Andrei's eyes opened slightly.
His consciousness returned slowly.
Heavy.
Distant.
A faint rhythmic beeping echoed nearby.
White ceiling.
Soft light.
The sterile scent hit him almost immediately.
"...Finally awake?"
Andrei turned his head weakly.
Dimitri sat beside the bed.
One arm gone.
Bandages wrapped tightly around his shoulder and chest.
Despite that—
He still looked annoyingly relaxed.
Andrei stared at him for a moment before finally speaking.
"...Where are we?"
"The hospital."
Dimitri leaned back slightly in the chair.
"You passed out after overexerting your hue."
Memory returned instantly.
The tide.
The veterans.
The Black.
And—
"Dimitri!"
His body jerked slightly upward.
Pain shot through him immediately.
"Tch—"
"Relax."
Dimitri pushed him back down with his remaining hand.
"I'm alive."
Andrei's eyes moved toward the missing arm again.
Silence filled the room briefly.
"...What happened?"
"The veterans managed to stop the tide before it reached the border."
Dimitri's voice remained calm.
"But barely."
Andrei frowned slightly.
"How bad was it?"
"Bad enough."
Dimitri glanced toward the window.
"If that thing reached the city..."
He didn't finish the sentence.
He didn't need to.
Andrei lowered his gaze slightly.
"...Why did they even come that close?"
That was the part he couldn't understand.
Every lesson.
Every briefing.
Every warning about the Black—
Everything always revolved around the border.
Not deep invasions.
Not tides.
Not that.
Dimitri's expression shifted slightly.
More serious now.
"Black creatures are drawn to hue."
Andrei looked back toward him.
"The concentration of hue in the city is relatively strong, so it makes sense for them to come close."
A pause.
"That's why anything near the border gets exterminated immediately."
His fingers tapped lightly against the armrest.
"Normally, anything within a certain range gets wiped out before it can gather numbers."
Andrei stayed silent.
Dimitri exhaled slowly.
"But this tide..."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"It came from deep within the Black."
A brief silence followed.
"That shouldn't happen."
The words settled heavily in the room.
Andrei frowned.
"...Maybe they were just wandering?"
"No."
Immediate.
Certain.
Dimitri shook his head.
"Black creatures don't suddenly move in waves like that."
Another pause.
His voice lowered slightly.
"Like they were being controlled or something."
The room felt quieter after that.
Andrei swallowed slightly.
"...You think something caused it?"
Dimitri leaned back slowly.
"I don't know."
For the first time since Andrei met him—
Dimitri genuinely sounded uncertain.
And that alone bothered him more than the tide itself.
Another moment passed before Dimitri spoke again.
"But I do know one thing."
His gaze drifted toward the window again.
"The Black is changing."
Silence.
"And it's definitely not changing in our favor."
The words lingered heavily between them.
Andrei tried to process everything.
The tide.
The missing arm.
The overwhelming number of creatures.
The way the veterans reacted immediately—
As if even they were unsettled.
Before he could fully gather his thoughts—
The hospital door slammed open.
"ANDRIIIIII—!"
Andrei's eyes widened instantly.
A blur rushed across the room.
Then—
Impact.
The air left his lungs immediately.
"GAH—"
Elara wrapped herself around him tightly on the bed.
Far too tightly.
"You idiot!"
Her voice cracked slightly.
"Do you have any idea how worried I was?!"
"E-Elara..."
Andrei struggled weakly beneath her.
"I can't breathe..."
"No."
The answer came immediately.
She buried her face into his chest instead.
"You almost died."
The doctor stepped into the room behind her with the exhausted expression of a man who had already given up on controlling the situation.
"Miss Elara."
A tired sigh escaped him.
"Please stop crushing the patient."
"No."
Again.
Immediate.
Dimitri burst into laughter from the side.
"Hah—looks like you're finished, lil bro."
Andrei shot him an irritated glare.
The doctor adjusted his glasses slightly before looking toward Andrei.
"Fortunately, your condition isn't serious."
He checked the clipboard briefly.
"You suffered severe hue exhaustion due to excessive output."
A pause.
"Combined with the overload on your board and the amount of hue you forced into your Gear..."
He lowered the clipboard.
"It's honestly impressive you remained conscious as long as you did."
Andrei blinked slightly.
"...So I'm fine?"
"For the most part."
The doctor nodded.
"You'll need several days of rest."
"And supplements."
His expression sharpened slightly.
"And preferably no reckless behavior."
Dimitri immediately looked away.
The doctor narrowed his eyes.
"...I wasn't only referring to him."
Silence.
Then—
Elara tightened her grip around Andrei again.
"I'm taking him home."
"No, you're not," the doctor replied instantly.
Far beyond the hospital walls.
Silence filled the dimly lit chamber.
"...A tide."
The voice echoed quietly through darkness.
Another followed shortly after.
"From deep within the Black."
A pause.
"Unprecedented."
Silence settled briefly across the room.
Then—
"Coincidence?"
The question hung in the air.
"No."
An older voice answered calmly.
"The timing is inconvenient."
Another figure shifted slightly within the darkness.
"The frequency of abnormalities has increased these past years."
"The border activity."
"The mutations."
"The airborne adaptation."
"And now this."
Silence followed once more.
Heavy.
Measured.
Then—
"The Black is changing."
No one disagreed.
One slow tapping sound echoed through the chamber.
"It's expanding past the border. "
Another pause.
"Push it back?"
"How?"
Silence again.
Then—
"The powerhouses—we use them."
The atmosphere shifted slightly.
One of the silhouettes leaned back.
"...There is still no way to push the Black back."
Silence.
Then—
"We continue as we have been."
No emotion accompanied the order.
Only certainty.
Days later after Andrei had returned home.
The evening air felt colder than usual.
The Scarlet estate stood quiet beneath the fading light.
Andrei sat outside near the garden steps.
Bandages still wrapped around portions of his arms.
His body felt lighter now.
But his thoughts didn't.
Dimitri sat nearby.
One arm missing.
Yet somehow—
Still completely himself.
That annoyed Andrei slightly.
"...I was scared."
The words came quietly.
Unexpectedly.
Dimitri glanced toward him.
Andrei stared ahead.
Not at him.
Not at anything.
Just ahead.
"When I saw you down there..."
His fists tightened slowly.
"I thought you were dead."
A pause.
"And I didn't realize how terrifying that felt until then."
The wind shifted softly through the garden.
Dimitri remained silent.
Andrei lowered his gaze slightly.
"I couldn't stop thinking about it afterward."
The image replayed in his mind again.
The missing arm.
The blood.
The Black spreading across Dimitri's shoulder.
If he had arrived later—
His chest tightened slightly.
"I don't want to feel that helpless again."
This time—
There was no hesitation in his voice.
No uncertainty.
Only frustration.
Determination.
"I want to get stronger."
Silence followed briefly.
Then Dimitri leaned back slightly.
"If you really want to get stronger..."
Andrei looked toward him.
"You need to master the Scarlet flames."
A small frown formed immediately.
"...Master them how?"
Dimitri smirked faintly.
"For starters?"
He lifted his remaining hand slightly.
"Stop treating them like ordinary fire."
Flames flickered briefly across his fingers.
Shifting.
Moving naturally.
Like breathing.
"The flames of the Scarlet House aren't weapons."
His gaze shifted toward Andrei.
"They are extensions."
The flames twisted again—
Changing shape effortlessly before fading away.
"And right now?"
He snorted lightly.
"You're using them in the dumbest way possible."
Andrei frowned.
"...Then teach me properly."
Dimitri laughed quietly.
"I already taught you the basics."
A pause.
"But if you actually want to master them..."
His expression relaxed slightly.
"There's only one person who can teach you that."
Andrei blinked.
"...Who?"
Dimitri looked toward the massive estate behind them.
Then—
"Father."