“--Hayes, you there?” Salem called out.

The noon sunlight filled the previously unlit room. Salem sat on her bed, inside her locked room

“Coming in.”

“Yeah. Had to get out of the bathroom to talk to you, so be quick.”

Salem’s room was mid-size, fit with a mirror and a desk, a black bean bag chair, and a queen sized bed with red bedding.

Hayes, upon walking in sat in the bean bag chair like it was his job, and sunk into it in an uncomfortable position.

“--As you know, we’re headed out toward the Capital to inspect the testing grounds.”

Salem nodded, blankly staring at Hayes’s mouth.

“You’re much too valuable as a person to risk, so you’re staying here.”

“--As usual…” Salem replied, sounding bored out of her mind.

“Well. it’s the best course of actions, your high-ass.”

“Gck--” Salem stammered. “Where do you get off mocking your superior?”

“Is serperior your term now?”

“Yeah, I adopted it just now.” Salem replied triumphantly. Hayes’s look of sarcastic disappointment fit with a smirk set the tone of the room.

“--Though, now that you’re here. We should talk.” Salem spoke up.

“Eh?”

“Regarding Arlo...You’ve recently been acting a bit too calm, given the situation.”

Hayes’s smirk quickly left as the tone shifted to a much more serious one.

“Well, what exactly do I do? He went from Arlo to a scared kid in the span of two days. Do I tell him straight up, or try to sugarcoat it a bit longer?”

“--I’ve been wondering too.”

“I just don’t know what’s right, you know? It pisses me off.”

Hayes covered his forehead with his fist as his arm rested on his leg.

“What the hell is a soul swap, anyway?” Hayes spoke as his voice trembled. “If you were still wondering, I’m really not taking it well.”

“--I see. Neither am I.” Salem replied. “How could anyone? Arlo was essential. No denying. He taught me how to connect to Array.”

“Speaking of which, I might need you to help out with that.”

“Me--?”

“As of right now, you’re most suited. In the next two days, we’ll be taking a carriage back after our trip. Perfect opportunity to start learning ways of communication with the Gods, especially if something undesirable happens.”

“How the hell do I do that?” Salem retorted. Her confused mind showed in her body movements.

“Eh? Well how the hell did Arlo do it?”

“Shoving the lessons up my ass.”

“Sounds about right--Just, try to get him to open up. Teach some of the prayers, and things to say. Perhaps Arlo’s still in there, so he might learn it quicker.”

“Can we be certain he is?”

“--Hell if I know. I’m just giving an idea.” Hayes replied, sounding annoyed and angered.

Hayes spoke with gravel in his voice. His words felt sharp and stern, though he had a calm aura about him.

“--You’re very tense, Hayes.”

“Eh? Oh, sorry.”

“I get it, though.”

“I just don’t get why Arlo did this to us…” Hayes reluctantly said. “Him and I, we were everything to each other, as much as we denied our emotions.”

“--Did Arlo ever show even a little compassion?” Salem jokingly asked.

“Heh. Not really. In a time of war, you throw that shit away. Though, Arlo would always get oddly sentimental at the most unexpected times.”

Salem laughed, giving a calming smile to Hayes as he slowly looked up toward her.

“He actually gave me a pendant he had after the battle for Clearwick. Must’ve been some victory token, as he said it was precious to him.”

“--That’s cute.”

“Is that really the right term?”

“To me it is.”

“--Do you think you’ll be able to handle this?” Hayes asked. “You spoke to him more than anyone else here, you must’ve liked him.”

“--Well, I don’t see it as an issue that he’s a bit less outright with his pessimism, but I’ll never forget the way I felt when the guy I’ve known since before I was ten looked me in the eye like he didn’t even recognize me.”

 “It hurts me too. I’ve known him for longer than you’ve been alive…”

“--Yeah.” Salem awkwardly replied.

--

Salem and Hayes paused for a moment. Hayes stood from the bean bag, barely making it up alone.

“I’m using the bathroom.”

“Eh? You force me out, then you take it?”

“Piss. Off. You’re getting the house to yourself for two days. Do whatever you want, masturbate for all I care. Just give me the bathroom for ten minutes.”

“--Gck.” Salem swiftly replied. “Whatever.”

----

----

Closing the bathroom door, Hayes looked at himself in the mirror.

“--This is bullshit, man.” he spoke quietly.

Hayes had rushed out, hoping Salem wouldn’t notice his face.

Small drops of tears rushed down his eyes. Hayes touched his forehead with his fingers.

“What the hell, Arlo… You had to die so easily, for this…?”

“Bullshit.” Hayes said through his teeth, hitting the sink with his hand.

----

----

----

----

Evening came around quickly as ever. Porter, Hayes, Lapine, and Ezra were cooped up in a very high-tech horse carriage, as Hayes and Porter had been before.

“--They dozed off fast. Yikes” Porter spoke up.

“Eheh. Well, it’s been a long day. We should be arriving by morning tomorrow.”

“--I’ve been meaning to ask. Do you have any theories as to why the sword doesn’t work?”

Hayes looked over at Porter.

“The working theory is your soul swap. If that remains true, then the phenomenon is self explanatory. The gods’ sword works as a soul binding weapon. Arlo’s strength came directly from his soul connection to the Array gods.”

“--I see.”

“It’s something he practiced daily, even tutoring Salem on it. Now that your soul is trying to use it, it’s like a foreign entity.”

“--How can I… connect? If that’s right.”

“We’ve got Salem willing to help in the evenings. It’s not gonna help a whole lot, but the idea is to see if the sword eventually responds to you if you train.”

“--Do you think it will?”

“Most definitely. That's the mindset you gotta have.”

Slowly, Porter began drifting off into a slumber.

“Sleep, man. You’re valuable to this ordeal, so you’re gonna need to get some rest.”

“--Yeah.”

--

--

“There’s no need… to be a xx--x--x-x”

…

‘...What was that--?’

‘Could you say it again?’

As Porter slept, the black void he saw for a moment began cracking. Loud noises of shattering glass made themselves apparent.

“Are you x-x-x---x? Porter, just xxx-x-xx-x”

*SNAP*

--

--

“Huh!?” Porter snapped awake.

“Gck--! Ah!” Hayes yelled. “Shit, don’t just jolt up like that.” Hayes wiped sweat off his brow.

“We’re almost there?” Porter asked.

The view was something similar to before. Red azaleas blew in the wind like it was a flower field all over. The hot sun beat down on Porter.

What could be seen in the distance was an old looking town, something Eastern European by design.

“Yeah, getting off in a half hour.”

‘I just can’t seem to find out what the hell that was.’ Porter thought.

“Don’t look so gloomy, we need energy if we’re gonna investigate well today.” Ezra spoke up, wide awake.

Lapine had been up and awake, too. 

The glistening sun shined brightly on her A shaped tattoo on her neck, uncovered by her only wearing a shirt.

----

----

----

----

Upon having walked for almost an hour, the four had arrived to what Hayes considered to be the “Machine Testing Unit”

It’d been pretty far from town. With all the trees blocking it’s view, Porter couldn’t even see it.

“--It’s been a long time presumably since anyone’s been here, it might be overgrown or worse.” Hayes said calmly.

--

--

Upon walking in. It’d looked like a forest similar to how Hayes said it would. The vines of the first covered up stone pillars, cracking over the years of no maintenance.

What looked to be metal fortresses and small buildings were scattered all over the pathline they’d been following.

“Property of AETHER.” Some of these buildings read. Some had this written with an old brown looking stain.

Broken down parts scattered across the area, some looking rusted while some looking new.

“--It’s a little alarming.” Lapine said. “How well maintained some of this looks.”

The aura the place gave off was that of a cemetary. It was grim, not helped by the lack of any happiness on the other’s faces.

--

--

“--Awh, fucking hell…” Hayes spoke up with regrets.

Just passed a building, long trees with nooses tied to them towered over him. Some were bloody, while some still had full bodies or just pieces of rotting corpses still on them.

Hayes resisted the urge to vomit.

“--They don’t even look human…” Ezra said.

The remaining bodies had distorted proportions. Some had much bigger abdomens, bigger arms, or bigger legs than normal.

“That’s just wait Aether does to these sorry bastards. I don’t even think Salem would’ve been able to handle this.” Hayes replied.

As they further walked, rotting bodies were less scarce, along with bones. Some looked like they were crawling. Some sitting. Some even looked like they’d been moved in abnormal positions. 

The stark lack of blood on some of these corpses shocked Porter to the core.

“--What the fuck…” He muttered. His eyes looked like he’d been witnessing a tragedy. Porter had been trembling. “What the hell even happened here?”

“--The experiments of Aether. Precisely, this place dealt in sentient AI in all forms. It’s disgusting.”

Metallic, mannequin looking bodies standing upright were lined up next to some of the buildings. Some were human, others had been animals or didn’t even resemble a life form.

“Aether believed the only way to have true sentient AI was to deliberately force someone’s soul into a machine. It’d been all for the purpose of war, I know it…” Hayes said.

“How can you tell?”

“Look around you. Who in the right mind would create non-human bots built for one purpose, and put a living being in it? Cause that's exactly what Aether did.” Hayes replied with anger in his breath. 

“They ripped humanity out of every single one of these fucking bodies, and got nothing but corpses out of it with no remorse.”

Porter looked at everyone’s faces, then at the machines.

“It failed, didn’t it.”

“--Yeah, no shit.” Hayes retorted, giving  a stern tone. “You can’t experiment with someone’s soul without foreseeing repercussions. Everybody became distorted. Those machines broke their souls, and damaged them beyond recognition.”

“--Holy shit.”

“I’m willing to bet all these sorry souls had families. Some couldn’t speak, nor move, nor feel anything. And that’s the best outcome for someone like that. Nearly everyone died on sight, and what the fuck did Aether get out of torturing these people for years before running these fucking tests?”

Hayes began tearing up, hiding his eyes with his hands.

“We lost a lot of innocent people to Aethers unethical experiments all over this sad country.”

“--Did Arlo lose people he loved…?”

“Countless.”

Porter gave into a sinking feeling of regret.

‘And I’ll never remember them… they’re lost.’

“--I’m not finding any evidence of recent activity.” Ezra spoke up. 

“That might be a good sign.” Hayes replied.

“Find anything, Lapine?”

“Nah!” Lapine yelled over.

--

Porter began moving upward to search. Behind a rock, he’d found something he never thought possible.

“Uh...Mister?” It quietly called out.

It’d been a little blonde girl, with short hair and brown eyes. Her clothes looked wrinkly, but far from dirty or old.

“What the fuck? Eh, I’m sorry, are you lost…?”

“Ehehehe.” She spoke. “Can you take my hand?”

“O-Oh, sure. I’ve got a few friends behind me that can--”

“PORTER, GET THE FUCK AWAY, NOW!” Hayes screamed.

The little girl’s eyes began glowing red. Her smile grew larger on her face.

Porter walked backwards, facing the girl with immense fear and shock.

Hayes swiftly pulled out a long knife from his bag. His eyes looked horrific. His mouth trembled.

He lunged the knife toward the girl and it flew in the air at high speeds.

A roaring sound similar to the black tar creature from Aether shrieked out of the girl. The knife pierced through her entire arm.

Her arm went flying past her, landing a few feet away as it pooled blood.

Porter ran back, rushing toward Hayes.

—

What shocked porter most—

—Was the logo on the sleeve of her shirt.

What was undeniably Phoebe had the same logo as Lapine’s neck on her sleeve.

Porter’s eyes widened with fear as the creature nearly instantly healed its arm, and directed its deep crimson eyes toward the group.