The face was too beautiful.
Too human.
Void couldn't look away from it. The statue's features, though frozen in stone, held a sorrow so pure it tugged at something buried in him. The kind of sorrow that didn't beg for help — it simply endured.
He stepped closer, breath shallow.
The angel's face was tilted downward, its chained arms resting against its thighs. Blood still ran like tears from its eyes, slow and silent. Yet it wasn't grotesque. It was... sacred. Like a ritual that had never ended.
Void didn't understand.
But he felt.
Something ancient stirred in him — not fear, not awe. Compassion.
"I'll get you out of here," he whispered.
It felt foolish the moment he said it. Ridiculous. Who was he to free such a being? He didn't even understand what it was. But there was a pull in his chest, a certainty that he couldn't walk away.
He had always heard stories of angels.
Gentle. Pure. Protectors of the innocent. Beings of light.
And even if those were lies, myths, illusions—
He didn't care.
If there was even a sliver of truth in them, then this creature didn't deserve to stay in chains.
But chains like these weren't meant to be broken by brute force.
Not even by will.
Void knew he had only one thing to offer.
His energy.
That force inside him — not quite his, not quite alien — ever since the encounter in the pit, it had lived in him like a fire under the skin. He'd used it instinctively before. Recklessly.
But this time… he would control it.
He would master it.
And give it.
Not to fight. Not to destroy.
But to offer life.
He knelt on the cold stone before the chained angel. The chains creaked softly in the silence, responding to some vibration in the air. Void closed his eyes.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Find the center.
The energy inside him pulsed. Hot. Dense. Coiled like a serpent around his ribs.
He reached inward.
It resisted at first — chaotic, primal. A storm barely leashed. But he didn't force it. He didn't try to crush it. Instead, he invited it.
Come.
And it did.
Slowly, like smoke curling through glass, it began to move at his will. It gathered beneath his ribs, humming through his veins, tingling in his fingers. His body began to glow faintly — not light, exactly, but heat and pressure.
He opened his eyes.
The angel hadn't moved.
But the chains vibrated again, louder this time. A sound like metal breathing.
Void pressed his palm to the floor. His energy surged downward, seeking a path. The stone drank it in like dry soil after rain.
The chamber responded.
Symbols on the walls flared, one after another, like stars winking awake. The red glow on the floor brightened, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat.
Void gritted his teeth. Sweat poured down his temples.
More. I need more.
He dug deeper.
Past fear.
Past pain.
Into the place where only purpose lived.
The energy responded.
It flared now, brighter, faster — a storm being unleashed in careful drops. He shaped it with sheer will, directing it upward, toward the chains, toward the bound creature above him.
And then—
A sound.
Not from the walls. Not from the chains.
But from the angel.
A breath.
Soft.
Barely audible.
Void froze, his heart hammering in his chest. He looked up.
The statue's lips had parted ever so slightly.
Stone didn't breathe.
But this thing had just—
Another breath.
Then a whisper.
Not through the air.
But directly into his mind.
"Why…?"
Void staggered. The energy faltered in his limbs. The voice hadn't been angry or cruel.
It had been… confused.
"I want to help you," he said aloud, voice hoarse.
"You know not… what I am…"
Void stared up at it. His mask buzzed faintly, detecting something — a presence, a consciousness vast and buried.
"I know enough," he said. "You don't deserve to be in chains."
The angel didn't respond.
But the blood from its eyes flowed faster.
Void stood again.
His energy still burned in him, though weaker now. He had given part of it away. But something had changed. The air was thicker. The chamber warmer.
A faint glow traced along the edges of the black chains.
They hadn't broken.
But they had… loosened.
Not much.
Just enough to prove it was possible.
Void exhaled slowly, trembling from the effort.
Whatever bound this being wasn't just metal or magic — it was belief, ritual, history. Something deeper.
But it could be unraveled.
Not all at once.
Not yet.
But he had started it.
He looked into the angel's face once more.
And for the first time—
He thought he saw its mouth curve.
Not a smile.
Something smaller.
A flicker of... hope.
Void stepped back and sat down cross-legged before it, his breathing still ragged.
He would rest here. He would recover.
And when the time came, he would return to those chains.
And break every one of them.
Void spent the entire day in front of the statue.
Offering his energy again and again.
Without thinking. Without doubting.
With every pulse, he drained his reserves, but he held on. His mind floated at the edge of consciousness — worn, feverish... and yet, lucid.
That's when he realized something.
He hadn't eaten since falling into the abyss. Not a drop of water. Not a bite of food. Not a moment of real rest.
And yet…
He felt no hunger. No thirst.
He touched his chest absentmindedly. The dragon's energy? Was it responsible for this? Or the mask? Or both?
He didn't have the answers. But he was alive.
And he was giving.
Again.
And again.
Until—
Blinnnngggg…
A shrill sound tore through the silence.
The chains.
They had just snapped.
One by one, they fell to the ground with dull thuds, shattering into shards of shadow and dust.
Void straightened, exhausted but relieved.
The creature's face was still bowed. Motionless.
Then…
The tears stopped.
And a freezing breath swept across the room.
HUUUAAAAAAARRR…
The roar made the walls tremble.
Void instinctively stepped back.
The once-beautiful face contorted.
Its features twisted, wings flared into blackened bone, and the eyes that had wept blood became twin burning abysses.
A dark mist unfurled from its back, coiling around the pillars like fingers of smoke.
Void whispered, voice shaking:
"…It wasn't an angel. It was a… devil."
The monster looked at him with a smile far too wide to be human.
Its fangs gleamed.
"Surprise," it said in a syrupy, almost mocking voice.
"I told you — you didn't know what I was."
Void stood frozen.
Every cell in his body screamed at him to run.
But he didn't move.