Red light flared from Hyunwoo's body, flooding the tunnel with a sharp, almost blinding glow. His aura stretched and bent unnaturally, swirling like heatwaves, almost liquid, as if it didn't just shield him but obeyed him.
The air warped as two invisible hands seized the Grimm mid-charge—one by the throat, the other by the arm. They screeched, black forms thrashing violently, the ground trembling under their raw strength. Even with his telekinesis digging into them, Hyunwoo's boots scraped against the stone as the pressure bore down.
"Jiwon, Jisoo!" Hyunwoo's voice snapped through the chaos, deep and commanding. "Get Jaemin out of here!"
The twins froze, eyes wide—first at the sheer, alien force of Hyunwoo's red aura, second at the weight of his command.
"What? No!" Jiwon's voice cracked, his staff trembling in his grip. "They're too strong, you can't hold them alone!"
Jisoo's chakram hovered uncertainly at her side, her sharp eyes darting between the Grimm and Hyunwoo. "Hyunwoo—you'll die!"
Hyunwoo gritted his teeth, aura blazing hotter, the strain visible in the veins running down his arms. He met their eyes, not with anger, but with a steady, frightening resolve.
"These Grimm... they're connected to me." His breath was heavy, shoulders shaking under the force of holding them back. "And you two—you're already at your limit. You held them long enough for me to stand. That's enough."
His gaze softened, just a little. "Leave the rest to me. Please. Protect Jaemin."
The Grimm roared, their claws raking against invisible force, black ichor dripping as they pushed closer inch by inch. But Hyunwoo's stance didn't waver, spear glowing with fire and ice at both ends.
Hyunwoo's aura flared brighter, his breath sharp as he shifted his stance. The red aura that had been straining to hold the Grimm suddenly folded back into him, concentrating. His muscles loosened, then snapped tight with energy, his body vibrating as though every nerve had been set alight.
The Grimm surged forward.
Hyunwoo vanished.
A trail of crimson light streaked the tunnel, scattering sparks across the stone floor. He wasn't teleporting—but moving so fast it looked like Ruby's Petal Burst, his aura shredding the air around him.
"—Enhance speed with aura," he muttered under his breath, eyes locked forward, calculating. "Copy her flow. But sharper."
Sparks crackled as his spear's blade shifted from fire to lightning dust, arcs of energy whipping across the edge. On the other end, the blunt cap flared a dark violet as gravity dust warped the ground beneath him, pulling and pushing with each pivot.
The first Grimm swung wide, claws cleaving the air where Hyunwoo had been. Hyunwoo slipped through the opening, his semblance flashing remembered every move pattern the Grim have been moving all this time—his perception breaking down the enemy's motion into fragments, predicted paths glowing faintly red in his vision.
Right claw, low sweep. Follow-up bite. Left flank exposed for 0.8 seconds.
He darted inside the arc, spear sparking as it cut through the Grimm's shoulder. Lightning surged, locking its body mid-motion. Hyunwoo twisted, slammed the gravity end of his weapon into the ground—pulling the Grimm's balance just enough to send it crashing sideways.
The second Grimm pounced immediately. Hyunwoo's semblance flared again—predicted movement threading through his vision.
High leap. Both arms forward. If I misstep, I'm dead.
Aura roared around him. He launched, a blur of red, sliding under the slash. His spear snapped upward, lightning cracking across the Grimm's ribs, forcing it back.
The tunnel shook with their roars, but Hyunwoo's voice was steady, low.
"I've seen your patterns." His eyes narrowed, cold and focused. "And I'll break them."
He darted again, Petal Burst speed carrying him between the two, aura sparking like wildfire, his strikes perfectly measured—each one a calculated counter to their movements, each step forcing them onto the backfoot.
Each strike landed cleaner than the last, each step sharper. Hyunwoo felt himself slipping into a rhythm—his aura-enhanced speed, the lightning and gravity dust working seamlessly with his calculations.
But then, as he drove his spear through one Grimm's shoulder, he felt it—the drain.
The red aura flickered. His strikes lost their crackle, his body heavy in an instant. He staggered as he disengaged, gasping. Looking down, the crimson light along his arms had dimmed to near nothing, replaced only by the faint glow of green aura clinging weakly to his frame.
"...Tch... out already?" he muttered, gripping his weapon tighter. He knew green aura was just normal defense, nothing more. Without red, the Petal Burst speed, the telekinetic hold—everything—was gone.
The Grimm noticed too. Their eyes glowed brighter, movements quicker. They rushed him together, faster than before.
Hyunwoo's chest clenched, not from fear, but recognition.
As the claws scraped against stone, he heard it again. A whisper through their snarls, a command that made the air cold.
Kill him.
The voice shivered through his skull, deep, guttural—yet achingly familiar. He froze, spear trembling.
'Dammit!!'
Then, overlapping it, came another memory. His father's voice, calm, resolute, echoing from the nights they trained, from the firelit evenings when Hyunwoo was still just a boy holding a wooden stick.
"Protecting people is the only thing worth risking your life for."
Hyunwoo's grip tightened until his knuckles whitened. His breathing steadied. The voices tangled together—Grimm's hatred, his father's conviction. The same tone. The same resonance.
"Father...?" he whispered, eyes wide. For a heartbeat, the world tilted—were these Grimm... him? His father? Some fragment bound to them?
His knees threatened to buckle under the weight of the thought.
Then he snarled, forcing himself forward.
"No... you don't get to use his voice!!!"
Just then, something happened.
BOOOM
Hyunwoo's aura flared violently, red erupting from nothing, tearing through the thin green shell that remained. His body screamed in protest, veins burning, but he shoved it out anyway, aura sparking around him like wildfire.
'Ghh, what happened?!!'
The Grimm shrieked as Hyunwoo blurred forward, faster than before—his aura ripping itself apart just to fuel his speed. Every slash of his spear was wild, furious, lightning and gravity dust igniting the air.
This wasn't calculation anymore. It was rage—a desperate, reckless burst to silence the voices, to bury that false echo of his father.
The surge didn't stop. The red aura blazed violently, far more than what his body should have held. Hyunwoo grit his teeth as the glow wrapped around his limbs like chains, every pulse threatening to tear his skin apart.
Then he saw it—green flickers along his chest and shoulders, the remnants of his own aura, beginning to warp and twist. Each second, the green dimmed, swallowed by the blood-red light.
His eyes widened.
"No..."
He felt it, clear as breath—the red aura wasn't his. It belonged to the original owner of this body. And now, as it devoured the green, it felt like that will—that person—was crawling back through his veins, clawing at his soul.
Hyunwoo staggered back, clutching his chest, spear trembling in his grip.
The Grimm lunged, claws splitting the air, but all Hyunwoo could hear was the roar of the red aura. And beneath it—his father's voice. The same tone as the Grimm's command.
Kill him.
Protect them.
Two voices, one sound. His father's... and something else.
The green shimmered faintly at his core, struggling against the flood. Hyunwoo realized what was happening—if the red consumed it fully, he wouldn't be Hyunwoo anymore.
"Damn it..." he hissed, forcing his stance firm again. His aura flared wildly, red gnawing at the green, green pushing back like a dying flame. His body shook under the clash, but he raised his spear anyway.
"This is my body. My fight... not his."
He lunged forward, the strike laced with both colors—red lightning sparking violently, green resistance clinging desperately. The clash of aura made the Grimm hesitate for a fraction of a second.
Hyunwoo's roar echoed through the tunnels, a cry torn between defiance and desperation, as if he was fighting not just the Grimm, but the soul lurking behind his own skin.
The clash of steel and claws echoed through the tunnel. Hyunwoo's green aura flickered faintly, guttering like a dying flame, before being devoured entirely by the pulsing red. His body stiffened, his breathing shallow.
The Grimm's growl vibrated in the darkness, its words rasping through the stale air:
"Kill... him."
Hyunwoo's spear trembled in his hands. His knees bent, stance tightening, but his expression wasn't one of fear—it was recognition. His jaw clenched, sweat rolling down his temple as his mind fought to stay afloat against the tide of consuming red.
"So now..." he muttered, his voice low, trembling with defiance.
"...you want to take back this body?"
The words weren't aimed at the Grimm. His eyes weren't even locked on the monster in front of him, but somewhere inward—toward the presence clawing at his soul.
For just a heartbeat, the Grimm hesitated, as if it too knew what he meant.
The red aura flared violently, coursing along his veins like fire. Hyunwoo's grip slackened for an instant, then clenched until his knuckles went pale. His face twisted—not from pain, but from the suffocating pressure of another will pressing against his own.
"I'm still here," he hissed through gritted teeth. His body jerked unnaturally, movements no longer fully his own. "This life... this fight... is mine."
But the red surged harder, drowning his words, twisting his stance until every step became mechanical. His voice fell silent, his eyes narrowing into a cold, alien glare.
And beneath it all, a whisper that wasn't his own voice:
Give in.
Hyunwoo's jaw locked, his hands white-knuckled around the spear shaft. He refused to let the words take hold. But the glow around him no longer looked like his.
It was only a matter of time.
____
Jiwon and Jisoo moved quickly through the ruins, each step careful as they supported Jaemin's weight. His breathing was shallow, and the blood from the gash along his ribs darkened their path under the dim light of the ruined city.
"Keep him steady," Jiwon said calmly, his staff collapsing into two short blades and held defensively in front of them as they navigated through the debris.
Jisoo nodded, chakram ready in her hand. "I've got his back. Step lightly, he's in bad shape." Her semblance, Step Burst, activated briefly to detect uneven ground, ensuring they wouldn't stumble.
Jaemin groaned softly. "Feels worse than it looks..."
"Don't talk," Jiwon replied, voice even, "Focus on staying upright." He gently guided Jaemin toward a safer area they had scouted earlier—a makeshift campsite away from the open ruins where they could tend to his wound.
Once there, Jisoo knelt beside Jaemin, carefully inspecting the injury. "It's deep, but not fatal. We just need to stop the bleeding and stabilize him."
Jiwon, ever calm, began setting up a temporary brace with his collapsible staff, pressing it gently against Jaemin's ribs. "Lean on me. Breathe steadily."
Jaemin winced as the pain flared, but Jisoo whispered encouragingly, "You'll be fine. We've got you."
The twins exchanged a brief glance, a silent communication born of years of experience working together. Each movement was precise, coordinated—Jisoo supporting the body, Jiwon monitoring their surroundings and reinforcing the wound.
Outside, faint echoes of the ongoing fight reached them, but for now, their focus was solely on keeping Jaemin alive and ready for Hyunwoo's return.
"Almost there," Jiwon murmured,
"Hold on just a little longer."
Jaemin let out a shaky breath, his eyes half-lidded. "Thanks... you two always... have my back, huh?"
Jisoo smiled faintly. "Always."
Jiwon simply nodded, his calm presence a grounding anchor amidst the chaos surrounding them.
___
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