Kael walked towards a large gate, the red-robed guardian closely following behind him. Around them, there was nothing but darkness and tight cobblestone walls.

Fighting against the dark, there were lit torches spread across the stone, illuminating their path towards the gate.

Eventually, they reached the gate. Guarding it, two white-armoured knights could be seen, as tall as giants and bearing auras as sharp as the holiest of blades.

Kael nodded at the Guardian Knights, and they nodded back. He looked at the large silver-steel gate, so polished it reflected the sharp emerald light of his gaze back at him. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

For some reason, Kael paused for a moment to observe his own reflection.

’...’

He shook his head, ignoring the strange thought that’d nearly arisen in his mind. He placed a palm onto the steel, then vanished, teleported into the place behind the gate.

The red-robed guardian didn’t follow after him, though.

He simply remained standing in front of the gate, patiently waiting.

Only those of royal blood could gain acknowledgment from the Guardian Gates without having an entry talisman. If the guardian wanted to enter, he’d have needed to go through a long bureaucratic process to get the entry pass.

And Kael didn’t have time for that, so all he could do was wait, and he didn’t mind. He didn’t really want to see...that place.

’Hopefully his highness doesn’t go too far.’

...

Kael reappeared in a blue void, across which countless cubes of all colours were spread, each varying in size and aura.

A command panel, filled with complex inputs and terminals, appeared in front of him. Without waiting, he began to type in the coordinates of his destination.

Then, he vanished again, teleported into the specific dimensional prison cell he sought to reach.

WHOOSH!

He blinked, and he’d reached his destination.

He’d appeared in a moist and dark room, the ground of old charred rock and the ceiling obscured in the darkness that hung overhead.

Kael looked ahead and sighed. ’Gruesome.’

Near the edge of the dark dungeon, three tall erected pikes stood, impaled through three prisoners; the one on the left was a young boy, barely into his years of puberty, with long ashen hair and deep orange pupils.

He was covered in blood and wounds, his gaze void of energy and full of fear as the agony piled within his frame and broke him down.

His eyes were red, dried from the endless tears he’d shed.

The boy was half-naked, his tunic torn and chest as exposed as it was pried open by the large pike tearing through him. He hung from it limply.

The one in the center was a tall and beautiful woman, wearing pristine crimson robes that loosely hugged the seductive curves of her body.

Her tan skin glistened even in the darkness of the dungeon, and her long white hair majestically fell from her head, as pure as her golden eyes.

She was void of any injury, and no blood leaked from the massive hole in her chest through which she was impaled; she seemed so indifferent to it that it felt surreal.

Her gaze was steady and utterly calm.

The last one, the one on the right, was a young man, most likely in the latter years of his puberty, with a tall and slim stature, packed with sleek muscle hugged by his pale white skin.

His hair fell in waves of ivory and silver, and his eyes were closed, as if he were dormant, even in spite of the gruesome wounds torn across his body.

If the first boy seemed on the verge of rupture from the torture he’d suffered, then the young man had entirely broken, so much so that he looked as if he were dead.

His heart didn’t beat, he didn’t breathe, and his cores were still—he was absolutely lifeless, with the only memento of his once lively frame being his fresh, dripping blood.

"..."

Kael took the time to observe the three prisoners his servants had been torturing. He met Korynth’s gaze, then shook his head.

He walked forward and stopped a couple meters in front of her. He looked up.

"It has been some time, hasn’t it?"

Kael’s toes pushed just the slightest bit, and he freed himself from the laws of gravity, floating up until he levitated eye to eye with her.

"Still as idiotic and arrogant as ever." Korynth’s words were cold and harsh, her gaze narrowing and jaw clenching as she spoke.

"Mhm." Kael softly nodded, then turned to face Samael.

He took in the sheer horror and agony in the boy’s eyes, his fear and helplessness, his ache and tiredness. And then he looked away.

"I was told you wanted to talk to me?" He eyed her. "You even betrayed your boys for this. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious."

Kael folded his arms over his chest. "Go on, Kory."

Korynth’s gaze flickered with hints of rage and shame hearing Kael call her that name, but she managed to suppress herself.

She exhaled a breath. "I want to make a deal with you."

Kael raised a brow, his intrigue deepening.

"These boys are what you and your father have been looking for. That one—"

She pointed her chin at Samael.

"—is the madman’s direct blood brother. If you use his blood aether, you can open the lock he put in place and finally begin your experiments."

"But—" Korynth’s neutral expression broke into a wide smile. "—he also is a natural-born Panacea Centaur."

Kael’s eyes slightly widened.

"I drank a drop of his blood and now—" Korynth’s core suddenly unfurled, her aether pressure erupting to press onto the dungeon and crack the fragile fabric of its space.

Kael’s eyes widened further. Korynth wasn’t supposed to have a functional core; it was supposed to be broken and lifeless.

She was a cripple, and he knew best, because after all, he was the one who’d shattered her core in the first place.

"—I’m no longer a cripple."