SSSHHHSS….

Archamed and Kaizen exited another gate. This time they found themselves in an abandoned construction site. Kaizen heard the honking of hover cars outside the area.

“Are we on the mainland?” He asked.

Archamed nodded.

“I’ve never been to a city. There’s so much I want to see...” His voice trailed off while looking into the distance.

“You can go sightseeing later. We’ve got to get this out of the way.” 

The young Lonestar didn’t actually care about sightseeing but was just trying to make conversation.

Archamed walked forward to the rusted metal door of a nearby storage container.

“Why are we here now?” He asked after an awkward pause.

Arch knocked on the door twice.

The door squeaked loudly and then lowered itself. As it receded into the ground, the entrance of the container revealed a metal staircase descending into darkness.

“This is the place where we’ll answer most of your questions. The sooner you’re up to speed, the sooner we get to work.” Archamed said while walking forward.

Kaizen nodded and followed him. The door slid back up and closed behind them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the bottom of the stairs, the two entered a room filled with several electronics. Broken computers, motors and some technology that was not familiar to Kaizen.

“What is this place?” He asked himself quietly.

SQWAUK! 

Suddenly, out of nowhere a yellow bird with red tipped wings flew up to him and flapped furiously in front of his face. He jumped back in shock.

“INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!” The bird repeated over and over again.

As the shock left him he realized the bird was mechanical as he noticed fraying wires and oil stains.

“SHUT UP!” A voice said from in front of them.

The bird dropped to the ground almost in an toon-like way.

“PLAYING DEAD! PLAYIING DEEeaaaa…” 

“Sorry about that. I’ve been trying to find that junk for weeks to disable it.” 

He looked up to see a man walking out from the room in front of them. He wore a long, steampunk like trench coat with a black top hat, white gloves and brown goggles over his eyes. He also brandished a wooden, brass end cane. Kaizen found the outfit very comical as well as bizarre.

The man turned his head sideways and looked at Archamed.

“Well, well, well…If it isn’t the boss.” The man stated.

He walked up to Archamed and Kaizen thought another altercation was about to occur, like with Alex.  

The man raised both his arms in the air and hugged Archamed tightly. He then began to cry dramatically.

“Bwossss…It’s been so looonnggg! I thought you died!” The man sobbed.

“You knew that I was alive. Also you can stop hugging me now.” Archamed stated annoyed. The man immediately stopped crying.

“Right, yes, of course.”

The man removed a handkerchief from his trench coat and began to dry his eyes. Kaizen was confused and slightly weirded out by what he just saw.

Archamed turned to Kaizen.

“Kaizen, meet The Bro.” 

“The Bro?” Kaizen repeated.

“That’s Sir Bro to you, spriggan,” the man joked while extending his hand.

Kaizen took his hand to shake it, but as he did, the man’s hand popped off his wrist.

“AHH!” Kaizen exclaimed, throwing the hand to the ground.

The man laughed jovially.

“Please do be careful with the prosthetic. I would prefer not to lose another hand!” The man laughed again. Kaizen was very disturbed by the joke.

“Ahem,” Archamed cleared his throat. The man stopped laughing.

“Yes of course. You must be Kenta’s boy. Welcome Mr. Lonestar…right this way please.” The man quickly walked back into the room he came from and the two boys followed behind him.

“Seriously Arch…The Bro?”

“Don’t Ask…” Archamed sighed.

The room was quite big compared to the hall they were in. It was still filled with electronics but one wall was completely furnished with monitors that showed multiple angles outside the bunker. Sitting at the desk under the monitors was a stocky man. He appeared to be of Indian descent and his hair was curly. He turned and faced the two boys.

“Archamed. It's good to see you again.” The man stated.

“Likewise, Benny.”

The Bro rested his hand on Kaizen’s shoulder.

“It must all be overwhelming, I know. Nonetheless, you’ve stepped into a life of strangeness and wonder!”

Kaizen turned to face him. The Bro smiled and removed his hat, holding it high above his head in a dramatic pose.

“A ground dweller boy is about to uncover the secrets of the hidden world! Can you handle it? Will you be of use to the mission?”

The Bro passes his hat in front of his face. When it’s revealed again, his smile is replaced with a straight expression. He leans in uncomfortably close to Kaizen.

“Or will you break helplessly under the weight of the truth?”

Kaizen reeled back slightly, sensing a hint of warning in his voice.

“Bro! Stop scaring the kid!” Benny said from his computer chair.

A smile crept across The Bro’s face.

“Hah! I’m just kidding!”

He threw his arm around Kaizen like he was his brother and whispered into his ear.

“You see, the Boy in Black doesn’t get close to anyone unless he has to. Consider yourself blessed, young man!”

“Blessed? What does that mean?” Kaizen responded while trying to wrestle away from him.

The Bro froze for a moment. He released him and slowly turned to face Archamed.

“A Blinded. You brought a Blinded here boss?”

Archamed’s eyes darted across to look at him. His eyes glowed orange slightly as his gaze narrowed. The Bro gulped and wiped the sweat from his lip with his glove.

“I - I see. I didn’t mean to offend our guest.”

Kaizen did not appreciate the coded conversation that was flying over him, but believed it best not to interfere.

Benny sighed.

“I’ll start powering up The Conflux right away,” He told Archamed, pushing several buttons on the console at his desk.

“Thank you for your hard work as always.”

The Bro ushered Kaizen to the back of the room with a comical grin on his face. At the back wall of the room stood a huge machine the height of at least three grown men. Its components were a gigantic metallic sphere that hovered over a sunken plate.

The Bro pulled a nearby chair and placed it next to the machine. 

“Please sit here, Mr. Lonestar.” 

Kaizen accepted. He looked across at Archamed who was already in a chair with his arms folded.

The strange engineer returned with two white elastic bands in his hands. He stretched one around Kaizen’s head. He gave the other to Archamed who did the same.

“What are we…” Kaizen began to ask but was cut off.

“Your questions will be answered in a couple seconds, so you can wait a bit longer, yes?” Archamed respionded with his eyes closed. He almost seemed like he was sleeping in the chair.

After a couple seconds, the orb began to make a light humming sound and a golden circle lit up on the front of the face.

“Boot successful. Setting the ratio to 1 for 10. Initiating drop.” Benny said from the front of the room.

Kaizen was about to ask what this ‘drop’ was when he felt himself overcome by a sudden dizziness. His eyelids involuntarily fell until they were shut.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kaizen’s eyes shot back open. He found himself lying snuggly in a grassy field. Disoriented, he sat up quickly and looked around. He could see nothing but grass for miles in the direction he was looking. The area also smelled like lemon which was somewhat soothing.

“You're up.” A voice said from behind him. He turned around to face the speaker. Behind him stood a large cherry blossom tree with Archamed sitting under it, eyes closed. The leaves of the cherry blossom tree seemed to fall infinitely. Not too far from the tree was a small wooden house with a clothesline in the back and a chair below the front steps. 

Kaizen got up from the ground and approached.

“Where are we?”

“This is my mind palace.” Archamed replied.

Kaizen remained silent.

“The machine you just saw is called the Conflux. It allows me to bring your consciousness into my mindscape,” Archamed explained, pointing at the temple of his head. 

Kaizen's eyes widened but then returned to normal. He then plopped onto the grass near Arch.

“To be honest, I'm not that surprised. Anything seems possible at this point.”

“Good. Stick with that mentality.” 

He looked around for a bit then looked back at Archamed.

“So why are we here?” he asked him.

“Time moves a bit differently here. Every minute outside is ten minutes in this world. This should give me enough time to answer your questions. Besides, we don’t experience fatigue here so in theory once our bodies are sustained on the outside, we could have a conversation forever.”Archamed explained.

“I see…”

The two were silent for a moment as the wind blew through the grass.

The moment had arrived. Kaizen needed to ask the right questions. He needed to know everything that happened before and what was to come. Most of all, he needed to know where he fit in all of this.

He took a deep breath and stared at his new friend.

“Who are you people, and who is this…Most High… you serve?” 

Archamed put his hands inside his hoodie pockets.

“As you know we are from a city called Haven. A giant floating island in the sky where all the followers lived.” 

Archamed held out his hand. Without a sound or any indication, The two found themselves floating amongst the clouds.

Kaizen was about to panic until he realized that they were floating, as if they were sitting on nothing.

“Remain calm and look,” Arch stated as he pointed out to the distance.

Kaizen turned his head and his eyes widened.

“Incredible…”

The two boys floated across from the city of Haven. A massive island of unparalleled beauty. Several structures were erected throughout the city that surpassed the designs found even in the most developed cities of Astia. The most impressive place being a tower of extreme height found on the Northern end. It was gold and white and had several floating rings encasing it that decreased in size as they approached the top. The buildings and structures all rested on a construct that was a combination of rock, dirt and technology. Further down the floating construct was a blue glow that shone incrementally brighter as it reached a point at the very bottom. Finally, The whole island was encased in a bubble of some kind with an amber glow.

“It’s more beautiful than I ever imagined.”

Archamed stood up on the air and began to speak.

“Hundreds of years ago, several different groups of followers fled from the surface of the earth to retreat to this island.” 

As he spoke, Kaizen noticed several aircraft below them zooming towards Haven. They were not like any craft he had seen before and were far faster than any transport he knew of. As they flew past, the wind caused Kaizen’s hair to fly back and Arch’s hoodie to flap. The craft zipped into the amber bubble where they disappeared.

“This was to keep their own safe from the founding members of the Hold,” Archamed continued.

“Is the Hold really that evil? I know in their earlier days they were a bit of an extreme political group, but Astia is at peace right now. Even more than that, are they so strong that people as strong as you needed to flee?” Kaizen inquired.

Archamed remained quiet for a moment then raised his hand into the air.

In another instantaneous transition, the pair found themselves in front of a fire at night.

“Where are …” Kaizen cut himself off as he looked into the flames.

There kneeled a six year old Kai, crying out and clutching on to the Quartext. The flames had singed the edge of his skin and ash marks streaked his face.

“This is what the Hold does to those who do not align with their philosophy Kaizen.”

Kaizen took one step forward toward his younger self and stopped as he saw a ten year old Archamed stand in front of the flames. He reached his hand out toward the crying boy as he drew closer to him.

“The Hold and those like them fear The Most High. So they kill his followers and try to destroy evidence of our beliefs.”

Archamed turned to him. Kaizen’s bangs hung in front of his face and tears streamed down his cheeks.

“I am not trying to play with your emotions or manipulate you. This is reality. It is effective for our people to stick together.”

“Hey…” 

Kaizen reached up and grabbed Archamed’s hoodie and pulled him in. Archamed looked into his reddened eyes and saw his seething anger.

“The Most High is the most powerful person on your side, correct?! Why hasn’t he destroyed The Hold!”

Archamed looked at him with his usual blank expression. He raised his arm and snapped his fingers, shifting them once more. Kaizen released him as he realized the two found themselves in a vacuum of darkness. He no longer could tell what was up or down as every slight movement made his orientation change. He watched as Archamed balanced himself perfectly in the void of nothing as he reached out and stopped him from floating away.

“You see Kaizen, the most high is not a person. No…humans are flawed creatures, but The Most High…”

BOOM!

A huge explosion of light appeared in the darkness. The radiance and intensity made Kaizen believe he was struck blind.

“...is perfect.”