The sirens began twenty minutes after Argen vanished.
At first they were faint—distant echoes carried by the cold morning wind. But they grew thicker and heavier, layering over one another until the entire city trembled with the sound.
Not explosions.
Not screams.
Just alarms. Endless, suffocating alarms that felt like they were warning humanity itself.
Han Joon-seo walked through the noise in silence, one hand pressed against his temple as if trying to hold his thoughts together. The world around him seemed wrong—like the air was still unstable from the Tower's awakening.
He felt hollow.
Not because he feared death.
But because when Argen faded, something in him disappeared too.
A thread he didn't realize existed had snapped.
"Why am I… feeling this much for a summon?" he whispered.
The ache in his chest didn't answer.
Seoul Streets — 10:14 a.m.
Fog rolled low across the ground, mixing with dust from collapsed walls and smoke from car accidents scattered along intersections. Traffic lights blinked uselessly into the haze. Half the city had abandoned their cars and run on foot.
A woman knelt beside her unconscious son, shaking him and begging for help.
A man shouted through a megaphone atop a police truck, telling civilians to return home.
But no one listened—because no one knew what "home" meant anymore.
Joon-seo stopped walking.
A shattered storefront reflected his face back at him.
His eyes looked different.
Darker. Sharper.
As if something ancient had touched them.
A system window flickered gently beside his reflection.
────────────────
SUMMON GATE — LV. 1
Cooldown Remaining: 34 minutes
Warning: Excessive summoning without Tower Adaptation may result in Neural Erosion.
────────────────
"Neural… erosion?"
His fingers trembled.
The system wasn't a guide.
It wasn't a gift.
It felt more like an executioner handing him a deadline.
His Thoughts Spiral
Why him?
Why this ability?
Why something that took more than it gave?
Was it punishment? A test? A mistake?
He didn't know.
But the silence around him felt heavy—like the Tower itself was listening.
---
A Military Checkpoint — Near Ewha University
Barricades stretched across the street. Armored vehicles lined each side, aiming heavy machine guns toward the sky as if expecting something to descend at any moment.
Soldiers shouted orders, pushing civilians toward underground shelters.
One soldier spotted him.
"Hey! You there—stop!"
He ran closer, squinting through the fog.
"You're bleeding!"
Joon-seo touched his ear. A thin line of dried blood stained his skin.
"When did that…" he muttered.
"Have you been exposed to a Tower anomaly?" the soldier demanded.
Tower anomaly.
So that was the name they were using.
"I—"
Should he tell them about the Summon Gate?
He imagined the consequences.
Confiscation.
Experimentation.
Isolation.
He would become an object, not a survivor.
"No," he said quietly.
The soldier examined him for a moment, then sighed.
"Go to a shelter. The Tower is opening in—"
His earpiece crackled.
He froze mid-sentence.
The fog shifted.
Joon-seo felt something wrong in the air—something cold and final.
Then a man stumbled out of the mist.
The First Dead Man
His clothes were torn.
His face pale.
A glowing red burn mark covered half his chest.
He collapsed on the pavement without a sound.
People screamed.
Soldiers rushed forward.
Phones snapped pictures.
Someone shouted:
"He came from the Tower! Did he die inside?!"
A soldier knelt beside the corpse.
He touched the burn mark—then recoiled.
"This isn't any weapon we know. This isn't… human."
A chill swept over the entire crowd.
Joon-seo's system window blinked.
[First Casualty Detected.]
[Tower Difficulty: Increasing.]
"Increasing… already?"
Fear spread like infection.
Even the soldiers seemed shaken.
Joon-seo Understands Something Terrible
If a normal person couldn't survive even minutes inside…
And Candidates had less than three hours before forced entry…
Then Argen—
Argen hadn't been weak.
Argen hadn't been a failed summon.
Argen had been protecting him.
The realization hit him hard.
His knees wavered.
His vision dimmed around the edges.
He wasn't supposed to survive the first call.
Argen had taken the damage for him.
And even worse—
Argen faded with a smile.
A Voice Beside Him
"Are you a Candidate too?"
He turned.
A girl stood nearby—about his age, wearing a white jacket smudged with dust. Her ponytail was messy, her hands trembling. A faint green glow pulsed beneath her palm.
"I healed someone earlier," she whispered.
"I think that's… my ability."
A healer.
Her lips quivered.
"Do you think we'll die in there?"
Joon-seo stared at her.
She wasn't strong.
She wasn't pretending.
She wasn't hiding behind bravado like he was.
She just didn't want to die.
"…I don't know," he admitted.
"But we'll try."
She nodded shakily.
"I'm Mina."
"Joon-seo."
For the first time since morning, the weight on his chest eased a little.
The Tower Moves
A deep vibration rolled across the sky.
Not sound—something deeper, like a heartbeat.
The fog parted.
The Tower across the river pulsed with dark light.
Each pulse sent ripples over the Han River like black halos.
A system message appeared before every Candidate in Korea:
────────────────
TOWER OF FATE — 2 HOURS UNTIL FORCED ENTRY
────────────────
People collapsed crying.
Some prayed.
Some stared blankly at the sky.
Mina pressed a hand to her mouth.
Joon-seo looked at the Tower's massive shadow stretching across Seoul. The place where hundreds would die.
Maybe he would too.
But Argen hadn't faded so he could die outside the Tower.
This was a debt.
A promise.
He had to step inside.
As he walked away from the checkpoint, the world fading into a soft blur around him, he heard it.
A whisper.
Not from the sky.
Not from the Tower.
Not from anyone nearby.
It came from the space behind his heartbeat.
"…Master…"
He froze.
Argen?
No. Impossible.
He closed his eyes.
The whisper returned—
"…Summon…
…me…
…back…"
His breath caught.
Argen wasn't gone.
He was trapped somewhere—waiting.
The Summon Gate pulsed once, faint but alive.
Joon-seo clenched his fists.
"Just wait," he whispered.
"I'll bring you back."
Far above, the Tower pulsed again—
as if amused.