Days passed before he was finally able to leave the field of flowers and wake up outside his mind. Everything was very dark, but there was a faint source of light beside him. Keeping his gaze upward, he recognized the ceiling instantly—it was his room in Cross Prison, as he had decided to call it, and the light beside him was that small lamp.

  He felt a heavy pressure on his nose that made it hard to breathe properly. There was something on his face that felt uncomfortable. Weakly, he brought his hand to his mouth and removed the strange lightweight glass surgical mask, which was connected by a small tube to a black container.

  Beside his bed were several odd medical tools he had never seen on his planet; some of them were stained with crimson blood.

  “Ugh… Everything hurts.”

  “That’s normal. After the beating Manto gave you…,” Kaulai replied, resting while seated at the foot of the bed.

  “Damn. You scared me. I didn’t even realize you were here.”

  “Hm… I don’t see you looking scared,” he replied, staring straight at Nova.

  “It’s just an expression. It doesn’t matter anymore. What happened to me after I killed Manto?”

  “That’s the first thing you care about? Wow…,” he said, raising his nonexistent eyebrows. “Well, I brought you here to save your life. You were in critical condition when we arrived. You already had one foot in the grave, honestly. But it was easy for me to heal your wounds since I already know your species’ biology. It’s similar to mine—at least on the inside.”

  “I see,” Nova said, closing his eye. “I thought I was really dead this time.”

  “Well, you’re not. No one expected you to be able to use Sephiroth while being that weak. Many thought you would explode when… that… happened.”

  “Yeah, that…” Nova said, sitting up on the bed. He mentally set aside the word ‘Sephiroth’ as something important to revisit later, since he didn’t fully understand it. “It was dangerous, but I was able to defeat Manto thanks to it.”

  “You were formidable. Manto didn’t expect you to be able to stand up to him. He trusted what he was told about you, and because of that, he lost.”

  “If I hadn’t kept that knife at the last moment, he would’ve torn my face off. In the end, it was all just luck.”

  Kaulai smiled calmly. With a gentle gesture of his four-fingered hand, he said:

  “Well, part of a warrior’s skill lies in luck. A warrior without luck is a dead warrior.”

  “Huh. Some luck I have. If I were lucky, I wouldn’t be here, talking to an alien.”

  “From my point of view, you’re the alien. What’s more, you’re just a child—far too young to even be trying to survive.”

  “Well, this child has been surviving on his own until now. I need to find a way out of here. I need to return home.”

  “Hm… good luck with that.”

  Nova frowned, remembering what they had discussed before the battle.

  “Yeah. I guess… Now I need you to tell me about the universe, the galaxies, my planet. If what you’re saying is true, then I—”

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  “It’s true that I said that, but…” He stopped, as if refusing to answer, then sighed when he saw Nova’s determined gaze.

  Shaking his head, he resigned himself.

  “Alright, where do I start?” Kaulai thought aloud, rubbing his forehead with two fingers. “First of all, if you’re thinking of escaping on a ship, that won’t work. I mentioned before that your galaxy—the Umbra Trail—is protected by Eden, a singularity that emerged millions of years ago after a legendary battle between two unknown cosmic beings. My grandfather used to tell me that battle shook the entire universe, though I think that part might be a bit exaggerated. In any case, the singularity envelops your entire galaxy, preventing organic and inorganic beings from crossing the threshold.”

  Nova reflected briefly before interrupting with his first question.

  “What would happen to a person who crosses the threshold?”

  “They’re disintegrated—erased from existence. It’s said that even the soul disappears after attempting to cross. It’s not like Eden is something you can see, either. Think of it as a massive layer of cosmic radiation that boils your body and makes your veins explode. It’s more or less the same thing, but multiplied by infinity.”

  “That’s a very ridiculous multiplication.”

  “That’s how ridiculous the Umbra Trail is, kid. The only viable way to reach that galaxy without being wiped from the face of the universe is through Gates. And in case you don’t know what those are, Gates are space-time ruptures that connect two points in the universe with an excess of Sephiroth in the environment—in other words, two energetic points in the universe become linked.”

  Nodding as he began to grasp what he was learning, Nova recalled everything he knew about Dimensional Portals. It was true that they were space-time ruptures generated by excess energy at a single point, but there was more to study about the phenomenon. Supposedly, the greatest minds on Terra had theories related to it.

  ‘It only took them a thousand years to figure it out,’ he thought with an ironic smile, which he chose to hide from Kaulai.

  “Right now, we’re about two hundred thousand light-years away from the Umbra Trail, in the Phareon Galaxy. This galaxy is known for its battle spectacles between different species. And well, you’ve already met the largest and most influential planet in this cluster of stars—Cypher.”

  ‘There’s so much I don’t know… My God, what did I get myself into?’ Nova thought, slightly overwhelmed by the information.

  Leaning forward, resting his elbow on his thigh, he asked:

  “Going back to the reason Eden exists— is it really real?”

  “There are records of it in the Library of the Azazel Galaxy, but I never had the chance to go there. So what I’m telling you now is what I learned throughout my travels before reaching this planet.”

  “Oh, man…” Nova said, resting his elbows on his knees. “It’s too much… Though, honestly, what surprises me more is talking to you.”

  Kaulai looked curious.

  “And why is that? Didn’t you just discover that you’re a tiny particle in the universe?”

  “It’s just that every Aberration that enters Terra through Dimensional Portals gets killed by us. My whole life, I thought all Aberrations were the same, and that there was no problem killing them all. I mean, they’re the ones who attack first…”

  Crossing his arms, Kaulai shook his head in disappointment.

  “Let me ask you something.”

  “Hm?”

  “Did you ever try to understand the language of any species that invaded your planet?”

  “Uh…” Nova rubbed his chin and frowned. “No, not really. And even if we had tried, they only wanted to kill us.”

  Kaulai let out a heavy sigh.

  “Idiots,” he muttered.

  Exasperated, he stood up from his seat and walked toward the door. He stopped for a moment to leave a few final words.

  “I’m leaving. From now on, the food room is open. Eat as much as you want. The pantry is restocked every seven days on the thirty-hour timer. Don’t forget to exercise. Later, I’ll see if I can bring you something so you don’t go insane from boredom. It’s happened before—surprisingly.”

  “Okay…? Bye.”

  Kaulai disappeared as the sound of the heavy door echoed twice. Nova was left alone after that, staring into nothingness, wondering whether he should attack the alien again to escape…

  In the end, he didn’t.

  He didn’t want to get kicked around and humiliated again.