Satsuki's smile didn't fade, even as the darkness pulsed around them.
"Rei,"
She said calmly.
"You can't hide forever."
Her gaze sharpened.
"When you signed that contract… you signed your life away."
A low, amused laugh echoed through the void.
"Rei?"
Vaelion mocked.
"You mean the boy?"
A distorted chuckle followed.
"Oh no… I'm something you mortals could never comprehend."
The darkness twisted.
Reality shuddered.
Then, the world broke.
The void collapsed into a sea of screaming souls.
Endless figures clawed at the air, faces twisted in agony, voices overlapping in pain.
"Help me!"
"It hurts!"
"Please... Please!"
Satsuki, Mirai, Aoyuki and Mugen fell into the crowd.
Hands grabbed at them. Desperately, as if drowning.
The figures clung to their arms, their clothes and shoulders.
"Help me… please…"
"Make it stop…"
Mirai struggled.
"Get off!"
He tried to manifest, but nothing happened.
His expression shifted.
"Why aren't you guys doing anything!?"
Aoyuki gritted her teeth, trying to summon her power.
"Because I can't manifest!"
Mugen pushed people away, eyes sharp.
"What is this place…?"
Satsuki, still calm despite being surrounded, let out a sigh.
"So this is his ability…"
Then she looked upward, voice cutting through the chaos.
"If we die here, Rei… you'll never see the light of day again."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Or your sister."
---
Re stood in a separate space.
Isolated.
Watching them suffer.
Watching them drown in screaming ghosts.
"Vaelion!"
Rei shouted, voice shaking.
"Please… stop!"
He dropped to his knees.
"Please!"
The air behind him shifted. A tall dark silhouette formed.
Purple embers burned where eyes should be.
Vaelion smiled.
"You wish them mercy?"
Rei looked up, tears in his eyes.
"Yes… please."
He begged.
"My life's already hard enough… don't make it worse."
"Please…"
Vaelion tilted his head, then laughed.
"Oh, Rei…"
"Weak. Pathetic."
The Prince stepped closer.
"Nothing in this world is free."
He extended his hand.
Purple flame ignited along his palm, alive and controlled.
"I'll tell you what."
Vaelion said softly.
"Let's make a deal."
His eyes sharpened.
"I let them go. And you give me what I want."
Rei stared at the burning hand.
His chest tightened.
He looked back at the screaming crowd.
At Mirai and Mugen struggling. At Aoyuki fighting helplessly. At Satsuki standing unfazed.
Then he exhaled slowly.
He stood.
"You'll leave them alone?"
Rei whispered.
Vaelion smiled widened.
"I promise. And you have no other choice."
Rei swallowed.
Then grabbed his hand.
Purple fire flared, but didn't burn him.
It marked change.
Vaelion's voice softened into something terrifyingly pleased.
"Wise decision… my boy."
---
Satsuki, Mirai, Aoyuki, and Mugen thrashed as the sea of souls clawed at them.
Then, the air compressed.
A crushing pressure folded reality inward.
The screaming faded.
Light shattered around them. White inverted into black. And the world snapped back into place.
They reappeared in the interrogation room, slammed against the ceiling for a split second before gravity reclaimed them.
They crashed down to the floor hard.
Mirai groaned, rolling onto his back.
Aoyuki sucked in a breath, pushing herself upright.
Mugen braced on one knee, gasping already scanning the room.
Satsuki slowly exhaled.
Then Rei or rather, Vaelion in Rei's body rose from the chair.
Purple light burned faintly in his eyes.
A lazy chuckle slipped from his lips.
"You're lucky the boy has a kind heart."
His tone was amused.
"I would have erased this entire… so called base."
He turned his gaze toward Satsuki.
They locked eyes.
For a moment, the room felt smaller.
Vaelion tilted Rei's head slightly, smiling.
"I'm taking a little walk."
He stepped toward the door. And phased straight through it.
No resistance. He was gone.
Satsuki's smile twitched, nervous and excited.
"Sound the alarms."
Mirai groaned, lifting his wrist.
He tapped his watch.
"Base wide alert. Code Black."
Instantly, alarms erupted across the facility.
Red lights flashed.
Sirens howled.
Footsteps thundered in distant corridors.
---
Vaelion walked through the hallway like a tourist. Flashing lights reflected off Rei's face.
He clicked his tongue.
"Annoying."
He closed his eyes.
Inside Rei's mind, a map unfolded.
Not a digital one, but a conceptual one. Layers of the base stacked like transparent sheets.
Energy signatures pulsed like stars.
Paths, rooms, personnel. All outlined in instinctive clarity.
His eyes moved beneath closed lids.
Left. Right. Down.
Then he saw it.
Deep underground.
A massive chamber.
Generators. Reactors. Energy lines like arteries.
And at the center, a giant reactor housing a black flame.
It pulsed.
Vaelion's smile widened.
"Excellent."
His body tilted forward, and dropped.
He phased through the floor.
Level after level vanished beneath him as he fell sideways through solid matter.
Officers froze in shock as he passed through ceilings.
Researchers stared in disbelief.
He was descending to the lower floor.
---
Inside his consciousness, Rei watched it all like a prisoner behind glass.
"What are you doing?!"
"Give me back my body!"
Vaelion didn't even look at him.
He lifted a finger and waved it lazily side to side.
"No, no, no…"
A faint smirk.
"I still have time."
He glanced inward at Rei.
"You're the one who begged for that deal. In exchange for their freedom… i get your body for thirty minutes."
His tone sharpened slightly.
"You don't get to regret it now."
Rei clenched his fists.
"You're going to kill people!"
Vaelion scoffed lightly.
"Relax."
"If I wanted them dead… you wouldn't be here to complain."
His gaze shifted forward again.
"I'm just reclaiming what belongs to me."
---
In the power supply chamber, Vaelion walked toward the reactor with unhurried steps.
The black flame towered within the containment chamber, enormous. Pulsing like a living heart. Each flicker radiated ancient pressure.
Rei felt it from inside his own body. Fear mixed in with awe.
Vaelion placed a hand over Rei's chest.
"Now your body can endure both your soul… and mine."
A faint hum rippled through Rei's core.
Then Vaelion phased straight through the reactor's barrier.
Inside the chamber, the black flames surged violently as if recognizing him.
They warped around Rei's body like chains of fire.
Not burning. But assimilating with his body.
Rei's eyes turned pitch-black.
Vaelion lifted his gaze upward, black tears streaming down Rei's face as the flame poured into him.
The Soul Flame screamed silently as it was consumed.
---
The chamber doors blasted open.
Satsuki Kurogane stormed in with Captain Aoyuki and fifteen elite NOX soldiers, weapons raised.
They froze.
Rei hovered at the center of the reactor, engulfed in dying black fire.
Satsuki's breath hitched.
"...Rei."
Then her expression hardened.
"Open fire."
The squad moved instantly, firing in synchronized formation.
Bullets and energy rounds surged forward.
And stopped mid-air.
Frozen.
Suspended.
Vaelion turned Rei's head slowly toward them.
His smile was cold.
"How bold."
He lifted Rei's hand and flickered his wrist.
Reality bent.
The air collapsed.
Gravity multiplied.
Pressure slammed downward like an invisible ocean.
Satsuki, Aoyuki and the soldiers were crushed to the floor, gasping under the weight.
Vaelion laughed quietly.
Behind him, the black flames flared once more then vanished completely.
The reactor went dark.
For a few seconds.
The entire base lost power. Lights died. Systems shut down. Silence swallowed everything.
Then backup generators kicked in.
Emergency lighting flicked back to life.
---
The pressure vanished, and the air normalized.
Vaelion now stood calmly in front of Satsuki, Rei's uniform charred, torn and smoking from the absorbed flame.
Satsuki lifted her head, tense but composed.
Vaelion looked down at her with amused contempt.
"You mortals do not control me."
His tone sharpened.
"Especially not you."
His eyes narrowed.
"Know your place."
A cold smirk formed.
"Provoke me again… and I will reduce this entire facility to ash."
---
The glow in Rei's eyes flickered.
Purple then blue.
Vaelion's presence receded.
Rei's body swayed.
And collapsed forward.
He fell straight toward Satsuki.
Unconscious. Exhausted but alive. But changed.