"Some awaken strength. Others… awaken memory."
—Professor Halek, Scholar of Lost Systems
After the Duel
The academy remained in stunned silence for days.
Whispers echoed through halls, questions without answers.
Who was Jiwoon?
What was that armor?
And why… did the Qirin bow to him?
But amid the questions, one person couldn't sleep.
Vera Aclaine.
She had seen something that day—something no one else could remember.
The duel, yes… but more.
A vision.
A dragon.
Ten wings. Crimson eyes.
Jiwoon, at the heart of it, surrounded by a black sun.
The Professor's Curiosity
Professor Halek, the scholar who oversaw the crystal resonance test, summoned Jiwoon once more.
"I ran diagnostics on the shattered crystal," he said. "The result came back… unclassifiable."
"The system marked it 'Oblivion Signature – Forbidden Sin.' This category has no origin, no record, and no fail-safes."
Jiwoon didn't react.
"There's something else," the professor continued. "Miss Aclaine's Divine Mark showed a spike. She saw something."
Jiwoon turned toward the window, voice low.
"She's beginning to remember."
The Memory That Doesn't Belong
Meanwhile, Vera sat alone in the academy library.
Books on dragons, forbidden systems, and pre-Divine eras lay open before her.
But none of them spoke of the being she had seen. None of them mentioned…
"A dragon that devours sin."
She touched her chest—her Divine Mark glowed faintly.
And for a moment—
She felt him.
Not Jiwoon as he was now, but something deeper. Something ancient.
A voice echoed in her mind, soft as breath:
You saw the truth. That means you carry the burden of it.
She gasped—falling to her knees.
"What… are you?"
A Night Conversation
That night, Vera found Jiwoon sitting beneath the moonlight in the training courtyard—alone.
She approached carefully.
"I remember… a dragon. With ten wings."
Jiwoon didn't answer at first.
Then—
"The Black Dragon Emperor," he said softly. "The one even the Sin System feared."
Vera's breath caught.
"And you…?"
"I carry his fragments," Jiwoon replied. "I don't know yet if that makes me his heir… or his jailer."
A long silence passed between them.
Then Vera stepped closer.
"Whatever you are… I'm not afraid."
Jiwoon looked up—eyes softening.
"Then you're already stronger than most."
System Log
[Witness Connection Deepened: Vera Aclaine – Link Level 2]
[Memory Sync Activated: Partial Recall of Abyss Events]
[Next Phase Unlocked: Trial of the Sin-Echo]
And in the shadows of another realm… a watcher stirred.
"So… the dragon awakens again. Time to prepare the others."