**CHAPTER 18: **
The sky over Seoul split open at dawn.
Not with light, but with something far worse—a jagged rip in reality itself, bleeding shadows so thick they smothered the sunrise. From his vantage atop the ruined Lazarus facility, Seun watched as the tear expanded, its edges crackling with unstable energy. The System's warning blared in his vision like a klaxon:
**[GLOBAL ALERT CONFIRMED]**
**[LAZARUS FAIL-SAFE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]**
**[SUBJECT ZERO CONTAINMENT BREACH IMMINENT]**
Beneath his feet, the ground trembled. Not from earthquakes or artillery, but from something far older stirring beneath the earth.
His shadow soldiers reacted before he gave the order.
Forty-seven figures blurred into formation—riflemen taking elevated positions, melee specialists forming a perimeter, the newly resurrected Lazarus director crouching at Seun's side with too many teeth bared in a grin.
"Master," it hissed, voice like grinding glass. "They come."
Seun didn't need to ask who.
The first Hunter strike team hit the perimeter at 06:17.
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### **LIU ZHIGANG'S GAMBIT**
Dragonfire washed over the ruins in a torrent of blue-white flame. Liu Zhigang—China's S-Rank Hunter and the self-proclaimed "Flame Emperor"—descended from the bleeding sky like a vengeful god, his draconic wings scattering embers across the battlefield.
"Jin Seun!" His voice boomed across the wreckage, amplified by some high-grade vocal augment. "By order of the International Hunter Coalition, you are hereby—"
Seun snapped his fingers.
A shadow soldier—formerly a Lazarus containment specialist—raised its hands. The dragonfire *bent*, swirling into a vortex before being swallowed whole by the man's distended shadow.
Liu's eyes widened.
**[SHADOWMONARCH PASSIVE: DOMINION OF THE ABYSS]**
*All flame-based attacks nullified within sovereign territory*
Seun didn't smile. "You brought *fire*," he said, "to a war of shadows."
Behind Liu, the second wave arrived—elite Hunters from twelve nations, their weapons glowing with enchanted steel and anti-shadow runes. Useless. Seun's throne whispered their weaknesses to him before they'd taken three steps.
He let them come.
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### **THE FIRST SHADOW SPEAKS**
Mid-battle, the world *flickered*.
One moment, Seun was dismantling a German Hunter's reinforced exosuit with a glance, his shadows liquefying the man's armor like acid. The next—
*—he stood in a void, facing a man who was not a man, but a silhouette given sentience.*
The original Shadowmancer.
"**You accelerate too quickly, heir.**" Its voice was the sound of graves opening. "**The System was meant to temper you, not be subverted.**"
Seun's shadow veins *burned* in response, his own power pushing back against the ancient presence. "I don't recall asking for a mentor."
A rasping laugh. "**No. You asked for weapons. And now you wield one that will kill you.**" The figure gestured to the growing rift above Seoul. "**They woke Subject Zero because of you. The first failure. The first shadow too hungry to control.**"
The vision shattered as a Japanese Hunter's plasma blade nearly took Seun's head off. He Void Stepped through the man's chest, emerging behind him with a shadow-clone already driving a dagger into the Hunter's spine.
But the warning lingered.
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### **KO'S LAST ORDER**
Director Ko had always been a pragmatic man.
As the last of the Hunter strike teams fell—their corpses twitching as Seun's shadows began the resurrection process—the old man activated Protocol: Eschaton from his bunker beneath Busan.
Monitors flickered to life across South Korea, displaying a single message in blood-red text:
**[LAZARUS FINAL DECREE: RELEASE ALL SUBJECTS]**
In underground facilities from Seoul to Jeju, containment units hissed open.
And something in Facility Gamma, buried deeper than the rest, opened its eyes.
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