The wasteland cracked.
Each clash between Hae-won and Seong-wu sent tremors ripping across the red ground, fissures spitting fire as if the world itself couldn't endure their struggle. Chains groaned from the black towers, dragged taut by invisible hands, their rattling echoing like the ticking of a clock.
Golden light seared through the dust—Seong-wu's blade. His aura blazed brighter with every swing, authority weighing down on everyone watching.
"You can't win, Hae-won!" His voice rang sharp as steel. "Because you don't even know what you are!"
Hae-won staggered under the weight, black veins pulsing up his neck. The Most Ancient Dream twisted, screaming against the limits of his flesh. Every heartbeat bled futures across his sight—Arin's lifeless body, Do-hyun chained to a tower, the wasteland crumbling into nothing.
And each vision clawed at his sanity.
Arin cried out from behind, her voice raw. "Hae-won, stop! You're—"
"Quiet!" Seong-wu snapped, golden light flaring hotter. "He chose this. If you keep clinging to him, you'll burn too."
[ Warning: Dual Modifier instability increasing. ]
[ Regression fragments bleeding through. ]
Hae-won spat blood onto the cracked stone, his lips curling into a broken grin.
"Instability? That's what you call it?" His voice shredded the silence, low and hoarse. "Then watch me drag this script into pieces with it."
The Dream pulsed. Words—raw paragraphs of unreality—peeled into the air around him, wrapping his sword in ink-black fire.
The wasteland buckled.
[ System Alert! ]
[ Conflict of Protagonist Paths detected. ]
[ Rule Integrity at 42%… 37%… 29%. ]
Arin gasped as the sky itself fissured—lines of burning scripture spilling across the void like veins of molten glass.
Do-hyun dropped to one knee, clutching his head. "The system—it's breaking—!"
Seo Ha-young's eyes narrowed, sweat slicking her dirt-streaked face as she whispered through clenched teeth: "No… not breaking. It's choosing."
The voice came then—thousands of voices layered at once, the ink-stained chorus of unseen quills.
"One path must fall."
"Two cannot endure."
"Resolve the instability, or the scenario collapses."
The chains screamed as though the entire world strained to hold itself together.
Seong-wu's golden blade surged, brighter than ever. "Hear that, Hae-won? Even the world rejects you. You're nothing but an error."
Hae-won's laugh was cracked, wet with blood. His sword lifted again, trembling with the Dream's unstable fire.
"Then I'll be the error that rewrites you."
The ground shattered beneath them as both lunged.
Steel met fire.
The clash rang like a bell across the wasteland—gold colliding with ink, light shattering against shadow. Sparks of scripture sprayed through the air, every strike rewriting fragments of the battlefield around them.
A tower groaned and split, chains raining sparks as if even stone feared the duel.
Seong-wu pressed forward, each swing of his golden blade flawless, precise. His power wasn't chaotic like Hae-won's—it was clean, honed, shaped to be wielded by a chosen protagonist. Every movement reinforced the narrative around him.
"You're flailing in stories that aren't yours to hold!" he roared, blade slamming against Hae-won's ink-drenched sword. "I am the system's recognition. You are nothing but a fracture!"
Hae-won's grip trembled as the Most Ancient Dream writhed in his veins. Futures screamed across his vision—Seong-wu severing his head, Seong-wu driving Arin into the dirt, Seong-wu standing victorious above their corpses.
But layered between them was another possibility.
Hae-won standing, Seong-wu broken.
He gritted his teeth, blood dripping from his nose as he shoved Seong-wu back. "If I wasn't meant to exist—then why am I still here?"
The Dream pulsed. Black fire curled around his sword, sentences dripping from the blade like liquid ink. Each swing slashed not at flesh but at the very story binding them.
Reality itself stuttered.
Arin screamed, shielding her eyes as words split across the sky—entire paragraphs unraveling midair, the battlefield flickering between wasteland, academy, and broken city streets.
Do-hyun staggered, his golden tether burning hotter as if resisting the distortion. "They're tearing the scenario apart—"
But Seo Ha-young only watched, her lips curved into a sharp, humorless smile. "Good. Let them tear it. Let's see which one of them the world bows to."
Chains whipped around the battlefield, animated by the system itself, trying to bind them. But both fighters shattered them in their fury—Seong-wu with pure golden dominance, Hae-won with chaotic rewriting that burned the chains into unreadable ash.
[ Warning: Protagonist Path Conflict – 81% Instability. ]
[ Scenario collapse imminent if unresolved. ]
The system's voice thundered louder, drowning everything else.
Seong-wu's blade flared like a miniature sun, searing the stone. "This ends now, Cha Hae-won!"
Hae-won's laughter split the air, cracked and raw, even as black veins crept up his face.
"Then come erase me, golden boy."
And the wasteland collapsed into fire and ink as the two collided once more.
The wasteland split in two.
Every strike tore deeper fissures into the ground, molten light spilling from the cracks. Seong-wu's golden aura shone brighter than the sun, pressing against the choking black ink that wrapped Hae-won like a second skin.
"Yield!" Seong-wu roared, his blade descending in a cleaving arc.
Hae-won caught it on his sword, knees buckling, the weight of Seong-wu's dominance crushing down like an avalanche. His bones screamed. His sanity frayed.
Yet the Dream stirred.
The battlefield bent. For an instant, Seong-wu's blade missed—striking empty air where Hae-won should have been. Futures rewritten, reality stuttering.
Seong-wu snarled, golden light lashing out like chains. "Stop bending the script! You don't even know the cost of what you're doing!"
"I know it better than anyone," Hae-won spat, blood dripping from his lips. "Five hundred times better."
Their blades clashed again—light and ink exploding outward, throwing the cadets back. Do-hyun shielded Arin with his battered frame, while Ha-young laughed breathlessly, watching like it was theatre written for her amusement.
Then—
The air trembled.
[ Instability: 92%. ]
[ Warning: Scenario collapse threshold approaching. ]
A voice, colder and harsher than before, cut through the battlefield:
"Balance must be restored."
The black towers groaned in unison. From their peaks, chains uncoiled like serpents, slamming into the ground around the duel. The wasteland itself rebelled against them.
Seong-wu's golden aura faltered for a fraction of a second. Hae-won seized it, blade arcing toward his throat—
Only for a chain to whip between them, halting the strike midair. Another wrapped around Seong-wu's arm, dragging him backward. Dozens coiled around Hae-won, burning his skin with scripture-hot bindings.
They were torn apart, dragged in opposite directions as the system itself refused to let their fight continue.
[ Scenario Intervention Active. ]
[ Trial of Chains begins now. ]
The ground convulsed. The towers lit from within, rivers of fire pouring into the wasteland as the chains writhed, forming cages, arenas, labyrinthine structures of steel and flame.
The cadets staggered to their feet as the system's decree carved itself into the sky:
[ Survive. Endure. Establish Dominance. ]
[ Failure: Erasure. ]
Arin screamed Hae-won's name as chains dragged him away into a separate cage of fire and shadow. Seong-wu vanished behind golden walls of script.
The Trial had begun.
And this time, there would be no escape.