It was humanoid... but calling it human would be nonsensical.

Even in the image, it looked like a hulking giant, with most of the scientists only reaching up to its waist.

That was how massive it was.

Its body was ashy black, seemingly covered in soot, and dark, steel-like tendrils sprouted from all over, extending in every direction, ending in sharp points.

Like lashes with bladed ends sticking out from every part of its body in no specific order.

Its body type reminded White of a werewolf, a heavier, bulkier upper torso, a lower body whose legs remained curved like those of a beast.

It had massive claws, mostly covered in the same ash-like exterior as the rest of it, and from its head, four large goat-like horns pierced out across its forehead.

"No way in hell."

White said, moving his hands to swerve off the panel, but then something flashed, and he paused.

[The Humans have no idea what they’re playing around with.]

It was the system notification panel.

"System. You’re here!"

White asked.

[Yes, I am.]

It replied.

This revealed to White that this wasn’t his full soul body, since the system wasn’t bonded to his soul.

But right now, that was the least of his concerns.

"Tell me... about this."

White said, turning to look at his sparkling blue body.

"And my body... I can regenerate it, right? With some—"

[I’m sorry, White.]

The system panel flashed, cutting him off.

[Your body is gone.]

It said, and this time it hit White harder than anything.

[I warned you.]

[I told you to exercise extreme caution, but you didn’t listen.]

[Maybe you would have survived if you had unleashed it and run away, but you had to remain to bear the effect, and you had imperfect control.]

[Everything living in that body was destroyed.]

[I know what you’re thinking, that I’ll surely have a way, but I’m sorry.]

It took White a second of silence to come to terms with that reality.

Even in his past life, nothing of this sort had hit him.

But in the end, he shrugged it off.

He was alive.

Even without a body, he was still alive. That was something to look forward to.

"Tell me about this then."

"The Commander said everybody who had been fused with the Orb had not survived it."

[They’re right.]

The panel flashed.

[No human would ever survive this level of Soul Power coursing through them.]

"But... I’m here, aren’t I?"

White asked.

[Yes, you are. Because of a big sacrifice.]

It said, and White paused.

"What sacrifice?"

[Viktor.]

In that moment, he felt a sinking feeling in his chest.

[When you were put in the Orb, it did what it should do: instantly eradicate a mortal soul, but Viktor helped.]

[Somehow, he was bonded directly to your soul, and instead of allowing the power to course through your dying soul and snuff it out.]

[He absorbed every last bit of it into himself, only then releasing it to you in tiny bits, allowing your soul to slowly adapt to and get used to the element before fully releasing its power to you.]

[Without him, you’d be dead.]

"So... what happened to him after?"

[He died.]

"That doesn’t make any sense."

White shot back.

[I’m sorry, White.]

[This blue lightning-like element is not something for mortals to bear.]

[Viktor might have been able to absorb it, but the damage even to him was still devastating, considering that he didn’t try to harness it but hold it long enough in his soul to allow you to adapt.]

[When he finished passing the last bit of the energy back to your adapted soul... his presence completely faded away from your soul.]

"So his presence simply faded. That’s why you judged him dead, right?"

White asked.

[Yes. He was erased.]

The system panel flashed, and White smiled.

"Viktor is not dead."

[What do you mean?]

"The soul of his that was bonded to me was the one that absorbed the energy, right?"

[Yes.]

"Then I’m right. To fuse with me, Viktor didn’t put all of his soul in me."

"He used nothing but a tiny bit of it."

"His full body is still back in the Otherworlder prison, locked up in chains."

"I’m confident that the body of his still holds the majority of his soul."

"If he had forced all of his soul on me at once, then I would have been instantly corrupted."

[So, he simply returned to the Otherworld?]

"Yes. He returned... back to that darkness."

White mused, his eyes narrowing.

’So Viktor decided to help... that was unexpected.’

He remembered the plan Viktor had, a plan he had ruined, because he knew Viktor’s plan was never something that bothered to consider Humanity.

His plan to take over Earth, even if it was only to play around with the Otherworld Kings, had an implication too devastating to be ignored.

If the Otherworlders wanted to be the sole victors in the end, all they had to do was aid Humanity with information or power enough to rival the Supernaturals.

Then stand back and watch both sides fight each other to death.

And White knew one thing:

Viktor did not care about humans.

If he could convince both Otherworlder Kings that the Supernaturals had to be destroyed, and they sided with him, he would unleash the Supernaturals against Humanity without hesitation.

Whether humans lived or died meant nothing to him. So long as the Supernaturals were wiped out, that was enough.

That much was obvious when the ship came under attack.

Even with humans facing possible death, Viktor said nothing about using the chaos to escape, nor did he attempt to help them.

He had made it clear, after all, that he cared only about the Supernaturals.

But White did, because he knew Humanity had suffered too much to be reduced to a chess game.

That was the place they both could never align.

But hearing he had chosen to help him in the most critical moment was something he could never have expected, not when he remembered the last words he had spoken to him.