The world inside the small Brooklyn apartment shrank to the space between two heartbeats.
THUMP.
THUMP.
Michael stood frozen in the doorway of his room, the question hanging in the air like a physical weight, thick and suffocating.
"Did you see her?"
His father's voice was a ragged whisper, stripped of all its former strength, filled only with a grief so ancient it felt like a part of the building's foundation.
Michael's mouth was dry.
His mind was a frantic storm of blue screens, fragmented memories, and the impossible truth he had learned in the belly of the Gate.
The Seal is me.
It is the last of my conscious will.
How could he answer that?
How could he tell his father, this broken legend of a man, that he had not only seen her but felt her sacrifice wrap around his very soul?
"I… I don't know what you mean," Michael stammered, the lie weak and brittle.
Marcus didn't get angry.
He didn't yell.
He just let out a long, shuddering breath, the sound of a dam that had held back a flood for fifteen years finally cracking.
He sagged onto the worn fabric of the couch, burying his face in his hands.
"Don't lie to me, kid," Marcus mumbled into his palms, his voice muffled. "Not about this."
"Not now."
He looked up, and his eyes were red-rimmed, haunted by ghosts only he could see.
"Valerius called me before you got home."
"She told me about the energy signature."
"A perfect zero on the mana scale."
"But strong enough to collapse an E-Rank Gate and vaporize an entire nest."
Michael's blood ran cold.
"Dad, I can explain…"
"No," Marcus interrupted, holding up a hand. "Let me."
"Let me finally tell you the truth."
He took another shaky breath.
"Your mother… Elara… she wasn't like the other Hunters."
"She wasn't an Awakened, not in the way the DGC understands it."
"She was something older."
"Something… else."
Michael's heart hammered against his ribs.
He thought of the System's notifications.
[VERIFYING BLOODLINE: MichaelRO-ARCANA... VERIFIED.]
[WELCOME, LAST SCION.]
"Her family," Marcus continued, his voice barely a whisper, "they called themselves the Arcana."
The word hit Michael with the force of a physical blow. It was real. All of it.
"They didn't use mana," Marcus said, staring at a faded spot on the wall, his gaze lost in the past.
"They used something they called the Void."
"It wasn't a power they controlled."
"It was a power they… bargained with."
"A living emptiness that could rewrite the rules of our reality."
"The DGC… they were terrified of her."
"And they were fascinated."
"They saw a key. A weapon that could end the war with the Gates for good."
Michael felt a surge of cold fury, the same rage he'd felt in the Skitterer cave.
It was the Warden's story. It was his mother's memory. It was all true.
"The Ever-Gate," Michael said, his own voice low and dangerous. "It wasn't an accident, was it?"
Marcus finally met his son's gaze, and the raw pain in his eyes was an open wound.
"No."
"It was an experiment."
"A black-ops mission run by a shadow division inside the DGC."
"They called it 'Project Chimera'."
"They promised us the world, Michael."
"They promised us a normal life for you."
"All she had to do was one last mission. Use her power to seal the Ever-Gate from the inside. Permanently."
Marcus's voice cracked.
"I was there."
"I was the commander on the ground."
"I watched them push her. I watched them use her fear for you against her."
He described the scene, his words painting a vivid, horrifying picture that mirrored the vision Michael had seen. The swirling, chaotic heart of the collapsing Gate. The monstrous, shadowy things that bled from its walls.
"She was a goddess in there," Marcus whispered, a flicker of the old S-Rank's awe in his voice. "A reaper dancing through a storm of chaos."
"But the Gate was… wrong."
"It was bleeding something toxic into her. The Void was fighting back. Corrupting her."
"She knew she couldn't win."
"She knew she couldn't contain it."
He looked directly at Michael, his eyes pleading for understanding.
"So she made a choice."
"She didn't just seal the Gate, kid."
"She used the last of her power, her very essence, to build a shield."
"A seal, woven from her own soul."
"A divine-tier cage, the DGC analysts called it."
"But it wasn't for the Gate."
Michael finished the sentence for him, the words feeling like glass in his throat.
"It was for me."
Tears streamed freely down Marcus's face now, hot and silent. He nodded.
"She had to hide your signature."
"The Void… it hungers for its own kind."
"And Project Chimera… they would have turned you into a lab rat. Another weapon."
"So she built a cage around your soul to make you invisible."
"She became your cage."
"I'm sorry, Michael," he choked out. "I should have told you. But I promised her. I promised her I would let you be normal."
"I failed."
Michael stood there, his world completely shattered and rebuilt in the span of ten minutes.
The anger was gone, replaced by a deep, aching sorrow.
His father wasn't a coward who ran from his past.
He was a soldier standing guard over a grave. A husband honoring his wife's last wish.
"The Seal," Michael said, his voice surprisingly steady. "It's breaking."
Marcus's head snapped up, a fresh wave of terror washing over his face.
"What?"
"When I was in the Gate today… I was hit by something," Michael explained, omitting the part about the Alchemist's serum. "It damaged the Seal. I… I saw her. A memory. An echo."
This was it. The moment of truth.
"I have it too, Dad."
"The power."
"The System."
Marcus just stared, his mind struggling to process it all.
The System. A word he hadn't heard in fifteen years. Elara's word for her interface with the Void.
"The DGC knows," Michael continued. "Valerius. She knows something is wrong. They scanned me. They detected… 'Null-energy'."
"Project Chimera," Marcus breathed, the name a curse. "They're still active."
"The man who ran it… the one who gave the final order… he's not just some ghost, Michael."
"He's the Deputy Director of the entire DGC now."
"A man named General Gideon."
Michael's fists clenched. A name. A target.
"He's been hunting for echoes of Elara's power for fifteen years."
"He's been searching for another Arcana."
Marcus's face went pale, a look of dawning horror spreading across his features as the final, terrible piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
"That's why Valerius was there so fast."
"It wasn't a random patrol."
"The E-Rank Gate was a lie. A lure."
"They didn't detect your power spike after you went in."
He stood up, his eyes wide with a terror Michael had never seen before.
"They detected you the moment you Awakened in Times Square."
"They've been watching you ever since."
"This whole time…"
A sharp, authoritative knock echoed from the apartment door. KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
It was loud. Confident. Unmistakable.
It wasn't a neighbor.
It wasn't a delivery.
It was the sound of the past finally catching up to them.
Michael and Marcus locked eyes, a shared, silent understanding passing between them.
The hunt was over.
And they were the prey.