Silver steam bleeds out of Kyrie's body as he watches Imogen piercing through Ian. His knuckles turn white from tightening his fists to the point that his nails dig into his palms. Tears continue to glide down his cheeks.
When Imogen lets go of her sword, Kyrie punches on the transparent wall. His fist sends a silver surge, cracking the wall like glass.
All noise goes mute, and Kyrie can only hear his breaths as he runs. He pushes Imogen aside and catches Ian when tilting back. They both slump to their knees.
Kyrie tightly wraps his arms around Ian's body, and sobs start to escape.
"Ian…" Kyrie whimpers and incessantly calls Ian's name as he feels the blood oozing out from Ian's body. He places his hand on the wound, with the sword cutting between his fingers. The warmth from Ian's body escapes as he bleeds out. He buries his eyes on the grove of Ian's neck.
His shins sense the warmth of the blood that his pants absorbed. No matter how many tears flow from his eyes, he keeps on drowning from inside. Helplessness continues to overflow.
He lets Ian's head rest in his arm as he slowly releases. Kyrie cups his face, looking at his body's stillness, and gently caresses Ian's cheek with his thumb. His hand cannot stop trembling in his touch.
[I might have failed you…]
Kyrie places his forehead on Ian's.
"I wanted to save you, but I seem to have only weighed you down… I couldn't bear to see you in pain."
He looks up at the sky covered in spiritless clouds. A drop of rain falls on his cheek and rolls down. Soon, the few drops turn to a downpour, so he closes his eyes, feeling the sharp needles of the rain prickling his skin.
When he opens his eyes after drenching in the rain, the rain suddenly stops as if time has halted. He watches the drops of rain suspended in the air.
He closes his eyes again, his body glows, and the entire place gets flooded in light.
---
Ian struggles to get up as the shadow presses him down. He is barely conscious as he tries to resist the illusion from invading his mind. He weakly stares at Kyrie, whose tears have yet to stop. Waves of boiling rage hit him from inside.
Whispers of words about his worst fears echo in his ears. Each word comes out like a scorching iron pressed to his skin.
"You will never know what Kyrie thinks! Always in the dark! Always a couple of steps late!"
"You won't be able to protect him since you are so weak!"
"Kyrie never trusted you. That is why he never told you anything!"
Cynthia walks to Sil, who is down on the ground, resisting the illusion as well.
"Cynthia! Release me at once!"
She giggles at Sil's weakened state and crouches down to look at Sil struggling with the occasional yell to the voices to shut up.
She has been dying to know what Sil fears the most. She feels elated at the tears that run down Sil's face and lifts his chin.
'What will it be? Money? Power? Status? Woman?"
However, she soon frowns, and her expression turns cold. She removes her hand from Sil like she has touched fire and breaks the illusion that rendered Sil powerless.
Sil gasps as he gets out from the purgatory that inhibits inside. Drops of sweat beads from his forehead.
Yet, having confronted his worst fears, his goals and motivations are clearer than ever.
"Cynthia…" Sil calls.
The woman turns around with a stare that could pierce through anything. Now, she knows the position that Kyrie holds within Sil's heart. Cynthia finds it displeasing to the point her insides flare. She cannot retract what she has seen.
"Give this chance to me…" For the first time, Sil asks something from her.
Cynthia turns her head away from him since she fails to control the contorting expressions on her face. She trembles at the surge of her emotions because she knows that even though Sil asked, he has no intention to hear her say no.
Erebus has given Sil to her, so Sil belongs to her.
However, after seeing Sil's worst fears, she cannot help but to want his heart as well. She is no longer satisfied with just the shell.
Nonetheless, she wants to understand. How can people be attached to someone who despises them?
Kyrie's body emits a pure glow, drawing Cynthia's attention. The illusions that caged Kyrie break when the pure glow overpowers the purple aura that surrounded Kyrie's body.
She watches with a smirk and risen eyebrows. No one should be able to release themselves unless they use essence. However, she knows that Kyrie has no authority over any essence, unlike her, who has authority over her own chaos energy reserves.
Everything concludes with only one standing possibility. Since everyone possesses a little bit of essence, Kyrie must have used the only thing that could contain essence - his soul.
"Desperate times come with desperate measures…" She smiles at Kyrie's sacrificial choice; at least something can smooth her anger.
Kyrie opens his eyes and pushes himself up. He covers his mouth with his hand as he violently coughs. His arm holding him up gives out, so he reflexively evens out his weight with his other arm. Blood continues to trickle from his mouth.
He frowns at the pain of separating a piece of his soul. The reserves have yet to consider him as their master and manifest into powers that belong uniquely to him, making it impossible for him to use the power granted by Phanes. So he resulted in using his soul for essence to break through the illusion as a last resort.
Only one character has done that in the novel, but he never expected such pain. He has taken a gamble despite not knowing the side effect since that character died right after through someone else's hands.
He would never forgive himself if something were to happen to Ian.
A pair of boots appear in front of him. He endures the pain and leans back to take a seat on the floor. His clothes stick to his body from the cold sweat. Sil hunches closer towards Kyrie.
"I will give you two options…"
Sil takes out a small flask from his pocket.
"You have one choice only, Kyrie… Either you take the potion of truth voluntarily, or you will have to see Ian die slowly."
Kyrie attempts to circulate his mana, but his mana is currently unresponsive. Despite his effort to summon it, he only feels a haunting stillness inside, like a pool of dead water.
"Kyrie… You have just separated a part of your soul from yourself. It is already a miracle that you can still move."
Kyrie widens his eyes as he looks at Sil in shock.
"What? Do you think I don't know what you did? You think you are the only one who has read the novel?"
Sil turns his eyes towards Cynthia, who is now right next to Ian.
"You are certainly not the only one."