Kael turned his head to stare at Samael.

The latter’s jaw clenched hard as he heard Korynth so blatantly reveal his secrets and betray the oath his brother had made her swear.

It was a system contract-type oath that, under no circumstances, she should have been able to betray.

Yet somehow, she did.

Despair coloured Samael’s soul, and he couldn’t help but throw Uriel a not-so-furtive glance. If he didn’t wake up soon, they’d be doomed.

Not only would they not be able to ascend the spire and free his brother, but they might both be sentenced to fates much, much worse than death.

"What’s your name?" Kael floated to stand in front of Samael.

"..." Samael met his gaze, feeling the heft of his soul, but didn’t answer.

Kael didn’t seem surprised by this. As innocent and hopeless as the boy seemed, he was quite tenacious.

Despite the atrocious torture the Guardias had put him through, Samael hadn’t said a word about his brother or Uriel.

He’d stood firm.

"I’m Kael," he introduced himself instead. "Kael City is my city. My father was a bit on the nose with the name but what can you do about a father’s pride, hm?"

Kael smiled, his expression light yet so incredibly...inhuman.

The way his lips widened and the corners of his eyes creased and folded as he smiled was reminiscent of a flesh puppet’s awkward bodily autonomy.

It was like he wasn’t used to wielding a human body.

Or as if he wasn’t used to smiling. It was hard to tell.

"..." Samael continued to stare at him.

"It was after I slayed a Flood Phoenix. I used its heart to enter the A-Rank, then forged my War-Blade with its bones."

Kael’s smile widened, his eyes sparkling with fond memories. "I felt strong back then, so I left."

"You may not know this, but Ascendance is...forbidden, in a sense."

Korynth’s eyes widened. "No! He is a mortal, if you—"

Kael waved a hand, and Korynth lost her voice.

"Perhaps forbidden is an exaggeration, but let’s say that it has rules that we must follow. Rules often breed etiquette."

"After all, none of us can dare look shabby while wearing our chains now, can we? Better to have chains of gold than chains of rusted silver."

He paused. "I think the rust of the silver exists to remind us of our weakness, while the gold exists to lull us into lethargy, but, ah, I digress."

"Where was I? Ah, right."

Samael’s gaze narrowed as he quietly listened to Kael talk, his cold facade slowly melting to reveal his true face.

His older brother had told him quite a lot about this so-called Kael, and the one word he always used was...strange.

Kael was a strange man.

Not dangerous, not mad, not evil, not good—simply really, really, and extremely strange.

"Ascendance has rules. And one of those rules is that, between each step, there must be an infinity to cross, or else it’s too easy."

"The sky can only hold so many Gods."

Kael threw Korynth a knowing glance.

"I went to conquer my infinity. As a mere A-Ranker. Can you believe that?"

Kael shook his head and laughed. "I went, and I died."

"But as you guessed, I had a plan. I was foolishly brave, but not idiotic to the bone. So, I implanted the core of the phoenix in my chest. Just in case I needed to be revived."

"Turns out my caution was primordial. The core saved and revived me. But—"

Kael raised his hand, his fingers slowly moving across the air to touch his own face.

"—these things always have prices, don’t they?"

CLICK!

A click echoed, and...Kael pulled a prosthetic off his face—a prosthetic that covered the entire top half of his head, from his upper lip to his forehead and hair.

It revealed his true face.

"...?!"

Both Samael and Korynth’s eyes widened as their hearts shook.

"I turned into this."

Kael’s face was a woven tapestry of golden worms that slithered and sloshed about from the depths of his body and out, mingling with a sea of blue eyes clearly not his own.

The worms were alive and in constant movement, consuming his flesh and excreting their fluids within him, the smell that oozed foul beyond words.

"I revived, but I lost a part of my soul. And, if you did not know, the soul affects the body quite deeply."

Kael quietly put the prosthetic back on his face. He adjusted it a bit before it perfectly slid into place, and another click echoed.

"Then, I broke into the second step. Then, I became the youngest man in the world to conquer a City. Then, I became the first in my family to awaken our bloodline."

He shrugged. "Sometimes I wonder if the piece of my soul I lost was the pound of flesh I had to give to bask in my current glory."

"As I stand, I am no different than a god." As arrogant as his words were, Kael himself didn’t exude any of it.

He spoke as if his words were truths rather than thoughts.

"Glory can only come to those who have fallen and, in turn, the fall only graces those who have known glory."

"Do you understand?" He floated forward until he was directly face to face with Samael. His breath licked against the boy’s skin, and his nostrils overflowed with the stench of Samael’s blood.

"..." Samael remained silent.

"Your brother," Kael said, his tone suddenly becoming darker. "He took something from me."

"And I need it back." He spoke very slowly, enunciating every single word. "What he took from me is of such importance that no glory can come from it."

"Only a fall. Only ruin." His emerald gaze slowly began to turn golden, specks dotting its sharp canvas as his fury rose. "And I will not fall."

"But if I do, you and your brother will come with me."

Samael’s pupils trembled. "I-I have no idea what—"

Kael’s hand shot forward, his palm tightly clamping around Samael’s mouth, tightening around his jaw as he shut him up.

Kael’s gaze smouldered with fury as his fingers dug into Samael’s soft skin, and his blood dripped onto them.

Kael’s head turned to face Korynth. His expression twisted into a dark scowl, and his Will pressed deeply into her own.

"That boy," he nudged toward Uriel, while still holding onto Samael, "what does he have that I need?"

Korynth regained her ability to speak, and rather than exploding with rage, she instantly rushed to answer his question.

She’d never seen Kael so close to snapping.

If he was that enraged despite the fact that she’d been so respectful and had even handed herself over alongside the two boys, it could only mean that...

’...he doesn’t have much time left.’