The rift felt… normal.
Too normal.
A Tier 4. The kind Jaemin had seen enough times to stop flinching at. The light here was low and cold, and the faint hum of core residue drifted through the air like static that never fully discharged.
"Rifthounds ahead. Small pack."
The team moved without tension. Fluid. Calm. Steel met flesh, aura flared, and within seconds the things were down. Hardly a warm-up.
Jaemin walked in silence, hands tucked into his jacket, eyes scanning out of habit more than worry. His breathing stayed steady. Shoulders loose.
Then a quiet step to his side.
"You seem pretty relaxed."
Mina said, matching his pace.
He glanced at her.
"Uh… yeah. Sorta. I've been through enough Tier 4s to get a feel for 'em."
Mina gave a small, honest smile.
"That's nice to hear. This is only my second rift, actually."
His eyebrow raised.
"Second? You were going over plans like you've been at this for a year."
She laughed—light, but not dismissive.
"I wish. But thanks. I was taught that a good plan is the difference between walking out and getting carried out."
She clasped her hands behind her back as they walked.
"I'm twenty, by the way. In case you're wondering why it's only my second."
"I wasn't."
Jaemin replied, then thought to himself.
"Twenty… and already here. Rift jobs this young…
His jaw tightened just a little.
They walked deeper into the rift. Mist swirled faintly along the floor, disturbed by their steps. Still calm. Still quiet.
Too quiet.
Then—
"Striders! Hoard ahead!"
The Bastion shouted from up front.
Jaemin's reflexes kicked in. He stepped forward, already reaching for his daggers—
—but Mina cut him off, sliding in front of him.
"I got it! Don't worry!"
Her voice rang clear, confident.
And for just a split second—
Jaemin froze.
Because he saw someone else.
Not Mina.
Hana.
Same stance. Same reckless confidence. Same way she looked over her shoulder before stepping into hell like it was nothing.
His heart skipped, breath caught in his throat.
Then Mina was gone, aura igniting, rushing forward into the fray.
And Jaemin just stood there, eyes stuck on a memory that hadn't asked to return.
For a second—just a second—he wasn't in this rift anymore.
The light faded. The air turned cold in a different way. The sounds around him—footsteps, blades, shouts—they all dulled under the weight of a single, crashing memory.
That rift.
The one that tore everything apart.
Every horrifying moment surged back in a rush. The scent of burning core rot. The screams. The blood. The way the sky inside had cracked like glass and rained something worse than monsters. The helplessness. The rage. The silence afterward.
It all slammed into his chest like a freight train.
He saw her again.
Not Mina.
Her.
The one who'd stood the same way. Who'd looked back just like that. The one who stepped forward so he wouldn't have to. The one who smiled too easily. Who died too fast.
The one who made him realize how fragile everything really was.
The one he wanted to thank.
The one he never could.
She was gone.
Forever.
And Jaemin… Jaemin was still here. Still breathing. Still walking. Still fighting.
He blinked, forcing air into his lungs. His grip tightened around the hilts of his daggers. The sound of battle snapped back into focus—steel clashing, a roar from a Strider, a cry of someone's aura bursting.
Mina's voice in the distance.
He didn't hesitate this time.
Jaemin moved.
His hands slid behind him, but he didn't reach for the Binary Stars. Not here. Not yet.
Instead, with a quiet flick of his wrist, he summoned the katana, Eye of the Sun. It wasn't flashy, and that was the point. Flashy drew eyes. Eyes raised questions. Questions led to things Jaemin didn't have the time or luxury to explain.
He advanced, but his eyes stayed fixed ahead—on Mina.
She was fast, yes, but not in control.
Velocity Cores were tricky like that. Of the five major types, they were the only ones with a passive trait: Swift Overdrive. A dangerous gift. The moment a user tensed their legs—even just for a pivot or a side-step—the core reacted, reinforcing movement with pure speed.
But that kind of acceleration came with a catch. Without full control, momentum became chaos.
Mina was feeling that now. Her steps were sharp but stuttering. She'd shoot forward faster than she meant to, then pull back hard just to avoid overextending. She could barely manage flurries—her speed was being held back by the fear of losing control mid-swing.
So, she relied on her blade.
Clink!
Her sword sliced through the thorny leg of one Strider, forcing the creature to buckle.
Slash!
She followed up with a diagonal cut across its exposed body, ending it cleanly. It was slow. Not sloppy, but deliberate—each movement focused more on survival than style.
In the backline, a faint glow flickered from behind a boulder.
Doyoon stood calm, his staff humming quietly in his hand. The light pulsed once before he whispered under his breath, almost inaudible beneath the chaos—
"Auxiliary Core: Guardian's Domain."
A pale wave rippled outwards, brushing through the team like a warm breeze. It wasn't the full version—barely enough to shield—but enough to purify. The venom from the Striders wouldn't have a chance to spread. It was smart. Quietly done.
He knew his role.
Slash. Slash. Slash.
Jaemin moved in.
Three cuts.
Three motions that felt more like a slow exhale than an attack.
And just like that—thirty Striders collapsed in a storm of blood and twitching limbs.
The others didn't notice. Too focused on their lanes. Too busy dealing with their own fights.
But one of them saw.
Hyuksu.
He stood further back, silent, observing. His aura was unreadable, but his attention was obvious. Eyes fixed on Jaemin like a hound sniffing out something that didn't belong.
Jaemin noticed.
He always noticed.
But he didn't say a word.
In a rift, strangers were allies on paper. Nothing more.
He'd learned that lesson the hard way.
Hyuksu cleared the last Strider with a sharp arc of his glaive, its thick blade cutting through the beast's neck with a crack of bone. He let out a long exhale and spoke just loud enough for the group to hear.
"Let's keep moving."
No one replied.
But they moved.
It was enough.
Behind them, the carcasses began to decay unnaturally fast, curling inward with the scent of rotted bark and metal. The rift was already consuming its own leftovers.
Jaemin's katana had already disappeared, vanished into thin air without so much as a shimmer. No trace left—no glow, no aura leak, not even a shift in the light around him. Just silence. Controlled.
He kept his pace easy, not too far ahead, but not in the center either.
A side glance was all he needed.
Doyoon was walking close to Mina now, hand hovering just an inch from her lower back, his staff still faintly aglow. The energy was subtle—meant for restoration, not flash. He was feeding her stamina in slow, measured pulses.
Even so, Jaemin's eyes narrowed.
A misstep. Even if it came from a good place.
Auxiliary Cores didn't run deep. Their energy wasn't infinite. Recovery took core fuel, and core fuel ran dry faster than most people liked to admit. Every drop spent on stamina now was a drop not spent on healing when it mattered.
If she got wounded later—and Doyoon was tapped out…
Jaemin didn't say a word.
It wasn't his place.
Intervening here wouldn't just draw attention—it would mark him. The kind of attention he couldn't afford. Not now. Not with Hyuksu still hovering at the edge of earshot.
The group pressed deeper into the rift.
The air changed.
It was subtle at first—just a shift in smell. Then it got worse. Like damp, week-old trash sealed in a metal room. Molded rations. Wet fur. Decay and ozone mixed with stale breath.
Jaemin's nose twitched, but he said nothing.
His boots stepped over a trail of ichor—still warm, still steaming.
Then a soft voice broke the silence beside him.
"Oppa…"
Jaemin turned slightly.
Mina.
"How long have you been taking rift jobs?"
He blinked.
Then looked ahead again.
"Awhile now."
Short. Vague.
Two reasons.
One—this was still a group of strangers. Friendly or not, trust wasn't free in a rift.
Two—Hyuksu was listening.
Even from behind, Jaemin could feel it. That quiet presence. Not a threat. Not yet. But watching. Always watching.
Mina didn't press him.
But she looked at him just a second longer than she needed to.
Jaemin kept walking, eyes locked ahead.
The scent was odd, very odd, as if rotting venom. The ground was damp enough to burrow quick. It was a clear sign something else was here.
They all felt something shift on the damp ground.
Far from the team, something rose from the soil — a sick fusion of centipede and lizard. Elongated body armored in iridescent green chitin, with six clawed limbs and a segmented tail tipped with a twitching, spike-laced bulb. Its head was lizard-like, but split open vertically into four flaps that retracted when it screamed.
"Gnawling Broodscale."
Haseok muttered.
"We need to tread lightly. It can attract more of these if its Brood Scent lands on us."
He continued.
{Brood Scent: Marks a target with a pheromone that makes all nearby Broodscale home in.}
The worst part was their sizes—and the fact they could hunt in packs. They were almost as big as a wolf.
"KYAAAAACCCK!"
It let out a low growl as it slowly rushed toward the team.
Hyucksu immediately arced his blade—but the Broodscale burrowed underground, avoiding the attack. In the next moment—SWISH!—it burst out again, spraying its scent around the team.
More Broodscales would come.
"Auxiliary Core: Shimmering Life!"
Doyoon yelled, summoning floating golden lamps to provide constant healing to the team.
"He may be a rookie, but he's smart to know when to use what move."
Jaemin thought.
Mina flared her core, ready to hurl—
"Stop."
She heard a calm voice.
Jaemin motioned her to stop.
"The ground is damp. It's a bad field for you to fight with your power. And those Broodscales will catch up to you easily."
He said.
Hyucksu flared his deep crimson aura.
"Bastion Core: Lion's Mane — APEX IGNITION!"
His blade glowed crimson red as intense heat and pressure from Lion's Mane imbued into the blade.
WOOSH!
He buried the blade into the ground. Heat transferred into the damp earth, vaporizing the moisture.
Solid ground now. Perfect for Mina.
For once, it felt like he was serious—both fighting, and helping his teammates.
Jaemin instinctively looked up.
The sky—dead and gray just seconds ago—now shimmered with a surge of iridescent light. Waves of emerald, violet, and pale gold danced across the torn clouds like slow fire. Beautiful. Ethereal. Wrong.
"Auxiliary Core: Aurora Veil."
Haseok's voice still echoed faintly as the sky pulsed in rhythm with the battlefield. Jaemin narrowed his eyes.
That ability—he'd only seen it once, long ago, when a seasoned Coreborn used it during a Raid.
Buffs, healing, status cleanses—an all-in-one miracle. But there was always a catch. A fatal one.
His eyes dropped back down to the field. Already, Mina's movements sharpened, her posture stabilizing. The thin cuts she'd taken earlier had started to close. Even Jaemin felt a light warmth crawl up his arms as fatigue drained from his limbs.
But then—
skitter skitter skitter
The Broodscales.
They moved faster now. Clawed limbs dragging less, strikes landing harder. Their chitin shimmered under the aurora light, almost absorbing the buffs like it belonged to them too.
Of course it did.
Jaemin's jaw clenched.
"This buff... covers the enemy too."
Haseok didn't reply. He just focused, keeping his hands lifted to maintain the veil. His expression unreadable.
It was too late to cancel now.
The battlefield pulsed alive with movement. Striders and Broodscales alike surged in greater numbers, tearing through the drying haze of steam.
Somewhere to the left, a Broodscale leapt, claws aimed at Doyoon's floating lamp.
SWISH—
Jaemin moved.
No Binary Stars. No flares. Just the Eye of the Sun, precise and clean.
SLASH!
The katana cut through the beast mid-air before it could touch the lamp, ichor spraying to the side as the body dropped in silence.
"Maintain the lamp."
Jaemin muttered to Doyoon, not even looking back.
"We'll handle the rest."
The auroras still shimmered above. Beautiful. Dangerous. A blessing and a curse, woven into the sky.