Smoke still hung in the air as Arel Jian Tang stepped into the WHSD central operations room.
He stood rigid, as if pulled upright by invisible strings. His usually warm eyes were dark dark not just with anger, but with something riding inside him.
Mira stumbled to her feet, breath caught.
"Arel…?" she whispered.
Her voice sounded like someone seeing a ghost or someone seeing the person they miss the most, but in the wrong version.
Arel's footsteps echoed softly.
No breath. No expression.
Ensaria moved fast, his body blazing gold.
"Do not go near him," he warned.
Arel turned slightly toward him.
"I didn't come for you, Silent Light."
Dr. Varro stepped in front of Mira, protective.
"Arel, what happened out there? Our dimensional sensors were just severed from the outside. You couldn't have done that alone."
Arel gave a thin smile.
Too thin.
"I… wasn't alone."
A shadow slipped out from behind him.
A shadow that moved like black liquid refusing to keep a fixed shape yet within that darkness… there were eyes.
Four pairs of red, calm, cold, watching.
Ensaria growled.
"You're insane. Letting that thing follow a human into the real world?!"
Arel dipped his head slightly.
"That wasn't my choice."
The shadow whispered just behind his shoulder.
"Your heritage calls to us, Grimoire Tang.
And we have answered."
The room froze.
Mira felt her spine turn to ice.
"Grimoire… Tang…?" she breathed. "What do they mean, Arel?"
Arel closed his eyes, and for the first time Mira saw the human buried beneath the darkness.
Not the hardened, distant Arel.
But the Arel who was afraid.
"All of this… started long before I was born," he said quietly.
"Before my father was killed."
Varro jerked upright.
"You know?"
Arel nodded slowly.
"My father… Tang Khaiel… he wasn't just a researcher like the world thinks. He was one of the few people who ever opened the manuscripts of the First Eden Order."
Ensaria stopped moving.
"They… actually told you?" he whispered through clenched emotion.
Arel looked at Ensaria.
Not challenging accusing.
"You knew. From the very beginning."
The shadow slid forward, touching the floor with a wet dragging sound.
"Tang Khaiel was the pioneer of summoning the Eden Ibilis.
And he tried to flee after seeing what he had awakened."
Varro stiffened.
"So… his death"
Arel finished it himself.
"was an execution."
Mira stepped back.
Not from fear of Arel
but from the weight of the truth crushing her chest.
"Arel… why didn't you ever tell me?" her voice cracked.
Arel looked at her and it was a look full of wounds.
The look of someone carrying a secret too heavy, tearing him apart piece by piece.
"I was afraid, Mira.
Because ever since my father died… I've been seeing things no human should see."
The lights snapped off.
The shadow swelled.
Ensaria raised his hand, gold light exploding across the room.
"Everyone fall back, now!" he shouted.
Arel clutched his head, face twisting as if two voices were fighting inside him.
"I can't hold them for long… Mira, stay awa"
Too late.
The shadow surged, sinking through the floor, spreading like ink covering the room in seconds.
Mira only heard one whisper in her ear:
"We choose you, Eden Keeper."
Then
Absolute darkness.
No color.
No sound.
No world.
When the light returned…
Mira was no longer in WHSD headquarters.
She stood inside a collapsed ancient temple, filled with shattered statues from the First Eden Order.
And Arel stood at the altar.
Alone.
But his eyes now glowed not red…
but gold like Ensaria's.
"I need to show you something," he said softly.
"My father's legacy.
A legacy… that will kill us all if we don't stop it."
Mira swallowed hard.
"Arel… what did your father actually do?"
Arel lifted his hand.
From the altar, an object rose a black metal box etched with ancient carvings identical to the symbols on Ensaria's body and the Eden Ibilis pillars.
And when the box opened…
Mira saw something that should not exist.
"My father…" Arel whispered,
"sealed a fragment of the Eden Ibilis… inside my blood."
Light erupted.
The world shattered again.
And this REAL chapter officially opens the door to Edenveil's core storyline.