Kaito sat beside the wreckage of the overturned car, gripping his head tightly. The dizziness was severe this time, as if the "Infinite Void" had sucked out a piece of his soul. Beside him, Emma sat on the ground, trying to catch her breath.
"Kaito… are you okay?" she asked in a trembling voice. "You look very pale."
Kaito gave a weary smile.
"Fine… mostly. I didn't expect the monster to be this strong. The void… takes a heavy toll here."
Emma looked at him with genuine concern.
"Thank you… if you hadn't been here, I'd be dead now. You saved me."
Kaito didn't respond. He was trying to control the increasing vertigo. Suddenly, the dizziness became overwhelming; his head slumped to the side, and he lost consciousness completely.
"Kaito!" Emma cried out in panic, rushing toward him. "Kaito! Can you hear me?! Answer me!"
Kaito woke to the sharp scent of disinfectant and cold white light.
He was lying on a metal bed in a medical room inside the building. Monitoring devices emitted low beeps, and bandages were wrapped around his arm and chest.
He sat up immediately, furious.
"What is this…? Where am I? Am I in a hospital? How did *I* faint?!"
Something dark boiled within his chest. A deep rage. Rage that he—who was called the Separated King—had fainted like any weak human.
Suddenly, a massive **bloodlust** erupted from him like an invisible wave.
Time nearly stopped throughout the entire building.
Doctors and nurses froze in their places, their faces pale, their eyes filled with terror. In the lower sectors, the contained monsters began to tremble violently within their cages, emitting horrific sounds. Even Raiden, standing in the corridor, stopped abruptly and gripped his sword tightly.
Emma, who was standing outside the room, shivered violently and fell to her knees, her eyes filling with tears of terror.
Kaito stood up slowly. His purple eyes glowed with a terrifying intensity.
"How can the strongest faint?" he whispered in intense anger. "Does this new world reject my existence? Or have my purple eyes… not yet adapted to the laws of this cursed place?"
He walked out of the room quickly. The corridor was filled with people frozen like statues, their faces distorted by fear.
Emma raised her head with difficulty, trembling from head to toe.
"Kaito…"
He looked at her. He saw the sheer terror in her eyes.
He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Very slowly, he withdrew the bloodlust. The wave gradually vanished.
Everyone suddenly returned to motion, looking around in confusion and bewilderment, not understanding what had just happened.
Kaito approached Emma and extended his hand to help her up.
"I'm sorry… I didn't mean that."
He gave a tired smile. "It seems I'm still learning how to control myself in this world. If you see me faint again… slap me hard."
Emma gave a faint smile despite the fear and took his extended hand.
At that moment, **Lilith Domina** entered the corridor with her chilling calmness.
She stood before them, looking at Kaito with a deep, mysterious gaze.
"It seems you pushed yourself to the limit… again."
Her voice was calm, yet it carried a layer of genuine interest. "The Infinite Void… has a heavy price here. And it seems my world does not welcome it easily."
Kaito looked directly at her.
"You know something you aren't saying, Lilith. Every time I use my power seriously, I feel the world resisting me. As if something… rejects my presence."
Lilith gave a small, cold smile.
"Perhaps the world doesn't reject you… perhaps it is only testing you."
She took a step closer and lowered her voice: "Or perhaps… your purple eyes have not yet adapted to the laws of fear that govern everything here."
Kaito fell silent.
He felt that Lilith knew far more than she let on. As if she saw a secret in him that he didn't even know himself.
"What exactly do you want from me? How do you know my abilities? Who are you, and who am I?" he asked calmly.
Lilith looked at him for a long time, then said in a low voice:
"I want to see… to what extent the void can swallow fear… and to what extent fear can resist the void."
Then she turned and walked away down the corridor, leaving a heavy silence behind her.
After Lilith departed, Kaito and Emma remained standing in the quiet corridor.
The silence between them wasn't awkward this time; it carried something different.
Kaito looked at her for moments, then said in a voice calmer than usual, devoid of the sarcasm he used as a shield:
"You aren't bad… there's no need to compare yourself to her." He gestured toward Lilith.
Emma's face flushed slightly, but she didn't look away this time.
"And you… you barely wake up before pushing yourself to the point of fainting. Don't do that again."
She hesitated slightly before adding in a lower voice: "…I don't want to see you like that."
Kaito looked at her more carefully. There wasn't just fear in her eyes, but genuine worry and a simple kind of care.
He gave a soft smile, entirely different from his usual mocking one.
"Alright… I'll try. But in exchange, promise me you'll work on making your prisons stronger. Deal?"
Emma extended her hand with slight hesitation.
Kaito shook it, and in that brief moment, he felt a small thread of trust beginning to form between them.
Not friendship yet… but closer to something real.
"I forgot to tell you, Kaito, tomorrow you will be officially presented to the organization members. I hope you get along with them," Emma said as she walked away.
Kaito said, a cold look in his eye:
"Then tomorrow I will decide whether I will join this worl
d and accept it, or destroy it and everyone in it entirely."
Questions for the Readers😎:
1) Kaito caused terror throughout the entire building just by waking up. Do you think the other division heads will overlook this threat, or will they consider him an enemy that must be eliminated immediately?😗
2) Lilith hints that Kaito's purple eyes haven't adapted yet. Do you think Lilith possesses similar eyes or has encountered an "exception" like him in the past?👀
3) Kaito laid out two choices: join or destroy. Based on his personality, what would make Kaito choose "destruction" in tomorrow's meeting?
Don't forget to add the story to your Collection and support it with Power Stones! Your interaction determines the fate of the world in the upcoming chapters.✍🏻