"And what's not fair?" Kaia's pupils contracted, her voice devoid of warmth.
Zareth swallowed hard, his body shivering, yet he forced himself to speak. "There are too many of you... and I'm alone."
"Does this look like a game to you?" Kaia's voice was sharp, cutting through the air like a blade. Her face remained unreadable, but the anger simmering beneath her tone was unmistakable. "You took lives without hesitation, didn't you? Without a second thought. So why—" her voice rose, laced with fury "—are you hesitating now, when it's your turn to face the same fate?"
Yona stiffened. Her eyes widened as Kaia's words sliced through her daze, shaking her from the abyss of her thoughts.
Zareth flinched. "Kill? Who did I kill—"
"Now, now, don't play innocent." Kaia's glare burned into him, her crimson eyes glowing ominously. "Two girls. Silentvale. 2:30 p.m. August 29, 2016. They went to visit their grandmother's grave… and vanished."
Zareth's breath hitched. His mind reeled, trying to piece together what she was getting at.
But Kaia wasn't finished. "Three more. April 17. Last seen heading home. XXXX Street. Near Mishi's Inn."
"Two sisters. 13 and 14 years old. Their parents left them for just a moment to buy them ice cream. Gone. Vanished. XXXX Market, Syzygy, Western City."
"A school bus from an all-girls' academy found at the bottom of a river ten days later. No signs of forced entry, no break failure—only the driver and conductor recovered. The girls? Missing."
"XXXX on XXXX."
"XXXXX...."
"........."
Zareth's eyes widened in horror. His breath came in shallow gasps as Kaia peeled back the layers of his secrets—secrets he thought were buried, erased, forgotten.
"Ring a bell?" Kaia's voice was calm again, eerily so. "Even after Yona escaped, you people kept the farm running, didn't you? Why? What was it all for? Or… do you want me to explain it for you?"
Zareth's fists clenched. "What are you trying to say? Farm?"
Kaia's fingers tapped idly against the throne's armrest. "Testing my patience?"
A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. The situation had sunk in—he was standing at the edge of a blade. "Yes... we continued the farm even after Yona escaped."
"What farm? What is this about?" Yona turned to Kaia, her eyes demanding answers. "When I joined Apostle, I investigated everything about that place. Weren't all the children produced through some unknown magic? The kind that wasn't even registered in Apostle's records? That's why they gave it a direct kill order when they found it, right?"
Her voice wavered, memories flashing in her eyes. "Kaia… those headlines… those missing girls… Was it—?"
Kaia smirked. "Looks like you're piecing it together." She leaned forward, voice laced with a dark amusement. "Let me spell it out for you. 18 years ago, when you escaped, Apostle took you in because they discovered you were a Splinter, didn't they? But you always spoke of a blonde woman, of sisters, of a brother."
Kaia's smirk deepened. "Yet, when Apostle investigated, the woman was gone. The brothers, gone. The sisters who were found?" She tilted her head. "Already assassinated. Killed by Apostle's people."
Yona's vision blurred with tears. "Then… those headlines… those missing girls… were they—"
"The blonde woman—Uriel. The mother." Kaia's voice was steady, but the weight of her words was suffocating. "She wanted to create a prototype. A pseudo-Halcyon of the Luminara. That's why all those sisters had similar features to you, Yona. Those weren't created by magic directly, they needed a host, a body. And those missing girls were perfect for it."
She leaned forward, eyes locked onto Zareth. "The missing girls weren't just kidnapped… they were killed. Their corpses turned into puppets—almost indistinguishable from real humans. Why puppets? Because they couldn't form the best pseudo-Halcyon even after so many tries. Uriel tried to extract some powers from the domain, but instead, she extracted you. And thus she didn't now need the fake imitations, she decided to transfer the powers to her sons. So she stopped the farm but the farm after a few years started again after you escaped."
Kaia's fingers curled against the throne's armrest. "We saw it before, remember? When Luv was attacked by those grotesque puppet creatures? They weren't perfect. They looked… off. Because they weren't created by Uriel. She was powerful enough to craft human-like puppets, flawless imitations. But those?" Her voice dropped lower, cold as death. "They were just corpses—animated by black magic. Not the perfect imitations and anyone could tell they were puppets. And do you know who created them this time?"
Yona's eyes flickered with realization. Her breath hitched. Slowly, she turned—then lunged.
She grabbed Zareth by the collar, fury burning in her veins. "It was you!" she roared. "You and Solomon! You turned them into puppets! You sacrificed those girls! Why?! Tell me why!"
Zareth, trembling from fear just moments ago, suddenly snapped. His expression twisted into something ugly, something broken. His voice, raw with resentment, lashed out like a whip.
"Because of you!"
He yelled, spit flying from his lips. "You were the reason they died! Do you have any idea how I felt when you escaped and I didn't?! Do you know what it's like to be left behind?!" His voice cracked. "Brother escaped. You escaped. But me?! I was always the one left behind!"
His eyes burned with an unstable light, years of pent-up rage spilling out like poison. "You never came back for me! You never saved me! So I wanted revenge! I wanted you to suffer!" His breathing grew ragged. "I kidnapped those girls, one after another, over the years. Killed them. Turned them into puppets. Tortured them while imagining it was you!"
Yona felt something snap inside her. His words—his voice—stabbed into her ears, making her head pound as if her skull would split open.
"You are the reason they died!"
Zareth's voice was shrill, desperate, crumbling. "Because of you, I became like this!" His lips trembled, eyes wild. "The first time I did it, I felt nothing. Then I did it again. And again. And before I knew it—" his voice broke, "—I couldn't live a single day without seeing you suffer for abandoning me."
SLAP!
The sound echoed through the place like a gunshot.
Zareth crumpled to the ground, blood dripping from his split lip.
Yona stood over him, chest rising and falling with heavy breaths. Her hand stung, but the rage boiling inside her drowned out the pain.
She glared down at him, disgust flashing across her face. "I felt sympathy for you…? This monster?" A bitter laugh left her lips, sharp and cruel. "I actually pitied this psycho?"
The thought sickened her.
She clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms. "I should have killed you back then."
Her pupils contracted, her voice sharp as a blade. "I will never forgive you."