At the very same time Cain sent Tiflos and Noor on the palace mission, he deliberately cleared the path for his beloved disciple.
In the trainers' wing, Orion had already grown accustomed to Edward's silence ability. Using it flawlessly, he slipped toward the room of the elderly instructor, Helios. The door was slightly ajar—but Orion employed the infiltration technique with skill, refining it far beyond how he had first learned it, polishing it under Cain's direct guidance.
Helios was an old trainer with white hair streaked with a few stubborn strands of black, silver eyes, and a body worn down by time. He lay asleep on his bed, his deep snoring filling the room. Orion advanced carefully, his blue eyes glowing with determination.
Orion had always admired Helios's ability. His blue fire was terrifying—devouring everything in its path, powerful enough to burn through walls themselves.
"The ability I want…" Orion whispered as he raised his hands.
Instead of stealing something physical, Orion placed his hands on the sleeping Helios's head. His palms and eyes began to glow with a deep, ominous blue. Helios groaned in his sleep, his face contorting in pain.
"Ability transfer… in progress," Orion murmured, feeling a new power flood into him.
Suddenly, Helios woke with a scream.
"What are you doing to my eyes?! Stop—stop this!"
Before he could resist, Cain appeared in the room—his movement shadow-like, silent and instantaneous.
"A bit early," Cain said calmly as he observed the scene.
"But not bad."
Helios turned toward them in terror. His silver eyes had gone dull, stripped of their former brilliance.
"Cain! What have you done?! This is unacceptable! I'll report this to Arcanus!"
Cain didn't respond.
He seized Helios by the head with one hand and lifted him until his feet no longer touched the floor. The old man screamed violently—but from Cain's other arm, thick mist began to form, twisting and condensing until it hardened into a blade.
Before Orion could react, Cain slashed through Helios's neck, tearing his head clean from his body.
"You should have stayed silent."
Orion watched in stunned disbelief as blood erupted like a fountain.
"Why?" he asked quietly.
"Because he knew too much," Cain replied coldly.
"And secrets must die with their holders."
---
The two descended into a hidden laboratory where they usually trained. Orion struggled to control his newly acquired power. Blue fire erupted from his hands—but it was unstable, violent.
"I can feel it… but I can't control it!" Orion shouted.
The flames spread rapidly, devouring everything nearby. Devices melted. Walls turned to ash.
Cain watched with interest.
"The ability is powerful… but it requires control."
Once more, Cain's strange mist spread outward, extinguishing the flames with eerie precision. He then produced a syringe filled with an unfamiliar serum.
"This will help you," Cain said calmly.
"But the price is steep."
Orion didn't hesitate. He injected himself without asking.
Moments later, he began to gain control over the blue fire—but the burns were deep, the pain excruciating.
"This is the flaw of your ability," Cain explained.
"It's overwhelming in strength, and it carries a fatal defect beyond overuse. You can steal abilities—but you cannot steal bodily adaptation."
"What do you mean by bodily adaptation?" Orion asked, playing with the blue fire dancing in his palm.
Cain stepped closer.
"You took Helios's blue fire," he said quietly, gripping Orion's shoulder.
"But you did not take his body's resistance to it."
He continued, his voice sharp and absolute.
"That fire will affect you twice as harshly as it ever affected him. Even Helios paid a cost for wielding such a rare ability. But you, Orion… your cost will be weakness."
Orion stared at the glowing blue fire in his hands.
He didn't care.
The power intoxicated him. Greed quietly began to take root in his heart.
Cain turned away.
"Pain is the price of power," he said, assessing Orion's progress.
"Learn to endure it."
---
That night, Orion visited his brother's room.
His burned hands were wrapped in bandages, but his eyes glowed with a new, dangerous energy.
"The new ability… it's incredible," Orion said coldly.
Tiflos looked at him in alarm.
"What happened to your hands? And what do you mean, 'new ability'?"
"The price of progress," Orion replied indifferently.
"Cain taught me that emotions are obstacles."
Tiflos snapped.
"That's madness! Don't listen to him!"
"Why not?" Orion asked.
"Emotions make us weak. Look at you—you're worried about me because you love me. And that makes you weak."
Noor entered the room.
"Orion, please—"
"No!" Orion cut her off.
"I've learned my lesson. Love, fear, mercy… they're all weaknesses."
Tiflos grabbed Orion by the shoulder.
"Orion, don't change. Don't become what Father never wanted us to be."
Orion looked at him coldly.
"And are you now what Father wanted us to be?"
Tiflos couldn't answer.
He had barely begun to push Arthur Cain from his mind that day—and Orion had struck the most sensitive nerve of all. Orion turned away without another word, but his tone, his gaze, everything about him reminded Tiflos of Cain.
And that terrified him more than anything else.
Tiflos rose and stepped onto the balcony. Noor joined him beside the railing of the facility. The mysterious box rested between them, while Liam's device sat heavy in Tiflos's pocket.
"Orion is slipping away," Noor whispered.
"And so are we," Tiflos replied, "if we don't move."
He looked at the box—then at the distant city lights.
"We won't escape… until Orion escapes. And once he does, we'll change everything—from the inside."
"But how?" Noor asked.
"We'll start by destroying the system," Tiflos said quietly.
"From inside the lion's den."
Below them, in Cain's office, the man himself watched through the cameras. His smile was wider than it had ever been.
"At last…" he murmured.
"The real game begins."