The moment the sphere of miasma sealed shut, the world around the elder twisted.

All sound vanished, the clash of armies, the shouts from the golden stairway, even the trembling ground. Everything was swallowed by a suffocating, ink-black darkness.

The air inside felt wrong, heavy, thick like pitch, clinging to his robes and skin as if trying to drag him down.

But ahead, a single pulse of dim light flickered.

The elder narrowed his eyes.

A figure sat atop an obsidian throne carved from pure shadow. Tendrils of miasma curled behind her like living things.

Slowly, the figure rose, and the darkness peeled away from her face.

His heart dropped. "…Silica?"

Her features were unchanged.

The same student who would always sit quietly by the window during his lectures, chin in hand, without paying attentions.

The troublesome girl, who always carried an fierce look in her eyes.

But the gaze staring back at him now was not hers.

Those eyes were ancient, malicious, and calm in a way no mortal should ever be.

Silica's lips twisted into a crooked smile that did not belong to her. "Oh? You recognize this little shell."

"You fiend," the elder spat through clenched teeth. "Get out of her body!"

A low laugh echoed, not from one voice, but many, layered atop each other like a chorus of ghosts trapped in a cave.

The sound crawled across his spine. She tilted her head, amusement flickering.

"You must be this child's teacher… hmm… 'Emperor Academy,' was it?"

She tapped a pale finger against her temple. "Her memories… how odd. That institution didn't exist when I began my slumber."

"What did you do to her?"

"What I needed to," she said simply. "I took her body as my vessel. This shape is convenient."

His face turned pale. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"I claimed a vessel," she replied, unbothered. "Why such a fuss?"

He ran a shaking hand down his face. "How am I supposed to explain this to the Headmaster…? And her brother…"

His fists curled, knuckles white. "This should've never happened. I should never have let her wander off alone…"

She watched him with the detached curiosity of someone observing a dying insect.

The elder swallowed hard. "Do you have any idea whose body you stole? That girl's brother, do you understand what kind of monster he is?"

"Her brother?" She blinked lazily. "Ah. The transcendent struggling outside? He barely qualifies to be a servant."

"No…" the elder said. "Not him. Her other brother... it's only a matter of time before he arrives."

Something shifted in her posture, like she was peering through the layers of memory she'd stolen.

"I did find a name… Spark." She shrugged lightly. "So what of it? Just another human."

Hearing those words, the elder began to laugh.

It wasn't a pleasant sound.

It scraped out of his throat raw and uneven, a cracked, hysterical cackle that echoed through the darkness.

"Just… another human?" he laughed, shoulders trembling, like someone who had gone insane. "Hah… hahaha! You ignorant, pitiful fiend."

"You've slept so long you still believe the world is frozen in the age you remember. Hiding in your little caves, in your little tombs, scurrying away from the light."

His eyes blazed. "You think we are as weak as before?"

The entity inside Silica tilted her head, expression cooling. "You're awfully bold for someone who is so weak."

"You survived this long by cowering," the elder spat, "but now that you've stolen her body…"

His aura flared, ready to charge. "…you will not walk out of here alive."

She laughed softly, a cruel sound that rippled through the darkness.

"Then show me, teacher."

She spread her arms wide, and the miasma around her surged, boiling like smoke rising from a funeral pyre. Cracks of black light crawled along her skin.

"Show me the power of these 'evolved' humans. I'll grant you the first move."

The elder froze. For a heartbeat, he hesitated.

Because the body before him was still hers, the body of a student he'd sworn to protect.

But when he looked into those eyes, he saw it clearly.

There was no trace of Silica left.

Only a ruin lord wearing her body like a robe.

His trembling stopped. His back straightened.

"You leave me no choice."

…

Outside, the battlefield trembled.

A deep rumble rolled across the hall, shaking the air. Shockwaves pressed against every soldier's chest.

Above the grand stairway, the sphere of miasma pulsed, heavy, rhythmic, like a colossal heart beating in the void.

Inside that darkness, the elder and the ruin lord had begun their clash.

Reynold could feel two powerful entity clashing, even from this distance.

Before him, Prince Vearos stood upright.

Restored from death again and again.

The chaos around them, the shouting soldiers and the trembling earth, did nothing to stir him.

"Why, Prince Vearos? Why did you betray your own people?" Reynold asked, curious.

"You understand what giving away the core flame means. You're condemning millions. You're destroying the empire your ancestors shed their blood to protect."

For the first time, Vearos paused.

The resurrected prince lowered his gaze softening for a brief moment almost thoughtful.

Then he spoke, but not with an answer.

"With your intelligence, Marquis… you should feel it too."

"Feel what?" Reynold asked.

Vearos slowly raised his hand. Obsidian veins pulsed beneath his pale skin, glowing faintly like cracks in dying marble.

"This feeling that our knowledge is incomplete. That despite all our strength, all our ascendency, we remain blind." He continued. "Tell me, Marquis… why do ruins exist? Why do they lie scattered across the world like ancient scars? Surely you don't believe the Human Emperor created them."

He let out a soft, humorless laugh.

"The world is vast. Too vast. And we walk through it with eyes closed."

He took a slow step forward, his aura sharpening with quiet madness.

"What is our purpose? Why are we born into a cycle of endless battles against ruin beasts? Why do our generations rise only to die the same way, as if we are trapped inside someone else's design?"

His voice rose, echoing through the trembling battlefield.

"That is why I chose this path. I want the truth. I'm willing to sacrifice anything, people, empire… even myself, if it brings me closer to an answer."

"…And how do you intend to find such an answer?"

Vearos smiled.

A slow, eerie smile that did not belong to him, something twisted and worshipful flickering behind his amethyst eyes.

"Marquis… the core flame is not only the lifeblood of an empire." His fingers trembled with longing. "It is also a key, a foundation stone of the ruin itself. One that resonates with the true lord sleeping above us."

He lifted both arms toward the swirling sphere in the hall..

"Once the ruin lord is freed from its bindings… once the conditions align…"His voice deepened with feverish devotion.

"-The truth of this world will finally reveal itself to me."