The city was called Halcyon Gate.
Big walls.
Bright lights.
Clean streets.
Lies.
Juvy and the refugees reached it at sunset.
Armed guards blocked the gate.
"No powers inside," one said.
"No weapons. No monsters."
Juvy raised her hands.
"We're refugees."
The guard scanned her with a humming device.
It beeped red.
"She's a Significant."
The guns lifted.
The refugees panicked.
Juvy stepped forward.
"I won't hurt anyone."
The captain sneered.
"You already do just by breathing."
They stripped her staff.
Took her gem pouches.
Put shock cuffs on her wrists.
The gate opened.
Not for them.
For the city.
Inside, Halcyon Gate looked untouched by war.
Food stalls.
Music.
Neon screens saying:
WELCOME TO SAFE HUMAN ZONE
Refugees were herded to a warehouse.
Not homes.
Not clinics.
A warehouse.
The doors slammed shut.
Children cried.
Juvy felt sick.
"This is protection?" she muttered.
A man whispered, "They sell us."
Her heart dropped.
Dustfall didn't have walls.
It had fear.
Maxruell walked through the market.
People bowed.
Not because they respected him.
Because they survived him.
A group of men stood in the square.
Unarmed.
Young.
"Red King!" one shouted.
"You promised safety! My sister vanished last night!"
Murmurs spread.
Maxruell stepped forward.
"I don't take civilians."
"Then who did?" another yelled.
Maxruell felt the stone burn.
Someone was stealing under his name.
A mistake he made.
A mistake he couldn't allow.
"Bring me whoever touched her," he said.
"If it was mine… I'll kill them myself."
That wasn't leadership.
That was terror management.
And it worked.
In Halcyon Gate's warehouse…
Men in white coats came at night.
They picked people.
Not randomly.
The sick.
The strong.
The gifted.
They took them through a metal door.
Screams came back.
Not bodies.
Juvy pulled at her cuffs.
Soul light leaked through the metal.
A woman sobbed, "They're cutting them open."
Juvy's vision went red.
"No," she whispered.
Not again.
Maxruell found the thieves at dawn.
They wore his symbol.
Fake red crystal tattoos.
Using his name.
Using his shadow.
They were selling girls to the city labs.
One of them laughed.
"Your fear feeds us."
Maxruell didn't talk.
He erased them.
No speeches.
No mercy.
Darkness folded their bones inside out.
Blood floated before hitting the ground.
He vomited afterward.
Still did it again.
Halcyon Gate's warehouse door opened.
Not guards.
Mother Cain's priest walked in.
White mask.
Gold eyes.
Serah's voice through the speakers.
"Hello, Bright Sister."
Juvy lunged.
Shock cuffs dropped her to her knees.
"We are not here to hurt you," Serah said.
"We are here to show you the truth."
The metal door opened.
Inside—
Tables.
Hooks.
Living bodies.
Refugees carved open.
Gems ripped from chests.
Souls stored in glass tanks.
Elements drained like oil.
Juvy screamed.
"This is your safe city," Serah said calmly.
"They harvest humans without powers to build weapons against your brother."
Juvy shook violently.
"You did this."
Serah smiled behind the mask.
"We only revealed it."
In Dustfall, Maxruell stood over the bodies of the fake kings.
People watched from windows.
Children.
Parents.
All of them saw it.
The Red King made an example.
That night, graffiti appeared:
BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
Maxruell didn't sleep.
He dreamed of Juvy bleeding on an operating table.
In Halcyon Gate, Juvy broke her cuffs.
Soul light shattered them.
Alarms screamed.
She tore the lab apart.
Glass exploded.
Gems screamed.
Fire ate metal.
Refugees ran.
Doctors burned.
Not all of them deserved it.
She didn't care.
She reached the city square.
Guards surrounded her.
She raised her hands.
"I will not kill you," she said.
"But I will leave."
Serah's voice echoed:
"And now they will call you terrorist."
Juvy looked at the burning city.
Smoke rose into a perfect lie.
"I don't care what they call me," she said.
"I care who I save."
She walked through fire.
High above, Cain watched feeds.
One city in chaos.
One city in fear.
Two siblings becoming weapons.
She smiled.
"Let the world pick a king," she whispered.
"Or a saint."