"That was really stupid. Why would you even say that?" Kareem's voice cracked sharply, slicing through the tense silence like a whip.
Edoran lowered his head in shame. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, betraying his inner turmoil.
He wished he knew the answer. He wished he could explain the sudden, uncontrollable urge that had gripped him when he looked into Tobias's eyes.
"I... I don't know what got over me," Edoran muttered. "I just felt like... I had to say it."
Kareem's face turned an unhealthy shade of white. His features twisted into an expression of horror as if he had just witnessed a terrible crime.
The air between them grew heavier by the second.
"I'm sorry," Kareem said coldly. "You'll have to go back on your own. I'll call a taxi."
Before Edoran could respond, Kareem shoved a square, glass-like card into his hand.
"Keep this safe. If you need to reach me... use it."
The small card pulsed with a faint blue glow — a beacon, a silent promise.
Without another word, Kareem turned and stormed back into the building. His boots struck the marble floor with forceful, angry echoes.
When he reached the elevator, he smashed his fist against the button for the 14th floor.
Jason looked up lazily as the elevator doors slid open.
He immediately registered the fury radiating off Kareem in waves.
"Back already?" Jason asked mildly, sipping from a chipped ceramic mug. "Did you not drop off Edoran?"
"NO!" Kareem barked, his voice reverberating off the walls. "What the hell was that stunt?! Why did you make Bacchus attack Edoran's mind?!"
Jason sighed and took a slow, deliberate sip of his coffee before answering.
"It was a precaution," he said smoothly. "Warmonger will return someday. We'll need both Edoran and Tobias at their best to face her."
Kareem's face contorted with disbelief.
"Then why pit them against each other?!" he demanded. "Why force Tobias to relive his trauma? You're changing, Jason! You're becoming... someone else."
For a heartbeat, Jason's hand tightened around the coffee mug, tiny cracks forming along its surface.
"Enough, Kareem," Jason said, voice low and cold. "You are my successor but don't presume to lecture me.
Everything is under control. Everything is planned."
Kareem's fists trembled at his sides, but he said nothing.
He stared at Jason — stared at the man he had once idolized — and saw someone... something else.
"They're just children," Kareem whispered, voice breaking. "If you hurt them... you lose me. Remember Velcrina."
At that name, Jason flinched as if struck.
His eyes, so calm a moment ago, glazed over with sorrow.
"I'm still the Jason you know," he said, but the words sounded hollow even to his own ears.
Without waiting for a response, Kareem turned on his heel and left.
In the training gym, the atmosphere was far lighter.
Tobias was lifting massive iron bars without effort, the veins in his arms bulging with strain and power.
Nearby, Lily pouted exaggeratedly as she sat cross-legged on a bench.
"Bacchus didn't come again today," she complained. "Did you at least get rid of that creepy homunculus?"
Kareem offered her a tired smile.
"Yeah. He's safe for now. Tobias, you good?"
Tobias simply nodded, his focus never wavering from his training.
Lily's body shimmered.
White fur sprouted from her arms, small horns curled from her forehead, and her golden eyes gleamed with intensity. She activated her core with ease, lifting every set of weights in the room through pure telekinetic force.
The room vibrated under the invisible pressure of her power.
Kareem sat down in the corner and closed his eyes, trying to clear his mind.
But Jason's face — twisted with regret and bitterness — haunted him.
He remembered, with painful clarity, the times he'd caught Jason murmuring in his sleep:
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Velcrina..."
The words had been spoken like a man drowning in his own memories.
'I have to support Jason,' Kareem thought.
'Before he loses everything. Before he loses himself.'
And those kids... Tobias, Lily, Edoran... they were innocents being thrown into a battlefield they didn't even understand.
'I have to protect them too.
I'm the only one left who can.'
Meanwhile, Edoran finally arrived at Harold's mansion.
The afternoon sun painted the world in muted gold as Harold waved energetically from the entrance.
"I was waiting for you! Did Jason pull any crazy stunts?" Harold joked.
Edoran shook his head and smiled faintly.
"No. He gave me a pretty cool gift."
With a deep breath, he summoned the Draconius Equus.
Black armor-like skin enveloped his body.
Multiple grotesque arms sprouted from his sides, and dark, shadowy wings unfurled with an ominous hiss.
His eyes burned blood-red as the world itself shifted and distorted.
Harold stepped forward — and Edoran gasped.
A blue afterimage of Harold moved slightly ahead of him, and a red one lagged.
The bird flying overhead had a blue shadow diving ahead... the real bird following it, the red trailing behind.
It was as if he could see time itself — past, present, and potential future.
The power overwhelmed him.
Pain lanced through his skull.
He collapsed back into his normal form, the world spinning violently.
"You okay?" Harold asked, stepping closer.
"I'm fine—" Edoran began, before promptly vomiting all over Harold's crisp white shirt.
Harold stared in horror at the mess.
"This was a new shirt," he said weakly.
Edoran winced, chuckling awkwardly before his vision darkened once more.
When Edoran woke again, he was back in his bed.
A maid was dusting the shelves with careful precision.
"Ah, you're awake!" she said brightly. "Let me fetch Master Harold."
Moments later, Harold burst in wearing a fresh blue shirt.
"Amazing!" he exclaimed. "Jason gave you a tier-1 mythical savage. And not just any savage — a Draconius Equus! That's insane!"
"You'll need proper training to control it though," Harold added. "I'll help you. I'm even bringing in someone specialized in reverberation training."
Edoran sat up slowly, feeling a cautious hope bloom in his heart.
Maybe things were finally looking up.
But then, an intrusive thought wormed its way into his mind:
'Why am I even doing this?'
'What am I fighting for?'
A cold, whispering voice answered from the shadows of his mind:
(Just follow his lead. He is your best option.)
'But what will I get in return?'
(Exactly. Listen. Surpass his expectations. You'll be rewarded.)
The voices multiplied, weaving into a haunting chorus:
(Follow, follow, follow...)
Edoran stopped questioning.
He simply believed.
He must become Harold's greatest weapon — out of his own free will.
Back in Jason's office, Bacchus entered silently.
'Cruel, your great-grandson has become. And your granddaughter... even worse,' Bacchus conveyed wordlessly. 'To subject a living being to such horror... it makes me question if they are even human.'
Jason chuckled bitterly.
"I thought so too... when I watched my Aria butcher so many, hungering for power she could never satisfy."
He stared out the window, at the slowly darkening sky.
"They are cursed," Jason whispered. "And it's my fault."
'You could have stopped them,' Bacchus pressed. 'Yet you didn't.'
Jason's shoulders sagged under the weight of memories.
"I couldn't," he said hoarsely. "I loved them too much to see the rot inside them."
The face of Aria — smiling so brightly as a child — floated before his eyes.
The same smile Velcrina had inherited.
The same smile Harold now wore.
Broken reflections of a past he could never fix.
'Did the mind clause on Edoran weaken?' Jason asked, desperate to change the subject.
'Yes, but barely. It may take a year.'
Jason nodded absently.
"Take as long as needed.
Kareem suspects you tampered with Edoran's mind — let him. He must never realize you are helping the boy."
Bacchus inclined his head in silent agreement.
'And Warmonger?'
Bacchus shook his head grimly.
'Blocked. Shielded. Hidden.'
Jason closed his eyes.
What kind of unholy alliance had she forged?
His hand drifted to the top drawer.
With trembling fingers, he pulled out an old, yellowing photograph.
Two young children beamed up at him — Kareem and Velcrina, their faces so full of life and promise.
A sharp ache lanced through his chest.
"I failed her," Jason whispered. "But I won't fail Kareem.
I swear it."
He pressed the photo to his heart.
No matter the cost.
No matter the sins he had to commit.
He would protect Kareem.
Even if it damned him forever.