The weight of the revelations settled upon them, a heavy, suffocating blanket in the quiet of Merlin's study. Elara, the prodigy turned monster. Jack, the fallen hero, his soul now a silent passenger in Kenjiro's own. And the masked man, a phantom wielding a corrupting power, his symbol a serpent eating its own tail. It was a web of conspiracies and tragedies, each thread more tangled and terrifying than the last. They left the old sage's chamber, their minds a whirlwind of new questions and old sorrows, and began the long, silent walk back through the crystalline corridors of the palace.