The air in the emergency stairwell still trembled from the earlier shock. Arel leaned against the wall, his breath sharp and shallow, the golden light around his body dimming but not fully gone.
Mira approached him, sweat trailing down her temple, but her eyes steady eyes of someone who had seen death too many times to flinch.
"Arel… you need to listen to me," she said, chest rising and falling.
"That tremor just now it wasn't an earthquake. That was… the movement of Edenveil's roots."
Arel shook his head, still dizzy.
"Roots? From another world? How would they show up here?"
"Because Edenveil isn't a normal 'place.'"
Mira glanced at the floor beneath them, as if something was lurking far below the building's foundation.
"It's a parasitic dimension. When the Fruit gets close to ripening, the barrier between worlds starts to leak."
Arel covered his face with both hands.
"I don't get why all of this is coming after me…"
Mira fell silent something she rarely did.
Which meant the next answer would hurt.
"Arel… you were never an ordinary human to begin with."
Arel snapped his head up.
"Don't start with the dramatic nonsense, Mir. I'm human. One hundred percent."
Mira stared deep into him.
"You're Tang blood. You inherited something that was sealed when you were a baby."
She gripped his shoulder.
"And the one who locked it away… was Tang Khaiel himself."
The name hit Arel's chest like a hammer.
His father.
Something cracked inside him not a bone, but a long-buried memory he had never dared to touch.
FLASHBACK — AGE 6
Little Arel sat on Khaiel's lap, holding a wooden toy carved like a small, strange tree.
"Dad," young Arel asked, "why does the tree look like it's about to explode?"
Tang Khaiel smiled faintly a smile full of secrets.
"It's not a tree exploding, Rel," he said softly.
"It's a tree opening a door."
Little Arel frowned.
"A door to where?"
Khaiel looked far away… too far for a father telling a bedtime story.
"A place the world isn't ready to know."
He touched the boy's chest.
"And one day, that door will look for you."
Young Arel just giggled, not understanding.
Khaiel watched him the way someone watches a countdown.
A countdown running out.
Arel snapped back to the present, eyes red.
"Mira… you actually knew my dad?"
Mira lowered her gaze.
"I I was once taught by someone who knew him."
"Who?"
"Monk Yuan."
Her tone shifted into reverence.
"He was a former gatekeeper of Edenveil… before the gate disappeared."
Arel felt his head spin.
"So my father was… what? A guardian? A traitor? What?"
Mira exhaled heavily.
"That's what we need to find out. But one thing's clear he didn't die in this world."
Arel felt something pulse through his body like a heartbeat, but older, deeper.
"I… saw something earlier," he whispered.
"A dark forest. Red sky. A massive tree. Was that Edenveil?"
Mira stiffened.
"You saw Edenveil? From here? Without a ritual?"
Arel nodded.
Mira cursed under her breath.
"That means the Fruit is resonating with you directly. That only happens if"
Footsteps echoed below them.
Not one.
Not two.
Many.
Mira froze.
"Arel… we have to move. Now."
"Why?"
She whispered sharply:
"Because the demon cult won't send just one person to capture you."
The footsteps grew louder.
Closer.
The metallic scrape of weapons dragged across concrete began to echo.
Arel swallowed hard.
"How many are they sending?"
Mira's face went pale.
"Second unit is usually six."
She sighed bitterly.
"But if the Tang inheritance is already awakened… they'll send a full unit."
Arel stiffened.
"What's 'full' mean?"
Mira answered quietly.
"Twelve."
Arel cursed, voice cracking.
"I literally just learned how to glow, Mir! How am I supposed to"
A voice boomed up the stairwell.
"Arel Jian Tang!"
It rolled through the concrete like a war gong.
"In the name of Edenveil, surrender. Your blood will not be defiled."
Mira yanked Arel away from the stairwell.
"Okay, listen," she hissed.
"We can't go up, can't go down. We escape using a route normal humans can't even survive."
Arel stared at her.
"What route?!"
Mira opened a small door at the end of the hallway.
"Maintenance access. Main pipes."
Arel stared into the narrow, pitch-black shaft.
"Mir… that's tiny. And tall. And extremely dark."
"Rel… if you don't get in, you die."
The cultists' footsteps grew louder.
Arel inhaled sharply.
"Fine go."
Mira pushed him in first.
The door closed softly.
And their world sank into darkness.
Meanwhile, across the city, Dr. Lynette Varro stared at the new data blooming across her screen.
Edenveil's energy formed a pattern.
One line.
Two lines.
Three lines.
A fourth line appeared slowly… shaping a symbol she knew too well.
A symbol that had only appeared once twenty-two years ago.
Lynette's breath trembled as she whispered:
"Tang Khaiel…"
"…are you finally calling your son home?"