Kael’s expression darkened. “Is that even possible?”

Turning the spiral in his hand, Arin spoke. “Jinn… they know gates. But this… even Azimushan can’t fully grasp it. It might be reacting to our energy.”

Kael brought the device closer to the object. Immediately, the lights spun faster. The hum of signals intensified.

Azimushan’s voice dimmed in his head: “Master… this thing comes from the same place as us. But… corrupted. I believe it’s drawn the children.”

Arin’s hand glided to his ring.

Kael asked quietly, “What’s wrong?”

Arin shook his head. “This thing might have consumed the children, but I can’t understand its logic.”

Azimushan began to explain. “The doors are meant for jinn to come in from outside; they work only one way, master. When you offer a sacrifice, the door opens. For the children to cross over...”

Arin suddenly understood everything, and out of excitement, he stopped speaking with Azimushan silently and spoke out loud. “Someone has to offer a sacrifice on the other side of the door!”

Kael asked tensely, “Will your words mean anything?”

Arin heard the father standing at the threshold repeatedly calling out, “Sile, Sile, Sile,” and, remembering their presence, he turned to look at them. The poor man was gripping his wife's arm anxiously, but the woman... though still seemingly in a trance, now had her eyes fixed on the spiral object in Arin’s hand, staring at it as if her life depended on it.

Arin wondered for the first time whether the woman had been possessed, but how had Azimushan not detected it? After all, his kind could sense jinn… What if it was another ancient and powerful being who could open this door?

Arin met Kael’s eyes with dread. This case was something far deeper and far more dangerous.
“Kael,” he whispered.

Kael turned, hearing fear in his voice.

He lifted the spiral object between them.The woman’s fixed gaze, filled with inhuman hunger, slowly followed it upward. As Arin turned it leftward, the woman turned too.

Kael finally understood. He whispered, “You can’t summon its jinn while I'm here. The father is here too; he could get hurt.”

The old man looked bewildered, his gaze darting between Kael and Arin. Without warning, the entranced woman spun and snapped his neck with impossible force. Neither Kael nor Arin reacted in time. The man’s head twisted grotesquely and fell to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The woman now stood smiling, her teeth grotesquely large.

Arin swallowed in horror. “Kael, on three, jump out the window,” he said.

Kael, still stunned, whispered, “What?”

Arin raised the spiral once more. The woman’s head lifted and her maw opened wide in anticipation.

“You can only call its jinn while I’m here; don’t forget that. It needs me here!” Kael said, voice taut.

“I won’t summon it because that’s exactly what this thing wants. I think it has been waiting from the very beginning,” he said slowly, stepping back.
“The children were the bait; this thing is just a low-ranking vanguard. It’s looking for a greater sacrifice to let its true master through the door... like a jinn.”

Kael’s eyes widened at the horror. The woman’s pupils dilated, her lips parted but she didn't breathe. What inhabited her no longer needed to act human.

“So… this isn’t jinn,” Kael said. “It’s something else.”

“Bingo,” Arin said wearily. “The spiral holds the gate open and this woman seals it, like a mindless guardian.”

The woman stepped forward, pulled as if by unseen force. She didn’t touch the floor properly. The spiral in Arin’s hand vibrated painfully, now an alarm.

“So, this was a trap,” Kael whispered, retreating toward the window, “then why are we still here?”

“We can’t leave without closing it, Kael!” Arin said. “It’ll look for new sacrifices for its master.”

Kael shrugged like it was obvious. “Then break the spiral.”

Arin stared at him.“We could still save the children!”

Kael looked at him as if he spoke another language. “Do you think they’re still alive?”

Arin lifted his chin defiantly. “You don’t know.”

“Oh, I do,” Kael said, swinging the plasma device. “Where do you think the remaining plasma is coming from?”

“But–” Arin stammered, looking between him and the increasingly horrifying woman. “They were innocent children. I can’t.”

Kael lunged forward and snatched the spiral from him. “I can.”

Arin reached to stop him but he gripped it like a vice. The woman snarled, leaping with unnatural strength.

As the spiral cracked and shattered, the woman’s body twisted unnaturally in the air. Her arms and legs stretched and curled disproportionately, her joints turning the wrong way. Her fingers bent and intertwined like spirals. Her face still bore human features, but her eyes had turned into pale, dull orbs. When she opened her mouth, a huge, toothless void that opened and closed in a spinning motion appeared.

She hung motionless in the air, then suddenly and violently lunged toward them.

Before Arin could pull back, Kael grabbed his arm and they fell to the ground together. One of the creature’s arms pinned Kael in place, the other held Arin down. A low, humming growl emanated from the creature, shaking the entire room.

As the creature’s toothless, pitch-black maw lunged for Arin’s neck, Kael shoved his arm between them. At that moment, Arin noticed: there was no flesh on Kael’s arm; instead, it was mechanical and metallic.

The creature’s spiral mouth clenched tightly around Kael’s arm and with a metallic screech, tore it off at the elbow and swallowed it. But Kael pressed his other hand against the creature’s eye. When blood poured from that eye, Arin heard Azimushan screaming in the back of his mind: “Master, it’s alive! It’s a living body! Set us free!”

Without hesitation Arin called him. The room shook instantly. Azimushan stepped into the world.

Shadows converged and stretched; the creature hissed in fury. The creature ignored the humans momentarily, expecting its true enemy. Yet when the inky silhouette formed, bearing a flawless face and fathomless eyes, it froze. Azimushan smiled and reached out. It didn’t attack. It cleaved the creature in two. The damned spirit dissipated like mist as the entity consumed it entirely, devouring the remains. Once again, its appetite was satisfied.

Sprawled on the ground, Kael swallowed hard and looked at Arin, flinching when he realized Arin was smiling. Arin turned to him slowly.
“So you are one of the rumored half-mechanicals,” he said. “That explains your odd behavior.”

“Look who's calling odd,” Kael replied as he examined his severed mechanical arm.

Azimushan receded into the shadows, and the two remained silent for a while.

When Arin finally spoke, he said, “The children, along with their mother and father, are gone forever. This was a total failure.”

“Not entirely,” Kael replied, rising. “Our mission was to understand what happened to the children, not save them.”

Arin stared at him in horror, then shot to his feet. “Are you serious? They were children! Their family was just wiped out…”

Kael never flinched from his gaze. The pale red light streaming through the bloody window illuminated his face, and his voice was cold and resolute: “I cannot suffer emotional breakdowns. My job is to execute the Empire’s orders and neutralize its threats.”

He stepped closer, expression still ice-cold. “I gather information, assess it, and report. You may indulge in emotions, Arin. I do not have that luxury.”

Arin was speechless with shock.

Kael added quietly: “The children’s fate may be tragic. But in this city, far worse things happen every minute. If you intend to always react like this... you might reconsider your contract.”

Arin didn’t voice what was running through his mind: “A damn so-called hero... a fucking heartless, soulless tin can bastard with no feelings.”