Nex didn't remember the exact moment he collapsed. His legs had grown heavy, his breath ragged, the wounds from before screaming at him with every step. The stench of black blood clung to his lungs.
Then—darkness.
When his eyes opened again, he was no longer on the cold, blood-slicked floor.
Daylight streamed softly across his face. He blinked, confused, staring up at towering trees that swayed gently above him. Vines with faint blue moss climbed the trunks, and white flowers pulsed with a strange glow along the roots. The air smelled fresh, clean—sweet even—nothing like the rot of the lab.
But when Nex sat up, he froze. The walls around the grove weren't sky—they were stone. The branches seemed to grow out of cracks in the lab itself, twisting as if nature had forced its way in. It was a forest inside a cage of ruins, mystical and wrong all at once.
"You're awake," a soft, boyish voice said beside him.
Nex turned sharply.
A boy no older than twelve sat cross-legged at his side. His blonde hair caught the shafts of light like gold, his features gentle and almost too perfect—yet not human. From his head sprouted two small horns, curved like tiny crescents. His eyes stopped Nex cold—one a deep black, the other glowing golden like the sun itself.
"You fainted," the boy continued calmly, his voice kind. "The black blood poisoned you. But don't worry—it's gone now. We took it out before it could spread too far."
Nex's chest tightened. His body still ached, but… the burning sickness was gone.
He opened his mouth to speak, but his words died when he noticed the others.
Children. Dozens of them.
All scattered across the strange grove, playing quietly, laughing softly, or sitting with small mana beasts curled at their laps. Wolves no bigger than kittens, foxes with glowing tails, birds with translucent wings—creatures that looked harmless, almost adorable.
But every child had the same mark.
Two horns sprouting from their heads.
Nex's eyes locked on another figure—a girl, around twelve as well, standing beside the blonde boy. Her horns curved longer than his, delicate yet sharp, and her hair was dark, her gaze calm but watchful.
"You were close to death," she said softly, her voice carrying a strange weight for someone her age. "If you had fought a little longer, the poison would have taken your mind. You would've become one of them."
The other children turned to look at Nex now—smiling, curious, their small horns glinting faintly in the daylight.
The boy with sunlit eyes smiled warmly at him.
"You're safe here… for now."
Nex sat up fully, his eyes still scanning the strange grove. The horned children were watching him, their smiles warm and open—too open.
"Who… who are you all?" Nex asked carefully, his voice low.
The blonde boy tilted his head, blinking like it was the most normal question in the world. "We're orphans," he said simply. "They took us from orphanages. Some of us are human. Some are elves. Some dwarves. But it doesn't matter. We all ended up here."
The girl next to him nodded, her expression calm but sad. "They brought us underground… into the lab. They did things. Cut us open. Put things inside. Monster cores. Something black, too… something that hurt."
Her small hand went instinctively to her chest.
Nex felt his throat tighten. "And… and they just did that to you?"
"Yes," another little boy piped up, maybe only ten. His horns were crooked, his ears a little pointed like an elf. "It hurt a lot. Like fire under my skin. We cried a lot. But then the pain stopped, and the horns came."
The blonde boy gave a little laugh, as if to soften the story. "We got used to it. Pain just became… normal."
Nex's fists curled. Normal? No child should think that.
"Didn't you… hate it? Didn't you want to scream at them?" he asked. His voice cracked harsher than he meant.
The girl's lips curved in a sad smile. "We did scream. But they never listened. So we stopped."
A smaller child, maybe seven, waddled over and tugged at Nex's arm with wide, innocent eyes. "Mister, do you hurt too? You look like you hurt."
Before Nex could answer, a boy scrambled clumsily onto his lap, then up onto his back, wrapping tiny arms around his shoulders. "You're warm," the boy murmured softly, resting his cheek against Nex's hair.
Nex froze. His chest ached. His arms moved on their own, holding the little one gently so he wouldn't fall.
"…Yeah," Nex said quietly. "I hurt too. But… I'm okay."
The blonde boy and the girl watched, their gazes calm but older than they should be. The boy gave a small grin. "You're nice. Not like them."
"Who… did this to you?" Nex asked, though part of him dreaded the answer.
"The people in white coats," the girl replied softly. "They said we weren't real kids anymore. That we were… projects. They wanted to see how much pain we could take. How much of the monsters we could hold inside."
Her eyes dropped. "Some of us didn't make it."
The child on Nex's back nuzzled into his neck, humming softly as if nothing was wrong. Nex lifted a trembling hand and ruffled the boy's messy hair.
"You're just kids," Nex muttered. "You shouldn't even know what this feels like."
The blonde boy tilted his head again, smiling faintly. "But we do. And now you know too."
Nex's heart clenched. Their words were innocent, simple, like they were telling him about a playground game. But every word cut deeper than a blade.