"WHAT IF I DIDN'T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN, YOU WINGED RAT?" the sadistic, mocking voice screamed inside Elian's head.
"THEN WE'D DIE, IDIOT, YOU SCREAMING JERK!" replied the other voice, harsher, full of anger and dignity.
"HAHHAHAHA, YOU INSULT LIKE AN OLD MAN!" the sadistic voice added, laughing hysterically.
Elian just wanted them both to shut up. He had been on his knees for twenty minutes, hands over his ears, trying to block out the chaos pounding in his skull. Finally he exhaled in frustration and stood up.
He tried to ignore them. It was useless.
"HAHAHAHA, LOOK AT THE IDIOT! HE THINKS IGNORING US WILL MAKE US SHUT UP!" the mocking voice yelled, growing louder.
"Coward… you can't even face the problem of making us quiet," the other voice sneered. "That's why I hate humans."
Elian staggered toward the exit of the room where they had operated on him. Even though he tried to concentrate, his eyes—now blessed or cursed with Divine Vision—kept picking up the emotions that soaked the surroundings.
When he reached the theater, he froze.
Everything around him—the cracked floor, the broken seats, the columns stained with dried blood—radiated a single emotion: death.
He could feel the echoes of the lives taken there: S's trials, the punishments, the screams… and the memory of the boy he had accidentally killed.
He turned his head searching for a neutral spot, a corner without feeling, but there was none.
Everything in his sight vibrated with sensations: anger, fear, sorrow, hatred, madness, even a sick kind of joy.
He crossed the door that connected to the laboratory behind the stage, and the emotional blow intensified.
The cells, the walls, the floor… everything oozed resentment and pain gathered over years.
To Elian, that place had become a cemetery of wailing souls.
"How long has S been running this project…?" he whispered, though he knew he no longer thought entirely on his own.
For hours he explored the fortress, avoiding Level -4; he didn't want to see the deformed children still suffering there.
Despite the horror, something in him began to adapt: little by little, seeing those emotions became… bearable.
He started to think maybe S hadn't implanted anything in him after all, but had awakened something that already existed inside.
Then the voices returned.
"Haha, kid… I feel hope coming from you," said the sadistic voice, with a grin Elian could almost picture.
"Argh… your feelings disgust me, human," replied the angry voice with disdain. "Hope is the last refuge of your miserable race."
"Shut up…" Elian whispered, more from fear than authority.
"Haha, make me, dog," taunted the sadistic one.
"Never, you human filth," added the other, full of contained fury.
Elian put a hand to his face. This made no sense: both spoke in his voice, but they were polar opposites. One reveled in suffering; the other condemned it… and both overwhelmed him.
When night came, Elian returned to his cell. For the first time, no one escorted him. No one threw him inside. He lay on the metal bed and closed his eyes.
Miraculously, silence wrapped around him.
The voices fell quiet. For the first time, he slept.
…
"HAHHAHA, have you seen him? He's ugly and disgusting," said a distant, mocking voice.
"For once I agree with you, sadistic scum," replied the angry voice.
Elian opened his eyes slowly. He was not in his cell—only a black, infinite space with a solid surface beneath his body.
Suddenly a face appeared before him.
His own face.
"HAHAHAHA, SO AT LAST WE MEET, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" shouted the being identical to him but with horns, red eyes and feline pupils. It was the sadistic voice—his corrupted double.
"AHHH!" Elian shot up, banging his forehead against the other's.
"Ouch! Hahaha, that hurt, but it was worth it," his double cackled viciously.
"STOP MAKING SO MUCH NOISE!" boomed a third voice.
Elian turned and found himself facing himself yet again. This second reflection had a halo, blue eyes and a golden ring around each pupil. It was the angry-but-just voice.
He stood frozen, unable to react. Then the red-eyed Elian hugged him from behind, wrapping his arms around his neck.
"Ah… it was more fun when you got scared seeing my face," he whispered in a seductive tone, wearing a smile identical to S's.
Elian tried to break free but was pushed forward and fell face-first.
"THAT MEANS YOU'RE NOT SCARY, YOU FEATHERBAG," mocked the red-eyed one.
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP, DAMN IT!" shouted the blue-eyed Elian, pounding the ground. The whole space trembled.
"W-where am I?" asked the real Elian, confused.
The horned reflection tilted his head with a smile that seemed to slice the air.
"You're in your mind, little idiot," he said mockingly. "Welcome to our home." He bowed theatrically—exactly like S.
"Yes… sure," Elian replied, uncomfortable at seeing himself acting like his tormentor. "And what are you doing here?"
"We don't know," the haloed one answered, frowning. "But it sickens me to share this mental prison… and of all people, with the form of an 11-year-old scrawny kid without an Elyth, stuck with a lunatic beyond saving."
"Aww, how flattering," responded the horned one.
Hours passed. Each of them isolated themselves in silence. The demonic one laughed and invented cruel games; the angelic one stared at the void with disdain; and Elian, exhausted, tried to sleep, praying it was all a nightmare.
Somehow, it worked.
When he opened his eyes again, he was back in his cell.
He didn't feel tired. His body didn't hurt. For the first time in years, he felt light.
"Why the hell do I feel like this…?" he murmured.
There was no answer. Not from the voices, not from S.
He left his cell and began to walk through the fortress. No one stopped him. No one watched him. He was free—within his prison.
When he reached Level -3, he stopped.
The combat ring was full. The same children he'd seen in capsules weeks earlier were now fighting hand-to-hand. All of them… except one.
A boy stood motionless in the center, expressionless, eyes empty.
Elian recognized him at once. 1305
"Oh, Elian!" S's voice thundered over the speakers with a blend of sadism and glee. "Thanks for coming uninvited. One of my soldiers needs a sparring partner."
For the first time, the Divine Vision showed him something different in the kids: it didn't reveal emotions so much as a total absence of them. A state of complete alienation that only flickered when they threw a punch or used their Elyth to try and kill an opponent.
The children were hollow. They were shells.
Elian clenched his fists.
"I accept, you sick bastard."
"Oooh, the kid's got balls," laughed the sadistic voice in his head.
"No. He's just stupid," the other replied.
Elian ignored them and climbed into the ring. 1305 watched him with that dead look and, without warning, threw the first punch.
"Hey! At least let me get ready!" Elian shouted, surprised to notice the blow barely hurt. "Come on, use your Elyth. Don't hold back."
1305 didn't answer. His eyes glowed faintly gold, and in a blink he attacked.
He used his Elyth: Mirage.
But Elian saw it coming. His new vision perceived the illusion and revealed the truth of the attack. He dodged.
Until the second blow landed.
"Argh!" he fell on his back. 1305 had evolved his Elyth, creating an illusion within an illusion. Elian didn't realize he was facing a superior version of the enemy who had marked him most.
Still, he got up and countered.
For the first time, his fist connected.
The impact pushed 1305 back a few steps.
"Did you like that punch?" Elian asked, almost incredulous. 1305 made no sound. He simply launched another attack.
For half an hour they struck each other without rest. The voices never shut up:
"Let me out, kid. I'll tear him to pieces, make him scream," whispered the sadistic voice.
"This boy already lost his will to live… let me judge him as he deserves," demanded the other.
Elian endured without answering. Until S intervened.
He appeared between them and stopped them with inhuman speed.
He snapped 1305's arm with a single movement and hurled Elian against the wall with such force the concrete cracked.
"Ouch! That hurt, you sick bastard!" Elian yelled, rubbing his back.
S leaned slightly, admiring his handiwork.
"Hahaha… don't distract the Legion's captain," he said with his permanent smile. "The other rats already moved up to Level One. Only you were missing… Captain, No. 0."
1305 nodded, straightening up. His arm began to regenerate slowly as he walked toward the elevator.
Elian watched him go, then fixed his gaze on S. For the first time, he did not feel fear.
But the demon put a hand on his head and slammed his face into the ground, crushing it against the concrete.
"Hahaha, Elian…" he whispered in a paternal, disturbing tone. "I hope you enjoy the companion I left inside that rat's little head."
"Bastard… I told you not to call me by my name…" Elian said through clenched anger.
S only laughed, satisfied.
"Hahaha… I like that look." It was the last thing he said before disappearing—or rather, running off with that impossible speed.
Elian remained silent.
He didn't cry. He didn't scream. He simply walked through the fortress, getting used, little by little, to the horrors he saw and to the voices that accompanied him.
That night he slept again… and returned to the void where his other "selves" waited.
It would be another long night.