"The 44-Day Ultimatum."

  "You are out of your mind!"

  Aryan’s voice cracked, the scream tearing from his throat as he gred up at the impassive Monarch.

  "Either way, you and Markus just want us to die! One wants to experiment on us like b rats. The other wants to occupy the experiment itself! You two fit together perfectly! Why didn't you just haunt each other and leave us alone?"

  He was panting, his chest heaving against the ropes that still bound him to his sister. The shock of the "Big Bang" was fading, repced by the hot, familiar rush of rage.

  Inside their heads, a golden ughter bubbled up.

  "Hahaha! Anyway, at least you are back for good now, Kid," Sam chuckled, his voice sounding relieved rather than mocking. "You are shouting. That means you are back. The vegetable phase is over."

  Amara didn't shout. Her anger was colder, sharper.

  "Had we risked what the Vessel said... let alone forty-four days, we wouldn't be here right now," she whispered, her eyes dark.

  She leaned her weight back, pressing her spine against Aryan’s. They sat back-to-back on the cold gss floor, a three-legged knot of defiance.

  "We will find the cure, Aryan," she said, her voice low and dangerous. "As long as I am here, you are not seeing Death."

  She looked at her trembling hands.

  "When the curse only included me, I gave up searching. I accepted it. But now... things are different. They keep bullying us. First the Society, then the System, now the Vessel." She gritted her teeth. "I just wish I could kill them all."

  "No, Amara," Aryan said softly, reaching back to grip her shoulder. "You have been holding on good. Raw power would only have crushed us the moment we entered here. Just like the future I saw. We are doing a great job. We survived the negotiation."

  "Indeed, Kids," Sam interrupted, puffing out his digital chest. "See? Even this Great Sam is caring for you now. This is the greatest reward you can get for all the hard work you have done. What do you say, Sis Nine?"

  "He is right," Nine added gently. "Do not lose hope. You rejected the easy path of destruction. That is a victory."

  The wind blew across the training ground, cooling their sweat.

  Markus, who had been quiet, stood up. He walked slowly toward the exhausted pair. The gss clicked beneath his boots.

  He didn't summon a chair this time. He sat down on the floor directly in front of them, bringing himself to their eye level.

  "Okay," the Monarch said, his voice dropping the lecture tone. "Let's forget about the training for a moment. Let us talk about your cure."

  He looked at the number floating in the System window above their heads: 44 Days.

  "Having only forty-four days to live makes this urgent," Markus said calmly. "Especially considering you have absolutely no idea what the cure is, or where to even look for it."

  He leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with knowledge.

  "But I do."

  "The Eight Seals."

  Markus looked at them, his eyes scanning their bodies as if reading a blueprint.

  "The cure you are looking for is not a potion. It is not a pill," Markus said. "It is a Seal."

  He held up eight fingers.

  "Your bodies contain eight specific Seals. Call them gates, locks, or limiters. In a normal human, these don't exist. In you... they are the only thing holding you together."

  He pointed to their chests.

  "When the Greed Vessel entered you, it didn't knock. It tore the First Seal open forcefully. Your body cannot bear the weight of a Cosmic Entity sitting inside an unfortified room. The 'leak' is your life force draining out through that broken door. That is why you are dying. Doing what the Vessel wants—exploding—would just shatter the remaining seven Seals instantly."

  "A Seal?" Aryan asked, brows furrowing. "Whose Seal? Who put them there? What are you talking about?"

  "That is the question of your lineage," Markus replied, ignoring the specific 'who' for now. "But here is the proof."

  He gestured between the two siblings.

  "Had the Seal only been on Amara, her curse—her ticking clock—would not have traveled to you like a virus, Aryan. The fact that her lifespan synced with yours proves one thing: You share the same architecture. You both have the Eight Seals."

  Aryan let out a long, ragged breath. He looked at Amara, then at the sky.

  "That expins it," Aryan muttered, running a hand through his sweat-drenched hair. "Honestly... less than five days ago, I didn't even know I had a blood retive other than my mother. I didn't know I was part of... whatever this is."

  He looked at Amara with a pained expression.

  "I keep meaning to ask you about it. About us. But not now. Now doesn't seem like a good time for a family reunion either."

  He tapped his temple, signaling the presence of the intruder in their minds.

  "We really need to talk, Amara. Just us. But no one is giving us the time to do so. Not the death clock, not the Monarch, and certainly not the parasite listening to every thought we have."

  Amara nodded grimly. The ck of privacy was almost worse than the pain. They were never truly alone.

  Markus watched them, his expression unreadable.

  "Privacy is a luxury for the living," Markus said coldly. "Right now, you are merely surviving. If you want the time to talk, you must buy it."

  "The Two Halves of Greed."

  "But I saw she had only eighty-eight days to live when I first met her," Aryan challenged, his eyes narrowing. "That was before we killed Anay. If the Greed Vessel entered us during the fight with Anay, your logic regarding the Seals doesn't hold. Because I didn't get the life span of 88 days as soon as I cooperated in the kill too.”

  "That is because the Greed Vessel entered her long before she killed Anay," Markus replied smoothly, shifting his gaze to Amara.

  Amara stiffened. She looked at Aryan, then back at the Monarch.

  "Indeed," she admitted, her voice low. "Before the ga... before I met you that night, Aryan. I was on a solo hunt. I slew an unknown-rank demon. It had lost its sanity completely, raving like a lunatic. That is when I got the 'curse.' I never told anyone."

  She gred at Markus, her eyes cold.

  "You sure know a lot about my private hunts, Markus. It feels less like observation and more like you pnned it."

  Markus didn't deny it. He didn't even blink.

  "That unknown demon carried the First Half," Markus revealed. "The Vessel was split. That was the first fragment that entered you. It was unstable, leaking life force slowly. That was your eighty-eight days."

  He pointed to the memory of the dead Anay.

  "The Second Half was inside Anay. When you two killed him together, you completed the puzzle."

  "So..." Aryan pieced it together, horror dawning on his face. "The half in Amara and the half in Anay... they reunited. And because Amara and I formed a Soul Bond at that exact moment..."

  "It overrode your biological defenses and tore the First Seal apart," Markus finished. "Two halves became one whole. Two bodies became one system. The weight of the complete Greed Vessel crashed down on a foundation that wasn't built to hold it."

  "Indeed," Markus said, leaning back. A slow, terrifying smile spread across his face. "And that is what makes things interesting."

  Aryan froze. He stared at that smile—a predator looking at a new species of prey.

  "Interesting?" Aryan repeated, stepping back slightly. "That word shouldn't come from you. When you find something 'interesting,' people usually die."

  He gred at the Monarch.

  "You are up to no good, Old Man."