Chapter Text
The battlefield reeked of dust and blood.
Jiwoo staggered backward, lightning dancing wildly around his arms, barely keeping him upright. His chest burned with every breath. His opponent—a high-rank awakener sent to "collect" him—smirked like a predator cornering prey.
"You're quick, kid," the man sneered, his aura flaring like a storm, "but speed alone can't save you forever. Your master isn't here. No one's coming."
Jiwoo clenched his fists, sparks flaring. 'I can't... lose here. I can't let everyone down.' He forced his legs to move, body screaming in protest, charging forward one last time.
The enemy's power surged, overwhelming Jiwoo's lightning. The strike came down—massive, final, inescapable.
Jiwoo braced himself—
But the world twisted.
The ground cracked as invisible force crushed the battlefield. Stone, dust, even the enemy's attack collapsed inward as if a giant hand had clenched reality itself.
Jiwoo stumbled, wide-eyed. The pressure pressed against his skin, heavy and suffocating, far more oppressive than anything he'd felt before.
The enemy's smirk vanished. "No... no way...!" He stumbled backward, his face draining of color. "Y-you're dead. You died years ago!"
A figure emerged from the shadows of the broken earth.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. His black hair, streaked with silver, shifted in the wind. His eyes were bottomless, pulling everything into their orbit. His presence wasn't wild like Kayden's—it was absolute. Inevitable.
The enemy trembled. "The Dominion Breaker..."
The man said nothing. He merely lifted one hand.
Gravity itself obeyed.
The enemy was crushed into the ground with bone-shattering force, the earth splintering outward. He didn't rise again.
Silence fell. Dust settled. Jiwoo's lightning sputtered weakly around him as he stared.
His heart hammered. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe, under the sheer weight of that presence. His instincts screamed run.
The man turned his gaze on him. Jiwoo's knees almost buckled. The aura wasn't aimed at him, and yet it felt like standing under a collapsing mountain.
Jiwoo swallowed hard. "Wh... who are you?"
For a moment, the man only studied him, his expression unreadable. Then he exhaled slowly, as though disappointed.
"...So this is what you've grown into."
Jiwoo blinked, confusion and fear tangling in his chest. "What are you talking about? Do I... know you?"
The man's gaze softened—barely, for just an instant—before hardening again.
"You shouldn't have been out here alone. You're not ready."
Anger bubbled in Jiwoo's chest. "Don't act like you know me! I've fought my way here on my own—I—"
The man cut him off with a single sentence.
"I am your father."
The words struck harder than any attack.
Jiwoo's lightning faltered, his breath catching. "Wh... what did you say?"
The man's jaw tightened. "I didn't want you to grow up in this world. I left to keep you safe. But... you've stepped into it anyway."
Jiwoo shook his head violently. "No. That's—my father's dead. He's been gone my whole life. If you were him—you abandoned me. You abandoned Mom."
Something flickered in the man's eyes—guilt? Pain? But it was gone in a heartbeat, replaced with cold steel.
"This isn't the time for explanations. Enemies will come for you now. More dangerous than the one you just faced." He turned away, his aura suppressing the battlefield around them like a cage. "If you want to survive... you'll have to become stronger. Much stronger."
Jiwoo clenched his fists, tears burning at the corners of his eyes—anger, grief, disbelief all at once. "...Don't you dare tell me what I have to do. You don't get to call yourself my father."
The man paused mid-step, his back to Jiwoo.
"...Then prove to me you can survive without me."
With that, his figure blurred, vanishing into the distance as the pressure lifted.
Jiwoo collapsed to his knees, lightning flickering weakly around him. His body trembled—not just from exhaustion, but from the storm raging inside his chest.
My father...? Alive? After all this time?
He clenched his fists tighter, sparks biting his skin.
"Kayden's not going to believe this..."
The screen fades out on Jiwoo, eyes burning with confusion and fury,