They staggered through the portal, gasping for breath, blood and dust clinging to their clothes—but they were alive. The real world greeted them with pale light, clean air… and the strange, unsettling feeling of returning to a reality that remained blissfully ignorant of the horrors they had faced.
-« No time to rest," Jonah said, his voice clipped and urgent, not even waiting to catch his breath. "We're heading straight to the Hunters' Bureau. Someone needs to hear this."
The others didn't respond. They were still in shock. The dragon's corpse, the blistering attacks, Naël's death… and, above all, Isaac. What he had become in the darkness. What he had done.
An hour later, they reached the regional Hunters' Bureau—Île-de-France Branch. The building was stark and utilitarian: raw concrete walls, reinforced security checkpoints, armed guards stationed at every entrance.
