Elias jolted awake, his breath catching in his throat as he sat up, disoriented and drenched in sweat. The bright, sterile white walls around him pressed in like a coffin. His heart raced as his eyes darted across the room—a simple bed, a toilet, a sink, nothing else. The air was unnervingly still, carrying no trace of the city noise he was used to.

And then he saw it: the mirror.

A large panel on the far wall, perfectly smooth and reflective. Elias didn’t need to touch it to know what it was—a one-sided mirror. Someone was watching him.

The thought sent a shiver down his spine. He rose slowly, his bare feet cold against the polished floor. Approaching the mirror, he pressed his palms against the glass, staring into his own reflection.

"Let me out," he whispered, his voice shaking. He slapped the glass, harder this time. "Let me out!"

The silence was suffocating. He pounded his fists against the mirror, his desperation growing. "I know you’re watching me! You can’t keep me here!" His voice cracked, tears of frustration welling in his eyes.

But nothing happened. No voice. No movement. No acknowledgment.

His fists slid down the glass as he slumped to his knees, the weight of everything crashing down on him. The room felt like it was closing in, every wall pressing tighter and tighter until he could barely breathe. He clutched his head, his nails digging into his scalp as he fought the rising tide of panic.

And then he heard it.

Faint, muffled voices from the other side of the mirror. He froze, his hands dropping to his sides as he strained to listen. The words were indistinct at first, but as his ears adjusted, they became clearer.

"How long has he been stable?" a calm, authoritative voice asked.

"Since the resonance incident," another replied, deeper and gruff. "The reaction during the crystallization was… unique. We’ve never seen anything like it."

"Of course not," a third voice, feminine and sharp, cut in. "He’s the first one to survive it. That makes him valuable."

Elias’s jaw clenched as he listened, his pulse quickening. Survive what?

"And dangerous," the deep voice added. "We don’t even know the limits of his ability yet. If he loses control—"

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"That’s why he’s here," the sharp voice interrupted. "To understand him. To test him. He’s an experiment now, whether he realizes it or not."

Elias’s heart thundered in his chest, his anger boiling beneath the surface. He rose slowly, his fists clenched, his breaths shallow and uneven. The voices continued, oblivious to the storm building on the other side of the glass.

"The crystallization was the first phase," the authoritative voice said. "The mark has already activated. It’s only a matter of time before we see what else he’s capable of."

Elias’s vision blurred with rage. An experiment. They were treating him like a lab rat, talking about him as if he weren’t even human. His hands trembled at his sides, the mark on his palm flaring to life with a faint, pulsating glow.

He pressed his hands against the mirror, his fury spilling over. "You think you can do this to me?" he growled, his voice low and shaking. "You think I’ll just sit here and let you—"

The mirror didn’t respond, but his reflection did. The faint glow of the mark in the glass caught his attention, its angular lines shifting and twisting with every pulse. The heat in his hand grew, radiating up his arm and into his chest.

The voices on the other side droned on, oblivious to his growing fury.

"The next phase will require direct interaction," the sharp voice said. "We need to push him further. See how he reacts under—"

The mirror cracked.

It started small, a faint spiderweb crack that spread outward from where Elias’s hands touched the glass. He stumbled back, his anger momentarily replaced by shock as the crack deepened, fracturing into jagged, crystalline shapes that shimmered faintly in the light.

The voices stopped.

Elias stared at the mirror, his breath hitching as the cracks began to crystallize, growing outward like living veins of quartz. The glass twisted and contorted, bending inward until a jagged hole appeared in the center.

On the other side, he could see them.

The Oni stood closest to the shattered glass, her dark hair framing a strikingly sharp face. Her demon mask hung from her waistband, forgotten as she stared at the mirror, her expression unreadable. Beside her was a towering man with broad shoulders and an ogre mask dangling from his waist, his face set in a hard, calculating scowl. The third figure, an older man dressed in a crisp officer’s uniform, stood slightly behind them, his silver hair gleaming under the harsh light.

Elias’s rage returned with a vengeance.

"You think you can cage me like some animal?" he shouted, his voice echoing in the now-silent room. "You think you can watch me, experiment on me, and get away with it?"

He stepped toward the jagged hole, the glow of his mark intensifying with every step. The pain in his hand was sharp, but it fueled him, driving him forward. His vision blurred with anger, the edges of the world twisting into faint, crystalline shapes as the power within him flared.

The Oni moved first, stepping in front of the others. She raised a hand, her voice sharp. "Stop."

But Elias didn’t stop. He stepped through the hole, his bare feet crunching on shards of crystallized glass. His rage burned too brightly, his thoughts too consumed by everything they’d done to him, everything they’d taken from him.

"Get out of my way," he growled, his voice low and dangerous.

The Oni didn’t move, her dark eyes locking onto his with an intensity that made him hesitate. For a moment, the room was silent, the air thick with tension.

And then the mark pulsed again, brighter this time, and the world seemed to tilt.