**The obsidian shard** hummed in Min-jun's grip as he staggered through the pulsating corridors. Every few steps, the brand on his chest flared—no longer just pain now, but something deeper. A *presence* stirring beneath his ribs.
He rounded a corner and froze.
Liao stood pressed against the wall, one arm dangling uselessly at his side. Blood painted his chin black in the eerie torchlight.
"You're supposed to be dead," Min-jun breathed.
Liao's grin was all broken teeth. "Takes more than—*hack*—a little wall-tapping to finish me." He pushed off the stones, his good eye locking onto Min-jun's brand. "Ah. It's waking up."
Before Min-jun could react, Liao's hand shot out and *pressed* against the mark.
The world *split*.
---
**Visions erupted** behind Min-jun's eyes:
_A city of black spires crumbling into an abyss._
_A golden-eyed woman weaving chains of starlight._
_A fist shattering the sky itself._
Then—worse—*hunger*. A yawning void inside him that wanted to *devour*.
Min-jun wrenched away, gasping. "What the hell was—"
"Your inheritance," Liao wheezed. "That brand isn't just a leash. It's a *seed*." He grabbed Min-jun's arm, dragging him down the corridor. "The Void Lords planted fragments of their power in certain prisoners. Most die screaming when it awakens. You..." He glanced back at the fading glow on Min-jun's chest. "You're stubborn enough to survive."
Shouts echoed behind them. The hunters were coming.
Liao stopped abruptly at a dead end. With a strength that belied his injuries, he punched a specific sequence into the wall. Stones groaned aside, revealing a hidden passage reeking of damp and decay.
"Move. They'll sense the brand's activation."
---
**The tunnel** sloped downward into darkness.
Min-jun's brand pulsed in time with his heartbeat now, each throb sending strange echoes through his bones. He could *feel* the obsidian shard in his hand resonating with it.
"You knew," he accused Liao. "About all of this."
The old man didn't deny it. "Twenty years ago, I was the Jade Serpent Sect's chief torturer. We discovered certain... anomalies near dimensional rifts. People who fell through often developed unusual abilities." His voice turned grim. "Then the Void Lords started *modifying* the ones who came through."
A distant *boom* shook the tunnel. Dust rained from the ceiling.
Liao quickened his pace. "Your brand is a prototype. Meant to create living weapons by fusing Void energy with human chi." He coughed wetly. "Problem is, it usually eats the host from the inside out."
Min-jun's steps faltered. The hunger beneath his ribs *twisted* at the words.
Liao didn't slow. "But if someone survives? They gain access to techniques lost for millennia." He glanced back, his scarred face ghastly in the gloom. "Like Heaven's Fist."
Another explosion—closer this time. The hunters were blasting through the tunnels.
Liao suddenly stopped before a sheer drop. Below yawned an underground river, its black waters swirling with phosphorescent algae.
"Jump or die," he said simply.
Then the wall behind them *burst* open.
---
**Golden Mask stood** amidst the rubble, flanked by six new hunters. The missing eye had been replaced by a pulsating red stone that made Min-jun's brand *screech* in response.
"Subject 117," it intoned. "You will be reclaimed."
Min-jun's vision swam. The hunger in his chest *surged*, demanding release. Without thinking, he fell into a combat stance—
—and *something* answered.
His fist moved without conscious thought. The air *rippled*.
A hunter's chest *imploded* as if hit by an invisible hammer.
Golden Mask recoiled. "Impossible. The First Form shouldn't—"
Liao's laughter was a mad thing. "Told you he was special!" Then he *shoved* Min-jun over the ledge.
As Min-jun fell toward the black water, he saw Liao turn to face the hunters, his hands moving in a familiar pattern—
*The same gesture the scarred fighter had made before dying.*
Then the river swallowed Min-jun whole, and the world went dark.
**TO BE CONTINUED...**