The headquarters of the Organization — once a fortress of calm strategy and iron discipline — now pulsed with unrest.
The corridors were alive with whispers. Eyes darted. Hands rested too close to weapons. Every shadow felt longer, sharper.
Sid could feel it before he even entered the central chamber — that electric hum of distrust, of something unraveling from within.
Lucien was waiting for him, shoulders rigid, coat half torn from the last mission. The circles under his eyes were deeper than ever. Around them, holo-screens projected flickering reports: black zones spreading across the continent, fractures in reality, corrupted energy readings.
"Where's Commander Yara?" Sid asked quietly.
Lucien's expression darkened. "She's being questioned. Privately."
Sid frowned. "By who?"
Lucien hesitated — and that hesitation told him everything.
"…Kael."
The word landed like a weight.
Kael had always been the rational one, the strategist who believed in logic above emotion. If he was questioning Yara, it meant suspicion had become official.
Sid exhaled, steadying his pulse. "Her mark..."
"... is spreading," Lucien interrupted. "It's reacting to something in Velgrin's resonance. And the soldiers saw it during the mission. They're calling her tainted."
He turned toward the table, slamming a datapad down. The screen flickered with ancient records — files marked ARCHIVE RED.
Sid's gaze narrowed. "What's that?"
Lucien's voice dropped to a whisper. "Evidence. Something I wasn't supposed to find."
He tapped a file open. The header appeared — Operation Ascendant Pact.
It was over two centuries old.
[Subject: Velgrin
Objective: Covert alliance for containment study of Ravh'Zereth's vessel lineage.
Approved by: High Command of the First Division.]
Sid felt his blood run cold. "They… worked with him?"
Lucien nodded grimly. "The Organization was formed to contain divine and demonic energies. But long before your birth, they made a deal — Velgrin provided essence data, and in return, he was given access to the early vessels."
"Vessels like me."
Lucien met his gaze. "Exactly like you."
Silence stretched between them, thick and suffocating.
Outside, the low hum of containment wards flickered, as if echoing Sid's pulse.
Then a door hissed open. Yara stepped in, restrained at the wrists by faint light-seals.
Even bound, her presence commanded the room. Her hair was damp with sweat, her eyes fierce but clouded with something deeper — guilt.
Kael followed her in, eyes cold, voice sharp.
"She refuses to explain the mark."
"I told you," Yara snapped, "it's from the old war. A wound that never healed."
Kael crossed his arms. "It reacts to Velgrin's energy. That's not a wound... that's a link."
Lucien stepped forward. "Enough. We don't have proof... "
"We do," Kael cut in. "I ran her blood sample through the residual flame signature from the last breach. It matches."
The room went still.
Sid looked at Yara. Her eyes flicked toward him, briefly — defiant, ashamed, terrified.
"I told you to stay silent," she murmured.
Sid took a step forward. "You were marked long before this war, weren't you?"
Her jaw tightened.
"You don't understand, Sid. I fought in the fall of Hal'Zirath. I saw what that kind of power can do. I swore I'd never let another vessel lose control again. And now... " her gaze hardened, "...you're walking the same path."
The words hit like a blade.
Lucien moved between them. "Enough! This isn't the time to fracture!"
Kael slammed his hand on the table. "We're already fractured. Our commander's compromised, our vessel's unstable, and our enemy knows everything about us. What oath are we even keeping anymore?"
His voice cracked on the last word, fury hiding the fear beneath.
Sid looked around the room — at Lucien's trembling hands, at Yara's haunted stare, at Kael's burning distrust — and realized something awful.
They weren't fighting Velgrin right now.
They were fighting themselves.
"They'll turn on you," Ravh'Zereth's whisper coiled through Sid's thoughts. "Just as I said."
He clenched his fists, forcing the voice down. "No."
Kael turned toward him sharply. "No? Then tell me, Sid — when those flames crawl up your arm again, when you lose control, will you burn us too? Or will you finally admit what you are?"
Sid stepped closer, eyes flashing. "I'm not your enemy, Kael."
"Then prove it," Kael spat. "Swear it... swear you won't become him."
Sid opened his mouth — and hesitated.
Because deep down, he couldn't swear that.
Lucien's voice cut through, quieter, weary. "All of us made oaths when we joined this. To protect the world, no matter what it costs. But maybe… maybe we've forgotten who we were protecting it from."
The silence that followed was heavy — too heavy.
The lights flickered again.
The hum of containment seals grew louder. Somewhere deep beneath the facility, an alarm began to wail — faint, distant, and wrong.
Kael's head snapped toward the door. "What now... "
The room trembled. Energy surged through the floor like a living pulse.
The walls shimmered with dark veins of crimson.
Lucien's voice broke. "He's here."
Sid's chains flared to life, reacting violently. His chest burned with searing heat.
From somewhere beyond the sealed walls came the faintest whisper — cold, calm, and far too familiar:
"You cannot chain fire."
Velgrin's voice.
The light-seals on Yara's wrists shattered like glass.
Her mark ignited — glowing like molten gold mixed with blood.
And in that moment, Sid saw the truth in her eyes: she hadn't been corrupted by Velgrin. She'd been chosen by him long ago.
Yara fell to her knees, clutching her arm as the mark spread like fire through her veins.
Lucien shouted orders. Kael reached for his weapon. Sid's flames roared to life, black and crimson intertwining — and the world fractured into chaos once more.