Things left unsaid.

I almost lunged at Exidus, but Vassier held me back,

“Rilke no!”

Exidu tilted his head, like listening for a sound no one else could hear. The rooms darkness seemed to bend toward him.

“You mistake the shadow for the shape,” he said at last, voice flat, cold, heavy. “You watch the surface and call it truth.”

Vassier shifted, tension rippling through his shoulders, but Exidus didn’t even glance at him. His gaze stayed fixed on the crater, a stare that made it seem bottomless.

“What are you after?” I demanded, though the words felt thin, meaningless.

At that, his head turned — not toward me, not toward any of us, but slightly past, like we weren’t the ones he’d been addressing all along.

“You?” His voice held no weight of amusement or scorn. Only emptiness. “You were never mine to seek.”

The air hollowed out, sound stretching thin, until the silence itself felt like it might split.

“Pray he learns before the end,”

Meanwhile…

The tunnel dragged us forward, each step stirring centuries of dust. The walls were cracked, stained with streaks of rust and something darker, something that smelled faintly of decay. The faint glow along the seams was uneven, flickering as if welcoming us.

“Hey Sylvi,” Juno murmured, voice low, “would you describe yourself as an actor or a liar.”

I shivered. “What do you mean?”

He let out a dry laugh, “Nevermind, Nevermind.”

I didn’t answer. The light ahead pulsed faintly, revealing shapes half-swallowed by sand and time: shattered shelves, broken tools, corroded vials, machines whose purpose was long forgotten.

And then, the tunnel ended.

We stepped into a chamber so vast that sound seemed to vanish before it could settle. The ceiling arched impossibly high, blackened in streaks, lined with supports that might have been wooden once, now warped and splintered. Tables, racks, and shelves ran along the walls, piled with instruments and devices long dead, caked in dust, rust, and grime. At the center stood a glass cylinder, cracked but still upright, its frame ringed with rusted steel. Like some sort of cage or containment tube.

Juno froze. “This is a lab?”

“Who built this?” I whispered, voice barely carrying.

Juno’s gaze swept the room. “I… I think this is the truth. Everything else… led here. This is the beginning of it all.”

We drifted apart, each pulled by our own curiosity. Juno headed for the far wall where cabinets lined the room, their doors warped. I heard the rattle of metal as he yanked one open.

“DAMN!” His voice came out shredded, dry, breaking between coughs.

I winced, I can’t even imagine what’s happening over there. “Find anything?”

There was silence. Too long. The chamber hummed in its quiet, my pulse quickening.

“…Juno?”

Then, finally:

“Yeah, we’re good!” His voice bounced, a little too quickly. “But nothing useful yet.”

I let out a sigh, pressing my hand against the railing of the cylinder as if it might steady me. My eyes drifted further down the chamber.

That’s when I saw it.

A notebook. An actual paper one. Resting on a desk slouched under the weight of sand and debris.

My chest tightened. Without realizing, I quickened my pace, steps almost tripping over themselves until I reached it. My fingers shook as I grabbed its cover — only for the whole thing to peel away, brittle, detached like it had never belonged.

“Shit,” I hissed under my breath.

The first page stared back at me. Faded black ink in a language I’d never seen before. Sharp lines, curves, strokes like brush marks. It almost looked alive.

I whispered the words aloud, stumbling over the shapes.

「彼とエディと共に働けるのは光栄だ.」

I blinked hard. The symbols made no sense. “Useless…” I muttered, flipping through the brittle pages until I reached the very last.

The final entry was longer, smudged but intact.

「人類の進歩の先駆者であれたことを光栄に思う。

今、我々は人類を守らねばならない。

この場所の近くに安全な避難所を作り、この研究所とその力場によって守る。

力場は半径200マイルの酸素を提供する。

また、我々は彼らに知られぬよう新たな文字言語を作る。

ハルト、一緒に働けたことを誇りに思う。

敬具、エディチーム一同」

The page shook faintly in my hands. The only damn thing I recognize is the “200.” I let a defeated sigh escape me.

I turned, ready to move on—

“I think I found something!” Juno’s voice split the silence, sharp, too loud in the dead chamber.

I jolted, heart leaping. “What is it?!” My boots scraped as I broke into a run, weaving between fallen beams and broken tables toward where his voice echoed.

He didn’t answer right away.

Just the sound of something shifting, metal on metal, then a pause that stretched too long.

I called again, “Juno?”

This time, his reply came lower, like he hadn’t meant for me to hear:

“…yeah. Over here.”

The faint glow from the walls guttered once, as though the chamber itself exhaled.

I reached the far side of the lab, breath hitching, rounding the last row of ruined shelves—

And froze.