Malice still was struggling to understand this weird sensation that Vishious had put inside him after reversing the petrification that Vishious had unintentionally done to Malice when using his power on Malice the first time.
Malice's gaze drifted to the door Vishious had walked out moments ago. He didn't mean to look there - his body simply did. "It felt like I belonged to him." The words were barely a whisper that Malice spoke, his eyes still on the door.
Slayer stiffened, muscles coiling with immediate tension. "What the hell does that mean?" Slayer's voice was evident with confusion and anger and his expression darkened. Beast's eyes widened, not in fear, but in understanding - at least the beginning of it.
Malice took a moment before saying with a trembling voice," I don't know. But, when the fire touched me... it didn't just break the petrification. It reached inside me. Like it found something. Something that was already there." Malice could still feel Vishious. Not physically. Not mentally. But somewhere deeper - a thread of shadow woven into his very being, resonating with the Night Creatures blood in his veins. The Kamaira's side of him bristled at it, confused, conflicted... but the Night Creature's side recognized it instantly.
Accepted it.
Welcomed it.
"I don't understand it," he whispered.
Slayer's jaw clenched. Beast exhaled slowly.
Beast decided to take the focus off of what Malice was internally going through for a moment and asked him, "Can you tell us what it was you saw when Vishious used his powers on you?"
Malice shook his head. "It was too fast. Too much. Shadows… faces… a place I didn't recognize. And something else." His breath hitched he looked down at his trembling hands, the warmth of Vishious's blackfire still pulsing faintly beneath his skin. "I didn't mean to see it," he murmured. "I don't even know how I did."
Slayer placed a hand on his shoulder — firm, grounding. "It doesn't matter how. What matters is that you did."
Beast's voice softened. "Your hybrid nature… it might be why."
His gaze drifted over Malice's werewolf‑like frame, the massive bat‑like wings still trembling behind him. "Night Creature blood reacts to Vishious. Kamairas blood resists him. You're both. That makes you… something new."
Malice closed his eyes.'Something new. Something connected.Something claimed.' Were his silent thoughts.
And somewhere down the hall, Vishious paused mid‑step — as if he felt the moment Malice spoke his name in thought.
Malice's claws dug into the sheets again, wings trembled behind him as he tried to steady his breathing. He exhaled shakily and began to try and explain the mix-up of what it was that he saw. -
"I saw a palace," Malice whispered. "But not like ours. It was made out of a giant skull - a great skull - so massive it looked like a mountain carved from the remains of some ancient, fallen Titan."
Slayer and Beast exchanged a tense look. Malice's wings twitched as he continued, voice trembling.
"The outside wasn't smooth bone. It was jagged...cracked.. like the skull had been ripped from a creature still screaming. The eye sockets were hollow towers, stretching upward like watchful sentinels. And the windows..." He swallowed. "The windows were made of Obsidian. Black glass. They reflected nothing - not light, not shadow - just emptiness. Like staring into a void."
Beast's brows furrowed unsettled.
"And hanging from the bone spires were chandeliers. But not normal ones. They were made of knives - hundreds of blades suspended by chains. Each knife had a flame burning at its tip, but the flames weren't one color. They shifted. Red, blue, green, purple, pink, yellow... All glowing at once, like the fire was alive and choosing it wanted all of them and not wanting to just choose only one."
Slayer's jaw tightened hearing what Malice was describing.
Malice spoke softly. Trying to remember every detail of what it was he saw. Malice then shook his head slowly. "The whole palace felt... wrong. Like it wasn't a place that had been built. But rather it had grew. Like it was alive."
"Then I was walking on glass," Malice continued on. "Above a massive green river that ran through the Skull palace." Malice said in a quiet voice. Beast leaned forward a little, "A green river?" He repeated.
Malice nodded. " Green...but glowing. And beneath the glass, human and demon souls were clawing at it when I was walking on it. The souls were hungry, tortured, and they wanted," Malice swallowed hard. " They wanted my life, they wanted my soul. I could feel it. Their hands and claws scraping against the glass, their screams were vibrating through it. They were desperate." Hearing this Slayer clenched his already tightened jaw again.
Malice's voice then dropped lower as he continued on, " I then saw a human. Kneeling and begging."
Slayer's eyes narrowed. " Begging for what and from whom?"
"To stop being human," Malice whispered. "He was begging a powerful demon to take away his humanity. To take his soul and turn him into a demon who would serve him forever." This had Beast's expression darken while he listened. Malice shook his head, "I don't know who the human was or what he looked like, but the demon..." Malice shivered violently recalling the memory of it before he continued to say, "The demon had the most frightening eyes I've ever seen. Fierce hatred, venomous rage, that knew of no mercy. No soul. Just... emptiness. Like looking into a white, foggy void that wanted to swallow everything."
Slayer quickly exchanged a tense, disturbed look with Beast before he looked back at Malice who was still sitting on his bed explaining to them what he saw that didn't make any sense to the young, hybrid Kamaira. He continued on, "Then there was a great, massive gate," Malice said. "It was huge, made of magnificent green -black flames." His wings tightened around him before he continued on, "And behind it... A city. A city with wicked beauty. It was beautiful and terrible at the same time. The sun never touched it. Everything was shadow and fire until you entered into the city, and it seemed to glow from the Marble - Crystal structures and the roads were paved out of the finest Emerald.
Malice barely heard Beast mutter under his breath, "That's undoubtedly, Sprague."
Malice didn't want to interrupt himself telling Slayer and Beast of what he'd seen of Vishious's memories out of fear that he wouldn't be able to remember everything as time went on. Therefore , decided it'd be best that he wait to ask any questions that he had. So after a brief pause he started talking again, "Then.. I saw a woman." This had slayer's eyes sharpen onto Malice.
"She had emerald green eyes," Malice said softly. "The most beautiful I've ever seen. But she looked like she was somehow underwater.. her hair was floating all around her. Her body suspended." He swallowed. "And then it quickly changed suddenly and she wasn't underwater any longer. Instead, she was walking beside and holding vicious's arm."
Slayer stiffened in unbelief and shock of what Malice had just said. Beast's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open a little; neither of them spoke and waited for Malice to continue. But Malice just looked between them helplessly. "I don't know who she is. I don't know what she means. I don't know why Vishious was even with her." A long tired sigh left Malice when he finished. His shoulders and wings sagged down and his ears that usually stood up straight even drooped down.
"I don't understand any of it," he said, voice weak and clearly tired. "It was all mixed up and nothing of what I saw seems to be anything that can help us to understand what Vishious is planning or what Sinyster's involvement with him might be?" He looked up at Slayer and Beast, his eyes were full of uncertainty. "I just know I wasn't supposed to see the things that I did."
Slayer and Beast stared at Malice in stunned silence, the weight of his words and what he had just told them settling over the room like a suffocating fog. Malice's claws still were gripping the sheets, waiting - bracing - for their reaction.
It came slowly and the silence seemed to stretch on for a long, long time. Slayer exhaled slowly, a dangerous calm settling over him. He stood there looking down at Malice and he suddenly realized just how weakened and tired Malice really was from this whole ordeal that he had gone through tonight with Vishious and how much energy it must have took Malice to be able to keep sitting up, just so he could tell him and Beast the memories of Vishious's that he had seen. Hoping that it would be helpful and would be of some use to them and even though it seemed to Malice that what he had seen wasn't important or helpful, but it was..
Slayer turned his head to look at Beast, who turned his head in return to look back at Slayer. They both knew that they needed to tell Malice of the things that he had described to them and what they knew.