Joon-seok, Chul-jun, Ji-ho, Chang-min, and Choon-hee all ran from their own sides, each one sprinting desperately through the chaos.
The scrapyard shook and cracked under their feet, the ground trembling from the endless waves of mutated vermin that kept spilling out from every corner.
They weren't together at first—each had broken off in their own direction, fighting tooth and nail just to stay alive—but instinct and fear pulled them closer.
One by one they stumbled into one another in the madness, panting, bleeding, shouting at each other just to be heard.
"What's happening?!" Ji-ho shouted, swinging his rod down to crush a mole-rat trying to climb his leg.
"Where's the others?! Where's Iseul?!" Choon-hee screamed, her eyes darting everywhere as she cut down a snapping metal rat that lunged too close.
Before any of them could answer, a sound tore through the scrapyard.
A scream.
It wasn't just noise—it was agony, grief, rage, everything sharpened into a single sound that made their hearts skip.
"Iseul!" Choon-hee gasped.
It was unmistakable.
They froze, hearing Iseul's voice again—this time screaming Hae-won's name.
The group exchanged terrified glances, and without needing to speak, they all broke into a sprint toward the sound.
They fought as they ran, slashing and shooting, batting aside the creatures that swarmed them.
The air was thick with smoke, dust, and radiation haze, every breath burning their lungs.
But then—
The battlefield shifted.
All at once, the mutated animals that had been clawing for them… stopped.
They staggered in mid-lunge, their glowing red eyes flickering like dying embers.
"What… the hell?" Chul-jun whispered, slowing as the rat on his arm collapsed, twitching.
The others stopped too, confusion overtaking fear as the creatures around them began to squeal in pain. The sound was unbearable—like nails on metal, like thousands of beasts screaming their last cries together.
One by one, the moles, rats, and snake-rats fell to the floor. Their bodies convulsed violently, squealing as if something was tearing them apart from the inside out.
The group stared in horror.
"What's happening to them?" Chang-min shouted, backing away from a pile of writhing bodies.
"I—I don't know!" Ji-ho stammered.
The five of them could only stand there, weapons still raised, watching as the stampede of monsters that had nearly killed them minutes ago died slowly, painfully, all around.
Then—
They heard her again.
"Noooo!!"
The voice was raw, breaking.
It was Iseul.
Somewhere ahead, on the floor, she was screaming.
The sound of her anguish carried through the scrapyard, shaking them more than the beasts ever could.
The others exchanged looks of dread. None of them knew what caused the mutated stampede. None of them understood why it had suddenly stopped. None of them realized it was Iseul—her gift, her grief—that had ended it.
All they knew was that they had to get to her.
"Go!" Joon-seok roared, and together they pushed forward, climbing over dead beasts, slipping on blood and metal shards, running toward the sound of Iseul's cries.
—
On the ground, Iseul was trembling.
Her knees dug into the blood-soaked floor, her hands shaking as she tried to steady Hae-won's body. Tears blurred her vision, dripping onto her unnie's pale face.
"Unnie, no, no, stay with me—please!"
Loadon knelt beside her, his red eyes glowing as he scanned Hae-won's vitals. His voice came deep and mechanical, yet edged with urgency.
"Creator—her heart still beats. Faint. Very faint. Stabilization required immediately."
Iseul gasped, hope flaring through the storm of despair. "She's still here?"
"Yes. But fading."
Her pulse raced. She couldn't lose Hae-won. She wouldn't.
"No! You're not leaving me, unnie!"
Something inside her cracked open. Her grief, her desperation, her love—it all bled into her gift.
The air around her shuddered as her dreamscape stirred. Her inner world—the domain she only controls slipped into reality.
A low hum filled the scrapyard as glowing lines spiderwebbed across the ground.
The very air bent around her, energy crackling, radiation pouring into her faster than her body should have been able to handle.
A storm gathered above, spiraling black clouds streaked with violent green and violet light.
The radiation storm thickened, its pressure suffocating, as if the sky itself bowed to her will.
"Creator,"
Loadon said softly , shielding her with his body as sparks rained down,
"your power output is exceeding safe thresholds."
But Iseul wasn't listening.
She raised her trembling hands over Hae-won, her tears dripping into the wounds.
Heal. Please. Just heal.
Her dreamscape door appeared before her—a tall, shimmering construct of impossible material, glowing with cracks as if barely containing what was behind it.
BOOM.
Something slammed from the other side, rattling the door.
Another crack split across its surface.
BOOM.
Again.
The others, still far but closing in, saw the thick radiation thunder clouds rising like a beacon from where Iseul knelt.
Their pace faltered, dread creeping into their bones as they witnessed cracks of pure white split the very air, reality itself beginning to tear.
"What… is that…?" Ji-ho whispered, his voice shaking.
None of them had an answer.
Iseul screamed, her voice breaking as her grief poured out.
The door burst.
Cracks splintered across reality, splitting it in half before swallowing everything into endless sky.
The scrapyard dissolved.
The broken towers of junk, the pools of blood, the corpses—all vanished into that boundless expanse.
There was nothing left but sky stretching forever in every direction.
Floating within it, without any buildings or ground, a radiant construct appeared:
a massive healing box, glowing with a light that pulsed like a heartbeat.
Hae-won's body was lifted from Iseul's arms, cradled by the dreamscape itself.
She rose gently into the box, the lid closing as golden threads of energy wove around her, patching torn flesh, sealing wounds, forcing her heart to keep beating.
Iseul fell forward, sobbing, clutching at the empty air where her unnie had been seconds ago.
"Please… don't leave me. Please…"
Loadon stood behind her, silent, his sensors flickering as he recorded readings beyond comprehension.
The radiation storm raged around them, endless sky stretching in every direction, and at its center was Jang Iseul—broken, terrified, but still refusing to let go.