The boy lay unconscious in the alley, his face pale and lips trembling. Even in sleep, he twitched — like his body remembered what his mind could not.
Yi Ji-Hyuk knelt beside him, checking his pulse. Alive, but barely.
The spell he'd attempted was no mere incantation. It had been a gateway ritual, incomplete and unstable. One wrong syllable, and the rift would have torn wide enough to swallow the street — or worse, let something crawl through.
And it almost had.
Ji-Hyuk could still feel the gaze — distant, vast, and impossibly old. Something on the other side had noticed. Had pressed its face to the glass and stared back.
That was the danger of magic.
It remembered those who touched it.
He slung the boy over his shoulder and climbed back to the rooftop in a few effortless strides, slipping through the window just as dawn began to paint the city in gold.
He set the kid down gently on the mattress.
Ji-Hyuk could feel the magic residue clinging to him like tar — not dangerous, but thick. The kind that took root in someone untrained and slowly corrupted them.
He placed a hand on the boy's forehead. Whispered a cleansing chant.
A glow passed from his palm to the boy's chest. The mana dissolved quietly, like breath on a mirror.
The boy exhaled sharply and rolled over, falling into peaceful sleep.
Ji-Hyuk sat beside the window, fingers steepled, watching the streets below.
"Who taught you how to summon something you couldn't control?" he muttered.
More importantly — who gave you a grimoire written in Old Berafian? That language didn't exist here.
Unless someone had brought it.
Unless someone had started planting seeds.
An hour passed before the boy stirred. He woke with a start, flinching like he expected pain.
His eyes widened when he saw Ji-Hyuk. "Wh-who—?"
"Be quiet," Ji-Hyuk said without looking at him. "You nearly tore open a gate to Berafe. You're lucky I was nearby."
The boy's mouth opened, then shut. He pulled his knees up, hugging them tightly.
"I… I didn't know it would work," he whispered. "It was just an experiment. I found the book online."
"Online?"
The boy nodded nervously. "Some hidden forum. People trade old spells, weird rituals. Most of it's fake. I just… I wanted to try."
Ji-Hyuk turned to him slowly. "And you picked that?"
"I didn't know it was real!" the boy cried. "I thought it was just a cosplay thing! You know, some LARP nerd garbage!"
Ji-Hyuk stood and crossed the room, kneeling in front of him. "Listen carefully. That wasn't a game. That wasn't fake. What you said last night — you spoke in a language not meant for this world. You opened a door. And something on the other side wanted to come through."
The boy paled. "But… why? Why would that even exist on a forum?"
Ji-Hyuk's voice was cold. "Because someone put it there."
The implications gnawed at him.
Someone was spreading Berafian magic online. Not the twisted spells of blood cults or the soft enchantments of merchant wizards — but gateway rituals. Forbidden knowledge. The kind only high-ranking beings in Berafe's darkest circles possessed.
Someone wanted the veil torn.
And they were using fools and thrill-seekers as tools.
He turned back to the boy. "What's your name?"
"Min-Soo," the kid muttered. "Han Min-Soo."
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen."
Ji-Hyuk rubbed his temples. "Of course."
He looked at the grimoire — now resting on the desk where he'd dropped it. It was bound in fake leather, printed like some cheap novelty book. But the ink inside shimmered faintly. Each rune pulsed with a familiar rhythm — like heartbeats from another world.
He opened the front cover. There was no publisher. No author. Just a single line etched in black flame:
"The Doors Will Open Again."
That wasn't just a threat.
It was a promise.
Later that day, Ji-Hyuk visited Yeonho again.
The old man took one look at the book and hissed through his teeth. "Where did you find this?"
"A kid opened a rift last night," Ji-Hyuk said. "Said he downloaded the ritual from a hidden forum. Claims he thought it was fake."
Yeonho's hand trembled as he turned the pages. "This is high-tier Berafian script… but it's embedded in junk design to avoid detection. Clever. Too clever."
Ji-Hyuk leaned forward. "This isn't some rogue cult. This is someone with access. Someone who knows how to hide dangerous magic under the nose of an unprepared world."
Yeonho looked grave. "There are a few names that come to mind. Back in the early veil wars, there were summoners who defected to Berafe — humans who found power there and never looked back."
"Could one of them have survived?"
Yeonho hesitated. "If they did… they'd want revenge. And a second chance."
Ji-Hyuk closed the grimoire. "Then I'll find them before they open another gate."
Back at the rooftop, Han Min-Soo was still asleep — exhaustion and fear tangled in every breath. He was harmless now, but not unimportant.
Ji-Hyuk left him a note:
"Don't try magic again. Stay hidden. If someone contacts you, don't answer — tell me. I'll find you if I need to."
He left behind the concealment charm too. The kid would need it. Until Ji-Hyuk could end this properly.
Because something had shifted.
The war he thought he'd escaped wasn't over.
It was just beginning — and this time, Earth was the battlefield.
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