In Eden’s mind, the world burned.
The explosion replayed with rciless clarity, the blinding light, the ringing in his ears, the way he thought he’d die in that instant. He saw Leon shielding them again, saw blood, saw flas, saw himself frozen.
Then, the scene shifted.
He was no longer at the site of the blast, but back during the selection.
Another near-death encounter. Another demon. Another mont where he could do nothing but cling to the hope that soone stronger would act.
Then the dream twisted again.
The white space.
That eerie nothingness before he entered the Trial World. Where he chose his difficulty.
Where... he made a choice.
A spike of pain shot through his skull in the dream.
As the scene shattered.
Suddenly he was falling, a void, infinite and cold, pulling him downward with no end in sight. His thoughts frayed. His body dissolved into the darkness.
Then, through the stillness, a voice echoed deep in his mind.
Low curious and amused.
"So... you’re hiding sothing? No... this isn’t yours."
"This is the doing of another... how interesting."
The words reverberated through the void, not just heard, but felt. They weren’t accusatory... they were intrigued. Like soone observing a puzzle.
Before Eden could grasp the aning, he heard a scream.
Not from the voice.
From himself.
And then,
He felt it, as a hand grasp his own, it was warm and pulling, and it was followed by a voice calling his na,
"Eden!"
---
Eden instantly woke up, his body lurching forward as if escaping from drowning.
Sweat dripped down his face. His chest rose and fell in sharp, uneven breaths.
He looked up.
Eleanor and Adrian stood beside his bed, eyes wide, concern etched across their faces.
"Eden," Eleanor said, crouching slightly, "you were screaming in your sleep. What happened?"
Eden looked at her. His eyes were unfocused, still trapped sowhere between that dark dream and reality.
He didn’t respond imdiately.
He slowly rose from the bed, his feet touching the cold ground, and took a breath.
"I need... so ti alone," he finally said, voice quiet.
Without another word, he moved toward the door and walked out, leaving Eleanor and Adrian behind in the silence of the room.
They exchanged a glance.
Sothing had changed in Eden.
They could feel it.
****
Eden stared at his reflection, water dripping from his chin into the porcelain sink below. The room was quiet, save for the hum of the overhead light and his own shallow breathing. His crimson-red eyes glowed faintly in the mirror.
"What the hell is happening to ?" he muttered.
The reflection didn’t answer, it only stared back.
"Am I going insane?"
He let out a strained chuckle, as if trying to laugh the fear away, but it died in his throat. His hands suddenly shot to his head as a cacophony of voices scread into his ears, warped and distorted, each one more shrill than the last:
"yoULIEdYOuLIedYOUliEDYOULIED—"
The bathroom spun. As Eden’s legs trembled, and he backed away from the mirror,
But then two pale hands slid out from its surface, gripping the mirror’s edges. Long, thin fingers, tipped with dark, claw-like nails.
Eden froze in horror.
A second pair of hands gripped the opposite edge.
Then, slowly, a figure pulled herself out of the glass, as if the mirror were a pool of ink.
The demoness erged.
Her long black hair cascaded down like a living curtain, her skin a sickly ash-gray with dark glyph-like markings carved across it. Her face was partly hidden behind that hair, but a single blood-purple eye burned from the darkness.
Eden tried to scream, but his voice caught in his throat.
As She launched forward before he could even flinch, diving into him, her form collapsing into smoke and shadow as it forced itself into his mouth. Eden gagged, body arching violently as the corruption flowed down his throat. He fell to the floor convulsing, his eyes wide and unblinking as they turned pitch black, tendrils of shadow dancing in his pupils.
Then, everything stilled.
And that’s when the mories began to unravel.
"Eden, we cannot let anyone know about this."
A soft voice, warm and gentle. And a face full of concern it was his mother.
"I’m sorry, Mom... I... I don’t know why I couldn’t go through with it."
"I don’t know why... I reduced the difficulty."
Eden’s young face was soaked with tears. Sha gripped his chest like a vice.
His mother gently knelt down beside him, stroking his cheek.
"I know how to make it better, my dear."
"How?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
She smiled sadly, placing two fingers on his temple.
"We’ll lock away the mory."
Before Eden could respond, a white flash engulfed his vision, and his consciousness began to slip. The last thing he heard was her soft voice:
"This is for your own good... my son."
Back in the present, Eden scread, a sound of soul-deep agony, as the shattered fragnts of mory collided with the demoness’s invasion.
A pulse of dark energy exploded outward, shattering the mirror and sending spiderweb cracks through the tiled walls of the bathroom. Lights flickered, and the sink shattered.
And then...
Silence.
Eden stood slowly, dark energy dripping from his skin like blood.
His eyes, once red with fear, now burned with black fla.
His breath was calm.
And in that mont, Eden was no longer Eden.
He was possessed.
****
Leon walked through the long steel corridor of the base, his boots echoing faintly with each step. It had only been a day since he’d been discharged from the dical unit, and though his body felt fine thanks to the Federation’s top-tier recovery systems, his mind remained restless.
He wore a fresh set of military uniform, dark gray with blue accents and a faint emblem stitched over his shoulder, marking his Unit 01 designation. His white hair, as always, was tied back neatly, and his blue eyes held that quiet intensity that never seed to fade, even in peace.
His destination was simple: the mail station. A small, reinforced room on the third floor of the base where soldiers sent important parcels to family, lovers, or allies across the Federation.
As he entered, the clerk gave a half-hearted salute, recognizing Leon instantly.
"Package?" the clerk asked.
Leon simply nodded, producing what he wanted to send from his inventory.
The clerk looked at Leon strangely before asking,
"Priority tag?"
"Yes," Leon replied. "Send it directly to Elizabeth Queen. Use my credits to expedite."
"Understood, sir."
Leon gave a short nod, then turned and walked out.
From the mail station, Leon made his way to the private training room.
As he stepped into the open space, the sterile light of the artificial sun panels above cast sharp shadows across the floor. Targets lined the far wall, and various training dummies stood in clusters, scarred from constant use.
Nikko stood near the center, already waiting.
She wore a sleek version of the Federation combat suit, customized for flexibility, black with silver linings, her long black hair tied up into a high tail, and a smirk tugged at the corner of her lips the mont she saw him.
"So," she said, arms folded, "how exactly am I supposed to help you with your training?"
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