I was a tad annoyed, wanting to train when suddenly my weapons were for some reason, absent. I was in a resting area in the Heroes Tomb so at least that was good. All that appeared when I tried to summon my weapons was a note from Lord and Cript saying they took them for tune ups and upgrades.

"Okay…" I muttered while opening a DTN and heading through to where Lord and Cript were. "Hello?"

“Here.” Cript said from a nearby building. Inside I saw he was doing something with Eternal Flames in a strange flow of Code, and Lord was doing the same with Lunatic.

"So...what are you two doing with my weapons?" I asked curiously.

“Upgrading.” Lord stated simply.

“In short, yes, your weapons are strong… strong as all hell. But they need to be stronger if we are gonna deal with the Void Mother and the last of Old Nexus.” Cript said.

"Ok so…how the hell are you upgrading them and why do you need to upgrade them? I've barely gotten used to the Evolved Versions yet."

“It’s more like… software updates.” Lord said. “As you remember, when Eclipsa used all that power combined, had she built up the amount she did sooner, her body would have disintegrated. Physically, the bodies you make can’t hold the full extent of Cript’s and Jericho’s powers, by upgrading your weapons to Admin Weapons, as well as a few extra tweeks, you should be able to harness the amount of power Eclipsa used then and there with not too much issue.”

“Eclipsa managed to generate roughly… fifteen percent of our total full power, Grey boosting it even more so even after she unleashed it, hurting Jericho badly. This will help you more rapidly adapt to that power and grow overtime, a lot like how Keyblades adapt the wielder to magic and abilities over time.”

“Alrighty then...but to be honest, the more I’ve studied Grey, the more I think Eclipsa would have actually been a lot more fine than what originally happened.” I said honestly while studying what they were doing to my weapons.

“And she can be, but, remember, physically she’s not accustomed to that level of power just yet. It’s like… giving a keyblade to someone who has never used one before, and then trying to teach them Megaflare right out as their first spell, it’s possible, but messy and will put them under intense straining. Eclipsa lucked out with what happened. She might be able to handle that now, it depends on if she’s constantly building up grey and it’s influence over other energies as well as its own yet to be understood potential.”

“From what I’ve looked at, yes, she is constantly building up Grey...and Grey with any Energy has been acting weird...not a bad weird but...whatever energy I put Grey with, the type just get’s a fuck ton stronger.” I said honestly. “Grey is full of mysteries...and I plan to figure them out.”

“Ever the puzzle solver.” Lord said, giving Lunatic a spin as the code around it flowed into it.

“That aside we also noticed something interesting about you three so far.” Cript said, doing the same to Eternal Flames. “While you and Heart have the largest selection of artillery, or armaments rather, Eclipsa does lack in that department.”

“I mean, Heart lacks Variety in his arsenal, I have all of it honestly.” I shrugged. “But yeah...Eclipsa only has Oathkeeper, Oblivion, her X-Blade Better Half, and Grey.”

“How does Heart not have variety?” Cript asked.

“Objectively, all Heart is Keyblades and Balance.” I said honestly.

“Key arms too, in the shape of guns, bows, swords, Keyblade versions of your own weapons, cannons, battleships, yes but there’s just the one. No idea how that happened either.”

“None that he even uses.” Lord pointed out.

“As Lord pointed out, he doesn’t really...use any of them. He sticks with Keyblades, while I myself use thirteen weapons that are incredibly special for all they can do...and believe it or not, I’ve found the Old Man’s blueprints for new Nothingness Weapons in the same vein as my Thirteen weapons.” I brought up.

“I’ll take that.” Lord said with a snap as suddenly all those blueprints and books of schematics/recipies were on a desk in the back.

“His armory is bigger than yours, if he doesn’t have it, he’ll make it.” Cript said, rolling their eyes as Eternal Flames finished absorbing the code around them.

“Oi! I haven’t done all my research on those yet.” I frowned. “But looks like Eternal Flames is done…”

“You’ll get them back when I’m done.” Lord said as Lunatic finished absorbing the code around it. He picked it up, and tossed it to Cript. “Strain test it.”

“Yeah yeah.” Cript said, funneling power into my weapon. As it grew and grew, I began noticing Lunatic’s Matrix work became visible, the hidden old magic that made the weapon work now able to be seen as Cript kept filling it with power that was… All kinds. “Holds good at the fifteen percent.”

“Double it.” Lord said.

“Sure.” Cript said, more power rushed into the weapon, now glowing bright with a powerful blue and black aura that moved like fire.

“You know, I know a better stress test than just dumping all that power into Lunatic...also how in the hell?” I asked nervously.

“Reaching thirty.” Cript said, suddenly Lunatic’s colors began brightening to a pure white form, Nothingness thorns now sparking around the weapon, rotating around it rapidly like saw blades.

“Holds good… How far should we go?”

“Let’s give it forty.” Cript said, now holding it in both hands, soon the weapon seemed to elongate, making more of a Claymore form, and soon, there was a small moon floating above the blades tip as the whole thing vibrated rapidly. “Okay, anymore and it’s breaking.”

“So anything above forty will break it.” Lord said, looking over to me. “Once you can handle that, reach that, I’ll improve it more.” He then raised a hand towards Cript. “Now, hit me.”

“Hold on, mind if I do it? I want to double check a little combo of skills, is Skysplitter up and ready as well?” I asked curiously.

“Not yet. As for weapon fusing, sorry, but that’s a test for a bit later.” Lord said. “Besides, at most, you’d be able to handle… sixteen percent and can’t generate the power Cript is into it yet. We still need to set up it’s passive draw into it. Besides, Cript hits harder.”

“Relax, you can play in a bit. Til then… stand behind me.” Cript said with a nod.

“Fine fine.” I rolled my eyes and got behind Cript. “I’m not some delicate wallflower…” I grumbled.

“Ready?” Cript asked.

“Ready.” Lord replied.

In that, Cript swung, the blast broke the windows but oddly did not break the building. All my hair was being blasted to my back as with wide eyes I watched as Lord was simply unphased by Cript’s attack as he stood there, hand stretched out tanking it. The attack was hitting but from checking his HP… did not take anything more than five hp. As the attack finally died down, the room looked unphased also, the windows self repairing too. “Good, it held.” He said, Lunatic back to normal, and still intact.

“Right…” I said slowly. “But that was it?” I asked curiously. “I was gonna bring up a better stress test...but that little damage what?”

"There is a reason Lord and I don't dual." Cript said, swinging Lunatic over his shoulder. "That armor of his isn't for show."

"I built this armor to perfectly tank Cript at even his strongest." Lord stated. "It's my masterpiece."

"Right then…" I started. "Didn't know that." I said simply. "So...what was the point of this?" I asked curiously. "I know it's a stress test but…"

"But?" Cript asked.

“What was the point to half of this?” I asked curiously. “Like the charging up part? Cause you could have just swung it really hard and done the same.”

"You have never used a charged attack, have you? Think of it like this, Skysplitter is strong on it's own, but when you use it's natural power up ability, it becomes even more powerful, right?" Lord asked.

“I have used a Charged attack...I was actually going to do a charge attack…” I said

"Yet not on the scale Cript can. At least, not yet. Charging it with all that energy shows us how it reacts to that power and where it's limits are. Charging it with raw power is the easiest way to determine this."

“Fine fine.” I said simply. “So, you said these were like software updates...how is that? I thought they already did when they evolved like six times?”

"Upgrades that have physical changes are more along the lines of Hardware upgrades. Which we also kinda did but not noticable." Cript said.

“Fine fine, so what are all of my weapons able to do now?” I asked curiously.

"Well, they aren't done, but we can let you try out Lunatic for a bit. It's the most well along." Cript said, handing me my weapon.

“What’s the most durable thing here that isn’t Lord?” I asked while grabbing Lunatic. “And is Skysplitter ready?”

"No, and not much." Lord said. "Shift into Valor form."

"Which Valor? Normal, or Heir Valor?" I asked curiously.

"Normal for a start."

"Alright." I nodded while shifting into Valor Form. "Why do you want me in Valor form?" Immediately I noticed. Lunatic was now more or a large curved Greatsword or Claymore. It's curve looking akin to a Cresent moon as it glowed the same red as my Valor form, looking like a large katana from the handle.

“Alright...that’s cool.” I said honestly while grabbing the hilt with my other hand, even though I knew Valor form could let me Dual Wield.

"It's three times faster on the swings, has a passive reflect spell when blocking, your AoE attacks now rather than impact based are swing based and travel up to five miles, and notice your rage meter slowly filling in the corner of your eyesight," Lord then gave me a bit of a hard whack, taking out an eight of my health, but that same hit also halfway filled the rage meter. "Getting hit refills your rage meter faster and getting hit while in rage mode also guarantees critical hits and doubles physical Damage while halving damage taken for a minute, per hit, and it stacks."

I looked at Lunatic, then at Lord. “You...do know that, with a combination of basic skills...I can probably cleave damn near anything in half right?” I asked.

"That's the idea."

“I wonder if it can even keep together with that?” I wondered. “Seriously, the more I looked into it...god it’s the raw power asinine.”

"Also the point." Lord added.

“Alright.” I nodded. “So, what about my other weapons?” I asked curiously, cause while Lunatic was really cool, I want to also know what cool things my other weapons can do.

"So far that's about as far as we have it. We plan on making each weapon able to hold the power I generated into Lunatic earlier, as well as a unique form for each of your drive forms." Cript said.

“Alrighty then...mind if I help?” I asked curiously. “Also, are you upgrading my Greatsword?” I asked curiously.

"Yes. It's why you can't summon any weapons, and no. The method we are using to upgrade your gear is… not for a novice of Admin Artifact Crafting."

“It’s not my fault that I have no solid basework to study off of.” I frowned. “Either most of it is destroyed, there all hidden somewhere, or you two keep telling me no.” I frowned at Lord and Cript.

"This case it's more of a… lost art. Lord knows the basics but anything above that was lost many cycles ago. Not even that Library has records of it."

“Okay, so both of you can still teach me how to at least do the basics yes?” I asked curiously.

"That will take time we don't have, but I know a guy." Lord said.

“Is it Belief or Player?” I asked. “Cause both of them could be correct.”

"Neither." Lord said, actually taking out a flip phone and began dialing.

"If it's who I think it is, Lord I swear." Cript said with a huff.

“Please tell me it’s a Construct that took up the mantle of its creator, which happened to be an Admin.” I said in high hopes it would be something cool like that.

Lord spoke a few words, hanging up before opening a portal. Walking through it was… a guy in a lab coat, young looking, long light brown hair, glasses, dark blue eyes. "Hello Lord." They spoke, looking over at Cript. "Cript."

"Alex…" Cript said, not hiding their visible annoyance or anger at this Alex person.

“My expectations are dashed…” I muttered. “Hi, name’s Ben, it’s nice to meet you.” I said simply, wanting to at least try and make a good first impression.

Cript and Alex kept their tense eye contact for a bit, Cript giving a huff before leaving. Alex fixed up their glasses, looking over at me. "I've heard a lot about you King Ben, I have to say, the data I've recorded so far seems to match you exactly in person." They said, a somewhat emotionless expression on their face.

“Oh? And what does your data say about me?” I asked, already expecting him to belittle me after some minor praise, if any praise at all.

"Varying from the sources, physically you are a top tier subject, mentally tough, many have described you as irrational, but I can tell your just logical and practical. Traits I prefer."

“I can tell we’re going to be fast friends.” I chuckled. “But uh...what was with Cript if I may ask?”

"I would prefer that remains out of further conversation." Alex said simply.

"Long story short, Cript and Alex used to travel… with the girl from the cage. That's all I feel at liberty to tell." Lord said.

“Oh...wait.” I blinked. “Your the guy that that Black Winged Celestial talked about, Nate.” I said honestly.

"Ah yes, Nate. An informative subject. Black wings are so rare among Celestials. One in 5.7 million chance."

“I started with ‘Ow, the Edge’ when I met him in the Tomb of Heroes...but he’s a decent guy if...his Lady didn’t succumb to the Tomb.”

"Hmm?"

"Alex." Lord spoke up. "We need you to give some basics on crafting Admin Artifacts." Lord said.

"What do I get in return for my services?" Alex asked.

“Making sure Existence doesn't end...again for a start.” I started.

"I could care about reality."

"You'll get a book from the library of Alexandria." Lord said.

"Hmm… alright." Alex agreed. He cares more about a book than existence ending?

“I’m sorry, I love books as much as the next person, but...a book is more important than Existence ending?”

"You are a person of intellect Ben, surely you know everything is made Finite. Life and this reality is all gone sooner or later. As a scientist, it's not my job to interfere with data, less it be incorrect."

“While that is true, sometimes a scientist needs to be a bit more ‘hands on’ to figure out the data is correct.” I said honestly. “Need to make sure all the data is correct in practice am I right?”

"Ben, I think you'll find that at the end of the day, all Allex cares about is the data, and nothing else." Lord said.

“Fine fine, I won’t try to force it.” I said with raised hands, knowing I could argue with Alex all day about it but I’d rather hold off. “So, where to begin with learning Admin Artifact Creation?”

"Is there a workshop we can use?" Alex asked Lord.

"Next door should work." Lord said as I followed Alex out.

“So how difficult is learning how to make Admin Artifacts?” I asked curiously.

"It depends on your skills with Code and Code Script Matrixes."

“So this might be a massive pain in the ass…” I sighed out.

"If you know little, then yes, it will be quite difficult."

“Well...I do know some bit of Code Script Matrixes, haven’t fully worked it out cause I was busy studying other things.” I said with a shrug.

"Do you have issues with studying? Or focus?" Alex asked as we entered the next door building. It was a lot like the other one we were just at.

“Neither actually...well I mean, if hyper focus is an issue.” I said sheepishly. “But even if I can bend time to my will, there’s still so much time in the day, plus I also practice with my weapons, spend time with family, delegate my kingdom, be apart of talk shows and other gigs, so much stuff that even with Starfish clones, it’s a lot for a Den Mother to handle.” I explained.

"I see. So mainly you lack the ability to delight yourself to a single task at a time?"

“Yeah pretty much.” I said honestly. “Even with Clones, can’t really stick to a single task half the time.”

"I see. I'll update my data on you then." They said simple, having me sit at a table. "Now then, a Code Matrix is basically a more advanced Spell Matrix, just replacing Mana with Code. Simple enough in spoken words but less so in practice."

“Can’t be too hard if it’s just substituting one energy source for another in a medium that’s designed for fluid energy transfer right?” I asked curiously.

“Simplified, yes. The first means to working with these matrixes is to set it up., I assume you know about the normal spell matrixes?”

“Yes, several different versions actually.” I said. “But I suppose the basic spell matrix is the best for this scenario.”

“Some customizations are in order.” Alex said. “Firstly, make a one by one foot metalic slab forged from condensed code on the table here.”

“Sounds simple enough.” I said while putting my hand down on the table, Alex seeing small insect like creatures made of Code come out of my fur by the hundreds and form the one by one foot metal slab. “It still feels a little weird that my Code act’s like insects...but it kind of makes sense given what it’s capable of.”

“Actually, it’s more attuned to your passive power obtained from the Admin you killed to gain this power. Giddion, if I’m correct, the former Admin of Rape. He had a unique but not unheard of power to control the insects, even those of the microscopic level, he was believed to become the Admin of Insects, but his lust got the better of him.”

“I...was going to say my Code...acts more like an Anti Virus...but thank you for reminding me of that guy and making me feel even more creeped out about my powers...now I need a shower…” I grumbled.

“I suppose that is a theory also.” He said, looking over the slab. “Hmm… Good. I’ll make the Matrix.” He said, his finger lit up with some code also, surprising me as as he began using it to engrave symbols into the metal.

“Runes?” I asked curiously. “Or something else?”

“Something like that. These symbols predate any other language. It’s Admin based and sadly not even I have been able to translate them, but thankfully simply copying them works well.” He said, finishing his engraving. The matrix was… complex… and yeah, that’s cool looking. “Now, to activate it.” He said, a single line of code flowing from his hand into the matrix. It glowed to life, the symbols now moving, rotating and crossing over one another in fast, rapid motion until soon, lines of code flew upwards a few feet in the air.

“Cool.” I said while looking at all the runes. “But...is there a cipher or something? Like the Rosetta Stone for Ancient Egypt?” I asked, using that old piece of human history as an example.

“If there was, do you think we would know close to nothing about it?” Alex asked, basically giving me the feeling that I asked a dumb question. “Now then, there are two kinds of means to crafting Admin Artifacts. Raw materials, or from an existing item. We will be making them from existing items.”

“Which would either be something you bring up, or my weapons.” I said simply. “Which one do you have in mind?”

He reached into his pocket, reaching his arm… oddly far down for how small they look, and pulled out a simple coin. “This.”

“A simple coin is a good enough start as any I suppose.” I said simply.

Alex tossed it into the flow of code, the coin now floating there. “Now then, put your hands around it, and feel the code within that coin, and access it.”

“Seems simple enough.” I said while taking the coin in my hands and feeling the Code within it, trying to see if I can access it cause I don’t know how complex or simple the code work was.

As I was focusing on this, feeling the code inside this coin, I could feel it’s build, the information that makes up this simple thing as I finally began pulling it out. It was slow, and after a while, it all came out. The code in just this coin was surprisingly large, but once it was out, the Admin part of me felt like it… Woke up. Seeing that code made complete sense, and I don’t know why.

“That feeling that Rush of power, that sense of knowing, that’s your code, reading and processing the code from the Coin. Absolute knowing, the ability to learn everything about anything and everything simply by reading it’s code.” Alex said, gaining my attention. “So many of the Admins waste that invaluable power.”

“So...basically reading the fine print means I can understand anything and everything about something?” I asked curiously.

“Once you open up it’s code yes. The only exceptions to this power, are other admins, Admin artifacts, and of course, the Void.”

“What about Light, Darkness, Nothingness and Grey?” I asked curiously.

“Pure energies? Harder, but possible. Calculating the risk reward, a bare minimum of four Admins can process all that code within an hour or two.”

“Cool, that’ll make my studies fly by a lot faster.” I let out a sigh of relief at having a new way of learning things I couldn’t normally or figuring out things I wouldn't normally learn. “Seriously, you have no idea how much this helps.”

“Of course I do. I use it constantly.” Alex said bluntly. “Now then, taking the existing code, alter the section that holds abilities or powers. Notice how there is none. Pull some of your own to add something.”

“Um...sure.” I said while I pulled some of my code and started to alter the section that held the Powers. “So I just...give it an ability?”

“You have to program it in. It’s akin to giving an item an enchantment. For something easy, make it that when tossed, heads gives you, or the one who called heads, 100 Rem, the loser, of course, gets nothing.”

“Sounds simple enough.” I said while writing in the simple action into the Coin’s ability. “And...that should be it…” I muttered while feeling my code fill in the blank with what I wrote in.

As I closed the code back into the coin, the code floating around the coin also flowed into it. Once the last lines of it flowed in, the Coin gave me a sense of another Admin, only weaker, a bit faint, but noticeable. Taking the coin, I tossed it, getting heads as my assistant beeped.

100 Rem Added to Account.

“Cool, it works.” I smiled.

"Indeed. Now then, shall we continue?"

“Yes please.” I nodded, happy with a good start. “What else is there to learn?” I asked, very interested in learning this ancient craft.

"Next let's try a weapon. Hmm… perhaps a demonstration is in order here." Alex said as they reached back into their pocket, pulling out a small dagger. Well, maybe not a dagger, more of a large knife.

“Oh?” I asked curiously. “Upgrading a knife?”

"Cript showed you what happens to weapons when you channel raw power into them, right?"

“Yes he did.” I nodded. “Well, to test, not like an actual ‘oh hey, here’s what happens’.” I said honestly.

"Well, this will be your example. Power that knife with .7% of your power."

"Um...sure." I said as I took the knife and tried to put .7 percent of my power into the thing.

I was extremely careful here, and it payed off. Immediately the knife changed. It was now the length of a short sword, glowing with a faint power of Nothingness and even seemed to have faint Nothingness thorns trail around it. "Good. Now, try adding one more to that."

I did just that. And it exploded, the shrapnel actually managing to cut into my hand. I helped at that, seeing my healing factor easily pushing the shrapnel out if my flesh. "The weaker one is, the weaker the weapon they can charge must be. Too much power put into a weapon not properly upgraded or modified will backfire horribly. Higher tier Admin Artifacts Don't have this issue, but for now we can make at most tier two Admin Artifacts."

"And how many tiers are there?" I asked curiously.

"When it comes to found Admin artifacts, tier seven is the highest found. Sadly data on if that is the max or not is unknown."

"Good to know." I nodded.

"Now then, Time to attempt this properly." He said, taking out another knife and places it on the slab. "This time, you fuel it. Simply flow code into the matrix."

"Sure." I said while putting a hand on the matrix and flowing Code into the slab at a small but steady pace.

Soon, it burst to life like before, the knife now floating there in the code. "Now, like with the code of the coin, open it. Read it."

"Okay…" I said while taking the hilt and reading the code in the blade. "Let's see how this got improved…"

Like with the coin, everything about this knife was known by me once the code from it flowed out. From how long it took for the metals to form to the method it was forged with. "Now then, looking at the code, you need to start to separate it line by line."

"Oh, kind of like tailoring?" I asked, having watched Rarity and Coco way to much and thinking the Code as a type of silk.

Carefully I split each line of the code one at a time. A total of sixty two lines of code now floated before me. "Now, the hard part. Conversion. This is similar to how people become Admins, but easier. Each line now, you must take into your being one at a time, let it flow into your code and drown in it, become consumed by it, and then, once you sense it is no longer simple code, but code of an Admin, release it."

"Um...that makes no sense but okay." I said as a Spider appeared on my wrist and started taking in one line of code at a time carefully.

"And they say I think too literal." Alex said, the spider taking in the line of code into me. There was a moment of intense pressure as it went into my skin, into my code. It was strange, code that didn't belong there now present, like… a boat in a calm sea. I was the sea, and this code began to sail across it. Following as what Alex said to do, I forced the waters, my code, to thrash around, tossing and turning the foren code around, finally, sinking into the ocean that was my code. It tried to resurface, but I dragged it down, further and further down as it tried to surface. Once I had dragged it to the bottom, I held it there, where with time I felt it begin to change. Shifting from the code of that blade, to code that felt like an Admin pulsating inside me. It's power grew and it felt like there was the faint presence of an Admin within my code. I now let go, letting it resurface as it now began to flow out of me. Compared to the other code it came from, it now was radiating raw power, dim, faint raw Admin power.

“Well...that was...certainly an interesting feeling.” I said while looking over the knife, seeing if it changed at all besides the raw power.

"You'll need to convert each line before there is any real results." Alex said.

“Alright…” I nodded while taking another strand and doing the same thing another sixty times...this is gonna take a while.

It took about two hours, and with the last one for Alex had me fit them all back together. Once that was done I let it all flow back into the knife like with the coin, and when it was done the knife gave off the faint presence of an Admin, just like the coin. "Now, funnel power into it." Alex said.

“Um...sure.” I said while grabbing the hilt and slowly funneling power into it, not wanting to go overboard since this was the first attempt. “How much power did you want put into it?”

"Start at one percent, and go up one percent til it begins to vibrate violently." I did so, reaching twenty percent, the knife now a claymore of sorts now glowing with power. It also began to violently vibrate now. "Twenty percent of your power. Not bad for a first time attempt."

"Well then…" I said honestly. "This is something…" I said while lightly swinging the weapon to feel it's weight and power.

It didn't have much weight to it, and power wise would definitely pack a punch. Cutting the power it returned to normal as I placed it away.

"That is the basics." Alex said, turning to the door. "I'll go retrieve my reward from Lord then."

"You have no idea how much this will help me." I said with a warm smile, turning to face him… and he's gone…"Ah...right then…" I sighed out. "So...now I can maybe help Lord and Cript with what I know."

I got up, heading off as I saw Alex walking through a portal Lord had opened up, sighing as it closed. Cript still was nowhere to be seen. "So, it went well?" Lord asked me.

“Yep.” I said while lifting the knife. “First attempt, twenty percent.” I said honestly.

"Not bad. Cript only got to ten on his first try." Lord said, examining the knife. "So, what's your take on Alex?"

“Cold, Calculating, a decent guy to be honest.” I shrugged. “He’s a Scientist who takes his job too seriously...or decided to just throw himself into the deep end after some terrible thing happened.

"I don't know all the details. Only Cript does really, but he won't talk." Lord said, placing the knife away. "Mind go fetching him? He still isn't back."

“Cause of course he is…” I muttered. “Where would Cript go after...that if I may ask?”

"Where he always goes. Top of the Freak Inc. Skyscraper in Connection City. He likes the view."

“Alright.” I nodded while opening a DTN. “I shall be right back.” I said before heading to the Freak Inc Skyscraper.

It was night time here, for some reason, the moon full and shining down, and the busy sounds of a lively city hit my ears suddenly. The view was nice from here. The city, it's borders the Forest beyond that, and a mountain in the distance. Cript was sitting on the edge of the building. The distance between and the ground made seeing people below difficult.

“Sup.” I said while sitting down next to Cript. “How you doing?”

He just sighed, not saying anything as he looked off at the view.

“You can talk to me, holding it in doesn’t really help.” I said while looking out at the view as well.

"Are you really one to talk about not holding in feelings?" Cript asked, his tone sad, but was also joking and slightly sarcastic.

“Yes actually, cause I can at least talk about shit that’s really important.” I said simply. “It’s all the tiny shit I keep bottled up at this point.”

"Either way, I never wanna see that selfish bastard ever again. Upside to being immortal, you'll outlive your backstabbers."

"What happened?" I asked curiously. "Cause the only backstabber that involved you is kind of dead." I said, thinking back to the person who took away Cript's th.Death

"... She won't ever wake up again, because of him." Cript said, at first that confused me, until I remembered… the girl in the cage.

“How did he do that?” I asked curiously.

"I don't know. Spent close to sixty thousand years in a time bubble, trying to reverse it. Nothing. No progress, not even a hint as to what he did."

“Everything in Existence is made of Code right?” I asked curiously. “Cause if that’s true...I might be able to figure something out.”

"Ben, I've tried everything. Besides, Autumn… Autumn isn't, wasn't like us. She was… different, unique. Not from this existence."

“Like you?” I asked honestly. “I mean...seeing Alex, and having more talk about Autumn, which I finally have a name for, it kind of started to piece together, especially from some of the other tidbits I’ve learned over the years.”

"... Vincent made me, this body, to be his ultimate weapon. What I was born, was, to him, a happy accident. Course, the me born here and the me born there shared a strong moral compass. But, in the end, it still should have been Autumn."

“Either way, I know there is a way to bring her back.” I said honestly. “There’s always a way.”

"Even if their was, it wouldn't be her, it would be… the her that body was born into. The Autumn I knew is gone Ben. Simple as that."

“Well...looks like it’s time to move on.” I said honestly. “I know that sounds a bit harsh, but would she, the Autumn you knew, want you to still be sulking about her after god knows how long?”

"I know she wouldn't. She just up and left us. Not even a goodbye. I just… wanted to know why. Why did she leave?"

“Sometimes we’re not lucky to know why some shit happens.” I shrugged. “Even if we try to look for the answers...we both know that no matter how hard you search, some answers can’t be found.” I said softly.

"I know… I just hope that, wherever she is in her true home, she's happy."

“I’m sure she is, and I have a feeling she’s trying to find that Spark to come back and tell you what happened.” I said honestly. “Everything will be alright.” I said as I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Ten years is a long time to try to find a spark." Cript said, standing up. "Well, guess we best finish those weapons of yours."

“Yep, especially when I managed to make my first weapon at twenty percent.” I said with a smile.

"Not bad." Cript said, helping me up.