They wore no shoes.
They carried no weapons.
And yet… they marched like an army blessed by silence.
A hundred figures, dressed in gray and white, walked barefoot across the broken salt plains — eyes closed, heads tilted toward a sun they didn't worship.
Each of them carried a mark burned into their chest:
𓂀
"Sight Beyond Sins"
Inside Jiwoon's temple refuge
Kravein paced, agitated.
"I've faced saints, demons, even divine constructs… but this cult—"
"They don't carry sin," Vera finished. "There's nothing for the system to lock onto."
Kaelya stared at the projected map. The group was spreading fast. Villages had gone silent after their arrival.
"What do they believe?" she asked.
"That sin is artificial," said Jiwoon.
"That I — or rather, what I've become — is a lie."
He sat cross-legged, still in his child form, but his gaze… had matured.
"They want to 'cut the tether' between this world and the echo realm."
A Message Arrives
The system flickered. Then stalled.
No digital update. Just a single line burned onto parchment:
"Your existence fractures the veil.
Come to the Mirror Valley alone.
Or they will."
No name. No threat. No signature.
Just certainty.
That Night
Jiwoon stood by the cliff's edge, wind battering his smaller frame.
Kaelya approached, cloaked in silence.
"You're not actually going alone… right?"
"I have to."
"If they believe I'm the cause… then I need to see it myself."
She placed a hand on his head.
"Then don't forget… if they try to take you—"
"I won't let them."
Scene Ends
Above them, the stars blinked — just once — like something ancient had finally noticed this world again.
And from deep beneath the earth, something answered back.
"Echoes… must not become gods."