Chapter 11: Resonance.

"Ahhh… are we far enough now?"

Carla Finally sat up, chest heaving. Behind her far away, the black fissure still pulsed, distorting the world around it.

"…We're safe," she said. "For now."

The pause in her voice made Rocky shiver.

"Wh-What do you mean 'for now'?" he barked. "What is this place?"

Carla hesitated. Mirus was glaring at her behind Rocky like a blade waiting to be drawn.

So she answered.

"You're in the lands of Eden."

She expected confusion—and got it.

"…Like I'm supposed to know what that means," Rocky muttered flatly.

Cynthia blinked. "Wait… you've never heard of us?"

Both Rocky and Mirus shook their heads.

"Maybe they forgot too—" Carla began.

"No," Cynthia cut in. "Do you remember how you got here?"

Rocky looked at Mirus. "Why wouldn't we remember?"

That answer made both Carla and Cynthia lean in, eyes wide.

"Then just tell us!" they shouted together.

Mirus finally spoke, calm and sharp as steel.

"At the order of my master, Young Master Rocky and I left the Capital. We were searching for someone."

"The capital?" Carla echoed.

"We were close to our destination when we were ambushed by a stray Resonator."

He ignored her.

"Resonator?" Cynthia mouthed.

"There were six of us," Mirus continued. "Only the Young Master and I survived. To be exact—I died. But then I awoke again. In this body."

Cynthia and Carla blinked, but pushed past his silent question.

"How did you even get in here?" Cynthia asked.

Rocky answered this time. "We found a cave while running from the Resonator. The moment we stepped in… the world shifted. I woke up here. He passed out."

Carla and Cynthia exchanged glances, then fired their questions at once:

"What's the Capital?"

"What's a Resonator?"

"How can you talk, Mr. Rocky—?"

"Why haven't you ever heard of Eden!?"

"Slow down!" Rocky barked, tongue lolling in irritation. He sat.

"Mirus. One at a time."

Mirus gave a faint nod.

"Young Master has always spoken. Since before I met him."

He looked at Cynthia and Carla in turn.

"The Capital is the central city of our Domain—Aeloria."

"I don't know why no one knows your Eden."

He turned his eyes on Carla.

"And as for Resonators… you'd know that better than anyone. You are one."

"…I'm what?" Carla blinked.

"She's what?" Rocky echoed.

Mirus frowned. "She was the blue bolt you saw earlier, Young master."

He narrowed his eyes at Carla. "So… what game are you playing, little witch?"

"I don't know what that is!" Carla snapped.

Rocky stared at her.

"She doesn't seem to be lying."

Mirus paused.

"…I never thought I'd meet someone who survived Resonance but doesn't remember it."

He sat up straighter. For once, his voice softened—like a Grandfather telling a bedtime story.

"Listen well, children. The mind is not just thought. It's a place. A space."

He pointed to the center of his chest.

"Inside each of us is a mindscape—a realm that expands over time as we live.

"It grows… until it meets a boundary. An edge. Which is our body."

He drew a human shape on the sand with his finger.

"When your mindscape collides with the boundary of your body, and fights to grow beyond it… that collision is called Resonance."

"And those who survive it… are Resonators."

He stared directly at Carla.

"Like you."

"..."

Mirus's words hung in the air.

Carla and Cynthia both winced slightly—like the weight of the explanation had physically pressed against their skulls. Their heads throbbed as they struggled to process it.

While the two girls absorbed what they'd just heard, Rocky and Mirus exchanged a glance—unspoken, but purposeful.

Then Cynthia broke the silence.

"What happens if you don't survive it?" she asked.

The question settled over the group like a sudden drop in temperature.

For the first time, they saw it—on both Rocky and Mirus's faces:

Fear.

Not surprise. Not doubt.

Real, soul-deep fear.

They didn't answer.

And from the way their eyes dropped, Carla and Cynthia instinctively understood—

They didn't want to hear the answer.

A long pause passed before Rocky finally stood, brushing dust from his fur. His voice returned to its usual snappy tone.

"…Okay. Our turn to ask questions."

Carla and Cynthia straightened, focusing in.

The shift in energy didn't erase the tension—but it gave it somewhere to go.

Rocky tilted his head toward Carla, eyes narrowed.

"How did you turn my servant from dead to alive… and from old to young?" he asked.

Carla shrugged. "We didn't do anything."

"…What?"

"It's the land's power," she replied simply.

Mirus sat up straighter. "Land's power?" he echoed.

"What does that mean?" Rocky added, brow furrowed.

"In these lands—especially the mortal sectors—when someone dies, a new body forms nearby," Carla explained. "Not just any body… the one they imagine."

She glanced at Mirus. "They reincarnate into that form."

Mirus looked down at himself. Younger. Leaner. Reborn.

'Did I… wish for this? A second youth?'

Rocky blinked. "Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying if I died right now and imagined… say, an elephant, I'd reincarnate as one?"

"Technically, yes," Carla nodded. "But the more different the body is from your current one, the more perfect your vision of it has to be. If your imagination slips—"

"You might die again instantly," Cynthia finished for her.

"And many don't come back a second time," Carla added with a hint of gravity.

Rocky's eyes gleamed, tail wagging. "Interesting…"

"Don't get any ideas, Young Master," Mirus muttered darkly.

But his words were already ignored.

Mirus exhaled and turned to Carla, his expression hardening again. "Alright then. Who are you—and why did you take the Young Master?"

"We didn't take him," Carla said. "We were hired to look for anomalies beyond the wall. He was one."

"That still felt like kidnapping to me," Rocky muttered.

"I'm Carla. He's Cynthia," she continued, ignoring the comment. "We were sent by our employer to investigate anything strange that came from outside Eden. Your Young Master didn't go mad like every other beast that enters."

"Exactly," Cynthia added. "He stayed sane. Fully aware. That made him an anomaly."

"Well, I've always been special," Rocky said proudly, flashing his canines.

Mirus nodded slowly. "Then what about me? Why did you keep me?"

Carla looked at him. "You remembered. Most don't."

"We brought you to the chapel," Cynthia said. "It's where we observe reincarnations—see if anything's changed. We thought you'd wake up memoryless like the others."

"But you didn't," Carla said. "So that made you another anomaly."

Rocky's tone turned cautious. "And who exactly is this employer of yours?"

Carla hesitated.

"…The Great Immortal Queen."

Silence.

Mirus and Rocky exchanged a glance.

'Immortal.'

That word echoed like a tremor in both their minds.

Rocky's ears flattened slightly. Mirus's jaw tightened.

They didn't speak.

But both had the same thought.

'We have to get out of here.'

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