The darkness of the abandoned warehouse was thick, smelling of stale dust and decay. Fujina hit the grimy concrete floor hard, the impact jarring her already traumatized body. Pain lanced through her severed and cauterized arm, making her cry out, curling instinctively into a protective ball.
Heavy footsteps echoed in the cavernous space. Flareon stepped out of the deeper shadows, his face a mask of cold fury, his jagged pupils glowing with barely suppressed fire. Behind him, Seren emerged more hesitantly, her expression pale, conflicted, clutching the Lumecryst bracelet tightly, her gaze fixed on Fujina with a mixture of fear and accusation.
Flareon stalked towards Fujina, stopping just short of her prone form. He crouched down, grabbing a handful of her tunic, hauling her roughly upright against a rusted metal support beam. Fujina gasped, pain flaring through her shoulder and ribs.
"Talk."
Flareon's voice was low, dangerously calm, devoid of its usual heat, which was somehow more terrifying.
"Who are you working with?"
Fujina looked up at him, her silver-grey eyes, usually calm and distant, now wide with pain and fear, but also holding a flicker of defiance.
"I... I don't know what you're talking about..."
She whispered, her voice raspy.
Flareon scoffed, a harsh, ugly sound. He ignited a small, intense flame in his free hand, holding it close to her face. The heat washed over her skin, making her flinch violently.
"Don't lie to me, Fujina. Or whatever your real name is."
He leaned closer, the firelight reflecting menacingly in his eyes.
"The attacks aimed at Sorcerai. The sabotage on the vehicle. Only someone with intimate knowledge, someone inside, could have done that."
"It wasn't me..."
Fujina insisted, tears welling in her eyes from the pain and the proximity of the flame.
"I swear..."
"Liar!"
Flareon snarled, swatting the flame towards her remaining arm. Fujina screamed as the fire licked her skin, leaving an angry red mark before Flareon extinguished it.
"Mireia is dead! Grok is dead! Our escape is ruined! Because of YOU! Talk! Or I swear by the Prime Source, I will burn the truth out of you piece by agonizing piece!"
The raw threat, the sheer brutality of Flareon's stance, coupled with the agony of her injury, shattered Fujina's last defenses. Her body convulsed with fear, her breath coming in ragged gasps. The words tumbled out, a desperate confession born of terror.
"The Unsealed!"
She blurted out, her voice high and choked with sobs.
"I'm... I'm part of The Unsealed!"
The name hung in the air, alien and shocking. Flareon stared at her, momentarily speechless. He'd never heard of such a group. Seren gasped softly, her eyes wide with disbelief.
"We... we believe..."
Fujina stammered, her voice shaking uncontrollably.
"That... that the Prime Source is a lie! Our power... it comes from the Underworld! From the Chaos!"
She closed her eyes tightly, trembling.
"Lioran didn't save us... he sealed away our true strength! The Underworld... it's not a place of evil... it's the font of all elemental power! We... we must break the seal... let the Chaos flow... return to true power!"
Flareon reacted with visceral disgust. The core tenets of his faith all spat upon by this confession of heresy. He recoiled as if physically struck, then lashed out, kicking Fujina hard in the ribs where she slumped against the beam. Fujina cried out again, doubling over, coughing.
"HERETIC FILTH!"
Flareon spat, his face contorted with fury and revulsion.
"The Voidwalkers! The creatures! They come from your precious Underworld, don't they? You broke the seal!"
He grabbed her again, shaking her violently despite her injuries.
"HOW MANY MORE? HOW MANY ARE COMING? ANSWER ME!"
"No!"
Fujina choked out, tears streaming down her face, mixing with dust and grime.
"We... we didn't break the seal! We don't know how! We've been searching for years... trying to find a way... trying to understand Lioran's methods... reverse them!"
She looked up at him, her eyes wide with genuine terror, not just of Flareon, but of the unknown.
"The Voidwalker... We... we don't know what it is! It's not... it's not part of the Chaos we expected!"
She looked frantically between Flareon and Seren.
"We didn't open The Abyss! I swear! We were still trying to figure out how... when it just... opened. Or... something else opened it..."
Flareon's grip tightened, his knuckles white. The raw fury still simmered, but Fujina's terrified insistence that her group hadn't opened The Abyss, that the Voidwalkers were an unexpected horror even to them, gave him a sliver of pause.
"Then why?"
He snarled, his face inches from hers, the heat of his barely suppressed fire radiating onto her skin.
"Why attack us? If you weren't responsible for the main disaster, why add to it? Why hunt your own kind?"
"Fear..."
She whispered, her voice barely audible above her ragged breathing.
"Desperation... Exposure..."
She took a shuddering breath, trying to gather her thoughts amidst the pain and terror.
"We've always operated in secret. Hidden within the Citadel. Our beliefs... they are anathema to the Templum Lumen."
She looked up at Flareon, a flicker of the old Sorcerai pride, however twisted, in her eyes.
"We knew the risks. Discovery meant... purification. Re-education at best. Execution at worst."
She struggled for breath, pain flaring through her.
"The Voidwalkers created chaos. And in chaos, secrets tend to surface. We were already vulnerable, stretched thin, trying to understand this new catastrophe."
Her gaze shifted towards Seren, then back to Flareon, a desperate plea entering her eyes.
"Mireia... she was too kind, too observant. In the aftermath, she started noticing things. Small discrepancies in how some of us reacted, in the aid we offered, inconsistencies in stories... She was piecing things together, things that might have led her to suspect our presence here, among the survivors."
She flinched as if expecting another blow.
"We panicked. If word got back to the Citadel... they would hunt us down."
"So you murdered her?"
Flareon's voice was laced with cold venom.
"You silenced her to protect your twisted little cult?"
"You..."
He growled, his voice dropping to a low, guttural snarl. The flame in his hand flared, no longer controlled, but a raw, ragged inferno of pure hatred.
"You touched her ashes with your traitorous hands!"
He lunged forward, his fist drawn back, ready to unleash the full force of his rage, to burn the hypocrisy from her very being.
Suddenly, a shimmering, translucent barrier of force erupted between Flareon and Fujina. It materialized instantly, crackling with faint blue energy, stopping Flareon's fist inches from Fujina's face.
Flareon recoiled, startled, his flame sputtering in surprise. He looked down at his hand, then whipped his head around, his enraged gaze falling on Seren.
She stood a few paces away, her hand outstretched, palm open towards him. The salvaged Lumecryst bracelet on her wrist glowed with a soft, pulsing blue light. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with determination, but also a hint of fear at her own audacity. The air around her hand shimmered with the same faint blue energy as the barrier.
"Enough, Flareon!"
Seren's voice was sharp, clear.
"Killing her now won't bring Mireia back! It won't fix anything! We need to understand what's happening!"
Flareon stared at her, momentarily stunned by her intervention, by the unexpected display of Arcane power.
"She's a heretic! A murderer!"
He snarled, though the conviction in his voice wavered slightly.
"And we are not!"
Seren retorted, her gaze unwavering, the kinetic ward still holding firm.
"We are not torturers! We need answers, Flareon, not just vengeance! Blind rage won't help us survive this!"
Her words, though sharp, carried the undeniable weight of reason. The image of Mireia, kind and pragmatic, flashed through Flareon's mind. She wouldn't have wanted this. She would have wanted answers, solutions.
He slowly lowered his fist, the inferno in his hand reluctantly shrinking back to a controlled flame. The kinetic ward shimmered and dissolved. He stepped back from Fujina, his breathing still ragged, the fury still simmering, but no longer consuming him.
"Don't you see?"
Seren's voice was quieter now, but laced with a profound, weary understanding that resonated deeper than anger. She gestured vaguely towards the unseen world outside their immediate conflict.
"The true disaster is bigger. So much bigger."
Her eyes, reflecting the faint residual glow from Flareon's flame, held a distant, haunted look.
"Terravos itself is caught within an awakening storm. A storm that's tearing apart everything we thought we knew."