The battle erupted with sudden ferocity.
Jaemin was a blur—feet barely touching the ground, moving with a velocity that made the world around him seem slow.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Three Broodscales exploded from the sand like toxic shadows, each cut cleanly down before they could even roar. The katana whispered death.
Mina moved like a striking viper, quick and precise.
SLASH!
Her blade caught the twitching tail of a Broodscale, but the creature barely flinched. That hit was a scratch—far from fatal.
Before she could react, the beast's jaws yawned wide, revealing rows of glistening, dripping fangs. It lunged forward.
"MINA, CAREFUL! IT'S USING ACID FANGS!"
Doyoon yelled, his voice slicing through the chaos.
The creature's bite landed, splattering acid, but before it could cause damage, the beast suddenly exploded in a flash of blinding light and fire—reduced to nothing but smoldering cinders.
The team barely had time to register what had happened.
Auxiliary cores were the secret backbone of the team—the quiet power no one saw coming. While the flashy attacks and blazing auras grabbed attention, it was the subtle touch of an Auxiliary Core that turned the tide. Arora veil's speacial effect to implode harmful substances from getting inside the body.
A simple buff from them could amplify Dynamic Fullflame into a nuclear-level blast, wiping out enemies with overwhelming force.
The remaining Broodscales, sensing the tide turning, surged desperately. But the team, now coordinated and sharp, picked them off one by one. Slowly but surely, they wiped the floor with the pack—no losses, no close calls.
Suddenly, the ground trembled like it was about to crack open, and from beneath the sand, a monstrous beast-titan erupted. Its eyes burned a deep, hellish red, glowing through a twisted black fur coat.
It wasn't a gorilla, but a grotesque, nightmarish mockery of one—a beast born from the darkest corners of the abyss.
"An Abyssal Titan???"
A voice muttered, disbelief and fear tangled in the words. Despite being known as easy kills in theory, these Titans were nightmares in practice—brutal, relentless, and terrifying.
"I'll handle this alone."
Jaemin said, stabbing his blade deep into the earth. His other hand opened, summoning his twin daggers—Binary Stars—already humming with crackling energy.
The Titan let out a deafening roar and lunged, its massive claw slashing forward. But Jaemin was faster, flipping and spinning with lethal grace. He sliced through his palm, feeling the sting but pushing through, then slashed down the Titan's legs. The beast toppled with a thunderous crash.
The rest of the team was frozen, stunned by the speed and precision of Jaemin's assault.
Jaemin leapt high, but before he could finish, the beast fired a sonic blast—a vicious wave of sound that slammed him backward midair.
He reacted instantly, kicking off the wall and using the momentum to change course. The blast followed him, relentless, designed to keep him at bay and buy the Titan time to regenerate.
BOOM!
An explosive dagger blasted into the Titan's snarling face, doing no damage but silencing its roar.
It was Mina.
The beast's furious glare snapped toward her—black blood steaming as Jaemin twisted midair, slicing the nape in a clean, decisive cut.
The beast collapsed, dead before it hit the ground.
The dust settled, the sharp smell of burnt black blood still lingering in the air. Jaemin wiped the sweat from his brow, chest rising and falling with the adrenaline still pumping hard. Mina approached, sword lowered but eyes sharp.
"You really didn't have to do all that alone."
She said, voice low but not accusing.
Jaemin shrugged, the faintest smirk teasing his lips.
"Didn't feel like waiting around. Besides…"
He glanced back at the others, still catching their breath.
"Sometimes it's faster if one person just cuts through the bullshit."
Mina narrowed her eyes, stepping closer.
"Cut through or cut off your own chances of backup?"
He looked right at her then, serious now.
"Backup's good, but sometimes it's a luxury you don't get."
A pause hung between them. Mina's usual easy smile faltered for a split second before she shook her head.
"You're hard to read. And you're not the kind of guy who makes friends easily, huh?"
"Not many worth making."
Jaemin replied quietly.
Mina let out a breath, a little laugh breaking the tension.
"Guess I'll just have to stick around then. Maybe teach you how to trust."
Jaemin's smirk returned, a little wider this time.
"Good luck with that."
"Also Doyoon-"
Jaemin says and looks...
The air thickened, heavy with the coppery scent of blood and the distant echo of death. Doyoon's head lay motionless on the ground, severed clean from his body, eyes wide with shock even in death.
Mina's scream tore through the tense silence — a raw, hellish sound that cut deeper than any blade.
Hyuksu's blade gleamed cold as he wiped the blood off with deliberate calm.
"You guys really don't die, huh."
He muttered, voice dripping with scorn.
The air around Jaemin shimmered with a barely contained storm of core energy, a symphony of power bending to his will. Precision was his foundation—the razor edge that honed every strike, every flick of his wrist, every dance of his twin daggers—but it wasn't all he wielded anymore.
No, years of relentless training had unlocked something far more dangerous: the ability to manipulate and shift between all five core types, flowing seamlessly between velocity's blinding speed, flux's chaotic bursts, bastion's impenetrable defense, and auxiliary's subtle yet powerful support.
He was no longer a one-trick blade; he was an entire arsenal embodied in flesh and spirit.
Hyuksu towered before him, a living volcano of molten fury wrapped in Bastion Core's searing armor. The heat radiating off him wasn't just physical — it was a challenge, a gauntlet thrown down in flame.
Jaemin's eyes narrowed, the familiar tingling in his core shifting as he flexed this newfound versatility.
CLANG!
The first impact was thunderous, Hyuksu's armored fist crashing down like a meteor aimed straight to Jaemin's skull.
Jaemin's body blurred, Precision Core igniting every fiber of his being. His form bent and twisted like liquid steel, slipping just beyond the reach of the crushing blow.
But then, as Hyuksu prepared to strike again, Jaemin's aura shimmered — Velocity Core flaring to life.
He surged forward, a streak of pure kinetic energy, closing distance in a heartbeat. His daggers became twin comets, tracing deadly arcs aimed for Hyuksu's exposed joints.
SLASH!
A crackling hiss sounded as Jaemin's blades tore through the edges of Hyuksu's molten armor, sparks and droplets of searing energy flying off like fireworks.
Hyuksu growled, anger flaring like the lava flowing beneath his skin. With a roar, his Bastion Core erupted, molten plates thickening and his form becoming a living fortress.
He swung an uppercut with the weight of a falling mountain, but Jaemin twisted midair, shifting back to Precision Core — the world slowed, his senses sharpened to a razor's edge.
Jaemin landed smoothly, but pain flared as a glancing hit from Hyuksu's molten gauntlet seared his side.
The burn was fierce, but Jaemin's Auxiliary Core rippled beneath his skin — a quiet tide of healing energy that softened the impact, knitting flesh and muscle with a whisper.
Hyuksu charged again, each step sending tremors through the cracked earth, his molten aura blazing hotter, hotter, threatening to turn the battlefield into a forge.
Jaemin's focus tightened. Shifting to Flux Core, chaos energy crackled around him, and his movements became erratic, unpredictable — a flicker here, a blur there.
He danced around Hyuksu's devastating blows, dodging with flashes of brilliance, each attack a sudden burst of power designed to test the titan's defenses.
THUD!
Hyuksu's gauntlet slammed the earth near Jaemin's feet, sending a shockwave that cracked the ground and sent dust swirling in a fiery cloud.
Jaemin flipped backward, barely escaping the blast, feeling the sting of raw heat on his skin.
But the burn fueled him. Jaemin's core energy flared again — this time shifting back to Bastion Core. A dark, sturdy shield wrapped around him, absorbing the fiery blast with a resonant CRACK but holding firm.
He countered instantly, Velocity Core sparking to life as he launched forward, daggers spinning in a deadly tornado of blades aimed at Hyuksu's knees — the weak points in his molten armor.
CRACK!
A fissure ran through the armor as Jaemin's strike found its mark, molten energy hissing as the crust broke apart. Hyuksu stumbled, rage and pain mingling in his molten eyes.
The battlefield became a storm of clashing energies — molten heat against flashing precision, raw power against surgical strikes.
Jaemin's core shifted fluidly, a deadly rhythm of offense and defense. Flux when unpredictability was needed, Bastion to absorb and endure, Auxiliary to patch wounds in an instant, Velocity to blur through danger, and always, always Precision guiding the deadly dance of his daggers.
Each core fed the others — a seamless symphony of destruction and survival. It was this mastery, this flexibility, that had transformed Jaemin from a mere trainee into a lethal force.
Finally, Hyuksu unleashed his ultimate move, a nova of molten core energy roaring outward, the very air scorching with its fury.
Jaemin's Bastion Core flared fiercely, summoning Sun Guard, a swirling shield of bright energy that absorbed and fractured the devastating blast.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the shield, but it held, giving Jaemin the moment he needed.
With a flash of Velocity and Precision, Jaemin closed the gap, blades igniting with pure core energy. One dagger slashed across Hyuksu's exposed throat — a clean, final strike.
Hyuksu's molten glow dimmed, his body slumping as the Bastion Core faded.
Mina was shocked, her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the smoldering crater where Hyuksu fell. A Bastion. Gone. Just like that.
"Oppa—" she whispered, voice fragile, uncertain.
"Don't ask me anything."
Jaemin didn't even look at her. His voice was cold—low, like a warning. Not angry. Just done, then started walking, boots crunching over scorched sand and ash.
Mina hesitated, her legs frozen, eyes flicking from the charred battlefield to the back of the man she thought she knew. And then—she followed. Quiet. A half-step behind. She didn't understand what had happened. But something had changed.
They moved in silence, the Rift air growing heavier the deeper they went. Cracks of violet light split the ground beneath their boots. In the distance, the Overseer stirred—its form a blur of obsidian limbs and flickering runes.
Jaemin walked ahead, steady, expression unreadable.
Behind him, Mina's voice broke the silence.
"Are you hurt?"
He didn't turn back.
"Hurt? Uh… no. I'm fine, thanks."
His voice was calm. Normal.
A beat passed. Then he glanced over his shoulder.
"Are you?"
She flinched. The question had caught her off guard.
"No… thank you."
She said, softer than she meant to.
He nodded, then looked forward again.
"Leave the Overseer fight to me. Okay?"
"What?" Her brows furrowed.
"I can't just leave a whole boss to you."
"You're right."
He stopped walking. Turned to face her.
"But I don't want you to throw your life at a boss just for the sake of fighting by my side."
His words were warm. Measured. But the tone was distant, matter-of-fact. Like he'd already accepted what he had to do, with or without her.
"I'll get us both out of here alive."
He said.
And without waiting for her reply, he summoned his daggers. The blades spun once in his hands before settling into a ready stance. The glow of his core flickered at his back, pulsing steady and cold.
Ahead, the Overseer rose to full height.
He didn't hesitate.
The fight was over before it even began.
The Overseer didn't last ten seconds.
Jaemin's daggers found their mark, and the Rift cracked open, its edges folding in on themselves like dying light. He stepped through without a word, the Rift Crystal in his hand, blood drying on his jacket.
Mina followed.
The moment the city skyline came into view—those familiar lights against the dark—her legs gave out. She dropped to her knees on the concrete platform, breathing hard. Her fingers clawed at the ground like she needed to feel something real again.
She'd watched humans die. Her best friend had been torn apart. Abyssals had almost crushed her skull in. And somehow, she was still here.
Because of one man.
She was trembling. Her breath caught somewhere between a sob and a scream, but she held it in—barely.
Then she felt a hand.
Ruffling her hair.
"You did well, Mina. Relax."
Jaemin said, his voice low.
"You're out now. Go home and rest."
He wasn't smiling. But his eyes had that same quiet calm—an anchor in her unraveling thoughts. The kind of look that didn't ask for anything, just gave her permission to cry if she needed to.
Her tears fell silently. She didn't wipe them away.
"Please…" she whispered.
"Please promise me one thing…"
He didn't move.
"That you'll come around to see me again."
There was a pause. Maybe he heard the confusion in her voice—like even she didn't know if it was a plea for comfort or a grasp at something human in all this chaos.
He crouched beside her again.
"I will see you soon, Mina."
He said, gently.
"I promise."
And with that, he stood. No dramatic exit. No lingering glance. Just a quiet exhale and a slow walk into the streetlight ahead.
Behind his eyes, though, the silence screamed.
That man he killed—Abyssal or not—was human once. Someone's son. Someone's friend. Maybe someone's father. He wouldn't be going home tonight.
Jaemin's mother was still stuck between life and death, and now he had taken another life from someone else.
It felt like crushing his own soul.
But he still did it.
Because his heart could feel, but his hand moved on orders from a brain that didn't.
It didn't cry. It didn't tremble.
It just chose what was right.
And kept walking.