Lia finally releases the awestruck Myles from her embrace and slowly rises from the bed.
The mattress dips beneath her weight before settling again. Bare feet touch the floor soundlessly as she turns towards the jagged hole smashed through the wall.
Myles follows her gaze nervously.
Then the rubble begins to shake.
Tiny vibrations at first.
Pebbles rattle across the floor.
Then, suddenly, every broken fragment lifts into the air.
Myles stiffens.
The shattered pieces move like they are being pulled by invisible threads, sliding back into place with unnatural precision. Stone reconnects seamlessly. Cracks seal shut. Dust folds back into the wall itself.
Within seconds, the damage is gone.
The wall stands pristine once more, as though it had never been touched.
Myles gulps.
Lia sighs softly and presses two fingers against her forehead in concentration. Violet light pulses faintly beneath her skin.
Then the room changes.
Lines of glowing purple energy spread across the walls like flowing circuitry, wrapping around the ceiling and floor in slow-moving streams of light. The air hums quietly afterwards, dense and enclosed.
"There," Lia says airily. "Now we have privacy."
That sentence alone makes Myles even more nervous.
Almost instinctively, he pulls the blanket higher over his bandage-covered body, shielding himself beneath the fabric like it might somehow protect him from whatever terrifyingly beautiful thing is currently crawling towards him.
Lia giggles.
The sound is soft.
Dangerously soft.
She slowly climbs onto the bed.
Every movement is deliberate.
Measured.
The mattress sinks beneath her knees as she inches closer and closer to him.
Myles' heart begins hammering violently against his ribs.
Too fast.
Far too fast.
Flustered, terrified, and painfully aware of how close she is, he stammers,
"Wh… wh… what a-are y-you g-going t-to do?"
He gulps hard after forcing the words out.
Lia giggles again.
Then she leans forward.
For a split second, Myles is absolutely certain she is about to kiss him.
His entire body locks up.
Eyes squeezed shut, he braces himself in complete surrender.
But instead of lips meeting his—
their foreheads touch gently.
Warm.
Soft.
Myles exhales a strange mixture of relief and disappointment at the exact same time.
Lia laughs quietly beneath her breath.
Then a faint purple light blossoms between their heads.
The glow spreads rapidly across his vision.
The room disappears.
Myles' eyes snap open.
A familiar ceiling stares back at him.
White paint.
Tiny crack near the corner.
His bedroom.
The same curtains.
The same alarm clock.
The same dim orange streetlight leaking through the window.
He sits upright instantly.
"...Guess it was a dream after all," he mutters quietly, disappointment weighing down his voice.
His right hand drags across his face before burying itself against his forehead.
"What a crazy dream…"
The digital clock beside his bed reads 1:00 a.m.
Saturday morning.
The cold familiarity of it all feels surreal after everything he just experienced.
Still unsettled, Myles eventually forces himself into the shower.
Cold water crashes against his skin.
Normally, it clears his thoughts.
Not tonight.
Lia's violet eyes keep surfacing in his mind no matter how hard he tries to push them away.
That smile.
That voice.
The warmth of her forehead against his.
Frustration suddenly surges through him.
He slams his fist into the tiled wall.
CRACK.
A tile shatters instantly.
Fragments scatter into the drain.
Myles barely reacts.
Breaking things stopped shocking him years ago. Endless training turned strength into something ordinary long ago.
"It was just a dream," he whispers to himself.
Quiet.
Unconvincing.
Eventually, he finishes his routine and leaves for his usual jog through the neighbourhood.
The night air is cool and damp against his skin. Streetlights cast pale pools of amber across the pavement while the distant hum of the sleeping city fills the silence.
When he reaches the park, something catches his eye.
A new pathway.
Freshly built.
Smooth black pavement curves deeper into the park than he remembers.
Curious, he follows it.
The path eventually leads towards a large, brightly lit tunnel carved into the earth.
Myles smiles faintly to himself.
"They really do work fast."
He is referring to the new build-bots, autonomous construction machines that had recently become popular.
Without much thought, he jogs into the tunnel.
His footsteps echo softly.
Then—
just as he reaches the centre—
everything goes dark.
Instantly.
Violently.
The lights vanish.
The sound vanishes.
The world vanishes.
Myles screams.
But he cannot hear his own voice.
He cannot feel his body either.
No ground.
No air.
No sensation at all.
Then a familiar voice slips into the darkness.
Soft.
Calm.
"That must be it."
Lia.
Suddenly the world snaps back together.
Myles finds himself sitting opposite her once again inside the purple-lit room.
The glowing lines still crawl faintly across the walls like streams of liquid amethyst.
He stares at her.
Relieved.
Shaken.
Completely rattled.
Lia watches him carefully.
"There is more you need to see."
Then she leans forward again.
This time, Myles keeps his eyes open.
He studies her face properly now.
Her smooth dark skin glowing beneath the purple light.
The softness hidden beneath her strength.
The way her eyes seem almost unreal up close.
Their foreheads touch once more.
The light returns.
But this time—
something is wrong.
Myles cannot move.
He is not himself.
No—
he realises with horror—
he is seeing through Lia's eyes.
"Wait… does that mean…?"
Before he can finish the thought, Lia's memories swallow him whole.
The landscape is completely different from the fragmented visions he saw earlier.
Dark skies.
Ruined earth.
Smoke drifting across a battlefield stained black with ash.
Everything feels larger somehow.
And Lia—
Lia is smaller.
Younger.
She is being restrained by grotesque humanoid creatures with warped limbs and jagged mouths.
She lets out a small shriek.
The sound is tiny.
But powerful.
Black flames erupt around her instantly.
The world disappears beneath smoke.
Then something walks through it.
A figure.
Tall.
Terrifying.
Strange clothing covers his body, unfamiliar to Lia's eyes.
Crimson eyes burn through the darkness.
Black curls frame a sharp face.
Six foot two.
His mere presence sends panic through the creatures surrounding her.
He raises an arm slowly.
Spreads his fingers.
Then clenches his fist.
Every creature suddenly splits apart in sprays of blood before collapsing lifelessly onto the ground.
Silence follows immediately afterwards.
Then the man collapses too.
Lia rushes towards him without hesitation.
Despite her smaller frame, she lifts him effortlessly into her arms, carrying him the way a bride carries her groom.
Then the vision ends.
The room returns.
Purple light.
Silence.
Breathing.
Myles stares at Lia differently now.
Yet somehow his opinion of her remains exactly the same.
Perfect.
"You are the one I fell for…" Lia whispers softly, tears shimmering faintly in her eyes. Then a tiny smile forms. "Well… part of you~"
Myles is completely starstruck.
How could someone like her love someone like him?
And why?
Back then he sounded less like a person and more like a monster.
But strangely…
it does not matter.
He likes her too.
A lot.
But love?
It feels too soon for that.
They have only just met… technically.
Lia interrupts his thoughts gently.
"This part of you… I have never known." Her eyes lower briefly. "But I think I would love him too."
Then she steps away from him.
Slowly.
Reluctantly.
As she reaches the doorway, she speaks again without turning fully around.
"For as long as it takes."
Her voice sounds defeated.
Lonely.
The door closes behind her moments later.
The purple light lining the room fades away afterwards, leaving silence behind.
Myles is alone with his thoughts.
And those thoughts hit hard.
Two years.
He has been gone from home for two whole years.
His parents.
His sister. Wait, did he have a sister? The idea was there, not the memory.
How are they coping?
Do they think he is dead?
The thought knots painfully in his chest.
Myles quickly jumps out of bed and pulls on his tracksuit.
Immediately, something feels strange.
The material looks newer than he remembers.
Cleaner.
Sharper.
And despite the fact that he is now taller and significantly more muscular, it fits him perfectly.
It adjusted itself to his body.
It grew with him.
But before he can dwell on it, he notices someone standing near the doorway.
A purple-haired girl.
Slightly shorter than him.
Her eyes are closed, yet her expression somehow still appears sharp and observant.
Her tan skin looks delicate beneath the room's lighting, and her figure is undeniably voluptuous, though the stern look on her face crushes any softness her appearance might have carried.
Cute.
Intimidating.
Both at once.
She pokes him in the chest.
"We are leaving, so you need to leave the room," she says.
Her voice surprises him.
Soft.
Gentle.
Almost elegant.
Myles simply nods and starts walking towards the door.
But she suddenly grabs him.
"That will take too long."
Then—
without warning—
She throws him through the wall.
Myles bursts through solid stone.
The next thing he knows, he is falling.
Fast.
Violent wind tears past him as the massive structure above stretches endlessly into the sky. Rows upon rows of glowing windows streak past while the cliffside itself looks almost impossibly large.
Eight hundred metres.
And somehow—
Myles remains strangely calm.
His arms fold across his chest almost automatically as his brain struggles to process the absurdity of the situation.
Shock disguises itself as composure.
Above him, the purple-haired girl leaps after him.
She stretches one hand towards the cliffside and another towards him.
Instantly, every visible window vanishes.
At the same moment, a glowing vial materialises in her hand.
Myles suddenly feels himself being dragged sideways through the air towards her.
She catches him by the collar.
Their speed drops dramatically.
The fall becomes almost graceful.
Like flight. He stares at the wide, deep blackness beneath them.
Now relatively safe, the mental exhaustion finally catches up to Myles all at once.
His vision blurs.
Darkens.
Then he passes out.
"What?! No, open your eyes! You'll fall!" the girl shouts frantically.
Terrene.
Another one of Lia's sisters.
Unlike Lia and Kaelen, Terrene relies almost entirely on Criole rather than physical strength. Her body lacks their overwhelming power, but in exchange, she possesses absurd control over Criole itself, alongside an indestructible body.
Normally, making someone fly requires manipulating the Criole inside or around them.
Myles possesses an overwhelming amount of it.
But for reasons Terrene does not fully understand, she cannot directly touch his Criole unless he is conscious.
The moment he blacks out, her control collapses.
Terrene curses under her breath and immediately drops beneath him mid-fall.
If she cannot stop his descent—
Then she will cushion it herself.
Pain means very little to her anyway.
Far below them, darkness spreads endlessly.
Terrene's eyes remain closed as always.
Yet she sees more than most humans, angels, demons, or demonkin ever could.
Then she notices it.
A Criole cluster.
Her expression changes instantly.
Criole clusters normally form in abandoned regions untouched by civilisation.
Dense.
Wild.
Dangerous.
The energy itself cannot harm her, but it heightens every sensation flooding through her body until even the air feels sharp against her skin.
Terrene lets out a shriek involuntarily.
The sound pierces through the darkness.
It wakes Myles immediately.
Disoriented, he blinks rapidly.
Why have they not hit the ground yet?
They have been falling for what feels like forever.
Then he notices Terrene beneath him.
Protecting him.
Her arms wrapped tightly around him while her heart races violently against his back.
"Is she… trying to protect me?" he thinks.
The realisation makes guilt twist inside him.
Without warning, Myles gently pulls himself free from her grip.
Then pushes her away.
Terrene stares at him in complete shock as he drops into the darkness alone.
Then horror hits her.
Criole clusters attract monsters.
Not ordinary ones either.
Powerful creatures gather around them and create sub-mons, lesser monsters used to hunt and gather prey.
And Myles is falling directly into one.
Without hesitation, Terrene dives after him.
Darkness swallows everything.
Cold air howls through the abyss.
Then—
impact.
Myles lies broken at the bottom.
His body is twisted.
Ruined.
Blood spreads slowly beneath him while silence consumes the darkness around him whole.
.