“Thank you, Albert, as always, and sorry for taking the whole floor, we just…” Stopping at the door, Albert turned around, interrupting her. "Please do not worry, it is part of our job to accommodate you." Once they'd all stepped onto the street, his voice was heard again. "I bid you farewell, in the hope to see you again," he bowed as the doors closed before him.

"He looked mad, don't you think?" Zach asked, looking back nervously. "It can't be helped," Mag sighed helplessly. Slava didn't really pay attention. He was still thinking about Serena. As one of the pillars of Henosis, what could've been worth her leaving? What deal did she make?

"You were right, it was delicious." Blinking, his eyes crossed Sasha's. She was walking in front of him next to the kids, her eyes dashing around, sometimes lingering on their surroundings. She'd just smiled at the kids, before looking back. "Why did you do that?" She asked, seemingly still upset about his previous actions.

"Are we really going to do this now?" He sighed, looking away. "Yeah now! What the fuck was that?" She turned to face him, clearly upset. "What do you mean?" She stopped dead in her tracks, turning around to face him. "What do you mean, what do I mean? You know exactly what you did! We get shown hospitality and you… never mind." She probably realized that it was pointless. No matter how much she rebuked him, he wouldn't regret his decision. He always thought things through. If he did something, he had a reason. He wouldn't go back on his words.

They walked a few more blocks before Mag broke the silence. "Here's where we part ways." Halting their stroll, she pointed to the side. "We need to go back to work." Following her finger, some text flashed in front of his eyes.

[Awakening Development Institute]

[An establishment of advanced learning specialized in sparking and developing awakenings.]

[More information available…]

His eyes widened. He'd been thinking about it, this place should be almost a century old. If he followed the timeline, there was Tsaritsa, then about a decade for the first Awakened to show themselves in the Union. That would mean that they'd secretly appeared at around the same time in America. Assuming The Prophet was one of them, alongside Arissa Expance, using her disappearance as a trigger, that would mean one to two decades… If her disappearance was the trigger, Henosis would've been formed about 60 to 80 years ago, which meant they'd had time to have children. If so, then where were they? School. People weren't born with Sigils, they awakened. But as far as he knew, awakening wasn't easy. He'd spent years working on his theories, so how hard would it be for random people? There was no way everyone succeeded, so where were the ones who failed?

"Hello? Earth to Slava?" In front of him stood a familiar Sasha, an annoyed look on her face. He looked at her, dazed. "Jesus, you're helpless, what's wrong with you today?" She sighed, her expression sinking slightly. "You can ask again, he'll listen now," she said aggressively, grabbing his shoulder.

"Ah… yes… I was just wondering… Uhm." Zach looked down, his arm reaching for the back of his neck. "Could I call you by your nickname?" His eyes shifted upwards, briefly meeting his before he averted them once more. "I mean… I just thought that… I never met anyone from my… I mean I just thought we could be friends…" This shocked Slava. He hadn't expected this, it was hard to remember that these guys were still young. Not to mention that their lives were probably a mess. He'd heard of AmricanX and Honored. A literal boot camp for learning, one of the government's experiments to "educate the youth". Wait… he could feel the pieces coming together in his mind.

It wasn't the only thing he could feel, Sasha's grip seemed to intensify with time. It seemed like he was taking too long. His behavior was definitely awkward. But he didn't hate it. The first person to ask him about it. To think it would be someone so young. His first Russian friend… it didn't sound so bad.

"Sure," he smiled, shocking everyone around him. Even Sasha looked out of it. He rarely smiled and when he did, it only was to those close to him. Sasha's expression was no longer readable, she looked more confused than anything.

"Ah. It was really nice to meet you, but we have to go now." Being the first to wake from her stupor, Mag's eyes twitched, and she turned around, dragging a still-stupefied Zach with her. "Let's meet again soon!" She screamed, glancing back through the crowd as Zach woke up he also screamed, his voice full of excitement, "yeah, see you soon! Slava! Sasha!" Like this, they were left to their own devices in a bustling street, in a foreign place.

"Now that we're alone, can't you tell me what the fuck is going on?" Should he tell her? He had a bad premonition. He really didn't like this place, too much unknown, too much to investigate. He didn't want to spend hours browsing the network when he had a better option.

"We should leave," he finally said, gazing toward the basilica. "What are you talking about?" She asked, even more confused. "I mean, I don't like this place, we should leave." He said, turning to face her. "It smells fishy, we need more info." She stopped for a second, a handful of expressions flashing on her face. She was probably talking to her. She soon grabbed her head, gritting her teeth. "Why? Everything is so…" Slava didn't let her finish. "Perfect?" He interjected. "Exactly, and that's the problem." A long silence ensued where both of them just stood there, staring at each other.

"So, what do you propose?" Sasha asked coldly. Arissa seemed smart, she might be only a fragment of the original, but she sure knew how to rile Sasha up. He couldn't help but smirk. "We go see Serena." Slava got ready to receive a barrage of questions, but it never came. "Alright." Wait, what? What did Arissa tell her? It seemed like he underestimated her. "Shut up!" She suddenly exclaimed. "Sorry, she's being noisy, lead the way." Or maybe not. "What are you waiting for? You got the key, right?"

After that, they didn't stop for even a moment. On their way, they saw many things. Gold and White suited up patrols, the combat insignia inscribed on their arms. Vivid lights, floating houses, ice bridges, columns of flames… and as they got further away from the center, the crowds became thinner, the houses became smaller and the streets rougher. At this point, the network seemed weak, not that it mattered, there was barely anything to show. He could feel the glares converging on them as they walked.

Eventually, they reached what looked like a gate carved into the wall, circuit-like patterns covering its surface. As they approached it, Slava's suit covered his face and he turned around.

"Who are you?" Beyond Sasha, leading a group of people, stood a scrawny old man. He was explicitly staring at him, seemingly ignoring Sasha completely. She turned, her eyes dancing between them before they finally landed on Slava. A smirk formed on her face and she crossed her arms, leaning on the scythe that materialized behind her. "You're not from here, are you?" Slava sighed. He sometimes failed to understand her. He'd guessed what they were, as soon as he saw them. No domain or sigil, minimal living conditions. He had left them alone because they were of no threat to them, but this was getting annoying. At this rate, they wouldn't be able to cross. Maybe he should scare them a bit. His back suddenly shone, and numerous chains sprang from it. He inspected one of them. It had been a while since he'd worked on his research. His theories were far from perfect, he had much to work on. There were still so many fluctuating variables. Oh well, this wasn't the time for this. He was about to move his chains when…

"Please take us with you!" Slightly shifting his gaze, he saw the old man groveling on the ground, the people around him trying to forcefully lift him to no avail. "You're from the outside, aren't you, the one that came here a few days ago?" Glancing at the now confused Sasha, his vision was filled with flickering lines of text.

[Individual: Alexandra Expanse]

[Spatial Manipulator: Has a certain influence over the fabric of space.]

So her information was already sold. That's why they were acting this way. His information was probably blank. "There is nothing for us here, please lead us outside or at least take our youngsters." Whispers spread around them. "Elder!" "Stop this, we are nothing to them." "This is useless." As he saw Sasha's expression twist into bewilderment, he sighed.

"How dumb do you think I am? Get lost before I get mad." He waved at Sasha. "Come on Sasha, let's go," she absentmindedly followed his instructions, her eyes still in a daze. They both walked toward the gate and as they did, it began to shine.

"Quick, this is our chance, get your hands on him! He can't kill us! Get the key!" The old man's voice resonated like a war cry. The ones who'd just watched him grovel under their feet, exploded in anger, rushing in Slava's and Sasha's direction.

"You might be right about that, but I don't need to kill you, there are things far worse than death." In the next instant, his chains spread, wrapping themselves around most of them making the other ones halt their advance. "Did you know that the human body has a clock? An expiration date, a number of operations it can go through before it starts to break down." He brought one of them in front of him. His face was stricken with fear, and soon he began to scream. "What would happen if those operations got accelerated?" The man's somewhat plump body began to slowly change. His skin getting dry, his limbs getting thinner, and bags forming under his eyes.

"Alright, Sasha stop!" Sasha finally screamed. Most of the people around were frozen, not because of Slava, but out of fear for him. "Let's go!" She bit her lip, turning around, dragging him, a look of worry on her face. Following her words, Slava released his captives, some of them remained frozen, while the others started screaming. The one Slava had messed with simply ran, tripping a few times on his way. The old man just watched as their bodies sunk into the gate, his jaw almost reaching the ground. These weren't ordinary Awakened, they were on par with the leaders.