The silence outside East Wall was suffocating in a different way now—not the oppressive kind like inside the vault, but the eerie quiet that follows after a scream. Like the world itself was holding its breath. They walked back to Neon Haven, all of them still trapped in thoughts.
Kael leaned against the arcade's outer wall, drenched in sweat and rain, staring down at his hand. The mark was dim now, almost dormant—but it still pulsed faintly. As if acknowledging something had changed.
Not just within him.
Within all of them.
"We're down a tether," Rin said quietly, brushing her damp hair away from her face. "That… thing tried to fuse with the sixth. But it failed."
Juno stood near the edge of the sidewalk, arms folded, eyes scanning the skyline. "Not failed. Delayed. It didn't seem defeated. Just… wounded. Waiting."
Mace let out a bitter laugh, leaning against a streetlamp. "Great. We pissed it off. That always works out well in stories."
"Yeah?" Kael said, pushing off the wall. "Well, this one's ours. So let's rewrite the damn ending."
They didn't speak after that. Just stood in the neon glow and watched the distant lights of the city shimmer on puddled streets.
---
Two days later, they were on a train to Busan.
The decision hadn't been unanimous—Mace wanted to stay and fight. Juno argued that the only way forward was understanding the origin of the tethers, and Rin had discovered a lead pointing to a place called Haemosu Temple, nestled in the mountains just north of the coast. Hidden. Sacred. Untouched by time.
As the train cut through the countryside, the tension was thick in the air. Kael sat beside the window, headphones in but no music playing, staring out at the passing scenery—endless hills, rivers, rice fields that glowed under the overcast sky.
He didn't know why, but something inside him felt heavier now.
Like every step closer to the truth was also a step toward unraveling something... vital.
Something he wasn't ready to face.
"Do you feel it too?" Rin asked, sliding into the seat across from him. She had a small notebook open, filled with scribbles in Hangul, ancient Korean sigils, and runic translations.
Kael nodded slowly. "Yeah. Like we're walking a tightrope."
She tapped the page with her pen. "The temple is a nexus. One of the old ones. A convergence point for threads. It was used in rituals to 'unweave fate.' That's what the scroll said."
Kael frowned. "Unweave fate?"
"It means it's possible," she said softly. "To change what's already been written. To cut a thread without dying."
He looked up. "You think that's what the creature was trying to do?"
"No," she said. "I think it was trying to replace the sixth."
Mace leaned over the seat behind them. "Wait, hold up. Replace… as in become the sixth warrior?"
Rin nodded. "Exactly. The entity isn't just some monster. It's a devourer. A contender. If it had fused with the violet tether, it could've overridden its purpose. Taken its place in the circle."
Juno joined from the aisle, voice grim. "And with it, claimed power over the entire pact. Every thread. Every soul bound to it."
Kael's stomach turned. "So we've been chosen. Not just by chance, but as… vessels?"
"No," Rin said, closing her notebook. "As balances. Each of us carries something elemental. One emotion. One choice. One weakness."
She glanced at Kael.
"You carry guilt."
He flinched, but didn't deny it.
"And Juno?"
"Regret," she said.
Mace raised a brow. "Let me guess—anger?"
Rin nodded.
Mace smirked. "Figures."
"And you?" Kael asked softly.
She hesitated. "Control."
Juno's eyes narrowed. "That's what the pact feeds on. Strong emotion. Bonds formed by them. If we lose control of that... we become like the devourer."
The train slowed.
Out the window, the old forests of Gyeongnam came into view, rolling mist between trees like phantom silk. The air felt thicker. Older. Like they were crossing a boundary not just of land—but of fate.
---
They hiked through the forest for hours.
Past crumbling stone steps. Past shrines choked in moss. Past warnings etched in multiple languages:
> "Beware the tether's cradle."
> "Only the unbroken heart may pass."
> "The lotus path blooms for none but the marked."
As they approached Haemosu Temple, Kael felt the pull again—gentler than before, but deeper. Resonant. Like a song humming in the bones of the world.
The temple was magnificent in its decay. Worn wooden pillars rose like ribs from the earth, lacquered tiles still glistening with age-old rain. Red and gold lanterns hung limp in the breeze, their paint faded but still proud.
At the center, an altar.
And hovering above it—
A lotus made of light.
Five petals.
One missing.
Kael stepped forward.
But before he could reach it, the ground beneath them shimmered—and suddenly, they were no longer in a forest temple.
They stood in a hall of mirrors.
Endless reflections. Infinite threads.
And all of them—
Were watching.