The monorail slowly decelerated and finally came to a soft halt that still managed to startle Kay awake. Here eyelids fluttered for a moment while she looked around, after which she opened her mouth wide in preparation for a huge yawn before remembering her company and quickly stifling it. The scientist sitting on the seat opposite to hers smirked affectionately at the display, which only made her more bashful.

They have been travelling for about forty minutes, which was apparently long enough for the monotonous whirring of the monorail to lull her. She forcefully rubbed her eyes to expel the sleepiness from them, and when she opened them again Gabe was already standing. Kay hastily followed after him and they stood by the automatic door side by side. She was actually a little expectant. Yet, when the doors opened, the scenery in front of Kay was the same as always: long, concrete corridors with even white lighting.

Gabe: "And here we are! Welcome to my corner of the woods!"

The scientist’s tone was upbeat as usual as he took the lead and left the car while the machinery in the boxes in his hands rattled with every step. The girl glanced around awkwardly and followed a half-step behind him. After leaving the terminal they rounded a corner and for a moment Kay froze in surprise. The corridor in front of her was the same as all the others, except it was incredibly, incredibly long. In fact, no matter how hard she strained her eyes, she couldn’t see the end of it, only two parallel walls with evenly spaced lights on them stretching on towards infinity.

Kay: "Is it far from here?" She asked tentatively while still trying to gauge just how long this corridor could be. The scientist promptly shook his head and pointed his chin forwards.

Gabe: "Nah, it’s right over there. Follow me.”

Kay wanted to point out that ‘right over there’ didn’t say much, but since Gabe didn’t seem to be worried about the distance, she decided to stay quiet and just follow after him. As such they continued down the corridor without a word for a couple of minutes. Since there was nothing else to do, Kay involuntarily began to scrutinize her environment, and she soon realized something: the long hallway was uncannily well-maintained, as if it was brand new. The air, on the contrary, was stale and heavy, as if they were in a cave. Which, in retrospect, was natural. She had heard that the facilities around Avalon used the same air-conditioning system as the city. She figured this place was too far away to do the same . She was just about the ask Gabe about it when the man unexpectedly stopped, and since Kay couldn’t react in time, she bumped into his back with a soft thump.

Gabe: "Careful." He chided her.

Kay: "Sorry, I spaced out…" Kay apologized while rubbing her forehead. She quickly looked around and then faced the man with a questioning gaze. "Why did you stop?"

Gabe: "Because we arrived, obviously."

Kay: "We did?"

Gabe: "Yup. Would you mind holding onto this for a moment?"

The scientist didn’t even wait for her answer before thrusting one of the boxes into her hands. For a moment Kay could feel her knees buckle under the sudden weight, but in the end she managed to straighten herself with a strained cry.

Gabe: "Thanks, it will be just a few seconds."

Kay: "You… are wel… come…" She answered with a strained smile that was quickly replaced with a curious expression as she saw Gabe take a step towards the nearby wall.

He wiggled his fingers for a moment before he began poking at the wall at seemingly random. For normal people it might have been just that, but since Kay was an Alternate and thus able to perceive the movement of viridia, she could clearly feel that the man was doing something. She had no idea what it was, but the faint sparks of green light told her it was more than just prodding a wall.

At last Gabe let out a short breath and touched the wall one last time at chest level. All of a sudden there was a ripple running across this section of the hallway as if the walls were made of water, revealing a thin layer of strange, swirling light in the process. Kay immediately recognized this; it was just like the pearlescent sheen covering the main gate of Avalon.

Kay: "Is that a pocket-space boundary?"

Gabe: "Indeed." Gabe looked over his shoulder with an approving smile. "It’s the prototype of the one around the city. Just wait a second…"

After saying so he once again extended his hand and gently touched the swirling layer of light. As his fingertips came in touch with it Kay could once again see ripples spreading out from the point of contact. For a moment there was a high-pitched noise reminiscent of the reverberation after the clinking of wine-glasses before a hole opened in the curtain of light, quickly widening until the entire boundary disappeared from the wall. In a second the ground trembled under their feet and as the ‘wall’ let out a series of clicking noises and slowly slid out of the way.

Kay strained to take of good look inside, but when she did so she couldn’t hide her disappointment.

The room in front of her was fairly large, about forty square meters, but it looked much smaller due to the amount of things cramped inside. The walls were barely visible behind the shelves filled with various things ranging from haphazardly piled up books to a giant lava lamp. While there were signs showing that this was a workplace, such as the workbench in the corner and the tools scattered around, it also had a narrow bed with a nightstand in the other corner and also a short counter with an oven and a fridge behind it serving as a kitchen.

Kay: "Why is it so plain?" Kay muttered to herself, but the scientist obviously overheard her.

Gabe: "Did I disappoint you?"

The girl got flushed in a second and shook her head vehemently.

Kay: "N-Not at all! It’s just that… after the main labs and Avalon I just expected something… I don’t know… bigger?"

Her flustered expression made Gabe chuckle softly as he took the metal box from her strained hands.

Gabe: "Kuku…Well, this is my workshop all right, but I spent the last couple of years holed up in here, so it’s also my home. Kinda. I could certainly stuff it full with machinery, but then where would I sleep?"

Kay: "I see…" Kay answered tentatively while looking around.

In the meantime Gabe put the metal boxes onto the floor and began rummaging in them.

Gabe: "Take a seat anywhere you like. If you need to use the toilet, it’s behind that door over there, and…" While still talking Gabe began to unpack the boxes. He took the still shimmering components and started organizing them one by one while muttering half-hearted instructions to the girl. Then, after a couple of seconds of tinkering, he suddenly stopped and raised his head in a hurry.

Gabe: "Oh damn!" He hurriedly stood up and flashed an apologetic smile at the nervous girl still standing in front of the entrance. "Sorry, I’m a terrible host…."

The scientist awkwardly scratched his chin and casually pointed at a heap of books not far from the entrance of the room.

Gabe: "Please put that book down somewhere over there. I’ll be done with this in a moment and go get us something to drink, just one minute..."

Kay: "Okay…"

Kay nodded and turned towards the indicated corner of the room, finding herself face to face with a huge pile of books, most of them bearing the same crimson cover as the one in her hands. Amongst them she could see copies of books she already had borrowed, but most of them were unknown to her. Since Gabe wasn’t coming yet, she decided to put the heavy tome onto one of the more stable-looking piles and then take a good look at the other titles. While a couple of them were properly bound, she found that most of them were just collections of research notes and data-sheets hastily stitched together with only dates and serial numbers on their sides. The same could be said about the majority of the books on the surrounding shelves as well, and there were easily hundreds of them.

What really surprised her however was not just the immense number of these books, but the dates. According to the few she could see, there were 50, 100, and even 300 years old records in that pile. Some of them were even older, undoubtedly from before the Devastation… But just as her curiosity was about to get a hold of her and she was about to reach for one of the older tomes, she was interrupted by a cheerful voice from her blind-spot.

Gabe: "Here you go." She stiffened in surprise for a moment before turned around and almost bumped into the scientist holding a tray with two cups of tea. "Whoa! Careful! Again!"

Kay: "S-Sorry!" Kay reflexively apologized, but then she got a waft of the scent coming from teacups and her mood immediately perked up. "That smells like strawberries…" She muttered with a surprised voice.

Gabe: "Yup," Gabe confirmed with a grin. "I realized I had some old filters in the cupboard. It’s not ‘tea’ in the strictest sense, but I figured you would probably like it. Have a seat."

Kay: "Ummm… Where?"

For a moment, they both looked confused. There were no chairs or table in the room, the only places where one could sit were either on the bed in the back of the room or on the floor. The awkward silence didn’t last long though, as the scientist’s eyes suddenly flared up with inspiration.

Gabe: "Hmmm… Hold onto this for a second."

He handed the tray over the dumbfounded girl and quickly started piling the books beside them. In just a few seconds there stood two, stool-sized piles with a bigger pile in-between. The scientist then promptly sat onto one of the impromptu chars and nodded to the girl.

Gabe: "Here you go. Take a seat."

Kay: "But… Aren’t those books important?"

The man shrugged his shoulders with a grimace.

Gabe: "Nah, I pretty much got them memorized. Just sit down and relax."

Even though it felt really weird, she finally gave up and sat down while placing the tray onto the middle pile. In the meanwhile Gabe took a seat as well any awkwardly scratched the nape of his neck.

Gabe: "I know I’m one hell of a terrible host, but you have to excuse me. It’s been quite some time since I had a guest."

Kay: "It’s fine," Kay answered timidly while eyeing the cup in front of her. "May I?"

Gabe grinned at her and nodded.

Gabe: "Sure, it’s yours."

The moment she got the green light the girl took the closer teacup into her hands and inhaled its warm fragrance. It only took her a single sniff to tell that this was an exquisite blend, though she only became able to recognize these things in the past couple of days. After the Devastation decimated humanity, intercontinental trade more or less disappeared. Commodities like tea, coffee and cocoa once again became the luxury goods they used to be before industrialization. In fact, it was in Avalon that Kay tasted filtered tea and real sweets for the first time in her life, but she was determined to make up for the lost time, and thus she extensively researched the subject in Archon Mort.

Gabe: "Is it good? I had no idea how you liked yours, so I just put a lot of sugar in and hoped for the best."

Kay: "It’s great. I love sweet things." Kay answered cheerfully and she could practically feel the tension flowing out of her shoulders with each sip.

Gabe: "I’m glad to hear it."

Kay grinned and took another sip from her cup. The taste was unusual, something she had a hard time describing, but it was sweet and filled her with warmth from the inside. After savoring the taste for a moment her brows abruptly knitted and she lowered her cup with an unsure expression.

Kay: "Excuse me, can I ask you something?"

The scientist was about to take another sip, but instead he put the cup back on the tray and leaned forward attentively.

Gabe: "Of course, go ahead."

Kay: "This has been bothering me for a while, but… where does our food come from?"

Gabe: "You mean the tea?"

Kay: "Yes, and also the cakes and everything else."

The scientist put on his know-it-all grin and gestured with his hand.

Gabe: "Good question. To put it simply: from nowhere."

Kay: "Nowhere? You mean, you grow it yourself? Underground?"

Gabe: "Oh, no no no." Gabe waved with both of his hands. "When I said that, I meant it literally. We are making the food out of viridia."

Kay: "Really?"

Gabe: "Yup."

Kay fells silent for a moment with a difficult expression on her face before she spoke again.

Kay: "Can I have another question?"

Gabe: "… You know, you asking whether you can ask anything every time is a little redundant, so you know what? I hereby give you a blanked permission to ask me anything you want."

Kay: "Um… Thank you?"

Gabe: "You are welcome. So, what is it you are curious about?"

Kay: "I… I think this might sound strange, but… what is viridia?"

Gabe: "What is…" Gabe repeated after her incredulously as his brows slowly united in a frown. "Didn’t you read all my books?"

Kay: "I did."

Gabe: "And you understood them."

Kay: "Yes."

Gabe: "But you don’t know something as simple as viridia?"

Kay: "It was never explained. I understand its applications, but none of the books actually told me what it is."

Gabe let out a surprised ‘huh’ after hearing those words.

Gabe: "I see… I guess I was taking it for granted that people would know about it already. So, do you want me to start from the beginning?"

Kay: "Beginning? Is there a lot of it?"

Gabe: "A bit. You might want to take notes." Seeing that the girl began looking around for pen and paper, Gabe smiled amicably and cleared his throat. "I didn’t mean it literally."

Kay: "Oh."

Gabe: "Anyways, what do you know about Ether?"

Kay thought about it for several seconds before she gave her answer.

Kay: "I remember Pabloc mentioning it once or twice, but the only time I read about it, it was called black ether."

Gabe: "That’s something for later. Still, that’s weird. You are an Alternate. You should be able to feel it in the air around you."

Kay: "It’s in the air?"

Gabe: "Among other places. I should have said it is in the space around you. Oh, also time. And time-space. It’s everywhere, all the time, except sometimes it’s not. It has a lot of uncertainty-principles attached to it."

Kay: "So it’s all around me… Isn’t that viridia?"

Gabe: "Hm?" The black-clad scientist raised a furtive brown, and then his face slackened into an expression of realization as he raised his right fist and dropped it into his left palm. "I get it now! We have a fundamental misunderstanding on our hands!" Kay kept looking at him expectantly, so he continued with; "Listen, viridia and ether are not the same. Viridia is refined from ether, while ether is naturally created whenever a probability becomes reality."

Kay: "What does that mean?"

Gabe: "How should I explain this… Imagine that something has a 50-50% chance of occurring. When one or the other outcome happens, the potential of the other possibility collapses and becomes ether."

Kay: "What do you mean by chance? Like a coin toss?"

Gabe: "Oh, no-no-no. Coins are macro-objects, so they don’t really have probabilities. So long as you understand all the forces involved in the coin toss, you can perfectly predict how it will fall, there is no uncertainty or probabilities there. Just ask Ahaz. As for real probabilities…" Suddenly Gabe began rubbing his chin with a difficult expression. "How much do you know about quantum physics?"

Kay: "…?"

Gabe sighed and sat straight with an uncharacteristically tired expression.

Gabe: "I should have figured. Anyways, here’s the thing in layman’s terms: Everything in the universe is made out of atoms. Those atoms made out of subatomic particles. Those subatomic particles are weird, as they can do crazy stuff, like being at multiple places at the same time, or interacting with each other based on pure chance. Do you follow me this far?"

Kay: "I think."

Gabe: "Good. Keep doing that. Anyways, let me give you an example: there are these things called neutrinos. They are like light that is produced by the sun or other stars, except they cannot be seen or interacted with. If they hit you, they pass right through you with you being none the wiser. However, they also have three flavors, and they randomly oscillate between the three while moving, so there is an astronomically low chance that, by total accident, they do interact with one of your atoms and do some weird stuff, as subatomic particles tend to do. When that happens, the probabilities of not interacting with anything collapse and ether is released into the spacetime. You could say that ether are fragments of parallel universes that never were. Of course ether isn’t just created from cosmic waves. Radioactive decay makes a lot too, as well as life. Complex molecules and their interactions tend to make a whoooole lot of ether all things considered, the more complex the organism, the more ether it extrudes. I suppose that’s why in the past people thought it was ‘life energy’ or something silly like that."

Kay: "I understand…" In reality she wasn’t exactly sure she did, but she didn’t want to disappoint the man in front of her, so Kay did her best to grasp what he was saying. "And this ether is then refined to viridia?"

Gabe: "Precisely. That’s what you do all the time just by breathing. Your body takes in ether from the space-time around you, compresses it down, and then stores it within you Image Core. Speaking of which, are you clear on the Core Theory?"

Kay: "Yes!" She nodded twice, and seeing the expectant expression on the scientist’s face, she began to speak like she was reciting from a book. "Everything in the universe is described by the Universal Core. That Universal Core contains information on everything that exists or ever existed. The segments of the Universal Core that correspond to objects in the physical world are called Existence Cores, while people and objects that can interact with it using viridia have Soul Cores."

Gabe: "Good. And what about Image Cores?"

Kay: "Image Cores are…" She paused for a moment while looking for the right answer. "Images Cores are created by using viridia to affect the Universal Core."

Gabe: "Can you tell me how that works?"

Kay: "Um…" She slowly lowered her eyes and muttered. "… it was too technical, I can’t remember how it went."

Gabe: "You do it all the time though." Seeing how uncomfortable she acted, Gabe let out a reassuring chuckle and waved for her to calm down. "Okay, here’s how it works in layman’s terms: You take a bunch of viridia and throw it into the face of the universe. The universe gets distracted by the shiny things, and while that is going on, you are creating an Image Core that you overlay on a portion of the Universal Core. Say, you create an Image Core of a halberd that you overlay on your own appearance. Then the universe looks over and realizes, ‘Wait a moment! According to this, that cute little girl over there is supposed to be a slightly-less-cute polearm! That’s not right, I better fix this!’, and presto, suddenly you are a halberd."

Kay: "That doesn’t sound very scientific."

Gabe: "I said layman’s terms, didn’t I?" The scientist winked. "Using viridia and Image Cores to do stuff is usually instantaneous, but if you have a constant source of viridia, like being an Alternate or a…" At this point he paused and made a couple of air-quotes, "”””wizard””” or something, you can sustain long-term effects, like your transformations. It’s really neat."

Kay: "It is." Kay began to nod, but then she stopped and frowned. "But wait. If you need a constant supply of viridia to keep up an Image Core, how can you make food using it?"

Gabe: "Ah, great observation! Here’s a biscuit!"

Kay: "Ummm… Why?"

Gabe: "Positive feedback. And it’s also a little experiment. Just eat it."

After a few moments of hesitation, she reached for the tea-cake in the scientist’s hand and popped it into her mouth.

Gabe: "So, how’s it?"

Kay: "The cake?" The scientist only nodded. "It’s delicious."

Gabe: "It is, isn’t it? I bought them in Avalon a while back. But back to the point: as you can probably tell, it is real food. The dough was made of flour and water and sugar and whatever else and it was cooked in an oven like it was written in the big book of recipes, and the final product became a perfectly real tea biscuit. Yet, all of the ingredients were created from viridia. Do you want to guess how? I give you a hint: it was in one of the books you definitely read."

The girl pondered for several seconds before a sudden realization lit her face.

Kay: "Is it using black ether?"

Gabe: "Right on spot! You really are clever! Here’s another biscuit."

Although it kind of felt like she was Pavlov’s dog in some weird experiment, she accepted the cookie. In the meantime, Gabe raised another biscuit and put it between his thumb and index fingers.

Gabe: "This might look like a tea-biscuit, smell like a tea-biscuit and even taste like a tea-biscuit, but it’s actually… well, it is a tea-biscuit! However, all the ingredients were created by ‘hacking’ the Universal Core. First we created an Image Core like usual, and while the universe is looking away, we make an artificial Existence Core out of the Image Core, so that when the universe looks back it just goes, ‘Oh, that was there all along? I didn’t even notice before. Oh well. Ah, look, shiny!’, and just like that we have permanent stuff."

Kay: "Still not very scientific."

Gabe: "Layman’s terms, layman’s terms." The scientist insisted with a smile.

Kay: "And what is black ether?"

Gabe: "Ah, that’s a secret."

Kay: "Secret?"

Gabe: "Yup. Super-secret, even!"

Kay: "I understand that, but I am still not entirely clear on how Image Cores and viridia work. Are that any books on that?"

Gabe: "Hmm…" Gabe stroke his chin thoughtfully for a moment, an image ruined by the fact that he was still playing with the cookie between his fingers with his other hand, and at last he shook his head. "My books were never intended for a layaudience, so I never bothered with the absolute basics. I guess you have to learn them during practice."

Saying so, the scientist stood up and threw the biscuit into his mouth. He looked around the room and let out a small sigh.

Gabe: "Now that I think about it though, there’s hardly anything you can help me with. I’m only working on a single project at the moment, and it’s pretty confidential so…"

For a couple of seconds the scientist walked up and down in the room while Kay followed him with her eyes. At last he shrugged his shoulders and flashed a toothy smile at the girl.

Gabe: "………… Aaaah, what the hell! It’s not like it’s going to be a secret for much longer! Come, I’ll show it to you!"

Kay hastily stood up as Gabe darted through the room and picked up a dozen or so tools from the racket Soketsu recently inscribed.

Kay: "Are you sure? If it’s important, maybe I shouldn’t…"

The scientist absentmindedly looked up at her from the components and shrugged his shoulders.

Gabe: "Nah, it’s only a matter of days… Hell, even hours! It’s not like they can stop me or anything…"

Kay: "Stop you…? They would want to stop your experiment? Is it… dangerous?"

Gabe: "Well, Ahaz will probably want to kill me once I’m finished, but I don’t really care. It’s not like he will have a chance. Hehehe…"

While talking, Gabe walked over to the far side of the room and took out a small remote from his pocket. After pressing a short button combination on it, a portion of the wall quietly slid aside with a barely audible hissing sound

Once it was out of the way, Kay could take a good look at the room on the other side, and she couldn’t help but stealthily roll her eyes. She had to conclude she was stupid to believe this single room was Gabe’s entire workshop. Once her eyes adjusted, she gazed into a huge, round hall enveloped in a strange bluish light that was much sharper than the lighting of the rest of the facilities.

Gabe: "Come on in."

As she took a step inside and glanced to her right, she found herself face to face with a familiar sight.

Kay: "Is that...?"

Her voice suddenly became weak as she gazed upon the human-shaped figure in front of her. However, it was not a person, just a set of crimson armor she remembered all too well.

Gabe: "Oh yeah, that’s the armor I wore when I fought you guys. No hard feelings, I hope…?"

She averted her eyes from the metal suit and looked around the rest of the hall instead. This part looked more like an actual workshop, but only slightly so. The first thing that she found strange was that the room itself was round. It didn’t occur to her right away, as there were four huge, tube-like apparatuses in the -corners-. They actually looked like they were giant metallic pillars, but judging from the safety signs they seemed like some sort of generators. As her eyes wandered clockwise, she suddenly came to a halt as she reached her right again. There were several stands, holding a series of half-finished or damaged suits of armor, of which the one she was familiar with was only the last one. Seeing how Kay taken an interest for them, the scientist swiftly moved over to their side.

Gabe: "These are my old suits. Most of them are just prototypes though; I never used them in combat."

Kay: "Then… Why do they seem so worn out?"

Gabe: "Oh, well… Even if they weren’t in combat, I used them for various other tasks along the years. That one, for example, was the one I used in the early construction work of Avalon. And that one, oh yes, it’s a funny story. That was the first one with accelerators, and I kinda broke it when I crashed it into a wall near Mach 3… I always had this bad habit of going all out before even bothering with the calibrations."

The scientist casually showed her around, introducing all the broken pieces of armament to her, each one accompanied by a little story. Soon, they reached the last one.

Gabe: "Ah, and this is the last prototype. It’s virtually the same as the one I used when I fought you guys, just a little less sophisticated. Actually, the current model only has one new subsystem compared to this one."

And truly, the suit of armor was almost identical to the one next to the entrance, save for a few little details… And the giant hole in the chest.

Kay: "What happened with this one?"

Gabe: "You mean the hole? Fufu… I had a little accident during one of the test runs on the surface."

Kay: "Accident?"

She had a hard time believing this story. The hole on the chest had its edges bent inwards and there was a noticeable outward dent on the back as well. Whatever happened to this suit, its wearer was surely skewered...

Gabe: "Huh? What is it?"

Yet he was right there in front of him. She didn’t even notice but she was involuntarily staring at the scientist’s chest.

Gabe: "Oh, you are wondering how I survived, right?" Kay nodded. "Well, to put it simply, I just couldn’t afford the luxury of dying."

Kay: "What does that mean?"

For a few seconds the scientist looked at her with a stone face, but then his eyes began to twitch and he soon began to snicker at her expense.

Gabe: "Yeah, sorry for being cryptic, but that’s pretty much what happened. I just couldn’t let something minor like some chest-wound take me down."

For a moment, Kay wanted to protest, as it was clearly more than just some chest wound, but before she could say anything, Gabe dodged the whole issue by darting over to the other end of the room.

Gabe: "That much for sightseeing! Now let me show you the actual project!"

Even though she was somewhat reluctant, she still followed him without a moment’s notice, passing by the armor stand once again. As she finally caught up with him, she was surprised once again. They stood in front of a strange elevated platform, lighted from below like an examination table. On the table laid something familiar, yet very strange.

Kay: "Another set of armor?"

The scientist was silent for a moment, then answered with his typical mischievous smile.

Gabe: "Yes… and no."

Kay couldn’t help but marvel at the sight before her. It was an armor suit, or at least looked like one, but it was really thick and unwieldy. It looked way bulkier and heavier than the other sleek sets, and at first Kay would have sworn its joints were impossible to move. It looked more like some medieval torture device than an actual defensive armament. It was clearly missing several components, but as she looked over the already assembled pieces, the realization suddenly raised its head in her mind.

Kay: "The parts Soketsu inscribed… They are all part of this suit?"

Gabe: "Exactly. I asked him to put his monkey-thing on them part by part so that he wouldn’t know what the final product would look like. Not that I want to keep it a secret from him in particular, but there are certain other," he pointedly paused and cleared his throat, "elements who might find this suspicious."

Kay: "I see, but… Why is it such a secret? Isn’t this just another set of armor? And it looks a lot more unrefined than the others…"

Gabe: "Well, of course it does. It is the first model after all. My very first full-body armor…"

As if it wasn’t foreboding enough, the scientist ended his sentence in a small wink.

Kay: "You mean…?"

Gabe: "Yup it’s the same as what I wore in the Reckoning War. It’s been heavily modified since then, but the basic frame is the same. It was perfect for this task, and hey, I think it’s a lot more constructive to give it one last moment of glory rather than to hang it up in the wardrobe like some old, outgrown coat."

Kay didn’t know what to make of this. Gabe said he’s doing something dangerous, but the suit in front of her looked just like any other piece of armor she saw. In fact, it looked way more primitive, for lack of better words, than the others. Which meant…

Kay: "It requires Soketsu’s Sigils, right? Does that mean it has some special purpose?"

Gabe: "Glad you asked! In fact, it does. Or at least it will once it’s finished."

Kay: "And… what is it?"

Instead of answering, Gabe took a step towards the platform and gently placed his hand upon the helmet. The expression on his face was as carefree as usual, but his gestures reminded Kay to a proud father.

Gabe: "You know, there are a lot of things I do not believe in, and there are various reasons I do not believe it things. Gods, ghosts, aliens… I do not believe in them because I already know they exist, though they are not nearly as mystical as people think. Then there are other kinds of gods, teapots circling around Jupiter or beavers that pee ice cream. I do not believe in those things because they are silly. And then there are the ideas I refuse to believe in, such as ‘impossible’ or ‘inevitable’, or, above all else…"

As the scientist slowly turned around and looked into her eyes, she couldn’t help but twitch. There was something in them, akin to determination, yet something more chaotic. Was it his madness which he spoke of so many times before? She didn’t know, but it still filled her heart both with fear and awe. Seeing that, his lips slightly curved.

Gabe: "I do not believe in ‘providence’. I do not believe in fate, or destiny or any of that crap. I do not believe that there are rules out there that can tell me what I can or cannot ever do." At last Gabe placed his hand on the armor again. "This armor, this experimental tool right here… in some ways you could say it’s my life’s work. It’s a passion-project that, if it bears fruit, will create a brand new future not even Ahaz could have predicted."

Kay: "A new future…"

She couldn’t really grasp what the scientist was saying, but the meaning behind his words was clear: he is going to do something that will change the future. Something so drastic and dangerous that he had to keep it a secret from his comrades…

Kay: "Why are you telling me this?"

The question was relevant, but hearing it somehow still appeared to surprise the black-clad man.

Gabe: "What do you mean? I tell you because you are my apprentice."

Kay: "Ummm… You were serious about that?"

Gabe: "Of course! I’m always serious! Anyways…"

The scientist lightly shook his head as if to clear it and reached into his pocket.

Gabe: "We should get to work. Come closer and I will teach you how to assemble these things."

Although she still felt a little awkward, the girl walked up to the other side of the armor as Gabe scooped up a few components.

Gabe: "So, this is an ether-conductor inscribed to…"

The change of his behavior was abrupt, and now he was talking just like before, in a nonchalant and affable tone… and yet, somehow the atmosphere in the room around them refused to lighten for quite a while.