"Again?" were the first words that left Nox's mouth the moment his eyes opened and realized he was back in the medbay.

Everything that happened during the training was a blur, but his brain slowly arranged the events for him.

He remembered almost being killed by the red-haired kid and then finally being able to actively control his SE.

He also remembered being determined to thank the kid… by returning the favor of smashing his skull in.

"Yo," Devon's voice came from his left, causing him to turn, "you good?"

He was sitting on a chair beside Nox's bed as he looked at him.

It was hidden, but Nox could see a bit of worry in Devon's eyes, which was a bit strange for someone like him.

But he simply responded, "yeah, but my head's killing me."

"Yeah," Devon nodded, "you got wrecked pretty bad, man."

Nox just chuckled and placed a hand on his head, only to realize that it was still bandaged, though he didn't feel pain from touching it.

Zzzz!

A sound from the other end of his bed caused him to turn again, and this time, he was faced with a sleeping Cass.

He was still in his white uniform and gripped a book on Solar Resonance tightly in his hands.

"Right," Devon let out, "he's also here. Dude refused to leave till you woke up."

Well, that was also the case for him but he wasn't the focus for now.

"Thanks," Nox muttered, a bit embarrassed as he said it.

He definitely wasn't used to people worrying about him, but even he had to admit, this felt nice.

"Man, don't get all mushy on me," Devon said, waving a hand as if physically batting away the gratitude but there was the undeniable blush on his face.

He abruptly stood up and said, "I'mma go get the nurse real quick."

Without waiting for Nox's confirmation, he quickly left, leaving the two behind.

Devon couldn't risk the two finding out that he almost cried when he thought his friend had died right before him.

A moment after he left, someone else suddenly walked in.

"How're you feeling?" The person asked as he stood over Nox's bed, looking directly at him.

Nox frowned, his current situation was also part of her fault, after all, no teacher would allow a spar go that far.

But then again, he couldn't blame her...well, not entirely anyway, during their trip to the city, she had clearly told him that joining the academy was basically becoming a cadet in the military.

This meant that he was supposed to be strong enough to handle anything they decided to throw at him.

But that didn't mean he wasn't pissed. If he hadn't gained control of his SE at the past minute, his head would've been a decoration on the combat room's floor.

"I'm pretty sure you know the answer to that already," Nox replied to Astra, who stood over him.

"Good," she muttered, before a familiar object appeared in her hand and she handed it to him.

Nox took the object before sitting up straight on his bed, it was the cylinderical metal that was seemingly useless during the start of the battle.

"You dropped it," Astra explained.

'That's not how you apologize, idiot," the voices in her head said, but she refused to acknowledge them right now.

"Thanks," Nox muttered as he flipped the solar tech around, he then turned to Astra, fully expecting her to leave, but she didn't.

"That was the first time someone successfully activated that solar tech," she suddenly said, pointing to the weapon in hand.

"Hmm?" He let out, looking looking back down at the Solar tech in his hand.

"It was considered a dud for a long while," she continued, "just a stupidly ambitious dream of its creator."

"Why's that?" Nox asked, a bit confused, since the tech had worked just fine in his hand.

"Because the Creator wanted to create multiple solar tech in just one," Astra explained, "according to him, it was supposed to be the perfect solar tech, one that could become anything the weilder needed."

He had felt it, even now as his SE was still within, the solar tech didn't seem to have one use, all it was asking him was what he wanted it to be.

That was how he created the staff during the spar, he just responded to that question with his SE and the weapon had become exactly what he needed.

"Then why was it considered a dud, if it works?" He asked even more confused, wasn't this the ideal weapon for any solar knight? One that became anything the user needed?

"Well, because it didn't," Astra explained, "after its completion, various Solar Knights tried activating it and their SE always ran out without it doing anything."

That explained why he seemed to have been pouring his SE into an endless abyss with no results.

It wasn't that the weapon was a dud, it was just that it needed an insanely huge amount of SE to be activated.

But still, if they thought it was a dud,

"Then why was it amongst the other solar tech meant for the students to choose?"

"The blind bat's orders," Astra said with a shrug.

"I see," Nox nodded in understanding.

Astra then proceeded to to tap her belt and a spherical orb floated from it, "but the blacksmith has long since perfected his craft."

The orb started taking multiple shapes, from rings to spears and they even split into multiple orbs, each taking a different form.

"Instead of trying to make the SE within take different shapes as he did with that," she explained pointing to the Solar tech in Nox's hand, "he used a different approach, this time, morphing the metal instead, as with Aurora here."

Nox nodded, though he hadn't asked for a history class on his solar tech, the information turned out pretty useful, besides, he suspected that this was the closest to an apology he would get from her.

So he silently took what he got.

"You name your solar techs?" He suddenly asked.

"Yes," Astra nodded, "makes it feel less like I'm swinging around a lump of metal,"

"I see," he muttered, looking down at the metal cylinder in his hands.

Nox exhaled slowly. Naming it felt a bit strange, especially now that he had realized they didn't have actual emotions, just his SE

He wasn't exactly sentimental with objects, but if even Astra Dawn, an ascended rank solar knight, named hers, then maybe it wasn't such a weird idea after all.

And considering this thing had literally kept him from becoming floor decoration…

"I should… give it a name too," he whispered.

Astra nodded silently. She watched as Nox thought for a long while about what to call the Solar tech before speaking up,

"Morphos."

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