The passage led them into darkness.
Not just lack of light — but the kind that pressed in. The kind that remembered things Jiwoon had forgotten.
Kaelya placed a hand on the wall. "This place… it's not real."
Vera's tone was sharper. "It's worse. It's made of memory."
Jiwoon stepped forward, unshaken.
The floor pulsed beneath his feet like a heartbeat.
⸻
They entered a dome-shaped chamber.
In the center floated a single crystal — pitch black, surrounded by data-strings like orbiting satellites.
The System spoke:
[Central Archive Accessed]
Domain: Core Sin Memory
Threat Level: Unquantifiable
Proceed with caution.
Jiwoon stepped closer.
Images flickered across the crystal surface:
His childhood.
The first sin he absorbed.
The hacker screaming before death.
His mother's final words.
"Promise me… you won't lose yourself."
Jiwoon's breath caught.
But then — another memory surfaced.
One he'd never lived.
A future?
Jiwoon, kneeling before the Oracle's corpse.
The world in flames.
A throne made of bones.
His own eyes — black voids.
He recoiled.
"What… is that?"
The System hesitated.
[Error: Memory does not belong to current timeline]
Kaelya stepped beside him. "That was you. In a different future."
Vera: "Or a warning."
⸻
System Override Detected
New Sin Seed Recognized
Awakening Event Pending…
Suddenly, the room fractured — data shards spinning in a violent spiral.
The black crystal cracked — and from within, something alive began to emerge.
A skeletal figure wrapped in execution robes, blindfolded with a symbol carved into its chest.
The Sin Warden.
"Jiwoon Han," it intoned.
"Bearer of unstable karma. You were never meant to reach this place."
Jiwoon narrowed his eyes. "And yet… I did."
The Warden raised one long hand.
"Then face judgment."
⸻
Boss Encounter Initiated: Sin Warden
Threat Level: Extreme
Environment: Memory Flux (Stability Halved)
⸻
Jiwoon turned to Vera and Kaelya.
"You two handle the fragments."
"I'll take the Warden."
Kaelya smirked. "Now it feels like home."
Vera ignited her weapon. "Let's finish this."
⸻
As the dome crumbled and sin-fused illusions exploded around them, Jiwoon leapt toward the Sin Warden, eyes glowing, fists ready.
His armor responded — deeper black, sharper edges.
"This time, I won't just survive."
"I'll rewrite the rules."
And the battle began.