The battlefield shimmered like glass under tension.
Jiwoon stood panting — not from exhaustion, but restraint. Around him, broken copies of his past victims flickered and twitched, their data unraveling like ash.
"These aren't people," he muttered.
"They're guilt projections."
But even guilt could kill.
Paradox Entity floated above the ruins.
Its voice echoed through every pixel of the corrupted air:
"You believe suffering refines the soul."
"I believe detachment perfects it."
Jiwoon clenched his fists. A new set of chains formed around his arms — less like weapons, more like anchors.
Kaelya's voice buzzed through his earpiece:
"You're glitching! System instability rising!"
But Jiwoon didn't pull back.
"No. This isn't instability."
"This is humanity trying to breathe through code."
[System Host Override – Emotional Synchronization Mode Unlocked]
Suddenly, Jiwoon's body shifted. His Sin Avatar form adapted — blending human emotion into divine structure.
His wings fractured, then regrew in glowing threads — red, gold, and silver intertwining.
The system stuttered.
[New Protocol Detected: Undefined Emotional Layer]
Paradox watched with tilted head.
"You merge chaos with clarity?"
"You are the problem."
Jiwoon walked through the debris.
"I'm the reminder that perfection without pain is just sterilized tyranny."
Climax:
With one strike, Jiwoon surged forward — using not raw power, but resonance.
His body pulsed in sync with the system, but off-beat — causing internal contradictions in Paradox's form.
"This isn't control. It's understanding."
With a final movement, Jiwoon touched the Paradox's core.
"This ends not because you lost…"
"But because I chose not to become you."
The Paradox blinked… and vanished.
—
[System Update]
Anomaly resolved.
New Trait Unlocked: "Empathic Override"
Function: Allows Jiwoon to rewrite data using emotional will.
Final Scene:
Back at Seoryun Temple, Jiwoon watched the sky shift color.
For the first time, the stars felt real.
Vera sat beside him, arms crossed. "So what now?"
Jiwoon: "I broke the loop."
Kaelya: "Yeah? So why do you still look ready to fight?"
Jiwoon glanced at the horizon.
"Because I just realized something worse."
"The system wasn't the final boss."
"The world is."