The air above Nokdu Gorge no longer shimmered—it fractured.
Crimson lightning streaked across the clouds, spiraling around a sigil that pulsed like a heartbeat in the sky.
Mujin stepped back, eyes fixed above.
The Heaven’s Seal on his chest radiated a white-hot glow.
All seven symbols blazed in harmony—and then, together, they screamed.
The sky… responded.
A rip.
It didn’t split like fabric. It twisted—like something underneath the world was trying to rise.
“Is this… the Gate?” Mujin asked.
Elder Woon Gihyeon’s expression darkened.
“No. Not yet.
This is only its whisper.”
From the shadows around them, Royal Blades emerged.
From the cliffs, the wounded remnants of the Bloodstar Cult crawled into position.
And through it all—
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a tremor beneath their feet.
The ground no longer trusted the sky.
From the swirling air behind them, someone stepped forward.
Not walked—glided.
A man in layered robes, black as night, a blindfold covering his eyes.
Around his neck: a seal of his own.
But not golden. Not carved with light.
A pitch-black Heaven’s Seal.
“You… don’t deserve the title of ??,” he said, in perfect Korean.
“Because I do.”
Mujin narrowed his gaze.
“And you are?”
The man smiled.
“I am what you were supposed to become—if fate had chosen better.”
Without a word, their seals clashed.
Not physically—but in the air around them.
Crimson fire met black smoke.
The world between them rippled.
Suddenly—
A battlefield not of earth, but of time.
A temple ruin, burning.
A future Seoul, abandoned.
A palace bathed in shadow.
Each moment flashed behind their strikes.
Mujin deflected with Skycut Fang,
but the stranger struck with Darkflow Technique, a style unknown—yet familiar.
As if it had once been his own.
Then, silence.
They separated, panting.
No victor. No retreat.
The stranger stepped back into the swirling air.
“The Gate will open soon.
You’re only the first key.
But I…
I am the lock.”
He vanished.
Far away, in the real world—
in the heart of Seoul—
A skyscraper lit up with strange symbols.
A security guard on the rooftop looked up and saw—
The sigil.
The first sign.
Carved into the clouds.
To be continued.