The air around Orianne suddenly grew hotter.


    "What did you say?"


    Reon continued to scan the files as Orianne''s eyes returned to their reptilian form, full of furry. This was the reaction he was expecting from her.


    "This entire research station is a plant to harvest energy from human children who possess two or more elements."


    "Albeit..."


    He picked up a list from the table and read it calmly.


    "Most of them are already dead."


    "Reon!"


    With a slow turn of his head, he looked at her. Staying silent, he observed the pure wrath exuding from her.


    Hands clenched into fists, sharp teeth grinding against each other, trembling wings, and her tail slapping the ground repeatedly.


    Orianne was furious beyond comprehension.


    "How... Why? Why do people feel the need to..."


    She couldn''t finish her sentence. The pain she was feeling for children she had never even met stopped her from speaking further.


    "Why do they need to hurt each other?"


    Nodding slightly, Orianne looked up at Reon.


    "All I can think of is that it is in the nature of all creation. All members of a civilization trample on each other for no reason besides their own gain. This also happened to us."


    "We simply were different and chose to walk to let go of our hatred for each other."


    Reon scanned the last piece of documentation. He picked up the pile and looked at Orianne.


    "Burn these."


    With a confused look, she watched Reon turn around and throw the pile at the corpse of the woman on the chair.


    It took her a moment to realize what he wanted her to do.


    Orianne aimed the palm of her right hand toward the woman before releasing a flame that devoured everything in front of her.


    *Crack*


    The table broke in half as it burned down, until nothing was left.


    "Who was she?"


    Feeling slightly better after releasing her anger through her magic, she looked at Reon, who was looking where the woman was previously, reduced to ashes.


    "..."


    For a moment, he appeared to be lost in thought. Until his eyes closed.


    "She was the one responsible for those atrocities. I couldn''t endure the insanity with which she was speaking out, as if it were a normal thing to do."


    When Reon opened his eyes, he looked up. Orianne followed his gaze before her pupils trembled.


    "Those...!"


    The two walked around the ashes and continued walking between the pods.


    "The last children. They''re already dead."


    Inside small, thin pods filled with a blue liquid, children of all ages floated, attached with cables and tubes.


    "How could someone work in this kind of environment?!"


    Orianne was furious, but most of all, she was in disbelief.


    Their empty eyes showed that the souls that inhabited them had left a long time ago.


    They were but empty shells, floating in a liquid that only served to preserve their bodies.


    "To worsen it..."


    Reon tapped on the device attached to his hip. Orianne noticed it and understood that his words had something to do with the documents he had scanned previously.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    He walked toward a part of the wall on his left side.


    "..."


    His eyes scanned the wall until an odd part appeared. A small piece of the wall was slightly discolored.


    Pressing the odd part, Reon''s finger sank as he pushed the disguised button.


    *Clack*


    Next to his hand, a panel opened.


    "What is this?"


    Orianne walked next to him and forcefully ripped the panel off the wall, throwing it behind her.


    "Souls."


    Inside the small storage space, many tiny capsules rested. They were dark, as if the abyss itself resided within.


    When Reon reached for one, his magic activated by itself.


    "Hm?"


    His eyes squinted as a thread of constant lightning traveled from the tip of his finger to the capsule.


    As a reaction, a small light appeared inside the capsule before returning to its dark environment.


    "Reon, what the fuck is this?!"


    "I told you. Those are the souls of the children they experimented on. All I know was written on the documents I''ve recovered."


    "How is that even remotely possible?! Since when humans were able to remove souls from their hosts?!"


    The crimson-haired demon was starting to lose her mind.


    "I told you that this was something you shouldn''t have learned about."


    Seeing Reon hold a capsule in his hand, she noticed the concealed anger in his eyes.


    Her mind blanked out as she looked at the thousands of tiny, bead-like capsules that were stored behind the hidden panel.


    "All of these are... souls?"


    The anger she felt previously vanished and was replaced by a sense of disappointment.


    "All of this... for what?"


    "This was a place that researched the link between the soul and the elements bestowed upon them at birth. It is also an institute that looks at how to use people with multiple elements to provide energy and fuel to cities."


    Reon approached the bead in front of his eye and looked inside its darkness.


    "This one had the water and earth elements."


    As his element kept inducing a reaction in the bead, his brain began to reflect on the documents he quickly analyzed.


    "Hah~"


    With a mocking sigh, Reon placed the bead back in its socket.


    "What?"


    "Who would have thought that just a little bit of thinking would answer their years of research?"


    He brought one hand behind his back and took a small bag from his pocket, neatly folded.


    "Are you planning to take these with you?"


    Seeing Reon slowly pick up the bead-like soul capsules, Orianne stared with confusion.


    "I want to reverse this state. What I can do is free these souls, which have been forcefully removed from their bodies."


    "..."


    Orianne said nothing, but inside, she felt exactly like him. Seeing the concealed wrath of her husband made her calm her anger, which she usually didn''t bother to contain.


    With the last bead in the bag, Reon tightly closed it and gripped it tightly.


    Suddenly, Reon turned around and pointed his hand at the pods.


    "Reon?"


    "I''m destroying all of these. Close your eyes."


    "..."


    Blinking wildly, Orianne looked toward Reon. He was biting his lower lips while waiting for her to look away.


    "I''m here."


    She hugged his waist while hiding her face with his clothes.


    "I know."


    *BZZT*


    A loud, buzzing sound broke the silence around Reon before hundreds of lightning arcs traveled from the palm of his hand toward the pods.


    *CRASH* *THUMP*


    Orianne tightly hugged Reon as she heard the sound of glass shattering and bodies falling to the ground.


    For a long minute, what she heard was filling her mind. It wasn''t difficult for her to imagine what was happening.


    But she knew that her pain wasn''t as strong as Reon. Even though this act was mercy for those empty children and wasn''t considered murder, it was the same for him.


    He had to destroy these pods and bodies to prevent their bodies from being desecrated further. It was possible that another research team would pick them up and do it all over again.


    This was also the reason he gathered the documents related to the research this facility was doing and destroyed them after keeping a record of them.


    Reon would never give humanity another chance to work on this horror again.


    "It''s done."


    The sound of electricity calmed down as the smell of ozone filled the room.


    Nothing other than broken shards of glass and tainted water remained. All the children''s bodies were disintegrated by Reon without a trace, apart from ashes mixed with the blue liquid.


    Orianne slowly removed her head from his side when she heard his words. She looked around and confirmed that nothing had been left.


    "Alright. It''s fine now, right? Can we leave?"


    Without giving Reon a chance to answer, she grabbed his hand and pulled him along. She walked toward the stairs and left the basement of the facility.


    But as she was walking, she suddenly stopped.


    "What''s wrong?"


    Reon, who silently followed behind her while holding her hand, stopped next to her.


    *Sniff*


    Lifting her head slightly, Orianne smelled a smell she recognized.


    "I smell blood."


    "Seeing our surroundings, I believe it is normal."


    Looking to his right, Reon noticed a wide spray of blood on the wall: Orianne''s work.


    The body of a male researcher without a head was right under. It would be strange not to smell the pungent odor of iron in the air.


    It was so potent that a normal human would have fainted already.


    "No. It''s not the smell of fresh blood. It''s... old. Probably a day or two kinds of old."


    Reon frowned.


    "I have a bad feeling about this. Orianne, ignore it."


    "No."


    She looked into his eyes with her bright, crimson eyes. With no enemies around, she had returned to her human form.


    "..."


    For a minute, they stared at each other.


    "You will regret it, Orianne. Don''t do it."


    But Reon wasn''t going to let her see more of this nightmare.


    "I... feel like I have to."


    A long, desperate smile escaped Reon''s mouth.


    "You smelled the result of a child having lost control of its elements... I suggest you follow me outside."


    But Orianne shook her head.


    "Reon."


    His gaze, which was usually so gentle, was looking at Orianne with apprehension. However, instead of forcing her to listen to him, he nodded.


    "If you want to see it that badly..."


    Orianne nodded before pulling him along.


    "..."


    She could feel the trembling through Reon''s hand. This place was a cursed realm where life had no value.


    For Reon, who fought to protect his and Orianne''s faction, this place was disgusting. It was the opposite of what he strived to be.


    After walking for a few minutes, Orianne stopped in front of a door. She kicked it open and entered with Reon.


    "!"


    As she scanned the room, she noticed something behind a wide piece of glass.


    "That''s why I told you not to come here."


    Reon closed his eyes and turned his face away. Orianne let go of his hand and approached the glass window.


    "Are humans... sane?"


    "Some aren''t."


    The room they were in had a single desk and nothing else. It was an observation room used to monitor what was happening on the other side of the glass.


    It was what was on the other side that disgusted Orianne.


    ~


    "What was in there?"


    Senia asked while holding May''s hand.


    "The entire interior of the room had its walls painted a dark red. I couldn''t believe my eyes."


    "Each child who was brought to this room had been forced to use their elements until they reached their limits."


    "It was a gruesome room."


    Orianne''s eyes looked down as she recalled the horror she observed that day. She kept the part where she saw organs and skin attached to the walls and ceiling from the women.


    Inside the living room, silence took over as the story Orianne was telling them came to its conclusion.


    The group was silent, processing what they had heard. Some were deeply affected by the story, like Senia and Deveralna, but they were all angry.


    "What happened after that?"


    Orianne was about to answer May, but someone else interjected.


    "I forcefully dragged her out of the building, and we''ve leveled the entire place right after. That''s how the institute ended."


    Reon entered the room with a smile on his face.


    "R-Reon."


    Hearing his voice, Orianne jumped.


    "Don''t worry. It is not a glorious story, but it is still part of what we''ve done to preserve our integrity."


    He stayed still near the entrance of the living room.


    "After that, I''ve researched a way to free those souls and succeeded after a few months of trials and errors."


    "I learned many things that helped me understand how souls and elements were related, and how our soul resides in our brain as a condensed and giant piece of electrical networking."


    Crossing his arms, he leaned against the wall.


    "And because of that knowledge..."


    Henrietta walked inside the room while holding someone''s arm.


    "Ah..."


    May and Karteira stood up frantically from their seats. Olivia gasped in shock, and the others blinked furiously.


    "AMELIA!"


    Karteira rushed to her friend and stopped in front of her.


    Henrietta gently let go of her daughter, with apparent marks of tears under her eyes.


    Karteira caught the weak Amelia in her arms and hugged her tightly, but just enough not to hurt her.


    "K-Karteira. I''m sorry."


    Having difficulty opening her eyes, Amelia tried to return the hug, but she was too weak. She was barely standing up.


    "Don''t be! You don''t have to be sorry for anything."


    Through Karteira''s eyepatch, tears flowed through it.


    The second pillar of the family had awakened at last, freed from her trauma.


    Amelia was back, at last.