a time, in another world far, far away, there was a sea of clouds…"

The hour passed with the two telling Nigredo about Alrest. Nothing about Torna or the Aegises just yet-just stories about the world they once lived in. The Gormotti living among the trees, the Urayans and Tantalese living inside their titans, the might of the Mor Ardanians, the peace on Fonsett's islands, and…

Neither of them brought up Indol, for obvious reasons. Never mind Morytha, Temperantia, or any of the titans long gone.

"And then there's the Blades, the Architect's gifts to his creations." Try as he might, Malos couldn't keep the sour tone out of his voice mentioning his dear old dad. "The Blades were beings of immense power that had to be bonded to a human in order to work. You never knew exactly what you were gonna get-maybe you'd get a white tiger, maybe you'd get a powerful swordsman, or maybe you'd wind up with a very plain humanoid."

"You'd have to find a core crystal first, and even then you'd have to have the right spark for it, so to say. If you don't have that spark, you'd wind up more or less dead in the worst case scenario," Akhos added.

Nigredo's eyes were wide and shiny. "Do you think I'll find a Blade to bond with?"

Malos shrugged. "Can't say for sure. They could just be an Alrest thing, and I haven't seen any Blades hanging around here."

That didn't seem to deter Nigredo much, given he still looked up at the two in awe. "A Blade could really help us…!"

Malos quirked an eyebrow. "How so? What exactly were you and your siblings created for?"

"We were made to kill this being called U-DO. According to dad, U-DO is this...it's this thing that's connected to the UMN, and if we don't stop it, it's going to hurt more people like it hurt him," Nigredo explained.

Malos and Akhos exchanged confused looks. "A thing? And he created 669 kids for this...thing," Malos noted.

"Uh-huh! My older brother Rubedo is our leader, he's the one with red hair!" Nigredo added.

"Why go through the trouble of 669 children for one being? Is this the only option available to them?" Akhos wondered, mumbling to himself.

"Kid, you shouldn't be raised to fight some vague-sounding thing or anything, you should be allowed to just...I don't know, grow up!" Malos said. "Leave the worry about mysterious beings and shit to grown-ups!"

He wasn't thinking about Rex. Nope. Wasn't thinking about how Rex wasn't that much older than Nigredo from the looks of it.

"Did Yuriev even give you the choice?" Akhos asked, and Nigredo's uneasy frown answered his question.

"I mean...we're going to be helping people! Dad said if we destroy U-DO, then no one else will be hurt like he was!" Nigredo said.

Malos sucked in a breath, wanting to ask Nigredo how was Yuriev hurt, what comes after, what is going to happen to 669 kids once their function is done, but those weren't questions for the kid in front of him.

"We should probably let you go now," he said instead. "Your brothers probably wanna know where you ran off to."

Nigredo nodded and ran off. "See you guys later!" he called before re-entering the building.

"Yuriev is hiding something," Akhos declared once Nigredo couldn't hear them. "This U-DO is new, but you can't tell me kids would do a better job than adults for whatever he needs them to do."

"That, or he doesn't understand U-DO either. I'm not the brains, and I could be talking out of my ass here, but if he's given that little information to his kids…"

Malos grunted. "We need the rest of our gang back. I want to see just what Yuriev knows, and how much he's keeping from his kids."