Two left now.
Jaemin stepped across the battlefield, his boots sloshing through blood-soaked stone. The Focus was quiet… until it wasn't.
TING TING!
Override possible: [The Unholy: Mirror Warmaiden]
His steps halted.
There she lay—the steaming corpse of the Warmaiden. Twisted. Burnt. And yet somehow still terrifying in her silence. Her broken body still pulsed faintly with residual power, like a god forced to sleep against its will.
Jaemin exhaled hard. She was the one who almost killed him. The one who screamed like the void itself. The one who left a scar in his psyche deeper than any wound could.
This wasn't just another corpse.
This was trauma made manifest.
His mind hovered above the "Override" prompt. Logic said yes—a being this strong under his command could change everything. Shift battles. Flip the odds.
But another thought crawled into his mind: What if she doesn't obey?
What if she pretends, just long enough to get close—And then unleashes hell?
He could still hear Hana's voice from that day, sharp and trembling:
"If the Unholy Warmaiden ever escapes into our world… she wouldn’t just threaten it—she would end it. A single look from her even fromthe haunted mirrors could drown entire continents in darkness, erasing them as though they never existed"
Jaemin gulped, glancing behind him.
His forces—his Resonants—stood at full attention. The Vanguards. The Arcanists. Even the towering Warden. Like trained soldiers awaiting their general's command.
But deep down, Jaemin knew…
Even if he threw them all at her, she'd incinerate them before they blinked.
"She's too strong."
He muttered, scratching the back of his head.
"This isn't just some monster. This is a nuke with legs…"
He looked down at her charred face. Her jaw unhinged, her eye sockets empty. And yet, the pressure she radiated in death still coiled in the air like smoke.
And now… he was being asked to bring her back.
To command her.
Or risk being devoured all over again.
Jaemin took a breath so deep it rattled in his chest. His hand trembled slightly as he extended it toward her corpse.
"…Override."
Nothing.
No flicker. No pulse. No familiar shimmer of revival.
Only silence.
Then—fsssh—the faint glimmer of her core fragment faded completely from her charred forehead.
"...Great."
Jaemin muttered, lowering his arm, dragging his palm down his face.
"First failure."
He turned away, rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"Wasted all that anxiety for—"
BOOM.
The ground shuddered so violently, Jaemin staggered sideways, boots scraping over rubble. Stone cracked under the pressure. Dust erupted into the air like smoke from a volcano.
His head snapped back to where her corpse had been.
She wasn't gone.
No—she was rising, black smoke rising from her body.
A thick black smoke bled upward, twisting unnaturally in the air. It coalesced…the shape folding in on itself until it formed a silhouette.
Seven feet tall. Lean. Elegant. Cloaked in midnight.
She wore a veil, flowing like smoke, covering her face… but Jaemin could feel it—eyes. Weeping. Piercing. Familiar.
Gone was the core fragment once embedded in her skull.
In its place, only dripping black blood that hissed on the ground.
Everything about her was the same, but, like the others, she was'nt holographic-like.
She was unlike anything else he'd brought back.
She wasn't shaped by shadows—she was the shadow.
No static bright glow.
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Her aura was steady. Unyielding. Pure.
Her eyes glowed a deep, unholy yellow, locked only on him.
Jaemin's breath hitched.
"The Unholy Maiden…"
He whispered. His body tensed, half-expecting a surprise attack—
But instead, she walked forward.
Each step was silent.
And then—she bowed.
FWIUP–PING!
The Focus lit up so bright it nearly blinded him.
Class Assigned: Revenant
Entity: [Unholy Mirror Warmaiden]
Core Override: Successful
"…You're a step above…"
Jaemin muttered, brows furrowing as he took a cautious step closer.
She didn't move.
Didn't speak.
Didn't breathe.
Just… waited.
"You can't talk either, huh?"
Nothing.
No reply.
And yet, the air around her felt louder than screams.
"…Right."
Jaemin slowly exhaled and rubbed the back of his neck.
So far, his army had been voiceless—Shrouds, Mourners, even the Warden—but this?
This was different.
This was someone who could've been the end of him.
Now kneeling in silence.
Sworn to him.
He didn't say it out loud, but the thought echoed in his chest anyway:
"What the hell have I built?"
But still, he turned his head slowly to glance at his assembled force.
Vanguards. Arcanists. The Warden. And now—her.
Revenant.
A General among monsters.
Jaemin cracked his knuckles.
"…Alright then."
His voice was low. Almost reverent.
"Welcome to the family."
There was a smile tugging at Jaemin's lips.
Not out of joy.
Out of sheer disbelief.
"Resonants…"
He murmured, arms folding loosely as he looked back over the eerie battalion behind him.
"I'll call them that."
They weren't alive. They weren't undead either.
They were something entirely different—tuned to him, to his core. Their shadows moved in sync with his breath. Every motion, every step, resonated with his will.
His fingers brushed the back of his neck.
"This… was so not on the bingo card."
He muttered.
Not for the first time, he thought about what the outside world would say if they saw this. Abyssal Vanguards, Arcanist husks, the Warden of Storm, and now…
Her.
That wasn't a squad. That was an army.
And one that would terrify anyone with a functioning brain.
"They'll think I'm one of them."
An Abyssal. A traitor. A monster.
Jaemin sighed through his nose and turned away.
"Whatever. Not like I was popular anyway."
He had one more slot left.
And something was tugging at his instincts.
The reason he came here to begin with—to uncover the truth about the missing Coreborn.
So, he moved.
Toward the slumped, steaming body of Gyeongnim.
It didn't look like him anymore.
Too much had burned away.
The man was gone—what remained was a puppet's corpse, still vaguely shaped like the mentor he once respected.
Jaemin didn't lift a hand.
Didn't touch the body.
Instead, he triggered his Focus.
A quiet hum echoed from his temple as the scan initiated—not for override.
For memory.
A soft pulse of blue and violet light swept over Gyeongnim's remains.
PING!
[Scanning complete. Retrieving core memory.]
A hologram flickered into existence in front of him. Static at first, then clear.
It was Gyeongnim.
But... not.
The voice was his. The expression wasn't.
Dead eyes. Hollow voice.
"This message is for the entity..."
"The human known as Gyeongnim died long ago in a Rift in Ullengdo. Along with his team. Slain by the Mirror Warmaiden."
Jaemin's heart skipped.
"The Maiden then possessed the remains of the human... and used his identity to infiltrate the human world."
"After identifying the presence of a special Core—the Core of Tempest—within you… she initiated the Lapis Chamber pmce again to lure you here like she did to many before."
"The Core of Shadows was used to build this domain, slowly siphoning Coreborns over time."
"This body, this voice—it has not been mine for years... I was dead all along, only for my lifeless body to be dragged even after death."
The message cut off.
No ending. No sign-off.
Just a silent fade.
Jaemin stared at the space where the hologram had been.
Motionless.
Mind racing.
He turned his head slightly, back toward the veiled figure still kneeling obediently.
The Unholy Mirror Warmaiden.
That... thing had possessed a man. Used his voice. His name. Wore his face.
Orchestrated the slow murder of Coreborns for years.
Built a death trap out of a Rift just to come afterhim and many others before him.
His lips parted slightly. Only one word made it out.
"…Shit."
His throat was dry. Not with fear. With the weight of something unreal.
Something horrifying.
The Warmaiden hadn't just been powerful.
She had been methodical.
Strategic.
Jaemin dragged a hand down his face.
"All this time… I thought she was just rage and shadow."
But no.
She was far worse.
She had patience.
And that meant there were more like her.
He looked down at his Focus as the final scan lines faded away.
Core Resonance: Complete.
Override slots: [34/35]
Next expansion unlock: Unknown.
"…Thirty-four soldiers under my command."
He looked at the kneeling Resonants again.
"And one of them used to wear a man like a jacket."
The chamber was quiet again.
For now.
But the real noise—the kind that comes with truth?
It had already begun.
Jaemin sighed.
Long. Heavy.
Like he'd just aged five years in five minutes.
He turned around slowly, eyes sweeping the chamber. The blackened corpses. The kneeling Resonants. The blood-caked floor now cooled to a crusted silence.
He muttered under his breath.
"Walking out of this place like this…"
Yeah. That'd give anyone a goddamn heart attack.
Not just Coreborns. Everyone.
Even a civilian passing by would go screaming if they saw a line of silent abyssal soldiers trailing behind some sleep-deprived guy in black.
This wasn't like summoning constructs. Or manifesting energy.
This was walking out with death itself dressed in Jaemin's aura.
And then there was the news.
Gyeongnim was dead. Had been for a long time. His body was hijacked by a monster.
Jaemin exhaled.
"Fuck…"
It wasn't just a burden. It was a bombshell.
And he had to drop it.
He rubbed his temples.
"Great. I've got enough baggage to start my airline."
And that wasn't even the worst part.
The worst part?
Kim Minsoo.
The Director of Coreborn Identification.
A watchdog. With a memory sharper than Jaemin's daggers.
He was a kind man. Supportive, sure. But he didn't miss a single anomaly—not a flicker, not a spike in core energy, nothing.
"Dammit."
Jaemin muttered, running a hand through his messy hair.
Even if he tried to explain it, how would he?
"Yeah, so, surprise, I now control an army of abyssal ghosts. But it's chill, they listen to me."
Yeah. That'll go over well.
The Association might clap a pair of suppressor cuffs on him before he even makes it past the chamber gates.
Worst of all?
Jaemin hated attention.
Spotlights. Questions. Eyes following his every move.
He wasn't built for that.
He never asked for a throne.
He just wanted to protect his family.
That's it.
That's all.
And now… now he's walking out of a bloodbath with a shadow battalion and secrets that can level cities.
"...This is such bullshit."
Jaemin said, turning his head back to the Resonants.
They stood silently. Waiting. Watching. Obedient.
He waved a hand dismissively.
"Desummon. Just… go back in the cavern or whatever."
SHHH—FWIP.
One by one, their bodies dematerialised into shimmering trails of violet, pulled into the Gateway Cavern locked deep within his Focus.
All except the Warmaiden.
She stood for a moment longer… then knelt again.
A slow fade.
A whisper in the air.
Gone.
Jaemin stared at the empty chamber. No signs of a fight. No corpses. Just him. Alone.
As usual.
He rolled his neck, joints cracking loudly.
"Alright. Let's go give the world another reason to freak out."
Because of the real war?
Wasn't just against the abyssals.
It was against everyone else who wouldn't understand what he'd become.
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