*EIDOLON: The Shadow That Knows the Heart***
*The Monster Made From Silence*
The quiet of Ardenia's upper district was different tonight.
Not peaceful.
Not calm.
But **watching**.
Aru felt that invisible gaze the same way people feel cold before seeing a storm — not with the skin, but with the soul.
Beside him, Kairo was talking about something—some joke, some story—but the words blurred as Aru's ears filled with that strange static again.
Not loud.
Not violent.
Just present.
Like someone breathing behind his mind.
He stopped walking.
Kairo immediately cut off mid-sentence, his reflexes sharp as a blade.
"Aru? What is it this time?"
Aru slowly lifted his head.
The rooftops.
They were too still.
Too empty.
Too perfect.
Then—
Something shifted.
A flicker at the highest roofline, here and gone in less than a heartbeat.
Aru's pulse spiked.
"Kairo…" he whispered.
"He's here."
Kairo's jaw tightened, his voice dropping.
"Who?"
Aru swallowed.
"I… don't know his name. But he's not a person. He's something else."
He hesitated.
Then said the name that had echoed in his dreams all week:
**"…Eidolon."**
Kairo froze.
The name hit him like a cold slap, though he didn't know why.
---
## **THE FIRST APPEARANCE**
A slow, deliberate shadow peeled itself from the rooftop above.
A shape first.
Then a silhouette.
Then… a man?
No.
Not a man.
Not quite.
He descended without sound, stepping down the vertical wall as if gravity was a suggestion, not a rule.
His coat barely fluttered, his boots made no noise, his presence felt like a *glitch* in reality.
Eidolon landed on the street.
Straightened.
Looked at them.
And smiled.
Not a friendly smile.
Not a cruel one.
A knowing one.
Kairo immediately stepped in front of Aru, hands raised, Rhythm Core subtly active.
"Back off," Kairo said, voice low.
"You picked the wrong kids tonight."
Eidolon ignored him.
His eyes—colorless, depthless, cold—locked onto Aru.
"Aru," he said softly.
Aru's blood froze.
Kairo stiffened.
"He knows your name—how the hell does he know your name?"
Eidolon took a single step forward.
The lights on the street flickered.
Every sound—cars, wind, footsteps—vanished.
Only Aru's heartbeat remained.
Eidolon tilted his head.
"You have no idea what you are, do you?"
Aru couldn't speak.
His throat closed, his breath caught.
Eidolon continued, voice like a blade wrapped in silk:
"You carry a rhythm that should not exist. A rhythm born from the forbidden dusk. A rhythm your academy cannot teach… and your government cannot allow."
Kairo's eyes widened.
"Hey—stop talking to him like you know him. Aru is a trainee, that's it."
Eidolon smiled again.
"A trainee? No. He is the **Catalyst**. The one who will either shatter this city or save it."
Aru's heart hammered.
Kairo clenched his fists.
"You say one more cryptic thing and I swear—"
Eidolon raised a finger.
Kairo froze mid-step.
Literally froze.
In place.
Like his entire body was caught in invisible cement.
"KAIRO!"
Aru grabbed him, shaking him, but Kairo couldn't move.
Couldn't blink.
Couldn't breathe properly.
Eidolon lowered his hand.
"Aru," he murmured, "your emotions are your lock. But your loss… will become your key."
Aru stopped breathing.
Loss.
He meant—
Kairo.
As if reading his horror, Eidolon stepped closer.
"One day soon, the thread tethering him to you will snap. When it does, the rhythm sleeping inside you will break free… and the world will tremble."
Aru choked.
"No. No—don't say that. Don't ever—"
The static inside him roared.
His vision blurred, the street spinning under his feet.
His heartbeat became a drum in his skull.
"STOP!" he shouted.
A pulse of invisible force exploded from his chest.
The street lamps shattered.
Dust burst off the ground.
Metal signs bent backwards.
Windows cracked.
Eidolon's coat rippled from the shockwave—but he didn't move.
Not even a step.
Slowly, the world regained sound.
Kairo gasped, collapsing to his knees, free at last.
He coughed, shaking.
"What… what did he do to me?"
Eidolon spoke one final time:
"Your tragedy has already begun."
He dissolved into smoke.
Not vanished—*evaporated*.
Leaving behind nothing except the rattling silence of a truth too heavy for the night to carry.
---
## **THE BREAK AFTER THE BREAK**
Aru knelt beside Kairo instantly.
"Kairo—are you okay? Say something—look at me—please!"
Kairo managed a weak laugh.
"Bro… I'm fine. I just… couldn't move."
But Aru wasn't fine.
Because the static in his chest…
…was louder.
…hotter.
…angrier.
And Eidolon's words repeated in his skull, each time sharper than the last:
**"Your loss will become your key."**
Aru stared at the empty rooftop where Eidolon had stood.
His hands trembled.
His eyes burned.
His voice cracked when he whispered:
"I won't let him take you."
Kairo smiled faintly.
"You think some creepy rooftop ghost can take me? I'm not going anywhere."
But Aru didn't smile.
Because Eidolon hadn't spoken like a threat.
He had spoken like someone **stating a future he already knew**.
A future Aru felt closing in…
one heartbeat at a time.