Val Pov(first person point of view)  

"...There was a lot of horrifying lore. Where do i even start?"

"The demon king part."

"...Oh."

Right.

That part.

I exhaled slowly.

"...Okay."

I rubbed the back of my neck slightly while Eclipsara shifted beside me, now fully focused(moved position slightly. Context: She adjusted how she was sitting to focus more seriously on the conversation.). Her posture straightened, one knee pulling closer to her chest while strands of black hair slipped over her shoulder.

"So from everything I found in the tapes and journals..." I started carefully, "I don't think the 'Demon King' they kept talking about was Mira's father."

Eclipsara immediately nodded.

"...Yeah. Mira and I figured that out too."

I blinked slightly.

"...Wait, really?"

"Mm-hm."

She leaned forward a little, her red eye fixed directly on me.

"We found an old photograph in this nightmare version of Daemina," she explained. "It was dated around ten years ago."

I listened quietly.

"And the king in the photograph wasn't Mira's father." she continued. "It was her grandfather."

That immediately connected several dots in my head.

"...So it WAS not Mira's father as I thought. But her grandfather."

Eclipsara nodded slowly.

"Mira said her grandfather died around twenty-six to twenty-eight years ago in the real world."

"But in this twisted timeline..." I muttered slowly.

"...He lived much longer," Eclipsara finished quietly.

We both sat there processing that for a second.

Then everything I'd learned from the tapes and journals slammed together all at once in my head.

"...Oh no," I muttered.

Eclipsara looked at me immediately, her visible eye widening slightly.

"What."

I slowly sat up straighter.

"I think I know what happened."

Her mouth slowly fell open.

"...That sentence is terrifying."

I pointed weakly into empty space while trying to organize the nightmare information in my brain.

"One of the tapes I found was an interview recording," I explained. "Some interviewer was talking to the lead scientist of the project. Dr. A. Virell."

Eclipsara froze slightly.

"...Wait."

Her eye widened further now.

"I think one of the research notes we found down here belonged to him."

I blinked.

"...Seriously?"

"Yeah."

She frowned faintly, clearly trying to remember it.

"The name looked familiar."

A pause.

"But keep going."

I nodded slowly.

"From what I could piece together..." I continued, "Dr. Virell was human. And I think the Demon King gave him some kind of unnatural gift to keep him alive longer."

Eclipsara tilted her head slightly.

"...Why?"

"I think it was punishment."

Her expression shifted immediately.

"What?"

I rubbed my forehead tiredly.

"Because the project failed."

Silence.

"The Demon King's son died about 41 years ago," I said quietly. "And Virell was trying to resurrect him using a branch from the Tree of Life."

Eclipsara's red eye widened sharply.

"...Oh."

"And the interviewer?" I continued. "Apparently they were sent by Vemmora herself."

That immediately caught her attention again.

"...Vemmora ordered the interview?"

I nodded.

"Yeah. From how it sounded, she was basically second-in-command under the Demon King in this timeline. Like his general or something."

Eclipsara stared at me silently while I continued.

"And Virell..." I muttered. "He didn't even try hiding anything anymore. He just confessed to everything."

Her brow furrowed slightly.

"...Like he was tired."

"Exactly."

A brief silence passed.

"And honestly..." I continued carefully, "I think Vemmora wanted the truth exposed. Like she wanted someone to finally admit what they did."

Eclipsara's visible eye dimmed slightly beneath strands of dark hair.

"...Retribution.(punishment or revenge for something bad someone did.)" she muttered quietly. "Or maybe she just wanted the truth documented because nobody in Daemina actually knew what happened in those labs and why it happened in the first place."

"...Yeah. The recordings implied the son's essence was somehow trapped inside the branch after his death," I continued. "So the Demon King believed they could bring him back."

Eclipsara suddenly interrupted.

"Wait. Did the tapes mention when the Tree of Life actually appeared here? Mira and I found old newspapers earlier. We couldn't find the exact date, but it sounded recent. Like the Tree wasn't always part of this world's history."

I looked toward her.

"Yeah. Around ten years ago."

Her eye narrowed slightly.

"But the son died before that, didn't he?"

"...Exactly."

That made her go completely still.

"So the branch existed before the Tree itself..." she muttered slowly.

"...Apparently. Virell confirmed the branch and the Tree were connected somehow despite the huge time gap."

Her visible eye dimmed slightly as she thought.

"...That's disturbing."

"I know." 

She frowned deeper now.

"Why would the branch appear first? And why him of all people?" 

"I don't know."

Silence. 

I took a deep breath before I continued.

"But whatever came back..." I shook my head slowly. "...wasn't actually his son anymore."

The room suddenly felt colder.

Eclipsara stayed completely silent now, staring at me without blinking.

"Dr. Virell described it like..." I said carefully. "something worse possessing the child's corpse."

Her mouth slowly opened again.

"...Val."

"And apparently it had black sclera with white pupils."

That landed instantly.

Both of us froze.

Because every monster we'd encountered so far had the exact same eyes.

Eclipsara spoke first.

"...So that child was the first one."

"...I think so."

A horrible silence settled between us.

"And then the possessed child massacred seventy-three personnel throughout the lab." I continued quietly.

Eclipsara stared at me in complete disbelief.

"...Seventy-three?"

I nodded grimly.

"And apparently the Demon King personally fought his own son's body while it was literally rotting apart."

Her expression twisted immediately.(her expression quickly changed into horror, disgust, pain, or shock.)

"...What?"

"According to Virell, the creature dragged the Demon King into some separate space. Like a small isolated domain where nobody else could interfere."

Eclipsara just stared at me.

"And before the body finally rotted away completely and disappeared..." I added quietly, "...it apparently told the Demon King something."

"What kind of something?"

"I don't know."

I hesitated.

"But Virell theorized it said something important enough to completely break him mentally. Like whatever it told him made him stop caring about everyone else because he became obsessed with some kind of... goal."

A pause.

"Because afterwards he started multiple wars against other nations for some reason."

Eclipsara slowly dropped her head into one hand.

"...Of course he did."

"And after that..." I continued more quietly. "he started using children infused with Tree of Life power as soldiers during the wars he initiated."

Silence crashed into the room.

Heavy.

Awful.

Eclipsara slowly stared at the floor now, her visible eye dimming faintly beneath strands of black hair that had fallen across part of her face.

"...That's... not good at all." she muttered weakly.

"...Yeah."

I hesitated slightly before continuing.

"And I think..." I said carefully. "...I might've seen part of Vemmora's past too."

That got her attention immediately. Her eye snapped back toward me.

"...What?"

I reached beside me and handed her the single journal I'd managed to keep.

"Garrick Hale's journal mentioned rumors about the Demon King's son dying." I explained. "And some of the recordings connected to it."

Eclipsara carefully took the journal from my hands, skimming through a few pages while I continued.

"There was also another tape." I said quietly. "Recorded by a woman named Lyrielle."

Eclipsara glanced back up at me.

"...Lyrielle?"

"I think she was Vemmora's sister. And... the body I found in the fourth door? The one near the projector I mentioned earlier..."

That made Eclipsara fully freeze, her visible eye widening sharply.

"...Wait... so that was her?"

I nodded slowly.

"Yeah it was her. The tape she recorded sounded... hopeful." I explained quietly. "Like she was trying really hard to stay positive."

A pause.

"But from what I understood..." I swallowed. "...I think she willingly gave herself to the scientists so Vemmora could have a normal life."

Silence.

Then Eclipsara let out a short, humorless laugh.

"...Well that definitely didn't work."

"...Yeah."

I rubbed the back of my neck slightly.

"The projector only let me watch two film reels before it died on me." I continued. "I never got to see the third one."

I lightly tapped my backpack beside me."...I still have it though."

Eclipsara glanced toward the bag briefly before looking back at me.

"...Maybe there's another projector somewhere deeper in the underground lab." she said thoughtfully. "There's still another floor below us after all."

A brief pause.

Her expression darkened slightly.

"...Though considering this place, that's probably going to be incredibly dangerous."

"...Wouldn't even surprise me anymore." I muttered.

I looked down at the journal briefly. 

"And honestly..." I muttered. "I think the succubus girl Garrick mentioned in his journal might've actually been Vemmora when she was younger."

That realization settled heavily between us.

The room fell quiet again.

Everything we'd uncovered felt heavier the longer we talked about it. Like every answer only exposed something worse underneath.

Then Eclipsara slowly leaned her head back against the couch, staring upward at the ceiling now.

"...So Mira's grandfather in this timeline was just completely insane."

"Apparently, yes."

"And Vemmora was one of those child soldiers."

"...Yeah."

Another silence followed.

Then I finally spoke again.

"...The more we uncover, the harder it gets to believe this is even Daemina anymore." I muttered quietly. "And honestly... I keep wondering if everything really started with the Demon King's son dying because of that branch."

I frowned slightly, staring at the floor.

"...Or if there were already other things happening long before that. Other situations. Other problems that eventually led to all of this."

Eclipsara gave a slow nod.

"Like history itself broke somewhere." 

Her red eye shifted toward me again.

"Everything's too different. The history, the Tree of Life, the wars... even the royal family."

I exhaled slowly.

"And every answer somehow creates five more questions."

"...Mira thinks the same thing. Like us."

I glanced toward her.

"She does?"

Eclipsara nodded slowly.

"When she saw how different everything was-the stores, the newspapers, the photos, even the fact that none of the Five Domains or the queens palaces existed here..." she explained quietly. "...it became obvious this world's history completely diverged from ours."

Her expression darkened faintly.

"And realizing her grandfather was alive and known as the Demon King here instead of her father basically confirmed it."

Silence.

Then more quietly-

"...She probably already suspects she was never born in this version of history." 

Neither of us spoke for a moment.

Because now we both knew why.

If Mira's father died young in this timeline...

Then Mira herself likely never existed here at all.

"But she still doesn't know everything." Eclipsara continued quietly. "She doesn't know her father probably died young here. She doesn't know what Vemmora went through."

A pause.

"...that this world's version of her mother suffered her entire life."

Neither of us spoke for a moment.

Then Eclipsara finally muttered quietly-

"...How are we even supposed to tell Mira all of this?"

I stared at the floor for a second.

"...I don't know."

Eclipsara groaned loudly and slid downward slightly against the couch, one hand dragging dramatically down her face before she rested her head against my shoulder, staring blankly at the wall.