The world froze.
The bone-finger against Kang-woo's neck felt like a spike of liquid nitrogen. The 'Sovereign's Ledger'—the very source of his new authority—screamed in protest, the black ink of his mana freezing mid-air.
"Did you think a few stolen souls and a fragment of a record could bridge the gap of eons?" the King's voice was like the shifting of tectonic plates. "I am not a monster to be slain, Kang-woo. I am the inevitability of the end."
[Warning: Absolute Suppression.][Time Remaining: 00:42][System Error: Life-Debt Bond failing.]
Kang-woo couldn't move his head. His eyes, still voids of gray fire, darted toward Seol-ah. She was pinned to the ground by the mere pressure of the King's presence, her silver halo flickering like a dying bulb.
"Is that... all?" Kang-woo managed to choke out, the gray mist escaping his lips.
"It is enough," the King said. The bone-finger began to sink into Kang-woo's skin. "I did not come for your life. I came to reclaim my property."
The black heart in Kang-woo's pocket pulsed violently. It wasn't trying to empower him anymore; it was trying to escape. The Relic was tearing through his flesh, drawn to the King like a magnet.
Rip.
Blood that had turned black and thick spilled onto the ash. The Relic burst from Kang-woo's chest, hovering in the air between him and the King.
The King reached out his pale, rotted hand. "With this, the gates of the true Abyss shall open. And you, little butcher, have served your purpose as the carrier."
The King's fingers brushed the obsidian heart.
Click.
The sound was small, but it echoed louder than the falling Citadel.
The King paused. The Relic didn't return to him. It turned white.
"I told you," Kang-woo whispered, a twisted, bloody smile spreading across his gray face. "I'm a butcher. I don't just carry the meat. I prepare it."
[Hidden Trigger: 'The Trojan Soul' activated.][Condition: Infuse the Relic with 'Gray Paradox' mana through a Life-Debt.]
The silver mana Kang-woo had pulled from Seol-ah wasn't just for a power boost. He had injected it into the black heart, creating a volatile core of holy and necrotic energy that was now trapped inside the King's own Relic.
"Seol-ah! Now!" Kang-woo roared.
Seol-ah, sensing the shift in the mana currents, didn't use a shield. She poured the last of her life force into the bond. The silver thread connecting her to Kang-woo turned into a blinding beam of light, striking the white-hot Relic.
[Paradox Detonation: 3... 2... 1...]
The explosion didn't produce fire. It produced a localized collapse of reality.
The King's hand was vaporized instantly. The rotted gray robe caught fire—not from heat, but from the raw friction of the opposing energies. For the first time, the King of the Dead let out a sound. Not a roar of anger, but a sharp, inhaled gasp of genuine shock.
The shockwave threw the King backward, his form flickering as he lost his grip on the physical plane. The Citadel above them began to crack further, bone fragments the size of houses raining down on the battlefield.
[Time Remaining: 00:03][00:02][00:01][00:00]
The Sovereign's Avatar collapsed.
Kang-woo hit the ground like a sack of stones. The black fire vanished. The void in his eyes filled with the red of burst capillaries. His skin returned to its slate-gray pallor, cold and lifeless.
[Lifespan: 0.][Calculating Death...]
"Kang-woo!" Seol-ah crawled toward him, her hands bloodied from the gravel.
She reached him just as the last of the purple fog was sucked into the crater of the explosion. The Citadel was gone, retreated back into the rift. The Hounds were ash. The district was silent.
Kang-woo's heart didn't beat. His lungs didn't move.
Seol-ah grabbed his collar, shaking him. "No! You don't get to die! You owe me! The debt, remember? You said we aren't dying here!"
She pressed her forehead against his, her tears mixing with the black blood on his face.
[System Override.][Life-Debt detected.][Creditor: Han Seol-ah.][Debtor: Kang-woo.][The Creditor refuses to collect the soul. Forcing 'Life-Extension' through Bond-Sharing.]
A faint, silver-gray pulse rippled through both of them.
Kang-woo's chest lurched. He let out a ragged, wet gasp, sucking in the sulfurous air of the Black Zone. His eyes opened—they were human again, but the irises remained a haunting, metallic silver.
[New Lifespan: Locked to the Creditor.][Status: Bound.]
"You... idiot," Kang-woo wheezed, his hand weakly gripping her arm. "You just... tied your life to a ghost."
"A ghost who's going to help me get home," she replied, her voice breaking with a laugh.
They lay there in the ruins, two broken survivors in a district that no longer existed. But the silence didn't last.
From the shadows of the nearby rubble, a dozen red laser sights settled on Kang-woo's chest.
"Target identified," a cold, mechanical voice boomed from a speaker. "This is the Hunter Association Special Operations Unit. Drop the artifact and surrender, or be executed for High Treason."
The 'Cleaners' had arrived. And this time, they weren't just B-ranks.
Kang-woo looked at the line of armored figures and the hovering gunships above. He looked at Seol-ah, who was too weak to even stand.
He reached into the ash and found the Relic. It was no longer a heart. It had cooled and hardened into a small, black key.
"The King is gone," Kang-woo whispered, his eyes narrowing at the approaching army. "But the throne is still empty."
He stood up, using the key as a brace.
"Seol-ah," he said, not looking back. "Do you think 10 billion won is enough to buy an army?