A voice echoed, clear, light, almost unreal:
— You lost again, Seven?
The sound vibrated through the warm air. Around him, an endless field rippled under golden light. Tall grasses swayed slowly, dotted with white and yellow flowers that shone like tiny suns. The air carried the scent of fresh earth and life, so sweet it felt unreal.
Seven blinked.
This was not the broken world. Not the ashes. Not the war.
A memory.
Two children ran through the tall grass. A clumsy boy—himself. A lively, elusive girl, her white dress floating behind her like wings. Her laughter rang out, pure, bright, like a forgotten melody.
— Wait for me!
He stumbled. The ground gave way beneath his feet.
Then two arms caught him.
The moment their bodies touched—
A flash.
A house on fire.
Screams.
The smell of burning.
A man.
A strike.
Another.
The ground.
The cold.
Headlights.
Too close.
Too fast.
Silence.
The world snapped back.
— You're hopeless, seriously!
The girl's voice brought him back. Gentle. Alive. Real.
Seven looked up at her, breath short, still trapped in that fragment of nightmare.
— Why are you staring into nothing like that?
He inhaled shakily.
— I… I just remembered a nightmare…
She tilted her head, curious, then smiled slightly. The wind lifted her hair, and for a moment, everything seemed perfectly calm.
— Why are you doing this…? he murmured. Why do you stay with me?
She didn't answer immediately. Her gaze wandered for a moment across the golden field.
— You're such an idiot, you know… Honestly—
The world cracked.
The field vanished.
The laughter faded.
Silence.
—
Seven suddenly opened his eyes.
The light was soft. Filtered. A golden ray streamed through a curtain, casting calm shapes on the wooden floor. The scent of clean laundry and polished wood filled the air.
He was lying down.
His body ached. Every muscle protested. But something was different.
The silence.
A true silence.
He lowered his gaze.
Kael was asleep beside him, her head resting on his legs. Her fingers still clutched his shirt, as if to make sure he wouldn't disappear.
Seven stayed still.
His eyes fixed on her. Then, without warning, an echo rose.
Cries.
Voices.
The Abode of the Dead.
A whisper in his head.
He blinked.
Silence.
— …You stayed here all night, huh…
His voice was weak, almost broken.
Kael moved slightly, then opened her eyes.
— S-Seven…?
She stared at him for a second.
Then she threw herself against him.
— You idiot… you're really an idiot…
Her voice trembled. Her hands clung to him.
— I thought you were dead… you had no pulse… there was blood everywhere…
Seven remained silent.
His eyes drifted into the void for a moment.
A voice. Again.
A scream.
He closed his eyelids.
Then slowly placed a hand on Kael's back.
— Sorry… he murmured.
She shook her head, still clinging to him.
— No… it's not that… it's just that… you can't go on like this…
He didn't respond immediately.
The silence weighed.
Then she pulled back slightly, her gaze hard.
— You were going to die.
Not a guess.
A statement.
Seven gave a faint smile.
— I've seen worse.
— Stop that.
Her voice snapped.
— Stop pretending it's nothing!
The smile vanished.
A moment.
Brief.
— If I don't do it… who will?
Kael gritted her teeth.
— And me? You think about me in all this?
Silence.
This time, Seven didn't answer.
He looked away slightly.
—
A few minutes later, Kael placed a tray in front of him.
— Eat.
He raised an eyebrow.
— Did you make this?
— Of course.
He took a bite. Simple. Warm. Real.
A violent contrast to the war.
— Tell me… Adonis… he destroyed you, right?
Seven let out a soft laugh.
— He was strong.
— That's not what I asked.
He looked up at her.
— I needed information.
— So you took the hits on purpose?
— Let's say I let some things happen.
Kael stared at him, incredulous.
— You're completely insane.
Silence.
Then:
— And that form… with the horns…?
Seven slowly set down his chopsticks.
— Chao Mode.
— What does that mean?
He hesitated.
— It's… what happens when someone lets their sin define them.
— Huh?
He inhaled slightly.
— The more you cling to what destroys you… the more power it gives you.
Kael frowned.
— And you?
A slight pause.
— Me… I have something else.
— Your "core," is that it?
He raised his eyes to her.
— Who told you about that?
— I listen, you know.
A brief smile.
— The ether core… it's what you really are. Not your body. Not your powers. Just… you.
— And yours?
He looked away slightly.
— It's… unstable.
A beat.
— Not like a demon.
— Then what?
Silence.
— A mistake, maybe.
Kael didn't answer.
But her gaze shifted.
—
The wind passed through the window.
Seven stared at the sky.
A shiver.
Tiny.
But real.
Something.
Far away.
—
Far away, under the immutable light of Eden, the Eternal Council Hall was bathed in abnormal silence.
A silence too heavy to be natural.
The sigils suspended above the table no longer shone with pure light. Their glow flickered, tinged with a reddish hue, like a barely healed wound.
— No champion has come forward… murmured Raphael, eyes fixed on the unstable symbols.
Before him, Michael stood tall, motionless. His silver gaze betrayed nothing, but his presence alone imposed palpable tension.
— They have responded, he said calmly.
A silence followed.
— They are watching.
The words fell with cold precision.
Raphael furrowed his brows slightly.
— Watching? After centuries of silence?
The sigils briefly flared, projecting a fragmented map of the human world. Red points appeared, scattered… unstable.
— Hell no longer moves in the shadows, Michael continued. It's testing.
A beat.
— And this test… is not discreet.
Raphael slowly ran his fingers over the projections, his aura vibrating slightly.
— Intrusions. Broken pacts. Abnormal manifestations…
He lifted his eyes.
— This is no coincidence.
Michael clenched his fist imperceptibly.
— No.
A silence.
Then, quietly:
— It's a movement.
The air itself seemed to contract.
— The last time Hell made a move… murmured Raphael…
— The Second Celestial War, Michael cut in.
The name fell like a sentence.
A moment passed.
Then Raphael cast a glance at the empty throne.
— And the Emperor?
A very brief pause.
— He is acting.
A short, closed answer.
But sufficient.
The sigils trembled again.
Unstable.
Alive.
As if something, somewhere, was pressing against the laws themselves.
Raphael squinted.
— Do you think they're searching for something?
Michael didn't answer immediately.
His gaze slowly lifted.
Not to the heavens.
Lower.
Much lower.
— No.
A beat.
— Someone.
The silence fell again.
Heavy.
Irrevocable.
—
On Earth, Seven felt his heart contract for no reason.
Not pain.
Not fear.
A pressure.
As if, for a fleeting instant, something immense had turned its gaze upon him.
Then everything vanished.
But the feeling…
remained.