The hill was silent.
Moonlight spilled across the empty field, pale and cold, reflecting faintly against Kael's white hair. The wind blew steadily, brushing against his cloak and sending a sharp chill through the wounds across his back. Even in this strange stillness, the ache lingered.
Before him, John lay motionless on the ground.
His body was soaked in blood, dark and heavy, pooling beneath him and staining the grass. His chest was torn open where his heart had been taken, the wound still fresh, still horrifying.
Kael stood there for a long moment.
Then slowly, his knees gave way, and he knelt beside him.
His hand trembled as he reached forward—but he stopped just before touching the body. Fear held him back. Fear that if he touched John, the truth would become undeniable.
He had failed.
Again.
"I'm sorry…" Kael whispered.
His voice shook, fragile against the quiet night.
"I was too late…"
Tears slipped down his cheeks, falling silently onto the blood-soaked ground.
"I don't remember all of you… I don't remember what happened back then…"
His shoulders trembled.
"I'm sorry."
The apology came again, softer this time, barely more than breath.
Then—
Kael froze.
John's lips moved.
Just slightly.
Kael leaned closer, eyes widening as hope flickered through the despair.
"John?" he whispered.
He lowered himself further, trying to hear.
But no sound came.
The only thing that moved was the blood spreading across the ground.
More.
More than before.
Kael's eyes widened as the dark liquid continued to spill, flowing unnaturally across the earth.
The world dimmed.
The ground beneath him turned black.
Kael lifted his head, confusion flooding his mind. The moonlight vanished, swallowed by the spreading darkness. The hill disappeared.
Only him.
And John.
"Elric?" he called weakly.
No answer.
Her presence was gone.
The air felt wrong—heavy, suffocating.
Then suddenly—
A hand seized his face.
Kael's head snapped sideways as he was forced to look at the figure standing beside him.
The hand gripping him was covered in blood.
Warm.
Sticky.
He tried to pull away, but the grip was impossibly strong.
Kael's eyes lifted.
A woman stood before him.
Her hair was red—long, tangled strands falling forward and hiding her eyes. She wore a simple white dress, but the fabric was soaked in blood. It dripped from the hem, sliding slowly down her legs and pooling onto the darkened ground.
Kael's body trembled.
He couldn't move.
Her strength held him in place, her fingers digging into his skin as she forced him to face her.
"…Curse you."
Her voice was faint.
Yet it carried something terrible beneath it—something that pressed against Kael's chest like an invisible weight.
His body sank lower, forced toward the ground by the unseen pressure.
"…You are the one who gave birth to despair…"
The words echoed through the void.
"…We curse you."
Suddenly—
Pain exploded through Kael's chest.
A sharp, brutal force pierced straight through his heart.
Kael gasped, his body convulsing as the agony struck without warning. His hand flew to his chest, clutching desperately at the spot where the pain burned.
But there was nothing there.
No blade.
No wound.
Yet the pain was real.
Too real.
His breath came in broken gasps as he stumbled forward, collapsing onto one knee. His vision blurred as the agony spread through his entire body.
The woman released his face.
Kael doubled over, gripping his chest, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Through the haze of pain, he looked up.
She was still standing beside John's body.
Watching him.
He couldn't see her eyes beneath the curtain of red hair, but he felt her gaze—cold, heavy, piercing straight through him.
His vision swayed.
"…We are cursed," she whispered.
Her voice seemed to echo from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"…We were bad omens…"
Her words dragged across his mind like a blade.
"…From birth…"
The darkness thickened around them.
"…Until death."
Kael's breath faltered.
The world collapsed into black.
-----------------------------------------
The darkness twisted.
The world spun violently around Kael, as if something had torn him away from the hill and thrown him somewhere else entirely. The cold wind disappeared. The moonlight vanished.
When the dizziness faded, Kael realized he was standing again.
But not on the hill.
Iron bars surrounded him.
A prison cell.
The atmosphere felt disturbingly familiar. For a brief moment, Kael thought he had returned to the orphanage basement—the same suffocating air, the same iron cages.
Yet something was different.
This place was worse.
The stone floor was dirtier, darker, smeared with old stains of blood that had soaked deep into the cracks between the tiles. The walls looked damp, as if this place had never once seen sunlight.
Kael instinctively placed a hand over his chest.
The stabbing pain from before had vanished.
Only the memory of it remained.
"What do you think of devil's blood?"
The voice came from behind him.
Kael flinched.
Slowly, he turned.
His eyes widened the moment he saw her.
A young woman sat on a thin, worn bed in the corner of the cell. Her posture was calm, almost relaxed, though the setting was anything but. One hand rested on her swollen belly, rubbing it slowly.
Kael recognized her immediately.
The same woman from John's memories.
Varyn's mother.
She looked pale, almost ghostlike. Yet something about her expression felt… unnatural. Detached. Like someone who had already accepted their fate long ago.
"I asked you," she repeated calmly, her gaze lifting toward him. "What do you think about devil's blood?"
Kael stared at her in disbelief.
"…You can see me?" he asked quietly.
His voice was barely more than a whisper.
He already knew this wasn't reality. It had to be a dream—though he didn't even remember falling asleep. The last thing he remembered was telling Elric goodnight. After that… everything had changed.
Before, whenever he wandered through memories like this, no one could see him.
He had always been nothing more than an observer.
But this woman was speaking to him directly.
"You know," she continued thoughtfully, ignoring his question, "I think we cursed children carry it within us."
Her hand continued to rub her belly.
"That must be why our lives are nothing but suffering."
Kael didn't move.
He simply watched her, still trying to understand what was happening.
"You were cursed by the Demon King," she went on calmly. "John's life ended in agony."
Her eyes drifted down to her stomach.
"And me…"
Her fingers tightened slightly.
"…I have to die giving my life for a monster."
A faint smirk touched her lips.
Then she looked back at Kael.
Her brown eyes were tired—so tired.
"You said you want to search for our parents, didn't you?"
The words struck Kael like a blade.
"But our parents abandoned us long ago."
Kael stiffened.
His jaw tightened as he bit his lip.
"But still…" he began, his voice trembling.
She cut him off.
"I know how parents feel when their daughter is born a cursed child," she said quietly. "Because I feel the same."
Her hand pressed firmly against her stomach.
"I feel disgusted by this monster."
Kael's eyes widened.
"When I conceived this creature," she continued, her voice strangely hollow, "I could see the future."
She lifted her head slowly.
"How he would grow. How cruel he would become. A monster wearing a human face."
Her lips moved, speaking the name without emotion.
"Varyn."
Kael stared at her, confusion clouding his thoughts.
Was this the past?
Or something else entirely?
"You mean him… right?" she continued calmly. "That monster. The one who killed your friend."
Kael's breath caught.
"John."
The name hung in the air.
"But I couldn't do anything," she said quietly. "My destiny was to die as an offering to that monster."
She fell silent for a moment before looking back at him.
"If you're truly determined to search for our parents," she said slowly, "then don't expect it to be easy."
Her gaze hardened slightly.
"Let them live with their neglect. Let them live with regret."
She smiled faintly.
"Like mine."
Kael stared at her.
"…Don't you want to say something to them?" he asked finally.
The woman laughed.
Not loudly.
Just a hollow sound filled with exhaustion.
"To them, I was a bad omen," she said. "They threw me away and let me rot in this miserable life."
Her eyes darkened.
"I curse them, Hero Kael."
Her smile widened.
"I curse them so they can live the same life as me."
She tilted her head slightly.
"No one came to save me in the end," she whispered. "Even John was powerless."
Her voice turned bitter.
"My dignity was stolen in less than a day."
Her fingers trembled faintly against her dress.
"I can no longer call myself a woman."
She laughed quietly at her own words.
"Well… you are fortunate, Hero Kael."
Her gaze sharpened.
"You were praised as the Hero of the world."
Her lips curved into a mocking smile.
"Even though you are the same as us."
Her voice lowered.
"A cursed child."
She leaned forward slightly, studying his face as if searching for something inside him.
"But still…"
Her smile widened again.
"You won't live long."
Her eyes gleamed faintly.
"You are destined to die young."
She began laughing again.
"Poor Hero Kael."
Her laughter echoed against the prison walls.
"You'll live as a legend… and die as something pathetic."
Kael's brows furrowed.
But he didn't feel anger.
Only pity.
"I…" His voice trembled again. "I was late."
His hands clenched.
"If I hadn't lost my memories…"
The woman's laughter stopped instantly.
"…You forgot about us?"
The entire prison trembled.
Kael froze.
The woman slowly raised a hand to her chin, thinking.
"So that's why you never came," she murmured softly. "Even though we waited for so long."
Her voice dropped into a whisper.
Then she looked up at him again.
"In that case… I should apologize."
Kael blinked in confusion.
"For something terrible I did in the other world."
Her smile returned.
Cold.
"But still…"
Her hand lifted slowly toward him.
"You deserve this."
Before Kael could react—
Something yanked him violently backward.
The prison shattered.
Everything went black.
And then—
Pain exploded through his chest again.
-----------------------------------------
Pain greeted him before anything else.
It came slowly at first—dull, distant—then spread through his body like fire crawling beneath his skin. His muscles refused to move, his limbs heavy as stone.
A faint warmth brushed against his eyelids.
Sunlight.
The light reflected through glass somewhere near his bedside, shining softly across his face. Kael's eyelids twitched before slowly opening.
The world came back in fragments.
His body screamed.
Every bone felt as if it had been broken and pieced back together poorly. His arms were numb. His chest tight. Even breathing felt wrong.
For a moment, he wondered if this was another dream.
Another nightmare like the one he had just endured.
With great effort, Kael tried to move.
His muscles resisted him immediately.
A weak groan escaped his throat as he attempted to sit up. His body felt unbearably heavy, as if gravity itself had grown stronger overnight.
Slowly—painfully—he dragged himself upward.
One arm reached out to support his weight.
He managed to sit halfway up.
Then suddenly—
His hand slipped.
The strength in his arm gave out.
Kael fell from the bed.
His body struck the floor with a dull thud.
At the same moment, his hand caught the edge of the bedside table. A glass resting there was pulled down with him, crashing onto the floor and shattering into sharp fragments.
His palm scraped across the broken glass.
Thin lines of red appeared instantly.
But strangely—
That pain barely registered compared to the crushing weight in the rest of his body.
Confusion flooded his mind.
Why was he hurting like this?
Why did his body feel so weak?
Before he could gather his thoughts, the door suddenly burst open.
Kael lifted his gaze.
Robert stood there.
For a brief second, the boy froze in shock.
Then the tray in his hands dropped to the floor.
"Master!!"
Robert rushed forward immediately, dropping to his knees beside Kael. His arms moved quickly but carefully as he lifted Kael's body from the floor.
"Easy… easy…" Robert murmured urgently.
His eyes scanned Kael's face, his shoulders, his hands—checking every detail with clear panic.
Kael remained limp in his arms.
The blood on his palm from the broken glass barely stung compared to the strange heaviness inside his body.
"Are you alright?" Robert asked quickly, his voice trembling. "I'm glad you finally woke up."
Kael frowned weakly.
"…It's strange…" he murmured.
His voice came out hoarse
"My body… feels too heavy…"
The sensation felt familiar somehow.
Like when he had first woken from his long coma years ago.
Robert carefully helped Kael back onto the bed, guiding him slowly until he sat upright. He placed a pillow behind Kael's back so he could lean against it.
"Stay here," Robert said quickly. "I'll call the physicians."
Before Kael could respond, Robert had already rushed out the door.
Kael blinked slowly, his gaze drifting around the room.
Something felt… wrong.
This was Delcra Castle. That much he could recognize.
But the room wasn't his.
The furniture was similar, yet arranged differently. The window stood on the opposite wall compared to his usual chamber. Even the bed frame had a different design.
Kael frowned.
He didn't remember changing rooms.
His gaze shifted toward the window again.
The sunlight felt warmer than he remembered.
Then—
Footsteps echoed rapidly down the hallway.
The door opened again.
Several physicians entered the room at once, carrying instruments and medical tools. Robert returned with them, and Sebastian followed closely behind.
All of their faces held the same expression.
Shock.
Relief.
Carefully, the physicians gathered around Kael.
One checked his pulse.
Another examined his breathing.
Another placed a hand over his chest, sensing the flow of mana within his body.
Kael didn't resist.
He didn't have the strength to.
"…His body is stable," one physician finally said after a moment. "There is nothing critically wrong."
Robert and Sebastian both exhaled in relief.
But Kael only grew more confused.
"…What…" he whispered weakly. "…actually happened?"
His brow furrowed.
His body should have been fine. He clearly remembered being healed after the battle with John.
Yet now his body felt unbelievably weak
Robert and Sebastian exchanged glances.
Robert stepped forward slowly and took Kael's hand in his own.
"You don't remember?" he asked gently.
Kael looked at him.
"Remember what?"
Robert seemed momentarily stunned.
Then he inhaled slowly and forced himself to speak.
"You fell from your room," he said quietly. "…and you've been in a coma for five months."
Kael's eyes widened.
For a moment he simply stared at Robert, unable to process the words.
"…What do you mean I fell?" he asked.
He searched his memories desperately.
The last thing he remembered was saying goodnight to Elric.
After that—
Nothing.
He didn't even remember falling asleep.
Everyone in the room looked surprised.
Robert studied Kael's eyes carefully.
"You… don't remember why you fell?" he asked.
Kael hesitated.
Then slowly shook his head.
One of the physicians stepped forward.
"It's possible the trauma from the fall affected your memory of that night," he explained calmly. "Your injuries were severe. We did everything we could to keep you alive."
Kael closed his eyes briefly.
He tried to remember something—anything beyond the nightmare he had seen.
But nothing came.
Robert watched him carefully.
Then his grip on Kael's hand tightened slightly.
"I'm glad…" Robert said quietly, his voice trembling despite his effort to hide it. "…that you finally woke up."
His eyes lowered for a moment.
"We were afraid you might never wake up again… like last time."
Kael opened his eyes.
He looked at Robert.
Slowly—painfully—he raised his hand and placed it gently on Robert's head.
The boy froze.
Kael's fingers rested there, weak but steady.
"…I'm sorry," Kael whispered.
His voice was barely audible.
But the sincerity in it was unmistakable.