After the sealing ritual, Lioren's body felt as if it were wrapped in a layer of cold ash.
No more flames roaring within, no more electricity crackling through his veins, no more tremors of earth shaking his soul, no more frost brushing down his spine.
All that remained… was utter silence.
A prolonged clinical death.
Talion looked at the child before him—no, not a child anymore—
but a hollow shell of a human being.
He placed his hand on Lioren's forehead, lips dry and cracking as he whispered:
"Forgive me. But if I hadn't done this… the world would have burned in your madness."
---
Within his consciousness, Lioren did not stand, nor sit, nor lie.
He simply existed—within a boundless white void.
No sky. No ground. No sense of time.
His footsteps made no sound.
He lifted a hand to look at it—blurry, translucent, as if he had never truly belonged to the world at all.
Then came a voice.
Not from outside. But from within him:
"Without me… you're just a corpse that breathes."
A burst of laughter followed. It was fire—insane, furious, boiling like blood about to evaporate.
"Without me… you have no reason, just a lost beast stumbling through darkness."
That was ice—cold, slow, but sharp like needles pricking the marrow.
"Without me… you cannot stand, you'll collapse into dust."
That was earth—dull and heavy like a boulder tied to the soul's neck.
"Without me… you can't even remember who you are."
That was lightning—echoing, trembling, like a severed nerve crying out.
Lioren screamed—but no sound came.
His mouth opened wide, but the world held no air to carry his cry.
Then he saw himself—hundreds of Liorens, each torn apart in a different way:
One had no eyes—that was when he lost the insight of ice.
One had no heart—the flame had died.
One knelt, arms turned to stone—earth had been drained.
One floated, head detached from neck—lightning had vanished.
Four selves. Four directions.
Now only a hollow core remained.
Consciousness cannot exist without a soul.
And Lioren's soul had been patched together from those chaotic forces.
Sealing them was the same as… draining life itself.
In that white world, he began to decay.
Blood seeped from his eyes.
Veins rose like spiderwebs.
Then, his blood turned into black liquid.
"You cannot live without us."
The four elements whispered in unison,
their manic laughter echoing from all sides like corpses applauding at a banquet.
Then suddenly... a knock.
"Knock. Knock. Knock."
In that dissolving awareness, a door appeared.
Black.
No hinges. No handle.
But it bled.
"Do you want to live?"
A whisper came from behind the door.
"All you have to do is open me.
I'll replace the four selves.
You won't need to be fire, or earth, or ice, or lightning.
You'll just be YOU.
Only YOU."
Lioren trembled.
He raised his hand—shaking as if every muscle fiber was being chewed apart.
He didn't know why he wanted to live.
No emotions. No reasons.
But… instinct.
Yes.
The primal instinct of a creature on the brink of death.
The door opened.
No light.
Just a stream of darkness, like living tar, pouring out—
Wrapping around his mind,
Filling the cracks left behind by the elements.
In the real world, Talion jolted.
He felt it.
Something was filling the void.
"No… impossible… I sealed everything…"
Lioren opened his eyes.
He smiled.
Not out of joy.
Not out of relief.
But a smile without will—
As if an invisible hand had twisted his face into that shape.
The voice inside whispered:
"I am Darkness.
Not an element.
Not to be controlled.
You only had to open the door—
And now, I will live in you. Forever."
---
Liora stepped into the room.
"Lioren…?"
He turned to her.
That smile.
No fire.
No lightning.
No ice.
No earth.
But something far more terrifying than all four combined.
Something no one ever sealed.
The darkness within the human soul.