The moon hung above like a blind eye — watching nothing, remembering nothing.
Jiwoon sat on the temple steps, legs swinging slightly.
He wasn't meditating. He wasn't thinking.
He was… waiting.
Shiro rested beside him, tail twitching, ears perked. Something in the air had changed.
System Status: Dormant
Warning: External anomaly detected
Source: Unknown
"The system's quiet," Jiwoon murmured.
"That's never a good sign."
Kaelya stepped out of the shadows behind him.
"You're awake early."
"Didn't sleep," he replied without looking.
She sat beside him, cautiously. The boy next to her looked small — but the pressure he gave off… wasn't.
"You feel it too," Kaelya whispered.
"Something's coming."
Jiwoon nodded.
"Something the system doesn't control."
Elsewhere…
A crack appeared in the sky above a ruined field. Like glass, it shimmered — and then tore.
From that wound in the heavens fell a black feather. It hit the earth without sound.
Where it landed, the grass withered.
And a voice echoed, not in ears, but in bones:
"He still breathes… the heir of echoes…"
Back at the Temple
Kravein ran his fingers across a sealed scroll. It burned at the edges now.
"Whatever this is," he muttered,
"It's not one of ours."
Vera burst in, holding a report written by hand — no digital trace.
"A cult has formed in the south," she said.
"They call themselves 'The Featherless Wings.'"
"They believe Jiwoon's resurrection is a false god's trick."
"And they're planning to erase him — permanently."
In Jiwoon's Dream Again
He walked a barren desert.
The same mirror from before now cracked, leaking black mist.
A voice whispered:
"Do you want to protect them?"
Jiwoon touched the mirror.
His reflection grinned back.
"Then let me out."
Real World
Jiwoon woke up again — eyes glowing faint red, breath fogging in the warm air.
Kaelya rushed to him. "Are you okay?"
He looked up slowly.
"No. But I will be."
He stood.
"It's time we stopped waiting."