date a "loving sorrow"

chapter 2 "conflicting"

...

Chapter 2: Conflicting

---

[Ellen's POV:]
The hum of the DEM Industries airship filled the air as Ellen touched down at headquarters. Her usually calm, icy demeanor was fractured with a hint of frustration after her battle. She had failed to capture the Spirit known as Black Silence.

Entering the main operations room, her superior, Isaac Ray Pelham Westcott, sat waiting with his ever-present calculating gaze. Beside him stood Artemisia Ashcroft, one of DEM's top Wizards, always ready for a report.

Ellen approached, producing a small crystal she had retrieved during her encounter with unknown spirit

Ellen: "Sir, this... is what I recovered."

She handed the a certain vial contain with something to Westcott. It shimmered with a faint, ethereal dark smoke, but something was off-this was no ordinary Spirit core. Westcott eyed it, intrigued.

Westcott: "Interesting. The first male Spirit, and it produces this? We must delve deeper into its origins."

Ellen nodded. She had fought many powerful beings in her career, but there was something truly abnormal about this spirit, something far more sinister..

___________________///[present time]///__
---

[Roland's POV]

The silence between Shiori-and me was growing unbearable. Her flustered proposal had caught me off guard, dredging up emotions I hadn't felt in years. But the answer was clear.

---

Roland: "No."

The word hung in the air, heavy with finality. I saw the disappointment flash across her face, but my mind had already drifted elsewhere. I didn't belong here, in this place, with these people. I was bound to another-a memory. Angelica. Her face appeared before me, vivid and haunting.

---

Roland: ("Angelica...")

In a flash, the memory of her death crashed into me, the pain searing through my chest like a blade. My mind reeled as the emotions I had buried deep inside began to surge forward, uncontrolled. Her final moments, her warmth fading, the promise I couldn't keep-it all came flooding back.

Roland: ("I failed to you save, let me at least repent...")

I gritted my teeth, the world around me blurring as the guilt, the anger, the vengeance I had carried for so long began to fester. Something snapped inside me. The unknown Crystal, a fragment of my soul, resonated with my emotions. It began to pulse, blending with like the distortion, warping into something far more sinister.

---

[Shido's POV]

I stood there, confused, hurt, but something was wrong. Roland's demeanor shifted. His refusal wasn't just cold-it was tormented. His face twisted in pain, and I could sense an unnatural power rising from him. The air around him grew thick, oppressive, suffocating. A dark energy began to swirl around his body, and in a matter of moments, black silence was no longer the man I had been speaking to.

---

Shido: "What's happening?"

I backed away instinctively as his form began to change, distorting. His once calm and composed figure was now a monstrous, smoldering creature. His mouth opened wide in a grotesque scream, multiple limbs of varying lengths jutted out from his body, and dozens of black heads, locked in a perpetual scream, began to form along his right side.