Short: Energies

  The quiet of the Flux office was shattered by a sharp SMACK. Eunchae slapped her own cheek, and in a blur of blue light, a clone materialized—only for the clone to immediately slap itself in frustration.

  "DAMMIT!"

  Seonho kicked off his desk, his chair rolling smoothly across the floor until he stopped beside her. "What happened?" He leaned in, peeking at her monitor.

  "I accidentally erased the last skirmish file," Eunchae groaned, rubbing her face. "Being part of the 'Re-build' isn't fun. Seonho-ssi, don’t you think Ren should be doing all this?"

  Seonho shrugged, unfazed. "No. This was our mission, so it’s our job to file it. It’s always been like that, even before the Re-build."

  "Ugh, fine!" Eunchae opened a fresh document, her fingers hovering over the keys. "What was Twin’s eye color again? Pink Chaos?"

  Seonho chuckled, a little too knowingly. "Pink Chaos. Right."

  Both Eunchae and her clone snapped their heads toward him, glares perfectly synchronized. "It’s purple," Seonho corrected, his tone shifting into 'lecture mode.'

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  "Was it?" Eunchae sighed, backspacing.

  "Wait... do you actually not know the color coding?" Seonho didn't wait for an answer. He rolled away and returned a second later with a tablet, sliding a high-res photo of Gaeul across the desk. Her eyes were glowing a sharp, electric blue.

  "This is Aion Energy," Seonho began, his eyes lighting up. "It’s a substance scooped from Oblivion, tainted with demon blood but purified into a stable hybrid. We inject it into trainee genomes to develop unique abilities—Blinking, Telekinesis, Reality Manipulation... even Clones."

  The clone gave Eunchae a deeply annoyed look.

  "Because it’s modified by us, our eyes turn blue when we use it," Seonho continued, ignoring Eunchae’s sarcastic sip of coffee. "Now, the Original energies—Scarlet, Chaos, and Soul—are the raw deal. Pure demon origins."

  Eunchae let out a loud, theatrical groan, but Seonho was in the zone now.

  "Scarlet is the red one. Wonjung had it, but it came from Xin. Which he apparently reclaimed." He sighed. "It makes the user ruthless, fast, and—most importantly—it ‘deletes’ our impure Blue Aion energy. But," he raised a finger, "it doesn't work on Chaos or Soul energy because they’re like siblings. Red only kills Blue."

  The clone was now slumped in its chair, eyes glazed over.

  "Then there’s Chaos Energy," Seonho’s voice softened slightly, a faint blush creeping onto his cheeks. "Which is my girlfriend’s power. It’s purple. It allows the user to wield chaos-fire that ignores physical density. It’s the only thing that really stabilizes... or counters... Scarlet."

  "Are you done?" Eunchae slammed her hand on the desk.

  "Almost! Lastly, Soul Energy. The green one. Hyeonseok has that. It lets him understand humanity on a deeper level, and he can summon that spectre that watches people like a creep."

  Eunchae leaned back, exhausted. "That’s a lot."

  "Make no mistake," Seonho added, his expression turning a bit more serious. "All of these come from Oblivion. But wielding them doesn't make someone a half-demon. They’re just vessels using demon-originated yet stabilized energy. It’s totally different for someone like me... whose actual blood is part-demon. Thanks for that, Xin."

  "Great. Amazing. I’ve learned so much. Thank you, Professor Seonho. Can I work now?"

  "Wait, one second! Now let me tell you about the geological origins of the Oblivion rift—"

  Eunchae didn't even look at him. She just took a deep breath and screamed at the ceiling: "LEESEO! YOUR BOYFRIEND IS A NERD!"

  Colors.