Sometime later…

Halo had been unconscious for days. After three weeks of hell, he could finally sleep without weight crushing his shoulders, his neck stiff with tension, or those red eyes hungrily watching his blood.

When Mika fell, fever claimed him. Once he finally woke, he found himself in Iris's home.

Initially, he woke to system notifications flooding his vision, but his thoughts were scattered and unfocused. He swept them away without reading.

He rested gently.

Hours passed without letting Iris realize that he was awake.

Truth be told, he needed to sort out his feelings about her abandoning him to three weeks of torture.

He felt nothing.

He wasn't emotionless.

His heart functioned normally, he could experience pain and relief. But her actions? Those left him numb, uncertain how to feel.

He should have been furious. He'd nearly died, after all. But even that wasn't enough to spark anger. It didn't mean he trusted her, though.

When she saw he was awake, she came to sit by him immediately. Her eyes filled with tears as she bowed low, apologizing with every word.

"I wasn't sure how good you were at pretending… and I couldn't afford to take any chances—

The words left her in a swift breath, but Halo shrugged her off before she could finish.

Her reasons meant nothing to him. If she'd waited even one more day, he'd be dead. But he wasn't. That was all that mattered.

But Iris didn't share his indifference. She looked broken, gutted.

He didn't see the point.

She'd kept him in the dark before. Now, with Mika dead, her reasons didn't matter.

They needed to worry about what was next.

An awkward tension hung between them for a while, but once Iris realized he genuinely held no grudge, the atmosphere lightened.

Thinking back, he realized the librarian Aeliana's beliefs had been naive, and he'd been foolish to ever consider adopting them.

She had believed in a utopia. One where people lived in harmony, abstained from killing, and helped each other lawfully delay their Purposes without becoming Sinners.

Mika was the perfect example. This world was full of people like her, perhaps worse. Someone who enjoyed torture, who found genuine pleasure in inflicting pain, and that she could exist at all revealed how deeply broken everything was.

People like Mika would never fit Aeliana's paradise. But naive dreamers like her couldn't survive here either. They were better off dead.

He had no idea where the dead went, whether back to their original world or on to another, but he hoped that wherever Aeliana ended up, she'd outgrow her foolish idealism.

Despite these thoughts, he remained bedridden. His body was still stiff and unyielding with phantom pains haunting his limbs and torso.

After weeks of unappetizing slop, he craved something satisfying, something that would lift his spirits. But no matter how many meals the Child of Sacrifice brought him, nothing had flavor. It all tasted like ash.

He nearly gave in to tears.

Their Purpose was far from complete, though. Once he could walk again, even just a little, Iris had him sit down. She needed to tell him something important about the Chaos Eaters.

"I don't want to burden you right now, but once you've recovered, I'll tell you everything about our next move."

Halo's expression was blunt.

Iris sighed.

"These past weeks have shown me something important. Chaos Eaters seem to be viable only when the host is a Perverted Sinner or it makes them one."

Halo furrowed his brow.

That much was obvious; all the Chaos Eaters he'd killed were Perverted Sinners even for the humanoid version.

"Perverted Sinners are disturbingly close to humans. Some keep us as mementos, others crave our flesh with an obsession. But they're picky, far more than the others. They don't just devour anyone. Sometimes, even gender decides who they hunt."

Halo raised a startled eyebrow.

"How does this fit into this situation, though?"

Iris took a deep breath.

"I don't think the mastermind's goal is simple killing. They're trying to break a boundary. They either intend to engineer a strain of Perverted Sinners that abandon their usual selectiveness and target the mind rather than the body… or they want to eliminate that limitation."

She frowned.

"Perverted Sinners that remain weak, nothing more than fodder in a fight, but are instinctively compelled to seek out humans. A swarm of even a few thousand would push anyone straight into becoming a Lost Lord."

It was like training an animal to rationalize. Once that key was obtained, they lost their brutality and unpredictable behavior completely. But in this case, the Sinners came nearly unkillable for the average person. They exchanged their strength for brain-seeking ability.

She had a point.

But it raised questions: why would someone this formidable operate this far into the Voiceless Region? And why choose StoneHaven?

A Chaos Eater who fed on weaklings like them would be nothing compared to one who'd consumed fragments from the coastal territories, the north, or even the Ashen Ages. The stronger the source, the more powerful they'd become.

"It's only a theory for now. We'll verify it when we clash with our next target. The problem is that Mika's death tightened their guard, and with the Black War unfolding, danger is everywhere. For now, we have to stay hidden."

Shadow of Death had anticipated this. His clone, Tough, had killed Ren, one of StoneHaven's guards. They might overlook Mika's death, but Ren's? That they couldn't ignore.

Nearly two months had passed, approaching the meeting time with Liam and Seraphim. He worried the guards would ambush him when he tried to leave. And on top of that, there was a war raging outside.

He didn't care about the details. The Black War had dragged on for a week… some bandits claiming territory over two safe zones. Absurd, but typical of how exhausting people were here.

One wrong move and the war would interfere with their meeting. He couldn't let that happen. Seraph was the only person who could make food he could actually taste, and he was desperate for a real meal.

Failure would mean another torture for him.

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