Elsewhere.
Inside Ayrton's office, he sat comfortably, casually conversing with Colton.
As usual, their conversation seemed random, yet it was filled with hidden lessons.
Suddenly, a message with charred edges appeared before them.
Ayrton reached out, read what had been written, and smiled with unmistakable relief.
"Isildar has finished the job. And now, it seems a catastrophe will be working with us… along with someone who can control curses."
Colton's expression immediately darkened. "A catastrophe?… Ayrton, I don't like catastrophe. Give them some work far away. I don't even want to see them."
Ayrton slowly nodded."I don't blame you."
Colton raised a hand to his head, as though trying to suppress a heavy headache. "This… is terrible. Since when have Ron Feng's followers become this stupid?"
Ayrton wrote his reply to Isildar's message, then slowly burned it until it dissolved into the air.
Colton stared at the remaining ashes with obvious disgust before commenting coldly,
"Catastrophe…nothing but a burden."
But Ayrton, wearing his usual smile, reached out and patted his companion on the shoulder.
"You'll have to learn to live with them, whether we like it or not."
Colton looked at Ayrton in disbelief.
"So, will you learn to live with demons?"
"Of course. They're close to my heart. They're nothing like those catastrophic…I'll send her away."
"Good," Colton replied with a strange smile before returning to their previous conversation about time.
At Hudson's house.
Isildar stood after making sure everything was over. "Our work here is finished."
He gathered his papers, left behind a small address, and grabbed the twins' bag of clothes with one hand before pulling Kayden and Henry outside.
"You're not getting your clothes back."
They followed him through the dark streets.
Isildar's path seemed completely random until Kayden finally spoke with impatience.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see soon," Isildar answered curtly.
Kayden smiled, then tilted his head toward his brother as though plotting something.
"Tell me, Henry… don't you think Isildar enjoys watching girls fight?"
Henry grabbed Kayden by the arm and laughed before speaking in a low voice.
"Let's find out."
Kayden raised his voice teasingly.
"Isildar, is it true that you enjoy watching girls fight?"
Isildar shook his head with astonishing seriousness.
"Of course. There's nothing more beautiful than that. Don't you dare tell me there's anything better."
Henry blinked in surprise. "You admit it? And you're not being sexist about this? You're sexist toward everyone, aren't you?"
Isildar gave a crooked smile and shrugged indifferently.
"I'm equally sexist toward everyone. But… watching girls fight brings me back to life. You two don't understand the joy of life when they start taking hits. It's even better than the boring battles of immortals."
Kayden tilted his head with feigned amusement.
"So where did the respectable, conservative gentleman go?"
Henry furrowed his brows.
"What respectable gentleman?"
Kayden pointed at Isildar, imitating his voice as he repeated his words. "He's the un-conservative gentleman… Actually, I don't think he's respectable at all."
Isildar suddenly stopped in the middle of the road.
He didn't laugh this time.
Instead, he raised his head toward the horizon, where the lights of a great city shone brightly in the darkness.
A strange expression appeared on his face, a mixture of sorrow and a painful memory.
He raised his hand toward the horizon, his voice slightly hoarse.
"Look… That is a city. Edmaniel."
The twins raised their gazes and froze for a moment.
They found no words.
All they felt was a strange sense of awe, and a beauty so overwhelming that it made their chests tighten instead of allowing them to breathe freely.
They approached the gates.
The guards were on alert, while lights shimmered across their armor.
Isildar stepped forward with confident strides, introducing himself with a small nod, and they were soon granted permission to enter.
"The security is tight here," Henry whispered, glancing at the soldiers with curiosity.
Kayden turned toward Isildar again. "Where exactly are you taking us?"
Isildar smiled as he continued walking through the brightly lit streets.
"To William's house… our friend. Though he's a little crazy. We'll be staying with him for a while."
Henry suddenly remembered. "He's that person… the one who sent a letter to Adam. It was accompanied by scattered papers. He was studying the development of spiritual essence within animals, and he also documented the bodies of people who possessed spiritual essence. He has quite an impressive reputation."
Kayden lightly tapped his brother's shoulder, smiling as if he had finally connected the pieces. "I remember him now. He was strange enough to be unforgettable. He certainly left an impression that's not easy to shake."
A small smile appeared on Isildar's face, but he said nothing and continued toward William's house.
Isildar slowly led them through the narrow streets until he stopped in front of an old three-story building, its faded façade bearing the marks of time. He led them up the wooden staircase, which let out a faint creak beneath their footsteps, until they reached the top-floor apartment.
The three of them stood before the door. Beside the threshold sat a small pot overflowing with fragrant flowers, filling the air with a pleasant scent. Isildar raised his hand and knocked once, then twice… but there was no response.
Isildar muttered with restrained irritation, "That bastard!"
He then began knocking furiously until the sound echoed throughout the hallway. Finally, the door opened.
A grim-faced man appeared before them, looking at them with undisguised disgust. His black, disheveled hair held his glasses on top of his head. He wore a simple black shirt with faded brown trousers. He raised a hand and rubbed his tired eyes, and when he lowered it, his large golden eyes were revealed, their strange gleam immediately drawing attention.
William stared at the three faces for a moment before pointing at Isildar and the twins.
"Am I still asleep? Isildar… why are there two people with the same face? Have you finally decided to curse me? What did I ever do to you?"
Isildar lowered his head in disappointment, then turned toward the twins and spoke coldly.
"Let's leave this place. My father's house isn't far from here."
But William gave them no chance to leave. He pulled them inside without a word, grumbling, "Who comes at this hour? Of course I was asleep. What kind of madness is this?"
Isildar's eyebrows rose in genuine surprise, as though the very idea of William sleeping was impossible.
"You… sleep?"
William shot him a sarcastic look. "Of course I sleep. I'm not Adam, who destroyed his nervous system."
William disappeared inside for a moment, then returned carrying a tray of simple appetizers and hot drinks, steam rising from them. He sat across from them and cast a long look at the twins before muttering, "Twins… how rare. Most twins are killed or disappear under mysterious circumstances."
He straightened in his seat and gestured toward himself with a faint smile.
"I'm William. I work in scientific research and conduct some other studies as well."
After the twins introduced themselves, Kayden leaned slightly forward and spoke in a calm tone.
"We know about one of your studies… You're quite an extraordinary person."
William leaned forward in sudden astonishment.
"Really? How fascinating! Tell me… which study?"
Henry hesitated, rubbing his eyes before answering.
"Your research involving animals… and transferring spiritual essence into them."
William's eyebrow slowly rose, astonishment creeping across his features.
"That research… wasn't published. This is unbelievable."
He fell silent for a few seconds before staring at their faces and asking sharply, tension creeping into his voice.
"Who is leaking my research?"
His eyes locked onto Isildar, who at that moment was reaching for a biscuit. His hand suddenly stopped in midair, frozen like someone caught red-handed.
Isildar spoke with cold sharpness. "What's the matter?"
William pointed accusingly at him, his voice dripping with anger.
"You're the one leaking my research! Yes, you would do something like that… I'll skin you alive and offer your flesh as a sacrifice to God, you shameless bastard! Who gave you the right to leak my spiritual essence, research and private records?"
William rose to his feet, but Henry's voice cut through the tension.
"Wait! It wasn't him… It was Adam. He gave me his personal research, but your letter was among the papers. I included it by accident."
William froze in place for a moment, then sat down again as if nothing had happened. He slowly reached out and placed more biscuits in front of Isildar, muttering with biting sarcasm,
"Eat. Nourish yourself… You never know what the world has in store for great men like you. Isn't that miserable? You're such a wonderful and magnificent person."
Isildar stared at him in disbelief before sighing and silently returning to devouring the biscuits.
William raised his eyebrows with genuine curiosity.
"So… do you have research of your own as well?"
Henry gave a slight shake of his head.
"I just conduct some personal research, like buying a corpse, dissecting it… and then studying it."
A crooked smile appeared on William's face as he slowly nodded.
"Excellent… Very good. I do the same, but my research has been interrupted lately. What exactly were you observing?"
"Almost everything," Henry replied. "But what truly stopped me was the corpse of someone who possessed spiritual essence. That was when I began focusing on the interaction between spiritual essence and the human body."
A strange glimmer appeared in William's eyes, and his voice rose with excitement tinged with tension.
"That is the focus of my research as well!"
It was obvious he was about to spill everything he had been holding inside. He then turned toward Kayden, staring at him expectantly.
"And you? What about you?"
Kayden straightened slightly and raised one finger as though counting.
"I have two research projects."
"Start with the first one," William requested, leaning forward as if he didn't want to miss a single word.
Kayden sighed lightly before answering.
"The first one was about plants."
"Please, tell us."
William leaned even closer, his eyes fixed solely on Kayden.
Kayden smiled faintly, seeming somewhat relieved as he explained.
"I wanted to change the growth pattern of plants… and reverse the very concept of growth. At first, I tried it on insect-eating plants, but it didn't work. I failed completely… Those plants simply weren't ready."
He rested his cheek against his hand, as though the memory amused him, then continued.
"So I started looking for a new specimen. I had plenty of options… but I liked a flower called aconite, simply because of its color. It was beautiful. I recorded its characteristics during growth, the amount of light it required, its toxic compounds, and even its entire life cycle."
He laughed softly, waving his hand through the air.
"I wanted to change the growth system itself! So I tried to reprogram its response to light signals."
William slowly nodded, looking like the most focused person in the room. A curious glimmer appeared in his eyes.
Kayden continued,
"I exposed the flower to light in unnatural ways. I wanted to observe whether its growth would slow down or accelerate, and I planted a large number of them… so many that I ended up taking over an entire room in the house!"
William smiled faintly with amusement before speaking with the certainty of a scientist.
"But it would never work without chemical intervention… You have to force it. You have to make it do what you want."
His voice at that moment sounded like a bell announcing the beginning of a deeper scientific discussion, as though the threads of their two studies were beginning to intertwine within a single mind.
Isildar placed a hand on his head, looking as though he had developed a headache.
Kayden nodded in agreement, then smiled confidently as he continued.
"That's true… But the foundation was the use of melatonin."
William's expression stiffened at the word, as though it had awakened something buried deep inside him.
Kayden noticed William's reaction but deliberately continued in a calm tone.
"Melatonin plays a role in regulating the plant's daily rhythm and helps its cells deal with stress. But at higher concentrations, it disrupted that rhythm and caused some growth pathways to continue even during the period when the plant's processes were supposed to slow down… There was no time for rest."
He lowered his gaze for a moment, then added, raising one finger as though counting.
"Then there was ethylene… It affects ripening, flower opening, and senescence. It helped me push the flowers toward rapid maturation, while I relied on light responses and melatonin to stimulate the blooming itself."
Henry raised his hand and began counting on his fingers as well, as though joining in the game.
Kayden laughed as he continued.
"And don't forget sugars sucrose, glucose… As you know, flowers consume stored sugars during the night. Those sugars themselves provided an additional source of energy and helped stimulate continued activity."