The skies were cloudy, as if portending trouble, but this time there was really no room for good omens.

Waking from his long nightmare, Lear was already high in the sky. Under the control of demons, like other children, he was being carried in bound cages, by huge wyverns.

Emaciated and hungry, the children were pale and exhausted, and their eyes filled with fear and despair. Each of them knew that a terrible fate awaited them, and that they would never see their loved ones again.

They flew for a long time past beautiful, familiar landscapes: dense forests, flowery and green meadows, rivers that from high up, seemed to be very small streams. But behind the thick bars of the cage, none of the children were happy about these views now.

The demons around them were bloodthirsty and merciless, forcibly silencing any unnecessarily noisy child, their eyes full of malice and cruelty. Occasionally they uttered cryptic words, inspiring terror with their unfamiliar and inhuman roar. Not understanding them only made the children more frightened.

The sun was slowly beginning to set below the horizon, dropping dusk on the ground as they began to approach a high mountain range that stretched as if through the entire continent. It was a powerful barrier that forced the wyverns to overcome the height. The ridge was so high that it seemed as if they were already flying almost in the clouds. Once over it, a canyon opened up to them, wide and as if bottomless, it was as infinitely long as the ridge they had just traversed.

As they flew over this endless abyss at dawn when they came to the other side of the canyon they met a second canyon ridge. Behind that ridge they could see a different - desolate and gloomy land, without any hint of the blooming meadows that they thought they had seen a while ago.

After an insanely long and torturous journey, Lear saw something that made the fear in his heart creep even deeper into his soul again.

On a high mountain, beneath a sky covered with frowning, grey clouds, stood an eerie black castle.

As Lear approached it, he saw how tall columns, with creepy creatures carved into them, supported the facade of this frightening castle. With its craggy walls and menacing towers it inspired awe and terror.

Once inside the castle, without a second's hesitation, the demons roughly shoved the children out of their cages.

Two wide, sweeping black stone steps led upward to a vast balcony terrace in front of the main gate to the castle. However, the demons led them not to the main gate, but to another, which stood beneath the balcony, in a shallow but wide corridor between two staircases.

Distant lights, from the darkened windows, like living eyes, as if with a certain, sinister raven, accompanied the children to them.

With a resounding thud, the demons led the children down the long, unlit stairs.

The stench filled the air more and more as they descended, the children wrinkled their noses in disgust, but there was no escaping the smell. They trembled with fear and their hearts pounded in their chests, none of the children had any idea what lay ahead.

Through the suffocating darkness, the demons led the children to the place where they were to be sacrificed for a special ritual...

They descended deep beneath the castle and entered a stone archway through which they found themselves in a vast cavern lit only by the dim light of a torch. There was blood on the walls and the floor, and bones scattered everywhere underfoot. At the centre of the place was a huge cauldron of bubbling scarlet toxic liquid that cast a terrifying glow. And just beyond it, like a lake, was an enormous pit, horrifying in its profound emptiness.

The demons made the children drink from the cauldron, squeezing them with their hands around their throats to make sure each of them swallowed every last drop.

A stinging pain pierced their bodies as the potion sank down their throats. The children's mouths were opened in silent screams as their hearts were devoured by agony. One by one, they fell to the ground, writhing in agony as if torn from the inside out.

The children were too weak to move and too weak even to make a sound. The only sound that filled the place was the sound of their heavy breathing; every breath was a struggle. But the demons, meanwhile, were only laughing, amused by the horrible sight.

The children knew they were doomed and felt their life force waning with each passing moment, they knew there was no escape from this hellish fate and in anticipation of the end, they closed their eyes, praying for death.

- Splendid... The potion is changing them! - Exclaimed the demon lord, who had been watching from the shadows the whole time.

At the moment of their maturation, children form a vessel and then, when it is formed, it reveals its ability to absorb manna. It is this moment, when the vessel is most susceptible to change, that was the key to the successful fusion of the two species into one, stronger hybrid chimera.

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-King is, as always, so perceptive. Demon power and human potential - it's going to be something incredible! I'm sure the overlord will be pleased.

Walking out to his subordinates, the demon lord announced:

-Those who are dead shall be thrown into the pit, and those who are still alive shall be laid out here, unclothed.

The demons, without hesitation, immediately obeyed their lord's order. The bodies of those who could not withstand the effects of the potion, they carried to the pit and unceremoniously threw down, while the living were dragged out of their clothes, leaving them naked, lying on the ground, so as not to miss any changes that might occur to the bodies.

The demons continued their grim work, stripping the children like meat, and when their turn came for Lear he was already unconscious, lying sprawled on the ground. The demon approached and began to check his body. Finding the boy cold and not breathing, he took him by the arm like a rag doll and tossed him into the same pit with the other lifeless bodies.

After a long silence, with a thud, the boy fell into the darkness, into the darkness, to the rest of the already dead bodies.

Not knowing how long it had been since he got here, Bel was still wandering in that abyss, resolutely refusing to accept his death.

No matter where he was, no matter how long or where he went, there was nothing around him in this endless darkness. The entire abyss was engulfed in darkness and only the flow of energy, was the only thing he could not see, but clearly felt.

He could sense how this pervasive energy beckoned him to become one with it. However, he refused to accept this feeling. The words of his father, "Never give up" burned in his mind.

He continued to fight, even though he knew deep down inside that he couldn't really change anything. Still, in accordance with his father's precepts, he refused to give up. He kept fighting, determined not to let the darkness consume him.

Bel was acutely aware that if he relaxed even for a moment, he would lose himself forever. It was a terrifying thought, but it kept him moving forward.

As hard as he could, he tried not to forget that he had to go back. He had no idea how he would do it, but he believed that one day, he would get the chance.

But he had been here for so long but nothing had ever happened and time was as if it had never existed.

He tried to resist with all his might, but little by little his soul was dissolving in the space of nothingness, taking away his hope.

Not knowing what to do or where to go, he was already on the brink of despair.

Wandering forever in this darkness, his mind became increasingly clouded, pushing him closer and closer to the edge of oblivion.

He was on the verge of exhaustion - he sat quietly waiting for something to happen, then he began to rush about like a hunted animal. At one point, unconscious of himself, he repeated the only words that still resonated in his soul as if in delirium:

-I must go back... I must kill them...

No one knows how long it lasted, but one day something happened which he had been waiting for so long.

A chance of salvation appeared before him, a gateway radiating a white, cold light.

Without a shadow of a doubt as to what it was, where it came from or where it was leading to, he immediately rushed towards it as if it were

was indeed the one chance he had been waiting for all this time and could not miss.

Lear woke up in his comfortable bed. He looked around and saw the familiar walls and his favourite soft carpet lying on the floor. It looked as if nothing had happened. Lear sighed in relief: "It was just a nightmare."

Stretching out on the bed, he looked up at the ceiling, feeling his heart settle. "I'm home," he said in a low voice. Suddenly he heard a familiar and affectionate voice, his mother's voice calling him to her. Immediately, Leer jumped out of bed and ran to the door, ready to open it.

Suddenly, it opened abruptly, right in front of him...

Behind it stood an unfamiliar boy, shabby and disheveled, he looked decidedly unfriendly.

Lear tried to speak to him, but the moment their gazes crossed, the stranger lunged at him.

As they touched, a light flashed between them, casting a blinding white glow over their surroundings.

It was as if their minds and feelings were merging.

Suddenly Lear became aware of his own nightmares in the memory of the boy, as if they had been bound together for a long time before they had met.

-But how so~

Before he could finish his sentence, the light swallowed them both up...

He opened his eyes abruptly, waking up surrounded by bloodied corpses and scattered bones, the stench of stench wafting up his nose. Lying there among the piles of lifeless bodies he knew he had to get out of here as soon as possible. His head was heavy and he could not concentrate; his thoughts were like a tangled ball.

Unsure of where to stand, he tried to stand up to look around.

Behind him was a mountain and in front of him there was an endless expanse of nothing but huge boulders. The boy tried to remember what had happened, but his head began to hurt more and more. He did not know what was wrong with him, but he knew for sure that he had no time to lose. He mustered his strength to run and though his mind was muddy and his head was filled with a lot of confusing ideas, his body, contrary to everything, felt as if it was not tired at all.

It was beginning to dawn, but no sun was visible behind the thick clouds.

He continued on his way, encountering only bare ground and stones, until he saw somewhere in the distance, a forest, in which, as a small dot, a bright light was flickering. It was so far away, but like a moth he rushed towards it without hesitation.

With each step he got closer and closer to the forest, but the light was still so small and distant that he was afraid to lose sight of it. The boy made his way through the forest, which seemed endless. Branches and bushes clung to his already tattered clothes. Leaves rustled beneath his feet and the air was filled with the smell of damp earth. The further he penetrated into the depths of the forest, the thicker it became, and the more darkness enveloped him. But through the thick branches of the trees, he kept running without stopping for a moment. He ran on his way through the thick branches of the trees and through all the obstacles to the white light that shone savingly somewhere in the distance.

And then reaching the source of the light... Lear was taken by surprise. His heart was beating frantically again from the picture he saw, and the thoughts that had been ringing in his head with an endless noise suddenly fell silent.