The next day...
Sterling clipped a stand onto to his body. Then, Charles placed the super-laptop onto that stand. Then, he put on the meta glasses. While connecting the two through a wireless connection, Sterling's fingers through the keyboard.
"Did you save the information collected on this?" He inquired.
"Yeah, It's in safe place." Charles replied.
Sterling nodded, adjusting his glasses while Charles hooked him up with more equipment. After a few minutes, Charles stepped back and dusted off his hats.
"All done."
Sterling raised a brow, looking away from the screen. "You're done?"
"Yeah." Charles put on his half-top hat. "You're all ready to go."
Sterling grinned and began walking out of the tent.
"Wait!" Charles shouted, stopping him.
Sterling looked back. "Yes? Is there something I'm forgetting?"
Charles pulled out his cigar. "Don't forget to take an escort. It's dangerous around here."
"Don't worry. I know someone." Sterling stepped out as Charles lit his cigar.
'Good luck, sir…this could be monumental for chaos theory.'
He smirked and spun around, preparing to do other work while Sterling was gone.
***
Outside the tent, a certain silver-haired, blue-eyed lieutenant general was waiting to escort the professor. Sterling smirked as he saw Arthur standing beside Maple with the generals to the right of him.
"Well, Arthur? What are you waiting for? Let's get going." Sterling urged.
"Of course, lead the way." Arthur replied, following.
"Before you go…" Lancelot called out.
The two spun their heads as Lancelot said something to them.
"Don't go near the abyss. It's the order of the supreme commander." He told with a gentle smile.
"If you do then, we'll be the ones in trouble." David added.
Sterling scoffed, waving them off. "Don't be so scared. Nothing will happen as long as I with Arthur."
"Right…" Arthur muttered.
"Come on, now let's go."
"Good luck." Maple waved.
"Thanks." Arthur waved back.
Eventually, the lieutenant general and professor made it to the edge of the barrier. Sterling smirked and stepped forward, passing the barrier. Arthur heaved a sigh and stepped outside the barrier also. Instantly, an unease rose in him. Those ghosts still lingered in the abyss and could possess him…
"Sir, we're not going near the abyss, are we…?" He questioned, warily.
Sterling while typing on the super-laptop, replied in a calm manner.
"We'll go if we need to but for now…let's stay here."
Arthur sighed, relief washing over him as he gripped his katana. He stood beside Sterling as he typed on the super-laptop with precision. Arthur peeked over the professor's shoulder, seeing lines of code dropping from top to bottom as sterling opened multiple tabs at once, inputting new information.
After a few minutes, he sighed, putting his hands on his hips.
"All done."
Arthur leaned in. "What did you do?"
"What I did? Oh, no I just changed the setting to detect the nearby energy using my meta glasses." Sterling waved it off, strolling forward.
"Right…so, what is it picking up?"
"The frequency of chaos is stronger than what we get back on the continent. It'll take a while to get the average frequency."
"Is that everything that it's picking up…?" Arthur let go of his katana.
"Well…" Sterling stopped, turning to face Arthur. "We detected something else long ago."
Arthur's brows furrowed. "What is it?"
"Do you know the strange energy that was found near volcano Abaddon years ago?"
"Yes…It's a new type of energy which we haven't unraveled even since then."
"Well…traces of that energy are present on this continent."
Arthur froze – his arms dropping slightly. A long but necessary silence stretched long between student and teacher until Arthur's lips finally parted.
"Are you for real?"
"I would never lie about a discovery, Arthur." Sterling replied.
"Then…when did you find this?"
"…Months ago…Even before the rainforest." Sterling spun around, strolling forward.
"Then, why didn't you tell me?" Arthur trailed the professor.
"Simple. It was extremely sensitive at the time."
"What?"
"You of all people should know that finding a new type of energy isn't something uncommon. As seen by the telescopes on Stratos academy, after a certain period of time, all energy will revert to their true and original form."
"Chaos…" Arthur whispered, under his breath.
"Exactly, there could be millions, billions of types of energies in the universe yet we only know a fraction of a fraction. Or, maybe not, maybe we have discovered all that there is to. Maybe the universe is an illusion of light, a creation of an all-powerful god, a repeating cycle or something else. But we wouldn't know a fraction of its true nature…the only thing we can keep doing is flipping the pages in this infinite book of knowledge until we destroy ourselves."
Arthur frowned. "You're going a bit off topic."
Sterling laughed. "That's what happens when you study Chaos theory. You were fascinated by it when you were still a student there but now, it seems you've forgotten most of it."
Then, Sterling stopped and so, did Arthur.
"Uh…why did you stop, sir?"
Sterling clicked his tongue. "We're not getting enough frequencies here. It's destabilizing the chart. We need to move closer to the abyss."
A chill ran down Arthur's spine, remembering what lay there in the deep darkness.
"Maybe we shouldn't…?" Arthur recommended.
Sterling didn't listen as he headed back, towards the abyss.
"Arthur…if the frequencies on this chaos chart stabilize then, I will understand this abyss. This will be a huge breaking point in chaos theory. Do you know for how long we have trying to complete this theory? Since, the modern age started."
"But still…" Arthur reached his hand out as they made it near the barrier.
As Sterling slowly moved towards the abyss, Arthur's unease rose even more.
'I have a bad – bad feeling about this…'
"Please wait, professor! I need to ask the supreme commander something!" He shouted
Sterling stopped in his tracks. He spun around and saw a glimpse of Arthur entering the barrier. He clicked his tongue and groaned.
'Quickly…the chart is stabilizing.'