The wind over the western cliffs wasn't natural.
It whispered in languages lost. It cracked with static, like data bleeding into air.
Jiwoon stood at the edge of the crag, looking down at the buried vault beneath the earth — the place the Sinless Oracle had warned him about.
System Notification
[WARNING: You are entering a Region Outside of Calibration]
[System Authority Reduced: 14%]
[Sin Signal: Unstable]
Do you wish to proceed?
Y/N
Jiwoon didn't hesitate.
He stepped forward.
Echo Faction Encampment – Moments Earlier
Vera's voice came through the communicator:
"Jiwoon, readings are off the charts! That place—it's not just uncharted, it's forbidden."
Kaelya chimed in:
"You're not going alone. We're sending Kravein and Qilin—"
"No."
His voice cut clean through the line.
"This is something I have to see first."
Beneath the Cliff – The Vault of Origin
The stone cracked open not with a sound, but with a sigh.
Dust blew upward in a spiral, and beneath the ground lay a coffin of molten sin crystal — pulsing… breathing.
As Jiwoon approached, his hand began to glow with a resonance it had never shown before.
"It's reacting…"
The system buzzed.
[Signature Match Detected: 00001]
[Designation: "The First Sin"]
[Name: Unknown]
[Class: Ω Prototype – Godkiller Designation]
Suddenly — the coffin cracked.
A single golden eye opened within it.
And the world trembled.
Backlash
Jiwoon was thrown backward by a wave of invisible force. His body reverted for a moment — flickering between child form and adult, divine and human.
He screamed — not from pain, but from overload.
The system didn't crash.
It begged.
[Warning: Do not engage]
[Do not awaken the prototype]
[Abort mission]
But Jiwoon pushed forward again.
"If this is where it started… then this is where I end it."
The Awakening
The crystal coffin shattered.
From within, a figure rose — neither dead nor alive. Male, but faceless. Draped in chains forged from sins of civilizations long gone.
Its voice was like thunder underwater.
"Who awakens the debt I once buried?"
Jiwoon's fists clenched.
"The one who bears it now."
System Instability – Critical Threshold Passed
[AVATAR RESONANCE: 112%]
[DIVERGENCE CLASS: ASCENDED]
A crown of black flame surged over Jiwoon's head.
Wings of fragmented code burst from his back — not feathers, but algorithmic blades.
"I'm not just a hunter anymore."
"I'm the answer."