A day passed, then another. Yejin's division was assigned to patrol Baoahong, an island village sitting just across the water in the southwest, not far from the mainland. Unlike the quiet shores of Saeho, Baoahong was home to dozens of hardworking families — fishermen mending their nets, foragers gathering wild herbs and fruit, and shepherds watching over their flocks.
Because the village sat cut off from the mainland, a handful of hwa-samurais were usually stationed there to keep it safe. Over the years pirates had treated the island like an easy target, and the recent raids from the Southern Alliance had left the whole settlement battered and worn down.
For this reason, when Yejin's unit arrived, the villagers met them with cold, stony silence. Broken thatch roofs, collapsed fences, and scorched walls lined the dirt roads. Yejin tried offering a friendly greeting to families repairing their homes, but most just turned their backs or stared at the ground, acting as if she weren't there.
Further down the road, Kei fell in step beside her. Ahead of them, an elderly woman shuffled slowly along the path, groaning under the weight of a heavy sack stuffed with sweet potatoes and leafy greens.
"Shouldn't we help her?" Kei asked, already stepping forward.
Yejin caught his arm. "Don't bother. I tried a few minutes ago. She yelled at me and told me to stay away. I don't want to scare her off."
Kei let out a quiet sigh, shook his head, and jogged over anyway. Just like Yejin warned, the old woman stopped, turned, and jabbed a finger at him.
"Get away from me, soldier!" she snapped, her voice raspy and bitter. "You people always strut around in your fancy armor, so proud and honorable! But when the invaders came burning our homes, where were you hiding?"
Kei did not get defensive. He just gave her a soft, disarming smile. "I can't speak for other soldiers, Grandma, but I was right there on the front lines pushing those invaders back."
Yejin watched from a distance, a little surprised at how gentle and patient he sounded.
"Hah! Talk is cheap," the woman muttered, though her grip on the sack slipped slightly. "You're probably just saying that to look good."
"I promise you, I've never once run from a fight," Kei said, reaching out to take the load from her. "Now please, let me carry that. My conscience will hurt worse than your back if I let you walk home alone with this."
The old woman glared at him for a few seconds. Finding no arrogance in his eyes, she finally gave in and let him take the bag. Kei carried it the rest of the way to her small wooden hut. At the door, her scowl softened just slightly. She dug into her pocket, pressed a small ripe lychee into his hand, gave him a gruff nod, and disappeared inside.
Kei walked back to Yejin, who was waiting in the shade of a large willow tree. He peeled the fruit with his thumb and popped it into his mouth.
"That was really cool of you. I didn't know you had that side to you, Kei," Yejin teased with a smirk.
"What side?" Kei asked, chewing.
Yejin laughed softly and leaned her shoulder against the tree trunk. "Anyway — now that Mistress Lizhan turned down the Emperor's request, what's the Fabled Class going to do? Are you still planning to sneak into Shengyowon on your own?"
"No," Kei said, flicking the lychee seed into the weeds. "I talked it over with Vincent and Haein. Breaking into Shengyowon now would be a disaster, given we finally have an official alliance with the empire. Director Deikher even sent a wisp message telling us to drop the whole idea. It's too risky."
"That's probably for the best," Yejin agreed. "If you got caught sneaking around the Sheng estate, the empire would have to brand you as criminals, no matter how well-known you are as hwa-samurai. Even my father couldn't shield you from that."
"I'm more worried about what's happening out west," Kei said, looking out toward the sea. "Deikher reported another massive gate opened in the Artemia region. A lot of lives are in danger right now. If Amaterasu's Heavenly Crystals keep losing power, we won't be able to hold back what's coming."
"I know. That worries me too," Yejin sighed, her brow creasing. "Let's head back to the outpost. I'll send Tsuyu's team to finish the rest of the patrol."
Just as they turned to leave, a violent tear split open the sky.
The air twisted with a sickening, high-pitched screech. Right in the middle of the village path, space cracked open into an oily, spinning black hole that hissed like boiling tar.
"HELP! HELP! THE SOUTHERN INVADERS ARE BACK!" a fisherman screamed, dropping his basket and sprinting away. Panic spread through the streets as families ran for the hills, slamming doors and shuttering windows behind them.
"Run! Get to the high ground!" Yejin shouted at the fleeing villagers as she and Kei sprinted toward the disturbance.
As they reached the village square, Kei's right eye flared with brilliant blue light.
"That's no invading fleet," Kei said, his voice going cold and focused. "Everyone, get out of here, now!"
"A Gate of Abaddon!" Yejin gasped, her eyes going wide as she drew her sword. Despite knowing about the Gates of Abaddon, she had no experience of fighting against a fiend.
A moment later, the first wave of monsters crawled out of the dark tear. Kei recognized them instantly as Crawlers — grotesque, skeletal things that looked like human bones fused with giant spiders. Instead of legs, they scuttled on six long, jointed limbs made of jagged bone, each tipped with a razor-sharp spike.
Six of them dropped onto the dirt road, hissing and snapping their jaws.
Kei moved without hesitating. He slid beneath the first creature's raised leg, drove his short blade up through the top of its skull, and yanked down hard enough to snap its spine. Dark, foul-smelling blood splattered the dirt as it collapsed. Spinning on his heel, he deflected a bone spike from a second Crawler, hopped over its back, and stabbed it through the base of the skull, tearing out the nerve cord along its neck. Four more lunged at him almost at once, but Kei cut through them with the same brutal precision, piercing skulls and ripping out spines one after another, before any of them could land a hit.
He then turned to the darkhole. More Crawlers kept pouring through the opening, mandibles clicking in a frenzy.
Yejin joined the fight. Copying Kei's technique, she ducked under a sweeping bone limb, drove her steel blade up through a creature's jaw into its skull, and yanked backward to snap its spine. Another lunged at her throat, but she sidestepped, smashed her sword's pommel into its face, and severed its spine with a clean backhand swing.
"Yejin, stay out here and hold the exit!" Kei shouted, backing toward the swirling portal. "I'm going inside to weaken the cosmic bridge!"
"What? Inside?" Yejin yelled in disbelief. "Are you sure? You don't know what's waiting in there!"
Kei didn't wait to argue. He turned and dove straight into the gate.
Passing through the gate felt like plunging into cold water. The sounds of the village vanished instantly, replaced by the sound of the approaching fiends from the distance.
Beneath him stretched a narrow cosmic bridge that floated over an endless, empty void of black space. Kei checked the glowing ground — it was completely stable and wasn't going to collapse anytime soon.
Ahead of him, a pack of Crawlers had gathered in formation, rushing down the walkway toward the exit — to the human world.
Kei drew his daggers and charged straight into the swarm. He danced across the narrow platform, striking with lethal precision. A blade through the temple and a twist of his wrist to snap the bone. In less than a minute, ten Crawlers lay dead along the path.
However, two Crawlers managed to slip along the edge of the bridge and past his defenses, darting straight for the exit portal.
Back in the village square, Yejin heard the hissing in front of her. The instant the two Crawlers burst out into the sunlight of Zeon, she spun with a battle cry, cutting the first clean in half with an overhead strike and driving her blade through the second's heart before it could go any further.
Back inside the gate, two new variants of fiends stepped out of the shadows at the far end of the tunnel.
The first were Gouls — twisted, ash-gray abominations shaped like starving men, with bloated bellies and thin, spindly necks. Their loose jaws hung open all the way down to their chests, packed with rows of razor-sharp teeth, and small, thorny black horns dotted their bald skulls.
Looming behind them were the Goliaths — massive brutes standing four times the height of a man, their bodies wrapped in thick, armor-like red skin. Two huge black horns curved forward from their brows like battering rams, and their enormous jaws were lined with yellowed tusks.
Thick, glowing green drool dripped from their mouths. Every drop that hit the ground hissed violently, burning straight through the stone like acid.
More than a dozen Goliaths formed a wall of red muscle across the bridge, backed by a screeching pack of Gouls.
Kei took a breath and lowered his stance. The bridge itself was barely ten paces wide, and an unseen force prevented them from falling to the dark void — acting as an invisible wall.
The Gouls came first, clawing wildly through the air. Kei met them head-on — slicing their spindly necks one after another. These abominations possessed speed and agility that would overrun an ordinary infantry squad, but against Kei's surgical footwork, their wild lunges met only cold, severed arteries.
The true challenge were the Goliaths.
A Goliath lowered its head and charged like a runaway cart, its horns aimed straight at Kei's chest. With not enough room to dodge sideways, he leaped straight up. The horns smashed through the cosmic ground with a thunderous boom, weakening the cosmic bridge.
While he was still airborne, a second Goliath swung a fist the size of a boulder at his ribs.
Kei twisted his body midair, kicking off the incoming fist to launch himself higher and barely avoid the blow. He landed hard on the first Goliath's broad shoulder. The beast thrashed in fury, jaws snapping and spraying burning acidic drool that sizzled across Kei's pant leg.
Ignoring the burn, Kei channeled mana into his dagger and drove it straight through the base of the creature's neck. It let out a shriek and its knees buckled, sending it crashing face-first onto the bridge.
Kei then leaped back toward the edge of the tunnel where he'd first stepped onto the cosmic bridge. Glancing down, he felt a faint tremor running through the cosmic stone beneath his feet.
"Good, with these Goliaths, weakening this bridge won't be a problem," Kei said, before turning his eyes toward the next charging Goliath.