The rain hadn't stopped since the last battle.
It was as if the sky itself was holding its breath, waiting for something far greater to descend upon the earth.
Mira sat on the floor of the WHSD's temporary base a deserted logistics warehouse by the edge of the Huangpu River.
Kael was busy analyzing the energy data they had gathered.
Tang Rhen stood near the shattered window, watching the city the way a strategist studies a chessboard whose pieces have begun to move on their own.
The room was silent.
A silence that wasn't peaceful just uncomfortable.
Mira kept holding the Eden lens strapped to her wrist, watching the golden pulse that beat steadily… as if calling her.
"I don't get it," Mira whispered. "Why does this resonance only appear when I'm near danger? Why me?"
Kael stopped typing.
"Because your body reacts it doesn't attack first. You're not the trigger… you're the response."
Rhen turned slightly.
"And the finest response is one born from the core of Eden."
"I'm human," Mira shot back. "There is nothing 'Eden-core' about me."
Rhen stared at her for a long moment.
"How much evidence do you need before you stop denying reality?"
Mira clicked her tongue softly but didn't argue.
Kael rolled his chair closer.
"There's a bigger problem. The cult's energy… it's heading toward the city center."
Rhen nodded.
"They're not searching for a place. They're searching for a person."
Every gaze shifted toward Mira.
She exhaled sharply.
"All right. What's the plan?"
Kael projected a holographic map.
A new red dot glowed right in the Pudong district, near the observatory tower.
"This energy is different," Kael said. "Not a rogue spirit. Not shadow residue. This is… organized. Like there's a mind behind it."
"Their leader?" Mira asked.
Rhen shook his head.
"Not yet. If the cult leader stepped in, this city would already be rubble."
Mira rose to her feet.
"Then we go now."
"No."
Rhen's voice cut through her momentum.
"Why not?" Mira turned, defensive.
Rhen looked straight at her.
"Because there's something you need to see first."
He walked to the corner of the room and unlocked a long metal case.
Inside was a cylindrical crystal, glowing with a soft golden light.
Mira stiffened.
"What… is that?"
Rhen touched the crystal gently.
"Shaolin's remaining resonance. Sealed over twelve years ago."
Kael immediately whipped his head around.
"You you brought that? Are you insane?"
Rhen ignored him.
His eyes stayed on Mira.
"When you touch this crystal, you'll see fragments of the past. Not a dream. Not an illusion. Real memories Shaolin left behind for you."
Mira said nothing.
Her stomach hollowed.
Air refused to enter her lungs.
"The past… what part of it?"
Rhen stepped closer.
"The moment the cult kidnapped you."
Mira's world spun.
She wanted to say no.
She wanted to run.
She wanted to pretend she never heard any of this.
But she needed to know.
She had to know.
"If I see this…" Mira's voice trembled, "what happens after?"
Kael swallowed.
"After that, we go to Pudong. Because that energy point… it's stabilizing. Which means there's someone there who can talk, not just attack."
Mira took a deep breath.
She stared at the crystal.
Its gentle glow felt… familiar.
Like something that had held her long before she had memories of anything.
Rhen set the crystal before her.
"Mira," he said softly, "once you touch this, there's no going back."
Mira closed her eyes.
Then opened them.
And placed her hand on the crystal.
BRAAAK!
The room ripped away from her sight.
The rain vanished.
The sky, the city, the building everything was swallowed by light.
Suddenly she was standing in a garden.
A garden that couldn't possibly exist on earth.
Colossal trees grew with roots of gold.
The air sparkled with particles of light that danced like stardust.
In the center
a white stone gate, cracked as if freshly attacked.
And a baby.
A tiny baby wrapped in a brown blanket… crying in the arms of a young Shaolin monk his face filled with panic and wounds.
Behind them
shadows crawled like an ocean of darkness.
Someone screamed:
"PROTECT THE CHILD! SHE IS THE CHOSEN!"
Another voice answered:
"THE FRUIT OF ETERNITY HAS REACTIVATED! DON'T LET THE CULT SEE HER!"
Mira froze.
The baby.
That was her.
She watched the young monk run, clutching the infant tightly shaking, injured, terrified.
Then a voice rose from the darkness
cold, fractured, and unmistakably clear.
"Bring her to me. She was born with Eden's mark."
Everything collapsed into blackness.
The crystal's light died.
Mira snapped back into the warehouse.
She fell to her knees, trembling violently.
Kael grabbed her shoulder.
"What did you see?!"
Mira couldn't speak.
Tears spilled by themselves.
Rhen stood still.
But his eyes softened just slightly, almost like pity.
"Now you understand," he said quietly.
Mira bit her lip, her voice breaking.
"I wasn't… chosen."
A tear slid down her cheek.
"I've been hunted since the day I was born."
Kael lowered his gaze, jaw tightening.
Rhen drew a slow breath.
Then the Eden lens on Mira's wrist flared brighter than ever.
The red dot on Kael's hologram turned purple.
Kael's eyes widened.
"Purple?! That's… not the cult. That's"
BAM.
The warehouse doors blew open.
A gust of cold wind swept inside.
And someone stood in the doorway.
Tall.
Draped in a dark cloak.
A calm face, but eyes glowing with ice-blue light.
The voice was soft.
Too soft.
"At last… I've found you."
Mira rose slowly.
Her body weak, but her gaze sharp.
"Are you… with the cult?"
The figure smiled faintly.
"No."
He stepped forward.
"I am far older than they are."
Rhen instantly drew his sword.
Kael raised his cobalt pistol.
Mira swallowed her fear and lifted the Qingyu blade.
The figure stopped three steps from them.
"My name…"
He lowered his hood
and blue light exploded from his eyes.
"…is Eren Valis. Last Heir of the Eden Gate."
Silence.
Pure, dead silence.
The world itself seemed to forget how to spin.
And Mira knew
everything had changed again.