Chapter 812: They were kidnapped...
Vergil remained seated on the edge of the bed after uttering those words. The room remained silent, enveloped in the bluish twilight of dawn that discreetly filtered through the gaps in the curtains, but something within him had completely changed. It wasn’t just worry. It wasn’t even fear in the common sense of the word. It was a much deeper, instinctive, and unpleasant feeling, similar to the sudden realization that something fundamental had disappeared from reality without explanation. For years, he had learned to recognize presences, spiritual signatures, echoes of energy, and bonds that transcended physical distance. Some connections were so strong that they became impossible to ignore. Sepphirothy was one of them. Sapphire too.
He closed his eyes again and tried to reach them through those invisible bonds that normally responded immediately to the slightest effort. He found nothing. No resistance. No response. No distant sign that could indicate interference, blockage, or simple withdrawal. Only emptiness. An absolute void that shouldn’t exist. His breathing became heavier as he tried again, deepening his spiritual perception to levels he didn’t normally use unnecessarily. Still, he didn’t answer.
Katharina observed every small change in his expression. The initial discomfort he had felt upon waking quickly disappeared, replaced by a serious attention he rarely displayed. She knew Vergil too well to ignore that kind of reaction. He wasn’t impulsive. He wasn’t paranoid. He wasn’t someone who panicked over vague premonitions. If he was reacting that way, then there were real reasons for concern.
"What exactly are you feeling?" she asked softly, trying to remain calm despite the growing tension that was beginning to fill the room.
Vergil took a few seconds to answer. His fingers were tightly closed on his knees, an involuntary gesture that showed more nervousness than he probably realized. When he finally spoke, his voice came out lower than usual.
"It’s not just my mother."
Katharina remained motionless.
Vergil slowly opened his eyes. "I can’t feel Sapphire either."
Those words completely altered the atmosphere of the room.
The silence became heavy.
Heavier than it should have been.
Katharina immediately saw the muscles in his shoulders tense. Tension began to gradually course through his entire body, like an unstoppable electric current. For the first time since she’d known him, she had the impression of watching someone desperately trying to maintain control over himself while his own mind began to work against him.
Vergil got out of bed so quickly that the movement made the mattress sink behind him. He began to walk around the room aimlessly, running his hand through his hair as he tried to organize thoughts that were becoming increasingly chaotic. His breathing no longer had the same controlled rhythm as before. There was urgency in it. There was restlessness.
Sepphirothy missing.
Sapphire missing.
No presence.
No connection.
No answer.
That didn’t make sense.
Her mind immediately began constructing possibilities, and each one seemed worse than the last.
Katharina got out of bed right after. She realized the problem was rapidly worsening. Vergil rarely showed emotions like that, but precisely because of that, it was easy to perceive when something exceeded his usual limits. His movements were more abrupt. His posture was rigid. There was something dangerous in that growing silence.
"Vergil."
He didn’t answer.
He kept walking.
"Vergil."
This time he stopped, but only for a few seconds.
"I can’t feel any of them."
His voice came out harsher.
Colder.
But Katharina immediately perceived what was behind that coldness.
Fear.
Genuine fear.
Something extremely rare.
"Maybe there’s some interference."
"No."
The answer came too quickly.
Too immediately.
"It’s not interference."
He started walking again.
"I know interference. I know sealings. I know blockages. I know dimensional distortions. This isn’t any of those things."
With each sentence his breathing worsened.
With each sentence his thoughts raced.
He tried again to locate any sign.
Nothing.
The emptiness remained.
And it began to suffocate him.
Katharina approached slowly. She didn’t try to hold him immediately. She didn’t try to force calm. She just stayed close enough to intervene if necessary.
"You need to breathe."
Vergil let out a humorless laugh.
"If something happened to them..."
The sentence died before it was finished.
Because he didn’t want to complete that thought.
He didn’t even want to formulate it.
The problem was that his mind kept doing it on its own.
It was at that moment that something appeared in the center of the room.
First, a circular distortion appeared in the air.
Then magical symbols began to form on the luxurious carpet of the suite.
The energy was unstable.
Violent.
Uncontrolled.
Vergil turned immediately.
Katharina assumed a defensive posture reflexively.
The magic circle expanded for a few seconds before exploding in a wave of reddish light.
A figure plummeted from within it.
The body hit the floor with enough force to produce a dry sound.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then the figure tried to get up.
It was Neberius.
Or at least what was left of her.
Her condition was so dire that it took seconds to recognize her. Her clothes were torn in several places. Blood was splattered all over her body. One of her arms had deep burns. Her breathing was irregular and extremely weak. Open wounds covered much of her exposed skin, and her spiritual energy seemed to oscillate dangerously between stability and total collapse.
She tried to take a step.
She stumbled.
She almost fell again.
Vergil was already in front of her before she even finished moving.
Neberius partially raised his face.
His eyes were unfocused.
Exhausted.
But still conscious.
"Vergil..."
Her voice came out hoarse.
Failed.
"Sepphirothy..."
She coughed up blood.
"...and Sapphire..."
Another effort to breathe.
"...were kidnapped." The world seemed to stop.
No sound coming from the city.
No noise from the hotel.
Nothing.
Only those words echoing inside Vergil’s mind.
For a few seconds he simply stared at Neberius.
Momentary.
Completely motionless.
Then something changed in his expression.
All the anxiety.
All the fear.
All the unease.
Disappeared.
Not because they had passed.
But because they were replaced by something much worse.
Coldness.
Absolute coldness.
Vergil reached out his hand.
Sacred-demonic energy began to surge around his fingers.
The light possessed golden hues mixed with liquid darkness, coexisting in an impossibly strong way. The power enveloped Neberius immediately, spreading through his body like a silent tide.
The results appeared almost instantly.
The burns began to disappear.
The cuts closed.
The blood evaporated from her skin.
The broken bones healed.
Her life energy stabilized at an absurd speed.
In less than a minute, all the wounds had completely disappeared.
Neberius remained motionless, staring at his own hands in shock.
Even to her, that display of power seemed absurd.
Vergil withdrew his hand.
His face showed no emotion whatsoever.
That was even more frightening.
Katharina noticed immediately.
The anxiety was gone.
But that wasn’t an improvement.
It was the moment when something inside him simply stopped showing fragility.
"What happened?"
The question came out calmly.
Controlled.
Cold.
Neberius felt an involuntary shiver.
Because he knew that tone.
He had heard people speak that way before massacres.
Before wars.
Before irreversible decisions.
She took a deep breath.
Trying to organize her memories.
"It was in the Abyss."
Vergil didn’t interrupt.
"They were with Lilith. They were investigating something below the known floors. I received an emergency call when it all began."
Neberius closed his eyes for a moment.
The images were still vivid in his memory.
"When I arrived, it was already too late."
The tension in the room became almost suffocating.
"The entire region was destroyed. There were signs of combat everywhere. Demonic energy. Celestial energy. Something much worse too."
Vergil remained silent.
Neberius continued.
"I found Lilith fighting."
For the first time there was a reaction.
Very small.
But real.
"Lilith?"
"Yes."
Neberius nodded slowly.
"And she was losing."
That was hard to believe.
Lilith wasn’t someone who simply lost battles.
Not like that.
"I tried to help."
She looked at her own arms.
"That’s how I ended up in this state."
Vergil continued watching.
Waiting.
Each second of silence increased the pressure.
"And who did this?"
Neberius hesitated.
Not because he didn’t know.
But because the answer seemed too absurd to say aloud.
When he finally spoke, his voice came out lower.
"I don’t know."
The following silence was worse than any answer.
"It wasn’t War."
She swallowed hard.
"It wasn’t Famine."
Another moment.
"It wasn’t any of the known Regents."
Vergil didn’t move.
But the air around him began to vibrate.
Small cracks appeared in the suite’s walls.
The lamps flickered.
Space seemed to distort for a moment.
Neberius immediately felt the monstrous amount of energy he was suppressing.
"They took Sapphire."
Her voice faltered for a moment.
"And they took Sephirothy."
Then she looked directly into his eyes.
"And Lilith stayed behind trying to stop them."
Silence returned.
Long.
Heavy.
Absolute.
Finally, Vergil turned slowly towards the enormous windows of the suite.
Outside, Tokyo awoke to another ordinary day.
Millions of people went about their lives without imagining what was happening in the depths of the Abyss.
He observed the city for a few seconds.
Then he closed his eyes.
When he spoke again, his voice was completely devoid of any emotion.
"Prepare yourselves."
Katharina understood immediately.
That wasn’t a request.
Nor a suggestion.
It was a decision.
Vergil opened his eyes again.
And there was something in them that hadn’t been there before.
Something cold.
Something dangerous.
Something that even made Neberius want to retreat.
"We’ll find them."
This time no one answered.
Because everyone in the room understood exactly what those words meant.
And they understood something even more important.
Whoever had kidnapped Sapphire and Sepphirothy probably still didn’t understand the mistake they had just made.
