Myles stares at Kaelen blankly, shock and confusion locking his expression in place as memories that do not belong to him surge violently through his mind.
Fragmented.
Vivid.
Foreign.
Images flicker behind his eyes like shattered glass caught in lightning. Cities he has never seen. Voices he does not recognise. A sky burning gold.
His breathing falters.
"Ph… Phase 2?" he stammers, his throat tightening around the words. "That… that means this is a different planet?"
Kaelen smiles.
"Yeah, duh."
Her voice flows lightly through the room, calm against the storm clawing through his head.
"What did you think this is…" She pauses dramatically before glancing towards Lia, who stands nearby with her arms folded tightly across her chest, already looking exhausted by whatever Kaelen is about to say.
Kaelen's grin widens.
" We're still on an expedition. Home is… much nicer." Her eyes soften faintly. "Though it does resemble your Earth." Her mind shifting back to a time she watched documentaries on the dreadful curse of humans.
The words settle slowly into the silence.
Myles tries to piece reality back together, but every answer only seems to create ten more questions. His thoughts feel swollen, heavy inside his skull.
Kaelen watches him carefully.
Then, with deliberate grace, she lowers herself beside him.
The movement is smooth, elegant, almost regal.
Lia stiffens instantly.
Protective.
Possessive.
The air around her sharpens.
Kaelen notices immediately. She meets Lia's gaze and gives the slightest gesture with her fingers.
Relax.
Lia's jaw tightens.
She hates it.
But she obeys.
Kaelen turns back towards Myles, folding one leg neatly over the other.
"You see, long ago… well, by human timelines…" Her voice grows quieter, slipping into something distant and reverent. "There existed a civilisation that mastered interdimensional living, or was it intergalactic or both?"
The room itself seems to still around her words.
"Whatever, what matters is they were peaceful."
A pause follows.
Heavy.
"Their origins…" Her eyes drift briefly towards Lia again.
Lia frowns immediately.
She already knows where this tale is heading.
Kaelen exhales softly.
"They were the offspring of what they called… fallen angels."
Myles blinks. "So… demons?"
Kaelen smiles faintly.
Not amused.
Just tired.
"Yes. Exactly that." One of her eyebrows twitches.
Her gaze drifts away, as though she is looking through centuries instead of walls.
"But they were nothing like the stories humans tell themselves at night. They wanted peace. Redemption." Her fingers slowly intertwine in her lap, fidgeting unconsciously. "They hoped their children would not inherit the weight of their sins."
The quiet hum of the room grows louder in Myles' ears.
"Hey, have you ever heard of the 2d, 3d, 4d and the rest thing that your kind's scientists use to theorise about? That's what they actually were, maybe around 7 or 8, I don't know." She grimaces, clearly struggling to recall.
"They made foolish decisions, you know. Playing God, and well they paid dearly," she shrugs.
"So they helped others. Across the stars, there are still those who remember that era." Her voice lowers. "They called it… the Great Concurrence," she scratches the back of her head, "Probably to make up for their meddling."
The name lands with impossible weight.
Like history itself just entered the room.
"It was an age of exchange. Of understanding. Of knowledge beyond mortality itself."
Then her tone changes.
Sharpening.
Hardening.
"But some did not see it that way."
Her hands clench.
A cold pressure ripples through the room.
"They saw them as a threat."
The words leave her teeth instead of her mouth.
"So they hunted them."
Her fists tighten further.
"Like animals."
A thin stream of blood slips between her fingers, dripping soundlessly onto the floor.
"The worst part…" Her voice trembles now, not with weakness, but fury buried beneath restraint. "They used what was given to them. Turned gifts into weapons." Her breathing grows uneven. "And the 'angels'…"
She laughs bitterly under her breath.
"They never fought back."
Lia instinctively steps forward, concern flashing across her face, but Kaelen lifts a hand slightly.
No.
She will finish this herself.
"They accepted it," she whispers.
"And they were massacred."
Silence follows.
Thick.
Oppressive.
The kind that presses against the ribs.
Myles does not know what to say.
So he says nothing.
Instead, slowly, carefully, he reaches out and takes her bleeding hand into his own.
Simple.
Wordless.
Human.
Kaelen blinks.
The tension in her fingers loosens.
Then she smiles through forming tears.
Her eyes flick briefly towards Lia, who forces a reluctant smile in return despite the jealousy simmering beneath it.
"You're so cute, lil sis," Kaelen murmurs softly.
Myles completely misses the meaning behind it, still drowning beneath the weight of everything he is hearing.
Kaelen gently slips her hand free.
"Their children could have fought," she says quietly.
A pause.
"But we chose to run."
Her voice steadies again, though traces of sorrow still linger beneath it like cracks beneath glass.
"We fled… and settled here, I mean not here here, ugh you'll see."
Myles lowers his gaze.
A strange sadness forms inside him.
Deep.
Ancient.
As though some hidden part of him understands more than it should.
Kaelen notices immediately.
She reaches over and gently lifts his chin.
"Not all hope was lost," she says softly. "I can tell you've realised your kind played a part in this."
His expression tightens.
Guilt crawls visibly across his face.
"That guilt?" she continues. "It means you care." A small smile touches her lips. "That matters."
She rises slowly to her feet and turns towards the broken wall, moonlight spilling across her figure.
"We vowed to finish what our parents started."
A glance over her shoulder.
"But we became divided."
Her tone cools.
"Some chose peace."
A beat passes.
"Others chose revenge."
Her eyes sharpen.
"And so… the Dark Core is born."
The name lingers in the air like smoke.
Heavy.
Unpleasant.
"They embrace the demon stigma completely. They dedicate themselves to erasing mortals like you from existence." She stops and looks at the sky. "Can we even still call you that?"
She places a hand over her chest.
"Some refuse to become what humans once believed us to be."
Her eyes close briefly.
A softer smile returns.
"So we build something new. Interdimensional gates. Systems meant to protect both ourselves…" Her eyes open again, settling on him. "And you."
Her hand rises.
Flames ignite above her palm.
Wild.
Beautiful.
Gold and crimson twist together like living creatures before jagged ice suddenly forms around them, locking the fire inside crystal frost without extinguishing it.
Opposites.
Perfectly balanced.
Perfectly controlled.
Then—
she vanishes.
The air snaps.
And she reappears beside him instantly.
"You," she says with a smile, "possess Criole without even realising it."
Myles recoils instinctively.
Lia reacts faster.
She immediately pulls him close against her side, glaring at Kaelen as if proximity itself is a crime.
"I… I can't do any of that," Myles says quickly, shaking his head.
Kaelen straightens and begins pacing lightly, her hands clasped behind her back.
"Then how did you survive?" she asks playfully. "How did you get here? You've seen those monsters."
She gestures casually towards Lia's chest.
A faint scar rests just beneath her collarbone.
Barely visible.
"You mean…" Myles stares at it. "Those things are dangerous to you too?"
Kaelen laughs.
At the same moment, the scar quietly vanishes as Lia heals it without effort.
"Hardly," Kaelen says. "But if they can scar us…" Her smile fades slightly. "Imagine what they would do to an ordinary mortal."
Myles frowns immediately.
"Ordinary mortal? Wait… if you can die, doesn't that still make you mortal?"
Kaelen slowly lifts into the air.
No effort.
No strain.
Gravity simply stops mattering.
She crosses her legs midair, floating comfortably above the floor.
"Do you think they stopped at killing our parents?" she asks with a smirk. "Our birth gave us life…" Her eyes gleam faintly. "But not the condition of death."
She drifts closer.
Slowly.
"You can destroy our bodies…"
Closer still.
"But not what we truly are."
Her emerald eyes shimmer with something ancient.
Something endless.
"There's only one being capable of destroying us."
Her voice lowers into a whisper.
"And he chooses not to."
She leans closer—
far too close.
Lia instantly shoves her away with visible irritation.
Kaelen spins effortlessly in the air, laughing brightly.
"You're something else, Myles! Maybe you can die, but it'd take a lot more than normal." She grins wickedly. "I doubt even decapitation would finish you."
Still laughing, she vanishes through the broken wall in a blur of motion.
Silence returns.
Myles remains frozen where he sits.
Overwhelmed.
Nothing feels real anymore.
Not the powers.
Not the history.
Not the strange ache inside his chest.
But before his thoughts can spiral further, a soft pressure wraps around him.
Arms.
Lia.
Her embrace is firm and unwavering, almost territorial.
A black ring catches the light on her finger.
Myles' eyes lower.
He wears one too.
He instinctively tries to move.
He cannot.
She is not letting him escape.
He slowly looks up.
Lia is smiling.
Not gently.
"So, darling…" she says sweetly, though something dangerously sharp hides beneath her tone, "did you enjoy flirting with my older sister?"
Myles blinks.
Then, memory crashes into him.
Faint.
Blurred.
But undeniable.
Two months ago.
Them.
Together.
His face immediately shifts into something helplessly pleading.
Lia's smile tightens further.
Dangerously beautiful.
Myles exhales heavily and closes his eyes.
There is absolutely no escaping this.
When Lia speaks again, her voice changes completely.
Despite her height.
Despite her strength.
Despite the terrifying presence she carries without even trying—
her voice becomes warm.
Soft.
It wraps around him like velvet pulled over shaking hands.
"My sister enjoys teasing people," she murmurs. "You should know that by now…"
A pause.
Her expression softens.
"You really don't remember…?"
Myles opens his eyes slowly.
Violet.
Her eyes glow like polished amethysts beneath moonlight, impossibly vivid against the darkness surrounding them.
He cannot look away.
And before he can stop himself—
"She was right…" he mutters weakly. "You really are out of my league."
Heat immediately floods his face.
He tries to look away.
Fails.
Something deeper than fear holds him there.
Not force.
Not pressure.
Connection.
Strangers.
Yet somehow not strangers at all.
Whatever existed between them before is gone.
Broken apart by new knowledge and time.
But something else is beginning to grow in its place.
Something quieter.
Something new.
They sit there in silence, simply staring at one another while the world around them slowly fades into irrelevance.
For a moment, everything else disappears.
This has to be a dream, Myles thinks.
But dreams do not feel this warm.
And that is what terrifies him most.