Malos isn't gonna comment on the way he watches Lloyd push his pain aside, though it definitely makes his core ache to watch. He sighs, worried, but-- Hey, he can't blame Lloyd for not wanting to open the can of worms with him, can he?

He offered a distraction, so a distraction he'll give.

He reaches up to touch his core crystal as Lloyd brings it up, fingers tracing the half-diamond shape set into metal ornamentation that is only half-full, now. He can feel his ether pulsing under his fingertips, a steady beat.

"It's a core crystal," he answers. He remembers that Lloyd said he wasn't from this world-- and is pretty sure, now, that Lloyd's world doesn't have blades. "It's what blades like me have instead of a human heart. Call it... the core of my being. Everything I am? Stored right here."

Maybe not too different from exspheres, Malos thinks, now, but he doesn't want to bring it up.