Reality shifted.

Bella found herself in the midst of Dirk and Percival, both diligently preparing Rudolf for extraction. Suddenly, an unsettling shiver danced down her spine. She turned to her companions, somewhat comforted to see that they also looked as though they'd just swallowed a live grenade.

“Holy shit, I felt that in my gut,” Dirk exclaimed. Though he wasn’t exactly versed in the whole Force or Vision business, he was, after all, the universe’s best world-ending weapon operator. “Did the fabric of reality just bend, or is my lunch making a comeback?”

“Miss Bella, what just transpired?” Percival asked, his brow furrowing. As a Force user, he could sense the disturbance more distinctly than Dirk but found himself perplexed. This was unfamiliar for him. Shock and dread might as well have been his middle names at this point.

Bella shrugged, a picture of calm amidst the chaos. “I’m not sure… Can I check it out? It vanished so fast.”

Both Percival and Dirk nodded, a tacit agreement that her curiosity was undoubtedly less dangerous than whatever this new mystery was.

Climbing the dungeon’s staircase, Bella was sure that it was Vision. She reached the dungeon entrance and nodded at the two guards standing nearby when she overheard a conversation—

“Let me try it again. Morgan, just humor me.”

“I said you’re not ready. That was too dangerous. You have no sense of fear, so you’re even more dangerous than Yvain in a rampage!”

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You do that again and you are sleeping outside.”

“But I manifested Vision just now, didn’t I? I did it, right?”

“Whatever that was, you are banned. Manifest a fireball like a normal person!”

“Well, clearly I was trying to!”

“That was a black hole!”

“No, it wasn’t. You’re exaggerating. That was just… an unobservable boundary.”

Bella saw the pair arguing as they walked toward her. She immediately knew what that was. “C-congratulations!”

Burn and Morgan turned her way. Burn beamed like a child on sugar, while Morgan wore a face of utter disbelief. Her congratulatory remark broke their quarrel, prompting Morgan’s weary scoff and Burn’s quiet chuckle.

“I need to sit down,” Morgan declared, reaching out to Bella. Bella eagerly held her hand, wrapping her arm around Morgan as she giggled softly.

“Your Holiness, you both are so cool,” she whispered.

Morgan immediately shook her head. “No. Nu-uh.”

“I’m going to brag to Isaiah,” Burn declared, striding behind them. “Also, Vlad.”

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“See?” Morgan gestured to Burn’s cockiness, turning to Bella, who was still giggling, shaking her head like one would at a stubborn toddler. “That’s not cool; that’s downright dangerous.”

“Come on, Morgan, I just learned Hollow Purple,” Burn retorted.

Morgan halted, shooting him a glare sharper than her wit, but saw him dramatically placing a hand on his own chest, his smile as bright as that time she told him she loved him back.

“God loves me too,” Burn proclaimed dramatically. “Throughout heaven—”

“Caliburn!” she interjected, unable to suppress her smile even as she shook her head. “God’s tired of your shit.”

“Father and Lord Isaiah will definitely be proud,” Bella chimed in, the sincerity somehow extinguishing Burn’s grin like a wet blanket.

“I don’t want them to be proud; I want to make them feel like trash,” Burn shot back.

Bella snorted, and Morgan’s lips twitched.

But considering Burn’s history with Soulnaught Syndrome, he thought it would affect his Vision magic. Apparently, once cured, he could connect to his soul without much effort.

There might be another reason why. When his soul was forcibly wrenched from him to pay for that wretched loop, he ironically gained the ability to locate his soul more easily.

Yes, the agony of his soul being shredded by Soulnaught Syndrome in his childhood was nothing compared to that horrific severance in the name of the time curse. But hey, what didn’t kill you made you stronger.

“I really can’t try it again?” Burn, now calmer, asked again.

Morgan sighed. “Not in the middle of the palace. Caliburn, this is not Force where you control it consciously. Vision is controlled using your emotional awareness.”

“I get it. I need to develop fear,” the man sneered.

The truth was, Burn knew Morgan was right. He didn’t expect his Vision awakening to be so dangerous either, and to familiarize himself with it, he might need to go to a secluded place where no one’s around to harm.

The moon, for example.

He had sent his father’s regalia to the World Tree, and the outsiders wouldn’t bother him for a while. Now it was time to take over Inkia with Yvain. About this newfound dangerous strength, he definitely needed a tête-à-tête with it, in a more contemplative venue.

But for now…

The dungeon they entered had a certain ambiance, if one could call it that. It was not the damp, moldy kind of place that clung to the skin or filled the lungs with the scent of rot. No, this dungeon was different.

Dark, yes. Sinister, certainly. But dry as bone and, oddly enough, a bit cozy if one happened to be on the right side of the bars.

It smelled of old dust and well-worn stone, the kind of place where interrogators could put their feet up between sessions of squeezing information from the unfortunate souls who found themselves chained to the wall.

Rudolf Blitzen, the Junior Fleet Admiral, hung limply in his bonds, his head lolling as if it had forgotten how to hold itself up. His half-naked form was a pitiful sight—though, to be fair, it wasn't the worst he had looked that day.

His pants had been removed some time ago after a rather unfortunate bout of self-soiling. Modesty had left the room with his dignity, leaving him chained in nothing but his shirt, his legs exposed to the chill air of the dungeon.

His unconscious form was still, save for the faint rise and fall of his chest. Foam collected at the corners of his mouth, the product of some wild, fevered illusion in which he’d been decapitated—a mistaken impression he had yet to shake.

Percival and Dirk had been waiting, their patience still intact. They had prepared everything meticulously, down to the last drop of water to splash in Rudolf’s face when the time came.

This dungeon, despite its ominous atmosphere, was a well-oiled machine for breaking men, and they intended to enjoy every second of it.

When they finally arrived, Burn had hidden away all his giddiness over Vision manifestation. He turned to Bella for a bit and sneered. “I don’t know what you showed him, but it seems he’s having a hard time regaining consciousness.”

“My illusion is always so real that his brain feels pain even though your blade didn’t graze him, Your Majesty,” Bella said.

“But I felt it too. It felt like I was actually slicing someone’s neck—the density, the skin, the bone, the flesh…” Burn said.

“I am flattered,” Bella smiled. One of the reasons she was still here rather than following Vlad back to the Elven Kingdom to deliver the corrupted regalia was because Morgan recommended her to help them trick the outsiders.

“Smoke and Mirror,” Bella said. “That’s my Vision specialty.”