Leo stood frozen as a phantom in the corner of the room. 'Me?' he thought, his mind racing. 'She has known me since we were children?' He looked at the silver hair reflecting in the emerald light of the nightmare.
He realized that this was no ordinary memory; Mo'sa's ritual had anchored him to the most agonizing fragments of Hye-na's psyche rather than a complete chronicle of her life.
'Lunchbox? School?' Leo searched his mind, but his childhood remained a graveyard of fog. There were vast blanks in his memories that doctors had always blamed on the trauma following his parents' death.
Because his memories of his parents were vivid and intact, he had never questioned the missing years, assuming they were trivial. Now, hearing Hye-na speak his name in the past, he realized how wrong he had been.
Hye-na's mother laughed softly, a sound like dry parchment. ''Leo Vayne. You talk about him so much, I feel like I know him myself. Is he really that troublesome?''
Hye-na's brow furrowed in annoyance. "That guy always irritates me, Mother. Should I ask Father to handle him?"
Her mother laughed, though the sound was quickly drowned out by a violent coughing fit. ''Do not say such things to your father. He does not understand the games of children; he might truly hurt the boy.''
Leo watched with a heavy heart. It was jarring to see Hye-na so vibrant and innocent, and he found himself wondering what tragedy had eventually encased her heart in ice.
The peace was shattered as the scene glitched violently. The garden vanished, replaced by a subterranean tomb of mossy concrete and tangled wires. The atmosphere was thick with a predatory tension. Machines hummed with a low, mechanical thrum, surrounding a group of figures in body suits and protective masks.
In the center of the laboratory, a slightly older Hye-na was strapped to a clinical bed. Her screams were raw and piercing.
''LEAVE ME!''
''IT HURTS!''
''PLEASE!''
Her eyes were swollen with tears, and her lips were mangled where she had bitten them to anchor herself against the pain. Countless wires were embedded in her neck, chest, and limbs. A shimmering, mercury-like liquid was being pumped through her veins while the masked technicians recorded the data with cold indifference.
Leo stood rooted to the floor. 'What kind of hell is this?' He lunged for the bed, trying to rip the wires from her body, but his hands passed through the metal like smoke.
''Stop it! Leave her alone!'' he roared, but his voice was an echo in a void. 'Dammit, I am just a ghost in her past. I cannot change a thing.'
Hye-na's screams peaked as her nails dug into the mattress before her body finally went limp as she slipped into unconsciousness. A man in a pristine white suit checked her vitals and consulted a tablet.
''Subject maintained consciousness for eighty seconds,'' he noted.
The technicians began to whisper among themselves. ''She is a monster to endure a transmission of this intensity.''
''This is the blood of a Fallen Mythical-grade Specimen. If the integration succeeds, we will have created the ultimate mutant.''
''Silence,'' the man in white commanded. He looked at the others with eyes as cold as the laboratory. ''Lord Eclipse chose her for a reason. We must finalize the transmission for his descent.''
''Yes, Elder Architect,'' they chanted in unison.
''And stay alert. If that maniac, the Paragon of Singularity, discovers this site, our plans will be reduced to ash,'' the Elder warned before departing.
Leo looked down at Hye-na's broken, ten-year-old form. She was being treated like a lab rat, discarded in the dark. The nightmare refused to end. For seven grueling days, the cycle of agony repeated. The wails and the torture became a rhythmic horror until Hye-na stopped begging. Her spirit broke, leaving behind a hollowed-out void.
On the seventh day, the Elder recorded the final result. ''Thirty percent blood transmission complete. Rejection levels are zero.''
A rasping, pained voice emerged from the girl. ''Wh...y me?''
The Elder leaned in, his tone devoid of any human warmth. ''You never wondered why your mother was sick, did you?''
Hye-na's eyes drifted toward him. ''Wh...at?''
The Elder shook his head in mock disappointment. ''Do not worry, child. When Lord Eclipse descends to this lower plane, the purpose of your birth will become clear.''
'Eclipse? Descent?' Leo's mind raced as he processed the fragments. Suddenly, the entire facility began to tremble.
RUMBLE RUMBLE
Equipment crashed to the floor, and the ground buckled under a massive external force. The masked workers cried out in terror.
The Elder in white stood his ground, a pillar of calm amidst the chaos. He removed his mask, revealing a man with a military-cut hairstyle and piercing eyes. Beneath his eyes, strange red sigils pulsed like a heartbeat.
''He has arrived,'' the man whispered.
The technicians recoiled. ''The Paragon of Singularity...''
''Seal the chamber. He cannot be allowed entry. The subject is too close to the mutation point,'' the Elder ordered, rushing toward the exit.
Leo stared at the heavy, locking doors, wondering what kind of man could strike such terror into these fanatics. As he turned back toward Hye-na, he felt the sensation of the floor beneath his boots.
''Wait...'' He reached out and touched a structural pillar. It was solid and cold. A grim smile spread across his face. ''I can touch it. I am real.''
He sprinted to Hye-na's side, his fingers working with frantic speed to tear the leather straps from her wrists and ankles. He tapped her cheek gently but urgently. ''Hye-na, wake up! Can you hear me? It is Leo!''
The lab groaned as the structural supports began to twist and snap. Outside the reinforced vault, the hallway had become a graveyard of physics.
Beyond the shattered vault, the Elder Architect stood his ground in a desperate gambit. He reached into his white coat, pulling out geometric seals that glowed with an unstable, golden light.
''Lord Eclipse has already claimed her!'' the Elder roared. He threw the seals, which expanded into massive, rotating cubes of energy designed to trap anything caught within their lines.
The Paragon of Singularity moved with the terrifying grace of a collapsing star. He simply walked through the golden barriers. Every cube that touched his aura didn't just break; it folded into a two-dimensional plane and vanished.
''You touched my blood,'' the Paragon said, his voice vibrating with a lethal frequency. ''For that, there is no world where you continue to breathe.''
He raised a single finger, and the gravity in the hallway increased by a hundredfold. The technicians who hadn't escaped were instantly flattened into the floor, their masks shattering under the pressure. The Elder Architect screamed as his knees buckled, the sound of his bones snapping echoing through the corridor.
Inside the room, Leo didn't wait. He scooped the young, shivering Hye-na into his arms. The mercury wires were still sparking on the floor, and the ceiling was starting to rain dust and moss.
'I have to get her out before this entire memory collapses,' Leo thought. He looked toward the secret exit the Elder had mentioned. It was a narrow tunnel, half-blocked by a fallen machine.
''Hold on tight,'' Leo said, bracing her against his chest.
"Who a..re yo..u,'' she whispered. Her eyes were glazed over, the silver light of the transmission still swirling in her pupils.
"Well, the so-called Silver monkey," Leo said, his voice softening. ''And I am taking you with me this time.''