Code Vein: Lost In The Shadows

Dried Up Trenches

Following Ayn's request, Louis and Yakumo accompanied him to the Area H-14: Dried-up Trenches is a section of the seafloor brought violently to the surface when the land changed in the Great Collapse. A variety of what was once vivid coral lies dry and exposed to the air, and ships that once floated on tranquil waters are utterly still, a portrait of tragedy.

Louis looked around his surroundings, seeing how much this place has changed. "This place has changed completely too."

Yakumo stopped walking when he heard Louis talking. "Yeah... It seems everything changed since the great collapse. The only thing that stayed the same is our appearance."

Louis stopped behind Yakumo, directing his gaze towards him. Then his eyes focused on the landscape, seeing how the great collapse affected the earth. Ayn like always was a little distracted, his eyes wandered here and there, analyzing everything.

Yakumo started walking once again: "Come on. We won't find the source by reminiscing."

Louis already knew that standing still still reminiscing won't help them in any way so, he started walking, being followed by Ayn. They walked slowly, with Yakumo as their lead, but a sudden voice attracted Yakumo's attention.

"It's my fault..."

He stopped abruptly, looking behind him: "You say something, Louis?"

Louis and Ayn stopped walking at the same time, Ayn's gaze fell on Louis, while he looked at Yakumo.

"No."

Louis didn't say anything, then why did Yakumo heard someone talking with the same voice as his comrade?

"Why didn't I..." There it was again, the voice of Louis.

Feeling shocked by the sudden voice, Louis looked behind him, seeing a vestige lying on the ground. "Is this...is this really my...?" He turned around abruptly, gazing at Ayn who was standing behind him.

Ayn nodded and crouched down near the vestige, he was going to pick it up and see the memories within the vestige, but he heard the voice of Rathion.

"Don't touch it, he doesn't need to see."

"Why?" Ayn asked, making Yakumo and Louis look at each other.

Those two didn't heard the voice of Rathion so, hearing Ayn talking to himself was weird in their point of view.

"Those memories are to painful for him to bare. I don't want to see sadness in his beautiful red eyes."

Ayn felt the same way, even so, he knew that Louis wanted to know what's inside that vestige. That's why Ayn couldn't comply with Rathion, he grabbed the vestige, then he slowly stands up with difficulty.

Like before his arm glows with a blue light, but this time everything got covered by a white light, blinding the three revenants. When the light dissipated, the three revenants found themselves standing inside the base, looking at Yakumo talking with Louis.

"You can't let him continue like this, we need to stop him!" Yakumo grabbed Louis by the shoulders, he was desperate.

"What do you want me to do! We can't stop, not when we are this close in discovering the truth." Louis avoided looking at Yakumo in the eyes.

"His life is more important, I thought you wanted to find a way to save him." Yakumo squeezed Louis's shoulders, he couldn't control his anger.

"I wanted to...!" Louis voice broke. "He told me it was futile to continue looking for a way to save him, he wanted me to stop!"

Yakumo let go of Louis and apologized, he thought that his comrade was going to throw away the life of their friend, just to find the source of the Bloodsprings. Feeling distressed by everything, he kicked a chair to vent his anger.