The moment Youri's eyes opened, the world went silent again — not the silence of peace, but the kind that presses against the mind, thick and suffocating, like the deep ocean where no sound can escape. The watery abyss stretched endlessly around him, lit only by faint, ghostlike rays falling from an unseen surface far above, and the water neither rippled nor moved. It simply existed — still, eternal, and watching.
And in front of him was Altopereh. It was no longer the shattered shell or the restrained entity forced into stillness; it hovered there in its full presence, humanoid and monstrous at once, its form shifting subtly as though reality itself were struggling to define it, and its silhouette bent the water around it with every motion. It was calm. Too calm.
Its voice reached him — not as sound, but directly in his mind. "So. You saw."
Youri didn't answer. He hung there in the abyss without moving, his body relaxed and his mind anything but. The vision still burned behind his eyes: the destruction, the cages of golden light, the screams of beings far beyond human understanding, and the cold, merciless efficiency of the Sacros knights. Worlds erased — not in anger, and not in desperation, but in order.
Altopereh drifted closer. "Now," it went on, low and almost satisfied, "do you understand the reason for my hatred?"
Youri's gaze stayed fixed ahead and his face didn't change. But inside him, something had shifted.
Altopereh circled him slowly, like a predator watching prey that had not yet realized it was already caught. "I once ruled this realm. Not alone — among equals. There were ten of us. Ten domains. Ten absolute beings." Its form flickered for an instant and revealed something far larger beneath its current shape. "Back then, Tartarus was not fractured. It was whole. We were not monsters. We were existence itself — forces that shaped reality, not beings bound by it."
The abyss trembled faintly, and its voice darkened. "Until they came." The water around them warped violently for a split second, like a memory forcing its way into existence. "Beings lesser than us. Fragile. Finite. Weak. And yet they brought chains."
Youri's eyes narrowed slightly as Altopereh stopped in front of him, their faces only inches apart. "Not chains of metal," it whispered. "Chains of control." A flicker of gold passed through the abyss — the same gold Youri had seen in the vision. "The Sacros."
The name carried weight. It wasn't just a faction. It was a force.
"They could not destroy us," Altopereh said, "so they did something far worse. They contained us." Youri's mind flashed back to the golden cages, the Orbitons being forged, the monstrous beings reduced to tools. "They tore us from our domains. Stripped us of form, of freedom, of purpose. And sealed us inside machines."
Silence — heavy and unavoidable. Altopereh tilted its head slowly, studying him. "In a way," it said softly, "you and I are the same."
That was when Youri moved — not physically, but in his mind. A shift. A rejection. A faint smirk formed on his face. "You still call yourself powerful?" he said, calm and almost amused. "After losing twice, to beings you call inferior?" The abyss seemed to tighten around them. "Don't make me laugh."
Altopereh froze for a fraction of a second — and then it laughed, a deep, echoing sound that rippled through the water like a shockwave. "Interesting." It drifted closer, closer than before, until its presence was overwhelming. "Then tell me. When you look at me… who do you see?"
Youri didn't hesitate. "Me."
This time Altopereh didn't laugh. It studied him carefully, and then, slowly, it drew back, its form settling once more into its composed, controlled state. "So what sets us apart?"
Youri's eyes didn't waver. "That's simple." He took a slow breath. "Unlike you, I let go of my past. I accepted it — all of it. The blood. The destruction. The things I did. Good or bad, it's mine." A pause. "I cast away my hatred." Altopereh's expression darkened slightly. "And I chose to live for something else. For a future—"
Altopereh cut him off at once. "Future?" The word sounded almost mocking. "Future of what?"
Youri didn't answer immediately, and that was enough.
Altopereh moved again, circling him once more. "You really believe that?" Its voice was quieter now, and colder. "You think those people — your Empire, your world — would ever accept you?" It stopped behind him. "Do you think they see you as a man? Or as a weapon? You are not a person to them. You are a tool. An asset. A solution to problems they cannot solve."
Youri held still, unaware that the next thing it said would leave him speechless. Its voice dropped lower still. "When was the last time you were truly free?"
That question landed. Youri didn't answer — couldn't — because the answer didn't exist. His mind drifted, against his will, to Leonora, to the mansion, to the brief moments of peace and the illusion of an ordinary life. And behind all of it, something had always been there — waiting, pushing, pulling him back into chaos.
Altopereh noticed the silence, and smiled. "You see it now." It moved in front of him once more, close and unavoidable. "You can run from everyone. From enemies. From war. From your past." Its voice softened, just slightly. "But not from yourself."
The abyss caught faint light from above, like distant stars seen through water. "You and I," Altopereh said slowly, "were born in chaos." It raised a hand, and dark energy flickered faintly around it. "And chaos is what we seek."
Youri's eyes hardened.
"You can deny it. You can bury it. You can pretend you have changed." Its voice fell to a whisper. "But it will always be there. Waiting." The water around them grew colder and heavier, pressing in on him from every side. Its gaze locked onto his. "Because that is the only thing that will never leave you."