Back in the present, Kael sat by a flickering fire, clutching the stolen Ashen Circle agent's datapad. It was locked, but the System intervened.
"Decrypting…"
Files began to open. Surveillance footage. Communication logs. And one familiar voice:
"Target is emotionally unstable. Keep him alive, but unaware of his true connection to the Heaven Breaker code."
Sender: Lira Asentha.
The screen glitched—and her face appeared in a message:
"Kael. If you're seeing this, I guess you survived. You weren't supposed to."
"But maybe now you'll understand. The world you believed in? It was always a lie. Your parents weren't saints. The System wasn't theirs. It was meant for me."
The message ended with a location.
Kael stared into the fire.
"She lied to me. And she thinks I'll just accept it."