System Error:
Scenario Synchronization Failed.
System Error:
Unauthorized Entity Detected.
System Error:
Player Seo Juwon has exceeded allowable thresholds.
He couldn't feel his hands.
Or maybe they weren't his anymore.
His fingers—if they were fingers—were scaled in flickering plates of molten silver, pulsing with elemental veins: crackling lightning, drifting mist, soft flames that coiled rather than burned. Light leaked from the gaps between his knuckles like his body couldn't hold it all in.
And yet, it wasn't the power that terrified him.
It was the silence.
The battlefield was a graveyard. Charred, broken, frozen, scorched—scorched again—then shattered by pressure so dense it left the air shaking. No enemies remained. No monsters. No gods.
Just him.
And the Beast.
Somewhere behind his ribs, in the place his mana core used to sit whole and unbroken, something immense stirred.
"You shouldn't have done this."
The voice was ancient. Calm. Deep enough to shake thought itself.
"Your body's not ready, Juwon. We were supposed to wait."
Juwon staggered forward, wings of light unfurling from his back with a shimmer of displaced air. They looked like his tattered cloak, stretched wide, remade in divine flame and mist. His steps left glowing footprints behind him. His breath steamed not from heat, but from pressure—the weight of elemental force collapsing inward.
His heart felt like it was splitting in two.
But still… he walked.
Toward the god that hovered before him, untouched, unbothered, watching with a gaze that pierced through flesh and spirit alike.
A perfect face. A face he recognized.
"You were not chosen," the god said, its voice layered in echoes. "You are an error. An undeserving anomaly."
It raised one hand.
The sky fractured.
Juwon didn't flinch. His eyes—no longer just his—shone like leyline fire.
His voice came quieter than he expected. Tired. Hoarse. Human.
"I don't care."
A pause. The god tilted its head.
"You don't want the wish anymore?"
Juwon shook his head. "I still do."
He could feel the Beast's hesitation. Their bond wasn't perfect—not yet—but it pulsed like a second heart inside his chest. The dragon's divine power coiled around his soul, resisting the merge, whispering warnings in every breath.
"You'll burn out."
"You'll never hold this form long enough."
"You'll lose your core forever."
But none of that mattered.
Because Seo Juwon had already lost everything else.
He crouched low. The wings flared. Mana screamed through the air, thick as smoke.
"Time Remaining: 00:00:26.
Core Integrity: Falling."
He launched forward—
—and the world broke with him.