Rain drizzled against the roof of Ravel Tower, as if the city were trying to hide a wound it had just reopened. Distant ambulance sirens wailed, but on the 55th floor, the abandoned room they were hiding in felt quieter than a grave.
Arel sat on a torn sofa, hands still shaking.
Smears of black smoke clung to his sleeves.
Every breath burned like fire in his lungs.
Mira stood by the window, her posture rigid, skin pale.
The rainlight reflected off her cold features like a warning.
"You almost died back there," she said, soft but sharp.
Arel stared at the floor.
"Yeah… and so did you."
Mira exhaled not frustration. Relief.
"I'm used to almost dying, Rel. You're not."
Arel turned away, feeling a strange mix of anger and gratitude.
"Why are you helping me this far, Mir? Seriously. You're not even family."
Mira stayed silent.
For a long time.
Until she finally said:
"Because… I once failed to protect someone who was just like you."
Arel straightened instantly.
"Who?"
Mira didn't answer.
She only stared at her reflection in the window, as if speaking to a ghost from her past.
"I'll tell you later. Not now."
Arel wanted to push but before he could
BANG!
The door burst open.
Arel jumped. Mira raised her knife instantly.
But it wasn't the cult.
Not an entity.
Not a monster.
It was Dr. Lynette Varro.
Soaking wet.
Breathing hard.
Eyes wide like someone who'd just fled from something that shouldn't exist.
Arel blinked.
"What are you doing here?! How did you even find this place?"
Lynette held up a multiplex scanner, still blinking red.
"Because"
She caught her breath.
"Your energy spike went off again."
Mira narrowed her eyes.
"You've been tracking us?"
Lynette rolled her eyes. "I was saving both of you, you feral lunatic."
Mira stepped forward, knife grazing Lynette's throat.
"Say feral one more time."
Arel pulled Mira back.
"Enough! Not the time for drama."
Lynette turned to Arel with an intensity he'd never seen.
"Arel… I need to see the back of your hand."
Arel frowned.
"Huh? Why?"
"Now."
With hesitation, Arel rolled up his sleeve.
Lynette inhaled sharply.
Under Arel's skin right on the back of his hand
thin glowing lines spread like slow-moving roots.
But the light wasn't what made Lynette tremble.
It was the shape.
Mira cursed under her breath.
"No. No, that's impossible."
Arel panicked.
"Oh my God, what now?!"
Lynette answered in a low, steady voice.
"That… is a mark that only appears on the Guardian Lineage.
A bloodline destined to protect Edenveil."
Arel froze.
"S-so that means… my father was?"
Mira closed her eyes.
"…Yeah. Tang Khaiel had the same mark."
Arel felt reality slap him.
His heart stopped for a fraction of a second.
His father…
was a Guardian?
Lynette continued, her tone even heavier.
"And the mark only appears when Edenveil begins its first access."
Arel swallowed.
"First… access?"
"It means the ancient tree is waking.
And Edenveil is drawing closer to our reality."
Mira glared at Lynette.
"You should've told us from the start if you knew this much."
Lynette slowly sat, placing her device on the table.
It shifted from red to blue.
"I'm not just a researcher.
I'm… a witness."
Arel and Mira exchanged confused looks.
Lynette finally turned toward them.
"I've seen Edenveil.
When I was a child."
Silence fell.
Mira stiffened.
"…Impossible. No human can see Edenveil without sect blood."
Lynette shook her head.
"I'm not a normal human."
She pulled down her jacket collar
revealing a dark patch beneath her skin, shaped like a twisted symbol.
Arel recoiled.
"That symbol…"
His voice shook.
"…that's the same one from the cult's scroll."
Lynette gave a bitter smile.
"They took me when I was a child.
Forced me to witness Edenveil from a gate that should've stayed closed."
Mira tensed not out of fear this time, but fury.
"So you… you're an experiment survivor?"
"I survived. The others… didn't."
Arel felt chills crawl down his spine.
The truth was getting uglier by the minute.
Mira suddenly grabbed Lynette's shoulders.
"Why didn't you tell us?!"
Lynette looked exhausted.
"Because if I did, you wouldn't believe me. And I don't have the luxury to waste time."
Arel sat down, dizzy.
"So what does this mean? My mark is active.
The cult is hunting me.
Edenveil is getting closer.
The fruit's almost ripe.
So… what do I do?!"
Lynette faced him, deadly serious.
"First, you get stronger.
Second, we find the gate.
And third…"
She pulled out a digital map and projected it onto the wall.
A glowing red point pulsed at the center.
Fast.
Heavy.
Like a heartbeat waking up.
Mira recognized it immediately.
"…don't tell me that location is"
Lynette nodded.
"It's where Edenveil is manifesting in the modern world."
Arel stared at the map.
Until he realized:
The point was located…
in the last place he ever expected.