It was still early in the morning. Darian was the first one to wake up, followed by Eros, who was an early person. As Eros slowly opened his eyes, he noticed Darian working on his diary with Snowy on his lap."Morning, Darian," said Eros. Darian did not answer; he was too taken by the diary.
Eros watched him with tired eyes. He didn't have the strength to go there and tell him he was awake, so he simply chose to go out and grab some wild fruits to eat for breakfast.
As Eros started to walk, the sound of his footsteps was the only thing that could be heard. Usually, there were different sounds made by the krukins, but now it was surprisingly quiet.'Mhmm, I wonder if it's because of yesterday's war,' thought Eros as he stopped by a nearby tree. It wasn't really high, so he was able to take some fruits from there.
'It's surprisingly quiet here… I wonder if there are actual enemies,' thought Eros as he chose to take a small walk. In Skar-Zhul he always did these kinds of walks when everyone was asleep, but every time he was on the mainland, he was always scared, some krukins might attack him, and he didn't have strong enough power to defend himself if enemies arrived from the front.
Eros was stuck with a thought; the thing that kept popping up in his mind was the small talk he had with Liztawul after gaining control over his mind.'He clearly said that our planet was the one that crashed against theirs,' thought Eros as he kept walking around. In the forest there wasn't a single sound.
'But Darian told me that normally the Earth had a specific path 500 years ago, then it changed…' Eros suddenly stopped and sat down next to a rock. He put the fruit near his feet.'It doesn't make sense… why would the Earth suddenly change path? And why the hell did they say our planet crashed against theirs? They were the ones wandering in space…' kept thinking Eros as he put his hand on his head, now staring at the ground.
'That krukin… Liztawul even said that we attacked them first 500 years ago, that they're simply defending themselves and it's our fault… as I attacked the krukin while controlling his body, he was begging me to stop, asking not to hurt his brothers and sisters this much…' Now Eros's thoughts were even more confused; his mind was going crazy.
'So are we humans actually doing the right thing? If what he said is true and they were simply defending themselves, do we really have the right to do what we're doing?'Eros suddenly got up from the rock to return to the base. His mind was filled with this single thought: Are krukins really guilty of starting the war? After a bit, he returned to the base.
Suddenly, as he returned, everyone was waiting for him. The alterids from Skar-Zhul, knowing that he usually went for a walk by himself early in the morning, reassured the others — it was completely normal. But right after seeing the faces of his companions, especially Nysira's face with one eye missing and Tauren's still really sad expression. Tauren was very close to Allen, and knowing he was gone made him miserable, Eros decided otherwise.
'Better keep this to myself…' thought Eros. He wanted to talk with the others about what he'd thought earlier, but after seeing his companions' faces, he decided to keep it for himself.
"It's weird that you went alone in the woods knowing that some krukin might attack you," said Tauren, noticing Eros's return. Everyone was awake, even Vane, Nysira, and Snowy.
"Well, it might surprise you all but…" answered Eros, leaving the bag with the fruits on the floor. Everyone gathered nearby to get some of them. "But I didn't find any krukin."As everyone heard those words, they were extremely shocked.
"Not even a single sound?" asked Liro, scared, wondering why no krukins were nearby. Having them on the mainland felt extremely normal; knowing they were gone felt strange.
Eros simply shook his head."Might it be because of the battle we had yesterday?" asked Allocen, the first one to come up with an answer. Everyone could only agree with him.
"Do you think they'll return again?" asked Darian as he started to eat the fruit, giving a small piece to Snowy, who bit it slowly.
"Maybe they simply called all the krukins that were on Earth into the battle. On the Black Planet there were a hundred times more," answered Bianca, able to find a proper explanation thanks to all the times she spied on the krukins.
Everyone there could only agree with Bianca, at least it seemed like the best answer.
As everyone finished breakfast with the fruits Eros brought, they chose to return to Darian's base, which wasn't really far from there. It was already 10 a.m., and it took only three hours to get there.
"You were right, Eros… it's extremely peaceful around here…" said Darian as he glanced around. Snowy was on his shoulder, and all of them were walking very slowly. It was the first time any of them had heard this kind of silence on the mainland. All of them felt somewhat relieved.
Even in the border between Africa and the land, there weren't any krukins, none were guarding it. It meant that everyone really had to participate in the war.
After they reached the desert, it took only twenty more minutes to reach Darian's base. As they got closer, Rusty heard their loud voices and immediately went to greet them.
"Hello everyone," said Rusty politely, noticing that someone was missing, Allocen. Even though Rusty was a simple robot, he felt a bit sad realizing that Allocen had probably died.
"Yo, Rusty," said Darian as he got closer. Everyone did the same. Rusty then noticed Bianca, but none of them seemed surprised to see each other."I see you're doing well, Miss Bianca," said Rusty right after noticing her. Everyone was surprised to hear that.
"Ehi, Rusty," said Bianca as she got closer. Darian was the most shocked to see that."Wait— do you two know each other?" he asked, falling on the ground. His base should have been really well hidden from humans, so how did she find out?
"She came here for the first time recently…" said Rusty as he started to tell about the time he met Bianca.
It was right before the attack that happened in Skar-Zhul. Bianca had just left the city and was already going to the mainland to get more information."That huge tower should be around here…" whispered Bianca as she searched for the huge tower that was near the border between the desert and the mainland, the one from the Arkhos Project, the same tower Darian had found the first time he returned to Earth.
"It should be around here, but why can't I find it…" Bianca was sure she'd taken the right route, but she couldn't see it. It was already late, and if she didn't find the tower soon, the light would completely disappear, and she wouldn't be able to see anything.
But suddenly she heard something strange, metallic sounds. As she climbed over a small dune to check, she noticed a small base. She had never seen it before, but it looked different from all the cities she'd found on the mainland.
In fact, this one was perfectly intact. 'How is this possible…' thought Bianca as she stayed still, her eyes fixed on that creature. It wasn't human, it looked like its body was made of some sort of brownish metal.
Bianca wasn't used to spying in the desert; because of her weight, some sand fell down and made a sound, which activated Rusty's sensors."Who's there?" asked Rusty as he turned toward the place where the sand fell. Thanks to his single eye that could perfectly see in the dark, he noticed Bianca.
"Ehi, human!" shouted Rusty, knowing that the creature could hear him, waving his hand. 'How was he able to see me…' thought Bianca as she slowly descended from the dune, getting closer to Rusty and the base.
"What is this place? I've never noticed anything like that," said Bianca. Rusty was surprised that a human, unlike Darian, was able to find the base.
"Wait—" whispered Bianca as she remembered what Darian had said before. He was explaining about his base and how he survived after he got back from the planet."Are you perhaps Rusty?" she asked. The robot simply nodded.
"Do you know Master Darian?" asked Rusty as he remained still, waiting for an answer."Yeah, he told us about the base. I was wondering where it was, I'm surprised I was able to find it now. I needed to reach the huge tower," said Bianca. Rusty then understood which tower she was talking about.
"Oh, you mean the Arkhos Tower? It isn't really far from here," answered Rusty. After realizing that this woman wasn't a threat, he returned to maintaining the base.
"Mind if I spend the night here?" asked Bianca politely. Rusty simply nodded.
"And that's how she came here…" finished Rusty. Everyone was really surprised to hear that, especially because, in all these years, Bianca was literally the only one who had ever found this base.
"Everything good, Rusty…" started Darian in a weird tone. "BUT WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US BEFORE WHEN WE CAME HERE?!" shouted him. Snowy, on his shoulder, got scared of the scream and jumped down.
Rusty looked directly at Darian with his usual face. "I forgot," he simply answered and went away, realizing that what he did was bad."RUSTY!!!" shouted Darian as he rushed toward him, mad. Everyone burst into laughter.
As the day passed, Rusty was able to help Nysira with her condition. She walked with one eye missing; luckily, the wound had closed during the night, but it was still hard to look at.
Rusty was able to do literally everything, and thanks to some materials he had in the base, he was able to sew an eyepatch. The eyepatch was black and had small lightning patterns on it that referred to Nysira's power.
"Thank you, Rusty! It looks so cool!" shouted her, really happy. After waking up that morning with one eye missing, she had felt really sad and still shocked, but she chose to keep her troubles to herself, not wanting to lower the mood.
As the day passed, everyone used the time to rest. It was night, and Darian was checking his backpack — as he opened it, all the things fell on the bed."Ouch…" said him as he started to grab everything and put it back. But suddenly, he noticed something different in one of the items, the black-purple feather he had suddenly changed color.
Before, it was about three-fourths black and the rest purple, but now it was half purple, half black.'Wait… when did this happen—' thought him as he realized it was time to make Rusty analyze it.
'I need to see what happened to this weird feather… please, Rusty, be able to find an answer,' thought Darian as he went out of the house, hoping that Rusty would be able to find a solution for this.