A cold gust of wind swept through the northern area of Aerphine City as Aelion and Veyra parted ways with Seren Fale. The sky began to fill with clusters of gray clouds, and the tall buildings stretched into long shadows, resembling the walls of a world that held far too many secrets.
Aelion walked without any clear direction. Each step felt heavy—not from physical exhaustion, but because something inside him was flowing more wildly with every moment. That vibration… like a pulse trying to speak, but using a language he did not yet understand.
"Why now?" he murmured softly. "Why does it have to be me?"
He closed his eyes for a moment. In the darkness, he could see flashes of Seren's frightened eyes, Veyra's anxious face, and… a thin crack in the sky—like a line of black ink trying to slice the world apart.
All of it piled up in his mind.
---
When Aelion reached the old district of Aerphine, the atmosphere grew quieter. The buildings were lower, the streets narrower, and the sound of vehicles faded into the distance. It felt like a small world cut off from the chaos of the modern city.
Suddenly, from a narrow alley, came the sound of metal hitting the ground.
Clang…
Aelion stopped.
The vibration in his chest spiked instantly. Not the vibration of his energy—but an instinctive one: something was watching him.
"Who's there?" he called out.
No answer came.
But the wind shifted. The air in the alley seemed distorted, as if the space itself were breathing. The streetlight near the alley moved subtly—not flickering like a normal electrical fault, but bending, as if warped by unseen pressure.
Aelion stepped closer, but with each step, cold crept up his spine. The resonance within his body suddenly stirred, as if responding to something.
The moment the tip of Aelion's shoe crossed into the mouth of the alley, he saw someone crouching behind a large metal dumpster.
"W-Who—"
The person looked up.
Their eyes were empty. Their pupils were dilated, like someone who had just woken from a long nightmare. Around their body floated tiny black particles—not dust, not smoke—but unstable psycho-digital fragments.
Aelion froze.
This was not an ordinary minor.
The person smiled weakly. "You… are the one who called me?"
Aelion shook his head quickly. "I didn't call anyone."
The person laughed softly, almost like a crackling electronic glitch. "No. Not you. But there is… a shadow behind you. A shadow that whispers something…"
Aelion clutched his chest. The resonance inside him vibrated violently. "Stop. Don't come any closer."
The person crawled out of the alley. The black particles around their body moved like digital ants, trying to crawl onto their skin.
"Do you see?" They pointed at their own chest. "This isn't mine. This isn't my energy. This… this is dark energy. Energy that fell into my body without permission."
Aelion stepped back.
Veyra had once said that low-wave minors could lose control when exposed to massive resonance. But this… was more than losing control.
It was as if their body had been infected by broken echo fragments.
"What's your name?" Aelion asked, forcing himself to stay calm.
The person smiled with an unstable grin. "People used to call me Rhovan."
Aelion froze. That name had been mentioned in Harmonia Institute reports—cases of minors suffering mental instability due to low-level psycho-digital pressure. The last record stated that Rhovan had disappeared six months ago after hearing "voices" from an unknown energy phenomenon.
"Rhovan… what happened to you?"
The man stood, his body trembling. "I… heard a calling. A calling that came from two directions… light and darkness. But the darkness found me first."
He stepped closer, and the black particles around him moved like a thin fog, reflecting the city's neon lights in warped distortions.
"That darkness… it didn't want to possess me. But it wanted to make me see something."
Aelion tensed. "See what?"
Rhovan looked up at the sky.
"To see that shadow."
Aelion followed Rhovan's gaze.
At the top of a distant high-rise, a silhouette stood motionless. It did not move. It did not sway despite the strong wind. The figure seemed attached to a dark fissure in space itself, not standing on any physical surface.
Aelion's stomach churned.
It was the same figure he had seen at the end of Chapter 1.
The one observing from afar.
The one that felt like something not of this world.
Rhovan spoke in a faint voice.
"That figure… sees all of us. Sees minors. Sees the rifts. And sees you more clearly than anyone else."
Aelion swallowed hard.
"Why is it watching?"
Rhovan nodded weakly. "Because you are a signal."
The words struck Aelion like a stone to the chest.
"A signal that awakens something… that should never have been awakened."
Aelion stepped back.
"Rhovan, you need to go to the Harmonia Institute. This dark energy could—"
"Wrong!" Rhovan screamed. His voice split, like two sounds grinding against each other. "I must not go near them. If I get close to other minor centers… I could trigger a dark resonance that can't be controlled."
The black particles around his body surged.
The streetlight above them flickered violently—then went out.
Aelion felt his skin tugged by a freezing current, as if the air were being pulled toward a single point.
Rhovan grabbed his head, groaning in agony. "That dark energy… it wants to come out… I can't—"
Without thinking, Aelion rushed forward.
"Rhovan! Listen to me!"
But the moment he touched Rhovan's shoulder—
BLAR—!
A black wave erupted like a shattered heartbeat.
It wasn't a physical explosion.
It wasn't energy tearing buildings apart.
The blast slammed into Aelion's mind like a storm.
Anger.
Confusion.
Rhovan's trauma.
All of it flooded into him like murky water forced into his consciousness.
Aelion let out a strangled cry. His knees nearly gave way.
But… just before the wave consumed his entire mind—
Aelion's body responded on its own.
From his chest, resonance emerged.
Light pulsed.
Gentle—but powerful.
Appearing like a vibration that split two worlds apart.
WHUUM—
A wave of white-blue light enveloped the black wave, smothering it like hands extinguishing fire.
Rhovan staggered. The black particles calmed, falling like digital ash.
He stared at Aelion with tear-filled eyes.
"What… what did you just do?"
Aelion gasped for breath. "I… I don't know."
Rhovan smiled weakly.
"Light resonance… isn't it? You… really are different."
But the smile didn't last. His body weakened. Rhovan collapsed to his knees.
Aelion caught him.
"Rhovan! Focus! Is the darkness still inside you?"
Rhovan shook his head slowly. "No… part of it is gone. You… drove it away. At least for now."
Aelion stared at his own hands in confusion. "Why can I do that?"
Rhovan looked at him weakly, as if gazing at someone who should not exist in this world.
"You're not an ordinary minor, Aelion. You are… a living resonance. And your energy… will stand at the center of a conflict far greater than you can imagine."
Aelion swallowed.
Before he could ask anything else, Rhovan lost consciousness.
Aelion held his body so it wouldn't fall to the ground.
But he did not realize…
That from a distant rooftop, the dark figure lifted its head slightly.
And smiled.
In a whisper barely audible, it said:
"Axiom has begun to move… and Dominion will soon follow."
---
Aelion stared at the darkening sky.
He held Rhovan's body tightly.
And for the first time, he understood:
This was no longer about the energy within him.
This was about something out there—something that had awakened alongside him.
And he could not turn off what had already risen.