(For greater enjoyment of the chapter, listen to the song on loop: https://suno.com/s/sQpBAQn3FynXZzO9)
Elian spent the next two weeks adapting to his new normal: waking up, roaming the fortress, fighting some of the Legion kids—as S called them—and enduring, day after day, the arguments between the voices in his head.
Those "Legion kids" were nothing but empty bodies, without consciousness or will. They followed orders to the letter, without asking, without hesitation.
At night, Elian put up with the presence of his two entities in the mental plane, while S watched everything from his lab with a smile that never faded.
One afternoon, after training with Number 20—one of the Legion girls—S made the Level -3 speakers blare:
"Elian… testing, E-li-an," he intoned playfully. "You're urgently needed on Level One. If you don't come… consider yourself dead. HAHAHAHAHA."
Elian sighed, annoyed. He stepped into the elevator without a word. But instead of going up, it went down.
"W-what the hell…?!" he yelled, alarmed.
The lights flickered.
"S, YOU SICK PSYCHOPATH, I SWEAR I'LL MAKE YOU PAY—!"
The elevator's ding cut him off. The doors opened slowly, revealing that narrow, shadowy corridor of Level -4.
Elian held his breath. The air was thick, almost rotten. The walls pulsed with the same emotions that had tormented him since the first day he got Divine Vision—only stronger than ever: pain, hatred, despair, and death.
"I GET IT, S! THIS PLACE IS SCARY!" he shouted, staring at the elevator ceiling. "GET ME UP, DAMN IT!"
But instead of going up, the elevator's back wall ejected, hurling him forward.
Elian flew down the corridor and smashed face-first into the far door. Before he could get up, he heard the elevator crash with a metallic roar.
Laughter started immediately.
"HAHAHAHA, what a pathetic brat," the sadistic voice chuckled. "We've got a coward here."
"Are you really afraid of some desperate faces?" the angry voice sneered. "How miserable."
Both could see through his eyes now, sharing his Divine Vision.
"I-it's not fear…" Elian murmured, shutting his eyes tight. He didn't want to look at the distorted faces pressed into the door—faces writhing as if begging for help.
"Haha… Kid," the sadistic voice said, suggestive, "what if you let me use your body?"
"W-what?" Elian asked, confused.
"Let me out and I'll give those poor souls behind the door some rest," it said, almost seductively, as if offering a favor.
Elian hesitated.
"How would you do that?" he asked, genuinely afraid.
"Haha, easy, I'll expl—"
"Imagine your body is a car," the angry voice interrupted, annoyed. "You're the driver, but anyone who knows how to drive can take the wheel. If you give up control, your body stands still—like a soulless vehicle—until someone else takes over. That's how it works. I can't believe you don't get that, human."
"YOU WINGED RAT! I WAS GOING TO SAY THAT!" the sadistic voice yelled, offended.
The angry voice let out a short, barely audible laugh.
"Shut up, both of you!" Elian cried, and suddenly his surroundings shifted.
He found himself inside his mental plane again, conscious in that black space with a white platform. He saw both entities in front of him while still feeling his external body.
"H-h-how…?" he stammered, stunned.
"HAHAHAHA, you came in so I can get out, right?" the sadistic voice lunged at him, grabbing him and slamming him to the floor.
"Don't expect more lessons from me," the angry voice said from a distance, annoyed. "I only explained how to change the driver because I also want your body… to judge this pathetic race."
Elian watched, paralyzed. Anything he moved in his mind the outer body mirrored.
It was terrifying…and fascinating.
After a while, following another round of their endless arguing, Elian gathered his courage. He looked at the door in front of him and turned the handle.
Both voices screamed in unison:
"OPEN IT AND YOU DIE!"
But Elian opened it anyway.
The air on the other side smelled of blood. The glass that once held deformed bodies lay shattered; the fluids spilled into red puddles. Only one creature remained alive.
It was a girl… or something like a girl. No older than ten, her head deformed with tufts of blond hair; her skin swollen and pale, trembling. She had no eyes.
When she heard him, she curled against the wall, trembling.
Elian took a step. She backed away.
A new emotion washed through him: pure fear.
"H-hey… it's okay…" he said in a trembling voice. He didn't know if he was trying to calm her or himself.
He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them he was fully back in his body. The girl stopped retreating. Something about his presence seemed to soothe her.
"I won't hurt you… okay?" he said softly. The creature approached and rested her head in his hand, seeking refuge.
"K-kill me…" she whispered in a distorted child's voice.
Something inside him broke.
He wanted to refuse, but the sight of her suffering hurt more than the idea of killing her.
"No… I can't…" he whispered, and then the voices spoke.
"O H, boy…" the demon purred, delighted. "Let me out and I'll give her an end she'll remember in her next life."
"THAT ABOMINATION SHOULD NOT EXIST," the angel roared with fury. "IT IS MY DUTY TO ERASE IT."
Both saw only the act of killing—one with sadism, the other with cold righteousness.
Elian, however, breathed deeply and ignored them.
With Divine Vision, he saw the girl's Elyth channel: broken, fractured, like a shattered fishbowl trying to hold water.
"That must hurt…" he murmured.
She nodded, letting out a soft sob.
Elian knelt before her.
"Sorry…" he said in a broken voice. Then, with instinctive precision, he pressed the exact points where the veins and the Elyth channel crossed, slowly cutting the flow of energy and blood.
The girl's body trembled, but her expression softened.
Elian cradled her head in his lap.
As he stroked her hair, he began to sing a lullaby he thought he had forgotten.
Sleep, my late sun — Lullaby written by Carol GravesSleep, my late sun,sleep without fear of the sea,for the world is only a dreamthat has yet to wake.Close your eyes, child,the night knows how to care,the stars will keep watch for you,the moon will lull you.If you hear the wind scream,don't run, let it speak,tell tales of the deadwho learned how to love.When pain embraces you,breathe, let it pass,for all that hurtsalso knows how to heal.Sleep, my late sun,sleep and dream again,for even broken flowersare reborn in song.
The creature exhaled one last time.
She died in peace.
Elian kept stroking her head, tears falling onto her face.
But the voices shattered the silence.
"HAHAHAHA, YOU'RE A GODDAMN SAP!" the demon shrieked, hysterical. "A LULLABY FOR A MONSTER! HAHAHAHAHA!"
"Pathetic," the angel said, full of contempt. "That abomination did not deserve such a human death."
Elian ignored them.
He continued to stroke the lifeless body and whispered, changing the subject to calm himself:
"Hey… do you have names?"
There was a short silence.
"Names? HA. Sure, you piece of shit," the sadistic voice laughed. "I am the magnificent 𐍅𐍂𐌿𐌔𐌰𐍃."
"This time I agree with the idiot I'm stuck with. I am the great ϞⲁⲣⲓⲉⲲ," replied the angry voice.
Elian frowned.
"Don't you have something easier to say?"
"HA, no." the sadistic voice laughed.
"No." the angry voice repeated bluntly.
"Fine…" Elian sighed, standing up. "If you don't mind, I'll give you new names. That way I can talk to you without stumbling."
"Who said we want to talk to you?" the sadistic voice mocked.
"For once I agree with this imbecile," added the angry voice.
Elian forced a weak smile.
"Then I'll call you Angel and Demon. One of you is too chaotic… and the other, too serious. I guess it fits."
"Suit yourself," grunted the Angel (angry voice), resigned.
"I like it," whispered the Demon (sadistic voice), delighted.
Elian nodded, satisfied—just as the elevator chimed and opened.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA, very good, Elian!" S's voice thundered. "YOU TOOK SO LONG I HAD TO COME GET YOU MYSELF!"
"Yeah, well—" Elian clenched his fists. "MAYBE THAT WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED IF YOUR DAMN ELEVATOR HADN'T FALLEN! WHAT DO YOU THINK?!"
S snorted, amused.
"Hahaha, fine… now get back to your cell. I'm not in the mood to play with you today—though I did want to torture you more." He broadened his smile and turned his back.
They both entered the elevator in silence.
They went down to Level -5. Elian descended; S continued upward toward Level 1.
Two more days passed. Elian, now accompanied by his Angel and Demon, learned to live with them while S watched with disturbing calm from his lab.
"Hahaha… the boy is ready," S said at the end of the second night, smiling at the monitors. He struck a screen and watched his reflection in the shattered fragments.
"Very soon, sleeping beauty… very soon our bargain will be complete. HAHAHAHAHA."