The gates of Eden Zero opened like the mouth of judgement.
Ancient steel screamed against ancient ice.
Massive frozen rings rotated deep beneath the glacier, revealing a descending path of silver metal and blue light.
Cold air rose from below.
Not natural cold.
Not weather.
This felt like standing in front of history itself.
And somewhere in that frozen abyss—
Something had laughed.
Something with Aarav's voice.
No one moved.
Even Rohan had finally reached the sacred state known as absolute silence.
Aarav stood at the entrance, staring into the prison beneath the world.
His pulse was steady.
Too steady.
The kind of calm that only came when fear was too large to process.
Because if Nysera was right—
if the First Origin was alive—
Then this wasn't just another battle.
This was meeting the shadow of everything he could become.
Rohan finally whispered,
"…I have decided I support therapy."
A completely valid response.
Denied by fate.
Nysera stepped forward first.
The snow did not touch her.
It simply moved aside.
Of course it did.
She looked over her shoulder at Aarav.
"Once we enter, Eden Zero will begin resonance."
He frowned.
"That sounds like another sentence I'm going to hate."
Mira answered flatly.
"You will."
Selene rested her blade across her shoulder.
"The prison reacts to bloodline authority."
Aelina added softly,
"It will respond to both of you."
Both.
Not comforting.
At all.
Nysera finished.
"It will force truth."
Silence.
Rohan blinked.
"…What does that mean?"
This time, Mira looked almost sympathetic.
"Memories."
A pause.
"Not all of them are yours."
Excellent.
Absolutely excellent.
Aarav sighed.
"Wonderful. Frozen haunted prison therapy."
Rohan pointed dramatically.
"I am naming my autobiography that."
They stepped inside.
The gates sealed behind them.
The sound echoed like the world locking.
The descent into Eden Zero was beautiful in the worst possible way.
Massive circular corridors carved into the glacier.
Ancient symbols glowing beneath transparent ice walls.
Frozen rivers of blue energy flowing beneath their feet.
It looked less like a prison and more like a temple built for a god no one trusted.
Rohan stared upward.
"…This place has final boss music."
Mira didn't even argue.
Because he was right.
The deeper they walked, the stronger it became.
That strange pressure.
Like the prison itself was watching Aarav breathe.
Then—
It hit.
A sharp pulse of golden light exploded from beneath his skin.
Aarav stopped.
Pain shot through his chest.
Not physical.
Memory.
His vision shattered.
—
Fire.
Sky-breaking.
A city falling upward instead of down.
Screaming.
Not from fear.
From time itself.
A hand covered in blood.
His hand.
Golden light burning across it like divine punishment.
And in front of him—
her.
A girl crying.
Silver hair.
No—
not Aelina.
Someone older.
Someone is broken.
She was reaching for him.
Begging.
"Please… don't do this…"
His own voice answered.
Cold.
Tired.
Destroyed.
"If I stop now… everyone dies."
Then—
darkness.
—
Aarav collapsed to one knee.
Someone caught him.
Aelina.
Her voice sounded far away.
"Aarav!"
His breathing was uneven.
That memory.
No.
Not memory.
A warning.
A fragment.
And the worst part—
It had felt real.
Because somewhere inside him, part of him remembered choosing it.
Nysera knelt in front of him.
No panic.
Only certainty.
"The prison has begun synchronisation."
Her silver eyes searched his.
"What did you see?"
Aarav swallowed.
He didn't want to say it.
But he did.
"…I saw him."
Silence.
Selene stepped closer.
"The First?"
Aarav nodded slowly.
"He looked like me."
Mira's voice was quiet.
"Because he was."
No one liked that sentence.
Rohan least of all.
He looked personally betrayed by genetics.
Before anyone could continue—
The corridor ahead lit up.
One by one.
Thousands of symbols awakening.
The entire prison is responding.
A deep male voice echoed through Eden Zero.
Warm.
Calm.
And horrifyingly familiar.
"You took longer than expected."
Everyone froze.
Aarav's blood turned cold.
Because that voice—
It sounded like him.
Older.
Sadder.
Worse.
The voice continued.
"I wondered which would arrive first."
"The Null Sovereign…"
"or my second chance."
Golden light flooded the corridor ahead.
At the center of it—
A figure appeared.
Tall.
Black coat lined with ancient gold thread.
Dark hair.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Older.
Sharper.
As if someone had taken Aarav and removed hope.
The First Origin.
Alive.
Not imprisoned.
Waiting.
Rohan whispered,
"…Absolutely not."
Fair.
Very fair.
The man smiled.
Not cruelly.
That was somehow worse.
Like someone who had already accepted every terrible thing.
His gaze moved past the girls.
Past Nysera.
Only to Aarav.
"Hello."
A beat.
"I've been waiting to meet myself."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Aarav stared at the man standing before him.
The man he could become.
The man the future feared.
The man who might be the reason all of this existed.
And somehow—
The first thing he said was
"…I expected you to be uglier."
Rohan covered his face.
"Thank God. He's still him."
For the first time—
The First Origin laughed.
A real laugh.
Soft.
Tired.
And heartbreakingly human.
"Good."
His eyes held Aarav's.
"Because if you had been afraid of me…"
"You would have already become me."
The prison went silent.
And Aarav realized the most dangerous truth of all—
The First Origin wasn't a monster.
He was a warning.